I love lamb but seldom cook it at home. It’s expensive and kind of smelly. But of all meat and fowl, lamb and duck are my favorites. I have never cooked a rack of lamb and have probably roasted a leg only once or twice in my life. About once a year I’ll fry up some chops. This time of year, however, the idea of slow-cooked stews with shanks and legs is very appealing. 

One of my favorite recipes is from Patricia Wells’s “Bistro Cookbook,” a seven-hour leg of lamb cooked with a bottle of dry white wine, thyme, garlic, carrots, onions, potatoes, and tomatoes. It is a foolproof crowd-pleaser. 

From the 1600s to the 1960s, most farm families on Long Island raised all their own livestock. But real estate became too valuable and farms shrank. Nowadays, with the rise of “locavorism,” you can find pastured lamb on the North Fork at 8 Hands in Cutchogue and Golden Earthworm in Jamesport. 

American lamb is pretty good, but if you want to splurge and try truly tasty lamb, you should buy Australian or New Zealand lamb.

Lamb production and consumption is much higher in countries like Greece, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, and the aforementioned Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, roast leg of lamb (prepared with butter and rosemary) is considered a national dish and is consumed almost every Sunday. Lamb is also very popular in certain regions of China, but is rarely seen in Japan. In the United States, according to a BBC News report in 2015, only 14 ounces are consumed per year per person, and half the population has never tried it. Oddly enough, there is a part of Kentucky that is fond of mutton, fully grown sheep, seldom eaten outside of Scotland.

Lamb is full of protein, but can also be high in saturated fat, so leaner cuts are better for you. It is also full of Vitamin B12, selenium, zinc, niacin, phosphorus, and iron.

Lamb terminology can be confusing. “Baby lamb” is redundant, like “shrimp scampi.” Lamb already means baby and scampi means shrimp. Lamb is a young sheep, under 12 months old, a hogget is slightly older, and mutton is an adult ewe (female) or wether (male). Milk-fed lamb is meat from an unweaned lamb, four to six weeks old. Young lamb is between six and eight weeks old, and spring lamb is a term that is fairly meaningless today, but used to mean three to five months old, born in late winter. Salt marsh and salt grass lamb are those that fed on samphire, sparta grass, and other marsh grasses throughout Europe, and it is believed to be a bit saltier and more flavorful than pasture-raised.

Because lamb is a fatty meat, many cultures use an acidic element or strong aromatics to temper it. In England, a vinegary mint sauce is served alongside; in Spain, wine or vinegar is popular, and lemon juice beaten with egg yolks is used in Greece. In North Africa, apricots and quince are stewed with lamb. Garlic, rosemary, thyme, and oregano are common accompaniments in France and the U.S., paprika in Spain and Portugal, and anchovies, garlic, and rosemary in Italy. Mint is also popular in India and the Middle East. 

Vegetables with some sweetness, like turnips, parsnips, and carrots, pair well in a stew, and potatoes, rice, and couscous do a fine job of absorbing some of the fat and flavor of the lamb.

So, yeah, lamb is expensive and rich in fat, but it can enhance special occasions. As the days get shorter and colder, working on a seven-hour leg of lamb stew is a nice weekend project. Or try my friend Stephanie Reiner’s lamb tagine cooked in a pressure cooker — delicious and done much faster. As an occasional treat, it can’t be beat.

Click for recipes

New at Babette’s

New dishes have been added to the menu at Babette’s in East Hampton, where the dishes focus on healthy ingredients. They include the Babette’s house-made vegan burger, with selected fixings; “Rita’s Quesadilla,” featuring organic barbecue tofu, broccoli, white cheddar, jalapeno, and salsa on a whole wheat torilla, and turkey meatballs with fire-roasted tomato sauce, shisito peppers, crisp garbanzo beans, and feta cheese with grilled country bread. Local bay scallops are also a choice for lunch or dinner dishes. Winter hours at Babette’s are Monday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Time to Stock Up?

Those planning parties and get-togethers during the coming holiday time might want to think about stocking up on beer and other drinks, and on snacks, as Sam’s Beverage Place on Race Lane in East Hampton will start a “Twelve Days of Giving” promotion on Wednesday, which will run through Christmas Eve.  Givebacks to customers will differ daily, but include free items, such as sodas and snacks, and discounts when purchases reach various levels. 

Seasonal Events

The Sag Harbor Lions Club will hold a reception for the Guide Dog Foundation at Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Appetizers, beer, wine, and cocktails will be served, with a program beginning at 4:30 p.m. A $45 fee will help support the foundation. Following the event, Almond will offer a prix fixe dinner for $35.

Gingerbread Houses

Adults and children can participate in a gingerbread house workshop on Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at Townline BBQ in Sagaponack. The $45 cost includes all the fixings for a fully assembled gingerbread house — unlimited candy, icing, and so on — and a juice or soda to sip on while constructing it, as well as one happy hour drink for those of age. Reservations have been requested for the event, which is co-sponsored by the Salty Canvas.

