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We’re still wearing long sleeves, but have you looked outside of late? It’s GORGEOUS. This being New Mexico, of course, that could change at any moment (just ask people who’ve lived here a long time and like to make that joke about how if you don’t like the weather, you can just wait a few minutes—comic geniuses, all), but as we write this, we’re looking out the window and thinking about how it’s hard to beat spring in Santa Fe. Thus, we got to thinking—what kind of foods go well with the season? And, as we’ve been known to do and are wont to do, we dug into that question with a ferocity and passion matched only by a billion theoretical suns flaring up and burning out of theoretical existence. In theory.
Anyway, here’s some hot tips!
Leafy greens are good for springing into spring (think arugula and romaine, buds) because they’re rich in vitamins A, K and R. Jay-kay, there’s no vitamin R, obviously (unless you count riboflavin—which you know we don’t). Anyway, You can slap some arugula or romaine into a salad bowl, add some piñon (that’s pine nuts for our out-of-state frenz), a couple tangerine slices and a dash of balsamic vinegar and another dash of olive oil. And, baby? You’ve got a healthy spring salad going!
Artichokes and Asparagus are here for you, and both are excellent sources of vitamin K and whatever it is that makes pee smell weird(er). We love asparagus, especially grilled. So take them spears and toss ‘em on a grill (or wrap in foil and stick in the oven at about 375 for 15 mins). Once cooked to your desired firmness (nobody likes a limp spear), season lightly with salt, maybe a little olive oil and go wild. For artichokes, we’ve still never found an easier method than steaming. If you’re a Daddy Warbucks type, you’ll surely have a steamer, or the ability to get one. If not, look up those metal steamer things you used to pretend were spaceships when you were a kid. Here, we’ll do it for you.
Strawberries abound of late, and they’re the good ones, too. Our suggestion is to just, like, eat them...just wash and eat them, but here’s a good little way to use ‘em in a few simple steps:
- Procure sponge cake of some kind...we’re not gonna get into how to make it
- Procure some mint (also a good springtime thing to eat) and chop it finely—not too much mint, though
- Wash strawberries and cut into quarters as best you can
- Place in bowl with mint and sprinkle on a little brown sugar (just A LITTLE)
- Stir while taking care not to sqush
- Add simple syrup if you want (it’s literally sugar and water)
- Make whipped cream (get the cream, add sugar, beat it)
- Think about adding more sugar somehow
- Baby, you’ve got a stawberry-mint shortcake kinda thing going
Radishes are rad all the time, but they’re also a good detoxifier, which is great if you’re coming off a pandemic winter wherein you sat there doing nothing but eating peanut butter pretzels. Everyone knows you’ve gotta slice them thin, but not everyone knows they’re good as a juice ingredient. So slice ‘em for a salad, pop them in your juicer, Daddy Warbucks, or just eat them alone if you’re a maniac.
Mushrooms are everywhere, even when you least expect them, but morels are great for spring. The vitamin D in these fools is so plentiful, they should be called D-orels. Like the cigarette. Doral? We don’t remember—and we’re sure as shit not looking it up. Anyway, you can’t do anything bad with a mushroom, usually, and they’re glorious sautéed for your Impossible burg, in a salad or on a sandwich. We bet they’re good with steak, too. Or regular meat burgs. Oh. Em. Gee. Y’all, mushrooms are amazing.
Here come the apricots, buds. They can’t be stopped. In fact, before you know it, your social media feeds are going to be full of people either looking to offload their bazillions of apricots, or people looking to find them for preserves and jamz and the like. We have one in our driveway at home, though we think its fruiting years are mostly behind it. Good work, tree. If Shel Silverstein taught us anything, it’s that most trees don’t have solid fucking boundaries and let nerdy-ass kids do whatever the shit they want to them...not you, though. You got old and said “Eff it,” and we really respect you for it. Yeah—you heard us...The Giving Tree is a bunch of crap.
And this is, of course, just a start. Spinach is great for now. Same with vidalia onions. Can’t say enough nice stuff about fennel (or even tell you what it is, really...like, is it a variety of fox?), watercress and broccoli. Damn, we’re actually getting pretty into it. As always, if you make something, say something. To us. Like, tell us what you made. Show us photos. We want to see. Thanks. Thanks a bunch.
If you can’t remember to eat onions, you don’t deserve this song.
Also
-The Cowgirl BBQ reopened its doors on March 1 after a three-month hiatus spurred by pandemic-related biz-nis slowdownery. Are those words? No, but everybody’s favorite Guadalupe Street patio (suck it, other patios!) is back at it, and even apparently has live music going. Always check with SFR and The Fork before you do literally anything, but know as well that the restaurant/bar’s Facebook page is an excellent source of what is happening there as well. Duh, right?
-We’ve recently been made aware of the Southside food truck known as WHAT the TRUCK. Check out the social media here and be like “That burg looks INSANE!” or be like “That breakfast burrito is served all day—and looks INSANE!” We like when there’s stuff on the Southside, and this one’s literally at the airport. It’s quite literally there at the airport.
-Three cheers for the breakfast tacos at Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen. We’re worried you’re not understanding, though. They were amazing. We loved them. Y’all should get onboard with Brekkie T’s (TM). Hahaha! That guy who HATES Brekkie B (TM) is going to be none too pleased.
