If the phrases “prix fixe” and “free Prosecco” make your significant other swoon, this Valentine’s Day ought to be filled with romance. Here on the South Fork, plenty of restaurants are offering dinner and drink specials next Thursday. For those looking to kick the celebration up a notch, the Baker House 1650 also has a deal on hotel rooms.

Almond in Bridgehampton will offer a special four-course dinner with a blood orange theme. The menu includes entrees such as blood orange lacquered duck and swordfish adobo with a blood orange mole. The cost is $85 per person, not including tax and gratuity.  

A four-course prix fixe dinner at the 1770 House in East Hampton will feature entrees such as butter-poached lobster, suckling pig porchetta, and braised short rib. The cost is $85, not including tax and gratuity. 

In addition to $1 oysters and $10 glasses of champagne, the Bell and Anchor in Noyac will offer a two-course dinner with a bouillabaisse entree for $35. For $5 more, dessert is included. 

Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor will offer a five-course prix fixe dinner, including a cheese course, with beer and wine pairings. The menu features entrees such as a roast venison chop and drunken lobster. The cost is $75 per person, $85 with a beer pairing, and $95 with a wine pairing. Tax and gratuity are not included. 

The à la carte Valentine’s Day specials at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will include lobster and avocado salad for $24 and roast branzino filet for $42. 

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will offer à la carte dinner specials including a steak tartare appetizer for $16 and a cioppino entree for $32. 

Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett will have a dinner of prime rib or the catch of the day for $29, including soup or salad, a baked potato, and a vegetable side dish. Diners will also receive a complimentary glass of prosecco.

At Fresno in East Hampton, glasses of champagne will be discounted and there will be $1 oysters and à la carte dinner specials. 

For something a little different, Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack will offer “pre-dinner” fondu and Reisling tastings for two next Thursday from 6 to 7 p.m. Guests will taste two of the winemaker Roman Roth’s creations, Grapes of Roth Dry Riesling and Grapes of Roth Virgin Berry Reisling. The cost is $40, and reservations should be made in advance through wolffer.com.

At Wolffer Kitchen in Sag Harbor, diners next Thursday will get a complimentary taste of the vineyard’s new 2015 vintage of Noblesse Oblige sparkling rosé. The menu will feature a number of specials designed for two by the restaurant’s chef, Mike Ronzino. 

The Baker House 1650’s romance package will be offered from Feb. 11 to Feb. 15. A two-night stay starts at $1,060 per night, and includes a couple’s massage at the hotel’s spa, a bottle of champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and a late checkout time. Reservations must be made a day in advance.

Jeremy Blutstein, the chef de cuisine at Almond in Bridgehampton and a fixture of the South Fork culinary world since he was a teenager, has been named the executive chef of Gurney’s Star Island Resort and Marina. The resort, which was formerly the Montauk Yacht Club, was purchased by Gurney’s in May. It is undergoing renovations and is scheduled to open in the spring. 

Mr. Blutstein will oversee the entirety of the resort’s food service, including a cafe for hotel guests only, a catering operation, and the main restaurant, which will feature a seafood-centric menu, according to Edible East End. 

His career in the restaurant business began in Amagansett at age 14, when he started working at the Farmhouse. “I was basically running the place by the time I was 20,” he told The Star recently. 

Mr. Blutstein, who has been nominated for a James Beard award, previously helped open the Surf Lodge and Ruschmeyer’s, and he ran the Crow’s Nest, all in Montauk. He also worked in New York City at the Palm, Del Frisco’s, and Blue Fin, but, ultimately, he prefers working on the East End, he told The Star. “There’s no better place to be. Period,” he said. “It’s the best place to cook as far as I’m concerned.”

He will continue at Almond through Feb. 24.

“Couldn’t have asked for a better two years,” Mr. Blutstein wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday, referring to his stint at Almond. “So much love and respect for my time spent here at Almond. Nice knowing that I will always have Jason Weiner & Eric Lemonides in my corner.” J.B.

