"Red or Green or Christmas?" (chile sauce)

[Barry Popik]

I just finished a long post on "Red or Green or Christmas?" The
Dictionary of American Regional English doesn't have "Christmas" (1/2
red and 1/2 green chile sauce), a New Mexico regional food term?
...
Any earlier "Christmas" will be appreciated.
...
...
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http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/red_or_green_or_christmas_red_sauce_green_sauce_or_half_red_and_half_green/
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Entry from October 30, 2007
"Red or Green (or Christmas)?" (red sauce, green sauce, or half-red
and half-green chile sauce)
"Red or green?" is the official state question of New Mexico. Really,
it is. The "state question" was proposed in 1996 and finally signed by
the governor in 1999.

New Mexico is a major chile-producing state, and there are both red
chile sauces and green chile sauces. The "red or green?" question is
asked often in restaurants, and the state legislature thought that
making it an "official state question" would boost tourism.

Christmas is known for its red and green colors. In New Mexico
restaurant lingo (that appears to have started in Santa Fe),
"Christmas" means a plate of half-red and half-green chile sauces. The
New Mexico terminology has spread to some other states of the
Southwest, such as Arizona and Texas.


Wikipedia: New Mexico
State question* "Red or Green?" 1999
(*)The official state question refers to a question commonly heard at
restaurants, where waiters will ask customers "red or green?" in
reference to which kind of chili pepper or "chile sauce" the customers
wants served with their meal. This type of "chile" is usually distinct
from salsa, as the chile sauce is much finer and thicker and more
commonly served with meals. Natives are more likely to refer to the
chili sauce put on their meal as just plain "chile", and not as any
form of "salsa" (which is usually reserved by natives in English for
the salsa served with chips; everything else is just "chile"). If the
diner wants both they can answer with, "Christmas" (or "Navidad" in
Spanish), in reference to the two traditional colors of Christmas—Red
and Green.

Wikipedia: Cuisine of the Southwestern United States
Southwestern cuisine is food styled after the rustic cooking of
California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, as well as parts of
Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. It comprises a fusion of recipes for
things that might have been eaten by cowboys, Native Americans, and
Mexicans throughout the post-Columbian era, however, there is a great
diversity in this kind of cuisine within the above-mentioned states.

Southwestern cuisine is heavily influenced by Mexican cuisine but
often involves larger cuts of meat, and less use of tripe, brain, and
other parts not considered as desirable in the United States. Like
Mexican cuisine, it is also known for its use of spices (particularly
the chile, or Chili pepper) and accompaniment with beans (frijoles),
cooked in a variety of manners. Chili con carne, fajitas, certain
kinds of chiles rellenos (stuffed chiles), and various steak-chile
combinations are particularly well-known Southwestern foods. Note that
"chili" generally refers to a thick stew or soup prepared with beans
and meat, while "chile" refers to the peppers that grow in this region
and have been eaten for thousands of years by the native people.
Recently, several chains of casual dining restaurants specializing in
Southwestern cuisine have become popular in the United States.

New Mexico is known for its dedication to the chile (the official
"state question" is "Red or green?", which refers to the preferred
color of chiles), most notably the "hatch" chile.

New Mexican cuisine
New Mexican food is a type of regional cuisine originating in the U.S.
state of New Mexico; it is a subset of Mexican-American cuisine.
Although many New Mexican dishes are similar to Mexican and Tex-Mex
offerings such as enchiladas and burritos, New Mexican food has a
distinct style. The most important difference is the type of chile
pepper used. [citation needed] New Mexico chiles comes in two
varieties, referred to as either "green chile" or "red chile"
depending on the stage of ripeness in which they were picked.

Green chile is perhaps the defining ingredient of New Mexican food
compared to neighboring styles, though heavier use of cilantro and
relaxed use of cumin are also important. In the past few years, green
chile has grown increasingly more common outside of New Mexico, and it
is a popular ingredient in everything from enchiladas and burritos to
cheeseburgers and bagels within the state's borders.
(...)
List of New Mexican culinary terms
(...)
Chile or chile sauce: A sauce made from red or green chiles by a
variety of recipes, and served hot over many (perhaps any) New Mexican
dish. Chile does not use vinegar, unlike most salsas, picantes and
other hot sauces. Green chile is made with chopped roasted chiles,
while red chile is made with chiles dried and ground to a powder.
Thickeners like flour, and various spices are often added, especially
ground cumin, coriander and oregano (none of these is usually added to
a red chile sauce, and rarely would cumin or coriander show up in a
traditional green sauce). Chile is one of the most definitive
differences between New Mexican and other Mexican and Mexican-American
cuisines. Mexican and Californian tend to use various specialized
sauces for different dishes, while Tex-Mex leans toward the use of
salsa picante and chili con carne (and even Cajun-style Louisiana hot
sauce). New Mexican cuisine uses chile sauce as taco sauce, enchilada
sauce, burrito sauce, etc. (though any given meal may use both red and
green varieties for different dishes). A thicker version of green
chile, with larger pieces of the plant, plus onions and other
additions, is called green chile stew and is popular in
Albuquerque-style New Mexican food; it is used the same way as green
chile sauce, as a topping for virtually anything, including American
dishes. The term "Christmas" is commonly used in New Mexico when both
red and green chiles are used for one dish.

