Fans of Michael’s Restaurant (and they are legion) will be thrilled to know that its chef and owner, Luis DeLoera, has opened a new place, called the Blend at Three Mile Harbor. On the site where Harbor Grill used to be, it is an attractive space — beige and white wood, exposed beams, some framed mirrors around the dining area — with a good-size bar to the right as you enter.  A wall of glass and wooden doors creates a barrier between the dining room and the bar, to cut down on the din at Happy Hour.

On both recent visits, the owner was working behind the bar and came out to greet each and every guest in the dining room. This is always much appreciated. Like Michael’s, the Blend offers what people want: good value and hearty portions.

Upon being seated you get a bowl of green olives, a basket of good, crusty sliced bread, and some foil-wrapped butter pats (the man in the White House’s favorite because they haven’t been touched by human fingers!).

We began our meal with Caesar salad, calamari, tuna tartare, and baked clams. The Caesar salad was very good, with a lemony dressing, plenty of grated Parmesan (or Romano) cheese, house-made croutons — and bonus points for the two white anchovies resting on top. The calamari was pretty good, the rings a bit chewy, and it was served with one dish of marinara sauce and one with a chili aioli. The tuna tartare was a good version, big diced chunks of tuna with avocado in a citrusy dressing, with some tomato slices on the side. The menu said it was served with toasted bread crisps, but it was served with homemade potato gaufrettes, which were delicious and crunchy and able to withstand the weight of the tuna chunks. The baked clams, also pretty good, were six littlenecks with a lot of diced red pepper and bread crumbs.

For entrees we ordered the flounder, steak au poivre, braised lamb shank, and paccheri (a big tubular pasta similar to rigatoni) with Bolognese sauce. There are no side dishes offered at the Blend, because most entrees come complete with a vegetable (in this case, steamed vegetables on three of the entrees) and rice or potatoes. My guest found the flounder fresh and well seasoned, but a bit dry. “Steamed vegetables” sounds kind of boring, but the vegetables here had more oomph and more than evaporated water involved in their cooking: They were a medley of broccoli, red peppers, cauliflower, and asparagus and maybe a bit of butter. The flounder was also served with some rice.

The steak au poivre was an excellent, juicy steak, cooked perfectly to order and sliced, but the accompanying sauce had been made with finely ground black pepper, offering nothing but an intense, blasting heat. Steak au poivre is usually made with coarsely crushed peppercorns pressed into the meat before searing. The truffle fries served with it were hand-cut, loaded with Parmesan cheese and truffle oil, and were delicious. The braised lamb shank was also good, very tender and flavorful, served with the aforementioned vegetable side, and some good mashed potatoes flecked with bits of goat cheese. The paccheri was the dud of the bunch, simply because the pasta bordered on raw, like pre-al dente, so chewy it almost crunched. The Bolognese sauce, however, was very good. You could taste the full variety of meats used in its preparation.

The service on the night of our visit was excellent; our waiter, Todd, was knowledgeable and friendly. I had assumed the Blend was so named because it has an impressively large and reasonably priced wine list and they use beautiful wine glasses. That’s all true, concurred Todd, but it’s also called the Blend because the owner is half-Italian, half-Mexican, and his wife is Filipino, and there are meant to be some slightly Filipino touches throughout the menu. We couldn’t find the Filipino accents, but the menu at Michael’s does indeed have a few Southeast Asian touches. The Blend’s menu is surprisingly long for such a small space, with more than 16 appetizers and 17 entrees, plus a full-page prix fixe menu. The prices are moderate. Appetizers are $10 to $18, entrees are $24 to $38, and desserts are $7 to $10. 

We sampled a few desserts (not made in house), and they were just okay. We tried the cheesecake, which was very dense, period. The carrot cake was average. On a previous visit I had tried a chocolaty-peanut-butter brownie thingy and it was, again, not bad.

Over all, it was a nice experience. The Blend offers good value and some very good dishes at reasonable prices in a friendly atmosphere. Ask your server to direct you toward what’s best.

