By Sarah Sekula, published in USA TODAY’s Hispanic Living
For Jim Garcia, nothing brings a family together quite like roasting a couple of sacks of New Mexico green chile. The smoky, sweet aroma is unforgettable. The flavor is distinct. Once you have a taste, you are hooked.
For Garcia, it’s a culinary obsession that began at a young age. Growing up in Albuquerque with his six siblings, chile was an important part of daily life. In fact, his family incorporated the tasty delicacy into almost every meal. If they were dining out, they’d even bring chile along just in case the restaurant was out.
Since those days, he has bravely downed some of the hottest peppers in the world and served as the director of operations for El Pinto Restaurant, a wildly popular eatery in Albuquerque’s North Valley, for 16 years. There, he was part of a team that pumped out 50 tons of green chile a year and 40,000 jars of salsa a day. They even produced 500 jars of the hottest salsa in the world made from Moruga Scorpion peppers, which sold out at the Fiery Food Show in 15 minutes.
If you ask him which chile sauce he prefers, red or green, his answer is Christmas. In other words: both. “Red chile for breakfast because red chile and pork were just made to be together,” he explains. “Chopped green chile can make any sandwich perfect and green chile stew can accompany any meal with perfection.”
In other words, Garcia knows a thing or two about peppers.
His home state of New Mexico, after all, has the ideal climate, soil, altitude and overall growing conditions for peppers of all sorts. New Mexican red and green, jalapeños, cayennes, you name it, they all thrive here. So, it makes sense that many New Mexico residents take chile peppers very seriously. From green-chile crossaints to red chile- pork ribs to green-chile sushi, you’ll find it on nearly every menu.
The plight of the pepper
Sadly, though, the annual chile production in New Mexico, which is said to be the only authentic source of green chile, has dramatically dropped since the early 1990s when there were more than 35,000 acres of chiles planted, Garcia says.
“By 2010, chile acreage had fallen to just over 8,500 acres, and although there was over 10,000 acres of chile planted in recent years, chile industry experts put the main concern on imports from many countries like Mexico and China,” he says.
In other words, those countries are growing imposter chiles.
“The quality of the chile rivals our New Mexico chile, but true flavor aficionados can distinguish the difference,” he explains. “These imposter chiles flood the growing market and ignore the tenants of the New Mexico Chile Act that dictates all chile with the New Mexico brand must be certified.”
That said, he suggests next time you are shopping, whether it’s in New Mexico or at your local grocery store, to ask the vendor where the chile peppers are from. You can also order online from certified vendors like buenofoods.com and newmexicanconnection.com.
Danise Coon, a research scientist associate at the Chile Pepper Institute, concurs and also encourages people to learn about New Mexico’s chile pepper history. Much like Garcia, Coon grew up on a farm in Espanola, New Mexico, where her family spent summers roasting, peeling and freezing green chile. It was there that she ate her first jalapeño, at age 6, without crying.
Fast forward to today and chile peppers are still a major part of her life. Her job at The Chile Pepper Institute, the only institute in the world dedicated solely to chile peppers, has her developing ornamental chile peppers and helping with the seasonal teaching garden.
“We like to showcase all of the varieties developed at New Mexico State University, as well as, rare and more unusual varieties like the Uba Tuba and Rheza Macedonia. This year the theme is A-Z, we have selected varieties from A-Z, as well as, the regulars of the garden. This will be a fun project for the groups of school children who visit the garden and learn about chile peppers.”
At the end of the day, Mexico, Colorado and China will continue to vie for authenticity when it comes to chile peppers, but the flavor of these wonderful peppers begins in the rich basin of the Rio Grande Valley.
“There is a reason why we call ourselves New Mexico True,” Garcia says. “It is much more than a staple, it is a way of life.”
Chile-pepper pitstops:
Next time you visit the Albuquerque area, here are some ways to sample authentic New Mexican chiles:
Breakfast Burrito Byway:
New Mexico claims to have invented breakfast burritos, so exploring the Burrito Byway is a must. In Albuquerque, The Range Café, Frontier Restaurant and Sadie’s should be on your short list. Find all the stops at newmexico.org.
Green Chile Cheeseburger Trail: Eat like a local at El Pinto Restaurant, Owl Cafe and Barelas Coffee House for the cheeseburgers, of course, but also popular dishes like chicharones. Visit newmexico.org for the full list.
National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show: Held in February/March each year in Albuquerque, you could easily call this the hottest show on earth.
For some tasty recipes, peruse visitalbuquerque.com.
By the numbers
—Thanks to a lawmaker’s mistake, chile peppers are the official state vegetable of New Mexico, even though it’s a fruit.
—Red or green? That’s New Mexico’s official state question.
—Chile peppers have been grown in New Mexico for more than 400 years.
To view the PDF, click here.