Moonlight and Margaritas

So while we’re on the subject of Santa Fe we’d be remiss to not address the subject of margaritas.

A bottle of bottom-shelf California chardonnay will run you about $42 in any nice restaurant in New Mexico. Paying that kind of money for something ordinary always makes us wince since there’s always another piece of jewelry to buy. Plus, one bottle never goes too far when the Sirens are dining together.

We’ve learned it’s best to gird our loins with a pre-dinner margarita to keep the wine tab down a bit. JoAnn, Kathleen, Kathy and I have done quite a bit of research into the matter of which bar serves up the best silver coin. It’s tough work but we figure someone’s gotta do it. Sometimes our age shows after such tastings when over-indulgence in lime juice and spicy food makes us reach for the Tums.

The Best: Hands down it’s the Silver Coin Margarita at Santacafe.

Runner Up: Inn of the Anasazi.

Pleasant Surprise: Los Ojos Restaurant and Saloon, Jemez Springs, New Mexico

The absolute worst? Any similarly named concoction served at the Albuquerque airport. It took us a couple of years to realize that drowning our departure sorrows in one last god-awful, syrupy-sweet margy before we board the plane for home simply isn’t worth it.

When we’re home on the Central Coast we prefer to make our own from a recipe supplied by Kathy’s brother in law, Terry Barnes. The recipe has seen a few adaptations over the years but we always return to the classic combo. An experiment in which we added pomegranate juice resulted in some severely lowered inhibitions and an exhibition of mooning at the dinner table by she-who-must-not-be named (hint: it wasn’t me).

Terry’s Classic Margarita
Serves one

2 ounces Silver Patron Tequila
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce Cointreau
½ ounce Simple Syrup

Salt the rim of a glass, fill with ice, add the ingredients above. Stir, sip, enjoy.

Salud!