(Yes, that’s a good thing.)  It appears that restaurants might get a handy grandfathering on the 2005 law that requires even small restaurants and nightclubs to install really super-duper sprinkler systems.  The proposal would allow capacities of under 500 to continue under the old code.

I am not advocating that buildings should be vulnerable to fire or unprotected, but when you’re talking about a lot of historic and awesome restaurants that are in older buildings, especially former homes and such, putting in a fully code-compliant sprinkler system would have put a lot of them out of business.  It’s damn expensive and no substitute for straight up common sense practiced by YOU, as should be normal practice when entering a public space:

1. Find the first and second available exits, just like they tell you when you’re in a plane.

2. Don’t panic.

Still plugging along, Kiva 1550 radio station is broadcasting the newest, coolest way for people who love food to gab and conspire about their favorite spots around Albuquerque and New Mexico. The goal is to promote local restaurants and entice listeners to give up their chain habits and forever avoid places like the Olive Chili Outback Corral kind of spots.

This Saturday will be another live show with at least one featured guest, and yeah, this weekend it is one of the blogging bastions of the Duke City:  Larry McGoldrick, accompanied by the owner of Nicky V’s pizzeria – simply one of the best pies in town.

http://breakthechain.info/

Streaming live during the broadcast on the radio’s site, as well as available later for live stream to listen at your leisure.

Here’s the press copy from the parent radio station:

“If your loyalties lie with local restaurants – those owned and operated by our friends and neighbors, you’ll love “Break the Chain,” an enlightening and entertaining new radio program hosted by Ryan Scott. Break The Chain premiered on Saturday, May 14th at 3PM on 1550 KIVA AM and www.1550kiva.com. This weekly radio show will feature locally owned and operated restaurants here in New Mexico.

Obviously Break The Chain isn’t about breaking or bankrupting heavily bankrolled chain restaurants. It’s about breaking the chain “habit,” the inclination many have to visit the ubiquitous and convenient chains. Break The Chain is a celebration of local mom-and-pop restaurants, aiming to show the many outstanding alternatives to the familiar chains. It’s an interactive show in which you can call in and express your opinions and share your experiences. Most of all, it’s a fun and lively show you will love.”

McDonald’s – yes, that McDonald’s, whom I love for their Egg McMuffins – is certifying its EUROPEAN locations as purveyors of M.S.C. eco-labeled sustainable fish.  That’s 100 Million fish sandwiches per year. This is amazing and hopefully a sign of the times.  We understand that we love fish, but there ain’t as many to go around as there used to be, not with the availability of sushi at your local grocery store and such.  (Ick, but that’s my opinion)  Now, this is just Europe for the moment, where standards for ‘clean’ food are already higher than in the U.S., but still a sign of progress.

Further, in the same NYTimes story, Wal-Mart has announced they will require all suppliers of seafood products to both Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club to be either M.S.C certified OR “an equivalent certification”.   I’m excited about this, and withholding any concern so far, like “will the equivalent certification be good?”.  It is still a step in the right direction, especially as Wal-Mart has a lot to make up for with it’s participation in the utter destruction of the Chilean coastline for their unending demand for cheap salmon.

Great article, and thank you, New York Times, for bringing all of the announcements together as one story.

Tonight, tonight, TONIGHT!

It’s the summer and we’re thinking of light, healthy foods.  To many, that means seafood.  But we can’t all have our swordfish and tuna – yes, tuna – and our yellowtail and still leave some for the next generation, or even the next YEAR.

Sustainable Seafood is all about fishing in a way that will keep populations healthy and plentiful for maintenance of both the ecosystem AND your fishy taste buds.  At the Biopark’s Aquarium, at 6pm tonight (June 9th), is a bargain of an event – the Rock the Boat Sustainable Seafood Festival.  $30 gets you a ticket to stroll around the lush grounds, sampling seafood from restaurants who have taken measures to increase or wholeheartedly embrace their sustainability when it comes to fish.

PLUS, you can sample a wicked cool fish – the lionfish.  When you think “invasive species”, you think zebra mussel and kudzu and bark beetle.  But if the invasive species is a fish, why not eat it?  I agree!

Don’t forget the always-handy Monterey Bay Seafood Watch guide – you can download and print it for your wallet, and it will tell you which fish are good choices in the Southwest, or all over the country.  Hint:  don’t eat tuna.  Seriously.

Ari LeVeaux, the restaurant critic for Weekly Alibi, is taking the food section on a detour thru parts known.  In rechristening the Alibi’s food corner with the name Locavore, he’d like to have less alka-seltzer in his pocket and more local beans or goat on his tongue:

“The first rule of Locovore is that I will no longer be opening my mouth to mystery meat. By “mystery meat,” I mean meat that has no story attached, no way to evaluate the meat’s ethical and ecological baggage—things like its carbon footprint or the animal’s living conditions. I’m not demanding to see the animal’s birth certificate, but the more I know about the meat, the more likely I’ll be to order it. And I’ll beat a path to the door of any restaurants I hear about that’s using local ingredients.”

Hear, hear, Ari.  Thank you for stepping up and I hope this is a minor domino effect in local food chatter, from the Alibi to Local IQ and maybe – just maybe – on over to the Albuquerque Journal.

I appreciate locally grown ingredients.  I adore meat raised outside of the depression of a feedlot.  I also endorse eating not only better meat that had a story and possibly a face and a name, but also eating LESS of it.  But there are so many other ingredients that encompass the amazing spectrum of omnivorousness, just waiting for your hungry lips and pointy forks. I can’t tell you how many folks who don’t know me well have asked me, “but aren’t you a vegetarian?” after I’ve ordered a steak when they’ve seen me eat gargantuan salads or wax poetic about some bean dish. Simply put, I adore nearly all foods when prepared well.

While this topic deserves more conversation and detail, especially as it pertains to sustainability, I will leave you with this: if only the dining public knew that the varieties of flavors, textures, and cooking techniques that apply to “meat” also applies to one of my own favorite foods, BEANS.  For more beany goodness, start here:  Rancho Gordo.