Feel like a field trip? The Greenport Shellabration, a fund-raiser for the Cornell Cooperative Extension marine program, will take place from noon to 4 p.m. on Dec. 3 and 4. 

Wristbands, which are $20 and often sell out early, entitle foodies to attend the first tasting of the day, featuring a glass of Greenport Harbor Ale and a raw bar tasting of clams and oysters at the Greenport Harbor Brewing Company, and to sample small plates of shellfish-centric menu items for $5, and local wines and beers for $3, at a lineup of Greenport restaurants. Wristbands can be ordered online at shella bration.li.

Thanksgiving Alternative

For a Thanksgiving alternative, Momi Ramen will be open today from 5 to 10 p.m. Tomorrow, the restaurant will serve from noon to 11 p.m. 

To the Next Holiday

Coming up on Dec. 3 is Wolffer Estate Vineyard’s Lighting of the Vines in Sagaponack — the grapevines will be illuminated with 15,000 LED lights — charity wreath auction and holiday gathering. From 6 to 8 p.m., there will be hors d’oeuvres, wine, mulled wine, and other goodies, as well as jazz and a silent auction of holiday wreaths created by artists, designers, and business owners. Fighting Chance, a nonprofit helping cancer patients, will receive the proceeds. Tickets are $75 plus tax and fees, or $35 for children ages 6 and below. 

Sunday Brunch

Swedish pancakes, eggs Benedict, organic yogurt, salads, and more is on the Sunday brunch menu at the Living Room restaurant and in the lounge at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton. Brunch is served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Next Up at Wainscott Main

“The Sauvignons: A Comparative Tasting” is the topic for the next Wine Wednesday session at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits. Adrian Chalk, the manager at Adrian Chalk Selections at MS Walker, will present the talk and tasting on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $10. 

’Tis the Season

A Buy Local, Give Local holiday market at the Amagansett Farmers Market on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. will offer an opportunity to purchase comestibles made by Anke’s Fit Bakery, Bonac Bees, Browder’s Birds, Peconic River Preserves, and the Amagansett Sea Salt Co. 

Nonedible, locally crafted items for gift-giving will be available as well. The Amagansett Wine Stand at the market will be open during the event, and the market, which will close after the weekend, will offer some products at half price. Holiday gift baskets packed with local products will also be for sale. 

Station for Parties

The Service Station restaurant in East Hampton is booking holiday parties, offering a $25-per-person special for lunch, or $38 per person for dinner. Two-hour office parties can also be scheduled at a cost of $30 per person. The menu can be found on the restaurant’s website. 

To Honor Veterans

In conjunction with Veterans Day tomorrow, Rowdy Hall is offering a 15 percent discount to servicemen and servicewomen who dine in the East Hampton restaurant tomorrow. Military ID is required. Rowdy Hall serves lunch and dinner seven days a week. 

Wine Knowledge

The Wednesday night wine workshops at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits continue next week with a session called “Methode Champenoise in New Mexico: The Wines of Gilbert Gruet,” presented by Mark Toepke of the Gruet Winery. 

Each weekly session begins at 5:30 p.m. and costs $10. The next, on Nov. 30 after a Thanksgiving break, will feature a comparative tasting of sauvignons. Those interested in attending have been asked to call the store or send an email to [email protected] to sign up. 

Thanksgiving Plans

Art of Eating Catering in Amagansett is taking orders through next Thursday for Thanksgiving dishes. Starting with a fresh, never-frozen, free-range turkey raised in Water Mill, which is delivered with extra broth to add while warming, to give the house that Thanksgiving smell, and including soup to nuts — hors d’oeuvres, salad, stuffing, gravy, sides, and desserts, along with breakfast items for the morning after, the business will have holiday meals to go ready for pickup on Thanksgiving morning. The menu and other details can be found at hamptonsartofeating.com. Vegan, gluten-free, and vegetarian choices are included.

