JP, I once spent a few weeks in Santa Fe in October...some friends and I rented a house. One of things we did was buy a bushel of green chiles and roast them on the backyard barbecue. Then, we made mounds of chiles rellenos, and froze the rest - transported them back to Oregon in dry ice. They were wonderful. Those chiles are very similar to the poblanos we use here. And the air was full of the smell of them roasting everywhere. It was a lovely trip and the first time I ate real tamales...my friends, who used to live there, drove us about 25 miles to a little town called Chimayo (with a wonderful shrine) and we bought them from a woman who lived there. Sat at a picnic table in her yard, just like in Mexico! They were wonderful.
So you know the difference
The shrine in Chimayo is very famous I have been there a couple times very much like old Mexico. When I was very much younger I made it to the famous church in Puebla outside of Mexico City and I made it to the town in the 1970s San Christobal de las Casas in Chiapas and went to the famous church outside of town that belonged to the indians with palm fronds on the floor and very old statues of saints they were quite protective even in those days on who could enter the church I did get in and it was quite an experience although I would appreciate it much more now than when I was eighteen and traveling just to travel. Chimayo is famous for the healing dirt just as a church in Taos is famous for a painting and the stair case in Santa Fe.
