Gluten Free Santa Fe

Steve and I flew out on Friday to Santa Fe. I took food with me, since you don't know what will be showing up foodwise on the road. We were upgraded to first class (both ways!!!!) so I was able to eat some of the shrimp salad and the fruit salad. We went to the art auction site early in the evening and they had a little munchies buffet, so we ended up skipping dinner Friday night all together. I ate mostly celery sticks myself—with a little glass of sparkling wine. We stayed at the Hotel Santa Fe which has a very nice small restaurant called Amaya. The staff there was very knowledgeable and we had breakfast there both Saturday and Sunday. They made off menu breakfasts for me of eggs, potatoes with a little paprika and a side dish of beans. Saturday night we had dinner there as well and the meal was spectacular. It was a very reasonably priced prix fixe menu, and I ordered the salmon. It was supposed to come with a blue cheese risotto, but for me they served some very nice little diced potatoes with some pearl onions with a sort of pesto like seasoning. They also served me some extra vegetables, including some small roasted carrots that were quite nice. The meal started with a salad that had diced jicama in it and a very light lime dressing. The dessert though was bowl-licking good. It was two small desserts on one plate – a very nice crème brulee and the real killer dessert – espresso pot de crème topped with whipped cream. Whoa! That's when I wondered if I could get away with picking up the little cup and licking it clean.

We did skip lunch both Saturday and Sunday, since the breakfasts were a bit late to coordinate with the auction times. We went to the car both days though while the auctions were in progress and items we were not going to bid on were up, and ate crackers and potato chips and fruit. I should note that the Hotel Santa Fe is within walking distance of a Whole Foods Market and I walked over there –going through the Santa Fe Farmer's Market on the way. I would have loved to buy some of the creative chili wreaths, but worried about getting them back on the plane undamaged.

Sunday after the auction we drove down to Albuquerque and using the GPS found Paisano's which was a wonderful oasis in the gluten-y desert. We split a sausage stuffed Portabello Mushroom with a very tasty spaghetti sauce and I ordered pizza!!! Wow. That was wonderful. There were many dishes that I could have ordered, but the one that I never get is pizza. And it was very good pizza too. We took our leftovers – Steve had pizza too—in separate little cartons (his was “normal”) and kept them over night in the refrigerator in our hotel room and ate pizza for breakfast before the trip back.

Cathy