The other day I woke up bright and early as is my wont. I prepared a pot of coffee, fed the dog, and had the television news on in the background. There was a breaking news announcement: A man had been arrested at his home in Fort Lauderdale. “Oh, what delicious news,” I thought to myself. “This calls for some freshly baked bread, sliced and toasted, spread with Kerrygold butter. And perhaps some fig jam.” Seriously, this is how my mind works. Good news? That calls for comfort food. Bad news?  THAT calls for comfort food.

Good bread, with good butter, is truly one of life’s most basic, fundamental, and simplest of pleasures. It’s a pity that a lot of people nowadays shun it, or believe they are allergic to gluten. Homemade bread is especially great because it is inexpensive to make and fun to do with children. It does require some time, elbow grease, and a little bit of experience, though.

I used to be a pastry chef, but bread was not part of my repertoire. I was tasked with feeding and keeping alive a sourdough mother, but the baking of the bread was done later in the day by the head chef. I made the occasional batch of Parker House rolls doused in Old Bay seasoning butter, and that’s about it. At home I can bake a simple white loaf. I never owned a bread machine when that was a fad and I never thought anyone’s bread that came out of that machine was very good.

All you need to bake bread is flour (bread flour is preferable but all purpose will do), yeast, water, and salt. A bit of sugar is optional. If you have a standing mixer with a bread hook, your bread making will be a hundred times easier. If you have a gas oven, you will also have the perfect location for dough to rise. You can speed up this process and slow it down, depending on your schedule and needs. The first rising usually takes one to two hours, the second rising about 45 minutes to an hour. To slow the rising, just put the dough in the refrigerator. When we were little and had just moved to Virginia from California, our best friends and neighbors and carpool mates were the Yarmolinskys. Their mom, Harriet, would drive around with a bowl of bread dough on the seat next to her so she could punch it down when the time came. What a cool hippie-dippy mom!

The only kind of bread I make with any frequency besides plain white yeast bread is soda bread. This is super easy. It is pretty much foolproof, and you’re still making homemade bread! As far as toppings go, I have a ridiculously varied selection of jams, jellies, and preserves. My favorite is black raspberry, which isn’t easy to find. After that, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, blueberry, marionberry, peach, beach plum, orange marmalade, and fig jam are my go-tos. I also love any kind of honey and the occasional nostalgic cinnamon sugar topping. 

I am also a butter snob. For general baking I’ll use any stick butter like Breakstone, but for spreading on good bread (or vegetables or rice), I insist on Kerrygold, Plugra, President, Echire, Beurre D’Isigny, or any of those other fancy foreign butters. They are worth the extra expense. Whether you choose sweet or salted butter is a personal preference. I like salted. It also stays fresh longer because the salt acts as a preservative. There is nothing worse than old, rancid-tasting butter.

If you want to get serious about bread baking, a good book to start with would be “Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast” by Ken Forkish. I also really like James Beard’s “Beard on Bread,” written in 1973. I inherited a copy from my parents’ dear friends Kay and Berton Roueche. It is full of stains and scribbles and stars and underlinings. Mr. Beard’s writing style is cozy and conversational and you find out very quickly that there is nothing he loves more than white bread and butter tea sandwiches, with perhaps a big thick slice of raw onion in them!

One thing you will notice about homemade bread is how long it lasts. I keep mine out on the counter, loosely wrapped, for several days. If I’m not using it, I will wrap it up tightly in plastic, then foil, then label it and freeze it until needed. Do not freeze bread for a long time; it is too delicate.

We are lucky out here to have amazing local breads like Carissa’s. I also like Blue Duck for simple loaves, Eli’s for raisin walnut, and Marie Eiffel on Shelter Island for a pretty good French-style baguette. But why not try your hand at baking your own? Start with a basic recipe such as the following one from the King Arthur Flour company or make a soda bread so you’ll be a pro by St. Patrick’s Day in March. 

