Steak In A Basket

This place is horrible. I was headed for El Rancho, but my wife is not a big fan of spicy Mexican food so I stopped in here. She got the chicken fingers and french fries, and I ordered the smothered burrito. She got a little queasy when the cook rubbed his nose before dropping her chicken fingers into the fryer, but I told her the hot grease would take care of any nasties. She actually liked her food, but she is a fan of fried, bland things.
The smothered burrito was hamburger meat, beans, canned green chile (complete with the citric acid taste) and cheap cheese, along with a liberal dose of salt. It was topped with green chile, but it tasted more like cream of something soup with a little canned green chile thrown in. I managed to choke down about half of it because I was really hungry, but I could not finish it. I love me some grease joints, but skip this place if you have other options.

$ 3 breakfast burritos, and friendly service. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
The service people are sweet and brought me extra green chilies (a must have in NM).
Cheap, filling, full of flavor.

Shall I give away the punchline and tell you what exactly is a «steak in a basket»? Very well then.
We’ve all had Chicken Fried Steak, AKA Country Fried steak before. Round or chuck, heavily worked over with a mallet, egged, breadcrumbed, floured, and tossed in deep fat. So it’s like that, only first it’s cut in strips! And you eat it with your hands and dunk it in the white gravy! Now, in a more urban area with all kinds of spicy choices this might not be so exciting. But when you’ve driven half the day through southern NM and your car and your gut are on empty, one can get pretty worked up about such a thing. Steak in a Basket– have some! I didn’t care for the catfish as much, but the steak wasn’t bad.
Hello to the cool Ron Paul supporters who work there and liked our Ron Paul (with extra Anarchy) van.