When you live in Colorado, you grow accustomed to certain sights, smells, and tastes that you cannot find in every other state. Speaking from experience, when I was displaced during college, the thing I missed most about the Centennial State (aside from family, mountains, and Rox baseball, of course) was the food – especially these nine Colorado favorites:
1. Green chile
Flickr/jpellgen (@1179_jp)
Sure, other states may TRY making green chile, but they fail miserably and wind up with some bland slop that is more off-putting than it is filling. (We’re looking at you, New Mexico…)
2. Smothered burritos
Flickr/mswine
If you don’t have a good green chile recipe to smother it with, you don’t have a good burrito. They go hand-in-hand.
3. Good beer
Great Divide Brewing Co./Facebook
No, I’m not talking about your stale domestics; I’m talking about the local craft brews that you can find in nearly every Colorado town.
4. Legit peaches…
Flickr/Wally Gobetz
♪ Movin’ to Colorado, gonna eat a lot of Palisade peaches! ♪
5 …and melons.
Hirakata Farms/Facebook
Rocky Ford is the “Melon Capital of the World,” after all.
6. Oysters
Flickr/jsvanstar
…but not the kind that comes from the ocean…
7. Chipotle on every corner.
Flickr/Wally Gobetz
Speaking from life experience, Chipotle restaurants are not as easily accessible in other states as they are in Colorado… and it’s rough.
8. Snooze
Flickr/Mike Holloway
It’s a sad, sad day when you come to the realization that you can only get your Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes in Colorado, Texas, Cali, and Arizona.
9. Beau Jo’s Pizza
Beau Jo’s/Facebook
Not all pizzas are created equal, as evidenced by delicious Beau Jo’s and their to-die-for Colorado-style crust! (New York, Chicago, and California: You’ve got nothin’ on the Jo.)