Holiday Specialties 

Italian takes on holiday treats will be the focus of a program tonight at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor from 6:30 to 8. Theresa Caruso, an Italian chef, will teach participants how to make easy hors d’oeuvres, a cioppino, or Italian fish soup, to serve for the Christmas Eve Feast of Seven Fishes, and a panettone bread pudding. 

On Wednesday at the library, from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m., Hanukkah cooking will be the topic, from potato latkes to jelly doughnuts. Toby Spitz, a volunteer from Temple Adas Israel, will showcase her grandmother’s latke recipe. Registration is required for both programs. 

Cookie Exchange

The Southampton Historical Museum will host its annual cookie exchange at the Rogers Mansion next Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. Each participant is asked to take two to three dozen cookies — homemade, from scratch, and festively decorated — and will end up with a wide variety. Copies of the recipes used, a tray to display the cookies, and a container to take home the goodies should be brought to the event as well.  Kathleen King, the former owner of Tate’s Bake Shop, will give a short talk about her love of cookies. Refreshments will be served. The cost is $15; preregistration with the museum is requested as space is limited. 

Drink, Eat, Shop

The Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton will have a holiday event on Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. to include half-price drinks at the bar,  healthy bites, discussion and networking, and a chance to pick up some holiday gifts. Participants will include the Amber Waves farmers, who will share healthy holiday recipes and tastes of their organic vegetables and products; Tracy Anderson exercise studio trainers; Tathiana Teixeira of the PlainT tea company; Stefanie Sacks, a culinary nutritionist, author, and workshop leader; Susan Verde, who will sign her children’s books “I Am Yoga” and “I Am Peace”; Mickey Beyer-Clausen, a “happiness expert” and inventor of Timeshifter, a jet-lag cure app, and Karin Yapalater, a holistic health counselor and equine coach. Those interested in attending have been asked to R.S.V.P. to [email protected]. 

At the 1770 House

On Tavern Thursdays at the 1770 House, beginning at 5:30 p.m., specials in the downstairs tavern, which include burgers, meatloaf, Korean barbecue ribs, and chicken parmigiana, are $17.70. A glass of house wine is $9, and a house beer is $5. Diners can also order off the regular menu, either downstairs or in the main dining room. 

On Tuesday night, the 1770 House will offer a pre-theater dinner special for those attending the John Drew Theater lab presentation at Guild Hall. Two courses — an appetizer and main dish, or a main dish and dessert — selected from the regular menu will be $27. Reservations must be made using the code #JDTLab for seatings starting at 5:30. Orders will be placed by 6:30 for a 7:30 curtain time. 

When I was assigned to do a story on the Impossible Burger, now being served at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, I organized my posse for the adventure. “Just don’t make me eat the fake burger,” one of my guests said. “I want the REAL Rowdy burger!” Understood. Just what exactly is the Impossible Burger? It is a combination of heme, water, textured wheat protein, potato protein, and coconut oil. And what is heme? In blood, heme lives in a protein called hemoglobin; in muscle, it’s myoglobin. In soy roots, it is leghemoglobin. Scientists discovered that when they take the genes that code for the soy leghemoglobin and insert them into a species of yeast called Pichia pastoris, and then feed it sugar and minerals, it grows, replicates, and manufactures heme. Thus, the Impossible Burger is a genetically modified plant-based substitute for hamburger meat. It is a miracle of modern science, fresh out of Silicon Valley onto the plates of customers at Momofuko Nishi in New York City, Jardiniere in San Francisco, and now Rowdy Hall in East Hampton.

The most important question to me is, how does it taste? It tastes damn good! I honestly believe that with a nice slice of red onion and all the other varied condiments we like to put on a hamburger, you would believe you are eating real meat, fatty, bloody, chewy, tasty meat.

The Impossible Burger is not on the printed menu at Rowdy Hall. It is a “verbal,” restaurant lingo that just means the waiter tells you it is available. We, or I should say I, ordered one Impossible Burger and two Rowdy burgers. The couple dining next to us were intrigued by our taste test and discussion, but refused to try it themselves.

It took the Impossible Foods company six years to develop this “Frankenfood” product. Patrick Brown, its C.E.O., declared that “almost half of the land area of Earth is being occupied by the animal farming industry, grazing, or feed crop production.” This is a compelling argument for those concerned about all the poofy gasses emitted by our bovine friends.

Rachel Konrad, chief communications officer, said, “We’re not a burger company, we’re a tech platform for food,” and Celeste Holz-Schiefinger, the company’s principal scientist, says “it’s a platform for how to make things that have tensile strength and are juicy.” She went on to say that such meats as chicken and veal could be next and that eventually the company could even produce faux whale meat if it wanted to. Good God! There’s a market for whale meat?

