Reopenings

Bay Kitchen and Bar, the restaurant at Harbor Marina on Three Mile Harbor in Springs, will reopen for the season tonight and serve dinner on Thursdays through Sundays until July, when it will be open daily. From 4 to 7 p.m. nightly, the restaurant has a happy hour at the bar, with $1 oysters and $5 glasses of rosé.

New menu items this year include red snapper ceviche, mustard and herb-crusted Montauk tuna, seafood pasta, and mushroom fricassee polenta. A new beverage director, Maura Mc­Guigan, has joined Eric and Adam Miller, the restaurant’s father-and-son co-owners, and will be offering new libations.

Also open again this week is Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, which suffered damage in a fire that gutted most of a neighboring Main Street building last month. The restaurant opened its doors last Thursday for a thank-you party for emergency responders, and was back to regular lunch and dinner service on Friday.

New Hampton Seafood

The Hampton Seafood Co. in East Hampton has new ownership and an executive chef, Ian Lowell. Catering services include a clambake menu, barbecue menu, and a la carte dishes including appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, entrees, sides, desserts, and raw bar items.

Parties can also be catered with a variety of food stations: a taco station, pasta station, slider station, and “artisanal” station featuring fruit, cured meats, dips, crackers, cheeses, and vegetables.

The shop continues to offer a takeout menu with tacos, burritos, and sides, as well as fresh fish and shellfish.

Montauk Eateries

O’Murphy’s in Montauk has decamped from the circle downtown and reopened near the harbor at the Tipperary Inn on West Lake Drive. The restaurant is serving lunch and dinner every day, and breakfast on Sunday.

Dave’s Grill, with a spot overlooking the docks, reopens for the season tonight and will be serving dinner Thursdays through Sundays.

Juice and More

Lisa’s Lovely organic juice bar has opened on Race Lane in East Hampton. The menu includes a wide selection of juices and smoothies as well as acai bowls and daily salad specials. A selection of local and organic products is offered as well.

Get Happy

Bar food, tap beers, and house wine and liquor are half-price at Fresh Hamptons in Bridgehampton each day between 4 and 6 p.m. Among the specially priced menu items are grass-fed beef sliders, organic whole wheat pizza, fish or spicy vegetarian tacos, and snacks such as baked kale chips, steamed edamame, and hand-cut Sagaponack potato fries.

A new happy hour at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett will be held Mondays through Fridays from 4 to 6 p.m. and feature discounted drinks and a wide selection of half-price dishes. They include chicken wings, calamari, mussels and fries, nachos, quesadillas, potstickers, and a Medi­terranean platter with pita bread, hummus, olives, and eggplant caponata. House wine and well drinks will be $6.

Little Leaguers’ Dinner

At the Harbor Grill in East Hampton, East Hampton Little League players who dine at the restaurant with their families after a game will get a burger for half price, and receive a free scoop of strawberry, vanilla, or chocolate ice cream to top off their meal. They must be in uniform to be offered the deal.

Farmers Markets Open

It’s that time again. Farmers markets are beginning their season all over the East End. Tomorrow will be the first day in 2015 for the East Hampton Farmers Market, which will continue each Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Nick and Toni’s parking lot on North Main Street. There are a number of new vendors this year.

On Saturday, the Springs Farmers Market sets up shop on the green outside Ashawagh Hall, where it will continue each week from 9 a.m. till 1 p.m. The Sag Harbor Farmers Market on Bay Street starts its run the same day, and has the same weekly hours.

Also beginning its season tomorrow is the Hayground School farmers market, which occurs on Friday afternoons from 3 to 6:30.

There is a Sunday market in Southampton on Job’s Lane starting this week and continuing throughout the season, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Montauk farmers market, held on the village green on Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., begins on June 12.

Stonecrop Wine Tasting

The Baker House 1650, an inn on East Hampton Village’s Main Street, will host Sally Richardson and Andy Harris, Montauk residents and owners of the Stonecrop vineyard in New Zealand, for a tasting on Saturday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. For $20, those who attend can sample Stonecrop’s pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, and rosé. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the Baker House.

Celebrating Rosé

The Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton will have a “pink event” next weekend, starting with an All Things Rosé dinner on Friday, May 29. It will feature rosé wines by Sagaponack’s Wolffer Estate, paired with four courses. Tickets are $195 per person. The weekend festivities continue with a  pool party on May 30, where Wolffer wines and light bites will be served. The cost is $85. On May 31, Topping Rose will host a brunch featuring seasonal fare, live jazz, and, you guessed it, rosé. Attendance is limited, so advance reservations have been suggested.

