Deep fry everything!
The Fork is getting old, which we know because most years prior to this one, we've hit this time of year—which is State Fair time of year—and thought, "Damn, let's get something that was never meant to be deep fried and eat it deep fried!"
Like this one pal we had who forced us to try a deep fried Snickers at the State Fair one time. We fought him at first, but realized we don't want to go to our death bed without having eaten as much weird shit as we can. We say this having eaten everything from brains and testicles—everything is better deep fried. The do it with Twinkies, they do it with Oreos … hell, people do it with their Thanksgiving turkeys.
So how about you, dear readers? Do you have a cool story about something crazy and deep fried that you ate? Let us know.
Of course, that's not where the bonkers State Fair food train ends, not hardly. For example, did you know they have an annual Unique Foods Contest? It already happened, so you missed it, but make sure to keep an eye out for next year. You only live once, right?
According to our sources (namely, the PR people from the State Fair itself), the winner of said contest was Mike Quesada, owner of Quesada NM Food. His entry? A mozzarella stick wrapped with bacon and green chile then—you guessed it—deep fried. Maybe we spoke to soon about the deep frying? Either way, it's enough to make us wanna go back to meat.
Other highlights included a gluten-free ice cream cone with a unique shape (we're unsure what shape that would be), a peanut butter brownie pie, a Philly cheese steak with guacamole, bacon, jalapeño and green chile and a big fat cube of Monterey jack cheese wrapped in bacon and served alongside a rice cereal treat drizzled in chocolate. Holy moly.
This is your last week to get the State Fair and eat everything you can.
This guy get's it.
Also…
-We hear that venerable and long-running local Italian joint Pranzo Italian Grill is calling it quits—for now. We don't have much more information outside of this week being their last (Saturday night is the final official service) and assume it has something to do with New Mexico School for the Arts taking over the former Sanbusco Center. If nothing else, pop by on Friday or Saturday night around 6 pm to send off longtime Pranzo pianist David Geist. Dude's got a Broadway pedigree like you wouldn't believe and musicals are awesome, which The Fork has proven time and time again with our incredibly thoughtful nods to Les Miz. Anyway, according to our sources, Pranzo has plans to reopen elsewhere in the future. We'll obviously tell you all about it if and when there's something to tell.
-Y'know how we've been reminding you about that Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown? Well, the day came and went with chef Mark Quiñones of Mas Tapas y Vino taking home the Reigning Chomp award (that's the one voted on by a panel of foodie types) and chef David Sellers from the Street Food Institute food truck snagging the People's Choice award. Congrats to all competitors and also to the people who ate a million burgers at one low price.
-We wanted to let everyone know that we had one of the best sopaipillas of our lives the other night at PC's Restaurant and Lounge. We hadn't been in awhile, but if you're ever around the Southside (or even if your'e not), trust us when we say you want to go to there.
-We found this list from tripadvisor.com about the best cheap eats (we actually HATE when people refer to food as "eats." It's a gross way to do it!), and were pleasantly surprised with how much we agreed with it. Bookmark this page for when your snobby friends and family from out of town give you the business about how expensive it is in Santa Fe.
-Lastly in the local section, we were wondering if anyone knows the people behind El Tesoro, the restaurant that used to be in Sanbusco before the school came? We loved that place, and we mean LOVED, so we're trying to find out if they have plans for anything new. It was a damn fine breakfast.
Your Feelings on What’s Overrated Are Overrated
We certainly got a few letters from people who agreed with the Fork reader who isn't into Tia Sophia's, but the overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands (we assume) who tune in to The Fork each week came to the longtime downtown eatery's defense.
First off, damn—The Fork ain't say it, shit! We just heard from a reader who said it. Secondly, we hear them and we hear you. The idea is to start a discourse, and it seems like we're doing that. Some readers argued that there are often more locals at Tia's than not while others pointed out that popularity is popularity regardless of where a diner is from. We're down. And we like their huevos rancheros.
Bummer, though, that nobody also offered up their own overrated ideas, save the reader who pointed to Café Pasqual's as more touristy and expensive than Tia's. They are not wrong.
More Tidbits
-In a turn of events not unlike when unlikely animals become friends (and yeah, we know we basically said "unlike" twice), T-Pain and Snoop hung out with Martha Stewart to make a song about sandwiches. We're into it and love all of them. Find it here.
-Meanwhile, mustard pizza is a thing, is gross. We can only assume Gordon Ramsay (who wrongly says pineapple pizza is disgusting) will have something to say about it but, in the meantime, learn more here and confirm your suspicions that such an abomination is indeed a threat against all things good on this Earth.
-The last-ever season of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown starts airing a little later this month. Bourdain of course committed suicide earlier this year, and his loss was tremendous not only because his show was good, but because he taught us all a thing or two about not fearing new things and different kinds of people.
-Over at epicurious.com, find out why you only need two seasonings when it comes to soon-to-be-gone summer produce.
This SHOULD be you when it comes to summer produce…
Seriously, though—don’t forget our contest!
You're running out of time to enter our Food Foto Contest. Andale with that, friends! If your'e looking to possibly just maybe win $200 worth of prizes from our food and drink partners, click right here and submit your best shots.
Finally
To the Fork reader who reached out to us about the good elements of GMOs, we hear you and will peruse the materials you provided. This is certainly a complicated issue and we probably shouldn't turn to the Degrassi episode where Emma does a project on GMOs as our only scientific source. Just know, dear reader, that whatever it takes, we know we can make it through.
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork's Correspondence
Number of Letters Receieved
28
*And most of them angry!
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (edited slightly for lengnth)
“Yeah? Well I like it!”
*Oh, word. OK.
Actually Helpful Tip (only slightly edited for content)
The one about a list of places with great drinks that are non-alcoholic.
*We’ll work on it!
In this week's print edition of SFR, find out where you can get one of the most underrated burgers in town. It's probably not where you think. Find the paper free all over Santa Fe or, as always, online at SFReporter.com. Though keep in mind that print is still super-cool, especially since we've heard those newsprint tariffs have gone by the wayside.
Fork me close and fork me fast; the magic fork you cast, this is the forking Fork
The Fork
PS: If you have Netflix, you should totally be watching Degrassi.
