Mutant Green Chilies

Today it's ed (from Yuma) posting at mmm-yoso.  Just a note, if you are researching genetic variations in pepper cultivars and you Googled some search terms and ended up here, you probably want to search again - unless you like eating chile verde.

When I moved to Yuma after having lived for most of the previous 15 years in California, I was sure I knew what green chile was - chunks of pork stewed in a mildly spicy green colored sauce consisting of tomatillos, green chilies, onions, garlic, and fresh cilantro.

My sense of green chile was challenged, however, soon after I arrived in Yuma and began eating at some of the "old school" long-time Yuma Mexican restaurants. I realized then that not all green chile was the same. Although it took me a while to get used to these mutant forms, nowadays I appreciate their unique flavors and their place in the traditional cuisine of this border community.

One of the best and most unusual examples of this old style of green chile is the version found at Yuma's oldest Mexican restaurant, one that has roots back into the 1930s, Chretin's. Recently relocating from a rather shabby building in the middle of an older residential section of town (see the first picture), Chretin's now occupies a large and fancy location at the intersection of Arizona Avenue and 16th St (second picture):

For $7.60 (or less as a lunch special), you can get Chretin's green chili burrito enchilada style (also known as saddle style or as a wet burrito):

This style of burrito is fairly simple but also very traditional in Yuma. One fills a flour tortilla with the green chile and then ladles more green chile on top of the burrito along with cheese. Of course, some of you must be saying, "Green? Green? There's nothing green about that chile." And you're right. Do not try adjusting the color balance on your screen, because Chretin's green chile is indeed brown in color. As near as I can tell, this style arose back in the day when fresh or frozen green chilies were not available year around. Therefore, the main source of chile flavor (rather minimal in actual fact) had to be dried green chile powder. One of my friends says that Chretin's green chile is just odd flavored brown gravy with meat, since the sauce is clearly thickened with flour and the main source of picante heat is black pepper:

A careful look at this close-up shows that the meat in the green chile is a very tender, coarsely ground beef, reflecting the Sonoran background of most of Yuma's citizens before World War II. The gravy sauce also contains flecks of tomato and bits of onion. While this is very far away from anything I would've considered green chile when I moved to Yuma, I have grown to like this unusual dish at Chretin's.

Another old-school Mexican restaurant in town is El Charro, a restaurant that has been managed by one branch of the Gutierrez family since  1949. For many native Yumans and numerous winter visitors, this restaurant on 8th St is the essence of Mexican food in Yuma. Personally, I have always found their large portions to be generally bland and low in flavor. One example of this blandness is their salsa, which tastes like a can of chopped tomatoes mixed with a can of diced mild green chilies:

Nevertheless, I have always been intrigued by their "El Green Saddle," as they call their version of a green chili burrito enchilada style. In fact, this dish is so much a part of the tradition here that it is only dish mentioned in the history of the restaurant painted on the wall:
When served,"El Green Saddle" looks like this:

Again, you would be right to say "this isn't green!" And yeh, the predominant color of this "green" chile is red. Even when one cuts into the burrito and looks at it up close, there is as much tomato red here as there is chile green:

So what is the secret to this dish? Having eaten it several times, I am convinced that El Charro's green chile is simply coarsely ground beef and onions cooked with left over table salsa. That would explain both how it tastes and how it looks. It would also explain why El Charro features this dish. You have to do something, I guess, with all that leftover salsa.

Another branch of the Gutierrez family (92 year old Bessie and her descendents) also began in the restaurant business back in the 1940s, although their oldest restaurant currently in operation is La Casa Gutierrez, which has been located in an old house on Orange Avenue since 1960:

Although their fast food outlets, Mr. G's and Chile Pepper, serve credible versions of their green chili recipe, its best incarnation is in a green chile dinner (Tuesday lunch special pictured) at La Casa Gutierrez:

Although this green chile is the most watery of any in town, I still love the fresh green chile flavor that arises from all these large pieces of green chile. Nonetheless, the use of ground beef and presence of chunks of tomato, instead of tomatillo, marks this as another Yuma mutant green chile:

While I have had the green chile burrito enchilada style at the restaurant (and it's good), the green chile lunch special on Tuesdays is one of the best meal deals in Yuma. For $5.25 (including tax), you get chips (store-bought, unfortunately), salsa, a good-sized portion of green chile, your choice of a beverage (the lemonade is killer), rice, beans, and a soft and flavorful flour tortilla almost the size of a bedsheet:

The newest of the restaurants serving atypical green chile in Yuma is Eduardo's, which dates back to 1964, meaning that it is less than 45 years old. Currently located in a strip mall on Avenue B between 16th and 17th, this small restaurant has its own unique take on green chile. The Chile Verde burrito, enchilada style, currently costs $5.50 and looks like this:

From the outside, this burrito looks a lot like the others, with almost as much red tomato color as green chile color. When you cut into the tortilla, you find beef, tomato, fresh green chile, cheeses, and sauce all mixed together:

It is only when you focus on the meat itself, that you can see one of the main differences between this green chile and the others in this post. Eduardo's does not use ground beef. Instead, numerous sizable chunks of stewing beef have been slowly cooked to utter tenderness:

These chunks of beef give this dish a wonderful deep beefiness. The other difference, one that you cannot see, is in the spiciness of the finished product. All of the other mutant green chilies are very mild in flavor and have virtually no picante heat. Eduardo's, on the other hand, sets your mouth afire with chili spice. While not a standard California-style green chile, I have to admit that this is one of the tastiest green chilies I have ever eaten.

I hope you folks have enjoyed reading about these unusual and weird green chilies in Yuma because I have enjoyed eating them.

Comments

[mike]

I love green chile - especially as a wet burrito topping. My favorite so far is at Sam's #3 in Denver, but I had a pretty good one at Frontier in Albuquerque Recently. I'll have to try one of the Yuma versions the next time I pass through.

[koko]

Ed, didn't you give Pepe a try? Las Manjares.(dang, the spelling always gets me)
I'm hoping to make it to Yuma sometime this mo. Hope you will be available for a meal.

[ed (from Yuma)]

We have many variations to try, mike. Note that these are all old-school places, not necessarily the best, but representing a unique set of traditions.

Oh, yeh, koko, I love Los Manjares. I did a long post on the place a while back. It's the best single Mexican restaurant in town. Please don't think that the 4 places mentioned here are my favorites - they are just interesting.

[janfrederick]

Interresting timing on this post. My wife and I just celebrated our anniversary yesterday. For 9our honeymoon, we went on a road trip around the four corners region (and even buzzed through Yuma on our way back).

In Socorro New Mexico, we went to a diner by our motel and ordered Chile Verde. What was served did not resemble the stuff I grew up on in Southern California. I'm pretty sure there weren't tomatillos, but it was plenty green from Hatch Chillies (Anaheim, but more flavorful). The consistency was more of a stew than thick chilli. Nevertheless, it was very good. In fact, I made a pot this weekend in honor of our anniversary.

After learning about the local Hatch Chillies, we noticed a lot of small markets with large lottery style drums that were spinning fresh chillies over flames. The skin would blister and fly off and fall from the sky like snow. The smell was incredible!

Every once in a while (late August), our local stores will get Hatch Chillies. They look just like Anaheims. If you see them, buy them and use in any recipe that shows off green chillies. Just my two cents. :)

[janfrederick]

By the way, sorry. I can never get the spelling right: chili, chile, chilli, chillie, chill ... ;)

[ed (from Yuma)]

Jan - yeh, I'm never sure about spelling. I tend to use chile as a singular and chilies as plural, but that ain't good English.
I love Hatch chilies. It's about time for them to show up here too. You can also buy tubs of New Mex chilies roasted and frozen at a lot of supermarkets(at least in Yuma). But most of these green chilies are much milder.

[Omar]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for posting about green chile.

I lived outside Santa Fe, New Mexico for a couple of years, and became addicted to chile, whether sauced, chunked, stuffed or stewed. Each autumn, I'd savor the smell of chile being roasted outdoors (I've seen a man at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market doing the same thing; San Diego locals should go take a sniff).

In Santa Fe, you can spend a lot of money on fancy chile dishes, but the high-priced places don't use enough lard, I guess, 'cause the flavors are never "homey" enough. In Santa Fe, I prefer enchiladas or tamales at either of the Posa family restaurants, green chile stew at PC's Restaurant & Lounge, or anything topped with chile at La Choza. These are locals spots, miles from Santa Fe's fru-fru art houses, with nary a bandana-wearing coyote in sight.