Produce Partnership

Balsam Farm’s community-supported agriculture program is now accepting memberships for the 2018 season. Here’s how the program works: Members pay an up-front fee to cover the cost of the farm’s planting and harvesting and then receive a weekly share of Balsam’s fresh produce. Participants can select the length of their memberships — 15 weeks for $500, 19 weeks for $630, 23 weeks for $760, or 26 weeks for $860. 

During the growing season, members pick up their produce at Balsam’s farm stand in Amagansett on Thursdays between 2 and 6 p.m. or on Fridays and Saturdays between noon and 4 p.m. The farm will also offer a Friday delivery option to anywhere in the Town of East Hampton for an additional fee. Those who sign up by Monday will receive a $50 gift card and a choice of Balsam Farms swag, including a T-shirt, hat, or a canvas bag. Those who sign up by March 17 will just receive the free swag. 

Those who don’t want to commit to a C.S.A. membership can get early-bird deals on gift cards. For instance, a $1,000 gift card will cost $725 if purchased by March 15. All purchases can be made at balsamfarms.com.

Wine Tasting

The Baker House 1650 in East Hampton is having a rosé tasting event led by a representative of Domaine Select Wine and Spirits on Saturday at 4 p.m. Six rosés will be sampled, and light snacks will be served. The cost is $50 per person on eventbrite.com by searching for “drink pink.”

Pigging Out

Almond in Bridgehampton is offering a five-course whole pig dinner (think pork rinds and pork leg confit) featuring paired wines from Macari Vineyards next Thursday starting at 7 p.m. The price is $65 per person, not including tax and gratuity. Reservations have been recommended. 

Oscar Pool

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton is kicking off its annual Oscars contest. Diners will receive a ballot along with their check, and those who want to participate can fill out their Oscars picks and hand the ballot to a restaurant staffer. The person who chooses the most correct winners — which will be revealed during the Oscars ceremony on March 4 — will receive a $50 gift certificate and two movie vouchers. In the case of a tie, a drawing will be held. 

Design and Dine

The featured artist at Wednesday’s A Night Out With event — a collaboration between the Golden Eagle Art Studio and Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton — is Dennis Leri, a sculptor who will talk about the underlying principles of his art and help participants build their own works using wood, metal, paper, and paint. The workshop starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Eagle on North Main Street in East Hampton and will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant next door. The cost is $75 and includes the class, supplies, dinner, tax, and tip.

It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your shipments of iced-down, black sea bass are? Or perhaps you want to check on the status of the longline boat that is catching your carton of golden tilefish from the 500-foot depths of the Hudson Canyon, located about 80 miles south of Montauk? For those who demand the freshest, most sustainable seafood, and partake in the increasingly popular and expanding Montauk-headquartered Dock to Dish community-supported fishery program, keeping an eye on your seafood order is a simple mouse click away. 

“More and more people want to know where, when, and how their fish are caught,” explained Sean Barrett, a fisherman and restaurateur who founded the cooperative fishery program in 2012. “Our motto is ‘know your fisherman’ and that has not changed. Members of Dock to Dish can check in real time the status of their catch from the beginning of the fishing trip all the way until it is delivered by hand right to their doorstep. It’s just one of the many enhancements we have made since we started.”

This year Mr. Barrett hopes to improve the fishery marketplace by having the world’s first live tracking dashboard so that end consumers on land can monitor hauls of wild seafood from individual fishermen at sea in near-real time. Named Dock to Dish 2.0, the new technology bundle was created in partnership with several fish tracking companies, including Pelagic Data Systems, Local Catch, and Fish Trax. Once completed, the bundle will be open-sourced, meaning it can be replicated and used by all independent small and medium-scale fisheries operations around the world. 

“Dock to Dish 2.0 is the first public-facing system to ever combine vessel and vehicle tracking with geospatial monitoring technologies on an interactive digital dashboard,” Mr. Barrett explained last month as he unloaded a catch of tilefish just outside the kitchen door of Nick and Toni’s, one of the first members of Dock to Dish’s restaurant-supported fisheries program. Fishing boats will be outfitted with solar-powered automatic data-collection monitors and application-specific wireless sensors. 

