Best of 2001: Best New Mexico Enchiladas

Salazar's Fine Mexican Food
1502 Market, Sherman Heights
619-238-9674

It's not the flashiest part of town, but for 28 years Frank Salazar's adobe-style New Mexico coffee shop has been a little oasis of old Spanish-speaking San Diego. Many local families who used to work in the nearby tuna canneries still come in. Their old guys sit here and talk of the days when they were kids, and they'd paddle logs across the bay to Coronado. Today Salazar's still buzzes with a mixture of Spanish and English, especially after church on Sunday mornings. Frank, who learned to cook at La Fonda in Santa Fe, insists the food of his native New Mexico is different. "They like things hotter there," he says. "They hang the green chiles out to dry till they turn red." So order the New Mexico enchiladas and refried beans. And take the hot red chili sauce rather than the tamer salsa ranchera if you want the real New Mexico kick.