-The Santa Fe New Mexican’s Kristin Cox Roby takes us on a mind-tour of how amazing New Mexico-grown black garlic tastes. Garlic is good for your heart, we’re pretty sure we remember someone telling us once.
-Some website called Big Seven Travel-dot-com is out there naming the best New Mexico steakhouses, and two of Santa Fe’s made the list: Dinner for Two and Rio Chama. Our carnivore sources tell us Market Steer shoulda been on that list, too, but still—congrats to them other places. There can only be seven, maybe.
-The only New Mexico food publication we don’t HATE—being Edible New Mexico, is accepting nominations for its Local Hero Awards through March 7 (that’s just a couple days from the day we send these out!)...follow this link.
-You may recall that we told you a new butcher shop was incoming to Santa Fe soon, and that “soon” is now “now,” as Beck & Bulow opens its new spot in Santa Fe at the Cerrillos Road/St. Michael’s Drive intersection on Wednesday, March 10. In addition to capital-M MEATS, you’ll also find murals by the artist Sebastian Vela all up on the walls. Here’s a website, meat fans.
-Lastly, in local food news, the Santa Fe Brewing Co. kicks off a new food pop-up series this week wherein New Mexico food vendors will take over the kitchen and offer up limited-time-only snax and such. The event is slated to run every Thursday-Sunday through March and April and begins on Thursday, March 4 with Albuquerque BBQ/soul food champions, The Hot Mess.
More Tidbits
-We’ll never be shocked to learn we’re all doing everything wrong, and this axiom rages ever on this week in the form of bananas. Yes, friends, turns out you’ve been eating bananas like an asshole your whole life, and you should be peeling them from the bottom, not the top. Hmmm. Well, we like ‘em green a little bit and we like peeling from the tab thing at the top where the bunch connects. Has anyone asked Harry Belafonte what he thinks? They should!
If you think that last item was the weirdest thing we’re going to tell you about bananas today, you’re dead wrong—look at this mystifying British cartoon! LOOK AT IT!!!! This fool likes bananas in the weirdest way. Also, the voice acting is mind-boggling, the sound effects are out of control, the basic setup is really weird. It’s just weird. It’s so weird. Hey, England in the 1980s? Are you guys ok?
-This is just a link to 14 rice recipes from the New York Times.
-Not only are there jerks in the world who believe fast food workers don’t deserve to make enough money to live and be sheltered, turns out there are countless women across the land who face harassment while working at the mega-chain McDonald’s. Eater-dot-com knows it, the CBS Sunday Morning Show knows it, we know it, you know it.
-As fans of numerous plant-based food items, we’re inclined to agree with this Vice piece which posits that the very term “plant-based” no longer means anything. Take into consideration, the company Miracle Rice, which makes what it calls plant-based rice. Are we confused about what rice is? Are they? Jeeze.
-In a recent webinar with the Washington Post, Shake Shake founder Danny Meyer opined that “Never again in our careers will we be able to take the boat out of water and put it in dry dock for a year to inspect every inch of its underbelly and make it seaworthy again. We want to make sure when we put the boat back in the water, it’s a sounder boat and does business in a better way.” Meyer identified four big things that will never be the same when it comes to foodservice: Racial inequality, inefficiency, delivery apps and unfair pay. Meyer reportedly hopes things never go back to the old ways, and setting aside how he probably has bazillions of bucks backing up his big talk and preventing him from facing eviction and stuff, he’s not entirely wrong. We’d add that everyone who ever worked in foodservice has worked sick, and a more robust sick pay deal would benefit everyone...or, like, ANY kind of sick pay for foodservice workers.
-Laugh with us know, fellow New Mexicans, at this piece from Epicurious-dot-com’s Kendra Vaculin wherein the writer ABSURDLY refers to chile as “chiles” (a pet peeve—it’s chile like the plural of vinyl is vinyl!) and wherein we’re told to turn it into jam rather than oh, we don’t know—COVERING LITERALLY EVERYTHING WITH IT AND GOING THE EFF NUTS! Poor Kendra Vaculin...poor, poor Kendra Vaculin. Only not really, though, because doesn’t every region have things they’re crazy about (like New Jersey’s Taylor salted ham log, which we think is known as the “ham-a-lam-a-ding-dog log” to locals? Let Kendra Vaculin do what she wishes with the knowledge we wore it better and that’ll be that. Let people eat. And live! WON’T YOU LET THEM LIVE?!?!?
Finally
In the print edition of SFR, learn how local cheese champ Lauren Stutzman started making the prettiest damn cheese plates and boards in all of New Mexico.
A Totally Scientific Breakdown of The Fork’s Correspondence
Number of Letters Received 47 *Few more RUTH fans than is comfortable, but OK.
Most Helpful Tip of the Week (a barely edited letter from a reader) “Fuck GMO.” *Woah! Hey! We...
Actually Helpful Tip “Pro tip: The [Impossible] breakfast sausage patties are truly versatile. We like to fry then slice them up in Buddha bowls, on pasta, with rice, veg, kimchi, you name it.” *So down. So down. We’re gonna try it!
OH-OUR-GOD, NO!! RUTH IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!!!
The Fork
