Thurs, Jan 1, 2009 - Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque

9.13am - The patio in front of our room in Taos. Love the adobe style.9.29am - more of that great home made granola, w/ peaches, yogurt and soy milk

9.32am - a small home baked cinnamon bun that we shared

9.37am - baked egg with chili and cheese

scrambled egg w/ home made red chili.

This was our last breakfast here - bye-bye Taos!

12.45pm - home made tamales from La Tiendita, a small greasy spoon that comes attached to a gas station on the way from Taos to Santa Fe. Ate these in the car.

2.32pm - A joyful lot, them New Mexicans. Hard to imagine Californians bothering to paint freeway overpasses...

2.59pm - shared a carne adovada burrito, at the Burrito House in Santa Fe. Not nearly as good as the carne adovada we had last night at Orlando's, and what's worse, it left Ritesh all New-Mexican'd out, so he didn't want any more of this kind of food for the rest of the trip...

Santa Fe, New Mexico

8.11pm - dinner in Albuquerque: Vietnamese rice cakes w/ basil scrambled eggs, peanuts, and a tasty dipping sauce, at Kim's Vietnamese Restaurant, which was a fabulous find. The owner/chef lived and cooked in France for 20 years and has a really nice spin on some traditional Vietnamese dishes.

8.18pm - lemongrass lotusroot beef soup, super spicy and fantastic

8.25pm - and an amazing Vietnamese veggie curry w/ apples! All the veggies were as perfect as can be - this was just outstanding! We were very impressed, and lucky enough to be able to chat with the owner/chef for a little while. Very smart, cosmopolitan woman - if we lived in Albuquerque, I'm sure we'd go eat and catch up with her every week. Would be great even to take some cooking classes with her, she's so good.

8.45pm - her fabulous chocolate-coconut flan. Incredible. She told us the secret behind its light and airy texture - now we'll have to try and reproduce...I'll let you know if it works!