Ode To A Pancake

Sunday, September 19  -  Santa Fe

Aunty Yvonne, faithful reader, wrote to say she was surprised by my "cowboy proclivities" ("What is a nice, well-brought up Aussie girl like you doing whoopin' it up and  hollerin' in a cowboy saloon, albeit in comfy, gorgeous cowboy boots?") but I want you to know that I come by them honestly.  I spent a significant portion of my impressionable youth on horseback  among cowboys in the mountains of Australia.

Charlie Lovick, who was not much older than me when I first met him, now a true Mountain Man.

I started out at age 13 as a paying "guest" on week-long trail rides to check on the cattle roaming free in the mountains, and ended up at age 18 as one of the camp cooks on the annual round up where the cattle would be brought down from the mountains before the snows came.

Cattle trails inaccessible to vehicles - oh, it was beautiful.

So, yes, I have always had a fondness for cowboys, horses and, up until Amarillo, cows.  And a secret yearning for cowboy boots, but for the last 24 years I've lived in a town where I just didn't think I could pull off the wearing of them (Aunty Elaine, we'll have to see about Port Townsend.)  Which is all by way of saying, I BOUGHT THE RED BOOTS!  After another fruitless search at a Santa Fe store I finally wised up and ordered them online, so now they will be waiting for me in PT.

My pre-dawn walk with the dogs set off a chain reaction of barks and howling in the mountains around us (coyotes? bob-cats? bears? rattle snakes?) which totally freaked out the dogs, but the air smelled wonderful, unlike anywhere else, and the night sky was dazzling.


We weren't able to rent a car so we lumbered into town for the day.  First stop was the Tecalote Cafe - 'Great Breakfast - No Toast. For 30 Years.'  Oh my goodness, this was one of life's great breakfast experiences (I definitely love New Mexico.)

Dan ordered the sheepherder's breakfast -  boiled new red potatoes browned on the grill with jalapeno and onion, topped with red and green chile, melted cheddar, and topped with two eggs any style.   I ordered the huevos yucatecos - corn tortilla layered with black beans, two eggs any style, green chile, swiss and feta cheese, pico de gallo and surrounded with fried bananas.  Choice of beans, posole or potatoes.  and we had a "side" of their famous atole pinon, a pancake made with blue corn flour and toasted pine nuts.

That's a single pancake on the right - a short stack is 2, a tall stack is 3, a cardiac arrest is 4.

I've never actually had a restaurant pancake that rivaled my own and I usually get mad at Dan when he insists on ordering them (and is invariably disappointed) - but this!  This was right up there in terms of lightness (despite the size), flavor and texture.  And the little crunch of pine nuts was perfect.  AND real maple syrup - warmed.  With a little fried banana on the side it was as close to pancake heaven as you can get - and we got pretty close.

I'm embarrassed to admit it but we pretty much finished all 3 plates of food, plus the bakery basket of mini cinnamon roll, jalapeno cheddar cornbread and biscuit.  I may never eat again.

We staggered out of there and managed to park the RV downtown so we could walk off the food induced coma.  Santa Fe is a wonderful town,  Not a tall, ugly building in sight - and it's the state Capital.

Downtown Santa Fe

Everything seems to be built with an eye to fitting in to the environment. No McMansions here. You have to love a town that  commemorates its eponymous river with signs, bridges and a lovely river walk - despite the fact that for most of the year there is actually no river.

We took the dogs to the dog park up on a hill overlooking the city and let them run for a bit. Lots of great southwestern smells up there (and lots of burrs that have to be removed) but also very dry and very hot and not much shade.

That's overlooking downtown Santa Fe.

Not happy.

I think those three things stop me from completely falling in love with Santa Fe.  But it does cool off wonderfully at night since we're at 7,000 feet, and the air is clean and in the early morning has a caramel sweetness to it.

We loaded up at the fabulous Whole Foods (last one until Seattle!) and I even found frozen Australian Barramundi which I was able to get at Costco for a short while last year before they annoyingly stopped carrying it.  It's a wonderful fish and doesn't suffer too badly from being frozen.   Dan got chatting to a guy handing out samples of cinnamon bread and it turned out that not only was he from New York (I think this is going to be happening a lot from now on) he grew up two streets over from Dan in Edgemont.

For those who have been asking, here's a map showing our route.  Tomorrow we head north. More mountains (more cowboys!)