I’d like to end this column with a poem by my late friend E.J. Mudd. It says it all.

Bread

Mix flour, water, yeast and salt.

If the phone rings, don’t answer.

Your fingers are a sticky mess.

Let dough rise in a nice, warm place.

If the phone rings, don’t answer.

You’re creating.

Knead till satiny. Divide into loaves.

If the phone rings, don’t answer.

You’re sculpting.

Bake in hot oven till crisp and brown.

If the phone rings, don’t answer.

You’re in aromatherapy.

Take out and eat a piece at once.

If the phone rings, don’t answer.

You’re in heaven.

Panis AngelicusToasted homemade bread with raspberry jam is one of life’s most fundamental pleasures.    Laura Donnelly

CLICK FOR RECIPES

Elaia Specials

Elaia Estiatorio in Bridgehampton is offering a three-course prix fixe dinner for $29 on Wednesdays through Sundays (excluding holiday weekends). For $10 more, two glasses of house wine are included. 

Sen Soiree

Sen in Sag Harbor will hold a weekly sake and cocktail party with passed hors d’oeuvres from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Sundays. The cost is $25 per person, and reservations are not necessary. 

Soul Food

A free class on cooking soul food will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton. T. Alexander, a Long Island restaurateur, will demonstrate how to create a three-ingredient dish and provide insight into the history of American soul food. A buffet-style dinner of fried chicken, collard greens, and black-eyed peas will follow. Registration is via the library’s website.

For the Super Bowl

Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett will hold a big game viewing party with food and drink specials at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. There will be a complimentary buffet during halftime, and attendees will have the chance to win prizes such as a flat-screen TV, a beach chair, and T-shirts. The first 50 people through the door will receive goodie bags.

The Springs Tavern will offer drink specials, a free buffet during half time, and prize giveaways at its Sunday game event.

The Clubhouse in East Hampton will offer an all-you-can-eat buffet for $25 at its viewing party, which starts at 5 p.m. The buffet will include dishes such as pulled pork sliders, chicken Marsala, pizza, salad, and dessert.

Townline BBQ in Wainscott will have food and drink specials, plus raffles during the Super Bowl. The food items include a cheeseburger or hot dog with fries and a beer for $9, and a brisket cheese steak for $11. The restaurant will also offer takeout dishes such as a tray of nachos that serves 12 for $32, and 50 pieces of chicken wings for $45. Takeout orders must be placed in advance. 

Organic Krush in Amagansett has a special catering menu for Sunday’s game. The prepared dishes include barbecue ribs for $15 per person (with a minimum order of 10 servings), turkey or vegetarian chili that serves six for $64, and baked chicken wings. A small order of wings, which serves 8 to 10 people, is $70, and a large order, which serves 16 to 20, is $140. Orders must be placed by Friday. 

The game-day specials at Stuart’s Seafood in Amagansett will include a two-pound platter of shrimp for $60, a dozen clams for $8, and a dozen oysters for $15. A variety of dips will also be available. Orders should be placed by Saturday, and picked up by 5 p.m. on Sunday. 

Artists and Writers Night

Almond in Bridgehampton will hold an Artists and Writers night with Meghan Boody, a photographer and multimedia sculptor, on Tuesday at 7. Ms. Boody will give tarot card readings using a deck she created. A three-course family style meal will be served. The cost is $45 and includes a glass of wine or beer, but not tax and gratuity. Reservations, which are required, are by calling the restaurant.

Restaurant Week Deals

Long Island Restaurant Week specials, which feature a three-course prix fixe meal for $29.95, are available until Sunday at Lulu Kitchen and Bar, Page at 63 Main, and Wolffer Kitchen in Sag Harbor, Wolffer Kitchen in Amagansett, Elaia Estiatorio and Jean-Georges at the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, Bistro Ete in Water Mill, and Le Charlot in Southampton.

For those hosting New Year’s Eve soirees, Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett has party platters, raw bar items, caviar, and lobster dinners and will be open until 6 p.m. on Monday. It will be closed on New Year’s Day and every Tuesday thereafter through mid-April.

