April 4, 2015 A Day in Santa Fe La Boca Restaurant, tapas de la tarde

April 4, 2015 A Day in Santa Fe    La Boca Restaurant for tapas de la tarde

Today we decided to go to Santa Fe.  At around 8:30 we made lamb, feta, potato and egg burritos.  I ate mine with a drizzle of PPI The Shed red sauce and crema.  Here is a picture of it:

We then drove to Santa Fe and stopped at a few thrift stores.  We found cordial glasses and Suzette bought a glass fronted cabinet made by IKEA for her soon to be remodeled restaurant; the Greenhouse Bistro at her Center for Ageless Living.

We then visited galleries.  We started at Gerald Peters’ Gallery, which was showing a scientifically oriented exhibit. When I told the curator in attendance at the main desk that I was looking for William Clift photos, she told me their Will Clift sculpture was made by William Clift’s son, Will.  She then said there was a gallery with William Clift photos on Palace Ave. across from the old St. Vincent Hospital.    

Gerald Peters Gallery

movement activated butterfly and leaf installation

We drove to Peyton Wright Gallery at the corner of Palace and Paseo del Peralta.  We saw Peyton Wrights’ exhibit and then walked down Palace, stopping at one or two new galleries.  Finally we arrived at 'Our Shop" at 203 East Palace and were thrilled to see lots of William Clift’s photos and books and met and enjoyed talking to Eleanor Caponigro, who was staffing the shop, but more importantly, who had assisted in the design and publication of many of William Clift’s recent books, and could intelligently discuss the material.  I saw a lovely photo of Shiprock from the most recent book and also La Mesita, which is the photo I bought from William Clift in 1979 or 1980, that now is priced at $10,000.00.  Here is a photo of the picture and the price tag.  As they say on the Antique Roadshow after they say, "Wow" "I will need to update my insurance policy."

La Mesita

We then walked over to Marcy St. to Aaron Payne’s Gallery and had a wonderful, long conversation with him.  It appears that the art market is again moving.  He said he was sending several works out on approval to collectors.

We then walked down Marcy to La Boca. La Boca has a happy hour with a special tapa and beverage menu daily from 3-5 La Boca serving both at discounted prices.

Here is its abbreviated but sufficient menu:

Suzette holding the afternoon tapas menu

the tapas trio

patatas bravas

a piece of flatbread garnished with edemame hummus and queso fresco

La Boca tacos with morcilla

We ordered a liter carafe of its La Boca Blood Orange Sangria, made with red wine and fruit juices, a very refreshing drink, until we got to the bottom of the carafe, where the liquid was bitter, perhaps due to the blood orange or wine sediment.  

Suzette ordered us four tapas.  The waitress served our tapas in two waves; the first wave: a tapas trio, which is a really good dish ($6.00).  The tapas trio is served on a long platter with room on one side sufficient for three separate square bowls, one filled with roasted beet and walnut puree, one filled with a light fluffy edamame hummus garnished with queso fresco, and one filled with, my favorite, fresh almond red pepper romesco.  On the other side of the platter is a long groove filled with a row of grilled slices of La Boca’s house made yogurt flatbread.  All three of the purees were tasty in their own way.  The other tapa served in the first wave was patatas bravas - fried local fingerling potatoes with a spicy sherry vinegar sauce and a roasted garlic aioli $5.00.   The spicy red chili sauce was too hot for us, but we loved the aioli and asked for another bowl of it, which the waitress graciously brought.  We dipped and coated the warm fried potatoes with the garlic aioli and loved every bite of them. 

Then the waitress brought the third and fourth tapas in a second wave,  A small plate with two Tacos de la boca with morcilla.  The dish usually had a combination of shrimp and morcilla, but we have eaten so many shrimp lately I decided to order the tacos with all morcilla (Spanish blood sausage), which I love.  The Tacos were great, small chunks of sauteed morcilla, each served on two small corn tortillas, like in Mexico.  My was so filled with morcilla that the taco broke apart when I put it down on my plate for a minute.  So I cut it up and ate bites of tortilla and morcilla with bits of the side dish of sliced fresh mango and pickled onion and cucumber salad ($7.00).   The fourth dish was very interesting: halved and battered deep fried Brussels Sprouts with a bowl of romesco sauce ($5.00).   

Brussels sprouts with Romesco

I loved all the tapas, but it took a bit of effort to finish all of them.  We must have been hungry because we finished this late afternoon lunch in less than an hour.  We counted this delicious repast, as an early dinner, rather than a late lunch.

When we finished eating a little after 4:00, we walked back up Marcy Street and stopped at Owings Gallery.  Nat was still there and I saw a Doel Reed print that I liked and that was priced right because of a small tear of the paper, so I bought it.

From Owings’ Gallery we walked two doors up the street to the Cheese Mongers of Santa Fe, where we spent about ½ hour examining and tasting cheeses.  If you have not been to Cheese Mongers, you should visit it, if you like cheese.  It has the best selection of cheeses in New Mexico.  Although the cheese prices are high, they are not so high when one considers the quality of its interesting and delicious cheeses.   We settled on a ½ lb. slice of Abondance Fermier, an unpasteurized cow cheese from the Haute Savoire in France ($21.95/lb.) that I intend to use to make potatoes Savories (au gratin) with beef stock, instead of with milk, and this cheese and butter.  We also purchased ½ of a small round 1/2 lb. mound of fresh goat cheese named Coupole made by Vermont Creamery for $7.00.  Happy with our amazing cheeses, we walked to our car and after a fun filled day with lots of art and food adventures, drove back home at around 5:00.

When we arrived home, we were not hungry for dinner so I made guacamole with six or seven avocados ($.14 each at Ranch Market last Wednesday and Thursday), some yellow onion, 2 small cloves of finely minced garlic, 1 small finely minced Serrano chili pepper, the juice of three limes, and a dash of salt.   I ate a little guacamole and we went to bed early after our long day in Santa Fe.

Bon Appétit