Bye-Bye, Zibby
So it's come to this—SFR's food columnist Zibby Wilder is hitting the road (to go do a Johns Hopkins grad school thing, though, so, like, word), and we're sad to see her go. Zibby always filed on time or early. Zibby was always nice. And so, to commemorate all her hard work and on-time-ness and niceness, we're dedicating this episode of The Fork to some of our fave Zibby Wilder writings. We're also going to refer to her by her first name, shirking journalism protocol to show some damn respect!
Enjoy!
Jan. 8, 2019: The Color and the Shape
Pretty much right outta the gate Zibby hit us with a rather informative piece on why wine glasses are shaped the way they are. "Because the senses of smell and taste are intricately linked, being able to smell the wine means you can also better taste it, something to which anyone who suffers from Santa Fe's allergy season can certainly attest," she wrote. We learned how to drink wine better and also how to hate our allergies more deeply. Win-win.
Feb. 5, 2019: Street Cred Kitchen
Wherein we all learned the awesome things going down with the culinary program at nonprofit YouthWorks, of chef Carmen Rodriguez and his wife Penny's contributions and, of course, how when we let young people learn stuff, they'll always wow us. Anyway, if you're looking to donate, YouthWorks is a good one.
March 19, 2019: Use it or Lose it
Zibby made some good points about marketing for local restaurants. "Santa Fe has that "mañana" thing, but there's no time like the present for restaurants (indeed, any service businesses) to take care of the business of their customers," she wrote. Indeed. You'd honestly be shocked how many local businesses just don't have a web presence at all. What year is this?
March 26, 2019: Rethinking Recycling
"A 2017 academic study found that…only 9 percent of discarded plastic was actually recycled, 12 percent was burned (into our atmosphere, you see), and the remaining 79 percent ended up in landfills or dumped, washing into our rivers and oceans," Zibby wrote. It was important for some of us to hear this and actually think about how we recycle. We still think it's helpful.
May 21, 2019: Grapes Expectations
In cover story form, Zibby took a look at a number of New Mexico wineries making waves. We learned of terroir and why New Mexico's climate is actually conducive to strong grapes. We hope some people put the wine glass article from earlier in the year to good use, but it would be hard to quantify that, we bet.
June 4, 2019: Power to the Planet!
With plant-based "meats" becoming insanely popular over the last year, Zibby broke down some faves and where to get them locally. If you were new to vegetarianism or just looking to spice things up after years of pretty much eating bread and candy, this one was a real godsend. Still is.
June 25, 2019: Open Concept Kitchen
This is about the time Zibby became obsessed with local foodsmith Hue-Chan Karels, and why shouldn't she have? It's the good stuff, it's like a culinary journey around the world, or something. "No one ever knew what they were getting when it was my turn to cook," Karels told Zibby. "They complained I always had to 'jazz things up' when really, I was just learning to adapt new ingredients for those we couldn't get in Michigan—which were many."
July 9, 2019: Eating (With) a Local
We particularly liked this one, wherein a reader of SFR reached out to Zibby to suggest a restaurant, and she invited him to go there with her. The place? El Paragua. The idea? To get the best dang New Mexican food ever. The quote we loved from Zibby's new best friend Paul Rainbird about his grandma? "She knew everything about every food in the Southwest. My quest in life has always been to find people who cooked as well as she did. And they do that here. … El Paragua doesn't dumb down their food. It's truly authentic."
August 27, 2019: Bowl of Confusion
Oooowee, were people mad when Zibby panned fine dining spot Sassella. "Sassela, if it wants to rise to the Michelin rank—or even claim to be worthy—has a lot of work to do," she wrote in her review. Now, before you start FREAKING OUT on us, we're gonna send someone over there again for the upcoming SFR Restaurant Guide (out in just a few short months), so we'll see. We'll see.
Oct. 8, 2019: Inspired, Indeed
Zibby developed yet another food crush, this time on Chef Kim Nath Nou So, whose pop-up events at Body of Santa Fe proved so popular, they're pretty much permanent now—and they're vegan! "I'm still experimenting with and learning about cooking only plant-based dishes," Nath shyly admitted to Zibby at the time, who mused that "if that salad was 'still learning,' then we have a lot to look forward to."
