The Fork

Mother's Day Cometh!
Here it is, Fork-a-Maniacs—your Mother's Day reminder. It's Sunday May 12, OK? OK. And look, we get that not everyone has a great relationship with their mother, or knows their mother or even has a mother. That can be hard, and we're not trying to make you feel badly or anything. We have our own complicated relationship with our mom (whom we call The Big Fork; naw, jay kay we call her "mom"), but for the rest of you looking for something to do that's a little more than some hastily bought drugstore card, we figure we could try to help you out just a little bit. You still have a couple days to work it out, to steel yourself to the guilt onslaught coming your way or to even scoff indignantly about that mom-guilt joke we just made and think, "My mom is my best friend, Fork!" Bully for you, dear reader. Anyway, here's some stuff:

To Brunch or not to Brunch?
We asked a few of our mom friends why brunch has been such a pervasive Mom Day theme, and the best we can come up with is a two-pronged answer:

1. Restaurants can play on your emotions to get you all up in them
2. People can knock out the Mom Day stuff pretty early in the day and get back to their real lives. Ouch. By don't be angry with The Fork, this is just what we're being told by actual moms.

So what does that mean for you, someone with a mom who wants to pretend like you're not trying to knock out the Mom Day stuff pretty early in the day and get back to your real life? Well, obviously there are tons of local brunch services all over town. Now, we can't speak to how easy it'll be to get in there at this point what with reservations and all, but here's a few we happened to hear about:

Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi has a three-course prix fixe meal from 11 am-2:30 pm. Reservations are strongly recommended, and you'll shell out between $30 and $75 depending on whether you have children with you. Most nicer restaurants (which we say knowing full well that the word "nicer" is sooooo subjective) will have something for you 'n' mom.

For example, an email we got from Italian joint Osteria D'Assisi says you can "secure your status as 'favorite child,'" and we'd definitely call them a "nicer" restaurant. Find a Mother's Day brunch thing there this Sunday from 11:30 am-2:30 pm, and make sure you book first here.

Anyway, the hotel brunches keep on a-coming, with Luminaria at the Inn & Spat at Loretto (10 am-2 pm, $18-$45) and the El Dorado Hotel & Spa (11 am-3 pm, $25-$60). We bet others are doing similar things, but The Fork isn't about to call every dang hotel restaurant in town. Besides, we most definitely know that a $60-per-person brunch is not for everyone, so think of places like:

Sunrise Family Diner (deceptively incredible)
Chocolate Maven (solid brunch all the time)
Café Pasqual's (pricy, but legendary)
Pantry/Tecolote/Flying Tortilla (you know the score)

If this hasn't been enough information for you, we're not even sure what to do. Because it's a lot. Like, we're tired now, that's how much it took out of us. So happy Mom Day to us all (except The Fork, who was born asexually when lightning struck a mineral-rich boulder somewhere in the Andes).

RIP Afeni Shakur.

Also
-Using our Facebook sleuthing skills last week, SFR broke the news that Santa Fe's first and probably most favorite sushi restaurant Shohko Café is shutting down for good after dinner service on May 11. No word on whether this had anything to do with an unpaid wages dispute that wrapped up earlier this year, but we do know a lot of people are bummed out.

-Last week we made a pretty bogus typo about a Santa Fe High cooking squadron that participated in a cooking challenge. The team did indeed come in third place, but it was out of 15 teams, not 5. That sounds like pretty stiff competition, and we apologize to the kids and facilitators for missing that "1."

-Santa Fe School of Cooking turns 30 this year, and you know what that means—they've probably been renting all kinds of cars for the last five years. In reality, that's a pretty momentous occasion, and the school is celebrating with with special $30 classes throughout the year.

-We also hear Jimmy D's, the New Mexico Fine Dining restaurant opening in the former Santa Fe Bite (RIP), has had a soft opening already (we think), and is supposed to open for real soon, or maybe even has. We're working on finding out the details, but if you happen by there and try it, we'd love to hear about it.

-Not sure how we forgot to mention it last week, but Coyote Café owner Quinn Stephenson bought Santacafé recently, and that's a pretty spicy meatball given both restaurants' long and storied histories. Y'know, The Fork briefly worked at Santacafé some years back, and we'll never forget how they showed us one of the best birthday nights of our life.

-Our buds at the Santa Fe Farmers Market wanted us to remind you that the summertime Tuesday market is locked and loaded from 8 am-1 pm. Take THAT, getting up early on a Saturday like some kind of sucker!

More Tidbits
-Definitively answering the question of can there be too much of a good thing, Food & Wine wants us to know that cheese guacamole is real, and is barreling into our lives whether we want it or not. We love both those things, but c'mon now—why is this happening?

-The 2019 James Beard Award winners have been announced, and you can find them all here. Then, if you're rich, you can start planning on how to dine with all these people. In all seriousness, though, congrats to the winners—it is most definitely a big deal.

-Interested in those Beardies (not the actual name of the award) but unsure how to navigate it all? Don't worry, because eater.com has a breakdown of how to get it. It goes deeper than the Beardies (again, not the name of the award) to roll up things like how a tire company became such a vital restaurant ranking system.

-McDonald's, which you may know as the mad laboratory that birthed Grimace (a tastebud, in case you didn't know) from sort sort of primordial gloop, has announced it's bringing items from its international stable of eateries to American shores. What does this mean for you? Well, it means things like Stroopwaffel McFlurries and Cheesy Bacon Fries. Thrillist gets deeper and harder than we ever could.

-Speaking of McDonald's international, the company is apparently working out its own meatless burger thing (like Burger King) in Germany as we speak.

-Ever heard of Pam? No, we don't mean the charisma-free character from The Office, we mean the cooking spray. Well, it turns out manufacturer Conagra is getting sued bigtime after cans of the stuff exploded while in use, severely burning people in the process. Conagra, which is based in Chicago, blamed a faulty vent system that was previously phased out during a product redesign. AP News has more.

-CNN wonders if chewing gum can help you lose weight. The short answer? Probably not. The long answer? Maybe, but if you don't chew gum already (which you shouldn't, believe us), there's no need to rush out and buy some.

-Lastly, BuzzFeed is completely correct when it says cilantro ruins everything. And no, The Fork is not one of those people for whom cilantro tastes like soap, we just find it dominates all other flavors when included in something. Get real, cilantro-breath.

More weird McDonald's items from other lands.