Also providing dishes for a catered holiday meal, Smokin’ Wolf in East Hampton has packages for up to 16 people that include all of the fixings, from cranberry sauce to potatoes, vegetable side dishes, pies and other desserts, appetizers, and alternate entrees.

The Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton will serve a three-course Thanksgiving Day meal, with a choice among several items per course, for $75 a person, or $35 for a child’s portion. Entrees will include roasted organic turkey breast, fresh roasted ham, roasted acorn squash with wild rice, wild salmon, and lasagna Bolognese.

Winter Farm Shares

Winter farm shares at Quail Hill Farm are available, and will provide the holders with items such as root vegetables, fresh greens, herbs, winter squash, carrots, garlic, dried beans, and wheatberries from Friday, Nov. 18, until February. The farm is owned and run by the Peconic Land Trust; those interested in shares may contact the trust at its Southampton offices. 

Last Call for Café Max

Local bay scallops have arrived at Café Max in East Hampton just in time for its last couple of weeks in business, as the restaurant is to close after Nov. 26 after 25 years in business. Till then, however, there is a $22, three-course prix fixe dinner offered all night, all week.

The first Thanksgiving of 1621 was simply referred to as a harvest celebration. An Englishman named Edward Winslow described it in a letter to a “loving, and old friend”:

“I never in my life remember a more seasonable year, than we have here enjoyed — for fish and fowl we have a great abundance, fresh cod in the summer — our bay full of lobsters, all the springtime the earth sendeth forth naturally good salad herbs: Here are grapes, white and red, very sweet and strong also.” 

He goes on to describe the success of his fellow setllers’ 20 acres of Indian corn and six acres of barley and peas, which the Wampanoag Indians had taught them to fertilize with herring.

On that day, for approximately 150 people, the men hunted waterfowl, most likely duck, geese, swans, passenger pigeons, and wild turkey. The chief, or “sachem” Massasoit (incorrectly referred to by the English as the king) brought five deer, which sustained everyone for a three-day feast. There was also likely plenty of eel, shellfish, lobster, clams, and mussels, which were smoked. The smaller birds were spit-roasted and the bigger ones probably boiled. There may have also been Jerusalem artichokes, chestnuts, Indian turnips, water lily, and sweet flag. Sweet flag is a wetland grass similar to rush or cattails, but it can cause lethargy and hallucinations, so that might have made it a swell party.

The Wampanoag (People of the Dawn) tribe was already growing the “three sisters” — corn, beans, and squash — and harvested chestnuts, walnuts, and beechnuts from the forest. Winslow found them to be “very trusty and ripe-witted.” He said that one could walk as peaceably and safely through the woods of Plymouth as the highways of England.

The Wampanoag Indians lived under a matrilineal and matrifocal system. The women controlled and farmed the land, the land was inherited by the daughter, and married couples lived with the daughter’s mother. The women would choose the chiefs or sachems and the men would deal with other tribes. The men would hunt and fish, but the women were still responsible for about 75 percent of their food.

How did the first harvest celebration of 1621 become Thanksgiving, with marshmallow smothered sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and creamed onions? A Boston clergyman named Alexander Young reprinted Winslow’s letter in his “Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers” and arbitrarily dubbed the feast the first Thanksgiving. 

Potatoes and sweet potatoes were not to arrive from South America and the Caribbean until many years later. The discovery of boiling cranberries with sugar to make a sauce “that’s good with meat” came about 50 years later.

Sarah Josepha Hale is the one who deserves credit for making Thanksgiving a yearly event. She was the editor of a popular women’s magazine called “Godey’s Lady’s Book,” which instructed women on how to run a household, kind of an early Martha Stewart. She started petitioning presidents in 1827, and by the time Abraham Lincoln and our country were in the midst of the Civil War, he declared it a national holiday in the hopes of uniting the country. Hale had also published almost a dozen cookbooks with such recipes as roast turkey with sage dressing, mashed potatoes, and creamed onions, so when housewives heard the clarion call, they were ready to cook.