Also good, if you're passing through Albuquerque, is El Patio, up by UNM. Be ready to wait for table at what looks like someone's uncle's house, then be ready for one great meal.

I make some green chile dishes here at the house, but it's not the same as finding chile on *every* menu in town. You may leave Yuma one day, Ed; take an expat's word for this: eat everything you like, while you still can.

Best regards,
Omar

Roasting Chile at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38ExItfy9qs

Hillcrest Farmer's Market
3960 Normal St
San Diego, CA 92103
619-237-1632

Posa's El Merendero
1514 Rodeo Rd.
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
505-820-7672

Posa's El Merendero
3538 Zafarano Dr.
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
505-473-3454

PC's Restaurant & Lounge
4220 Airport Road
Santa Fe, NM 87507
(505) 473-7164

El Patio
142 Harvard St. NE
Albuquerque, NM, 87106
505-268-4245

[Omar]

Ed,

Sorry, I forgot this address:

La Choza
905 Alarid St
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505-982-0909

Regards,

[janfrederick]

Wow, I haven't been to the Hillcrest market in a while. I'll need to return this fall!

[foodhoe]

omg what am I doing reading this when I'm hungry?!! Yummy yuman burritos and those pictures of both the insides and the outsides really gave me a craving to get in the saddle for a burrito...

[Cathy]

I haven't looked at the blog in a few days ed...and just know how much I appreciate this informative post. I know what I am wanting for my next meal. Thanks.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Omar - thanks for the real informative comment. Great addition to the post. I think you'd find most of the green chilies in Yuma too mild by NMex standards. I do appreciate the food in Yuma. Not a great place for fine dining or unusual cuisines, but we do have a lot of good and interesting Mexican food.

Cathy, fh, thanks for the comments. This was a fun post to put together because I have been a green chile fancier/student for quite some time now - and I'm always amazed at its incredible variety. Remember, this post only looks at this dish from 4 of the old time places in Yuma. Many other versions/variations abound.

[Omar]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your notes, and as Cathy said, for a great post. You made me miss the old days, ordering meal after meal covered "Christmas"-style (that's red and green chile, side by side).

I'm surprised to read that the chile may be different from that served in NM. I figured: same sun, same dirt, same (or similar) chiles. Is the Hatch chile, for instance, different from what you get there?

Also, and finally, do vendors roast the chile in public spaces in Yuma? That smell... makes me think that God eats Mexican food, and buys his green chile from a guy in an Albertson's parking lot.

Reverentially,

[ed (from Yuma)]

Chilies are not much grown around Yuma. Mostly lettuce & broccoli in the winter and cotton and wheat for pasta in summer.

Usually Hatch chilies are available here around harvest. One or two places will roast outside (Albertsons on B usually every year). I still remember buying 30 lbs one year and spending an entire day cleaning and freezing them while making a green chile that turned out to be too picante to eat (well after tripling the amount of pork and tomatillos, it was pretty good, but that was another day of cooking).

Few inhabitants here have NMex roots (in fact, none that I have met). Most of the Mexican influence in Yuma is Sonoran, Jaliscan, Sinaloan, and Chicalian (from Mexicali). The places whose green chilies I reported about in this post are all old line Yuman families, having local roots much deeper than almost anyone else in town. After all, Yuma has mushroomed in the last 40-50 years, attracting both more Anglos (like me) and more folks from across the border. So the green chile here, even when made with NMex chilies, is never as fiery as what I believe occurs in NMex dishes. A very different culinary tradition.

[Omar]

Ed,

Thanks for the info. It's interesting to me to see how cuisines vary from place to place; besides chile, for instance, barbeque is a subject of endless fascination for me.

Anyway, your writeups give my wife and me one more reason to make the trip to Yuma, the others being a) our semi-annual purchase of Powerball tickets and b) lunch at Cracker Barrel, one of my guilty pleasure places.

Best,

[Chris]

MMM can't wait for my trip to Yuma to try me some green chili burritos!

[Gary Cobb]

im in nw arkansas. raised in yuma and return every year at least once to el charro for green chile enchilada dinner. gotta plan a trip soon after looking at these pics

[ed (from Yuma)]

Nice to hear from you Gary. Yuma sure must be different than it was. Maybe I need to try the green chile enchiladas next time at El Charros.