Short Essay #1

Joel Miyamoto

Eric Leake

Writ 1133

March 30, 2013

My Life’s Spice

            This weekend I had the great opportunity to spend a few days with my family. I was glad to hear that they wanted to come up to visit me since I hadn’t seen them for a little over three months. Before they left our home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they asked if there was anything that I wanted them to bring up for me. The only thing that I could think of was Hatch Green Chili.

            As a native New Mexican, green chili has not only been a savory ingredient used in many dishes throughout the state, but it is also a symbol for pride and joy for the region.  To many people outside of my state, green chili may seem like just an ordinary crop but to many New Mexicans it is an essential element within our culture. Green chili is one of the very defining pieces of New Mexican tradition and heritage as well as an essential part of the New Mexico’s identity.

            In my hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, there is no restaurant that does not carry some sort of dish that contains green chili. From the famous burger joint, Bobcat Bite, to the Pink Adobe family owned restaurant, all of these food establishments incorporate green chili into their meals in one way or another. The ingredient can be sliced and placed atop a juicy burger, blended to make a chip sauce, dried to make dry rubs, or boiled to make green chili stew. Green chili is at the very core of the culinary style of my hometown. It defines the very essence of the food culture within the state.

            For anyone that comes to visit New Mexico, conversations will always start on the topic of green chili. Someone will always be asking if you have tried such and such’s green chili or tried a specific dish an a certain restaurant. Green chili forms a bond between the people of New Mexico, and it is something that we can all share our experiences on and connect over.

            Green chili is something that reminds me, and any New Mexican, of home. The warm and spicy scent of green chili over a freshly prepared chicken enchilada is such an ingrained scent in my mind that I can recognize it anywhere. It is also one of the dishes that my mom has made for me over the span of my entire life. For me, green chili and home are synonymous. Most of my memories of my house, family, friends, and school all involve green chili in one way or another. From my mom making me my first green chili bacon breakfast burrito to my friends and I talking over our latest soccer tournament over some green chili hamburgers.

            Green chili is such an important and essential part to what I call home because it is something that I have always been around. Growing up in New Mexico, I was always exposed to it. During harvest, supermarkets across the city would have farmer’s selling green chili right on the parking lots. The smell of green chili would spread like wild fire across the entire city. It was as if some had dunked all of Santa Fe into a bath of green chili. There is no way of escaping it. Green chili is just something that has captivated the people of New Mexico and has stayed in our midst through out our lifetimes.

            Green chili is also something that I am proud to know. New Mexico is home to the hatch green chili, which had come to be recognized as some of the best green chili in the country. For this very reason, it is something that we New Mexicans are very proud of. Our pride for green chili is what gives it such an important role within our lives and culture. It is something that we have grown to love as children and will continue to love in our adult life. The memories that we form at home with our friends and family are ones that we will always remember, and green chili is the food that amplifies our joy and emotions.