A lot of us serve the same things over and over at Thanksgiving, probably because that’s what we grew up with. I am not ashamed to say I still love mashed sweet potato casserole with mini marshmallows on top, and I tend to scrape most of those sugary, burnt bits onto my plate, leaving the vegetable matter behind. But sometimes it’s fun to mix it up, make something different, or just come up with a variation on a classic. 

Last year I brought Ina Garten’s twice-baked sweet potatoes with Taleggio cheese to a friend’s house, and it didn’t go over very well. I think it was the funky, assertive odor of the Taleggio. Perhaps I strayed too far from everyone’s beloved classics. This year I am going with Bobby Flay’s sweet potatoes with chipotle casserole, something I make year round that is staggeringly delicious. I am also going to make leeks baked in cream, something that pairs well with any fowl. I also found a recipe for mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and Gruyere cheese that sounds lighter than most cream and butter-laden versions. 

For dessert I plan to experiment with ice cream to go with pie. I am going to puree about half a cup of fresh cranberries with orange zest and fold it into slightly defrosted vanilla ice cream and refreeze it. It will be a pretty pink, slightly tart, and citrusy. I hope. 

I will not be home for Thanksgiving, but I will be with family and dear friends. We will reflect on the history of our young country, give thanks for what we have, and, uh, please pass the sweet flag.

Click for recipes

What’s on foodies’ minds this week? It’s likely that big holiday centered on a feast that’s coming up next Thursday. 

What? Thanksgiving already, you ask? Yes, and here’s one more option in case you haven’t made plans.

Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton can provide all the side dishes and desserts needed: veggies, salads, soups, and pies — everything but the bird, leaving the home cook free to focus on just that one thing. The menu, with choices ranging from roasted root vegetables to sage and onion stuffing, shaved Brussels sprout salad, butternut squash soup, cranberry and orange sauce, gravy, and apple and pumpkin pies, can be found at the restaurant’s website.

Orders must be placed online, by phone, or in person by Monday, with pickup of the dishes, all made in-house at the restaurant, on Wednesday. 

The Scarpetta Beach restaurant at Gurney’s in Montauk will be serving a four-course Thanksgiving prix fixe next Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. A children’s menu will be offered, as will activities for children between noon and 4 p.m., allowing parents to sit back and enjoy a holiday respite.

Also in Montauk, the Montauk Yacht Club will have a traditional Thanksgiving Day buffet. Beyond turkey and all the fixings, there will be seafood, pasta, and carving stations. The complete menu is at montaukyachtclub.com. The cost for adults is $39.95; children are $15.95, and kids under age 6 may eat for free. 

Sunday at Babette’s

Fresh juice-infused cocktails, along with wine and beer, are available at Babette’s restaurant in East Hampton, which is offering a $21.95 prix fixe dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. on Sundays.

The poet Walt Whitman was a frequent visitor to Greenport because his sister Mary Elizabeth Van Nostrand lived there. He described it as a “handsome situation” that was “unsurpassed for health.” He must have been eating a lot of oysters!

Greenport is a one-square-mile village within the town of Southold. As of the latest census (2013), the population was a little over 2,000. It was originally known as Greenhill because it was a marshy area with a hill where the Greenport Yacht and Shipbuilding Company now stands. The hill was leveled and the earth used to fill in the marshy spots. In recognition of the fact that it really was a working seaport, the name was changed to Greenport in 1831.

Throughout its history, Greenport has been known for shipbuilding, oystering, whaling, commercial and recreational fishing, and, lest we forget, plenty of bootlegging and rumrunning. It was the first village in Suffolk County to establish its own electric power plant, and the Long Island Rail Road arrived in 1844. All of these milestones were cause for celebration, and the citizens of Greenport loved a good party. Still do.

Fast forward to the present day, and what is Greenport Village? It’s a little bit Williamsburg, Va., and a little bit Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Where else can you find a year-round carousel near a blacksmith shop and a camera obscura, one of only five in the country? A few blocks away you will find the Industry Standard Bar serving roasted bone marrow with “strong herbs,” pork belly bahn mi, Korean fried chicken rice bowl, over 20 beers on tap, and a $5 burger. A few more blocks away is American Beech, located in Stirling Square, in a 19th-century horse stable. It is a charming restaurant and bar with guest rooms. Here you will find Crescent duck wings with tamarind glaze, seared scallops with yellow squash puree, and buttermilk fried chicken.

