The Magazine: Winter 2010
Aftertaste:
AFTERTASTE: Throwing Stones for Supper
Many of us find the challenge of sourcing our food within 100 miles of its origin an entirely worthwhile endeavor deserving of a hearty locavore pat on the back. But here’s an ante-up for you: Cut off 99 of those miles. In the most delicious of farm-to-table smackdowns last September, Roanoke Vineyards held its second [...]
Cult of Taste:
CULT OF TASTE: Under the North Fork Sun
When a romantic notion of a place becomes your home. All the people I know dream about Tuscany, read about Tuscany and think about buying a villa in Tuscany, thereby changing or at least improving their life. (And maybe have a movie made about their experience as well.) I don’t know many people who have [...]
Out to Sea:
OUT TO SEA: One Fish, Two Fish
Why the East End is ideally suited to staging a pre-Christmas tradition from southern Italy. MATTITUCK—A fine rain is drifting down onto Love Lane, but inside Love Lane Kitchen, candles are burning on woodentopped tables that have been set for a feast. It’s Christmas Eve, and owner Michael Avella and his wife, Patti, are bringing [...]
Back of the House:
BACK OF THE HOUSE: A Mano
Have you heard about the pizza joint in Mattituck? If you sit down with chef Tom Schaudel, be prepared for a story. There’s the one about a musician in New Orleans, named Pinetop Perkins, who said the memorable line, “If Mama’s got the blues, the whole house’s got the blues.” Or the one about Shorty, [...]
Visual Victuals:
VISUAL VICTUALS: Clamming with Jack
Jack Musnicki has been clamming in Shinnecock Bay for more than 60 years. Perched over a rake, he has watched the architecture and landscape of Dune Road morph. (There have always been large ocean-side estates there, says Musnicki, who tended the grounds at some of them as a kid). He’s also watched the clam population [...]
Happenings:
HAPPENINGS: Cooking for Next Year
A transplanted Japanese tradition takes root in East Hampton. In the days before the New Year, Hiroyuki Hamada will cross the LIE, sometimes more than once, to procure obscure food ingredients from specialty shops in Port Washington and Roslyn, and even New Jersey (there are usually a few ingredients he can’t find on the Island). [...]
On the Vine:
ON THE VINE: A Vineyard Grows in Baiting Hollow
Where the days are filled with wine and horses. There are a couple of things that make Baiting Hollow Farm Vineyard unique in Long Island wine country. First, the 17-acre vineyard near Riverhead also hosts a horse-rescue operation, with the horse stables and pens and wine-tasting house on the northeastern side of the property and [...]
Gastroliteracy:
GASTROLITERACY: Food For Thought
Ross School teaches from farm to table. Da Vinci’s Kitchen, Taste of Romania, The Pizza Cookbook, The Art of Dining, A Passion for Vegetables and Classic Indian Cooking. These are just a few of the books that line the bookshelves as you enter the Treetop Café at Ross School in East Hampton. The Café, under [...]
Winemaker's Wonderings:
A WINEMAKER’S WONDERINGS: The Copper Conundrum
Our lives are inextricably linked with the element copper. Electrical wiring, computers, most water pipes, coinage, biomedical technology and numerous chemical uses would be impossible without copper. It possesses germicidal properties and is used in hospitals. It is an essential trace nutrient in the diets of all animals and higher plant life. We turn on [...]
Behind the Bottle:
BEHIND THE BOTTLE: 2005 Diliberto Cantina
A pizza and pasta kind of wine. Sal Diliberto’s tasting room is next to his house. Not next door to his house, but so close that someone with long arms could reach out and touch the outside walls of both buildings. The person with the admirably long arms could also do this while looking at [...]
Farmgirl Angst:
FARMGIRL ANGST: From Perishable to Non
I don’t put food up. After a season of garden-born delights, our empty pantry is the main reason I was inspired to expand my definition of vegetarian cuisine. I have made central to my mantra the theory of ascending totalities; you are what you eat. Many people tried to discourage me from cooking Canada goose. [...]
Obsessions:
OBSESSIONS: Prehistoric Poultry
A 200-pound bird and her outsize egg. EAST HAMPTON—Olivia the ostrich lives by the bay in Amagansett with her caretakers, Pam and Darryl Glennon. The Glennons own Spring Close Farm and Nursery in East Hampton. Mrs. Glennon works the Little Farm Stand on Spring Close Highway every day in the growing season, which is now [...]
Notable Edibles:
NOTABLE EDIBLES: Old Baker, New Bread
Something’s cooking out in Montauk. Or baking to be more precise. Billy Bertha Jr., the pastry chef at Gurney’s since 1977, has been expanding his line of traditional pumpernickels and ryes, experimenting with vegan desserts and helping to produce the next generation of bakers, with his kitchen being as much of a classroom as a [...]
Notable Edibles:
NOTABLE EDIBLES: I See Fudge in Your Future
This past summer, when Donna McCue was a staple at the East Hampton Farmers Market with her handmade Fat Ass Fudge, inevitably someone would ask, “If I eat this fudge, will I get a fat ass?” “East Hampton is a very selective, slender group of people,” McCue says in the kitchen of Della Femina’s restaurant, [...]
Notable Edibles:
NOTABLE EDIBLES: Have Oysters, Will Travel
A new venture by three North Fork residents has added an itinerant oyster bar as the latest way for mollusk fans to get their fix during prime oyster season. Mark Terry, the principal planner for Southold Town, Chris Pickerell (shucking at left), a marine biologist for Cornell Cooperative Extension, and attorney Kieran Corcoran have opened [...]
Notable Edibles:
NOTABLE EDIBLES: Building Coconut Haystacks
The macaroon lady has plans. Already her cookies, made with neither flour nor eggs, are selling out. She’s buying gourmet chocolate in bulk, leveraging all friendships and connections, and finding out that her business in East Hampton, started on a shoestring, is only as good as what she can give back. But first the back [...]
GRIST FOR THE MILL: Letter from the Editor
Here is the season when farm stands shutter, restaurants cut their hours and it’s too cold to dip a rod (let alone a clam rake) in the water. Sure, there are woodstove-warmed holiday parties and cozy potlucks in our futures. But it’s tough to resist the urge to lie fallow. Thankfully, the East End is [...]