Foraging Trip

Chandra Elmendorf, a naturalist, will lead a foraging walk for wild edibles in Bridgehampton on June 13. Ms. Elmendorf will discuss how to identify more than a dozen edible plants, how to harvest safely and with care, and how to store and prepare the foods.

The event is sponsored by Slow Food East End; advance registration with the organization is required, and can be accomplished through its website at slowfoodeastend.org. The cost is $20, or $15 for Slow Food members. Space is limited.

Shellfish Event

Slow Food East End will hold its second Shellabration, a waterfront food and drink event celebrating local shellfish, at the Montauk Lake Club and Marina on June 18 from 5 to 8 p.m.

Tickets, which sold out fast last year, are $60 per person, or $45 for Slow Food members. They will be offered soon through the Slow Food website at slowfoodeastend.org. Seafood Safari, a locally owned business that provides seafood caught in a sustainable manner, will provide the raw materials for numerous East End chefs to prepare their shellfish specialties. Proceeds from the event will support Slow Food East End programs. A cash bar will be available.

Backyard at Sole East

The Backyard Restaurant at Sole East motel in Montauk will be serving dinner tonight through Sunday, lunch on Saturday, and Sunday brunch, which will feature live jazz and bossa nova music from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Seven-Day Schedule

Also in Montauk, 668 the Gig Shack is now open seven days a week, serving from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The bar stays open even later.

Italian Specialties

The Montauk Bake Shoppe is now offering products from the Villa Italian Specialties store in East Hampton. Items such as fresh mozzarella, sausage, and ready-to-heat dinners will be brought daily from East Hampton to the Montauk store.

Taste the East End

Taste the East End, a food and drink extravaganza, will bring chefs and craft beverage makers to the Long Island Aquarium on Sunday for a foodies’ experience from 7 to 10:30 p.m. More than 40 vendors will be on hand as well selling food and beverage products, and there will be live music. Tickets, which must be ordered in advance at tastetheeastend.com, are $64.95 per person.

Winston’s Bar and Grill

100 Montauk Highway

East Hampton

267-5400

Lunch and dinner seven days,

breakfast soon (from 8 a.m.)

Gosh, I love it when a restaurant is a pleasant surprise! I don’t know what I expected from the new Winston’s Bar and Grill where Nichol’s used to be on Montauk Highway in East Hampton, but I just didn’t expect such good food.

Nichol’s was extremely popular for many years, serving large goblets of reasonable wine and a pretty good burger and potpie. While many of my barfly friends liked it, it was never my cup of tea. As far as appearance goes, not much has changed. Many wine crate panels adorn the walls and ceiling of the small, two-room restaurant, and British memorabilia is plentiful. A Union Jack flag is stuck on the ceiling, and there are pix galore of Queen Elizabeth. One of the few hints of change are the little Jamaican flags out front.

The rooms are cozy and comfortable with brown banquettes and some tables in the front room, higher stools and bar tables in the second room, and a nook with two large tables for bigger dining groups. There are two small patios, one close to the parking lot and one very close to the highway, which on the night of our visit was unfurnished. Maybe when our population explodes this weekend more furniture will arrive.

We dined on a Sunday night, which is billed as Caribbean Night, and since the chef, Winston Lyons, is Jamaican, I thought this would mean some interesting and unusual dishes would be offered. However, other than an oxtail special the menu is pretty much straightforward seafood and meats. We began with crispy fried oysters, a Thai kale salad (Whah? How did you sneak onto the menu?), and a grilled artichoke. All three appetizers were absolutely delicious.

Apparently, Mr. Lyons worked at East Hampton Grill (along with a few other good local restaurants) for some time, and he has definitely picked up some tasty tricks from these establishments.

The fried oysters were served on thin slices of toasted baguette with a lemon aioli drizzled on top. The crisp batter was slightly spicy and the oysters were juicy within. Kale salad is everywhere, and it can be delicious when treated properly or a frickin’ nightmare to chew and chew and chew if the leaves are too big and haven’t been massaged properly and marinated into submission. This version was kale cut into chiffonade, thin ribbons, lightly dressed and tossed with crushed peanuts. The Thai flavors, a bit salty and citrusy, came through, but it wasn’t spicy or overwhelming with fish sauce. It was so good I took the leftovers home. The grilled artichoke, definitely reminiscent of East Hampton Grill’s version, was three large globe halves, marinated and charred and served with a beautifully balanced remoulade sauce.

It’s worth mentioning here that we ordered a few specialty cocktails as well. They are worth mentioning because they were so good and only $9 each. One was a watermelon Cosmo, made with freshly pressed watermelon juice, and the other was called the Eastbound Jitney, a mixture of fresh grapefruit juice and vodka. We enjoyed riffing on what the Westbound Jitney would be if it existed, no doubt three times more powerful to make the ghastly ride back to N.Y.C. more bearable. Neither of the drinks were overly sweet, which is a deal breaker for yours truly.

