Conca D’Oro is the kind of pizza joint-restaurant that every town should be so lucky to have. It is fast, reasonable, and good. In a way, it is two establishments. Come into the front for a quick slice, takeout, or to enjoy your pie in a booth. Go to the back for sit-down service, a variety of specials, and pasta dishes big enough for Fred Flintstone to bring home in a doggy bag for Dino.

       On a recent evening we dined in the back room, spruced up with a Christmas tree, wreaths, and stockings. We ordered a lot of food, not because we needed a lot, but wanted to try a lot. It is guaranteed you can share all of the salads and entrees and still have leftovers.

       We began our meal with the gorgonzola salad and bruschetta. Since you already get salads and garlic knots with your meal, this was all we needed. The gorgonzola salad is a favorite here, a combination of iceberg and romaine lettuce, tomatoes, red onion slices, black olives, artichoke quarters, shredded carrots, and roasted red pepper strips. The gorgonzola cheese is scattered over the top in little bits and is not too strong or overwhelming. The dressing is a light, mild Italian. The bruschetta was very good, lots of fresh, diced tomatoes with garlic and basil piled onto crisped up hero rolls with gobs of melted mozzarella cheese. The house salads are also good, simply crisp lettuce, shredded carrots, quartered tomatoes, black olives, and red onion. The garlic knots are excellent, basically pizza dough molded into little knots and doused with garlicky olive oil and parsley.

        For our entrees we tried two specials — the fettucini Paglia Ofieno, bucatini with broccoli rabe — and two regular menu items — the eggplant Parmesan and penne with meatballs — and a side order of broccoli with garlic and oil. The fettucini was a combination of spinach and plain pasta in a pink cream sauce with mushrooms and ham. It was riiiiiich and tasty. The bucatini had a variety of ingredients, broccoli rabe, sun-dried tomatoes, sausage, zucchini, and garlic. My guest felt it needed some salt and cheese; I thought it was very good. The penne with meatballs was, like all the dishes, huge. The meatballs were mild and fluffy, the marinara sauce simple and delicious. The eggplant Parm was pretty good. It came with some margherita topping as requested (fresh chopped tomatoes and basil), and is served piping hot in the casserole dish it is baked in. As I am an eggplant Parm aficionado, I would give this one a B-. Not bad! The side order of broccoli was huge, the broccoli a tad overcooked but good nonetheless, studded with lots of fried garlic chips.

       One of the things I especially appreciate about Conca D’Oro is that every request is honored if the kitchen can manage it and has the ingredients to do so. Our waitress, Angelica, was sweet and attentive. Prices are $4 to $10 for soups, salads, and breads, $14 to $24 for pizzas, $14 to $23 for dinners and pastas, specials from $18 to $23, $5 to $9 for sides, and desserts $4 to $6.

       For desserts we tried the tiramisu, cannoli, and tartufo. The first two items are made in-house. I have come to the conclusion that all tiramisus taste the same; all I ask is that they taste freshly made. This one was good. The cannoli was excellent, a crisp cinnamon-y outer shell filled with fresh ricotta and studded with two neon pink glaceed cherries. The tartufo was also very good, a slight detour from the traditional chocolate shell filled with various ice creams, this one had chocolate and strawberry flavors.

       You can’t do a review of Conca D’Oro without talking about the pizza, as this is probably the main source of energy for every teenager in Sag Harbor. It is excellent, simple, moderately thin-crusted pizza with a good red sauce. I recommend the veggie, although most of those under the age of 20 have probably never even tried it.

       Another aspect of restaurant dining I pay particular attention to but seldom mention is cleanliness. As we were leaving Conca D’Oro, business was winding down and the front pizza prep area had been put to bed for the night. It was nice to see that everything was clean and neat and organized. This can tell you a lot about a restaurant, folks!

       As I said at the beginning, Conca D’Oro is the kind of place every town should have. It is reasonable, family-oriented, quick if you just want a slice, and warm and cozy if you want to stick around and have a big bowl of pasta.

Mozzarella Making

       Jeanine Alfano Burge of Silver Spoon Specialties is offering lessons in making mozzarella. The class costs $40; gift certificates are available as holiday gifts for foodie friends. Ms. Burge and her catering business have a Facebook page, through which she can be contacted.

       Silver Spoon will soon be taking over the cafe at the Sportime arena on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett. Details will follow.

