The Green Chile Convert

The Green Chile Convert: How a New Mexico Native became a Prodigal Daughter

“Some are born to love chile … others have chile thrust upon them.”

For most of my life, I have been the odd-man out in my family. If you are unfamiliar with New Mexican cuisine, you are about to become very familiar. The good ole Land of Enchantment is the square-ish state smushed between Texas and Arizona, and is decisively forgotten by the rest of the country. It’s like the other 49 states skipped 5^th grade and refused to learn states and capitals. They dropped New Mexico and adopted Puerto Rico. You may think I am kidding, but I have LITERALLY been asked if I needed a passport to leave the STATE.

Now that’s off my chest…

The food in my favorite state revolves around our favorite vegetable fruit (Sorry science – we just don’t see it that way!) Green Chile. Usually the star of any dish, it is often accompanied by the dream team:

Cheese. Beans. Rice.

If you ask any New Mexican, if your green chile isn’t hot, then you are eating a bell pepper. Canned chile is sacrilege, and buying it freshly roasted is the optimal (and only) choice.

That doesn’t leave a lot of room for a girl whose tongue and tummy are linked directly to the Anglo-Saxon side of her. Meanwhile, everyone else in my family, and the state, eat like this…

I have always loved the smell of roasting chile outside of our local grocery store when fall rolls around the corner, but I have never been able to withstand the spicy pepper it comes from. It never logically occurred to me that it is a good thing to put something in your body if you have to double glove your hands to peel it. Even then, a faulty brush of forehead sweat, and you could be sending your eye into a frenzied state of panic.

My first experience really enjoying chile was when I was working a baseball game a few summers back, and all Dion’s was selling was a large pizza slice with Green & Pepperoni. Now I don’t know about you, but running around in the hot sun, makes you hungry. Hungry changes a person. One bite, then two, and suddenly I was on the bandwagon, shouting, “full speed ahead!” I didn’t forget the burn, I embraced it.

That night, I went home and broke the news to my family.

“Mom. Dad. Today, of my own free will, I ordered and ate green chile and enjoyed it.”

You would think I was waiving around a Yale acceptance letter – my mom even put it on the calendar! Being part of a chile loving family will always mean that someone will like chile hotter than you, or they may chuckle when you pour yourself a glass of milk to chase down that green chile stew. But one thing I have learned, is that they’re not laughing at you anymore, they’re laughing with you.

I’ll leave you with this.