Dija Know… Joe’s Restaurant Newsletter -77 September 2012

Dija Know… Joe’s Restaurant Newsletter -77 September 2012

Galante Wine Dinner Sept 26th

Joe’s is proud to participate once again in the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta.  We will be hosting our Wine Dinner on Wednesday, September 26th partnering with Galante Vineyards of Carmel CA.  Roland will create and pair his dishes with these multi-award-winning wines. Ask to see the menu – and allow for a certain degree of “chef’s artistic license” because, as you know by now, Roland will also be inspired by what is ripe, seasonal and local at the last minute. The theme is “Continental Cowboy Classic”.  5 courses,  $96 per person.  Cowboy gear recommended.

Here are some excerpts about the winery.  “Our philosophy is simple: grow the finest grapes possible and let the fruit express itself in the wine. Since all of our grapes are estate grown, each bottle of wine we produce embodies the characteristics of our unique region, exhibiting the natural flavors that are born from the land.  The grapes ripen slowly, intensifying their rich berry flavors. We do not use pesticides or herbicides and irrigate only when needed. Our vineyard names are also meaningful; for example, Blackjack Pasture is adjacent to the field where a favorite roping horse, Blackjack, spent the last of her 36 years.”
Make your plans now, tables are filling up fast.

It’s that time again – our signature Margherita Pizza is being offered for the 17th year.  In 1996 at Pizza Etc. we started buying these wonderful local heirloom tomatoes from Dave Fresques.  Roland then put together the most sumptuous but simple pizza using exclusively local and in-season ingredients.  We make our own fresh mozz many times a day, we use NM organic flour for the crust, local earth-grown heirloom tomatoes and basil.  Incomparable!  So, do not let the season pass you by without having a Joe’s Margherita – we make it ONLY during this season – really! Also available gluten-free in the 10” size.
Also note: if you are GF, see our special menu

Joe’s Meet Your Farmer program, started May 2011, continues.  Here’s how it works. Every Saturday after Market (sometime after 1:30) we invite any and all of our local growers to come by Joe’s to relax over a meal and a beer. (We bribe them with a “good deal”).  You, our guests are invited to sit with them, chat with them, ask them questions about their growing practices.  And just generally get up-close and personal with Who Grows Your Food.

Since our primary business is quality food and our primary concern is food’s impact on health, the subject of cholesterol inevitably arises.  This whole ball of wax (pun unavoidable) and its relationship to health, is part and parcel of Sheila’s many “rants” on the criminalization of good dietary fats.  Traditional wisdom and true indigenous diets which are frequently very high in saturated fat and medium chain fatty acids, are being vindicated as “new” research positively supports the dietary necessity of fats and cholesterol and by extension, a serious questioning of statin drugs. This information may surprise you. The following quotes and data draw heavily from one of my faves, Dr. Mercola.  Please go to his site for credits and fleshing out of this article.  www.mercola.com.
“A major clue that something is very off with the notion that high cholesterol causes heart disease can be found in this:  as cholesterol levels have become lower, rates of heart disease deaths have not followed suit!” … Despite the fact that cholesterol rates for men aged 65-74 are decreasing, the rate of heart disease for this age group stayed the same … Other age groups experienced an increase in the rate of heart disease as the number of people with ‘high’ cholesterol has decreased.”

Dr. William Castelli, a former director of the Framingham Heart study, stated: … the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol.”

Cholesterol is simply not the main perpetrator causing heart disease.
Dr. Stephen Sinatra, a board certified cardiologist, explained “Let’s face it, cholesterol is something your body needs. If you look at the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial . . . 180,000 men over a period of… 13 years men with cholesterol of 330 had less hemorrhagic stroke than men with cholesterol less than 180. If you look at cholesterol numbers, the higher cholesterol number would give you protection from hemorrhagic stroke.  (We) need cholesterol in our skin to activate vitamin D3 from sunlight . . . to make our sex hormones… to make our adrenal hormones . .  for lubrication . . .  for neurotransmitter function in the brain. When LDL is driven too low, it’s no wonder that patients develop memory problems or pre-Alzheimer’s.”

 Then why haven’t we heard the truth about cholesterol?  There may be $29 billion very good reasons why.  The current value of the cholesterol-lowering drug industry is estimated at around $29 billion — and this is a conservative estimate.

