09-02-2025
This (taste) bud's for you: What's your super dish pick?
Stick with me through most of this column because I need your advice.
Plus, I'm more willing to listen to you than the halftime entertainment.
In case you need confirmation that everything might be going to hell, Google Trends reports that the top trending search for Super Bowl foods in the past week was 'charcuterie board.'
When did America's most-hyped, most-discussed, most-Budweiser-Clydesdales sporting event turn into cheese, crackers and warm grapes?
Take solace, New Mexico residents, because our favorite revenue-generating sport is buying high-quality footwear to go hiking.
We're SEO different.
We have taste buds.
Google Trends show New Mexicans' favorite flavor for chicken wings is Buffalo — a solid-if-not-surprising nod to a symbol of the Southwest. (In New York, where the spicy-sauced wing flavor became legendary thanks to Buffalo's Anchor Bar, the current flavor of choice is … baked garlic?)
When it comes to Google searches for unique dips, the Land of Appetizing Enchantment favors birria dips. Finally! If there was a ranking of 50 states on unique dips that make you nod emphatically, New Mexico is No. 1 in a tasty way.
The complexities of consommé and chiles in a birria dip raise a culinary quandary: Is Texas' questionable desire for cranberry jalapeño dip reason enough to revive the debate over which state should be credited with the Frito pie?
No will-Travis-pop-the-question-to-Taylor drama here.
New Mexicans treat Fritos like a food group. New Mexicans celebrate sophisticated and simple tastes that don't require a bog. Just a bag.
My first Santa Fe meal years ago was a Frito pie at Tia Sophia's. Tourists fork their Five and Dime lunch from that iconic Frito bag while sitting on Historic Plaza benches. And if you want to fill up for a few days, dive into a large-bag Frito pie at Blake's Lotaburger (because you don't go there for the effervescent counter service.)
My wife and I typically design a Super Bowl spread of homemade dishes and a couple of takeouts honoring local flavors. We'll have Fritos as part of our snack options Sunday, but that's not our go-to New Mexico choice.
When we lived in Texas, takeout barbecue was a given.
In North Carolina, it was fried chicken.
The food here is soooo good — from high-level cuisine to everyday comforts — that it's hard to pick which New Mexico dish should reign supreme on Super Bowl Sunday.
Please help.
Send an email to bchurch@ and tell me:
What's your favorite takeout dish reflective of Santa Fe? Why?
Food is an important part of the acculturation process for newbies. Read local books, visit rural towns and buy local to understand your new home. But it's essential to learn from locals and respect their choices. Experience local food as a social bond.
My regret early in 2025 was missing Santa Fe's truly super sporting event involving bowls. The Food Depot's annual Souper Bowl, where attendees can slurp gourmet dishes, drew about 1,500 local foodies and raised enough money to provide 550,000 meals throughout Northern New Mexico, according to André Salkin's story in The Santa Fe New Mexican.
I applaud Johnny Vee, a chef and Pasatiempo contributor, who summarized the importance of it all:
"My New Year's wish for all of us is that our lives may be filled with talented singers, musicians, artists, actors, doctors, writers, comedians, lovers, and chefs to make life more delicious. As Shakespeare's Duke Orsino says in Twelfth Night, 'If music be the food of love play on, give me excess of it.' '
So, please, send me your favorite local takeout dish and tell me why. And what I'm missing.
I can take the heat.
Just no pictures of cheese on boards.