“The advancement represents a fulfillment of our vision to establish interoperability of traceability technologies in the seafood sector, and pioneer the most advanced electronic fishery database and information platform ever brought to market by an independent grassroots operation.” When up and running, Dock to Dish 2.0 will serve as a tool to provide clear, verifiable source and supply information, with tamper-proof digital assets to its members in near-real time.

Dock to Dish’s mission from the start was to make local, traceable, low-impact wild seafood accessible to organized groups of cooperative members through community and restaurant supported fishery programs. And those who are fortunate to be a member of the Dock to Dish program (there is a long waiting list to enter) are ensured they will receive the freshest, most local seafood possible. 

Since its founding, Dock to Dish has moved well beyond its foundation on the easternmost part of Long Island into an international network of small-scale fishermen, marine biologists, and sustainable seafood advocates working in teams from nearly 10 ports and harbors, including in Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, and Washington, D.C. Participants from Fiji and Panama will join this year. 

The demand for fresh, sustainable seafood is soaring. According to Mr. Barrett, more than 90 percent of the seafood entering the United States marketplace is being imported from overseas, and more than 50 percent of it is farmed fish from foreign aquaculture sources.

“Of the wild-caught seafood that the U.S. imports, approximately 30 percent is sourced through illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing operations in countries that have little or no regulations,” he said. “To top it off, about 2 percent of all imports are inspected by the F.D.A. before they enter the domestic food supply. And of that percentage they actually check, 70 percent are rejected. The quality control overseas is very poor. Today, more and more people want to know where their seafood is harvested and by what method.”

“When I was growing up, we would catch our fish that morning and have it for dinner,” added Mr. Barrett, who is also an appointed member of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Marine Resource Advisory Council. “The concept of Dock to Dish is basically the same principle.”

Unlike the traditional fish-handling process driven by cash and credit cycles, which can involve more than half a dozen sources before it reaches the end consumer, Dock to Dish members enter into short-term futures contracts with their local fishermen, and pay their membership dues in advance. Members are then entitled to a set volume of premium local seafood or “shares” that are systematically distributed over the course of a given season. The shares are supplied exclusively from the freshest and most carefully handled hauls of the most local and most abundant seafood that is landing in whichever respective port or harbor has been designated for that region. At first, Dock to Dish also offered individual or family shares, but that part of the program was suspended.

Dock to Dish deals with about 25 fishing captains out of Montauk, of which about 10 secure some 70 percent of the catch, Mr. Barrett said. Participating fishermen include Capt. David Tuma of the tilefish boat Kimberly, Capt. Terry Wallace of the inshore dragger Night Moves, Capts. John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski of the lobster and Jonah crab boat Anna Mary, and Capt. Ron Onorato of the Captain Ron, a pin-hooker who operates his own charter boat.

“Other than golden tilefish, which is caught year-round, Montauk is considered a seasonal fishery, unlike other ports like we have in California, where more fish are available 12 months of the year.” Mr. Barrett also said that he purchases fish from those who fish pound traps from Shinnecock Bay all the way to Montauk. 

Many of the most discerning customers when it comes to seafood, its freshness, and its origins are restaurants. A number of high-end Manhattan establishments like Blue Hill, Le Bernardin, and Per Se have been dealing with Dock to Dish for several years. Google’s Manhattan headquarters in Chelsea has been a client of the cooperative for the past four years and serves its catch to employees. In addition, several South Fork restaurants, including Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton and Almond in Bridgehampton, have participated in the program from its inception. 

“The quality of the seafood we receive from Sean is unparalleled,” said Joe Realmuto, the executive chef of the Honest Man Restaurant Group, whose South Fork eateries include Nick and Toni’s and Rowdy Hall. Nick and Toni’s was the very first customer to get involved with Dock to Dish. “It’s important that we have the freshest product, and Dock to Dish ensures that we have the best, sustainable, quality seafood available. They have been a terrific, reliable partner for us.” 

“It was not easy getting started,” Mr. Barrett said. “If it wasn’t for the patient mentoring and steady guidance we have received from him from the very beginning and through the years, we could never have come so far.”