Nov. 19, 2019: Far Out Pizza Revisited
Having already written about places with pizza worth a drive in May, Zibby once again journeyed out of town for palate-pleasing pies, specifically from Beer Creek Brewing.
And you'll find lots more through those links. We mizz Zibby already, but we wish her luck with the book-learnin' or whatever it is she thinks is so much better than a weekly freelance gig with SFR.
Basically us, but replace all the "Bird-hees" with "Zibb-hees."
Also
-Normally we might, like, not point you in the direction of other places that do food as well as The Fork, but we're pretty sure you're loyal readers (or you just like fighting with us), but either way, Los Foodies digital magazine in killing it. The brainchild of former Santa Fean Eric Martinez. He's in ABQ now, but, like, that's fine. It's fine. Anyway, here's a link.
-If you visit the website of local coffee champs Caveman Coffee, it'll ask you if you wanna sign up for the newsletter. You do. Not only will you get cool deal alerts for great coffee, they sometimes post cool essays, like a recent one about how to drink coffee but also be keto about it.
-Readers of last week's Fork wrote us with some great ideas for local enchiladas you maybe haven't considered. To name a few, Joseph's Culinary Pub, Los Amigos, Tia Sophia's, Tune-Up and Horseman's Haven. They're all on the list. Some folks loved the Second Street enchiladas, others didn't. Some, like, took, like, offense at our colloquial use of the word "like," and that's just, like, too bad. Oh, and Fork fan Christina agrees with us about Second Street enchiladas, so take it up with them. Also, almost everyone who responded about the enchiladas thing basically started their email with "Now, I'm the president of all things chile, and here's a bunch of vitriol…" Many of you were very nice, though. Anyway, smooches.
-Do you like food? And cannabis? And local businesses? And Edible New Mexico? Yeah, we like all those things, too (did we use "like" right that time?), so that's why we liked this article from Edible New Mexico about those things. Dang, there are some amazing food outlets in this state, right? But we're your favorite, right? Don't look at them! LOOK AT US! WHY WON'T YOU LOOK AT US?!?!?
-Y'all thought we were aiming for "DESSERT BOARD" last week, when we were literally talking about "DESERT BOARDS," boards with sand and dirt and cactus barbs. Were we not clear about that?
-Last reminder that the Souper Bowl (not the sports game) is this weekend and features something like two-dozen chefs making amazing soups.
This is pretty much the only thing we know about the Super Bowl.
More Tidbits
-Yum! New ice cream flavors from Nestle Toll House bring the flavor of cookie dough and fudge brownie to your freezer. Oh, also, you should read this, because that company is evil as hell. And now you just don't know what to think, do you?
-You excited for the Super Bowl (not the soup-off)? We don't really care, but this recipe for pretzel focaccia and sausages looks alllllllright.
-Here's some more food-based Super Bowl stuff, this time in the form of chain eatery bowls you can maybe take to the game or something.
-Here's one last Super Bowl snack idea—popcorn that tastes like buffalo wings somehow. We feel like buffalo wings are available, so … yeah.
-The Grammys were the other night, and despite how we think it's cool the statues are made of a proprietary metal called grammium, it's pretty much a bunch of stuff we don't really care about (we like music you couldn't even begin to imagine). Anyway, apparently one of those Jonas Bros. had something in his teeth for a full performance of some song. So, as you can see, this is obviously about food.
-Food website Delish has a dating show now. Not kidding. It's called Date My Plate. Why is this a thing?
-Remember when a whole bunch of you yelled at poor The Fork because we're not thrilled about Chipotle? Weeeellllllll, turns out your FAVORITE non-local burrito joint was fined $1.3 million for (druuuummmmmmmrolllllll)—child labor abuses! Thousands of them. More than 13,000, in fact. A CBS affiliate in Boston reports that kids under 18 were regularly working more than 48 hours a week, often until or after midnight. Yikes.
Finally
In the print edition of SFR, 100% turncoat Zibby Wilder is leaving SFR with a final column about a new food hall coming to ABQ.
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A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
Number of Letters Received
45
*You mad?
Most Helpful Tip of the Week
“I’ve never had that enchilada, but I bet there are better ones.”
*There’s always going to be something better, but that’s no way to live one’s life.
Actually Helpful Tip
All the enchilada recs.
*We’re on it!
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See ya, space cowboys…someday…somewhere,
The Fork
