David Nyce The mayor of Greenport knows his way around the food community. By Eileen M. Duffy
The kitchen of David Nyce and Jennifer Benton looks a lot like their lives: a work in progress. Nyce, a furniture maker and the mayor of Greenport Village, is constantly taking pieces of things and putting them together to create something, whether it’s dinner, new legislation or kitchen cabinets, except they’re not his.
His cabinets are empty because the two are in the planning stages of remodeling the kitchen of their village home, where they’ve been for eight years. Out in the barn/workshop in the backyard are the makings of cabinets meant for a client in the city.
But no matter. The two cook often for and with friends from their block, which has evolved into a sort of continuous progressive dinner, the kind that usually involves Nyce pulling out albums and spinning records on his turntable. Yes, a turntable. There was no iPod in sight.
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Dressed in a plaid shirt and logo T-shirt, Nyce prepared to make pad Thai using peas from Latham’s farm stand, on the other side of the Greenport IGA parking lot from their home. And eggs from Ty Llwyd farm in Riverhead, scallions from Sang Lee Farms in Cutchogue, hot chili peppers from their garden and rice noodles from regular shopping trips to New York.
“I’m glad you got here after we got our new fridge,” says Benton. “I don’t think I would have said yes if we still had [the old one].” Which, to tell the truth, wasn’t stuffed to the gills. It contained homemade hot sauce, some beer and other staples, but the freezer contained vegetables from their garden harvest of last fall.
The two only really started cooking after moving out from the city in 2001. Nyce, says Benton, was more of an experimental cook, throwing in all kinds of ingredients just because they were next to each other on the shelf and hoping something exceptional would result. She, on the other hand, would follow recipes and be more temperate with the spices.
“We found our middle ground,” she says. “He’s helped me be more experimental. I’ve helped him be not so much. We complement each other.”
This is not news to the electorate of Greenport, who on any day can find the two together shopping, drinking coffee at Aldo’s or walking their dog, Amos. They’re always together.
Even in the kitchen they finish each other’s sentences and go out of their way to point out when one or the other did something well, or tell an endearing story involving their history.
Like Nyce’s Mennonite heritage.
“He’s famous for his pies,” says Benton.
“Saying I’m famous for something is a bit of a stretch, dear,” replies Nyce.
“But people get excited when you make a pie,” she says.
Nyce recalls his Mennonite grandmother, Betty. “She could make a pie in 10 minutes. By the time I picked the rhubarb, she’d have the pie ready. No butter, it was all lard.”
“You’ve modernized it with butter,” says Benton.
Nyce concedes. Sometimes he mixes it. Butter gives a browned crust, the lard makes it flakey, and sometimes he adds vinegar. That can make it flakey, too.
“He also makes bread pudding,” Benton offers.
The best part about living on the North Fork and how it’s affected their diet is the attention they can now pay to eating seasonally.
“I didn’t know when fluke season was before I moved out here,” says Nyce.
But he knows when it’s time to eat.
“We wake up, and at 7 a.m., he’s saying ‘What do you want for dinner?’” Benton says.
Nyce reminisces. “Last night it was pasta primavera with carrots, yellow beets and asparagus. We saved the asparagus stems to make soup.”
Benton feigns exasperation. “He does start planning dinner at 7 a.m.”
Homemade Hot Sauce
“I looked the recipe up on the Internet,” says Nyce, after a particularly bumper crop of chilies. “I went with the Tabasco version.” That involved boiling all the peppers they had left over in white vinegar and adding onions and garlic. The mixture then fermented in the refrigerator with the stems, skins and seeds still in the mix. The sauce was strained and is now kept in an old Orangina bottle.
Vintage Percolator Coffee Pot
“That’s an Opp Shop special,” says Nyce, referring to the Opportunity Shop, a thrift store in Greenport run by Eastern Long Island Hospital, probably the only hospital with waterfront property. “When we moved here from the city we had no coffee maker. No one makes coffee in the city.” He recalls a drip pot, but doesn’t know what happened to it after the move.
Aldo’s Coffee
In the curtain-shrouded pantry, Aldo’s coffee is within reaching distance. Nyce and Benton like the way this fabled Greenport roaster sticks to Fair Trade and organic beans. Favorites? Ethiopian and the House Orient Blend. It’s espresso roast but works just as well in a percolator.
Colavita Pasta
“You get 10 for $10 at the IGA,” says Nyce. “It’s good pasta.”
Asian Spices
The Benton/Nyces buy dried spices in bulk at Asian markets in New York City on Lexington Avenue or in the East Village. Their wok is used at least once per week.
Mennonite Community Cookbook
They may have made the weiner stew or baked liver, but are not telling.
Compost Heap
Along with wood shavings from the workshop and weeds from the garden, the couple’s compost heap includes scraps from the best farms on the North Fork.
Eileen M. Duffy holds a diploma in wine and spirits from the International Wine Center and writes from her home in Southold.