Beyond pharmaceutical profit, much evidence supports the fact that statins are harmful.
M.I.T. claims that no study has ever proven that statins   . . . prolong your life any longer than if you’d not taken them at all. And they actually contribute to deterioration in the quality of your life, destroying muscles and endangering liver, kidney and even heart function.  According to Stephanie Seneff http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff “Statin drugs inhibit the action of…certain enzymes critical to normal heart function. Take one study in Clinical Cardiology, which found heart muscle function was ‘significantly better’ in the control group than in those taking statin drugs! The researchers concluded: Statin therapy is associated with decreased myocardial function.”  And what is often the end result when your heart muscle function is weakened or decreased? Heart failure!
The evidence now appears to support traditional and ancient wisdom regarding how and what to eat for optimum function. The choice is really quite simple – eat as many regionally produced, clean, un-messed-with foods as possible.  Avoid GMO and synthesized “non-foods” and include the whole food as it comes from Mother Nature – whole milk, cream, butter, grass-fed-and-finished meat, eggs, fruits, veggies, seeds and nuts.

Of course in recent times we have developed allergies and we have to methodically work our way back to bodies that work.  But that is a whole ‘nuther subject!

Why is locally grown food so very important to Joe’s?
Why do we keep hammering on this “buy local” theme? There are many factors that are out of our hands when it comes to our food supply.  Most of what ends up on the American dinner table derives from a shockingly few giant agribusinesses.  Their influence reaches from designing the (often GMO) seeds to planting harvesting processing shipping.  We as consumers cannot with confidence hand over the entirestewardship of our food to these few multinationals. Our passion here at Joe’s is for a local sustainable food supply – food produced by growers who are accountable for what they grow.  We are able to look our local farmer in the eye and ask him about his growing practices or even visit his operation. This gives us the confidence that we are eating food that is healthy, wholesome, non-genetically engineered, often better than organic, humanely treated and minimally processed.  It is grown with a smaller energy-use footprint and transported short distances.  And dollars stay in the community.  We are fortunate in Santa Fe to

have a dedicated farm base producing a wonderful array of goods.  Here at Joe’s we do our best to offer this

bounty from our local farms to you.
Someone said to chef Roland recently – “Roland, you are the poster child for the farm to table movement.”  He would never say it, but I will – it made him very proud.
We highly recommend you read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Folks This Ain’t Normal by Joel Salatin.  It will change forever how you view what you eat.

Joe’s signature latte cups, tee shirts, beer glasses and wine glasses are all for sale.  Ask your waiter.

Tuesday is STILL Spaghetti and Chianti Night at Joe’s.  $29.95 for two will get you Caesar Salad, Spaghetti with homemade Bolognese and a great ½ liter of Chianti.  A heads up – we can’t hold this price much longer. The beef is pricey (local, grass-finished) and getting pricier.

Free food!  With a Joe’s gift card for $100 (when you pay with a check or cash) it is programmed to give you an additional $10 worth of free food or drinks or merchandise. This is our “frequent diner” card.

Are you on Joe’s check list? Are you using your credit cards less frequently?  I know we are and somehow it is liberating. We as taxpayers have contributed generously to the BB’s bailouts and their CEOs’ mega bonuses.  Well, enough is enough.  Here at Joe’s we are going retro and we encourage guests to pay by personal check and of course time-honored cash and precious metals!  So if you are a “regular” and wish to pay by check, please ask your waiter to get you on Joe’s check list. It’s a one-step process. Couldn’t be easier.

Customer comment written on a sticky note recently: “10 years ago I moved to Seattle.  While there I had many meals of many kinds of salmon – so why eat salmon when I returned to SF?  Yesterday I ordered salmon here…it was remakably good.  Today I had two servings of salmon here.  Each was perfectly prepared.  If my salmon-loving family in Seattle came to visit, I would bring them to Joe’s and order salmon.”   –M.

Lost in translation:
   A sign in airline office, Copenhagen:
WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.

A sign for donkey rides in Budapest:
Would you like to ride on your own ass?

Joe’s when it matters what you eat.
2801 Rodeo Rd (at Zia Rd) Santa Fe, NM   87507
505-471-3800       www.JoesDining.com