Impossible Foods uses a system called “gas chromatography mass spectrometry” to identify the correct aromas to replicate red meat. At this point in my research, I started to freak out, because I watch a lot of “Forensic Files” in the middle of the night and I’m pretty sure this is the method they use to find blood at murder scenes.

Quite a few jokes and jabs were tossed about at our test of the Impossible Burger. It was a regular Algonquin Round Table. “It’s the Esperanto of food,” quipped Steven. “Soylent green!” (See the 1973 postapocalyptic sci-fi film of the same name to know what he’s talking about.)

Although I have mixed feelings about food created to taste like other foods, I went home feeling less full and semi-virtuous. Mark Smith and Joe Realmuto (co-owners and chef, respectively) happened to be at Rowdy the night of our visit so I had a chance to get their take on it. Mark had tried the Impossible Burger a year ago at Saxon and Parole in the city, while dining with a vegetarian friend. “I’m not one for fake food, but this was good, and my vegetarian friend loved it.” Joe pointed out that people with the lone star tick allergy alpha-gal, or galactose-alpha-1, 3-galactose, which causes an allergy to red meat, can enjoy this substitute. As a matter of fact, I ran into quite a few people in the midst of my research who have alpha-gal, and their eyes lit up when I told them about this burger at Rowdy Hall.

I still wasn’t completely satisfied. I wanted to taste it raw, cook it in my own kitchen, see how it fried up. So I went back to Rowdy to get some “meat” from chef Ed Lightcap. Has he tried it? Does he like it? “I’ve eaten so many Impossible Burgers, I’m impossible!” he laughed. He thinks the flavor is 90 percent there, but detects a slight livery aftertaste. (I found this to be true when I tried it raw, but not once cooked.) 

Ed has taught the cooks in the kitchen to pan-sear it in a separate omelette pan (can’t use the grill that is shared with real meat, of course), and he pointed out the irony of Rowdy Hall being the first restaurant on the East End to serve the Impossible Burger. “It’s interesting that we’re a restaurant that focuses on natural, healthy, local food, and here we are serving a genetically modified product from a lab in Silicon Valley.” For any of you who get your panties in a twist over the term “genetically modified,” do some research, it’s not all bad.

Impossible Burger meat is not yet available in markets; it is distributed only to restaurants. It also costs four and a half times more than burger meat.

Cooking the burger at home was fun. It did require a bit of oil in the pan to prevent sticking and it didn’t give off any meaty aroma, which is okay with me. Slapped onto a toasted English muffin with some pickle slices and a few other condiments, it was a fine meal.

My food philosophy is one word: moderation. Easy to preach, difficult for some to follow. I seldom eat meat, but when I want a burger, like most people out here, I head to Rowdy Hall. Now I’ll be ordering something different, something Impossible.

‘Tis a good season for those looking for daily restaurant specials or a fresh prix fixe menu.

At Tutto Il Giorno on Nugent Street in Southampton, Monday night is deemed “date night,” with any appetizer paired with any pasta dish offered at $29. A $36 prix fixe on Thursday and Sunday nights includes an appetizer, pasta or other entree, and a choice of dessert. 

A three-course menu at Almond on Main Street in Bridgehampton, which specializes in locally sourced ingredients, is $32.50 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays until 7 p.m., and all night on Wednesdays. Vegetarian options abound at Almond on “Meatless Monday” nights. 

Wolffer Kitchen in Amagansett has happy hour and prix fixe specials as well as occasional live music. The restaurant is open Thursdays through Sundays. 

Holiday Catering

Art of Eating Catering and Event Planning has a wide-ranging menu of foods that can be ordered for the coming holidays. Orders for Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, or Christmas meals must be placed by Sunday, and those for New Year’s Eve must be placed by Dec. 23. (Orders for other dates within the holiday season must be placed 72 hours in advance.) Meals for Dec. 24 and Dec. 31 must be picked up by 11:30 a.m.

The menu selections, which can be viewed at hamptonsartofeating.com, include “nibbles, dips, and spreads,” soups and salads, entrees, vegetables, sauces, and desserts. 

Local Love at Babette’s

Babette’s restaurant on Newtown Lane in East Hampton is issuing “Local Love” cards to the stalwart customers who remain in the off-season. They entitle the holder to a discount of 15 percent on breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

Diners Have Spoken

The restaurant at the 1770 House in East Hampton has been included on a list of “100 Best Restaurants in America” by the reservation website Open Table. Of 19 New York eateries included, it is the only one outside Manhattan. The list stems from reviews by diners that were collected between November 2016 and the end of October.