Bill Richardson for President (May 24, 2007)
Red or Blue State? Nah. Red or Green!
Forget the standard political demographics and things like mixing
religion with politics. In New Mexico, Christmas is celebrated every
day - in fact, several times a day - in the halls of government, city
plazas, schools, and people's homes. What am I talking about? "Red or
Green?" - the official New Mexico State Question, the answer to which
has recently been legislated to be: "Christmas," meaning both, please.

Chile has been an important staple and source of pride going back
hundreds of New Mexican years. The most well-known chiles come from
the town of Hatch (everyone knows that!), where the long, slender
spicy vegetables are harvested and celebrated. Every food in New
Mexico comes smothered in chile. If Richardson becomes President, the
White House Chef had better have this down!

Albuquerque Living
Red Or Green?
If you dine in any Albuquerque restaurant serving New Mexican cuisine,
be assured that you will be asked the question: "Red or Green?" What
does it mean? Well, it reflects what can only be called a local
obsession that has even influenced state legislation.

In 1996 the New Mexico State Legislature passed a House Joint Memorial
declaring "Red or Green?" the official state question. This refers to
being asked whether one prefers red or green chile when ordering New
Mexican cuisine. This measure was passed to signify the importance
that the chile industry has on the economy of the state. In 2000 New
Mexico produced 99,000 tons of chile valued at nearly 49 million
dollars making it the number one cash crop in terms of sales in the
state.

the santa fe site
Red or Green? Chile that is!
(...)
Hatch in southern New Mexico is where much of the New Mexico chili
crop is grown. Hatch is called the Chile Capital of the world and has
its annual Hatch Chile festival on Labor Day weekend.

In New Mexico when ordering chile with your meal the chile is
typically the Hatch Chile. The green ones are usually roasted and the
red ones are dried before they are used in cooking.

Remember this when asked red or green? Or Christmas? The green is
hotter and the red is a more pungent but not so hot a taste. Christmas
is both red and green for those of you who want to try both so you can
make the decision as to what you like.

New Mexico Chili
Depending on the variety, growth and harvest conditions, "hotness" can
vary. Your cook/waiter will know which is hotter. If you're the
adventurous sort, ask for "Christmas"--a sample of red and green
chile/chili served side-by-side.

NPR: New Mexico: Chile Hot Spot
Kitchen Window
By Bonny Wolf
New Mexico: Chile Hot Spot
NPR.org, September 19, 2007
(...)
There's even an official state question: Red or green?

And if you can't decide if you want red chile or green chile, you may
answer, "Christmas," and you'll get some of both.

Green and red chiles are actually the same chiles at different life
stages: either picked earlier when they're green, or later after
they're left to turn red on the vine.

27 September 1987, New York (NY) Times, "Chiles: Pungent, Sweet and
Rich" by Susan Benner, section XX, pg. 28:
Verde or colorado (green or red), chile pods may be used fresh from
the plant, but more often they are roasted. Then the green is peeled
and the red usually dried and ground. Though native pods are sold
green—farmers like to sell them this way since it minimizes the danger
of loss from birds or hail or frost—their thin-walled wrinkled flesh
is difficult to peel. Consequently, the chile of northern New Mexico
rarely appears green in restaurants, and is better known for the
richly flavored powders from the dried, roasted and ground red.

26 November 1989, New York (NY) Times, "Santa Fe's Spicy Cultural Mix"
by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, pg. XX12:
...carne adobado, spicy pork, marinated in red chili paste before
roasting, and everywhere a choice of red or green chili sauce as an
accompaniment. (Just ask for "Christmas," said Sam Arnold, a food
historian who has lived in Santa Fe for many years, if you want both.)
(...) (Pg. XX24—ed.)
...in the Hotel La Fonda, to the breakfast burritos, lascivious
concoctions of scrambled eggs, sausage or ham, green or red (or
Christmas) chili and cheese, that are available in a number of local
breakfast places.

16 December 1990, New York (NY) Times, "Salsas of the Southwest" by
Jeanie Puleston Fleming, pg. XX6:
During the tasting Mr. Raub (Chef Peter Raub of the Sante Fe School of
Cooking—ed.) explained another fine point in salsa definitions: the
difference between traditional salsa and traditional New Mexican red
or green chili sauces. While New Mexican chili sauce is served hot and
on top of dishes like enchiladas (half red and half green is known as
Christmas), salsa is served separately and cold. Also, you taste the
chili, the tomato, the cilantro in salsa, while in a sauce, one
flavor—usually the chile—dominates.

Google Books
Jane Butel's Southwestern Kitchen
by Jane Butel
New York, NY: HP Books
1994
Pg. 103:
Christmas Chicken
In New Mexico, a new favorite is to sauce dishes with half red chile
sauce and half green chile sauce. This custom is called "Christmas,"
when one orders in a restaurant. So, when I combined red and green
chiles in one chicken dish, I decided Christmas was an appropriate
name.

(Much more on website -- B.P.)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org