Following the big old Best of Santa Fe party kerfuffle last Friday in the Railyard (nothing bad happened, it was actually really fun—it was just a lot of work; and we hear some people came looking for us thinking we’d be sitting at the table with the other staffers WHEN WE WOULD NEVER DO THAT!), some of the SFR hotheads got together for a little dinner at Paper Dosa. And you know what? It was pretty cool, man. Y’all ever been over there? Just kidding. We know how all our readers are most certainly all like, “Having been to India, I’m an Indian food expert, and I adore Paper Dosa, and that makes me interesting!”
Thing the First: We’re just saying it was a nice meal. What did we eat, you ask? Well, we began with a pairing of pappadum (lentil cracker if you didn’t know) and dahi vada (a lentil fritter smothered in a sauce of spiked yogurt, mint chutney and tamarind)—almost like a chips and salsa sort of thing but with Indian flavors. Before anyone sends any angry emails, know that we totally get that those things aren’t the same, and we’re totally not saying that those starters came together. What we’re saying is that Paper Dosa’s versions of these enduring Indian dishes can be consumed in a fashion similar to chips and salsa. The pappadum came with an especially enticing trio of chutneys, including eggplant, garlic and tamarind. If we’re completely honest, Paper Dosa is never our first choice, but we’re ultimately glad we went for the dosa main course.
First of all, we got in a pretty big fight with a fellow SFR staffer for likening the dosa to a crepe (he said that was crazy, but we pointed out how right we were, and then were validated by the literal appearance of the word “crepe” on Paper Dosa’s menu. Secondly of all, our paneer and peas dosa was an absolute knockout. Not only was it massive, it particular blend of cheese and spices tasted fresh and nuanced without being overpowering. We also love peas, so…yeah. The point is this: We’re down with Paper Dosa now, even if we almost always would rather go nuts on something smothered in red chile.
The Fork
Thing the Second: We mentioned it last week, we think, but does it seem wild that grocery stores are already roasting chile in their lots in what is barely even August? Why, it feels like we didn’t get any of that jazz until well into fall before, but maybe that’s what climate change does when it makes fools of us all. Because the chile situation is already mid-roast, quite a few pals have been stocking up, and we’ve had not one but two delicious homemade burritos this week featuring freshly roasted chile. We’ve been big chile fans since always, so believe us when we say there’s just a difference between something that has been frozen and something that hasn’t. In fact, we’ve been known to regret chomping on green when it starts to demolish our old and sensitive gut. Whatever happened with the chile this time, it only empowered us. We literally jumped over a building and shouted, “In your face, Colorado chile!” Anyway, with winter coming, faster than any of us would like to admit, it’s good to know some of our pals are good to go in the chile realm. We’ll be mooching off them like that one grasshopper, only there will be no downside because we’re too powerful.
Thing the Third: Tomorrow in SFR, we happen to know that there will be a full-on review of longtime local Italian joint Andiamo! (a restaurant that sometimes has an exclamation point and sometimes doesn’t), and we were the lucky recipients of some of that food. We’re the kind of amorphous gas being that’s all like, “If there’s free food to be had, we’re gon’sta take that free food, and we don’t care what it is. In this case, it was a fettuccine dish with mushrooms, and it was phenomenal! We’d tell you more, but like we said, there’s that full review coming out tomorrow. Like you’ll read about in our colleague’s review, though, the real treasure is or was the memories we made along the way—memories about how some restaurants that have been around in Santa Fe forever might skip our minds when it’s dinnertime, because we tend to think they won’t go anywhere. Nothing is permanent. Everything is fleeting. We must love hard. But we will not follow you into heaven—we will stay and fight until our blood turns brown on the rocks of glory!
We just like to share this sometimes so you can all hear what a banger that is.
Also
- While we salute intrepid Fork Frenz in real life and online who believe that last week’s Fork outed our identity, we regret to inform you that Alex De Vore is the SFR arts and culture editor (and Fork editor), and that credit you saw on the photo was simply a photo credit from a shot he took when he went to Market Steer in June. A cursory glance around sfreporter.com might have shown you that all photos bear photographer credit, but nice try junior detectives—and better luck next time, dinguses!
- A friend of ours recently told us about taking a cool cooking class at DeVargas Center kitchen shop Las Cosas, so we naturally popped by the website to see what they offer, and it is sooooooooooooo many things! August alone is a real banger with classes dedicated to high altitude baking, Thai apps, green chile (just in time for roasting season!) and more. If you follow this link, you’ll catch the whole list, but we’d be lying if we didn’t tell you we’re most excited for that Aug. 30 Perfect Pizza workshop with apparent pizza master Christine Hickman.
- If it’s pizza tips you want, might we recommend this 2022 edition of The Fork wherein a real-life world-famous pizzamaker offered up some hot-ass tips? You can still take that class, though, and should!
- Come Tuesday, Aug. 12, the folks at chef Fernando Ruiz’s Mexican joint Escondido will celebrate the restaurant’s one-year anniversary. Word on the street is that this means free tacos (within reason, probably) and cake (yusss!). We’re honestly still reeling that the restaurant where we had a jalapeño popper so good that we called our mom is a year old. Somehow it feels older and younger all at the same time. Of course, if you don’t know about Ruiz, you’re missing out.
- We also happened to notice a new little coffee truck (w/snacks like pastries!) on Cerrillos Road kinda by the OilStop. Black Luxe Café looks pretty sweet, y’all, and we’re always looking for a good cup of coffee. We have no other information about that, just know that it exists and we’re all gonna put it on our lists and such. Black Luxe is so new that we couldn’t even find a website or anything, so you’ll have to do this the old fashioned way by being a fucking person and going someplace without knowing every goddamn little thing about it beforehand. God, live your lives!!!!!!!!!!!!
Despite finding Bob Dylan exhausting, we figured this was an apt place to put this.
More Tidbits
- Apparently the chumps at the FDA have dropped more than 50 food standards, which could mean less transparency for manufacturers and more confusion for consumers. Food and/or Wine-dot-com has a pretty helpful and concise bit of info on the matter through this link, but this can and should scare people who are trying to be sure of the foods they eat. Cool. Being alive just feels worse and worse every day.
- With Hulu newly rebooting Mike Judge’s inferior-in-every-way-to-Futurama-and-The-Simpsons King of the Hill, beer brand ALAMO Beer Co. has launched a new beer inspired by the show about how the son is not right or someone like propane or something? We don’t know. We just know that the worst people (like Bob Dylan, probably) always want to defend that show to us, and while we think you should have every right to know about a beer based on a cartoon, if you’re the type to rush to a store for something like that…well, whatever. There’s a new beer based on a cartoon. Know this.
- Lastly in not-just-local food news, we normally despise stupid-ass mashups between brands that are all like, “Glad and Orville Redenbacher bring you a trash bag full of popcorn,” but we’re 10000000% here for the Orero/Reese’s products that are gonna start popping up in stores next month. Brand owners Hershey and Mondelez will start offering cookies featuring those two things in one, and candy cups featuring those two things in one. We’re literally salivating over this right now. We want it. If anyone buys them, feel free to send some to your old pal, The Fork.
Cool,
The Fork
