Las Cruces embraces New Mexico’s most savory product: We pulled into Big Chile Inn. Would have slept inside the big chile, but it was too hot. Yeah, technically the world’s largest Chile wraps around South America’s tail. But there’s another big chile in Las Cruces, too, laying on its side like a Rubens model. And the world is a better place because of New Mexico’s hatch chiles.

Our culinary nirvana began with a lunch of chiles rellenos at our Santa Fe favorite, Maria’s.

The five-hour drive to Las Cruces–with a stop for snake charming…

allowed us to rekindle our hunger for hatch chiles. We returned to another favorite watering hole, La Posta in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a relic from the Butterfield Trail.

Pancho Villa, Billy the Kid & Kit Carson passed through here. Good salsa. Hot chiles rellenos. Outside the scent of sulfur drapes the area, remnant from when Billy the Kid used to light his farts.