For entrees we tried the jerk chicken, the Fisherman’s Pot, and crispy fried lobster. Again, all three were great successes. The jerk chicken was moist and tasted brined, it was seasoned all the way to the bones. You could detect all the traditional spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and a wee bit of cayenne, well balanced. The half chicken was served on top of fried plantains, a tasty combo of soft and sweet beneath the warmly spiced chicken.

The Fisherman’s Pot was a variety of calamari, shrimp, mussels, and clams in a light tomato sauce with spaghetti. The tomato sauce was briny and spicy, and the seafood was cooked just enough.

The crispy fried lobster (we got the smallest size offered) seemed bigger than a one-and-a-half-pounder, which was fine with us. The menu said it was served with a ginger scallion sauce, which was either forgotten or perhaps had been drizzled on the lobster and just couldn’t be detected. The crispy bits clinging to the shell may have been the same batter used for the oysters, and they were fun to chomp on with the sweet lobster meat. My guests said they would have liked some lemon butter for dipping. It was served with a little dish of shoestring plantain fries, not as crisp as potatoes because the plantains have more moisture, but a nice addition.

The service on the night of our visit could have been better, but that is only because our waiter was woefully under-trained. He was as friendly as can be but continually reached all the way across the table to deliver dishes and clear the empties. Replacement utensils had to be requested and empty glasses cluttered the table, but in the casual atmosphere it wasn’t too bothersome. The busboy was super attentive, refilling our water glasses constantly, but we were pretty sure it was because he was crushing on our lovely Kerrie. Prices are moderate. Raw bar items, appetizers, and salads are $8 to $22, entrees are $22 to $43, sides and desserts are $7.

One of the things I liked best about Winston’s, besides the food, was the mixture of clientele. Admit it, there aren’t very many places out here where you see a lot of Hispanics and African-Americans mixed in with us tighty whities, but such was the case here. Quite refreshing.

The desserts are made in-house. There were only two available this particular evening, cheesecake and bread pudding, so we tried both. They were just okay. The cheesecake was New York style, simple and fluffy with no crust and was topped with a bright red cherry compote. The bread pudding was served with a warm apple compote and was a bit dense. Both had a slight taste of refrigeration fatigue. These were the only flaws of our meal.

There are rumors that the rickety old Quiet Clam/Nichol’s/Winston’s building may be torn down at some point. If this is the case I hope it is rebuilt or that Winston Lyons can find another place in our community to serve his delicious food. Or as my friend Orlando Satchell taught me in a few words of Jamaican slang, “all fruits ripe, everything cook and curry, mash it up, Winston! Irie!”

The Hampton Seafood Co. in East Hampton has not changed hands, as was mentioned here, but is under new management. Besides fresh seafood, the shop offers prepared dishes, groceries, and takeout, with a lunch and dinner menu daily at hamptonseafood.com. Specials are posted on its Facebook page, and on Thursdays from 4 to 7 p.m. during a happy hour, there are fish tacos for $3 and shrimp tacos for $4.

Futerman at the Reins

Bryan Futerman is now the chef de cuisine at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton. Mr. Futerman has worked with numerous well-known chefs including Daniel Boulud, Andrew Carmelini, and Guy Reuge, along with Joe Realmuto of Nick and Toni’s. The former owner and chef at Foody’s, which was in Water Mill, Mr. Futerman is vice chairman of Slow Food East End and Edible School Gardens of the East End, and involved in culinary and gardening programs at the Springs, Hayground, and Bridgehampton Schools. As of yesterday, Nick and Toni’s is serving dinner seven days a week, beginning at 6 p.m.

Gurney’s New Restaurants

Gurney’s Resort and Seawater Spa has launched a new array of dining options. An opening party at Scarpetta Beach, the restaurant housed in the inn’s large oceanfront dining room, took place on May 19. The eatery is the East End outpost of Scarpetta, a restaurant with locations in Manhattan, Miami, Beverly Hills, and Las Vegas. The menu includes a selection of pasta dishes, seafood and meat entrees, and starters such as beet salad, creamy polenta with truffled mushrooms, braised short ribs, seared scallops, and burrata with tomato, garlic, and eggplant.

Also open at Gurney’s is a bistro called Tillie’s that serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and brunch, and the Beach Club Bar and Grill, an oceanside spot for beverages, appetizers, salads, and sandwiches.

