A distinctive regional cuisine has developed in New Mexico. Often considered a subset of "Mexican" food, "New Mexican" cooking is characterized by:
First and foremost, chile peppers. New Mexico chiles, despite their reputation, are generally not nearly as hot as habaneros and some Asian peppers, although their spiciness can still come as quite a jolt to the palate unused to spicy foods. Chiles are green for most of their growing life but turn red and dry out as they mature, and can be picked and cooked either "red" or "green." When you order a New Mexican dish in a restaurant, you'll be asked whether you prefer red or green sauce, referring to the color -- maturity -- of the peppers used to prepare the sauce. Green is usually hotter than red, but it depends on the seasons it was grown. They both have distinctive flavors; try both while you're here. The difference of red and green chile can also refer to how the chile will be served. In some instances, red chile will come as a sauce while green chile will come chopped or whole. Incidentally, "red" chile has nothing at all in common with the red "chili" -- note spelling -- typical of Tex-Mex-style Mexican food, which is generally scoffed at in New Mexico. The small town of Hatch, near Las Cruces, is famous for its chile farms, and is a good place to pick up some chile to take home.
The sopaipilla, a light, puffy fry bread that can be served as a side dish or turned into an entree by stuffing it with meat, cheese, beans and chile peppers. The stuffed sopaipilla is perhaps the quintessential New Mexican dish and is most commonly seen in the northern half of the state southerly restaurants are more likely to involve tortillas as the table bread, as in the cuisine of "old" Mexico. As a dessert, sopaipillas are often topped with sugar and honey.
"Blue corn," which is just what it sounds like: corn in which the kernels, and resulting corn meal, have a distinctive bluish color. Tortillas made with blue corn differ from the usual tortillas not only to the eye but also to the palate, with a pleasingly gritty consistency and slightly "nutty" taste. Enchiladas made with blue-corn-meal tortillas are characteristic of Santa Fe and environs and have become trendy on a national if not world-wide level.
Piñon nuts, the fruit of the scruffy little piñon pine tree that is widespread in the state. These can be eaten as snacks or as components of dishes, particularly some of the upper-end "Southwestern" cuisine.
These components merge into a cuisine that ranges from utterly basic, everyday-lunch fare served almost everywhere in the state to incredibly elaborate "Southwestern" meals with any number of exotic variations and add-ons. Santa Fe is justly famous for its rich assortment of New Mexican and Southwestern restaurants, but don't eat New Mexican food just there; there are a number of subtle variations in New Mexican cooking in the different regions of the state for example, topping enchiladas with a fried egg is characteristic of southern New Mexican food but rare in the north, and you'll be well advised to experiment locally.
