Every sit-down restaurant in Las Vegas has green chile, including Little Moon, the resident Chinese buffet. Of course you can get green chile poured on enchiladas at Smiling Faces, at the Landmark Grill, at Estella’s. The local eateries know their market, and you can add chopped green chile to your pizza at Dominos, your value-meal burgers at Mc- Donald’s, even …

My lungs filled with the rich aroma of roasting green chile as I waited my turn at the gas pumps.  Gabriel continued filling the tank of a tired elementary teacher. She slumped in the seat of her beat Ford Escort, head propped against the seat rest, as if five minutes of fuel could hopefully mimic twelve hours of good sleep. …

by Birdie Jaworski
Soft cocoons of blue and wilted yellow vibrate, collected together in a nest spun of capillary and experience. Scored into four equal segments surrounded by deliberate black void, Alex Ellis’ encaustic painting, “Mystery Map #1,” reminds the viewer of tired eyes, of internal organs fighting for direction, for space to expand. At once otherworldly and deeply intimate, Ellis’ …

Two young boys pressed through the sleepy crowds of the Tri-County Farmer’s Market early last Saturday morning. They each carried a handmade loaf of whole grain bread, one long and braided, the other round, earthy, dotted with black and green olives. Zachary Lujan, 12, handed his olive loaf to a woman wearing faded overalls in exchange for a bag of …

by Birdie Jaworski
The parking lot at University Avenue and 6th Street bursts with flavor each Wednesday and Saturday now that summer is upon us. Farmers drive from the outskirts of town, sometimes from Texas and Oklahoma, to share round lemon cucumbers, deep purple grapes, brown paper bags filled with spinach leaves. June at the Las Vegas Farmer’s Market means the …

by Birdie Jaworski
Teresa Victor stood, feet planted on the rugged slopes of Cuzco, the capital of the sun-worshiping Inca empire, the spot on earth with the highest ultraviolet light level. This was her third trip to Peru. On a previous trip, she hiked the Inca Trail, the twenty-eight mile ancient road to Macchu Piccu, in nearly impassable terrain high above …

by Birdie Jaworski

Beatriz Gibbs travels in early morning darkness, in the bitter winter cold, to open the doors to her bakery’s kitchen. She adds sugar to finely ground flour, mixes her ingredients in big metal bowls as the clock moves from 3 to 4 a.m. Paintings by local artist Floyd Lujan splash color against the wall as Gibbs kneads and …