Eileen Roaman’s Legacy

Tickets are on sale for a June 28 fund-raiser for the Springs School’s Springs Seedlings gardening program and Project Most, an after-school program. To be held at Estia’s Little Kitchen restaurant in Sag Harbor, the event will feature food by a number of East End restaurants and vendors, including Debbie Geppert Events at Dreesen’s Catering, Balsam Farms, Cavaniola’s Cheese and Gourmet, Silver Spoon Specialties, the Sea Bean Natural Foods, Townline BBQ, and the Southampton Publick House, along with Estia’s.

Eileen’s Angels Art Auction and Garden Party, as it is called, will include live music and live and silent actions of art donated by more than 40 artists. It commemorates the late Eileen Roaman of Springs, for whom the Springs School greenhouse will be named.

Tickets for the 5 to 8 p.m. event cost $150 and can be purchased at projectmost.com. Artwork to be auctioned will be posted online beginning tomorrow at paddle8.com, where bids may be placed beginning June 12, and at Estia’s Little Kitchen as of June 3.

At the Yacht Club

Ron Duprat, who appeared on the Bravo TV show “Top Chef,” is the new executive chef at the Montauk Yacht Club. This summer, Daniel and Derek Koch of DMK Entertainment Group will host a series of Sunday-afternoon events at the yacht club, including brunch, along with some Saturday-night parties.

Fresh peas are my favorite springtime vegetables. Asparagus, morels, and fiddlehead ferns are also fleeting and early spring treats, and I love them all, but there’s just something extra special about fresh green peas. Even shucking them is a Zen-like pastime on the porch. It’s slow, and you don’t have a great yield for your work, but it is so worth it.

In other words, don’t plan on shucking peas for a dinner party of eight. This will make the process feel more like a Sisyphean exercise than a little dinner-prep. You would need to start with about six pounds of peapods to get four cups of shelled peas. So save the work for smaller gatherings of two or four, or stretch the peas by incorporating them into a risotto or pasta primavera with asparagus, mushrooms, and fava beans.

Peas will be available locally soon, so keep your eyes peeled when you go to the farmers markets. I found some pea vine shoots at Quail Hill Farm this past weekend, and they are another delicacy, either tossed as a salad when super-young or quickly stir-fried as a side dish. Alice Waters, in her “Chez Panisse Vegetables” cookbook, suggests sauteing the vine shoots in duck fat for no more than a minute.

There are basically three types of peas you can eat raw or barely cooked. English peas, also called shelling or garden peas, should have large shiny pods. These peas are like corn; they begin to convert their sugar into starch within hours of harvest, so freshness is key. This is also a reason why frozen peas are not such a bad alternative in a pinch, or in winter. These peas must be shucked (the pod is not edible); one and a half pounds of peapods will yield about one cup of peas.  

Snow peas are flat pods that are picked before the seeds, or peas, begin to grow large. They are also called Chinese peas, because they are ubiquitous in so many Asian stir-fried dishes.

Sugar snap peas are tender, crunchy, and sweet, and don’t need to be topped and tailed like snow peas, or shucked like garden peas. They are called mange tout in France because you can, in fact, “eat all.” Pea greens or pea shoots should come from a particular cultivar of snow pea that is grown for its tender shoots.

There are hundreds of varieties of peas. Thomas Jefferson was obsessed with them and grew over 30 kinds. Here are a few more familiar types: Green Arrow has slim pods and small peas. Lincoln can tolerate warmer weather and bears a lot of pea pods. Champion of England is an heirloom variety with impressive yield, and Canoe packs as many as 12 peas per pod.

Look out for toughness and dryness when buying or harvesting peas. They should look moist and succulent. In the case of sugar snaps or snow peas, bruising or scars are okay, just not yellowing or dried tips. Chives, parsley, mint, dill, chervil, and lemon are perfect and delicate accompaniments to fresh peas. And, of course, your best butter!

In the 16th century, it was Italian gardeners who developed the more tender varieties of peas for eating raw or barely cooked. They became a huge fad, but were still a luxury item in France by the 17th century. They were grown in manure under glass globes and were presented to kings and queens, then shucked and cooked. It was referred to by Madame de Maintenon as “a fashion, a craze, a madness!” Apparently, the ladies of those times would eat peas before going to bed, thinking they would aid digestion after a rich feast.

Peas were one of the first vegetables to be offered frozen by Clarence Birdseye in the 1920s. Do not even think of eating canned peas, they are gray and mushy and gross. Stick with fresh, in season, or frozen.

Here are some recipes to inspire you for the upcoming pea season!

Click for recipes

D’Canela restaurant in Amagansett has launched a takeout menu with free delivery service in East Hampton and Amagansett. The extensive menu includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner choices, ranging from eggs to appetizers, sandwiches, and salads, and including items such as burritos, tacos, and tostadas. There is a Monday through Friday lineup of soups of the day and a daily $12.50 lunch special that includes a soup and entree of the day.