When I found out that my friend Justin Spring, author of “The Gourmands’ Way,” was going on a book-signing tour through San Francisco, then to Carmel to his sister and brother-in-law’s winery and tasting room in Carmel Valley, I asked if I could tag along. 

Reason number one: I was born in Carmel and was long overdue for a visit to my hometown. Reason number two: There was to be a dinner in his honor at Chez Panisse in Berkeley on Dec. 4, with a Richard Olney-inspired menu. Scratch that, traveling with Justin was reason number one.

I arrived on Dec. 3, and my son, Billy, had been in San Francisco for a few days already. We made a beeline for the Slanted Door, an excellent Vietnamese restaurant in the Ferry Building. We sat at the bar and enjoyed green papaya salad, the lightest spring rolls served with lettuce leaves, sprigs of mint, and vermicelli noodles, shaking beef, scallops in coconut broth, and roasted cauliflower. 

The next day we made a pilgrimage to Amoeba Records in Haight-Ashbury. The scent of fine weed was everywhere and it smelled . . . delicious. After a light lunch at a Thai restaurant (more green papaya salad and chicken larb) we were ready for Chez Panisse. 

I had just finished reading Alice Waters’s autobiography, “Coming to My Senses,” so this was an especially meaningful treat. Ms. Waters talks at length about her obsession with perfect lighting in her iconic restaurant, and also the flower arrangements. Both were a wonder to behold. The interior is Arts and Crafts style — warm woods, lots of copper, amber sconces, and an open kitchen that looks like a movie set. I snuck a peek inside, by a wood burning oven, and saw full sheet trays layered with big, fresh, chanterelle mushrooms.

The meal began with a salad of artichokes, beets, and chicories with a pale green garlic aioli. The vegetables were perfectly cooked and lightly salted. They tasted like they’d been poached in olive oil, almost a confit. The aioli was most likely made entirely with a young fruity olive oil, and the garlic was mild. The beef Bourguignon was rich and tender, with fingerling potatoes, Nantes carrots, and lots and lots of those beautiful chanterelle mushrooms. 

Before dessert was served, we were given plates of sliced, perfectly ripe Fuyu persimmons and chunks of pomegranate, a nice palate cleanser. The dessert was a wonder: buckwheat crepes with Chartreuse ice cream, candied almonds, and swirls of honey.

An amazing coincidence had occurred on the plane coming to San Francisco from New York. I sat next to a nice couple and chatted with them about my trip and the highlights to come, Chez Panisse being one of them. It turned out that my seatmate was Patricia Curtan, the illustrator of all of Alice Waters’s cookbooks, the creator of the colorful linoleum block prints of fruits and vegetables. My flabber has never been so gasted, and I forgot to get her autograph.

Most of our six days in San Francisco were filled with visits to bookstores for signings and readings, Omnivore Books being one of the best. We took a drive around Tomales Bay with Justin’s friend Rudi, and had an oyster feast at Nick’s Cove, where we met a handsome young coast guardsman who joined us for lunch. That’s how we roll in Northern Cali.

One morning in San Francisco, I awoke with a mission: I had read about the coffee crunch cake from Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop, tucked into the Super Mira Mart in Japantown. The cake originated at Blum’s, a little restaurant tucked inside the I. Magnin department store. Tom Yasukochi remembers being taken there by his mother. After being sent to various internment camps during World War II, he returned to San Francisco and began making the cakes himself.

Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop opens at 10 a.m., and the cakes are often sold out by 11. I bought three slices to share with Justin and Patty (his Amherst classmate, another fine traveling companion on this trip), and trudged back to our hotel.

For lunch that day we tried a place recommended by Justin’s friend David Lebowitz, a fine cookbook author and pastry chef. R and G Lounge in Chinatown is renowned for its salt and pepper Dungeness crab and it has been featured on Anthony Bourdain’s show “Parts Unknown.” The huge crabs are hacked up, then battered and fried with lots of garlic. We gorged ourselves on them, along with Peking duck and some green beans, and I kept repeating “save room for coffee crunch cake!” We didn’t have room for the cake until late that night, but I must say, it is one of the best cakes I’ve ever tasted. Super light, moist sponge cake is layered with whipped cream and a crunchy coating of coffee-infused honeycomb candy and almond bits. I am hoping I can duplicate this when I get home.

The last vital pilgrimage we made before leaving San Francisco for Carmel was to Zuni Cafe, renowned for its roast chicken with chunky croutons mixed with currants and pine nuts and served with a mound of frilly mizuna salad. I had never seen this kind of mizuna before (there are sixteen varieties), but after some research, I found out it was probably rock samphire. It wasn’t very peppery or mustardy and it was lightly dressed, perfect with the croutons that had absorbed the delicious chicken juices. 

As we ate, I wondered to myself, “Can I make this at home?” Yes, I can! With an Iacono or Browder’s bird and some Carissa’s bread, I can do this. I have always believed that a properly roasted chicken and a good salad are all you need for the perfect meal, and Zuni Cafe has built its reputation on this obvious and simple theorem since 1979.

