I ate ½ bagel with Lax and showered and dressed and we drove to Santa Fe at 9:00. We were transported by bus to the Folk Art Festival, which is and aggregation of over 100 craft cooperatives from all over the world, mostly sponsored by American galleries they own or are affiliated with. We walked through all the galleries. I was not in a buying mood, but enjoyed watching Suzette examine things. We met a Doug Turner and both admitted to each other that it was hard to buy stuff when we already had houses full of stuff. Doug mentioned, “Like Mom and Dad,” referring to his Mom and Dad, Bill and Regina Turner, who have travelled and lived all over the world. I said, “Yes.”
The items we saw this year that intrigued us more than anything else were clothing items combining felt from Uzbekistan. Suzette bought a garment that combined aspects of a vest and a cape that one can wrap around oneself in four different ways and we bought four scarves that combined fabric prints combined with colored felt to give the scarf a cashmere feel. We also bought a 48 inch round multicolored grass rug dyed with natural dyes. Suzette bought a pair of sandals and a woven reed runner from Malaysia bound in an intricate pattern of red threads.
The reason why we go on Sunday is because after 1:00 the booths can discount their prices. We garnered discounts of from 20% to 50% with just a bit of bargaining and ended up paying a total of $400.00 plus tax. The Ghanaian rug was the most expensive item with an original price of $250.00 that we bought for $150.00.
After viewing the sixty or seventy booths below the plaza we went to the plaza area where there were another sixty or so booths. It was noon by the time we arrived at the upper plaza and we were hungry, so we began looking for something to eat. We first went to the .museum Café, but it did not have a special International menu this year, so we removed our name from the reservation list and explored for more interesting food. In the northeast corner of the plaza we found The Tres Colores food booth, which Maureen later told us is a good Mexican restaurant in Santa Fe. We were attracted to it because it was serving fresh squash blossom burritos. I asked the owner if we.could buy a plate of food without the tortilla and he said, “Yes.”
He took one of those five by eight inch shallow rectangular bowls and began filling it with beans, chicken, beef, onions with cilantro, lettuce, grated cheese, and fresh squash blossoms. He filled a small container of salsa, but I did not take it. The bowl of food with a Coke was $10.00. We took our plate of food with two forks and ate in the artist hospitality room in the Anthropology Research building. We liked the Tres Colores food, that reminded us of the delicious food one finds all over Mexico. We were pleased that Tres Colores was kind enough to cater to our special dietary concerns.
After eating we visited the plaza booths and found the felt scarves. By 2:30 we had seen and bought all the items we wanted, so we took the handicapped golf cart shuttle to the bus stop and made or way back to the PERA parking lot by 3:15.
We called Amy and arranged to meet her at Harry’s Roadhouse for a late Sunday Lunch. There were two specials on the menu. Amy and I chose one of them; Enchiladas Suizo and Suzette chose a Curried Chicken Salad. Suzette had a margarita, Amy drank a Chardonnay and I drank a Negra Modelo. I think Harry’s Roadhouse always serves interesting well prepared food that rarely is exciting and today was not exception. The enchiladas Suizo were lightly baked tortillas wrapped around a squash, chicken, and mushroom filling cooked in a slightly picante tomatillo cream/white sauce and were served with stiff refried black beans and Mexican rice. Suzette’s salad looked lovely with it richly yellow colored curried chicken on a bed of organic greens.
We enjoyed our meal at a table under the trees in the verdant garden among the hollyhocks.
After our late lunch we drove back to Albuquerque and collapsed after our big day of shopping. We watched Masterpiece Theatre and then Suzette went back to bed at 10:00 and I blogged a bit longer.
Bon Appetit
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