Bostwick’s Reopens

Bostwick’s Chowder House on Pantigo Road will open for the season next Thursday. Service, to start out, will be from Thursdays through Sundays, beginning at 11:30 a.m. The menu at the seafood-centric East Hampton restaurant will continue to include favorites such as blackened fish taco, baked stuffed clams, clam roll, crab-stuffed flounder, and seafood pasta.

Easter Sunday Meals

Easter Sunday this weekend brings a prix fixe holiday menu to the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, with service from noon to 8:30 p.m. Among the entrees are roast leg of lamb, Long Island duck, local flounder almondine, Scottish salmon, crab cakes, and filet mignon, accompanied by a starter and dessert. Additional items may be substituted for a premium. The cost is $65 per person ($32.50 for children), not including tax and tip.

At the Montauk Yacht Club, an Easter Sunday buffet will be served from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with carving stations, eggs and omelets cooked to order, handcrafted pasta, a seafood bar, and a chef’s table with choices including roasted ham and Montauk tilefish. A chocolate fondue fountain and a Viennese dessert table top off the feast. The cost is $34.95 per adult, $12.95 per child over age 8. Those younger may eat for free.

Almond in Bridgehampton will have a prix fixe Easter brunch and Easter dinner, served a la carte, featuring smoked ham and lamb as holiday specials. For brunch, served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and including three courses for $45, there will be sausage and eggs, Nicoise salad with grilled trout, stuffed French toast, leg of lamb sandwich, and a house-cured smoked fish platter with bagels. A kids menu will also be available. At dinner, from 5 to 9 p.m., holiday dishes will be served family-style for $25 per person. Side dishes and a la carte items from the regular menu will be available as well. Reservations have been recommended.

Theater and Food

The 1770 House in East Hampton is offering those who will be attending upcoming Guild Hall theater lab events on April 21 or May 5 an opportunity to stop in for a $27 two-course prix fixe dinner before heading across Main Street. Dinner service will begin at 5:30 p.m. so that theatergoers can make the 7:30 p.m. curtain calls at the two free performances, which will feature East End artists.

Website Online

Rudy DeSanti Jr. and Debbie Conklin Geppert of Dreesen’s Catering, two veteran foodie professionals, have a new website for their business, dreesenscatering.com. The site features sample menus for weddings and other events, from elegant soirees to barbecues and clambakes, as well as information about the Dreesen’s donut truck — which can make a stop at private events — and about the duo’s local and homemade approach to food, which includes prime meats butchered by Mr. DeSanti onsite at the company’s custom-built commercial kitchen in East Hampton.

Mr. DeSanti, a native of East Hampton whose grandfather founded Dree­sen’s Excelsior Market, started Dreesen’s Catering when the family closed the market in 2004. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Ms. Geppert worked at the Raleigh and Concord hotels in the Catskills and as director of restaurants and room service for the Hilton Corporation before returning here to her hometown in the late 1990s. After working at Bostwick’s restaurant, she had her own catering business before partnering with Mr. Dreesen in 2013, and now oversees the catering division and event operations at Dreesen’s.

Food Ed at Page

Page restaurant in Sag Harbor kicked off a food education initiative with a “Little Foodies” event last weekend. About 25 children and their parents learned about how food grows in the restaurant’s aquaponic gardens, discussed the importance of making healthy eating choices with representatives from the Wellness Foundation of East Hampton, I-Tri, and Cornell Cooperative Extension, and participated in an interactive cooking demonstration with Page’s chef, James Carpenter.  Page is developing a pilot program through which aquaponic systems would be built in local school greenhouses to help provide school cafeterias with organic produce.

It all began with ice cubes, or the lack thereof. Expecting some swells for dinner, I had to choose between having enough cubes for adult beverages or using them to shock and retain the beautiful emerald green hue of my green beans to be served later. The adult beverages seemed far more crucial, so I just rinsed the beans after cooking under cold water for a minute or two until they had cooled off. Mission accomplished.

Why do “they” say you must shock them in a bowl of ice water to retain color? You have to get out a bowl, you have to empty and refill ice trays (can you tell I don’t have an ice cube maker in my old fridge?), swirl the beans about, drain again, rinse and dry the bowl. Totally unnecessary. A myth. Which got me to pondering: What other food myths are still floating around out there, just waiting to be debunked? Or in some cases, proven true?

One common myth is the suggestion to put an avocado pit in your guacamole to prevent it from turning brown. This does not work. What works is laying a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the guac. You’re welcome.

