Albuquerque, New Mexico Cuisine & Dining

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Every meal in Albuquerque presents you with an opportunity to experience the exotic, addictive flavors of America's most unique and historic regional cuisine at one of Albuquerque's restaurants. For nearly 500 years, cooks here have been blending Native American foods--like blue corn and squash--with chile peppers, wheat flour, pork and other ingredients the Spanish settlers brought with them from Europe and Mexico to make what we now know as New Mexican Cuisine. Today, the smoke-kissed flavor of freshly roasted green chiles and the earthy fruitiness of red chile sauce are essential to our favorite dishes, like breakfast burritos, stacked enchiladas and stuffed sopaipillas. You'll quickly learn to answer your server's question, "Red or green?" with authority. Say "Christmas" if you want both red and green chile, and don't be afraid to ask for the chile on the side if you're not sure. For an authentic taste of Native American fare, head to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center for a sample of fry bread, posole (hominy stew with chile) and other traditional feast day foods.

When your hunger pangs call for something besides green chile chicken enchiladas, head for one of the thousands of intriguing Albuquerque restaurants. We've got brick oven pizzerias, pit-smoked barbecue joints, Vietnamese cafés or prime steakhouses. You want vegetarian, Mediterranean, Italian, Spanish, Greek or Chinese? We've got it.