Stirling Square has a few more treasures worth exploring. Check out Basso Ciccheti e Specialita, a tiny wine bar serving cured meats carved on a flywheel slicer along with cheeses, breads, and olives. You can even enjoy your glass of wine outside by the fire pit in colder months. Across the courtyard, near the ancient beech tree, is 1943 Pizza Bar, opened by the fellas who bring you mobile pizza parties in their 1943 International truck known as Rolling in Dough. Made to order in their wood-burning oven, these pizzas are the best I have ever had outside of BAR in New Haven or Al Forno in Providence. They even have BAR’s famously delicious, but weird sounding, mashed potato pizza. I opted for a special of the day, braised radicchio with speck. And wait, there’s more! Right nearby, and run by the same folks, is the subterranean speakeasy Brix and Rye, a dark-gray room where classic cocktails like Sazeracs, Trader Vic’s Mai Tais, and gin gimlets are a mighty fine aperitif before you tuck into that pizza.

As an aficionado of Greenport Village and all it has to offer, I will share my route and routine for when I visit. As soon as I get off the ferry I make a beeline for Beall and Bell, one of the more unique and affordable antique shops in a big ol’ building on Main Street. Most of their stuff is mid-century, and most of their customers are designers who scoop up the goodies and charge their clients oodles more for their unusual finds. Across the street is the Times, a funkier vintage store with old board games, toys, Playboy magazines, clothing, and an impressive vinyl collection. 

By now I am getting thirsty and hungry. If you are going to do what I do, have a designated driver! Hop in the car and head over Kontokosta Winery, just a few miles down North Road. They forbid limousines and buses, therefore there are no obnoxious bridezillas or Real Housewives-of-Wherever in sight. The 17-acre vineyard and winery are perched on a bluff overlooking Long Island Sound, and the award-winning “green” tasting facility is as beautiful as the cabernet franc is delicious. 

Then I head back into town to the North Fork’s only bookstore, Burton’s. I love this place because it is huge, the carpeting is sad, and the cookbook and local lore sections are worth browsing for hours.

In the 1920s the actor William Gillette lived in a houseboat in Greenport Harbor. His houseboy (shouldn’t that be “boatboy?”) would take Gillette’s cat for walks around the village in a baby carriage. At one point, on Front Street, there was a glamorous restaurant called Steve’s Vienna Restaurant where Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were regulars. The first submarines and torpedo boats were built and tried out nearby until the operation was moved to Groton, Conn.

During World War II, celebrities including Kate Smith and Lily Pons would christen minesweepers in the harbor. When a famous lady wasn’t available, high school girls were recruited to break champagne bottles over the bows of the new ships.

The prosperous (and smelly) days of massive oystering and catching of menhaden are over, but Greenport remains a charming, low-key, yet festive and funky village. Claudio’s has been sold so it is not known if it will remain as a favorite chowder and beer-swilling spot on the water. There are a few downtrodden-looking buildings like the Arcade Department Store but there’s also Bruce’s Cheese Shop, sushi and Latin restaurants, the fun and tasty Lucharitos Taqueria and Tequila bar, and the marvelous Frisky Oyster and Noah’s. You can get down and dirty at the Whiskey Wind bar or spend a comfortable night at the Harborfront Inn. A good sampling of the culinary treats the village has to offer can be had during the fifth annual Greenport Shellabration (www.shel labration.li) on Dec. 3 and 4, a restaurant walk featuring $5 small plates and $3 pours of local wine and beer from noon to 4 both days.

In summer there are tall ships to admire, in winter there’s an ice skating rink right next to the indoor carousel, both walking distance from the North Ferry. You will see few upscale boutiques and very few real estate offices dotting the main roads. Hallelujah!

