Naughty or Nice?
S eason’s Greetings, gastronomes! In this edition of The Fork we explore some good, bad and ugly food news from Santa Fe and around the world. As Christmas and the New Year bear down on us like balls (of dough) being smashed in an iron tortilla press, we offer up a few things that will either fill you with joy or compound your already-raging seasonal affective disorder. As always, we'd love to hear from you. If there's something food-related (an event, an opening or closing, a recipe, a solution to world hunger) we need to know about, please send detailed information about it to The Fork at [email protected]. And don't hesitate to invite your friends to the party.
Roll Out the Barrel—and Know When to Slow Your Roll
Tired of the boring happy-hour offerings at your local watering hole? Pranzo Italian Grill has a solution...well, once a week, anyway. Every Monday from 4 pm to 6 pm, the restaurant offers all of its house-infused (read: house-aged bitters and booze amended with many flavorful things) and barrel-aged cocktails for $7 a pop. Some of these cocktails, including the Vieux de Carré made with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Benedictine, brandy, Cognac and whiskey-barrel–aged bitters, usually cost about $12.
Also, remember that law enforcement agencies across the state are ramping up their DWI saturation patrols during the holidays. The New Mexico Department of Transportation and other entities have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to remind folks that they have no business driving drunk. Need a safe ride home? Here's a list of a few safe-ride programs in the state, with an app to boot.
Market Watch: Holiday Procrastinator Edition
Just admit it: Your holiday shopping is hardly done and you're running out of ideas. A gift card to a big-box store will probably ring empty with Aunt Sue, who only eats and shops local when she's not volunteering at the food bank. No worries. The Santa Fe Farmers Market has you covered. From 8 am to 1 pm on Tuesday, December 22, a special winter-holiday market allows shoppers to nab something edible or sustainable for their loved ones. Want to go the gift certificate route without losing your soul to corporate America? No Problem.
Deck the Halls of Santa Fe Food Glory (again)
Out of all the restaurants in New Mexico, only two made it to OpenTable.com's list of the nation's best restaurants in 2015. "Our list of honorees is based on an analysis of 5,000,000 + reviews of more than 20,000 restaurants across the country—all submitted by verified diners," the popular dining-reservation website notes. Congrats to Arroyo Vino and Geronimo for making the cut and raising the bar on Southwest restaurant dining.
Baby It's Chili's Outside
Without much fanfare, the popular restaurant chain Chili's opened its first Santa Fe outpost on Monday, December 7, on Cerrillos Road, in a space formerly occupied by Fusion Fire Buffet and Grill (and before that, China Star buffet). Open for lunch and dinner, Chili's is banking on nearby lodging business and repeat local customers to make it big in the 505. The Fork is convinced the location is cursed. Chanting, "I want my baby back baby back baby back RIBS" three times backwards may keep the demons at bay. Time will tell.
Wasting Food? There's an App for That
Call it irony that the creators of a new iPhone app uniting food banks and would-be food wasters in Los Alamos (and soon, hopefully, beyond) sport the last name McDonald. Jen and Jaret McDonald's innovative Famine to Feast app allows people to drop off donations of food or have them picked up. From their website: "When using the app, just enter the information about what's being donated and click send—that's it. Nearby shelters or food banks are notified of the donation and a driver arrives to pick up the food. The food donor pays the driver a small fee and receives a receipt for taxes [sic] purposes." The nonprofit is still in its infancy, but it's aiming high. Connecting food banks with each other and what many entities call "waste" via the digital fast track is a growing trend. As food insecurity rises throughout the country, let's hope it sticks.
What the Truck?
Food truck vendors in Albuquerque are up in arms about an ordinance that may affect their businesses, citing a law that passed in September via the ABQ city council but is only now being enforced by APD. The vendors' complaint is that the city ordinance requiring them to park at least 100 feet from a restaurant will cut into their market share, noting the abundance of restaurants in certain neighborhoods as the cause. Here's The Fork's solution: come to Santa Fe. Sure, we're still figuring it all out, but our Southside streets are your canvas. Farmington is also trying to figure things out.
Monsanto On (mock) Trial
Food activists getting their hopes up about an upcoming tribunal at the Hague, Netherlands, involving global GMO pimp and shady biotechnology giant Monsanto need to calm down and face some facts. The tribunal is simply an exercise, and not a real trial. "Calling themselves the Monsanto Tribunal," the above link states, "the crowd-funded group will evaluate allegations made against Monsanto with regards to damage caused to the environment and human health—but regardless of the outcome, they won't be able to sentence or charge the agriculture giant. Still, they claim the trial is more than just a symbolic act, with the larger goal of establishing 'ecocide' as a crime for the first time." We wish 'em luck.
Loose Caboose
Laid-back Madrid, New Mexico, has always been a great place to find hidden treasures, from the artistic to the cultural and culinary. The former mining town has spawned a new venue for sports lovers. OK, it's actually a converted train car run by the folks at The Hollar, where lovers of Southern food and Dixieland expats flock for fried green tomatoes, grits and biscuits. But if you are in the 'hood and want to catch a game and some well considered comfort food that melds Southern traditions with localist sensibilities, this might be your great escape. Facebook is the best way to find out what's happening in the new digs.