Mr. Barrett also owes inspiration to Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett, one of the oldest community supported agriculture programs in the country. “Scott Chaskey, the farmer at Quail Hill, was a true inspiration to me,” recalls Mr. Barrett. “He wrote this amazing book called ‘This Common Ground,’ which was about the lifestyle of organic farms as well as community-supported agriculture.”

“His book really inspired me, and I went and I met with him, and we talked about whether it was possible to create a community-supported fishery,” added Mr. Barrett. “As we see the Dock to Dish model now flourish in so many places, it was Scott who told us from the beginning that ‘deep, strong roots are essential to growing long, strong branches.’ His words were so true.” 

“Over the past five years we have worked on the coastal local food movement, creating new alternatives to old industrialized seafood supply chains,” Mr. Barrett said. “Across this broad spectrum, our place-based sourcing initiatives have created new trails toward the restoration of transparency and sustainability in ocean-driven cuisine and the wild seafood marketplace at large.” 

“It has been very gratifying to see the progress we have made,” he smiled.

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Fred Bollaci, the author of the “The Restaurant Diet: How to Eat Out Every Night and Still Lose Weight,” will be at BookHampton in East Hampton on Saturday at 4 p.m. Mr. Bollaci, who is a lawyer, sommelier, columnist for the journal Appetite, and a self-proclaimed compulsive eater who has lost 150 pounds (down from 330), will discuss how to make the best menu choices at a restaurant. The book dissects the menus of local restaurants such as 1770 House, Red/Bar Brasserie, and 75 Main. Advance registration for the free event can be done on the BookHampton website. 

Valentine’s Day

A few more eateries should be added to the list of restaurants mentioned in last week’s paper that are offering Valentine’s Day specials.

Along with its regular menu on Wednesday night, Red/Bar will serve a few dishes inspired by the holiday or meant to be shared. Among them are warm poached oysters with leek fondue, lobster and forest mushroom croustade, whole roasted rosemary chicken for two with sautéed vegetables and garlic whipped potatoes, and pan-roasted garlic-crusted black Angus rib steak for two with broccoli rabe and creamy corn polenta. 

Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor is offering a three-course prix fixe Valentine’s Day menu for $65 per person and a four-course prix fixe menu for $85. Featured dishes include grilled marinated quail, olive oil-poached codfish, and, for dessert, molten chocolate cake. Reservations are recommended.

Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton is adding a few special a la carte items — including a beet-cured wild salmon appetizer ($22) and a wood-roasted one-and-a-half-pound lobster entree ($60) — to its menu.

At Rowdy Hall in East Hampton specials that night will include an appetizer of crispy oysters on the half shell and a branzino fillet entree. 

Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett is celebrating by taking 10 percent off cooked lobsters and lobster dinners. It is also offering a $35 per person dinner menu, which features a choice of stuffed flounder or cedar-planked salmon, twice baked potatoes or rice pilaf, green beans or asparagus, and Key lime pie, carrot cake, or chocolate cake for dessert. Orders must be placed before 2 p.m. and picked up before 6 on Valentine’s Day.

Greek Night

Elaia Estiatorio, a Greek restaurant in Bridgehampton, will offer a three-course prix fixe menu for $32 per person on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. A glass of Greek wine with dinner is $6.

If you want to know what the latest cooking trends, gadgets, and ingredients are, don’t come to me. I am always woefully uninformed. When spiralizers burst onto the scene, I had no idea what they were or what people were talking about. Now I know, and I have one, and they are fun for making zucchini noodles, or “zoodles,” curly carrots, swirly beet strings, and more.

The Instant Pot is another gadget that’s been all the rage for almost a year. What is it? A cool, simplified, affordable version of a crockpot and pressure cooker combined. It can also brown, sauté, steam, make yogurt, and cook rice perfectly. The Instant Pot’s advertising says it “speeds up cooking 2 to 10 times using up to 70 percent less energy, and produces nutritious, healthy food.” (That last part’s kinda redundant.) Furthermore, its makers promise that “Instant Pot is safe, intelligent, convenient, and dependable.” Now I think I want to date one.