Besides all the meals described, we enjoyed Cowgirl Creamery cheeses and Acme Bakery breads and artichokes and oysters and local wines and Frog Hollow jams and on and on.

I am now in Carmel and have two more days with my oldest childhood friends, the Osbornes, feasting and hiking and cooking and book signings with Justin.

Thank you, my dear friend, for letting me tag along, and bringing me home.

The Springs Tavern

15 Fort Pond Blvd.

East Hampton

631-527-7800

Dinner daily, lunch Saturdays 

and Sundays

What is now the Springs Tavern has operated as a watering hole both famous and infamous since 1934. It was the Jungle Inn, Jungle Pete’s, Jungle Johnnie’s, Vinnie’s Place, the Boatswain, the Frigate, Harry’s Hideaway, and Wolfie’s Tavern. About 25 years ago a regular told me that Wolfie’s had some planters out front. Occasionally, inebriated guests would help themselves to the flowers. Fed up, the proprietors filled the planters with poison ivy to deter this pilfering activity. Whether it’s true or not, I like to believe this story. It gives the spot a bit of edge, danger, a Wild West (East?) don’t-mess-with-us aura.

Fast-forward to now and you will find a charming, cozy spot, neat as a pin, and friendly as can be. Yeah, so what if I still had to squeeze through the clutch of smokers outside as I glanced around looking for those planters.

The space essentially remains the same, but now has lots of black-and-white photographs on the walls, oodles of flat-screen TVs, marine gray wainscoting, a bar in front, and a dining area to the right.

The menu is short and reasonable. We began our meal with clams casino, fish tacos, and Caesar salad. All three were delicious. The six clams had a buttery bacony topping with finely diced sweet red peppers, red onion, garlic, parsley, and chives. The fish tacos were superb, the three grilled and charred tortillas were filled with crispy cod pieces, some excellent pickled slaw with radishes, avocado, and perfect chipotle sauce. The Caesar salad had a good dressing and homemade croutons.

For entrees we ordered the burger, pan-roasted chicken, fish and chips, and a side order of the Tavern’s “best” macaroni and cheese. 

The burger was cooked to order and we topped it with cheddar cheese and grilled onions. It was excellent, served on a toasted brioche bun with a thick slice of a really good pickle. It’s the little things, folks! The crispy, batter-coated sweet potato fries served with it were insanely good. 

The pan-roasted chicken was also very good. It was the kind of dish you’d have as a nice, homey, Sunday supper. The chicken was moist, nicely seasoned with pan gravy, and served with mashed potatoes and sauteed baby spinach. The fish and chips were another winner. The three big wedges of fish were crispy, served with good fries, some more excellent slaw, and a tartar sauce that tasted like it had a whisper of that good chipotle sauce that came with the tacos. 

The only slight disappointment was the macaroni and cheese. Anytime something on a menu is trumpeted as “the best,” one’s expectations go way up. It was just okay, with very creamy seashells but not very cheesy. Maybe this dish is tailored more for children.

The place was quite busy on the night of our visit, and our waitress, Sam, was excellent. Another woman visited our table to let us know about upcoming music events. The Springs Tavern definitely has more of a “Cheers” feel than the late night, slobbery Jackson Pollock watering hole of yore. 

The prices are extremely reasonable, especially considering the quality and freshness of the food. Small plates, soups, and salads are $5.50 to $15, sandwiches, burgers, and other entrees are $11 to $26, sides are $3 to $7, desserts are $5 to $9.

The desserts are made in house and we tried two of them, the key lime pie and cheesecake. The key lime pie was good. It had a thick graham cracker crust, lots of whipped cream, and was garnished with fresh lime slices. The cheesecake was also good, if a bit dense. It had a nice vanilla flavor and a chocolate cookie crumb crust.

Halfway through our meal, I told my guests, the ever delightful Pebo and Claude, that if Sag Harbor had a place like Springs Tavern I would go all the time. “Then you should say that in your review,” they suggested. There, I just did. Lucky Springs. 

Reservations are being taken for a Nov. 18 dinner described as a “culinary ethnobotanical adventure.” The chefs, Jeff Purrazzi from JK Chef Collection, Adam Kelinson from Around the Fire, and other South Fork chefs who will help out, will present six courses: Montauk oysters, wood-fired seed bread with charcuterie and “fall ferments,” Clambake Nation chowder with white pine broth and scallops, and a local whole-roasted pig served with polenta, beans, and squash. Dessert, tea, and coffee will also be served.

The dinner is a benefit for the Project Most after-school program and will include a silent auction. It will take place at Scoville Hall in Amagansett starting at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $75, and reservations can be made at eventbrite.com. 