So if you’re in the mood for a change of scenery, a sip of local wine, some delicious food, and a glance at some lovely Victorian architecture, take the short ferry rides to Greenport, the little village that remains “a handsome situation.”

Montauk does not shut down after Labor Day, or even Columbus Day, contrary to the belief of some. The Clam and Chowder House at Salivar’s has decided to stay open for November, and maybe even December, depending on business. 

Beginning Friday, Nov. 11, it will serve lunch and dinner Fridays through Sundays. Sushi will be off the menu, but there will be lunch and dinner specials daily.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

It’s not too early . . . the Montauk Yacht Club will be one option for a Thanksgiving buffet, at $39.95 for adults and $15.95 for children. Kids under age 6 can eat for free. The yacht club will also have special room rates for the Thanksgiving holiday.

At the 1770 House in East Hampton, Thanksgiving will bring a three-course prix fixe holiday meal served from 2 to 8 p.m. for $95 per person. Two courses for children 12 and under will cost $40. Beverages, tax, and gratuities are not included. 

The menu will include starters such as roasted wild mushroom soup, salad with local beets, fennel, and apple, or Brussels sprouts and roasted cauliflower, spicy Montauk fluke tartare, and Peconic Bay scallops. Turkey will be the main course, with sides, although there will also be fish, meat, and vegetarian choices. 

For those having guests, Breadzilla in Wainscott is taking orders not only for Thanksgiving feast items — from turkey and wood-roasted meats and side dishes to pies and tarts — but also for breakfast cakes, muffins, and scones, and egg dishes including Spanish tortillas and quiche.

Dinner and a Movie

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton has reintroduced its dinner-and-a-movie special. Sunday through Wednesday, a beef or turkey burger can be ordered along with a voucher for the East Hampton Cinema, for $22. A beer, glass of wine, or dessert can be added for an extra $6 or $7. On Thursdays, the special choices are expanded to include fish and chips, meatloaf, or mussels, along with burgers. Vegetarian lasagna or chili is always an option. 

Page Prix Fixe

A fall prix fixe at Page restaurant in Sag Harbor includes two courses for $29 and three courses for $35. It is offered all night on Sundays and Mondays, Tuesdays through Thursdays until 7:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturday nights until 6:30. 

Making Beach Plum Jelly

Reservations are being taken for a workshop on making beach plum jelly next Thursday night at 6 at the Rogers Mansion in Southampton. Co-sponsored by the Southampton Historical Museum and the Rogers Memorial Library, the session will be led by Elizabeth Yastrzemski, a baker and floral and garden designer. 

Each participant will go home with two jars of jelly. Refreshments will be served. Those interested can register by calling the museum. The cost is $35, or $25 for museum members.

I first learned about Long Island cheese pumpkins about 23 years ago. I was working as a pastry chef somewhere out here, and it was that time of year, the time of year that I would have to crank out many, many pumpkin pies. So I started working on my supply list: industrial quantities of Libby’s canned pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, lotsa eggs. And then the head chef presented me with a crate full of pretty, pale, squat pumpkins, a variety I had never seen before. He had to seek them out at one of the very few farms on the East End that still grew this interesting specimen.

“Will it really make a difference?” I wondered. After all, canned pumpkin, any pumpkin, is fairly bland and innocuous until you add all the spices and bake it into a flaky crust. 

Yes, it made a difference!

This particular variety of Cucurbita moschata is one of the oldest cultivated in America, and is especially well suited for growing on Long Island. In the 1800s, local cookbooks and farmers’ almanacs often cited the cheese pumpkin, or “pie squash,” as being the best for “making the most delicious of Yankee notions — pumpkin pie,” according to an issue of “Michigan Farmer” from 1855.