The latest craze is not so much a piece of equipment as it is a method: sheet pan dinners. Again, something I knew nothing about even though there are already books and articles dedicated to this “new” convenient cooking technique. What is it? Just what it sounds like: You put all of your meal ingredients on a sheet pan to be roasted or baked and/or broiled together so there’s no muss and no fuss stirring, flipping, boiling, whatever on the stovetop. It’s a new take on the one-pot meal.

I’ve been roasting most of my vegetables for a long time. Cauliflower florets with onions and a bit of curry powder, carrots with a few teaspoons of maple syrup and finished with balsamic vinegar (like candy!), and a combination of peppers, fennel, and zucchini to be combined with pasta and fontina cheese. But it has never occurred to me to put some chicken thighs alongside chickpeas and some greens, pork on top of an apple cabbage slaw, salmon fillet with mustardy potatoes, and so on. Obviously, you have to understand cooking times. For example, asparagus is going to take much less time than chicken or potatoes. So you either have to cut your vegetables or meat into compatible pieces, or perhaps add certain items partway through the cooking process.

Once I got going on my research, the possibilities seemed endless as far as flavor profiles. For instance, one meal could be all Thai flavors with a bit of Thai curry paste mixed into coconut milk to top eggplant and some other vegetables, then some shrimp or chicken strips or tofu tossed on at the end. One recipe I found is very similar to chicken Marbella, chicken cooked with prunes or apricots, along with green olives, herbs, and olive oil. You could create a mock tagine with preserved lemons and spices, or shakshuka, full of vegetables and finished with eggs on top.

When it comes to equipment, it is important to have a good, sturdy sheet pan. These are made with either aluminum or stainless steel. You can’t use your Grandma’s old, flimsy, thin cookie sheets. These will buckle and warp and cause uneven cooking. You should have one or two half-sheet pans (these are 13 by 18 inches) and perhaps a quarter-size pan (9 by 13). Professional full-size sheet pans for industrial restaurant cooking are too big for the home oven. Parchment paper and aluminum foil can help with easy cleanup. Nonstick sheet pans are not recommended because eventually you will scratch them up, especially if you need to cut into pieces of the meat after cooking. You could also invest in Silpat cooking mats. These are silicone mats that are superb for keeping cookies and other sugary things from sticking.

So, once again, if you want to know what is au courant in cuisine, don’t ask me. You’ll have to read the magazines and watch the cooking shows. Learning new things, however, is always fun, and finding a “new” use for an old piece of equipment even better.

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Super Bowl Specials

To help you celebrate the Super Bowl, Smokin’ Wolf in East Hampton is giving away a free 12-pack of beer for every $85 spent on its menu, which features barbecue platters, sandwiches, wraps, salads, and quesadillas. 

If you’re opting for seafood over meat, Stuart’s Seafood in Amagansett is giving a 10-percent discount on cooked lobsters and lobster dinners. Shrimp platters are also available in two sizes: two pounds of large shrimp for $65 or two pounds of medium shrimp for $45. Stuart’s also carries pigs in blankets and other assorted appetizers. The deal is available tomorrow through Sunday. 

The Super Bowl party at Union Cantina in Southampton starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday and features food and drink specials, plus three complimentary raffles. The grand prize is a Friday night cabana at Southampton Social Club with bottle service for 10 people. 

Valentine’s Day

Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor is offering a three-course prix fixe Valentine’s Day menu for $50 per person. Featured entrees include salmon with sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, and horseradish creme and a flat-iron steak with Brussels sprouts, fingerling potatoes, and smoked butter. If you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day early, the menu will also be available on Sunday, Feb. 11. Reservations are required. 

Pomegranate will be the featured ingredient on the Valentine’s Day menu at Almond in Bridgehampton. The restaurant is offering a special four-course dinner for $75 per person — which is also available on Feb. 10 — in addition to the regular a la carte menu.

Wine Tasting

Park Place Wines in East Hampton will present a series of free wine classes starting on Feb. 14 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. The first class will focus on the differences between French and American cabernets, pinot noirs, and chardonnays. The next class, on Feb. 28, will introduce tasters to the white wines of Germany, Austria, and Alsace. 