O’Murphy’s in Montauk

O’Murphy’s restaurant and pub at the Tipperary Inn in Montauk has a $24.95 dinner special Sundays through Thursdays starting at 5 p.m. It includes soup or salad of the day, a selected entree, coffee, and dessert. 

Getting the Goat

Two chefs will collaborate on a goat dinner at Almond in Bridgehampton to be served next Thursday night at 7. Jeremy Blutstein, Almond’s chef de cuisine, and Dane Sayles, a guest chef from Scarpetta Beach restaurant in Montauk, will prepare a meal using the whole animal from Vermont Chevon farm, paired with wines by the Channing Daughters winery of Bridgehampton. 

The founder of Vermont Chevon, Shirley Richardson, will be on hand to discuss the nutritional profile and health benefits of goat, and how she works with Vermont Creamery producers. The cost is $70 per person. Reservations can be made by calling Almond.

At Bridgehampton Inn

Bridgehampton Inn has a constantly evolving menu, with new selections offered every two weeks based on local market ingredients. Brian Szostak, the chef, would be happy to hear from farmers and boutique growers about fresh, available items.

Peconic Bay scallops are back on the menu at the inn, served with purple cauliflower, spinach, and a Meyer lemon beurre blanc. Current small-plate favorites include kung pao cauliflower, baby kale Caesar salad, roast fruit and vegetable bowls, duck confit, and roasted mushroom, caramelized onion, and goat cheese flatbread. 

The restaurant has a prix fixe special for those seated by 6:30 Wednesdays through Sundays and a Kobe beef burger night on Wednesdays, when beer and cider are half price. There is no corkage fee charged on Sunday nights. 

Thanksgiving Options

We are well into November, in case you haven’t noticed, foodies, and that means decision-making time is nigh regarding the Thanksgiving holiday. For those interested in dining out, here are some preliminary postings about what restaurants here will be offering.

The Coast Kitchen at the Montauk Yacht Club will serve a buffet Thanksgiving meal from noon to 6 p.m. The cost is $39.95 per adult and $15.95 for children above age 6; there is no fee for those ages 6 and under. There will be soup and salad stations, a cheese board, and seafood, pasta, and carving stations. The menu, subject to change, at present also includes dishes such as pumpkin crème soup, cranberry nut muffins, local flounder, thyme-roasted quail, roast beef, and, for dessert, s’mores, cookies, ice cream, and an assortment of pies. 

Thanksgiving at Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor will include an a la carte dinner menu served from noon to 9 p.m., as well as a traditional Thanksgiving meal for $38.95, which will include turkey breast and leg, cranberry sauce, sweet potato, Brussels sprouts, and gravy.

At Pierre’s in Bridgehampton, a holiday meal will be served from 11 a.m. till 9 p.m., including a traditional turkey stuffed with organic chicken-and-pork stuffing with chestnuts and Alsatian spice bread. Side dishes will include glazed sweet potatoes, braised Brussels sprouts, and cranberry dressing. Other entrees will be available as well.

The menu for Thanksgiving at the 1770 House in East Hampton will center on a $95 three-course prix fixe offered from 2 to 8 p.m. A two-course option for youngsters 12 and under will cost $40. Both prices exclude beverages, tax, and gratuity. Starters on the menu include spicy Montauk fluke tartare, golden beet and endive salad, cauliflower soup, and carmelized Peconic Bay scallops with leek fondue. For main courses there will be the traditional turkey — in this case an organic, Amish-raised version — as well as Scottish salmon and Berkshire pork tenderloin.

I love Bloody Marys but seldom drink them. They seem to be kind of a meal in a glass, thick and spicy with bits and bobs of horseradish, a celery stick, perhaps an olive on a toothpick, like watered down cocktail sauce with booze in it.

There are multitudinous variations on the Bloody Mary cocktail. Don’t even get me started on the current trend of garnishes galore, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Never mind, here we go: I have seen or heard about Bloody Marys being adorned by sliders, Slim Jims, candied bacon, salami, string cheese, all manner of pickled vegetables, shrimp, and my favorite from Gary Cobb: a whole battered and fried soft-shell crab dressed up with olive eyes and perched precariously on top of the glass. More like meal on a glass.

This story required some in-depth research, so a visit to Nick and Toni’s for Sunday brunch was necessary. Here you can get a Bloody Mary Board for $40, which serves up to four people. Quite a bargain. Along with Nick and Toni’s house-infused peppery vodka, you get the usual suspects of olives and lemon and lime wedges. In addition there are pickled vegetables from the restaurant’s own garden: fiddlehead ferns and string beans, along with horseradish, fresh jalapeños, and a variety of Horman’s Best pickles. It is civilized, fun, and doesn’t stray too far from the norm. (When I imagine a warm, crisp slice of candied bacon coagulating in an ice cold drink, sending blobs of piggy fat to the surface, I just get the willies.) For an additional $10 per board, you can upgrade to premium tequila or gin. Woo-hoo!