One of the reasons this pumpkin almost became extinct was its shape. Farmers desired a pumpkin that was round and agreeable to rolling politely off a conveyor belt, so such varieties as Dickinson and Kentucky Field became more popular. The squat shape and deeply ribbed surface of the cheese pumpkin also made it harder to peel. Ken Ettlinger, a local seed saver and natural science educator, began to notice in the 1970s that this pumpkin, along with other heirloom varieties, was starting to disappear. With help and support from the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and others, he was able to revive this variety enough for a few seed companies like Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange to begin carrying them.

Why is it called “cheese” pumpkin? Apparently because it resembles a big wheel of cheese. But inside, the flesh is denser, sweeter, and less stringy and watery than the “pepo,” the bright orange Halloween pumpkin we are used to seeing everywhere. The flesh itself has more nutrients and beta carotene, and is similar to butternut squash, a close relative. You can eat the whole thing, seeds, skin, and flesh. Just be sure to scrub well if you intend to eat with the skin on, because all fruits and vegetables that grow on the ground are likely to come in contact with birds and deer and bunnies doing their business out in the field.

Some recipes suggest boiling cubes of the pumpkin or microwaving it. I would recommend roasting before continuing with a recipe. If you’ve ever tasted the difference between a boiled beet and a roasted beet, you will understand. Roasting keeps in all the sugars and gives more depth of flavor. If you have a microwave, which I do not, then this method sounds like a good and faster alternative.

Another distinguishing characteristic of the cheese pumpkin is that it holds its shape if you want to incorporate it in cubes into stews or soups (that are not pureed).

Besides pies, you can add this pumpkin to risottos, make raviolis with fresh lasagna sheets or wonton wrappers, and top with sage-infused brown butter sauce. Puree it into a thick soup with ginger and coconut milk. Roast the seeds with some harissa, brown sugar, and a bit of oil.

There is now a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin Project, which pledges to “grow, revitalize, and preserve the culinary use of this heirloom squash.” Among its many ambassadors are the North Fork Table and Inn, the Amagansett Food Institute, the Milk Pail in Water Mill, and several Edible School gardens on both the North and South Forks.

The Long Island cheese pumpkin is now, thankfully, easier to find that it was many years ago when I first met this homely, yet somehow attractive blob of a squash. I strongly urge you to seek one out, either for your holiday pies or a warming fall soup, stew, risotto, you name it. I am going to try it stuffed and roasted a la Dorie Greenspan’s recipe from a friend in Lyons. For recipe inspiration, just think butternut squash; anything you can do with a butternut squash, you can do with a cheese pumpkin. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Click for recipes

Restaurant Week

Long Island Restaurant Week, when more than 165 eateries across the island will offer prix fixe meals for $27.95, begins on Sunday and runs through Nov. 6.  The special, which on Nov. 5, a Saturday, will only be available before 7 p.m., will include three courses. Among the local restaurants participating are East by Northeast in Montauk, Jean-Georges at the Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton, the 1770 House and the Living Room in East Hampton, and Le Charlot and Union Cantina in Southampton. A complete list of participants can be found at longislandrestaurantweek.com.

Day of the Dead Fare

Dia de los Muertos will be celebrated at La Fondita, the Mexican take-out shop in Amagansett, tomorrow through Sunday with some specials on the menu — pork, chicken, or chile and cheese tamales, chiles en nogada (poblano peppers stuffed with meat or cheese), churros (fried cinnamon-y pastries), and champurrado, a warm chocolate beverage. La Fondita is open Wednesdays through Sundays beginning at 11:30 a.m. 

Event at Almond

The next Artists and Writers Night at Almond in Bridgehampton will take place on Wednesday and feature Alice Hope, an artist whose work has been shown at the Ricco Maresca Gallery and at the Armory Show, which commissioned her in 2013 to create two public works. She also created a large-scale work called “Under the Radar” at Camp Hero State Park in Montauk for the Parrish Art Museum.

A three-course family-style dinner will be served. The cost is $45, which includes a glass of wine or craft beer and a gratuity; tax is extra. Reservations are required.

