casa de suenos (tularosa)

One thing that I have learned is that the farther you are away from the Rio Grande Valley in New Mexico, the farther away you are from good New Mexican food. Even in the Cloudcroft-Alamogordo area, one basin to the east of the Big River, NewMex is mostly miss. And to the east of the Sacramentos on the Ogallala plains? Forget about it. That's why I was overjoyed to find Casa de Suenos, the House of Dreams, in Tularosa. Our neighbor in Cloudcroft turned us on to the Casa. After listing places to avoid in Alamogordo (in short, avoid them all), our culinary Mr. Rogers recommended Casa de Suenos.

A town of about 2,500, there ain't much to Tularosa, but it is super quaint. Named after the rose-colored reeds that line Rio Tularosa, Tularosa was established in 1860 with an adobe core of its Catholic church and collection of original homes. The river still flows, feeding the acequias that spider across the old town core, creating an oasis of cottonwoods.

Started in 2002, Casa de Suenos specializes in New Mexican food from that basin to the west. While the NM chow here is not as good as the "real thing," it's pretty dang good and certainly the best New Mexican food in this hunk of the state.

I started off with the chicken enchiladas and ordered them Christmas (half red and half green), with blue corn tortillas, and a fried egg on top ($14.50). And yuh-huh, they were good, with the red outshining the green with deep flavor and noticeable heat.

The proprietor of Creative Creations in downtown Tularosa and caretaker of Bumpers the Blind Cat recommended the Chicken Adovada (red-chile marinated grilled chicken served with casa pepitas and calabacitas; $17.50), so that's what I ordered on my second visit. Holy cow were these dishes good. The chile-infused chicken sparkled with flavor and spice while the taters and calabacitas were worthy sides.

I ordered the stuffed sopapilla with chicken ($12) on a third visit. Sadly, they were out of red chile (I think everyone was surprised at how busy the Fourth of July weekend was), so green it was, and I was not disappointed. Again, really good flavor (but no bite to the chile) with the flavor of the sopapilla singing through the choir. I ordered mine with a fried egg on top and two sopas on the side. Mwah!

All in all, if you want New Mexican in the greater Alamogordo area, this is the place to be.

Casa de Suenos; 35 Saint Francis Drive, Tularosa, New Mexico; casadesuenosnm.com

Review originally posted at Austin Wanderlist.

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