There are numerous suggestions for removing the odor of chopped onions and garlic from your hands. When it was discovered some years back that stainless steel helps remove the odors, Williams-Sonoma jumped on the bandwagon and produced a stainless steel blob in the shape of a bar of soap. Pretty silly considering how many stainless steel utensils and surfaces there are in your kitchen.

How does it work? The amino acid sulfoxides in onions and garlic form a volatile gas (propanethiol S-oxide), which is also responsible for making you cry harder than watching the end of “The Bucket List” starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. When and if these sulfur compounds bind to the steel, the odor is removed. Somewhat. Which brings us to preventing tears while chopping onions. Where did the myth of holding a piece of bread in your mouth come from? It is ridiculous nonsense and a waste of bread. Other suggestions are chill the onions, chop them under water (whah?), run a fan, or wear goggles. I say just man up (woman up?), chop fast, and enjoy that cathartic minute of tears. Obviously, if you’re chopping onions you’re making something homemade and delicious. Some other bizarre suggestions for removing the odors of onion and garlic on your hands are rubbing them with lemon juice, soaking them in tomato juice for 10 minutes, or rubbing them with peanut butter. Gross.

What about fish odors? My chef friend Ellen White suggests rubbing hands with baking soda, then rubbing vigorously with a cut lemon half. She said your hands will smell like a summer day. Not quite, but we tested this method and it works. It also works for removing beet stains. Some methods suggested for removing beet stains were downright dangerous and disgusting. One website suggested rubbing hands with Vaseline before grating beets. I see a slippery accident about to happen. Another suggested using hand lotion before handling beets. I taste Jergens in my beet salad.

Bryan Futterman, a chef at Nick and Toni’s, came up with a doozie. He recalled another chef always boiling squid with a wine bottle cork in the belief that this keeps it tender. This, too, is a bunch of hooey from somebody’s nonni’s cucina.

Does searing meat seal in the juices? No, but it does cause the Maillard reaction, creating a delicious, caramelized crust. Letting the meat sit for a few minutes after cooking is what seals in the juices.

Cooking dried beans in salted water is a big boo-boo. Colin Ambrose of Estia’s Little Kitchen pointed this one out. You shouldn’t salt the water until the beans have softened. How about baking soda added to boiling vegetables like our grandmas used to do? Chef Kevin Penner supports this philosophy, saying “green vegetables stay greener in an alkaline environment.” Harold McGee, author of “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” disagrees, explaining that baking soda can “turn vegetable texture to mush, speed the destruction of vitamins, and leave a soapy aftertaste.” I’m staying out of this one because I steam my vegetables anyway.

What about only eating oysters and other mollusca shellfish in months with an “R”? This is a complicated one, but nowadays you can generally enjoy oysters year round, just be sure your source is reliable. How about not ordering fish in restaurants on Mondays? Nonsense, fresh fish is delivered all through the week to reputable restaurants.

Whoever made up the rule “no swimming for 45 minutes after eating?” Cruella DeVille? What if you just ate half a cantaloupe? Suppose you consumed a pastrami on rye with an egg cream and a side of fries? Use your own judgment on this arbitrary rule.

Do older eggs whites whip up better than fresh ones? Yes, but they have less structure, as will room temperature eggs. So use fresh, cold egg whites for whipping, it takes a bit more time but the tight little proteins will have stronger, more uniform bubbles.

There are many nutrition myths that come and go. Egg yolks are bad for you; just eat the white. Not true, the whole egg is a perfect little ovoid of protein. Agave syrup is good. No, it’s not. Fresh vegetables are better than frozen, so not necessarily true. Your “fresh” vegetables may have come from another continent and be weeks old. Frozen vegetables have been frozen right after harvesting. Chocolate, red wine, nuts, and oils have all gone from one end of the bad-for-you food spectrum to the other.

Aluminum pots do not cause Alz­heimer’s. Olive oil does not lose its nutritional value when heated. Cucumber seeds do cause indigestion. Brown eggs are not more nutritious than white. Chicken soup is good for a cold. And no, you cannot determine the sex of a bell pepper by the number of bumps on the bottom. Peppers come from flowers possessing male and female sex organs, but the peppers themselves are hermaphrodites.

Lastly, boiling water beforehand will not make for crystal clear ice cubes. So there you have it, many canards and myths and old wives’ tales of the food world debunked or proven true, a few even supported by actual scientific experiments.

Now that you can handle stinky fish with alacrity and chop those onions and garlic without fear, here are some tasty recipes utilizing a few of those previously offending ingredients.

Click for recipes

Three upcoming sessions of the Wednesday wine-tasting and discussion series presented by Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits will feature wine experts from the East End.