A New Year’s Eve Option

Almond in Bridgehampton will serve a five-course prix fixe dinner at 9 on New Year’s Eve. The menu features entrees such as a surf and turf dish of lobster raviolo and braised short ribs, and olive oil poached halibut. Diners will receive party favors and there will be a champagne toast. The cost is $125 plus tax and gratuity. The à la carte menu will be available earlier in the evening, and the restaurant will also serve snacks and specialty drinks at the bar.

This is a roundup of just about every Chinese restaurant/takeout establishment in our area from Amagansett to Southampton. Montauk no longer has a Chinese restaurant since Wok ’n’ Roll “you hook ’em, we cook ’em” closed. Hardly seems fair since East Hampton has two. 

Two were missed, Dragon Garden on North Sea Road in Southampton and Number One Chinese in Water Mill, because every time I went, it was closed. There was a children’s bicycle resting inside the front window. 

Most of these establishments are takeout only, with no more than a few chairs or stools for waiting and free publications you have no interest in reading. The exceptions are Phoenix in Wainscott and Chen’s Garden in East Hampton. Some are cash only and some don’t have websites, but of this you can be assured: Every single Chinese takeout joint is open 365 days of the year, with the exception of Chen’s Garden, which is closed on Tuesdays. Some deliver and some do not. The menus at each and every one are almost identical, lengthy, and shockingly reasonable. The two exceptions here are Phoenix, which offers some Japanese food, and Fusion Express, formerly China Town, in East Hampton, which has some Thai offerings.

The places I tried are Sing City in Sag Harbor, China Garden in Southampton, Phoenix in Wainscott, Fusion Express in East Hampton, Chen’s Garden in East Hampton, and New Best Taste in Amagansett. 

None of the places were particularly good, nor did I expect them to be, but I pretty much found something to like or appreciate at each and every one.

By the time I was halfway through the research, I lowered my “expectation factor” considerably, looking on the bright side. A moderately clean floor? Yay! A smile? I’m coming back just for that! But these Chinese takeouts and restaurants serve an important purpose in our, and every, community. They offer cheap, fast food for hard-working laborers of all nationalities, high school kids who just need something filling, tired wives, husbands, and parents who don’t have the time or energy to cook. And occasionally a lazy restaurant reviewer. . . . They are there for you 365 days of the year.

Someone asked me recently, “What’s your favorite Chinese take out? Which one is the best?” Hence this column. I always do a pivot worthy of Kellyanne Conway when asked my “favorite” anything restaurant-wise. I said I think everyone’s favorite is probably the closest one to them. That being said, I do not have a favorite, but Sing City is closest to me and I get its moo shu vegetables and stir-fried string beans about once a year. They are adequate dishes and when I get home I douse the moo shu vegetables with my own hoisin sauce and some sriracha or sambal oelek chili paste. Bonus points for Sing City: One time years ago I showed up half an hour before they were opening and they opened up and cooked for me. I do not recommend trying this; I think they were frightened of me. Cash only, no website, no delivery.

Next were China Garden and Phoenix. At first I thought getting identical dishes from every place would provide continuity but I tired of that after these two places. China Garden — “Best of the Best” Dan’s Papers — was filthy and the front door looked like someone had attempted to jimmy it. The dishes I tried were moo shu vegetables, boneless ribs, and green beans. The moo shu vegetables were okay, with mostly cabbage, bean sprouts, baby corn, carrots, mushrooms, and broccoli. The ribs were sweet and tough, most not swallowable. The green beans were somewhat garlicky, not much else. My fortune cookie said, “It could be better, but it’s good enough.” They also offer chicken nuggets and French fries for $3.25 and $2.25 respectively, and there were quite a few workers waiting for takeout orders of chicken and rice dishes. Cash only, no delivery.

