Sandia Casino hosts fiery foods event

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Hundreds of vendors from across the globe made their way to the annual National Fiery Foods and BBQ show in Albuquerque. But you don’t need to travel far for some good chile.

“We brought all New Mexican-grown products. We actually have two brands today, ‘Best in the West’ manufactures both of these brands. ‘Santa Fe Ole’ it’s more of a local brand here in Albuquerque, you can find us in Whole Foods, Sprouts, Albertson’s, Los Bros, you’ll be able to find us online,” said Sara Ramos, Best in the West quality assurance manager. 

Ramos explained why she thinks their brand stands out from the rest.

“Something very interesting about our brand is that we don’t use frozen chile. We use fresh chile that goes directly into the jar, and that’s why we’re best in the West because the taste is so good,” said Ramos. 

Vendors from all over, including from as far away as Australia, came to Sandia Resort & Casino for the 35th annual event. But so did a lot of New Mexican brands.

In addition to Best in the West, Zia Child Traders from Las Cruces came with their range of products.

“We have hot sauces, salsas, mustards, barbecues, and spices. So we kinda cover it all. Everything that we make is made with hatch chile in it,” said John “Cahohn” Hard, managing partner of Zia Trader LLC. “I think that the best chiles come from southern New Mexico. It’s kinda like Napa Valley with grapes, you know, where the hatch valley is the best for growing chile.”

Hard says Zia Chile Traders have been coming to the show for years.

“We’re the longest running exhibitor, we fell in love in ’97 with Albuquerque, we’re proud to be New Mexican,” said Hard. 

The show also gave New Mexicans a chance to taste brands they’ve never met, like Sakari Farms from Oregon.

“We’re a traveling young farm. My wife is a newbie, she’s from Alaska. And so we just based our business practices off of growing Native foods, food sovernity, and just kind of rolled in to making hot sauce making more food products and stuff like that,” said Sam Schriner, co-owner of Sakari Farms.

Masker says this is the biggest show they’ve had so far.

“We have about 50% new exhibitors and this is like, some of them are like the next generation of hot sauce. So they’re really starting to elevate, and they come up with ideas of flavors that some of which you have seen before, others of which you haven’t like they’re blending fusions of cuisines,” said Maker. 

Many of the vendors have won national and global awards. For more information about the show’s vendors, click here.