Small Town Eats

Small Town Eats

By Hattie Foote

When my daughter was six months old, our pediatrician told me she was not getting enough breast milk and that it was time to switch to formula. I cried and felt like a failure, little did I know this was just the beginning of one of my most frustrating parts of motherhood. Mealtimes… oof. If one wants a hot dog, the other wants a hamburger. If one wants broccoli, the other wants peas. Just kidding, neither of them want vegetables. They are both so-so eaters, and the mom guilt eats me alive because I feel like we should have been stricter about food options. Then again, I’m not a strict kind of gal so this is just where we are at! When I just can’t deal with another food negotiation and suggest going out to dinner, we enter a new phase of decision making. One only wants Saiko Sushi and the other wants MooTime. If I ask my husband what he wants, 100% of the time he will say “Oh I don’t know, Something Different Bar and Grill!” What is that you may ask?

Just one of the fine dining establishments of our college years, the menu had a wide variety of teriyaki bowls, as well as mozzarella sticks and fried pickles. Their shining glory though was the Jacked-Up Spud, which was a giant baked potato stuffed with multiple types of cheese, chicken, butter, sour cream, ranch and green chile.

A cardiologist’s nightmare would be a more appropriate title, but I digress. Seeing as this is the dining issue, I thought it would be fun to take you all on an amusing blast from my past to the fine dining capital of the world; Portales, New Mexico. Just kidding, but they did have a peanut festival so there’s that!

I met my husband while we were both attending a small university on the border of New Mexico and Texas. The only way to describe it is that it felt like we were living in a country music video. There was line dancing, keg stands, and cows. In fact, my first photography piece to ever be published was in New Mexico Farm and Ranch Magazine and you guessed it, a photo of a dairy farm. I am from Albuquerque, AKA the big city, so it was quite a culture shock for me moving to a small college campus. There was one bar in town, and I kid you not it was called Goober McCool’s. After drinking suspicious blue drinks at Goobs or jungle juice out of a bathtub, we would go to the Allsups gas station and eat beef and cheese burritos and chimichangas. Our stomachs were not okay. The local taco shop was located inside of a literal tire shop, as in tires getting changed next to the tables. You could also rent a bull there for parties, they were covering all angles there at Victors. If you were in the mood for seafood in the middle of the desert, you could drive 30 minutes up the highway and go to Red Lobster if you were feeling fancy or Long John Silvers for something more casual. Unfortunately, Long John Silvers was destroyed by a tornado my senior year, so now only one seafood option. When I describe our experience to our kids they are horrified/fascinated. It makes them appreciate their local options quick.

Sure, we all complain about what Coronado is missing at some point or another, but it’s important to remember how lucky we are to have such incredible food in town. My college digestive system would have killed to have all these fresh choices we have in town! These days, my current local go to’s have been the Hamachi Crudo at Stake, the sea salt house chips at Claytons Bakery and Bistro and the Dragon Fruit Blast smoothies at Parakeet Juicery. I will say it would be nice if I could get my tire changed while I sit at the counter at Night and Day Cafe or rent a bull at Tartine, any local restauranteurs can contact me for more fresh ideas. Bon appetite Coronado!