Eating Spanish

Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 31, 2014—

THIS HAS NOT OFTEN seemed a particularly good restaurant town, but tonight's experience changes that. It has been hot, and we wanted to eat outside. A Spanish-themed place had been recommended. We were four, so it was easy to order a series of pintos:
grilled artichoke hearts wrapped in jamón serrano with pesto and goat cheese; sautéed spinach with red peppers, raisins, and pine nuts; braised pork shoulder with jamón serrano, poblano peppers, and toasts; tuna empanadas stuffed with green olives, hors-boiled egg, onion, and red-pepper romesco sauce; and, best of all to me (though the artichokes ran a close second), bacalao with, again, jamón serrano and lightly poached quail eggs on toast. That's what you see here, and that's what I'd have for breakfast every day if I could.

There was plenty more here to choose, and I'd gladly have stayed several hours more. Santa Fe may have one of the Hundred Restaurants, but I'll have to come back a few times to make sure…

Manzanilla: Hidalgo, La Gitana; Toto Albalá Gran Reserva Don Pedro Ximenez, Montilla Morales (deep, serious, and generous)

•Taberna, 125 Lincoln Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico; (505) 988-7102