In researching the history of this cocktail, I came across two somewhat believable stories. Delving deeper, I found a rather alarming one, the history of the Oyster Cocktail. This recipe was published in London in the Hospital Gazette in 1892. This tonic was prescribed for anyone “possessed of suicidal tendencies.” It consisted of six warm oysters swimming in tomato juice.

The Bloody Mary as we know it today may have first been concocted by Fernand Petiot, bartender at the New York Bar (later’s Harry’s) in Paris in the early 1920s. Such luminaries as Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, and Humphrey Bogart made it the hangout in later years. Petiot may have named the drink after Queen Mary Tudor, a.k.a. Bloody Mary, due to her fondness for the execution of any and all protestants. Petiot may also have named it after the Bucket of Blood Saloon in Chicago, so named because the bar owners were constantly mopping up messes left from brawls and stabbings.

By 1925, Fernand Petiot was bartending at the Savoy in London, where he was discovered by Mary Duke Biddle, then owner of the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan. She lured him to New York City when Prohibition ended, and he bartended at the iconic King Cole Bar from 1934 until 1966.

It is believed that the drink became spicier when the Russian Prince Serge Obolensky asked for extra spice and Petiot added some drops of Tabasco sauce.

In 1935, when Vincent Astor took over the hotel, the drink’s name was changed to Red Snapper. Astor found the name Bloody Mary to be too vulgar for his soigné clientele.

The vaudevillian actor George Jessel also claims to have invented and named this cocktail in Palm Beach in 1927. He had been drinking champagne all night with a pal and had a volleyball game scheduled for 9:30 a.m. What to do? They popped into the bar at La Maze, where the bartender showed them a bottle of “vodkee.” George suggested killing the “pungent, rotten potato” flavor with Worcestershire sauce, tomato juice, and lemon. As they were “knocking out the butterflies” with this new recipe, Mary Brown Warburton walked in wearing a white evening gown. George spilled the drink down the front of her dress and that’s how his version of the cocktail name came about.

Canadians like a version called either the Caesar, or Bloody Caesar, made with part clam juice. I must admit, my favorite version of this cocktail is made with Clamato juice.

The variety of white spirits you can add to the spiced tomato juice include aquavit, tequila, vodka, and gin. Some people feel very strongly that the citrus element should always be lemon, not lime. For the life of me, I couldn’t find out how celery salt ever became an ingredient in the recipe, but some theorize that the addition of a celery stick is meant to cleanse the palate between sips of this spicy, salty cocktail.

While researching this subject with the help of Stephen (bartender) and Kirsten (boss lady nonpareil) at Nick and Toni’s, I wanted to try a simple version from the Camargue in southwestern Provence. Into a pitcher of good tomato juice, muddle some sprigs of spearmint and lemon slices, let sit for a few hours before drinking or adding chosen liquor. This was a big hit and we dubbed it the Camargue.

In a 1947 letter to his friend Bernard Peyton, Ernest Hemingway shared his recipe for a Bloody Mary and claims to have introduced it to Hong Kong in 1941. “. . . Believe it did more than any other single factor except perhaps the Japanese Army to precipitate the fall of that Crown Colony,” he bragged. He also offered some wise advice on the mixing and fixing: “keep drinking it yourself to see how it is doing. . . .”

Whether you like your Bloody Mary pure, simple, and classic or turned into a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, mashup of Tater Tots, pig’s knuckles, and artichoke hearts, just remember to mix and drink responsibly.

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It is sad to say, but even one of the seasonal restaurant holdouts will be closing its doors for winter soon. Inlet Seafood in Montauk will close for the season after its lunch service on Nov. 26. It will continue to operate until then Friday through Sunday, opening at noon.

No Turkey Talkathon

Wondering what to serve your vegan and vegetarian friends and relatives at Thanksgiving? Julie and Dan Resnick of Amagansett and the website Feedfeed.com will be joining Rachel and Andy Berliner of Amy’s Kitchen for a Twitter chat today with the hashtag #NoTurkeyTalkathon at 4 p.m. 

Anyone who has ever walked down the Wild by Nature aisle in King Kullen will recognize the organic, gluten-free, dairy-free, and other specialty options the Petaluma, Calif., company makes, such as pizzas, burritos, soups, and much more. Feedfeed is a digital cooking publication and community of chefs, cooks, and bloggers that the Resnicks started in 2014. It draws on sources all over the web, but often features East End food products and chefs.

Townline Tunes

Townline BBQ in Sagaponack is offering happy hour specials with its live music on Friday nights this season. Fresh lime margaritas are $8, tap cocktails are $6, cans of beer are $4. They are joined by $6 wings and $3 warm pretzels with mustard. Tomorrow’s performers are the Waylan Brothers. 

