Since the gratification of the pigs’ head terrine was necessarily of the delayed variety, I was planning a stop on the way home to grab some of the good ground beef with which to make chili. Kidney beans were already a-soakin’, so it was all worked out. Then my intrepid editor handed me a nice packet of venison loin, and thus saved me a detour. It was a perfect happy delicious coincidence. I called home…
Category: Other People’s Food
The foodfest continued, and I must say that there was a wonderful continuity to the quality (after Porchetta.) Monday we went out to Brooklyn, to eat at Flatbush Farm with Amy and Jonny of We Are Never Full. The restaurant gets all their meat from our very own Fleisher’s, and they try to use local and seasonal produce. It’s the kind of refined home cooking that Brooklyn is doing particularly well, and we had a…
It’s been a pretty good trip so far from a culinary point of view. Saturday Ellen and I went to Porchetta, a little storefront joint in the East Village that’s been much touted as an excellent place to indulge in the Roman delicacy. Given the shitty snow and freezing rain, greasy slow-roasted pork seemed like a good bet. It was unremarkable at best. I read this effusive review just now, and but for the address…
Another week in the city got me across the goal line; I won’t be back for much more than schmoozing and food-related activities for a while. It’s ironic, because all of a sudden our old neighborhood is hipster central, with an embarassment of culinary and commercial riches that we could not have imagined only a few years ago when we lived there. So it’s sad to return, but the pangs of regret are mitigated some…
I’m still in the city, and it’s OK, but I miss family and garden with increasing intensity each day. The other night I was invited to Kris and Ken’s place for dinner, and Mary came straight from the airport to join us; she’s back from France to gather her stuff before moving back there for good. Kris made a simple yet elegant dinner, and we had superlative wines to accompany each course. First, his crab…
It’s been a while since my last post, and I’ve covered a lot of ground since then, but I will keep this entry brief by concentrating on the highlights, and the pleasure of having had other people cook for me for much of the last ten days. In Chicago last week, Jeff and Eve- with whom our tradition of mighty dinners really got rolling during grad school there in ’94- made a simple yet perfect…
I spent all day in the woodshop building crates for a couple of pieces destined for Chicago, so my lovely wife obligingly made a perfect dinner for us. It was pretty incredibly great to have dinner ready when I came down from showering. Honestly, I have to say that she roasts a better chicken than I do; she does the thing where she stuffs garlic and herbs under the skin- as well as in the…
The family picked me up on Friday and we went to Vermont- only an hour away- for the weekend. On the way up, and for much of the preceding week, we had been excitedly talking about Pascal’s sausages: the trademark culinary treat of all recent Vermont trips. Our favorites include his merguez, cabbage and bacon, chicken and blueberry, and his crepinettes of duck with green peppercorn and rabbit with figs. These sausages are so good…
After a great dinner party Sunday nearby- where I didn’t have to make a damn thing- I got another break last night in the city as I dropped in on Kris and Ken following a very productive day. David joined us, and later Mary, and we had simple food and excellent wine: curried chicken with okra and mashed potatoes (Kris makes incredible curries) followed by chili and rice, then 5 cheeses, then possibly the best…
After a couple of days in the city it was wonderful to finish of with another stellar dinner at Kris & Ken’s house. Because it was a weeknight, Kris kept it “simple” which for them means only three courses and five wines. Here’s what we had: For an aperitif, a glass of Planeta “La Segreta” 2005, followed by a 2002 Chablis grand cru Valmur by William Fevre that was a beautiful accompaniment to shrimp on…