Highway Diner Hours

       The Highway Diner in East Hampton has new winter hours. It is now closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, but will continue serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner the other days of the week.

Holiday Wine Tasting

       Park Place Wines in East Hampton and the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons will co-sponsor a holiday wine tasting, featuring more than 50 wines from around the world, at the Highway Diner on Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m. Wines will be available for purchase.

       Tickets for the event, the proceeds of which will go to ARF, cost $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Tickets will also entitle the purchaser to a 10-percent discount on breakfast, lunch, or dinner at the diner. Reservations can be made by calling Park Place Wines.

New Wine Shop

       The wine and liquor store adjacent to the Seafood Shop in Wainscott is under new ownership and has been named Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits. The owner, Joel Kaye of that hamlet, has tapped Chimene Macnaughton to buy for and run the store. Ms. Macnaughton has been involved in a number of East End restaurants, including Della Femina, Fresno, and Rugosa. The shop will take orders online at its website, wainscottmain.com.

Driver’s Seat Specials

       The Driver’s Seat in Southampton has a weekly lineup of specials, including a daily $9.95 soup and salad, or beer and burger, special for lunch. On Wednesday, the restaurant continues its offering of two-for-one entrees, on Thursday a pasta special includes three courses and a glass of wine for $13.95, and on Friday, New York strip steak costs $21.95. Saturday nights, a three-course prime rib dinner is $22.95.

       At the bar on Sunday afternoons beginning at 1, sports fans can order wings for 25 cents each, and other appetizers for half price. During football games Monday night there are $5 burgers and the two-bit wings from 5:30 p.m. until closing at the bar.

Jamaican Specialties

       Jamaican Specialties, a takeout food shop on North Main Street in East Hampton, has a daily lunch special Monday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m. for $5. Served along with fried plantains and rice is a choice of a chicken dish — with options such as jerk chicken or curried chicken. Occasionally, other lunch specials are added to the menu.

       On Fridays, fish is on the dinner menu, with entree choices including main dishes such as steamed snapper or fried porgy. They are served with yellow and white yam, boiled banana, and boiled dumplings, at a $15 to $20 cost.

       Sundays at Jamaican Specialties bring a buffet-style brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a variety of choices — as many as you can eat — for $12. Menu items include fried saltfish, boiled banana, fried chicken, cornmeal porridge, and festival, a seasoned fried dough.

Swedish Holiday Fare

       The Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton will once again offer its annual Swedish Christmas Table menu through Dec. 23. The prix fixe, for $36 per person plus tax and gratuity, includes a first course of herring served three ways, a second course of Swedish Christmas ham, gravlax, country pate, and accompaniments, followed by roast pork loin with braised red cabbage and potato puree or codfish with horseradish, winter kale, brown butter, and potato terrine. A trio of desserts will conclude the meal, followed by coffee and Swedish Christmas candy. Nordic glogg, or mulled wine, will be available. The special is available only until 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

       The Living Room is also offering a 30-percent discount on selected bottles of wine on Thursdays, and, during December, two dinners from the a la carte menu for the price of one Sunday through Thursday nights, including the Swedish Christmas Table special. Tax, tip, and alcohol and other beverages are not included.

Inlet on Break

       Inlet Seafood in Montauk has closed for the winter. The restaurant will reopen around Valentine’s Day.

Gingerbread Session

       Bill Bertha, a pastry chef, and pizza makers from the Red Horse Market in East Hampton will be the next presenters at the East End Chefs cooking class series, during a session on Wednesday beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor.

       Mr. Bertha will make a number of pastries and will demonstrate how to put together a holiday gingerbread house, while the pizza chefs will demonstrate how to make a variety of pizzas at home. A drawing will be held to award the gingerbread house to one lucky winner. Space is limited, and reservations can be made by calling the church. The price is $20; wine and water will be available for purchase during the class.

    What is your favorite kind of cookie? Chocolate chip? Me, too! Oatmeal raisin, gingersnap, peanut butter, shortbread? All of those, too. Are you a crisp and delicate cookie aficionado, or a jumbo half-baked shopping mall cookie fan? Super sweet, short and crumbly, filled with jam or just plain Jane, there is a cookie for everyone.

