November 6, 2021 Lunch - Nicoise Veggie wrap. Dinner - Ben and Ed’s party at the Center for Ageless Living’s Farm Stand
Today I ate several small meals.
We got up and dressed and drove to the Farmer’s Market at 10:00. We had decided to eat breakfast there and as soon as we walked into the inside area, on our right was a Pupuseria stand that also sold apple cider.
We
ordered a bean and cheese filled blue corn Pupuseria topped with pork and red chili and a side of sour cream and a side of the traditional carrot and Cabbage sweet and sour chopped salad. We also bought a large glass of apple cider.
We sat a table with a French couple and asked them about places in France.
Then we walked across the tracks to the upstairs restaurant and succulent plant store named Opuntia. It was very crowded. Since we had just eaten we decided to order a drink. Suzette ordered Coffee with steamed milk and she ordered me a chai latte. I read the news on my phone while Suzette bought Fourier succulents from South Africa to give as appreciation gifts to Ben, John, and Ed at the Farm Stand appreciation dinner.
Then at 12:30 we drove to the Santa Fe Auction and ate a lovely catered lunch. We ate Nicoise Veggie wraps, potato chips, and cookies, I drank a coke and then a cup of hot English Breakfast tea with milk and sugar. Suzette drank another Marble brewery Mexican style lager.
At 1:00 TR arrived and we chatted a few minutes. Shortly before the auction started at 1:30 TR grabbed a Marble Mexican Style Lager.
Suzette missed the first lot nut she bought two nice watercolors and a lovely oil of the church at Talpa in a bright fauxish pallet of colors.
We stayed about an hour until three Pablita Valarde pieces sold at outrageous prices.
Then TR said goodbye and Suzette paid for her pieces and we loaded them into the Prius and she drove back to Albuquerque.
We arrived home at 4:00, just in time to watch the 4th quarter of the TCU v. No. 12 ranked Baylor and No. 18 Texas A&M v. 16 Auburn football games. It was a thrill to see Texas A&M beat Auburn and a much bigger thrill to see TCU upset Baylor, because TCU had fired its coach, Gary Patterson, during the week and the interim coach selected a freshman quarterback to replace the senior Quarterback, Duggan. The young quarterback played an incredible game, passing for over 500 yards and running for over 70 yards, including a touchdown.
It was an amazing two point victory ending with an interception by TCU to stop a game winning drive by Baylor in the last minute of the game.
After the games at 5:15 we drove to Los Lunas for the Farm Stand Volunteers appreciation dinner, soon after we arrived I realized that it was a massive dinner cooked and hosted by Ed, the head gardener who also once was a professional chef and baker, and his partner, Ben, who is an awesome baker and organizer, and MC.
The attendees were members of three churches and a few residents.
The food was the best we had the entire weekend. I started with a salad of a fresh tomato medley and arugula from their garden dressed with a balsamic dressing. The dark brown dressing enhanced the dark rich chlorophyl greenery of the arugula and the Polish purple tomatoes. MIT was the best salad I have tasted in a long time. I ate the salad with two wedges of lovely light puffy pita bread that Ed had baked. As far as I was concerned the meal was a success after the salad, but soon we were served cups with about 5 oz. of pumpkin soup. The soup was thick and creamy and excitingly flavored with curry for a zesty prelude to the entrees.
When I complimented Ed on the freshness of the salad, his response was, “isn’t it amazing that things are still growing in November.”
There were other snacks at the dinner including trays of chocolate fudge sprinkled with nuts and tiny marshmallows, corn chips, and potato chips and store bought carrots with a creamy sour cream and herbed dipping sauce.
As we sipped the pumpkin soup, Ed grilled hamburgers, brats and hot dogs. There were buns and an array of condiments including dill pickles Ed had recently made and slices of red and white onion and garden fresh tomato.
I took a brat on a bun and a hamburger and garnished the brat with pickle relish, Mayo, and mustard, and split the hamburger and pickle with Suzette and slices of onion and tomato.
The entrees were served with cabbage, carrot, and radish coleslaw made with ingredients entirely from the Center’s garden and potato salad flavored with fresh dill from the Center’s gardens.
After the meal Ben served everyone a fat free gluten free muffin that he had baked that was very dense consisting of almond flour and nuts that was quite filling.
Then Ben Awarded certificates of recognition to many of the attendees and Suzette gave a gift card and a succulent plant to Ed, Ben, and John, a resident who used to own a landscaping business and helps in the garden.
Then Ben did one of his favorite things that really made the dinner into a potlatch ceremony. Each of us had been given a ticket with a number when we arrived and after Ben gave out the framed certificates of appreciation to volunteers, Ben, pulled tickets from a bag, read the numbers, and gave four or five gifts to the lucky winner holding the number, including a flashlight and a $25 gift card.
There was a huge pie covered with a plastic cover on each table that one table had opened, but we chose a piece of fudge as dessert and the thanked Ben and Ed for a marvelous meal and left.
We arrived around 6:00 and left around 7:15.
In that short time I ate some of the best food of the weekend except for the fermented vegetables served by the catering service at the Santa Fe Auction.
I can taste and tell when someone has put their heart and soul into the food versus someone simply showing up and going through the motions of as quickly throwing a dish together as possible. Tonight’s meal and the vegetarian wrap at lunch was the former and last night’s dinner at The Pink Adobe was the latter.
This is the irony of great food. You can eat a far better meal on a folding table in a parking lot beside a farm stand than you can at the second favorite restaurant in Santa Fe as determined by the Santa Fean readers poll. This is what kept me and Srely, Anthony Bourdain, going as a food critic and writer.
We arrived home at 8:00 just in time to see the current episode of Father Brown and then a repeat episode of Death in Paradise.
We went to bed at 10:00, happy to be back in our own bed and thankful for all the wonderful food and friendship during the weekend.
Bob Appetit
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