#12 | Issue Two, Movies, and Popcorn
The cascade of kernels hitting the bottom of a sizzling pot. The cacophony of pops against the lid. The house warmed by smells of oil and corn and spices. The lights dim and the credits roll.
Whether it’s avocado oil or butter, turmeric or toasted coconut, fresh garlic or nutritional yeast, Everything but the Bagel or rosemary and sage, we’ve tried some combo of them all. Our current go-to: kernels popped in ghee, tossed with soy sauce and Tajin and a couple drops of garlic oil. However you dress it, popcorn pairs particularly well with issue two, which hits the stands this week: it’s all about food at the movies.
Among the many things we’ve learned in putting together this issue: some of the oldest ears of popcorn ever found were discovered in New Mexico. It might be time for popcorn license plates.
Pick up the new issue wherever edible New Mexico is found, or find us online. Live out of state or just want to make sure you get every issue? Consider a subscription.
Delicious Things
We first picked up a six-pack of Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery’s Grumpy Old Troll IPA as a joke, a means to razz the grumpy old trolls in our life (it was the 2020 holiday season, and trolldom was at an all-time high that even now hasn’t diminished quite as much as we’d like). Plus, although we will be the first to admit that this is no means by which to select a beverage, we liked the art on the cans. It turned out to be quite a nice beer—hoppy, a shade skunky (in the good way), dry, and a refreshing contrast to all the juicy hazies flooding the taps these days. Never mind what the trolls thought of it.
Entrances & Exits
The storied Legal Tender held their grand opening in Lamy on September 25, closed to resolve a plumbing issue in their 120-year-old building, and reopened again on September 30. Sean Sinclair’s menu had us at agnolotti.
After more than a year, The Feel Good and Modern General Feed and Seed reopened in Albuquerque on September 28.
Also in Albuquerque, The Grove Cafe & Market has a new chef de cuisine. Yolanda Torres was raised in New Mexico and got her first culinary degree at CNM before working at both Butcher and Calcasieu in New Orleans. Maybe this means gumbo is coming to EDo?
The Gut Shot Department in our movie issue showcases over a dozen whiskeys produced right here in New Mexico. Add Big Nose Kate to the list. Named for Maria Izabella Magdolna Horony, a.k.a Big Nose Kate, who worked at a dance hall in Santa Fe before heading to Tombstone to take part in various escapades with Doc Holliday, the whiskey is produced by Melissa Heim, one of too few female head distillers and blenders.
Pop-Ups & Festivals
Good Earth Movie Night, showcasing local agriculture, will be screened at an outdoor movie night at Reunity Resources in Santa Fe on October 5. Rose’s Kitchen food truck will be there from 3 to 8, and the films start at 7. A panel discussion with the filmmakers and some of the farmers and ranchers featured in the series will follow at 8. They suggest a $5 donation.
After a year off, the Albuquerque Grecian Festival is currently underway at Saint George Greek Orthodox Church. Baklava. Ouzo. Dancing. Bouzóuki. The tantalizing macaroni–ground beef–bechamel casserole that is pastítsio. The festival began yesterday and runs from 11 am till 10 pm today, and from 11 am till 5 pm tomorrow, Sunday, October 3.
More in the mood for sauerkraut, pretzel bites, and lederhosen? Stop by Oktoberfest at B2B Garden Brewery in Albuquerque’s northeast heights between 12 pm and 8 pm on October 3. (Unfortunate sidenote: B2B is the second local brewery to be the victim of theft and vandalism and theft in the last two weeks.)
Also on October 3, Marble Brewery is hosting something called Fuego Festival from 12 to 5 pm at their downtown Albuquerque taproom. Sichler Farms will be roasting chile, Oni will be selling hot sauces, Las Golondrinas will be there with pies, and in honor of fall, not one but two pumpkin brews will be on tap. If it’s cool enough, we’ll go for the Pumpkin Noir.
Regional lamb lunch options will be available at the Taos Wool Festival this weekend. Oh, and kettle corn too.
Distillations
“The tale of how America’s favorite movie theater snack has made its way from the opening credits at the box office to an appetizer for four-star dishes like Zuni salt trout en papillote and essence of squash consommé is one of the ouroboros, except this serpent tail is covered in butter and made of corn.” Read the rest of Ungelbah Dávila-Shivers’ popcorn tale in the Movie Issue.
“Popcorn is divisive.” Across the pond, at least. Some theaters are apparently banning it in the UK due to its loud crunch and proclivity to be thrown at screens, writes Peter Bradshaw in this recent defense of the theater snack in The Guardian.
Because dogs have to eat too, even the ones who star in movies: Roxane Gay’s Picky Puppy Food Journal.
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