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, owned by the group that also operates Townline, is now offering a lunch special weekdays starting at noon. For $12, patrons can order a cup of soup, a half sandwich, and a salad, with the selection changing daily. The special will not be offered on holidays. 

For Thanksgiving

For those looking to get out of the house on Thanksgiving, a handful of South Fork restaurants will be open for the holiday meal next Thursday, as mentioned in last week’s paper. They include Pierre’s in Bridgehampton, which will be serving from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the 1770 House in East Hampton, which will offer a three-course holiday prix fixe from 2 to 8 p.m. for $95, with a $40 two-course option for kids 12 and under. The Coast Kitchen at the Montauk Yacht Club will serve a buffet dinner from noon to 6 p.m. for $39.95 for adults, $15.95 for children over 6, and Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor will serve a Thanksgiving meal for $38.95 or offer its a la carte menu from noon to 4 p.m.

With a husband who is a chef, Patty Sales cannot generally be found cooking. But baking is a different story.

The namesake of a grassroots East Hampton business, Cousin Patty’s Cookies, she grew up with a wooden spoon and mixing bowl at hand. “It’s very relaxing,” she said on a recent rainy day, perfect for baking. 

Ms. Sales’s decorated cookies come in all shapes and sizes. Individually packaged or boxed, they are perfect for special occasions, and are catching on as gifts. “I paint, too,” she said, so it was not too far a step to make decorated cookies her medium. She gets ideas, she said, from Food Network shows, or online baking sites. She makes her cookies from a “basic shortbread recipe,” but a tasty one, she said, “because if you go to that much work, it should be good to eat.”

But there’s technology involved, too, which helps set Cousin Patty’s treats apart. She invested in a printer that can turn a photograph into an image made with edible ink on rice paper that can be affixed to cookies. 

Over time, her cookies have been decorated with all kinds of images — from a “Grumpy Cat” character for a child’s birthday to vintage greeting card designs, which she is partial to and uses for cookies meant as Mother’s Day gifts. There are Cousin Patty’s cookies appropriate for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other holidays. Gingerbread cookies made to look like a rabbi were even sent into Manhattan on a Hampton Jitney for Hanukkah. And there are many simply intended for a friend. 

 For the Fourth of July, Ms. Sales does patriotic designs.  She has made cookies for a party to which military families and participants in Jordan’s Run, a tribute to Jordan Haerter, a marine from Sag Harbor who lost his life in Iraq, were invited. With three Gold Star families that had also lost loved ones, she made cookies with images of the families’ “challenge coins,” medallions that had been carried by the service members. She’s made cookies for baby showers and bridal showers, and created edible business cards and welcome cookies for real estate brokers to leave for clients who have just purchased a house. 

With an inexhaustible number of possibilities, the print-decorated cookies also, she said, lend themselves to gags, a surprising way to rib someone or make a joke.  

She’s often done cookies as mini books for book clubs and for authors to offer as treats at book signings. Once, they stood in for books themselves. In August, before the East Hampton Library’s Authors Night, Ms. Sales made cookies depicting the cover of Tom Clavin’s “Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West.” Mr. Clavin was on hand at the event — but his books had failed to arrive. So he signed a cookie or two instead. 

Ms. Sales’s chocolate chip cookies, the result of tweaking a few recipes to create a custom mix, are a staple and a “crowd-pleaser,” she said.  She also makes her grandmother’s peanut butter blossoms.  “My grandmother, who lived in Montauk — you’d go to her house … she was always baking. You’d probably leave with an apple pie, or cookies.”  Her mother baked, too, and “we were always a big part of it, hands on,” she said. The oven was going whenever there was a bake sale or other event coming up. “As soon as we were old enough,” Ms. Sales said, her mother would say “make them yourself.”

Baking also was a family activity when her two daughters were growing up, and now she bakes with a young child who is a friend of the family, and with preschool children her daughter teaches. “I think it’s important,” she said.

“I’ve always enjoyed baking,” Ms. Sales said. “Wherever I went, I would bring cookies.”  She would deliver a gift of cookies in a jar or tin with an offer for refills. But the “turning point,” she said, came after a friend impressed upon her that people would pay good money for her baked goods. This fall, as Election Day neared, Ms. Sales was making “candidate cookies” for a friend on the ballot. Another friend, a summer visitor to East Hampton who lives in New York City at other times of year, was always amazed at how many people Ms. Sales knows or is related to here. 

“Everybody’s her cousin,” the friend would tease.  One day, she turned the joke into a logo on a Facebook page, but the business continues to be run largely by word of mouth. Although you might encounter Cousin Patty’s Cookies at a local fair or bake sale, you don’t have to wait to buy some. Orders are now taken by email, at [email protected].