Dec 22 2007
The Pueblo Harvest Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico
The Pueblo Harvest Cafe
Pedro de Castaneda, a Spanish explorer who chronicled Coronado’s expeditions through the southwest from 1540 to 1542 observed that corn, beans, and squash were the main staples of the pueblo diet. Of the three, which have come to be known as “Three Sisters,” corn was the most important. It was boiled whole, toasted on the cob, or dried and ground into a fine powder easily cooked as bread or gruel.
Every day a woman and her daughters knelt before metates (grinding stones), grinding corn to feed their gods, fetishes and kin. One crushed the maize, the next ground it and the third ground it even finer. Castaneda observed that the women worked joyfully at this task.
The three sisters of corn, beans and squash remain an integral part of the pueblo diet.
Think “pueblo harvest” and the first image the term evokes is likely of the classical “horn of plenty” motif depicting a bountiful cornucopia in which corn, beans and squash spill out of a goat’s horn.
This rich symbolism of pueblo life also represents the cuisine at the Pueblo Harvest Cafe, a restaurant which celebrates the culinary traditions of New Mexico’s nineteen Indian pueblos and showcases the three sisters in various delicious dishes. The Cafe is housed within the sprawling Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.
Salsa and chips
An even more prominent symbol throughout the Cultural Center is that of Avanu, the water serpent. Avanu is very prominent in the art of New Mexico’s pueblos. He both represents water and the prayer for life-giving waters which are so critical for life in the desert.
The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center was launched in 1976 to highlight the historical and contemporary accomplishments of New Mexico’s pueblos from pre-Columbian time to the present. Its mission is “to preserve and perpetuate Pueblo culture and to advance understanding by presenting with dignity and respect, the accomplishments and evolving history of the Pueblo people of New Mexico.”
Its focus is a 10,000 square foot museum visited by more than 200,000 people per year. A permanent exhibit highlights the creativity and adaptation which made possible the survival, diversity and achievements of each of the nineteen Pueblos.
In addition to the on-site museum, the Center includes a children’s museum, gift shops, a smoke shop and the Pueblo Harvest Cafe.
Mama's burrito
Although we’d been in Albuquerque for nearly eight years, it took a recommendation from celebrity chef Bobby Flay to first shame us into trying the Pueblo Harvest. Flay, who seems to spend more time in New Mexico than in his native New York, raved about the Pueblo Harvest’s tamales in his Food Network show.
The Cafe is tastefully decorated with the art of talented Pueblo artists. It is a large restaurant with comfortable accommodations for the copious visitors who frequent the Center.
On many of the restaurant’s tables you’ll find a artfully decorated bowl called a “spirit bowl.” It’s purpose is for diners to give thanks for their bounty to ancestral spirits. This act of gratitude is undertaken by placing a very small portion of your meal into the spirit bowl.
The menu is a showcase of the southwestern cuisine which resulted from a fusion of Native American, Spanish and Mexican ingredients and culinary traditions. It is a multi-page menu that features exciting and delicious dishes. Portions are as generous as the Pueblo peoples.
The menu calls its breakfast “Sunrise Over the Sandias,” which as residents of the Albuquerque metropolitan area know tends to be a spectacular display of otherworldly colors. It’s one of the reasons locals tend to have sunnier dispositions than say, residents of a dreary climed area.
Blue corn pancake
Sure to brighten up any morning is an entree called “Mama’s Burrito.” While the ubiquitous breakfast burrito is surely New Mexico’s official breakfast entree, Mama takes some liberties with it.
Mama’s burrito starts with a large homemade tortilla, but instead of the usual bacon, ham or sausage, the meat of choice here is fried baloney. Alternatively you can substitute Spam for the baloney.
Don’t laugh. Having grown up within the confines of the Picuris Pueblo reservation, I can attest to the deliciousness of fried baloney in a burrito. (Decades later barbecued baloney became my very favorite barbecued anything in Memphis, Tennessee).
The fried baloney is sliced a little thinner than I’m used to, but it’s got a great smoky taste which is better than just about any hot dog. The Cafe adds green chile (medium in the piquancy scale), cheese and hashed browns to Mama’s burrito. You’ve got to try it!
Carne adovada plate
A more conventional (at least for New Mexico) breakfast entree is the Cafe’s blue corn pancakes. Blue corn is very common throughout the Southwest. It imbues the pancakes with a rich nutlike flavor (this doesn’t mean grainy). Having had blue corn pancakes throughout New Mexico, I believe these to be among the very best.
