The Double Eagle

Mesilla, New Mexico

Tennis scores from yesterday were 6-2, 6-0 in favor of Mrs. Phred.

The Double Eagle is full of antiques. The mirrors and chandeliers remind you a little of a high end bordello circa 1880. The building was built as a fine private residence in 1848. They have the finest margaritas this reviewer has ever encountered.

Two ghosts are frequently seen on the premises. A matron who lived here found her son and a maid in an unseemly tangle and accidentally  stabbed her son to death with scissors before doing in the maid.

The room above is the Pepper room for slightly less formal dining. You might not be aware that New Mexico and Arizona were acquired from Mexico in what is called the Gadsen Purchase for 15 million dollars. The territories were needed for a rail line from the East to California. The bank draft was apparently stolen by Santa Anna. No Idea how he cashed it. Maybe in those days they didn't have stop payments.

We ate in the main dining room. We had Chateaubriand for two. It was served with a tomato stuffed with a seafood that contained shrimp, so I got it all because of Mrs. Phred's allergy.

If you get to Las Cruces, don't miss this lovely, historic place. The food and drink don't get any better.

In Search of Blue Agave

The blue agave heart weighs between 40 and 220 pounds. One way to prepare them for fermentation is to bake the hearts or piñas in an oven for 24 hours, converting the plants starches to fermentable sugars. More modern techniques involve shredding the heart of the plant and cooking the pulp in a giant pressure cooker
.

Ninety percent of the tequila exported to the gringos in the US is not made from 100% blue agave. It is inferior product diluted with alcohol made from other grains such as corn.

Last week I saw an old Marlon Brando western. He wears a sombrero in a small Mexican town and drinks a disgusting green jar of pulque while talking to a villain with horrible facial scars. Pulque is to tequila as beer is to single malt scotch.

Mrs. Phred is tied up in a tennis tournament today. At noon I track her down. She's only played two of five matctes. I tell her I am wanting to search for a decent margarita. She nods approval.

At the Target department store, I buy four large margarita glasses, a metal drink shaker and a holographic blinking window Menorah for the RV (an impulse purchase). I look for a plastic dashboard Jesus with a bobbing head, but they must be sold out (it is Christmas). I pick up 10 fresh limes at the grocery store. At the liquor store I get a bag of ice, a high-end bottle of orange liqueur and a $50 bottle of tequila made from 100% blue agave tequila.

I wet one of the new glasses and line the rim with salt.

My first glass is:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup orange liqueur
1/4 cup blue agave tequila

My second glass uses 1/2 cup tequila...I like it better...

This is the best margarita I've had since last New Year's Eve in Mesilla, New Mexico on the border at the Double Eagle Saloon...I've been hopefully drinking bad margaritas ever since.. now I need to get a blender and try frozen margaritas....

I was worried this year about the blue agave because of a decline in the Mexican Fruit Bat population. They fertilize the agave like bumblebees...however, now I know that the clever Mexicans analyze the DNA of the real blue agave and produce thousands of plants from a single cell...without the help of fruit bats...

Billy the Kid Hair Salon

Las Cruces, New Mexico – 9 April, 2006

We spend three days in Las Cruces. It is at an altitude of 4,000 feet and is near the Mexican border. The Rio Grande River is just south of town and the rugged Organ Mountains are visible to the north. Las Cruces has a population of 75,000 and housing prices seem very reasonable. Rainfall averages eight inches a year. There are two city parks with municipal tennis courts

I take Mrs Phred to the Billy the Kid Hair Salon for maintenance. We also run the cycle and RV though a car wash to get rid of accumulated road dust, do laundry and check tyre pressures and fluids. The motorcycle front tyre is showing sidewall cracks from age. We both like the feel of this place and the people we meet here.

The Howling Coyote Open Mic provides a forum for poets and musicians to perform on Friday night. The Fine Art Museum has a fine display of amateur astronomy photography. We go to the town mall weekly craft bazaar and buy used paperbacks and a jar of mesquite honey.


The small town of Mesilla a few miles away has an historic movie theatre called The Fountain. The theatre walls are covered with large murals. The building has large cracks and you can see that straw was used to strengthen the mortar in the walls.


Billy the Kid was sentenced to death here in Mesilla. We see a very good but disturbing French movie with subtitles called 'Cache' (the hidden) and drink some local wine called 'Plum Loco'. There is a Catholic church in the Mesilla town square. It has a large memorial for fallen servicemen and those who also served. All the names on the monument are Hispanic. A policeman drives slowly past the church as we read the names and makes the sign of the cross in his cruiser.