Next stop, Phoenix, quiet as a tomb. Nobody to be seen up front but loud chatter coming from the kitchen. Eventually, a man emerged to take my order. More boneless ribs and an order of Szechuan spicy chicken. I was moo shued out. The ribs from here were more tender but lacked flavor. The Szechuan chicken had a lot of vegetables and some cornstarch-coated chicken in a thin, mildly seasoned sauce. The rice tasted freshly cooked. And Phoenix delivers.

On to Fusion Express which delivers and has a bare bones website with an upside down menu. This was one of the more expensive places. I tried cold sesame noodles, moo shu vegetables, and a Thai green curry with chicken. The cold sesame noodles tasted mostly of peanut butter and were very dense and gluey, but I enjoyed about three bites. Fusion Express had one of the better versions of moo shu vegetables. They were crunchy and had a hint of smokiness, known as wok hei, “breath of the wok,” an intentional smoky, almost burnt flavor. The green curry was okay, but once again, the chicken was coated in a disconcertingly slippery layer of cornstarch, which didn’t do much for the texture since this is a soupy dish. It was coconut milk, moderately spicy, with red and green peppers, green beans, and eggplant. Fusion Express was clean.

New Best Taste, formerly Best Taste in Amagansett was the next location. This place is takeout only and it does take credit cards. The family was gathered up front scrolling through a big roll of lottery tickets. They moved back to the kitchen and continued perusing when I walked in. A very well-dressed and stylish woman took my order. I got a spring roll, vegetable dumplings, Szechuan shrimp, and either kung pao or General Tso’s chicken. The spring roll and the vegetable dumplings were pretty good and I’ve heard they’re made in-house. The spring roll was thin, crisp, and not greasy. The dumplings had a thick dough but the filling was gingery and the dipping sauce tart-sweet. None of the Szechuan or Hunan dishes I ordered at any of these places was spicy at all, as they should be. Such was also the case here. The sauce was more like ketchup and vinegar and there were many chunks of al dente onions. However, there were 10 big shrimp in it and they were cooked perfectly. The chicken dish (I think I ordered kung pao) was fair, but again the slippery, cornstarch coated chicken in the sweet-sour sauce was not as it should be. A wonton soup came with the order. It was watery, but the dumplings were pretty good.

Last stop, Chen’s Garden, where you are always greeted cheerfully, the place is clean, and the prices some of the cheapest, but we are literally talking pennies here. It delivers, takes credit cards, and has a Weight Watchers menu. I tried the crispy orange beef, vegetable chow fun, and brown rice. The crispy orange beef was not spicy, again a sweet sauce, but the strips of beef were mostly crisp and tasty with tiny cubes of fresh orange peel in the dish. The chow fun was extremely overcooked wide noodles with overcooked vegetables. I tried to salvage it at home with some black vinegar (such as you’d put on bian bian noodles) and homemade orange chili sauce but it didn’t help. The brown rice here is very good, though.

The history of Chinese restaurants in America is a fascinating story but too long to tell here. It is worth researching if you are interested. From immigration to assimilation and hard work, there is a rotating system among communities and families, which is one of the reasons the names, management, and quality of each restaurant is somewhat unreliable and ever changing.

I am still mystified as to why the menus have to be so long, the portions so huge yet cheap, and who would order lobster or scallops. Most items come from freezers and are probably all from the same source. But the vegetables are fresh, there are dishes geared toward simpler tastes, and dietary restrictions are acknowledged at two or three establishments. The Chinese families in our communities work hard and we should be grateful for the niche they fill. As that fortune cookie so presciently put it: “It could be better, but it’s good enough.”

Christmas Deals

The American Hotel will offer five-course prix-fixe dinner specials on Christmas Eve from 5 to 10 p.m. and Christmas Day from 12:30 to 7:30. The cost is $85 for adults and $40 for children. Reservations are by calling the hotel.

The Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, the home of the Jean-Georges restaurant, is offering a deal on gift cards. Those who purchase a gift card on the hotel’s website will receive a complimentary one at the same value.

