eat me drink me

Just six miles short of the New Mexico boarder at the Dutch Mill in Antonito, Colorado,  I greedily took on the South-Western Mexican menu in front of me.  Enchiladas, tacos, sopapillas stuffed with cheese, burgers, and tostadas.  Usually, at a restaurant like this, the main ingredients are beans, ground beef, cheese, and chili.  While trying not to drool, I chose the pork enchiladas with red sauce, a little spicier than green.  We got our salted margaritas, basket of fresh corn chips, and mild pico de gallo.

When the food arrived, I had all ready filled up a portion of my belly with the chips and drink.  It’s so hard to resist the fresh tomato and cilantro tinged salsa.  But lucky for me, I didn’t indulge too much.  My “petite” order of enchiladas came out on a heaping, hot plate with cheese oozing off the side.  The red sauce bubbled and I inquired if this was indeed the small plate.  After taking a moment to gawk, I dived in, picking apart the soft corn tortilla and stabbing a chunk of shredded pork on my fork.

Divine.  The sauce had a kick but it didn’t deter from the savory taste of the pork, which had been pan-fried before it was stuffed into the shell, giving it a slightly crispy texture.  I am not normally a refried bean kind of gal, but these were non-greasy and heavy with meaty flavor.  That, and the cheese had made its way over to cover them like a yellow blanket of comfort food.  Despite my bulging middle, I finished the plate, and another margarita too.

Now for dessert, on thing I haven’t found easily in New York are sopapillas, the Mexican version of a fried doughnut.  I remember dipping this tasty bread in honey at Casa Bonita, possibly the worst Mexican restaurant in Denver that caters to kids by having sky divers, a water fall, caves to explore and as much as these sweet treats as you want.  The sapopillas at Dutch Mill were unlike anything I could have imagined from my childhood.  Dense yet with a fluffy inside, these golden squares hardly needed the honey provided, given the bread was already sweet.  Not too greasy and still hot, I downed my sopapilla in blissful moment and then eyed the one next to my companion greedily.  He ate it, which was probably a good thing since by that point I could barely move.  As we waddled back to the house, I couldn’t help but grin the whole way there while planning the next Mexican meal I would get there.