Paddy Rawal''s Raaga - is all the rage!!

Photos by C. Whitney-Ward

This is Paddy Rawal. He has a very good reason to be all smiles. His newly- opened restaurant  RAAGA,  has gotten smashing reviews and he is truly living his passion - sharing his exquisite palate and talent for fine Indian cuisine with all of us in Santa Fe. It's a very  tasty  win win  situation.

A native of Bombay, India, Paddy chose a culinary career early on and his first mentor and teacher was his Mother. 

 "I came from a family of seven and all of us would sit at the table at the same time. Mom would be in the kitchen doing all the cooking; very proud that she was feeding her family. Everything she made was fresh and delicious. One day I decided to cook with her. 'You come and cook with me every Sunday,' she said. And I did. Then one day I told her to sit at the table and I'd do all the cooking."

He was seventeen and discovered that he loved to cook. He went on to culinary school and did everything expected of him and everything not expected of him. "My father always told me, 'whatever you do in life, do it well and with passion,' recalls Paddy, who clearly learned that lesson well. 

RAAGA is intimate with a handful of booths and tables, but that's what makes it so fun. You can peek at your "neighbors' table and get a birds eye view of what they're eating, and conversations between complete strangers start up and continue throughout the meal. And the restaurant is always packed with interesting folks. And now that the weather is lovely, the patio is open and inviting...

Now on to the food. It  is  elegant, delicious and a riot of flavors, celebrating the Northern Indian Cuisine favored by his Mother.  And Paddy is truly a wizard of spices.  He imports fifty or so different spices and uses them with finesse and purpose.

But, he's also added dishes with a definite New Mexican signature - note the Stuffed Poblano Pepper appetizer on the menu.  And the sauce in the ramekin? It is so amazingly delicious, I could order just that and be a very, very happy camper.

I'd slather it all over the wonderful tandoori-baked Naan bread.

That sauce, reveals Paddy, is made fresh daily and is really two sauces. One is a melange of cilantro, green chili, mint, ginger, garlic, lemon juice, and sugar.The other is made from tamarind, raw cane sugar, and dates.

The menu features: grilled delights from a clay oven, vegetarian, chicken, lamb and seafood curries, and traditional Biryani dishes (the one below is Paddy's take on a Spanish Paella).

RAAGA serves a delightful and delicious buffet during lunch, a wonderful way to taste what's on the regular  menu; the buffet menu changes daily.

BRAVO RAAGA!

PADDY RAWAL'S RAAGA

Fine Indian Dining

544 Agua Fria Street

Santa Fe, NM

505.820.6440

www.raagacuisine.com

HEART GALLERY OF NEW MEXICO - HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY

The Heart Gallery of New Mexico is a very special photographic portrait gallery - open only once a year. It doesn't showcase the rich and famous, i celebrates New Mexico's foster children waiting for adoption by their FOREVER FAMILY.

Cassidy

Photo by Jackie Mathey

Each year world-class New Mexico photographers capture the magic and charm of these children knowing that the portrait and the child will tug at the heartstrings of a very special family.

Rafael & Esmeralda

Photo by Alan Mitchell

This wonderful event and foundation was created ten years ago by Santa Fean Diane Granito, and there are now 120 Heart Gallery organizations throughout the United States and Canada. More than 5,000 children have made the journey from foster care to loving family as a result, many of them in New Mexico.

Ray & Moses

By Jennifer Spelman

 Breanna & Dinasha

By Alan Myers

Cody

By Dana Waldon

For information - click below

HEART GALLERY OF NEW MEXICO FOUNDATION

Louisa McElwain - The House that Louisa built

 

1953 - 2013

About 25 miles north of Santa Fe, nestled into the Santa Cruz Valley, is artist Louisa McElwain's magical 10-acre farm and home. I was invited on a private tour this weekend and it was like stepping into the pages of a gorgeous coffee table book.  I crossed a tiny bridge over the ancient acequia that runs through the property and was greeted by Louisa's three dogs and a charming open patio with the house on one side and her gallery/studio on the other.
 

Photos by C. Whitney-Ward

Tables were set with inviting nibbles...

And  we were invited into Louisa's wonderfully-eclectic home. The  first impression is that it is much-loved and ancient .

 It is indeed loved, but it is only six months old. "We began building just before Christmas and the challenge was to make everything look as if it were made by hand and not available at Home Depot," says Louisa, who remembers hunting up antique shutters, old windows and lots and lots of vintage  doors to make the house look and feel old. And, she applied her remarkable painting talent to floors and walls with gorgeous results.

No these weren't pulled from an old Italian villa. Louisa created stencils of designs that she loved  and spent hours meticulously drawing, snapping chalk lines, and painting the final "look" with  acid dyes. Then the finished floors were sealed with garage floor epoxy. Amazing!

Then she tackled  faux finishes and charming painted wall panels. She learned ragging techniques from Joe Madrid of Madrid's Painting  and used his custom blended paints on all the walls.  "These rooms express a bit of Italy, a bit of French Enlightenment, and a bit of New Mexico," laughs Louisa.

Then she added rustic  lighting...

A fireplace here and there...

A lovely bathroom...

She created a mosaic floor in the shower - it only cost her 10 bucks - using a jumble of tiny pieces of travertine and slate tiles; the shower seat was fashioned from a fireplace mantle cut in two and stacked.

                Next we toured the farm.

There was a nifty "rolling" chicken coup, just beyond the lavender bushes...

Dog houses..the smallest one for this handsome guy...

A wood pile pretty enough to paint...

A bucolic pasture...

And lovely, lovely Norwegian Fjord horses.

And a pond studded with "bouquets" of Flag Iris - a reflecting pool for the trees surrounding it and the sky above.

Thank you to EVOKE Contemporary Gallery in Santa Fe for the invitation to experience this wonderful afternoon.

Photo courtesy of EVOKE Contemporary

1953 - 2013

 And a huge thank you to Louisa McElwain for her immense talent

 and her warm hospitality. 

EVOKE Contemporary

To see Louisa's paintings, click here

 

LOUISA MCELWAIN - THE GYPSY PAINTER

Artist Louisa McElwain paints luscious, sensuous landscapes layered with thick  sweeps of paint and color.

Photos by C. Whitney-Ward 

But, she doesn't find a vista, render it in a sketch or photograph, and bring it to life  back in her studio. She literally takes her studio with her and  paints, as she likes to say, "in wild solitude." And this is how she does it.

She retrofitted her pickup truck; added a clever easel gizmo to the back; and customized boxes to hold her stuff.

That done, she was ready to ride out and capture an alluring New Mexico landscape, a passion she's been pursuing for the past twenty-five years. 

 "I paint outdoors in all sorts of conditions, open to the impulse of changing light,

 wind, heat, cold, and all the forces of nature that bring life into my paintings."

                       

 Louisa is represented by EVOLE Contemporary . Twice a year the gallery throws a private happening  for their clients. This weekend guests were invited to tour Louisa's charming 10-acre house and farm (see my previous post ) and watch her paint. They invited me to chase along and it was a magical afternoon.



 Louise backed her truck up to the patio where we were all sitting, nailed a blank canvas to the struts on the back of her truck, and readied her palate... 

And began to paint.

Using a long-handled brush and sweeping strokes, she applied black paint and then began layering color...

  

Her tool of choice is a carpenter's chisel/palate knife.

Her finished landscape.

Amazing. Looks so simple. But it took Louisa decades to perfect her dance with paint and canvas.

LOUISA MCELWAIN

EVOKE  Contemporary

130 Lincoln Avenue

Santa Fe, NM

505.995.9902

www.evokecontemporary.com