Baron’s Cove Bites

Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor will mark Halloween weekend with a live music lineup every night from tomorrow through Monday, and specials on nibbles including clams casino, oysters on the half shell, pretzel bites with dipping sauce or melted beer cheddar, sliders, smoked white bean dip with bread and crudités, fries, and a cheese plate. There will be drink specials as well. Happy hour at Baron’s Cove is from 4 to 7 p.m. Fridays through Mondays. 

Is there a food or food product that you remember from your childhood with great fondness? Have you ever revisited that food in the hopes that the taste satisfaction would match your memory of it? Did it?

It is a scientific fact that our taste memory is our strongest, stronger than sight, sound, and smell.

A friend recently reminded me of Durkee Famous Sauce and insisted we find it so we could make ham salad. We found it, we made the salad, he was swooning in an ecstasy of nostalgic flavors, I found it ghastly. His taste memory was satisfied, but all I could taste was bad egg yolks and vinegar.

I put this question to my gazillion friends on Facebook, because nothing gets people’s enthusiasm going more than a nostalgic food memory. For those with a Pennsylvania connection, Tastykake products came up a lot, like Butterscotch Crumpets and jellyrolls. For those who had remembered these fondly, they just didn’t taste as good anymore. Same for Entenmann’s baked goods. A lot of people miss Sara Lee banana cake and golden fudge cake. One friend in the D.C. area recently drove all over southern Maryland looking for Ring Dings, Ding Dongs, and Devil Dogs so he could share this childhood favorite with his daughter.

Some of these items (most seem to be in the junk food category) have been reformulated into a “healthier” version, less trans fats, less partially hydrogenated oils, less sugar. Let’s face it, if you were ever a Twinkies fan, you would agree they are not the same.

Some companies just change the name. Since we now know that sugar is the devil’s scouring powder, that word has been removed from the names of numerous cereals where it once was considered a selling point. Sugar Crisp is now Golden, Sugar Chex are now Honey Nut, Sugar Pops are Corn, Sugar Frosted Flakes are now just Frosted, Sugar Smacks are Honey, and Sugar Rice Krinkles are, well, actually extinct. But don’t let the names fool you, some of these cereals are still as much as 56 percent sugar!

Spam is a block of foodstuff that just won’t die. Even the Hormel website begins with “the Spam family of products is all around us.” At the end of their “brand overview,” they say “the Spam family of products are great for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” It’s not the bad grammar that bothers me so much as what appears to be a veiled hint to survivalists filling their bunkers with the distinctive square blue cans.

Spam contains six ingredients: pork, salt, water, sugar, potato starch, and sodium nitrate. The potato starch is to keep the gelatin nicely coagulated, the sodium nitrate preserves color. Some people think the name is an acronym or a shortened version of “spiced ham,” but it contains neither ham nor spices. It was named at a Hormel New Year’s Eve party. Some drunken fellow just blurted out the word “spam,” and it stuck. 

I grew up eating Spam. My father had developed a fondness for it during World War II, so my mother would serve it occasionally, all gussied up with pineapple rings stuck with cloves, and a cherry in the middle. The last time I tasted Spam I had to marvel over the fact that this was a frequent centerpiece at our family meals. And yet it remains hugely popular in Hawaii, especially in the Japanese and Korean communities. It is used in sushi as “musubu,” wrapped in nori on seasoned rice. 

For a while the famous Animal restaurant in Los Angeles was serving “Spam and foie gras loco moco,” traditionally a rice bowl topped with egg, hamburger, and gravy. This Spam dish has been described as being an “emblem of the restaurant’s giddy, sophisticated stoner sensibility.”

A lot of friends brought up Lucky Stars cereal, which no longer tastes so “magically delicious.” Some remember liverwurst sandwiches as being a favorite comfort food, but it just doesn’t taste the same. I am guilty of the occasional liverwurst craving, on rye bread with mustard and red onion, but when I read the fat content I take two bites and throw the rest away. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Campbell’s cream of celery soup, black and white cookies, Wonder Bread rolled into dough balls, ketchup sandwiches, Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks — eww. Domestic chocolate candies such as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were cited as tasting more waxy than chocolatey nowadays.