On Wednesday, J. Christopher Tracy, a partner and winemaker at the Channing Daughters Winery in Bridgehampton, will discuss his vineyard’s wines, and on April 22, Christian Troy, a partner in Indie Wineries, will discuss “Cali­fornia’s Rhone Rangers and West Coast Syrah’s Young Turks.” Indie Wineries, a distributor of artisanal wines from small producers in Europe and across the United States, was founded by Summer Wolff, a native of East Hampton who now lives in Italy.

Mr. Troy will be followed on April 29 by Eileen Duffy, an editor at Edible East End and Edible Long Island magazines, who will discuss the rise of the wine industry on Long Island.

The sessions begin at 5:30 p.m. and cost $10. Those planning to attend have been asked to call the store or to email [email protected] to sign up.

Next to Reopen

The opening for the season of Harbor Bistro on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton is, for some, as much a harbinger of spring as daffodils and, this  year, the trickly demise of the last of those gray lumps of no-longer-welcome snow.

It happens next Thursday evening. Dinner will be served from Thursdays through Sundays, beginning at 5 p.m. Hours will be expanded later in the season.

Goat and Wine

A dinner on Tuesday at Almond in Bridgehampton will pair Channing Daughters and Paumanok Vineyards wines with a five-course family-style menu centered on dishes made with locally raised goats. The cost is $75 per person plus tax and gratuity; reservations are required.

Lucky Perks

Page restaurant in Sag Harbor holds a drawing each week for a $100 dinner for two for those who have subscrcribed to “Page Perks,” the restaurant’s news­letter. The restaurant’s website is at page63main.com.

Indian Cooking

Penn Hongthong, an author and personal chef, will give a demonstration of Indian cooking at the Montauk Library on April 18, beginning at 1 p.m. She will prepare basmati rice, seasoned chickpeas with tomatoes, and chicken curry. Limited space is available, and advance registration has been requested by contacting the library’s circulation desk. There is a $5 fee.

At 1770

Wintertime dining deals will continue until June 11 at the 1770 House in East Hampton. They include a $35 three-course prix fixe Sundays through Thursdays and a Thursday-night $17.70 special in the inn’s downstairs tavern, offering the choice of a burger, meatloaf, or pizza, and Soave or Malbec wines at $9 a glass.

The restaurant’s early-spring menu changes weekly according to seasonal availability. Spring ingredients include entrees such as roasted Atlantic halibut with white wine and truffle emulsion, fingerling potatoes, leeks, and wild mushrooms; Maine diver sea scallops with black rice, crisp Korean pork belly, carrot-ginger puree, and snow pea salad, and braised California rabbit with black chickpea spaetzle and ragout of carrots, green garlic, and hedgehog mushrooms.

Lobster Night

Lobster night is Wednesday at the Bell and Anchor in Sag Harbor. A three-course menu will feature a choice of appetizers and entrees such as lobster garganelli, steamed lobster, and butter-poached lobster claws with filet mignon, at varying prices.

Family Night

Sunday is family night at Fresh Hamptons in Bridgehampton. A $59 (plus tax and gratuity) dinner deal, enough to feed two to four adults or a pair of adults and several kids, includes a large salad, large sides, and a choice of a whole roasted organic chicken, a pound of barbecued short ribs, or twice-baked butternut squash with vegetables and smoked tofu, plus apple crisp and ice cream for dessert.

Reservations are being taken for an April 30 wine dinner at Michael’s restaurant at Maidstone Park in Springs, which recently remodeled to create a wine bar featuring a wide selection of vintages.

The dinner will feature six courses created by Luis DeLoera, the restaurant’s owner and chef, each paired with a different wine from the Ferrari Carano Wineries of California. Among the menu items will be a fried lobster spring roll, grilled duck breast with homemade fettuccine, New York strip steak, and five-spice crusted Chilean sea bass. The cost is $75 per person.

Thursday for Prime Rib

Thursday is prime rib night at the Bell and Anchor in Noyac, with eight-ounce or 12-ounce portions of meat au jus served with a vegetable and potatoes for $34 or $39. Dessert can be added for $5.

Food and Detox

Fresh Hamptons restaurant in Bridgehampton will host classes designed to help participants detoxify while learning how to eat in a healthy manner. Lillian Grajeda, a yoga and Pilates instructor and detox specialist, will lead three, three-class sessions in upcoming weeks. While a Tuesday class began this week, a Thursday session begins today from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m., continuing next Thursday and April 30. The third option is a Saturday class, which will meet on April 25, May 2, and May 9 from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.

A $299 fee per session includes a cleansing lunch at each class, a personalized detox program, and ongoing support.

