Having moved to the North Shore, I've warily begun trying out local Mexican restaurants. The Howling Wolf Taqueria in Salem looked like a decent bet. The owners, after all, had lived in Albuquerque for six years and ought to know what New Mexican cuisine should taste like.
Alas, no. The menu was full of tantalizing, misleading offerings. For example, the Green Chile Cheese Burger that my husband ordered did not actually include any green chile. Okay, sure, technically jalapenos are chiles that are green, but a New Mexican expects something totally different from jalapenos: a nice green pod of the Anaheim or Numex variety, sweet and hot without the characteristic bitterness of the jalapeno. Despite that disappointment, and after scraping off the offending green chile pretenders, my husband rather enjoyed his burger, and we both especially enjoyed the refried beans, which were redolent with bacon, a rather pleasant surprise. However, I discovered a couple of days later when reheating them that the beans were actually spicy. This is a New Mexican no-no. Beans are meant to be a counterpoint to the heat of the chile. You eat them to cool your tongue a bit between bites of your enchilada. Ditto the spanish rice, which arrived sporting flecks of red chile.
I ordered the Enchiladas Chile Colorado, which the menu claimed were stuffed with pork stewed in red chile sauce. And the actual item made good on the claim. The pork was succulent and slightly spicy, reminiscent of carne adobada. Sadly, the chile was more like ranchero sauce. I could detect no mexican oregano in the sauce, and I strongly suspect that it was diluted with tomato sauce. Note to the wise: if you want a chile sauce to be spicy, don't add tomato sauce. The acidity of the tomato counteracts the alkalinity that contributes to a chile's hotness and flavor. When I peel roasted green chiles, I scrub my hands afterwards with tomato juice to remove the sting.
Finally, the salsa and chips that we ordered were a thorough disappointment. The salsa, heavy on the cilantro, had almost no spice to it at all. It reminded me of watery pico de gallo. And the chips were not fresh and clearly not made onsite.
That said, I'd probably go back there just for the refried beans, which really were wonderful. And I'd like to try the green chile sauce and see whether there's more than tomatillos and jalapenos in it. I'd also like to try the chile con queso. But I'll go again with my expectations firmly adjusted.
