garciaskitchen

The Sunday of the show was not that much of a time to relax for us bloggers. Up early, we made it to the show for the trade hours as usual…which became much more of an opportunity for us to visit some selected vendors to get a little shopping done. As we endured the onslaught of the crowd at 11am, we decided that a strategic retreat to get a little lunch was in order. After considering a number of options, we loaded up and headed out to Albuquerque’s Old Town.

Our first choice was Duran’s Central Pharmacy, but our patience in getting to the area resulted in us getting there as the restaurant closed for the day. Luckily just across the street was Garcia’s Kitchen, so that became our ultimate lunch destination. After a short wait, I sat down to a very filling lunch complete with green chile stew with carne adovada and a burrito also slathered in the same carne adovada. While not being the best meal that I’ve ever had, it was tasty enough that I scarcely had room for any of the mound of fluffy sopapillas and honey which came as part of the meal.

Our bellies filled to the point of being uncomfortable, we sauntered back to the show to hang out as the show came to its conclusion. Some of the bloggers made our way to CaJohn’s booth to help inflict a little agony on the crowd with pouring out sample of Black Mamba and Mongoose for the gathering crowd. Given some of the reactions to people trying these sauces, I came to appreciate why some of the sauce makers have a little sadistic streak in them when they have people who want to try the hottest sauce they make.

mohawkcut

The show came to a rousing conclusion as the ever-energetic Danny Cash administered the big chop to Sam McCanless’ unmistakeable mohawk. After relaxing for a bit so that they vendors could finish packing up their booths, we headed off to Gardunos Restaurant for the traditional Sunday night destination for dinner after the show. I have been a big fan of Gardunos in past visits to Albuquerque, and this dinner only reinforced that. Besides that, they also make a margarita that is roughly the size of my head:

margaritagrandisimo

A very fun day, even if I may not remember 100% of how it ended after drinking what seemed like a 1-gallon margarita!

Next up will be a recap of the show. I have quite a few opinions of how I thought the show played out, and it covers things both good and bad. Stay tuned!

Share