jpmcgrew said:
You guys need to make a trip to New Mexico go to Santa Fe and experience a whole different life style.
I wholeheartedly agree with you, there's nothing like Northern New Mexico. Even within the state, there are huge variations in "Mexican food." In Taos you'll find "authentic" black beans in nearly every restaurant, but you couldn't find a black bean in Gallup or Las Cruces.
Throughout New Mexico, a sopapilla is puffy dough. In Southern New Mexico, people tend to eat it with their meal, to sop up the chile. In Northern New Mexico, it's most often eaten after the meal with honey. Some people squish it flat and put honey on top; others bite off a corner and drip honey inside. (That's how I do it.)
Elsewhere in the U.S., I've been served "sopapillas" that were doughnuts, fried tortillas with chocolate sauce, and frybread covered in cinnamon-sugar.
Part of me wants to say "cuisine is regional, nobody's correct, yada yada."
But it's more satisfying to say these people are wrong, and there's only one right way to make a sopapilla, and it should be served after the meal and the honey goes on the inside.