Latest posts

  • spaghetto al tonno all’eoliana/spaghetti with tuna aeolian

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    I had a little bit of fresh tuna in the freezer, from the time I had to buy a steak too large for a meal for the 2 of us. The plan had been to include it in a pasta some day, since it was too small to be an entrée. I’ve often used good…

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  • speck, wild dandelion; ravioli ai piselli, shallot, mushrooms

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    With Tuesday’s dinner I was able to ratchet down the old German kitchen thing that had defined the meal the night before. Pork, and in fact it was again smoked pork, was the major player in the first course, but this time, while I suppose it was German-ish, or actually, Austrian-ish (read Tirolean), it was an…

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  • pork rillettes; 7-hour pork belly, salt potatoes; tomato salad

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    The concept, or description of this meal alone might almost be satisfaction enough for a food enthusiast, if it had not also been really delicious, with all of the unusually long history of its making able to be fully savored in the tasting of it; also, aural satisfaction would assume the listener wasn’t actually hungry…

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  • halibut with lemon oil, roasted tomatoes, wilted red chard

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    As a word, ‘halibut’ means ‘holy butte’ (butt spelled with an ‘e’ at the end). The name is supposedly derived from the combination of the medieval English words for holy and butte (the combo has everything to do with traditional Catholic food obsessions, and ‘butte’ here is the general term for flatfish, not a part…

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  • smoked fish salad toasts; fried butterfish, tomato, collards

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    Four whole butterfish, enough to serve as an entrée for both of us, set me back all of $1.85 at the Union Square Greenmarket yesterday. I knew they would be cheap; they always are, but I was still shocked when I saw the amount written on the bag. I told Delores, the fisherman’s wife, preparer…

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  • prosciutto, arugula; trumpets with cucumber, chili, ramps

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    I would normally go to the Union Square Greenmarket on a Friday, but yesterday I decided not to go (heavy rain; I waited for it to clear, until it was probably already too late; I didn’t really have to go; etc., and, anyway, I could go the next day, even though it would be crowded…

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  • roasted: tilefish, ramps, herbs, tomato; asparagus, thyme

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    Even though I think I’m always prepared for the possibility, I’m still pretty surprised when a meal exceeds my expectations. This one went out of the park. I’m taking a good look at this picture of the first outing of my old, recently re-tinned pan, because I’m pretty sure it’s not ever going to look…

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  • local hemp pasta, shallot, oyster mushrooms, 2 chilis, sage

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    Just after midnight Tuesday I tweeted, aware of the possible ambiguity, “we had local mushrooms and hemp pasta tonight; now enjoying a little California rosé as a chaser, listening to @WilliamBasinski” (we had turned to the Basinski after the Vaňhal symphonies that had accompanied the meal itself). The reality had nothing to do with hallucinogenics, although there was…

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  • baked monkfish, tomatoes, and purple potatoes; mustards

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    I didn’t know what I was going to do with the monkfish tails this time until Barry suggested I roast them with the little Magic Molly fingerlings I had bought the week before. It seemed it would be a good time to use these deep purple potatoes, since their darkness doesn’t work visually with many…

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  • sunchoke pasta, shallot, chili, thyme, claytonia, lime, crumb

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    I didn’t have any great expectations for this slight, improvised dish, but good artisanal pasta is usually an extremely good collaborator, so it turned out really, really well, thanks also to the claytonia, or miners lettuce that I had picked up in the Greenmarket a few days earlier. one medium slightly robust in flavor ‘Camelot’…

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