Digging Sierra Negra

With the turn of this year's never ending winter, we decided it was time to irrigate our beautiful riverfront. We’ve been spending hours each day for years dragging stupidly long hoses all over the acre we planted grass on. It is taking, and, one day, will rarely or maybe even never, need to be watered.  After spending an embarrassing amount of screen time, we found a hybrid grass that will eventually have 3 foot roots that will thrive happily with our very high water table. Our hope is that if we run a 1-1/4” poly pipe from the pumphouse down to the area then split off into 6 zones and hook them all up to a good multi-zone timer, we may never have to sacrifice much of the summer fretting and toiling over our huge grass-baby again!

There was no way that we were going to dig those ditches by hand, so we called our reliable equipment rental in Espanola. Gil’s Rental has been doing business since 1971.  If you are in need of a tractor, trailer, cherry picker or even a steam roller, Gil’s is the place. They are open 6 days a week, are always there to help you load up your rental and take care to keep their equipment well maintained.  It’s almost always guaranteed that you will be greeted by Rocky, the rusty, lumbering Shepherd mix, usually throwing around a small trailer axle or a huge stump. About eight years ago, he showed up and wagged his way into the hearty hearts of the men working there. Now he’s their beloved yard dog and has a full time job. Back to our project. We needed a trencher! We went for the 3 foot, gas driven walk behind. Boy oh boy did we get our trench on! On our third and final day, we decided that we deserved a royal reward and took ourselves to Cafe Sierra Negra. What a treat this place is!

Walking in is a festive and warm experience. The staff is very friendly, inviting and efficient. The walls are covered with local art and colorful paint. There is gentle music playing my kind of groove and the aroma is intoxicating. This place has that super laid back vibe that allows one to choose their own table, grab a menu on the way and plop down in a comfortable chair to make some serious culinary decisions .

This is a well thought out menu using quality ingredients, sometimes locally sourced. The menu is pleasantly simple and doesn’t overwhelm with too many choices. There are sweet and savory crepes, several interesting and uncommon salads, tacos, quesadillas and a tempting cheese burger I will visit at another time. We asked our neighbor friends to join us so we ended up with a lot of the menu options on our table. I chose one of the specials that day, a perfectly composed au gratin dish of plump rigatoni coated with a decadent gorgonzola and nicely seasoned with fresh spinach. It was baked just right and had a browned crunchy top with a perfectly al dente undercarriage. My wife went for the stuffed poblano chile. This version’s chile was filled with savory brown rice, beans and corn and laid in a stew of green chile.  In my opinion, it would benefit from a sprinkle of piquant cheese (like Cotija). One of our companions ordered the fish tacos and the other chose the quesadilla plate. The tacos were built of grilled fish on small corn tortillas and heaped with pico de gallo, avocado, a lime and honey cabbage slaw and a pineapple salsa. The quesadillas, well, three small quesadillas that more resembled tacos, were filled with beans, corn and peppers and then topped with the same slaw as the fish tacos. We all agreed that they could have used a bit more cheese to really be called quesadillas.  But, the salsa/slaw combo on both of the dishes added a fresh burst of tang that was absolutely amazing. We tend to be a little piggy, so we also ordered the salad special which was a huge plate of winter greens under a generous portion of dried figs, toasted walnuts and gorgonzola with a slightly sweet vinaigrette on the side. We all dove into our food with hungry gusto and were happy with our choices. 

As a final reward, we were lucky enough to score the last slice of their homemade Basque style cheesecake which maybe shouldn’t be called cheesecake at all. It looks like cheesecake but melts on your tongue like a creamy flan or pudding or silk. It’s delightful and I highly recommend trying this slice of heaven. It’s good with a smooth glass of Malbec or a steaming hot fluffy latte. The portions are large and left us with plenty of leftovers to eat the next day when we finished our giant ditch irrigation job that hopefully leads to an effortless soft grassy paradise on the river.  
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I can’t wait to go to Cafe Sierra Negra again and try that green chile cheeseburger and hopefully one (or two!?) slices of the “cheesecake.” The prices are not low, but not exorbitant considering the quality of the ingredients and portion sizes.  The entire bill for 4 people, with several glasses of wine and ciders came to just under $160.  Definitely a treat more than an everyday experience, but I dig it.