The L&W market in Bridgehampton is selling holiday gift baskets filled with products prepared by Almond, its sister restaurant, and other local artisans. Prepared baskets feature items such as assorted pickles for $35, and citrus cured olives and smoked almonds for $26. Customers can also choose their own assortments. The market will be open on Christmas Eve from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

New Year’s Day Dining

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will have à la carte lunch specials on Jan. 1 including salmon Benedict for $18 and a smoked trout and chives omelette for $16. 

The 1770 House in East Hampton will offer a three-course prix fixe dinner menu on New Year’s Day starting at 5:30 in both the dining room and the downstairs tavern. The cost is $35. The special will be available Sunday through Thursday.

A separate story on New Year’s Eve celebrations at restaurants and other locales appears elsewhere in today’s paper.

Baron’s Cove Special

On Thursdays from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor has a three-course prix fixe for $48 or an à la carte menu for  Specials on wine by the glass or bottle are also available.  

New Year’s Catering

The Art of Eating in Bridgehampton has a special catering menu for New Year’s Eve parties. The prepared dishes include dips and spreads, soups, salads, and entrees such as rack of lamb for $29 per pound. Orders must be placed by Sunday and picked up by 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 31.

Have you dropped the ball by not making a plan for New Year’s Eve? No worries, you still have plenty of options. Whether you prefer to celebrate by dancing or indulging in a gourmet meal, here are some of the venues offering festive ways to ring in 2019. 

Gurney’s Resort in Montauk will hold a beach club-themed party with an open bar and music provided by Vikas Sapra, a New York D.J., in its Great Hall from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. The cost is $180. Tickets can be purchased via the resort’s website.

At Scarpetta Beach, the hotel’s restaurant, there will be two seatings for a five-course prix fixe dinner. The menu features dishes such as black tagliolini with shrimp, wagyu beef, and venison. The cost is $105 for the 5 p.m. seating, and $125 for the 7 p.m. seating. 

The Wolffer Kitchen restaurants in Amagansett and Sag Harbor will offer a three-course dinner for $75 at 6 and 8 p.m. seatings, and a four-course dinner for $100 at 10 p.m. 

At the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, G.E. Smith will be in concert at 8 p.m., followed by the Nancy Atlas Project at 10. Tickets are $30 for each show and available at the door. 

Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton will serve a la carte dinner specials from 5:45 to 10 p.m. The menu includes a white truffle tagliatelle appetizer at market price and an osso buco entree for $48.

At Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, there will be à la carte specials for dinner, including a grilled rack of lamb for $32.

The 1770 House in East Hampton will serve a four-course prix fixe dinner from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Menu items include tuna tartare, foie gras, lobster, and filet mignon. The cost is $110 per person not including tax, gratuity, and beverages. 

The Clubhouse in East Hampton will hold a Roaring Twenties-themed party starting at 9 p.m., with passed hors d’oeuvres, free well drinks from 10 p.m. to midnight, live music, party favors, and a champagne toast. The cost is $50 for tickets purchased today and $65 thereafter. 

The five-course prix fixe dinner at Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will feature a beef and truffle tartare appetizer and a lobster thermidor entree. The cost is $120 for the seating between 5 and 8:30 p.m., and $135 for 9:30 to 11 p.m. 

Duck à l’orange and veal Oscar are among the entrees on the five-course prix fixe dinner menu at Page at 63 Main in Sag Harbor. The cost is $80 for the first seating at 7 p.m. The second seating, at 9:30, which costs $180, will feature live music by Joe Lauro and the HooDoo Loungers and a champagne toast at midnight.

Also in Sag Harbor, Lulu Kitchen and Bar will serve its regular à la carte dinner menu between 5 and 7 p.m. A four-course prix fixe menu will be available at 8. The cost is $125, plus tax and gratuity. Alfredo Merat, a singer-songwriter, will play music at the latter seating, and diners will be given party favors. The menu features champagne and mussel soup, butter-poached sturgeon, and roast venison loin. 

