by Stan Dyer

Created on: July 24, 2008   Last Updated: July 25, 2008

Being the Denver Dining Examiner sure has been an education. This job teaches a lot about psychology, human nature and the persistence of ideas. A perfect example happened recently while searching for Denver's best and hottest Mexican food. Anyone can make it hot. The real trick is to make it hot and keep the flavor. Naturally, when a contact told me Santiago's had the "hottest" in town, I assumed he meant the food, and I had to try it.

Santiago's is a chain of 20 Mexican restaurants in the area spreading over Colorado as far south as Castle Rock and as far north as Sterling. They won accolades for their chili, were voted the Best Cheap Breakfast by Westword in 2005, and have a devoted following. Their chili is so good, that the website claims you can purchase it at King Soopers, City Market and Albertson's, but I have not seen it there. With the research done, I headed for the location at 95 South Sheridan in Denver in search of Denver's best and hottest Mexican food.

I do not let the outward appearance of a restaurant determine the value of the establishment. If the restaurant is clean, the kitchen is clean and the restrooms clean, I am game to try the food. After all, the food is what restaurants should be all about. It is a good thing for Santiago's. I can only speak for the one location, but this is not a fancy restaurant. It was very plain, very ordinary, and likely to turn most people away unless they know something special is waiting inside. I took my chances.

Right away, I ran into trouble. There are almost no vegetarian options on the menu at all. Being familiar with Mexican cuisine of the southwest, I inquired of the server if the beans contained lard and if there was chicken broth in the rice, mentioning that I was vegetarian. As is common with most Mexican restaurants, the beans contain lard and the chili has pork. This establishment, however, claims not to use chicken broth in the rice. Choosing about the only option on the menu available, we selected the Cheese Enchilada Dinners and they happily substituted an extra helping of rice for the beans that usually accompany this choice. Here's where the education occurred.

Wanting the hot, spicy food I came for, I asked mine to be prepared in such a manner. Apparently, the way they make food hot and spicy is to put their green chili on it. This led to two revelations. First, my contact must mean green chili when he says Santiago's is the "hottest". I thought he was referring to the food. The server

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