Dye and Dine

The featured artist at this week’s A Night Out With event — a collaboration between the Golden Eagle Studio and Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton — is Traute Worschech, a painter who will teach the art of shibori tie-dyeing (silk scarves will be provided). The workshop takes place on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Eagle on North Main Street in East Hampton and will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant next door. The cost is $75 and includes the class, supplies, dinner, tax, and tip.

A couple of years ago I was overcome by a major craving for dumplings, like, serious, spicy Szechuan dumplings. The craving would not abate so I started researching where the nearest good Chinese restaurant was. I convinced myself that a three-hour round-trip drive UpIsland was not an unreasonable mission, and then realized that’s nuts! 

I told myself, “You know how to cook, surely you can figure out how to make dumplings.” And with the help of Lucky Peach’s “101 Easy Asian Recipes,” some won-­ton wrappers, and ground pork I did it. The recipe was easy, and it made enough for extra dumplings to be tossed in a Ziploc bag, popped in the freezer, and pulled out at a moment’s notice to impress friends and create a quick meal or substantial appetizer.

This time of year, we have more time and inclination to cook, but the appreciation for thriftiness knows no seasons. Ground meats and fish are marvelous starting points for hearty, versatile, and economical meals. 

Here is a ridiculously long list of ideas from around the world to give you an idea of how many variations and flavors there are. Let’s start with our own clam pie, rustic and old-fashioned. Then there are meatballs, hamburgers, meatloaf, moussaka, shepherd’s pie, pasties, empanadas, tacos, larb, pastitsio, corned beef and red flannel hash, chili, stuffed cabbage, peppers, eggplant, and zucchini, Sloppy Joe’s, brandade de morue (made with dried salt cod), steak and tuna tartare, potted shrimp, conch fritters, pork rillettes, chopped chicken liver, patés, sausage, quenelles, croquettes, picadillo. Shall I go on? 

One well-known San Francisco dish seldom seen outside of the Bay Area is called Joe’s Special. It was invented by an Italian-American in the 1920s and is a garlicky mixture of ground beef and spinach scrambled with eggs and served with toasted sourdough bread. Larb is a tangy, spicy ground chicken dish from Thailand that is served in lettuce cups as a light starter. Remember deviled ham? Not the creepy, fatty, out of the can Underwood variety, but the good, homemade version of chopped ham bound with mayonnaise, mustard, and chopped pickles. This is the perfect way to use up ham scraps. It can be served as an hors d’oeuvre or sandwich filling. Way back in the good old days, you could find this in East Hampton at Dreesen’s Excelsior Market, like way back when they still had sawdust on the floor.

Shepherd’s pie is another old-school dish you don’t see very often anymore. It is a layered dish with ground lamb, some winter vegetables, and a layer of mashed potatoes on top. Made with ground beef, it is known as cottage pie.

Most good markets out here can provide you with ground chicken, veal, pork, and lamb. If you can’t find them, a good butcher may be willing to grind up your meat of choice. You can also do this at home with a food processor.

A lot of ground meat recipes are especially well suited for big crowds, such as chili for a Super Bowl party, or tamale pie made more easily with a boxed cornbread mix.

Cuban picadillo is a versatile dish made with ground beef (or a combination of beef, pork, and chorizo), chopped olives, raisins, and plenty of oregano. This can be used as a filling for empanadas or tacos, served over rice with black beans and fried plantains, or just with a salad.

With a bit more labor but economy still in mind, you can tackle a recipe for fish quenelles, basically little oval dumplings that are poached in stock, then served in a rich sauce. Traditionally made in France with pike, you can make them with many varieties of local fish like fluke, flounder, or monkfish.

Jim Villas, a local cookbook author, 30-year food and wine editor of Town and Country, and all-around delightful gourmand, wrote an entire cookbook dedicated to ground meats and fish, titled “Ground Up.” In his introduction, he describes a conversation shared over champagne with a fellow illustrious East Hamptoner, Craig Claiborne, the cookbook author and longtime food editor of The New York Times. Aware of the many meals around the world that Mr. Claiborne had enjoyed in his lifetime, Mr. Villas asked him to name his absolute all-time favorite meal. Without hesitation, he replied, “anything with ground meat.” 