Jean-Georges at the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton will be serving a four-course prix fixe dinner for $98. The menu has dishes such as seared black sea bass and wagyu beef tenderloin. The hotel will also have a champagne party with a D.J. and dancing from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The event will include passed hors d’oeuvres and an open bar. The cost is $125. Tickets can be purchased on eventbrite.com.

At Pierre’s in Bridgehampton, there will be two seatings for a three-course prix fixe dinner. At 5 p.m., the menu features an escargot appetizer and a lobster fricassee entree. The cost is $75. At the 8:30 p.m. seating, which costs $135, the menu includes a foie gras appetizer and a rack of lamb entree. There will also be a dance party in the restaurant’s upstairs lounge. 

From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., Union Cantina in Southampton will hold a party with a full dinner buffet and dessert table, a four-hour open bar of top-shelf liquor, and live music by the Bay Ridge All-Stars. The cost is $75. Reservations are via the restaurant’s website. 

Claude’s restaurant at the Southampton Inn will serve a four-course prix fixe dinner for $125, featuring entrees such as duck breast and a winter vegetable risotto plus a prosecco toast at midnight.

You don’t have to celebrate Christmas to love Christmas breakfast! From friends near and far-flung, I learned of so many wonderful cuisines, cultures, and traditions. Some were elaborate, creative, and inspiring. And frankly, some were just downright sad. 

Drake’s coffee cake? No. Full-size, warm from the oven? That doesn’t make it any better.

My friend and former NPR colleague, Bill Drummond, offered to send me the Christmas breakfast menu from San Quentin prison. (Bill teaches journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and also helps the inmates of San Quentin with their newspaper.) But then the prison went on lockdown. Then Bill said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would get back to me by deadline. Alas, they didn’t, so I looked them up. Sadly, there has been considerable illegal drug trafficking at the prison lately so their hands are full. Apparently, drones can deliver drugs. So I found a Christmas breakfast menu from San Quentin 1928. Among many more fruits, cereals, breads, and egg dishes, there were baked apples with cream, white figs, grilled French lamb chops, eggs Vienna style, and Parker House rolls. The lunch and dinner menus were so elaborate that they’re in pidgin French.

My childhood friend Dicky Brennan is an excellent cook. His family starts the day with fresh juices, scrambled eggs, brioche with honey and jams, toasted slices of stollen, and bacon. When his brother and sister-in-law arrive by lunchtime they continue with Bloody Marys made with Clamato juice and aquavit, smoked salmon on toast points, and Alice Lees, named after his grandmother. These are savory little wedges of toasted English muffins topped with cheddar cheese, Worcestershire sauce, chutney, Tabasco, and enough mayo to bind, then broiled.

Chefs do it up right. Brian Szostak of the Bridgehampton Inn makes cinnamon roll pancakes with bourbon maple syrup. The proprietress, Sybille van Kempen, goes with a Danish-German mash-up of “anything goes frittata, smoked trout with horseradish sauce, cucumber salad, strong black tea, stollen with marzipan, and sugar plums.” Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor whips up chicken hash on a grill in his home kitchen fireplace. Ellen White, although a superb cook and former chef, had to succumb in childhood to her Scottish father’s tastes. She wrote, “Those Scotts LOVE their offal, so we would have broiled kidneys and proper bacon, what in the U.S. is called Canadian bacon, for breakfast.” She says she loved it.

Another former nipper, Maury Schlesinger, shared that his wife is Danish, so they have ebelskivers (little pancake balls) at Christmastime and ebelskivers serving as sufganiyot for Hanukkah. Amy Eller has what she calls “Jewish Christmas” breakfast consisting of leftover caviar and blinis fried in butter, a warmed up cranberry orange compote, hot chocolate, and champagne. This was one of my favorite menus but my question is: Who has leftover caviar?

