I finally DRAGGED my S.A.D.* butt to the gym this morning after a good two months of pretending not to have a membership. After some pitiful sweating at the lowest resistance levels, I returned home for a healthy protein-rich lunch of muh famous turkey chili. In said chili I put spices we bought at the Tesuque Flea Market near Santa Fe - 2 kinds of smoky chilies + pungent cumin. All that is well and good, but I really screwed myself by indulging in a walk down memory lane while I waited for the microwave. I remembered that right before we 
went to Santa Fe, we had flown into Albuquerque, NM. After landing, we headed over to Old Town for lunch.
In my usual fashion, I found a coffee shop where two zaftig ladies were laughing at a table out front. (The Old Broads' Coffee Shop, 206 1/2 San Filipe #5 Patio Market, Abq, NM 505-459-2779)I felt in my bones that they would be able to tell me about someplace delicious, someplace close, and someplace not completely touristy. Hoo boy, did they exceed expectations! Just a few short blocks from the main plaza, by the Wendy's, sits an unassuming adobe building. As if in disguise, it's called Duran's Central Pharmacy. I know they actually fill prescriptions there, but I believe that that is not the reason most people go inside. Now I know. Many thanks to the ladies!
Duran's Central Pharmacy houses all the usual trappings of a 1960's era pharmacy - Brill Cream, Vitalis, cotton balls, reading glasses. Like Walgreens before them, it also houses a lunch counter. Instead of the usual diner fare you'd see at a lunch counter in the rest of the US, Duran's is the home of the most wonderful chicken enchilada's in the whole universe. I mean that.
Most joints in NM specialize in green chili sauce, but through a series of scientific experiments, my man and I have decided that Duran's red sauce is where it's at. Basically we peer around at what everyone else is eating, and say "Gimmie dat."
The enchiladas arrive bathed in so much sauce, that at first I wasn't sure if they were even in there. If you make it to Duran's, I beg you to please order a side of the homemade flour tortillas. Yes, go ahead and get them with butter. We aren't here for our health. The combo of the savory and not-too-spicy-for-gringas chili concoction is pure heaven. It's gentle on the senses, and not so salty that you cant marvel at the delicate layers of flavor that comes from dried chilis, water and fat.
So yes, I messed myself up this morning. I have a perfectly delicious turkey chili to eat, but all I can do is pine over a dish I can't have. Not today, anyway. Duran's sells the sauce via mail order! Thank you baby Jeebus.
Duran's Central Pharmacy
1815 Central Ave. NW
505-247-4141
*Seasonal Affective Disorder. Great excuse to nap, huh?
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