If economy and ease aren’t enough to convince you of the value of these humble dishes, then surely these words from one of our wisest food icons should be.

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A number of East End eateries are offering prix fixe deals this week as part of Long Island Restaurant Week, which continues through Sunday. On the South Fork, participating restaurants include Page at 63 Main, Wolffer Kitchen, and Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor, Le Charlot in Southampton, and Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton. They are offering a $28.95 three-course meal, with supplemental charges for certain dishes, all night tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday and until 6:30 on Saturday. 

Those willing to venture farther afield for the deal will find it at restaurants in Riverhead, Hampton Bays, and on the North Fork, including such spots as the well-reviewed North Fork Table and Inn in Southold and the Halyard at the Sound View motel in Greenport, overlooking the Long Island Sound. Reservations are a must and can be made directly through the restaurants or at opentable.com. 

Far East Flavors

The Asian specialty menu returns to the Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton tonight. The three-course prix fixe menu is $39 per person and features a green mango and papaya salad, a chicken and cashew nuts entree, and coconut sorbet for dessert. A la carte options include a main course of beef short rib with house-made kimchi and shareable dishes like crispy Long Island duck with hoisin sauce and moo shu pancakes.

Super Bowl Celebrations

Now that the teams are set for the Super Bowl on Feb. 4, Sam’s Beverage Place in East Hampton is taking 25 percent off all football-theme party accessories such as napkins, cups, and plates. 

Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett will be serving up a complimentary buffet during Super Bowl halftime. Drink specials will include $5 pints of tap beer and $6 well cocktails. The restaurant will also be offering giveaways with a chance to win a flat-screen TV, beach chairs, T-shirts, and $50 gift certificates to Indian Wells Tavern, Bostwick’s Chowder House, and Fierro’s Pizzeria. The event begins at 6 p.m. and the first 50 people through the door will receive a goody bag.  

Also on Super Bowl Sunday, diners at the Springs Tavern on Fort Pond Boulevard will receive a raffle ticket for each food or drink item purchased — prizes will be awarded at the end of each quarter. The restaurant will offer discounts on food and drinks.

O’Murphy’s Specials

O’Murphy’s Restaurant and Pub in Montauk is offering $24.95 dinner specials Sundays through Thursdays (the restaurant is closed Tuesdays). The price includes the soup of the day, a salad, and an entree, plus coffee and dessert.  

Draw and Dine

The latest A Night Out With event — a partnership between the Golden Eagle Studio and Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton — will take place on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. with a two-hour drawing class (working with a live, fully-clothed model) led by Linda Capello, a figurative artist. The workshop will be followed by a two-course dinner at the restaurant, which is next door. The price is $75 and includes the class, any necessary supplies, plus dinner, tax, and tip. 

Valentine’s Day

The 1770 House in East Hampton will offer a four-course prix-fixe tasting menu on Valentine’s Day. The dinner — featuring entree options such as sea scallops with mushroom and truffle broth and roasted rack of lamb — is priced at $85 per person, excluding beverages, tax, and gratuity. Service will began at 5:30 p.m.

When your hunter friends stop by and drop off their bounty, do you know what to do with it? Deer? Goose? Wild duck? 

I have fishermen and fisherwomen friends who drop off striped bass and blues and I am always thrilled and know what to do with them, but a lean, gamey duck that may have been feeding on fishy things? Not so much.

Pretty much every recipe online involves soaking or marinating wild birds in buttermilk or savory items, then wrapping in bacon to keep the meat moist, and not much guidance beyond that.

How wild is your game? This is a question worth asking. Most of the hunters I know prefer to go upstate, down south, or to Canada. Why? Fewer athletic fields, golf courses, manicured lawns, soy and corn fields, parks, and sod farms. In other words, fewer chemically treated food sources for these animals. If I see a group of deer munching happily on glysophate-laden bushes, shrubbery, and ornamental plants on Lily Pond Lane, I think “chemicals,” not “Oh, boy, Bambi Bolognese tonight!”

I am pro-hunting, and I have eaten venison in various forms and it was delicious. This can also be a valuable food source for many, through the donations of meat to local food banks and pantries.

