The Cocina Azul ... and the “Adorable Adobe”

So last time, I just had us arriving in Albuquerque. We picked up our rental car and headed out.

Our goal was simple. Eat. We hadn’t had anything since breakfast and even that had been light. So food was the first requirement. And we had a target: The Cocina Azul.(1)

I’ve written about the Cocina several times before. It is one of our favorite restaurants in the city...or, indeed, anywhere. We even have a favorite location. There are now several Cocina Azul locations in town, but our usual destination is the original one, near Old Town, on Mountain Road.

The food is fantastic. If you’re ever in town, try their Ribeye Tacos. You read that right. Tacos made with Ribeye steak. Man. To die for. Or, if not exactly die, then at least risk a nasty whacking with a Mashie-niblick. Or even a Mid-mashie. With a side order of Baffing spoon.(2) Worth it.

About the photos: First, Martha standing in front of “the Adorable Adobe.” As I say, it actually kinda was. Second, from Albuquerque’s Old Town district, some saints and angels for sale. I thought it might go with my St. Michael piece. Third, one of my infamous experiments with close-ups. This is part of a barbed wire fence in Santa Fe. That’s a cemetery behind it. Though why you’d want to circle a graveyard with barbed wire is a question I’d rather not consider.

Anyway, we got there and had our lupper (our term for lunch-supper, obviously). Martha had the ribeye tacos. I was curious to try something else so I got a ribeye burrito, which was delicious, but sort of a mistake on my part. It was huge, for one thing. It looked a bit like a football--not, you understand, a European football, which is round and therefore weird and not really a football, but an American football, which is conical on both ends, which is made for throwing and/or getting tumbled around while big guys in hobnail boots stomp each other into the Astroturf. Ah, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

Where was I? Oh, yes, it was delicious but enormous and I ended up taking half of it back to the Airbnb. Long story short, we carted it around New Mexico...from mini-fridge to mini-fridge...because we “didn’t want to waste it,” and finally ended up throwing it away the day before we caught a flight home. Such are the joys of being Scots, or in my case, Scots-Irish, which is the same thing but with leprechauns and IRA guys.

So, we ate, and had a great time, and then we drove around Albuquerque a bit, touring the old neighborhood, and then headed off to the Airbnb. This proved to be an interesting place. It was called “the Adorable Adobe,” and, truth be told, it kind of was. Basically, it was a small compound of adobe buildings, quite near Cocina Azul, and consisting of (I think) four little apartments. It was particularly cool because on the exterior walls, there were several hand-drawn murals. I’ll try to remember to post some photos of the exterior and the interior.

Anyway, we flaked out, watched a mystery on TV. I don’t recall which one. Maybe it was Astrid on PBS. Give it a glance if you get a moment.(3)

After that, we read for a bit, then it was off to bed.

So, all in all, a most successful day.

And, unlike most of our adventures...where that phrase is almost immediately followed by the eruption of Vesuvius, a return of the Black Death, the sailing of the Lusitania, or the official Hollywood premier of The Terror of Tiny Town (1938), “the only musical Western with an all-dwarf cast...” (4)

Things did NOT, in fact, go downhill from there.

Stay tuned. Lots more New Mexico stuff to come.

Footnotes:

1. The restaurant is located at 1134 Mountain Road, ABQ, NM 87102. https://cocinaazul.com/

2. All of these are obsolete golf clubs. Which makes sense because I have never played golf, but many have suggested that I’m obsolete. But we shan’t listen to such base canards. They are much too kind.

3. It is a really good show. See, Astrid et Raphaëlle, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_et_Rapha%C3%ABlle

4. The Terror of Tiny Town (1938) is considered one of the worst movies of all times. It really did have all-dwarf cast. See “List of films considered the worst,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_considered_the_worst, and “The Terror of Tiny Town,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terror_of_Tiny_Town

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