New Mexican Green Chile

New Mexico takes its chile seriously enough to have made red or green the official state question, asked at every restaurant table when you order anything. The chile in question is a local cultivar grown mostly in the Hatch valley in the south, picked green and roasted, or left to ripen red and dried into strings called ristras. From August, propane-fired drum roasters appear outside supermarkets across the state, turning barrels of green chile over flame until the skins blister, and the smell of it is the definition of autumn here. It goes into stews, on burgers, over eggs, inside sopaipillas and, controversially, onto pizza. Christmas, in local usage, means both red and green on the same plate.

What you actually see

• The roasters - drum roasters turning green chile over flame outside shops from August.
• Ristras - strings of drying red chile hung on adobe walls.
• Red or green - the state question, answered at every meal.
• The Hatch valley - the growing area and its harvest festival.

When to go

August to October is the roasting season and by far the best time, when the smell fills every town and roasters work outside supermarkets across the state. The Hatch chile festival falls over the Labor Day weekend. Chile is served year-round from frozen and dried stock.

Honest expectations

Heat varies enormously between crops and years, and the green is often hotter than the red, which surprises people who assume the opposite. Genuine New Mexican chile is a specific thing and what is sold as green chile elsewhere is usually a different pepper entirely. If you cannot decide, ordering Christmas is a legitimate answer rather than a joke.

Nearby

Santa Fe and Albuquerque have the best restaurant versions; Hatch is in the southern valley.