If you are a duck hunter, you already know that the ducks that feed in freshwater taste better than sea ducks, which can be fishy tasting. Wood ducks and mallards are said to be the tastiest.

When I was growing up in Virginia, there was a popular restaurant in Washington, D.C., called Dominique’s, which specialized in all manner of exotic meats — elk, ostrich, alligator, llama, rattlesnake, you name it. Our parents never took us there; it was really more popular with people like Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, and the wealthy lobbyists who perpetually swarm our nation’s capital.

If you have a hankering to try something other than the usual hamburger or steak, there is a farm on the North Fork that raises bison. North Quarter Farm, owned by Ed Tuccio, has been raising “almost organic” bison since 1986. Bison meat tastes very much like beef, but is lower in fat and cholesterol and higher in protein than beef, chicken, pork, or turkey.

How about rabbit? This is considered quite a delicacy in France but seldom seen in America, either at home or on restaurant menus. If you want to get fancy you can prepare a saddle of rabbit. This is the cut that runs from the end of the rib cage to the hind legs, basically the two loins that sit on either side of the spine. The few times I have prepared rabbit, I kept it rustic, stewing it in a rich, mustardy sauce. It is delicious!

Many recipes for wild duck suggest removing the fatty skin, as this can be the part of the duck that is particularly strong flavored. Some suggest using only the breast meat. Others simply turn the meat into jerky, sausage, or pastrami.

Wild Canada goose is also delicious. I got a recipe years ago from Mark Borucke that begins with a marinade of garlic and ginger. Then the breast is cooked on the grill and served with a horseradish sauce and spiced pecans. This is always a hit.

So if you are “game” to try some more exotic meats and birds, here are some recipes for inspiration.

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For Travel Channel fans who have wondered if and when the peripatetic chef and TV personality Andrew Zimmern would touch down in the Hamptons, the wait is over. 

The first episode of season seven of his “Delicious Destinations” series, during which he visits Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett, the Lobster Roll restaurant on Napeague, Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton, and East Hampton Point, can be seen on Optimum’s Channel 96 on Sunday at 1:30 p.m., Jan. 29 at 8 p.m., Jan. 30 at 3 a.m., and Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. The Travel Channel’s verdict: “The Hamptons’ dinner scene is sizzling.”

Pollock’s Birthday

The Springs Tavern will celebrate Jackson Pollock’s birthday on Jan. 28 with an evening that will include art, nature, and a $30 prix fixe menu inspired by the artist. The tavern is on the site of Jungle Pete's, a bar and lounge he frequented back in the 1950s. Will food be flung and sauces splattered? Will the cake sport 106 candles? The answers can be found and reservations made by calling 631-527-7800.

The tavern also hosts happy hour Mondays through Fridays from 3 to 6 p.m. All wine, beer, and well drinks are reduced by $1, and a $5 bar menu — subject to change — includes mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce, vegetable egg rolls with sweet and sour sauce, chips and salsa, wings tossed and served with barbecue, buffalo, or sweet chili sauce and blue cheese dip, and grilled zucchini wheels with jack cheese and red pepper coulis.

Art Night

A Night Out With, which pairs an art workshop or discussion at the Golden Eagle Studio in East Hampton with a two-course dinner at the neighboring Nick and Toni’s, will feature the artists Dan Rizzie and Susan Lazarus-Reiman on Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m. at the studio. The $75 cost includes the art workshop, any supplies if needed, and dinner, tax, and gratuity. Linda Capello will be the guest on Jan. 31.

Bites for a Cause

Love Bites, an annual tasting event for the benefit of Katy’s Courage and the Scarlett Fund, will take place Saturday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Muses in Southampton. The evening will feature food and beverages from more than 20 local restaurants, caterers, private chefs, and other purveyors, and music by D.J. Michael of East End Entertainment. 

Tickets start at $125 and can be purchased at katyscourage.org. Katy’s Courage is dedicated to supporting education, children’s bereavement counseling, and pediatric cancer research in honor of Katy Stewart, and the Scarlett Fund benefits children’s cancer research in honor of Scarlett James.