    The late Richard Sax, author of “Classic Home Desserts,” pointed out that “more than any other baked goods, cookies are the province of home bakers.” This is especially true because you most likely have all the ingredients on hand, cookies are pretty darned easy to make, they take very little time, and most will last a long time in an airtight container or the freezer. Even as a pastry chef, I seldom say to myself, “I’ve got about three hours to kill, I think I’ll whip up a cake or pie today.” But cookie doughs, many of which can be put together in 10 minutes and baked equally long? Instant gratification! Even the former White House pastry chef Roland Mesnier said that whenever he had a few moments, he would make cookie doughs to have in his arsenal of emergency desserts. Served with a sorbet or ice cream, mousses, fresh fruit, or as an assortment platter, freshly baked cookies make it seem like you’ve gone to more trouble than perhaps you actually have. Of course, they are also a thoughtful treat to send to your children at camp, school, college, life away from home. And this is the time of year that most of us do a lot of holiday baking for gifts.

    Cookies have been around since man figured out that grains, water, and hot stones could create a form of biscuit. Spices, nuts, and various sweeteners such as honey came later. Just about every culture has some form of cookies. Even commercial cookie brands tailor their cookies to different countries. Oreos are made with green tea ice cream flavored filling for China and Japan, and Argentines can buy banana and dulce de leche-flavored Oreos.

    The basic varieties of cookies are macaroons (cookies made from ground nuts), jumbles (butter cookies that are cut or shaped), rusks and biscotti (crisp, twice baked), sponge fingers (also known as lady fingers or Naples biscuits), apees (wine and caraway flavored), gingerbread and gingersnaps, and a more current trend popularized by Momofuko’s pastry chef, Christina Tosi, “the garbage cookie,” filled with cornflakes, pretzels, chips, nuts, bolts, and so on.

    At the beginning of cookie making, they were only served on special occasions or used as offerings to the gods, probably because the ingredients were so expensive. Nowadays we think of vanilla as a common flavoring in almost every cookie, but vanilla had never been used in this country until Thomas Jefferson introduced the orchid bean in 1789 upon his return from his service as minister to France. Sherry, Madeira, caraway seeds, and rosewater were more common. Ugh.

    With a little help from Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking,” here is a primer on why and how different cookies come out the way they do. The high proportion of flour to water is what makes cookies crumbly. More water plus eggs creates a more cakelike cookie. Sugar contributes to structure and texture, and adds crispness. Honey and molasses, however, do not crystalize like sugar, and therefore make a cookie moist and chewy. Fat provides richness, moisture, and suppleness. Leavening, when included in cookie recipes, provides tenderization and puffiness. Because cookies have very little moisture and a lot of sugar, they are not hospitable to microbes and keep for a long time.

    Besides being easy and generally inexpensive to make, cookies are a fun way to introduce baking to children. They can measure, roll, and decorate their own creations.

    A few things to keep in mind: Use the best and freshest ingredients you can afford. Fake vanilla is not an option; when recipes call for eggs, they almost always mean size large; kosher salt is best for baking, and always use unsalted butter. A dark baking sheet will brown cookies faster and you may need to lower oven temperature. Invest in a good, sturdy baking sheet. Parchment paper is easier than having to grease and regrease sheet pans. Silicone Silpats are expensive but will always ensure your cookies won’t stick to the pan. This is especially helpful when making Florentine or other crisp lace cookies. Measure carefully and accurately. While making cookies is a piece of cake (ha!) it is still chemistry and science. Enjoy!

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    La Fondita in Amagansett is serving new brunch specials on Saturdays and Sundays between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Items on the takeout menu include chilaquiles — tortillas sauteed with salsa verde, a fried egg, cheese, and crema, served with rice and refried beans — and a breakfast burrito filled with eggs sauteed with peppers, onions, tomatoes, rice, and black beans.

Wine Specials

    Select bottles of wine are discounted by 30 percent on Thursday nights at the Living Room restaurant at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton. The wines were selected by Chris Miller, the restaurant’s wine director, and range from a $36 bottle of Finger Lakes Riesling to a $150 bottle of Vieux Chateau Gachet.

Artists and Writers Night

    Tuesday will bring another Artists and Writers Night at Almond in Bridgehampton, this one featuring Cynthia Hopkins, a performance artist-in-residence at the Watermill Center in Water Mill. She was a recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship.

    The evening will begin at 7 p.m. and include a three-course meal served family-style along with a glass of local wine or craft beer. The cost is $40 in advance or $45 at the door.

