The Fork

Oh hi, Fork fans. It's me/us—The Fork, and we're here with all the food, um, good … ness that you've come to love and expect from me/us. It's a holiday week—which is pretty cool because we might even finagle a day off up in there if we're lucky—and it's a Fork Day, the most important holiday of all. We hope your Fourth was awesome, we hope you're feeling good, we hope you're ready to delve into some information about what this year's apparent food trends really say about you (if you engage with them, of course).

For our criteria, we're using food website foodee's Top Summertime Food Trends forecast because it's both handy and because that's just what we're doing.

Plant-Based

As the world turns its back on meat more and more, plant-based diets are apparently all the rage with people who like to eat—but what does this really say about you? It says you might just spend your time reminding everyone you're vegan, hurting your cause repeatedly with never-ending and insufferable shares and admonishment doled out into an echo chamber of your own making. Will your friends roll your eyes? You bet! The health benefits are obviously myriad, but that's not accounting for people who're tired of hearing about it.

Instagram

People snapping shots of their meals isn't particularly new, but as we head into the height of summer, so too do we snap photos of everything we're eating. But what does this really say about you? Well, it probably says something about how weird it is that most food publications and websites seem to have anointed the rustic wooden table as background for all food pics, but it also says you're trying to prove something to the people in your life about how interesting you are. Just visit The Fork's Instagram to see how interesting WE are. Studies have been done about this phenomenon, too, in case you were wondering.

Florals

Rose petals and lavender and, like, elderflower and stuff—summertime means cramming growable edibles into your drinks and recipes and stuff. But what does this say about you? Nothing outside of you like things that taste good. Flowers are cool, and versatile in the kitchen. Head to Food & Wine for the 101 course on cooking with edible flowers. And while you're at it, whip up a batch of this refreshing, flower infused water.

What’s the Heck’s a Nootropic?

In the most simplified terms, it's what we call "brain food" or "superfood," and there's a whole website dedicated to such things. But what does it say about you? Well, probably that you were pretty into Dr. Mario, but also that you want to take care of that brain of yours. We're talking nuts and coffee and fish—and we're wondering if some kind of coffee-rubbed salmon with a nut crust would be pretty good. Probably. In fact, here's a recipe for one now (that you could probably add nuts to, if you were so inclined).

Lattes—Yeah, Lattes

Oh, zam, more coffee, but we hear it's even better for you if you're jazzing it up with things like turmeric, beets or Blue Majik, an algae-derived substance that's good for, ummm, you. But what does it say about you? It says you just don't know how to leave good enough alone, y'know? Like, coffee was doing just fine before matcha came along, y'know? Just … OK?!

OK, that was an intense intro, so let's just use this video to calm down.

Also

-The newest newsletter from the Santa Fe Master Gardeners Association is here, and it turns out that everyone's favorite New Mexican, Georgia O'Keeffe, was pretty into gardening. We've said it before and we'll say it again, these people (the SFMGA) are worth following. Do that here.

–Edible New Mexico took a look at new-ish eatery Dolina and its owner/pastry champion Annamaria O'Brien this week. Have you suckers been over there? You should go.

-We hear there's a new place to eat and quaff over in the Plaza del Sol on St. Michael's Drive called Sagche's Coffee House. Score another one for that side of town—the first score of the week, of course, being the news that the Center for Contemporary Arts is taking over The Screen.

-Speaking of new coffee houses, Iconik Coffee Roasters has a new location at Guadalupe Street and Agua Fría. You can read all about it in this week's paper and plan your next coffee outing.

-Sad as we are that readers took our obvious jokes about Fourth of July seriously, we thought we'd give you a couple local options for picking up some grilling meat this summer. Really, for now, it's just two places: Kaune's and Dr. Field Goods Butcher. We might have included Whole Foods, but we know it's not technically local and we're scared of making you mad right now. Anyway, eat at Dr. Field Goods while your'e there. Serio.

More Tidbits

-Bad news from across the pond where a carbon dioxide shortage has apparently left the British Isles to contend with beer and crumpet shortages. God, no!

-To soften that blow, be aware that Guinness is set to open its first American brewery in 60-ish years with plans for a sprawling Baltimore location. We like it warm, you guys.

-Meanwhile, in super-gross news, a competitive eater has tips for how to wreck oneself with hot dogs in the shortest time possible. We at The Fork miss hot dogs desperately (and look forward to your "You know they're gross, right?!" emails) and feel this person isn't showing them the respect they deserve.

-If it helps you feel better about climate change (which is real), we hear the world's wine makers are taking steps to adapt to worsening conditions so that we may have wine as the world burns around us. There's a joke about Nero in there, but The Fork is here to talk food, not Roman history.
Aw, screw it—here's a little history courtesy of PBS and Robert Graves. You're welcome.