So have our tastes changed, or become more discerning with age? Or have the actual products changed? It’s probably a combination of both. For those of us who grew up with no seat belts in cars, doctors smoking in their offices, and our parents innocently serving us these newfangled convenience foods, it’s a wonder we are still alive.

The craving for nostalgic foods remains. Why else would the revered chef and author David Chang of Momofuko fame come up with the hugely successful “cereal milk”? Yes, it is milk that tastes like what’s left in your bowl after eating all the sugary cereal. A restaurant called Park Avenue changes menus every season, and one of its most popular autumn recipes is a broccoli dish swimming in a heavy cream, garlic, and cheese sauce, topped with Cheetos. And it is delicious!

Most people who answered my query found that their childhood favorite food just didn’t taste the same and they had no desire to try it again. This is a good thing. We have all become more health-conscious, we read labels, and we have access to better and more varied foods. But for those who don’t mind being led down the primrose path, just a little ways, here are some naughty recipes you might want to try every now and then. And for the record, marshmallow Rice Krispy treats still taste the same to me. I will occasionally buy one at a gas station before a long drive, and I savor every, chewy, sugary bite.

Click for recipes

Oktoberfest

On Saturday at Baron’s Cove restaurant in Sag Harbor, Matty Boudreau, the chef, will serve up a menu in honor of Oktoberfest from 1 to 5 p.m. Bratwurst, sausages, grilled corn, German-style pretzels, apple cider, seasonal brews, and more will be offered. 

Clam Pies

After the “Bonacker Clam-Shucking and Grinding Extravaganza” held last weekend at the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum, volunteers have been baking traditional clam pies that will be sold at the museum, at North Main and Cedar Streets in East Hampton, on Saturday, beginning at noon. They will cost $30, and the proceeds will benefit the museum’s exhibits and programs.

Prix Fixe at Babette’s

Babette’s restaurant on Newtown Lane in East Hampton is serving its menu of health-conscious fare this fall at breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime, Fridays through Sundays, and for breakfast and lunch on Mondays and Thursdays.  A Sunday-night prix fixe, offered from 5 to 9 p.m., is $19.95 and features a choice of turkey meatballs, barbecue tofu, steamed edamame, and crisp goat cheese dumplings, among other items, for starters, followed by entrees such as chicken mole enchiladas, vegetable pad thai, roast chicken, salads, and Atlantic cod. Dessert is included as well. 

At the Living Room

The Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn has begun “meatball Mondays,” when the Swedish inn’s signature meatball dish will be offered for $28. On Fridays, pot pies are on special for $19, and on Sundays, burgers, with beer, are $25 in the lounge.

Pizzas, Prix Fixe

Prix fixe dinners at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton include a $30 option with salad, a pasta entree, and two scoops of gelato or sorbet; a $35 choice with salad or penne to start followed by roast chicken and tartufo for dessert, and the “chef’s choice” for $40, which features the appetizer, entree, and dessert of the day. The specials are offered Sunday through Friday, but not on holidays, and are not available for takeout.

The restaurant also has a Sunday through Thursday pizza menu, with all different toppings from its wood-fired oven, from $10 to $19. During happy hour on Monday through Friday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and on Sundays from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., a glass of wine selected by the sommelier is $8, a bottled beer of the house choice is $6, and selected cocktails will be half price. Bar bites for $10 include pizza margherita, a salumi plate, and a cheese plate. Sliders, bruschetta, a hummus plate, and more are also on the happy hour menu for under $10.

Fall Fest Fare

A fall festival at the Amagansett Farmers Market on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. will include an opportunity for foodies to sample offerings from the food truck sponsored by Shelter Island’s Vine Street Café, seasonal sweets from the Mill House Inn, and Joe & Liza’s pumpkin ice cream.

Cafe Max to Close

After 25 years in business, Cafe Max, the mainstay restaurant on the Montauk Highway in East Hampton, will close its doors for good on Thanksgiving weekend. The owners and staff have said they hope to see their longtime loyal customers before that takes place.