Pigskin Saturdays

    Saturdays during college football season are Pigskin Saturdays at Townline BBQ in Sagaponack, when a pig will be smoked and served in time for a noon kickoff. The pig, raised on an upstate farm, will be served by the half-pound portion, with potato bread and barbecue sauce, or with tortillas and avocado salsa, along with a choice of two side dishes, for $16. Adding a can of Porkslap Beer will make the cost $19.

Mondays at Fresh

    Another day of the week has been renamed by a local restaurant — this time it’s Manly Mondays at Fresh in Bridgehampton, when from 8 to 10 p.m. at the bar the TV will be tuned to the football game and a dinner special featuring a grass-fed beef burger or a grilled veggie burger will be served with a glass of house wine or a Blue Point draft beer for $10 plus tax and gratuity.

Nick and Toni’s News

    A new menu of small bites to eat, called cicchetti in Italian, is available at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton Wednesday through Monday, in the dining room or at the bar. The dishes range from $5 to $12 and include crispy chickpeas, house-cured duck prosciutto with caramelized pearl onion, fried cauliflower, grilled lamb, oil-poached swordfish, and fried foie gras ravioli with truffle oil.

    A daily $21 special lineup at Nick and Toni’s features pan-roasted chicken on Sunday, any pasta entree on Monday, fish of the day on Wednesday, and a Milanese dish of the day on Thursday. The restaurant is closed on Tuesday.

About the Holidays

    Stuart’s Seafood in Amagansett will be closed for Thanksgiving. The seafood shop is taking Hanukkah orders for its homemade latkes and applesauce.

    The Harbor Grill in East Hampton is taking reservations for holiday parties to be held in its private dining rooms. A three-course menu, with complimentary hors d’oeuvres, is available for $30 per person, plus tax and tip. The rooms — one that holds up to 35 guests, and the other accommodating up to 65 — can be booked for lunch and dinner.

    Those who purchase gift certificates for the grill will receive an extra $10 certificate for every $50 gift they purchase, which can be combined into the gift or kept as a special bonus for oneself.

The Cuddy

    The Cuddy in Sag Harbor has switched to winter hours, serving dinner from 5 to 9:30 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. On the weekends, Saturday brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. is followed by dinner at 5, and on Sunday brunch and then dinner is served from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

    Specials at the Cuddy — an entree with a beverage for $20 from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday through Friday — are chicken and waffles on Monday, mussels in red or white wine sauce on Tuesday, pork loin on Wednesday, roasted chicken on Thursday, and gnocchi on Friday. Two-for-one mimosas are served with Sunday brunch.

    If ever a tribe of cannibals wanted to fatten up some homo sapiens like the poor geese of Perigord, New Orleans would be the place to do it. The geese of Perigord are force-fed through a contraption called a gavotte, which engorges their livers to create, in some people’s opinions, delicious foie gras fattiness.  Take me to New Orleans and I will voluntarily consume every oyster, etouffee, gumbo, Sazerac, beignet, muffaletta, remoulade, Abita beer, po’ boy, mudbug tail, and praline I can get my hands on — making me one tasty and large human liver.

    We arrived in N’Awlins early on a Monday morning and only had three days to sample as much deliciousness (and Tums) as we could. Our guide was a local author, Mimi Read, who writes like an angel and looks like a ballerina but can pack away as many oysters as, oh, I dunno, Peyton and Eli Manning combined. Lunch was at Felix’s, where gumbo, oysters Rockefeller, raw oysters, crawfish tails, and etouffee were heartily consumed. As well as onion rings, why not?

    Dinner was more about music than food. A local wine shop, Bacchanal, serves food on its patio, casually ordered from a fast-food-like window and brought to your table. More important, up-and-coming jazz musicians perform almost every night, weather permitting.

    Breakfast the next morning was in the Roosevelt Hotel, beignets, and shrimp and grits with tasso cream. Other choices on the breakfast menu are such native delights as blue crabmeat on an English muffin, fried crawfish tails and boudin cakes with creole hollandaise, and sweet potato pancakes. Oatmeal was on the menu but it is clearly so alien to them, it was misspelled.