Appetizers are called “great beginnings” on the menu and that, too, is an appropriate header.
Salsa and chips are an excellent way to begin any meal. The Cafe’s salsa will awaken the most dormant of taste buds with its piquant heat. It’s not as piquant as the salsa at Sadie’s and I’ll argue tastes that it tastes even better than Sadie’s famous hot sauce. Prominent in this salsa’s flavor are cilantro, garlic and jalapeno.
The chips are low in salt but relatively thin and prone to cracking under the weight of the amount of salsa I like on my chips. They’ll do just fine if you’re a “chip dipper” but will succumb under heavy salsa scoopage.
Mutton Stew
Another Pueblo Harvest favorite is a mountainous appetizer featuring corn fries (French fry shaped soy coated with a corn meal mixture then fried) slathered with melted cheese and topped with lettuce, tomatoes and seasoned beef then served with a side of guacamole.
The golden corn fries have a unique texture that may take some getting used to and by themselves are only so-so, but are wonderful when dipped into the guacamole (among the best guac in the city).
While MTV generation pop culturalists might only recognize mutton from an episode of Seinfeld, to many New Mexicans, mutton stew is one of the many delicious benefits of living in a diverse, multi-cultural state. For me, mutton stew evokes images of Navajo sheepherders tending their flocks beneath the shadows of Monument Valley’s imposing megaliths on a cold autumn day.
At the Pueblo Harvest, the vegetable rich mutton stew is hearty, delicious–and maybe a tad under-salted (you’ve got to appreciate that). A cup or bowl of this excellent stew comes from the menu’s “Pueblo soups and stews” section. The Cafe’s green chile stew is also quite good.
Prune pie and biscochito
Years ago we attended a Native American Pow-Wow on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and were crushingly disappointed by an Indian taco the purveyors of which boasted was “the best in the world.” Since then we’ve been wary of so-called Indian tacos.
While the ingredients of most Indian tacos appear fairly standard, in many cases, we’ve found the preparation and quality of those tacos to be very unequal–in most cases, bordering on abysmal.
The Pueblo Harvest’s version is among the best we’ve had, thanks in large part to the fry bread lovingly crafted by Acoma Pueblo’s renown fry bread maker Zelda Chaplin. This “Tiwa Taco” is crafted with seasoned beef, grated cheese, tomatoes and beans sandwiched between two golden fry bread orbs.
A section of the menu called “The Pueblo Harvest” features entrees named for the pueblos in which those entrees are (ostensibly) prepared well. This harvest includes your choice of beans, grilled squash or posole (there’s the aforementioned three sisters).
The Cafe’s Pojoaque carne adovada plate (pictured above right) is as good as at most New Mexican restaurants (and would be even better without the barely discernable cumin influence). The shredded pork is tender and delicious. It’s topped with melted cheese and is offered with your choice of Indian fried bread or a tortilla, both of which are humongous.
The Pueblo Harvest Cafe will feed you very well. The prolific portions will make dessert an option for only the heartiest of appetites. That’s too bad because the menu lists several tempting dessert offerings. At the very least, try to save room for the restaurant’s biscochitos (pictured above right). Biscochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico. The Cafe’s version of this terrific holiday cookie is thin and blessed with plenty of anise.
If you thought a burrito with baloney strange, you might think me nuts for recommending the Cafe’s prune pie. Prune pie has long been a standard among New Mexico’s northern pueblos. Go to any high school graduation or even wedding involving a Pueblo citizen and you’ll find prune pie among the dessert offerings. Most guests prefer it to the cloying, inch-thick frosted, store-bought cakes. There’s a good reason for that. Prune pie, whether heated or served cold, is delicious with nice pronouncements of sweet and tangy flavors.
Characteristic of New Mexico’s Pueblo peoples, the Pueblo Harvest Cafe will treat you like a welcome guest. Like the people it represents, the Cafe is a state treasure.
The Pueblo Harvest Cafe
2401 12th Street, N.W.
Albuquerque, NM
843-7270
LATEST VISIT: 22 December 2007
# OF VISITS: 7
RATING: 18
COST: $$
BEST BET: Tiwa Taco, Corn Fries, Mutton Stew, Blue Corn Pancakes, Pojoaque Carne Adovada Plate, Mama’s Burrito, Biscochitos, Prune Pie