![\"\"](\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/table.jpg\")
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The table was awaiting the guests, but I had forgotten the genial service plates (very large, very shallow, very plain, clear glass) that I had found at a thrift shop long ago.<\/p>\n
Aside from the fact that this would be one of the first dinners we would be sharing with friends since the epidemic began, the dinner itself would be an\u00a0anomaly: The featured star of both the first and the second courses came from places other than our local greenmarket.<\/p>\n
Our guests couldn’t join us on a Union Square Greenmarket day (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, year round) and I wanted to serve seafood, so early yesterday afternoonI I walked a few blocks west and south of the apartment to F. Rozzo & Sons<\/a>. Louis Rozzo is a fourth-generation fish broker, head of a family business with a 121-year history in Chelsea. It was started by Louis’ Neapolitan grandfather in 1900, who bought the building in 1905, and serviced New York restaurants, eventually\u00a0hotels and clubs as well, from a horse-drawn cart. Until recently, when the epidemic closed down virtually every one of his customers, 9 refrigerated trucks were doing the same duty as Felix’s cart; sadly, the single box van I see parked in front whenever I arrive is probably more than enough for his delivery needs today.<\/p>\n Rozzo has a Twitter presence, handled by Louis’ son:\u00a0F. Rozzo & Sons\u00a0<\/span>@FRozzoandSons<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The shop now announces its stock each day with sandwich boards:<\/p>\n And this\u00a0 is the ice vitrine inside the 159 9th Avenue building (between West 18th and 19th).<\/p>\n When our two guests had arrived for dinner, we nibbled on breadsticks and such, and enjoyed a sparkling wine,\u00a0Apollonis “Authentic Meunier” Blanc de Noirs Brut, Loriot NV\u00a0<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first course was assembled with slices of smoked American farmed sturgeon (9 ounces total) from Grace\u2019s Marketplace, placed on a bed of 2 small almost impossibly-thin hand sliced (I have a great knife) golden beets from from Phillips Farms, the slices first sprinkled with small amounts of wild fennel pollen from Buon Italia, dribbled with a good Cretan olive oil, and a little white balsamic vinegar, Condimento Bianco Barricato<\/a>, the sturgeon itself topped with dollops of cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche<\/em> from Vermont Creamery (via Foragers Market), the cream having been mixed with lemon zest and chopped fresh za’atar from Rise & Root at the Union Square Greenmarket, the dish garnished with micro celery from Two Guys from Woodbridge.<\/p>\n The wine with the sturgeon was Francois Dubois\u00a0Champagne Brut Tradition NV<\/a> (Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay grapes).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The main course was nine (traditional fishmongers’ eight?) 3 to 4-ounce Chesapeake Bay soft shell crabs from F. Rozzo, brought to room temperature while I\u00a0 trimmed them; the fishmonger had offered to do the cleaning, but I wanted them to “save face” at least until shortly before they had to expire, I thanked Tom and told him I’d do it in the kitchen a few hours later.<\/p>\n The crabs were saut\u00e9ed on both sides (bottom first, but in the end served with that side down) over a medium-high flame in a quarter inch of olive oil inside a beautiful large (18 inch) French seasoned oval steel pan, for about 3\u00a0 <\/span>or 4 minutes altogether, or until their texture went from soft to taut, removed and arranged on the 4 warm plates.<\/p>\n There they were sprinkled with local Long Island (P.E. & D. D. Seafood) sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper, drizzled with lemon juice and garnished with micro cressida (similar to but spicier than cress) from Rooted Family Farm.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Accompanying the crabs were\u00a0sixteen ounces of haricots verts<\/i> from Migliorelli Farm, stems removed, but otherwise left whole, blanched, drained and dried in the same pan over medium heat, shaking, then set aside in a bowl and refrigerated until the crabs were about to be saut\u00e9ed, at which time the beans were reheated in a little oil inside a heavy medium size vintage well-seasoned cast iron pan, finished with sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and mixed with chopped parsley from Echo Creek Farm (the West 23rd St market).<\/p>\n The wine was a 2017 Ponzi\u00a0Vigneto Chardonnay.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There was a simple cheese course. There are no pictures of the plates, but they were definitly pretty: triangles cut from a small (7 oz.) wheel of a Camembert-type cheese, “G.O.A.T.”, from West Meadow Farm and Dairy<\/a>, served with cubes of Marmelada quince paste, from Portugal, and a sprinkling of micro red amaranth from BK Micro.<\/p>\n The wine with the cheese was\u00a0Patrice Grasset Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We had an unusual after dinner drink, but these are unusual times, an extraordinary\u00a0Barbancourt 15 Yr. Rhum<\/a>, from Haiti, to which we were introduced by a Haitian friend.\u00a0 The image below is of one of the glasses (short, heavy, ca. 1840’s, pressed), but the picture is from an earlier meal<\/a>, and the contents then were a Sardinian digestif.<\/p>\n If anyone is wondering, we also drank chilled New York City water last night.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\nLouis\u00a0<\/span>began supplying retail customers<\/a> when his customer base dried up early in the Covid epidemic because of restaurant, hotel, and club closings.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Rozzo_sandwich-boards.jpg\")
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