    There was mention of having lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Garden District but that was not to be until the next day. Visions of light and crunchy summer rolls, fresh, raw vegetables, and fragrant jasmine rice swam in and back out of my head. Ah, well, off we went to Casamento’s, surely one of the best and more casual establishments in the city. Opened in 1919 by Joe Casamento, this shrine to oysters and all manner of fish fried in lard is still run by the family.  More raw oysters, char-grilled oysters (these are doused in garlic butter), a fried catfish sandwich for yours truly, fried oysters, French fries, and some iceberg lettuce.

    Like quite a few other restaurants, you must go through the kitchen to reach the restrooms. The seasoned cornmeal for battering is on a low shelf, a three-gallon bucket of lard sits nearby, and three pots of bubbling this and that sit on the tiniest stove I’ve ever seen in a restaurant that handles such volume. Like pretty much everyone in the Crescent City (so called because the Mississippi River curves through like a half-moon), the staff and chef and dishwasher and owner are happy to chat with you about history, recipes, and the beautiful tiles that line every surface of Casamento’s.

    That evening’s festivity was a book party for my friends Tommy and Mimi.  Little glasses of crabmeat and avocado soup were passed around along with little tartlets with shrimp remoulade. I nibbled on Tums and cursed my inability to consume everything like I used to. A late dinner at a charming restaurant called Lilette was a roasted beet salad for me.

    In between meals our time was spent walking, walking, and walking for miles, admiring architecture, poking around antiques stores, listening to buskers on the streets, and marveling at how reasonable New Orleans is. Our hotel, a branch of the Waldorf Astoria, was cheaper than a Holiday Inn Express by JFK airport. Our meals at some of the best restaurants in the city never exceeded $200 for four people.

    The sidewalks are full of cracks and holes, and the streets severely potholed. There is plenty of poverty, but more so, pride. Public drinking is encouraged and crime is a problem. But the resilience and friendliness of the people is inspiring and the music uplifting.

    Lunch the last day was outdoors at the aforementioned Vietnamese restaurant.  I practically needed sunglasses, the food on my plate was so bright. What is that?  Ah, crisp lettuce leaves with shredded carrots and radishes, sprigs of cilantro and mint, lemongrass-scented bits of chicken, pho, healthy food! Enough to fortify us for our last supper at one of the shrines, Galatoire’s, where gentlemen must wear jackets. One of the things that most amazed me were the prices. Salads are $6.50 to $14, fish and shellfish dishes are $19 to $28, sides are $6, and desserts a mere $5 to $8. That’s cheaper than Espresso or John Pappas! The food is glorious — souffled potatoes, oysters en brochette, grilled pompano topped with crabmeat, hearts of palm with asparagus, crabmeat sardou, ravigote, Clemenceau, Marguery.  The most expensive item on the menu is the souvenir cookbook at $35.

    Whenever I return from a food exploration trip, I search for ways to incorporate what I have learned and eaten into my everyday cooking.  You won’t find me seeking out lard to deep-fry oysters but I have discovered that a pinch of homemade creole seasoning does wonders for egg salad, mashed potatoes, and creamed spinach. My evening cocktail is now a Sazerac, carefully, slowly, meticulously, lovingly prepared and served in small doses.

    I don’t think I’ll be making fried eggplant sticks and serving them with Crystal hot sauce and a pile of powdered sugar. Seriously, this is considered a delicacy in New Orleans, who thought of that? I did stop by Citarella upon my return to find out if I could order pompano and head-on shrimp. As far as oysters go, honestly, I prefer ours, more briny than bayou. But I may soon try subjecting some Montauk Pearls to a few drops of jazzy Crystal hot sauce with WWOZ 90.7 on in the background and an ice cold Abita. Just to bring me back to old New Orleans.

    I’m embarrassed to admit how much research I have done on the Sazerac since my return from New Orleans. You can make these with either bourbon or rye whiskey. I find that a mid-range priced rye whiskey is best, and lower alcohol, too. They range from 100 proof to 84 proof. This recipe is from the Sazerac Bar of the Roosevelt Hotel, a beautifully restored bar with original W.P.A. murals.

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Holiday Treats

    Debbie Geppert, an East Hampton caterer, along with Dreesen’s Catering, is taking orders for Thanksgiving pies and cookies. Choices include pumpkin, pecan, apple, and apple crumb pies, as well as peanut butter, oatmeal, molasses, and chocolate chip cookies.

    Ms. Geppert is also offering classes for holiday-time cooks at the Dreesen’s kitchen on Lumber Lane in East Hampton.

