FOOD FOR A CAUSE AND CULTURE
This Thursday night, Nov. 16, at the Inn of the Anasazi (113 Washington Ave.), Chef Martín Rios and Deborah Madison are hosting a Farmers Market dinner at the Anasazi Restaurant. The two chefs have been working together on the menu and will be cooking the four-course meal side-by-side, too. A percentage of proceeds from the dinner will benefit the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute Roots in the Railyard Campaign to build a permanent home for the market on the Railyard site.
The evening
starts at 6:45 pm with passed canapés and appetizers, to be followed by a salad course, a grass-fed beef course and dessert.
Exact details of the menu were still
sketchy at press time because Rios and Madison were still deciding exactly how to use the bevy of fall produce from area farms and ranches. Tickets for the dinner cost $75 per person without wine and $115 with paired wines. Yeah, that's kind of a lot of money, but it sounds like an awfully good time, for an awfully good cause. Call 988-3236 for reservations and information.
Speaking of a good time, this Sunday is San Diego Feast Day at Tesuque Pueblo. This is one of those special days when the public is invited to come and watch dances (in this case, the Deer Dance) in front of the church and join pueblo residents for the feast. According to the pueblo governor's office, the dancing should start around 10 or 11 am, and the feasting a little while after that, but the celebration will last all day. Don't even think about bringing your camera (photography is not allowed), but do bring your appetite and your best manners, and you'll be invited to sit down and eat as a guest in one of the members' homes. There is no cost to participate, just goodwill all around.
To get to the pueblo, head out of town on 285 North. Near the pueblo, you'll pass JR Clothing on the left. Make a left at the next light and a left onto the southbound frontage road. Follow the frontage road back past JR Clothing. Make a right at the stop sign and another right at the next fork in the road. From there you should see tribal police directing traffic. For more information, call the pueblo at 983-2667.
WHO YOU CALLIN' CONTINENTAL?
On a completely different subject, I've received a nice handful of helpful e-mails regarding the new Restaurant Guide. I'd be happy to hear more from you all, so please drop me an e-mail and let me know your thoughts, especially if you've got suggestions for new restaurants to include next time.
One of the interesting little quandaries we encountered with this year's guide was how to categorize restaurants in the What to Eat/Where to Eat section of the guide. These labels, like Deli, Southwestern and Mediterranean, are supposed to give readers a quick and basic idea of what the food is going to be like. But oy! do they give us a headache. This is the area that has caused the most e-mails. "Why is Such-and-Such in the Blah-de-Blah category?" readers and restaurateurs alike want to know. And my answer has largely been, "Uhhh..." with a blank stare thrown in for good measure.
Sometimes the fix is easy (like a category called Pan-Asian) and sometimes it's not. For example, what do we call restaurants like Aqua Santa, The Compound and Santacafé? The Reporter has been labeling them Continental, but it's my opinion that the term is painfully outdated. When I think of Continental restaurants, I think of stuffy, overpriced places that serve Veal Oscar to people who long ago stopped eating with their original set of teeth.
Unfortunately, there's no consensus on what to call that category of fancy American restaurant that exists in every city. Looking for inspiration after an inquiry from a reader, I did a little research. The San Francisco Chronicle's online database has nearly an equal number of American restaurants and those that serve what they call California Cuisine. But the New York Times doesn't use American or California Cuisine to categorize restaurants. They use New American for places like Craft and Per Se, and terms like Deli or Southern to describe specific kinds of American food. The Chicago Tribune breaks American food down into American Contemporary, American Regional and American Traditional. American Contemporary, I can see, is the equivalent of New American or California Cuisine, but the other two make no sense. Isn't regional food by definition traditional? You tell me. Green chile stew: regional or traditional?
Closer to home, the Dallas Morning News has categories for Brazilian, Mexican, Southwestern, Latin American, Spanish, Tapas and Texan. I bet there are a bunch of restaurants in Dallas that would fit into at least four of those categories at once. Whaddyagonnado? This is probably one of the greatest things about food in America. We have so many choices we don't even know what to call them. Of course, most of you probably don't give a flying falafel what we call your favorite vegetarian Pan-Asian tapas brewpub, do you? But for those of you who are as anal-retentive as I am, go ahead and drop me a line. I'd love to debate the difference between Latin American and Nuevo Latino or try to figure out why some restaurants that are clearly New Mexican call themselves Mexican.
Tell me where to eat! I need your input. Send all of your tips, gripes and raves to
.