Montauk Beer Dinner

A dinner featuring Montauk Brewing Company beers will take place on Friday, April 24, at the Harvest on Fort Pond in Montauk. The restaurant will serve seven courses paired with five different beers. Live music will accompany the meal. Among the menu items will be a seafood trio starter, spring salad, bucattini pasta with Montauk lobster, littleneck clams, and scallops, and Colorado lamb. Reservations may be made by calling the restaurant. The cost is $65.

Montauk Coffee Spot

Left Hand Coffee has opened in the South Elmwood Avenue spot that formerly housed Coffee ’Tauk,

The espresso bar’s menu features a variety of artisanal coffees and teas; cold brews will be added for the summer season. Besides beverages prepared on site, coffee and tea are available for retail purchase, along with brewing accessories. The shop also sells pastries and other baked goods and bites, and will have a selection of books, magazines, and newspapers for customers to peruse. Shop hours until Memorial Day weekend will be Wednesdays through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Winston’s Opens

Winston’s Bar and Grill in East Hampton, housed where Nichol’s restaurant used to be, is open and is serving lunch and dinner from noon to 9 p.m. seven days a week. Breakfast service will be added in mid-May.

The restaurant is a new venture by Winston Lyons, a chef whose local resume includes Bostwick’s, East Hampton Grill, and Turtle Crossing. The menu features a number of dishes with a Caribbean flavor, including seafood and steak.

At Smokin’ Wolf

Also in East Hampton, though at the eastern edge of Pantigo Road heading toward Amagansett, Smokin’ Wolf, the takeout barbecue place, has opened its ice cream bar, and is serving lunch specials for $7.75 on Wednesdays through Fridays.

Another Restaurant Week

Prix fixes will be $27.95 at numerous restaurants across Long Island from Sunday through May 3, during Long Island Restaurant Week. The special will be offered all night each night except Saturday, when it will be available until 7 p.m. A list of participating eateries may be found at longislandrestaurantweek. com.

Poetry, Dinner

Julie Sheehan, a poet who directs the M.F.A. program in creative writing and literature at Stony Brook Southampton, where she is an assistant professor, will be the speaker at the next Artists and Writers Night at Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton.

It begins at 7 p.m. on Tuesday and features a family-style, three-course meal for $45, which includes a glass of wine or craft beer as well as tax and a gratuity. Ms. Sheehan, the author of several poetry collections, is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and a New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellowship. Reservations are required.

Bar Bites

Bar bites at the Harbor Grill in East Hampton are $6 and $8, depending on one’s choice, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Mondays through Saturdays, and on Sundays starting at noon. Menu choices include corn fritters, cheese quesadillas, zucchini sticks, gravy cheese fries, chicken wings, baked clams, and grilled cheese.

Opening on Fort Pond Bay

Navy Beach restaurant in Montauk reopens for the season tomorrow at 5 p.m. and will serve dinner through Sunday and lunch on the weekend days.

This year the restaurant is offering a launch service for guests who come to the waterfront spot by boat. Using a 13-foot, vintage 1967 Boston Whaler, it will pick up those who anchor offshore. The service begins Memorial Day weekend. Also new this year will be a number of menu items, and an expanded rosé wine list.

Montauk Beer Dinner

A dinner featuring dishes paired with brews by the Montauk Brewing Company will take place tomorrow night at the Harvest on Fort Pond.

For $65, diners will get seven courses paired with five different beers, and a live musical performance. Reservations have been suggested.

Brooklyn Brewery Beer

Edible East End magazine is co-sponsoring a launch of the Brooklyn Brewery’s latest concoction, a beer called I Wanna Rye-it, at the Bell and Anchor in Sag Harbor next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. The event will also include pickles by Divine Brine, bites by Le Fusion, and tastes of Joe and Liza’s Ice Cream, a Sag Harbor brand. Advance reservations are required. They may be made, and $5 tickets reserved, at edibleeastend.com. The event, called the Quarterly Carousal, is free for magazine subscribers.

Taste of Tuckahoe

A fund-raiser for the Tuckahoe School in Southampton tomorrow night will be held at 230 Elm restaurant, also in Southampton, from 7 to 10 p.m. and include food from a number of East End restaurants, food and beverage producers, and chefs. Among them are the Blue Duck Bakery Cafe, Edgewater, Old School Favorites, Palmer Vineyards, Townline BBQ, and Tully’s Seafood Market. There will also be a D.J. spinning music, and a silent auction. Tickets are $35 in advance and may be purchased at Southrifty Drug in Southampton, or online at TasteofTuckahoe.com. They will cost $40 at the door.

New this year is a 6 p.m. V.I.P. hour featuring a cooking demonstration by Maurizio Marfoglia, the executive chef and a partner at Tutto Il Giorno in Sag Harbor and by Alexander Apparu, a Southampton chef de cuisine.