"David Wright" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 23:32:54 GMT, "Charles Gifford"
> wrote:

<snips>

> I had a few friends, artists, who knew English better than they did
> the Spanish of Santa Fe. Their ancestors were the ones who had been
> sent up to the High Road between Santa Fe and Taos to build villages
> to protect the capital from the Comanches. But they weren't allowed to
> have guns, so they traded with the Comanches for a few muskets so they
> could defend themselves.
>
> That's a true story, but whether it's a fact, I don't know. ;-)

Great story! Thank you for the insight and information.!

> >One popular survivor is Santa Maria BBQ. Some say it is not "real"
> >BBQ. Actually it is closer to the probable original Barbacoa than
Southern
> >Style Q's. Santa Maria BBQ is California Rancho cooking at it's best!
With a
> >crusty loaf of bread and a fine California wine to go with it.
>
> If it's a slab of ribs or a butterflied roast tossed onto a length of
> expanded metal or a grill over some hot coals, I'm with you, Charlie!

That is excellent too! But Santa Maria BBQ uses (nowadays anyhow) a large
chunk of tri-tip that is suspended on a frame over a red oak fire. In my
statement I was referring to (one theory) a Carribean origin of BBQ where
meat was cooked in exactly the same way - wood frame over a fire - dating to
pre-Columbian times.

>
> I think it was late '40s when my first wife's parents lived there and
> would go out to the country to Mission Valley to buy fresh produce
> from the farms. :-)
>
> David

Sure has changed hasn't it. Mission Valley was all farms and dairies! Now it
is filled from edge to edge with people who are, every few years, surprised
to find they are living or operating a business in a flood plain.

Charlie