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Taking the Kids: Five ways to make food a fun part of your 2017 vacation

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

Red or green ? That's what everyone asks you in New Mexico restaurants. Translation: Do you want New Mexico's famous red or green chiles?

The story goes that a waitress at Tia Sophia's, the popular breakfast and lunch place on Santa Fe's Plaza, got tired of the question, so she'd just ask people if they wanted both -- Christmas!

Now that term is widely used all over New Mexico, but Tia Sophia owner, Nick Maryol, who took the popular eatery over from his dad, swears the story is true.

Tia Sophia has another claim to fame -- besides excellent, well-priced Mexican food. It's said to be the first place a breakfast burrito was ever put on a menu in New Mexico. Now, there are so many varieties of breakfast burritos that there is a state-sanctioned Breakfast Burrito Byway celebrating its popularity.

Maryol's dad, Jim, first put it on the menu in the 1970s -- a breakfast burrito is typically bacon, potato, cheese all wrapped in a tortilla and smothered with red or green chiles. (Today, you can have it with ham, sausage or bologna, too.)

"It's still the most popular breakfast," Maryol says -- and a bargain at under $10.

 

Certainly you can eat well in New Mexico no matter what your budget -- like the 1,000-seat El Pinto Restaurant and Salsa Company, spread out over 12 acres in Albuquerque. The company, run by twin brothers, grows its own chiles, keeps its own chickens and produces 4,000 cases of salsa and green chile sauce a day.

You can teach the kids a lot about the culture of a place through its food. Besides, it's fun. Two-thirds of those polled for the 2016 Portrait of American Travelers say fine-dining is important on vacation. Food is especially important for millennial families. Seventy-seven percent of those polled said experiencing new cuisines was a motivation for vacation, MMGY Global's Steve Cohen told the attendees at the TMS Family Travel Summit I co-chair.

Chefs and hoteliers report that often kids are the biggest foodies in the family and turn up their noses at traditional kids' menus, once they are past kindergarten. "The families I see today have a whole different take on food," said celebrity chef and hotelier Charlie Palmer, the father of four sons. "They are concerned about the quality of the food they are eating."

To that end, it's up to all of us to help restaurants and hotels up their game when it comes to food for kids. If you think the kids' menu is too limited, ask to order a half portion at half price or an appetizer portion. If the waiter balks, ask to speak to a manager.

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