Kathryn and Gavin Menu of The Sag Harbor Express go straight into brunch time after the kids have been fortified with Grandma Marge’s pancake breakfast. His mother makes a tomato sauce-based dish with sausage, chicken thighs, and peppers, along with eggs, bagels with the works, and home fries.

Shira Sacks-Barzilay makes a challah bread pudding with mascarpone, almond extract, and a surprise caramel sauce at the bottom. Don’t all of these menus sound delicious?

Cinnamon rolls and sticky buns were mentioned a lot, either homemade or good ol’ Pillsbury. Strata, an eggy, bread pudding-like casserole that sets over­night in the fridge before baking in the oven in the morning, is another popular item. I usually make eggs Benedict with the cheat of using Knorr’s Hollandaise sauce mix all doctored up with lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. Don’t judge me, it’s Christmas morning!

Some traditional Christmas breakfast dishes from around the world sound wonderful and worth trying, some just sound plain dreary. Would you want to wake up on Christmas day in a country where it’s cold and dark for months and months and be served riispurro, a Finnish rice porridge made with plum juice? But, hey, whoever finds the hidden almond in that cruel gruel will have good luck for the rest of the year. Hopefully that means travel to a warmer climate. The Danish also make a porridge, this one out of rye bread, called ollbrod. Their dish known as aebleflaesk sounds much more appealing: roast apples with bacon, onions, and thyme. More tasty options are atole (thick hot chocolate) from Mexico, which becomes champurrado when you add cinnamon. Croatians make povitica, a walnut-swirled, lightly sweetened bread, and krofne, doughnuts filled with jams or jellies or custard. The Belgians and Greeks make sweet breads representing swaddled baby Jesus or the cross. 

In Jamaica, along with callaloo, beef liver, breadfruit, and fried plantains, they have their national dish for Christmas, ackee and saltfish. This is a saute that resembles scrambled eggs: codfish, boiled ackee, Scotch bonnet peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

I recently took a 23andMe DNA test. It was no surprise that I am mostly Irish. But with a mostly Norwegian grandmother (Wiborg) and fully Norwegian immigrant great-grandfather, I assumed I was a decent fraction Scandinavian. But zut alors! Mon dieu! I am more French than Norwegian. Some of my dead relatives have a lot of explaining to do. That being said, I suppose we may be having  oeufs en cocotte avec croissants et brioche this coming Christmas morning. Joyeux Noel and joyeuses fetes everyone, whatever you celebrate, wherever you are, and whatever you eat.

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Carissa’s Deadline

The last day to place Christmas orders from Carissa’s Bakery in East Hampton will be Sunday. The pickup times for orders will be between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Dec. 22 through Dec. 24. 

Christmas Eve Dining

Continuing an 18-year tradition, Almond in Bridgehampton will offer a special dinner of roast suckling pig with seasonal side dishes from 5 to 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The cost is $36, and a portion of the revenue will be donated to the Pajama Program, which provides new pajamas and books to needy children, many of whom are waiting to be adopted. The restaurant’s à la carte dinner menu will also be available.

The dinner specials at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton on Christmas Eve will include an appetizer of beet cured salmon and avocado toast with caviar for $21, and an entree of cioppino with lobster, Dungeness crab, and monkfish for $48. 

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will offer lunch specials on Dec. 24 including lobster bisque for $14, a chanterelle mushroom omelet for $16, and lobster roll for $32. The restaurant will be closed for dinner. 

The dinner specials at the Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton on Christmas Eve include chestnut and mushroom ravioli for $30, veal Milanese for $50, and pan-roasted halibut for $44. 

Christmas Day Prix Fixe

Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will offer a three-course prix fixe dinner from 2 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 25. The entree options include roast duck, filet of beef in a Perigourdine sauce, and pan-seared blackfish. The cost is $74 for adults, and $28 for children. 

The restaurant is open for dinner Thursdays through Saturdays from 5 to 9:30 p.m. and Sundays from 3 to 8. It also serves breakfast weekdays from 7:30 to 11 and brunch weekends from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.