Well, Jerry was ahead of the Times, literally: New York Times loves Pig Wings. Apparently “shank” is not a dining public friendly word, so pig wings was the appointed moniker to pair with ranch dressing and/or barbeque sauces.  I also learned that Chili’s riblets (or are those the infamous “baby back ribs”???) are actually the transverse process of the vertebrae. That’s pretty nifty, and means that Baby Back Ribs is actually a correct term.  Who woulda thunk it?

Too bad the recession nailed us all when it did – or maybe the grass-roots campaign should begin now to bring back Jerry, the fried pickles, and those luscious pig wings.

This week was Matt Rembe, owner-operator of Los Poblanos Inn and Cultural Center (not Los Poblanos Organics - that’s another entity, as I’ve been informed in the comments).  That’s a mouthful!  I’ve gotten weekly boxes from Los Poblanos Organics before from Monte Saarsgard and his bunch of talented crew.  Their produce has always been wonderful, even if they occasionally take flak for utilizing California as a source when locally grown options are thin.

The show should be up on the archives page by now – check back and listen at your leisure!  I recommend you listen while the show is live – you can comment, ask questions, or call in to be a participant.

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.

“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.

Cecilia’s downtown (a gem worth seeking out, even after the fame of Guy Fieri’s show) is cranking out hundreds of tamales for holiday orders, and Buffett’s Candies is doing well because everyone loves sugar.

Economists talk about the “lipstick index”, meaning that lipstick sales do well in recessions because it is a small luxury that won’t be done without even when times are tight.

In the food business, you might call it the “chocolate factor” – everyone loves sweets and chocolates, candies, and other confections are a cheap way to have a little treat and remind yourself that the world has not gone entirely into the crapper.  And thusly Buffett’s does well, Van Rixel Brothers is cranking along with awards all over the place, and the same goes for Cocopotamus – they’ve been featured in HUGE publications like Martha Stewart and other girly-type magazines as a healthy indulgence, and Theobroma is still one of the local torchbearers of chocolate.

All hail the locally-owned producers of deliciousness!

He will be at Bookworks on Monday signing his superlative new book and then, Pat Keene and her staff at the Artichoke Cafe will be preparing a dinner based on David’s recipes for a captive audience. If tickets are still available, snatch them up ASAP – a single meal’s ticket includes a book, so you’ll be all set to create your own dishes after the evening has concluded.

Because my interviewing style is not quite as wondrous as, say, Jon Stewart, I captured a lot of tidbits from the conversation that I hope will give you a great idea of the kind of man and chef that David is. Enjoy!

I just “ogle the vegetables” – how David loves to choose his produce for the day when visiting the farmer’s market

“I like to go from the beginning to the end” creating menus that flow from the very first bite all the way through to a simple and sweet dessert.

All I need is a “wooden spoon, cast iron pan, knife” – David’s only cooking essentials, if he were reduced to a desert island style restriction. This speaks so well to how he cooks at home – it must be meditative and fresh and something you can do with unfussy attention, perhaps while sipping wine or chatting with guests.

When you cook, “it connects you with your friends, it connects you with your community”. Essentially, by injecting your own labor into raw ingredients you are making a transformation that benefits your fellow diners as well as supporting whatever fresh vendors have supplied those ingredients – the more local, the better.

Seasonality RIGHT NOW, “here in california we are getting rain, end of season tomatoes, eggplants, great squashes and wild mushrooms”. Visit Chez Panisse this week and these are the ingredients on which the kitchen will work their magic.
What was the last meal you cooked? “A little pot of beans – on toast, just like in the book; fresh pinto beans make the best meal of all.” I’ll concur, the book’s photo of beans on toast is one of the most drool-inducing simple concepts I’ve seen in months.

Enjoy, go see David, and BUY HIS BOOK. Your cooking world will be enhanced in ways that will transcend the cover price.

KRQE’s story may get views (and I’m not even going to link to them), but it is so far off the mark I’m a little pissed. They are not in trouble and it seems much of the controversy is at the behest of this story.

So, what are they doing? They are trying to trademark a name: “Bhang: The Original Cannabis Chocolate“, and beginning to manufacture the medical marijuana product in California for sales in California only. That’s it. I was only freaked out thinking they’d stop selling their heavenly truffles and gelato here in Albuquerque, but for now that seems to be not in danger. Whew.

Carry on, cannabis boys. Hopefully everything will work out – it looks like the patent office is starting to have second thoughts about allowing the whole trademark process in the first place. Sheesh. Make me some hemp truffles, too, eh? Those are legal here in NM.

But if you are a small business and/or restaurant with an upscale target market and a really polished image, it might not be the best thing for you, especially if you’ve opened recently. Google for “groupon sucks” and the #1 hit you will see is a blog post from a spa marketing company talking about how discounting is not always the best way to attract new customers. It is certainly food for thought and a great post, but targeted at “luxury” goods like hundred-dollar treatments and the like.

What if your per-check average is well under $20? Is it such a bad idea to discount, then?

A friend just told me that they were hesitant to try a local restaurant because it always looks empty. I know for a fact that the restaurant‘s food is quite good and told him so. They have a dining room too big for their needs and that hurts them with walk-by traffic, as my friend’s perception shows. This place might benefit from a quick-and-dirty campaign to get more people in the door. Or perhaps you can skip giving half the money to Groupon and just go to the restaurant. Do we have a deal? Good. Also try out another local place experimenting with Groupon – but just go instead of buying the coupon. Their sandwiches are amazing.

Iceberg is but the tip of this iceberg. . .  there are lots of early-exposure problems that cascade into picky/limited eaters later.  Even one typical meal holds numerous traps:
1. stale lettuce with
2. pale flavorless tomatoes flanking
3. anemic carrots underneath
4. fatty yet boring dressing as a precursor to
5. overcooked underseasoned meat alongside
6. baked potato in a coffin of bacon bits and cheese next to
7. brown, mushy green beans or
8. greying soggy broccoli not to mention
9. horridly pale and bland peas & carrots drizzled with rancid butter meant to be the homework before the recess of
10. chocolate cake dark with color yet light on cocoa with its layers of
11. hydrogenated frosting so sweet it makes the scoop of airy vanilla ice cream nearly savory

This is long before you get into the esoterica like liver, lima beans, beets, fish (!!!), eggplant….

They are delicious and worth keeping around – even if consumers will need to pay higher prices because they are more difficult to farm and manage.

Saving The Chiles – article posted a few days ago online.  Decent reading if you’re new to the chile preservation subject.