    An Easy Entertaining class on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. will help students learn what to have on hand for last-minute entertaining, from holiday cheer to savory bites and items to set a festive table, and cover easy recipes using phyllo dough and puff pastry; one recipe that can be used to make three different appetizers; freezer and pantry must-haves for easy entertaining, and great holiday cocktails for a crowd, as well as tips for setting a beautiful holiday table. The cost is $50, prepaid. Class size is limited to 12, and reservations may be made by e-mailing [email protected].

    Ms. Geppert will also continue to offer her Holiday Cookie Bake Shop sessions. A three-hour class for mothers and children will be held tomorrow afternoon at 3, with a second on Dec. 12. Sessions for adults, which are four hours long, will take place on Dec. 4 at 3 p.m., Dec. 7 at 10 a.m., and Dec. 15 at noon. Several varieties of cookies will be prepared, and students will be sent home with all the recipes and enough cookie dough to make 10 dozen cookies, which can be kept in the freezer or refrigerator for six to eight weeks. The cost for adult classes is $75; mother-and-child classes are $100.

    Ms. Geppert will schedule additional sessions if requested for groups of eight or more. Among the cookies students will learn to make may be molasses cringles, vanilla and almond spritz butter cookies, peppermint cream chocolate sandwich cookies, lemon gems, and holiday biscotti.

Oysters and Wine

    Fresh is taking reservations for a dinner pairing Howard Pickerell’s Pride Oysters and Paumanok Vineyards wines on Dec. 6. The six-course dinner will cost $95 per person, plus tax and gratuity, or $85 plus the extras for members of the Paumanok Wine Club or Fresh Hamptons Rewards programs.

For Taco Lovers

    At Fresh restaurant in Bridgehampton, Tuesdays are taco nights, with a family-style taco dinner served from 5 to 8 p.m. at a cost of $19 per adult and $10 for each child under 12, plus tax and gratuity.

    Thursday is the taco night at La Fondita in Amagansett, when a taco dinner to go for four, at $30, includes ingredients to assemble a meal at home: 12 handmade soft corn tortillas, a quart of filling (carne asada, carnitas, chorizo, chicken, or chayote) and fixings such as lettuce, cheese, cilantro, and onions. A quart of rice and a pint of black beans are also included, and a salad can be added for $8.

    La Fondita also regularly offers a “nachos supremo” kit for preparation at home, for $11.50. It features meat and vegetable options, along with tortilla chips, refried beans, cheese, pico de gallo, and crema.

Fall Special

    Bostwick’s Chowder House in East Hampton, which is open Thursday through Monday, offers a three-course dinner special on Thursdays and Sundays, from 4:30 p.m. until closing. It includes a choice of starters, such as salad, chowder, baked clams, fried calamari, steamed mussels, or chicken wings, and a soft-serve ice cream with two toppings for dessert. Entree choices, which will dictate the price of the special, include daily specials as well as dinner entrees on the menu, or a lobster roll.

New Face in Kitchen

    Justin Finney has joined Ed Lightcap in the kitchen at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, as a co-chef. Mr. Finney, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, was a sous chef at Meeting House in Amagansett before working in that capacity, most recently, at Nick and Toni’s in East Hampton, where he also was in charge of the restaurant’s vegetable garden. 

    The two chefs have created a new snack menu that includes chipotle deviled eggs topped with house-made tasso ham, steamed pork buns, candied bacon with blue cheese dressing, crispy eggplant fries with spicy tomato sauce, butternut squash pierogi with spiced sour cream and gingersnap crumbs, and house-pickled vegetables, among other items.

Last Meals

    Some changes are afoot on the Water Mill restaurant scene. Foody’s, the unpretentious but acclaimed restaurant run by Bryan Futerman for the last eight years, closed as of Sunday.

    Word has it that Mirko’s, a longtime Water Mill mainstay, is closing as well.

At Driver’s Seat

    The Driver’s Seat in Southampton, which saw a drop-off in business in early fall after it was reported that a former waiter had been treated for hepatitis A, has issued a press release and copy of a County Health Department report verifying that the illness was confined to the one worker.

    A number of the staff and patrons were inoculated against hepatitis at Southampton Hospital as a preventive measure, and, according to the press release, the Health Department found no evidence of illness among the staff during several visits, and, the release said, found the restaurant “spotless.”

    Without a doubt, trying to make a truly delicious vegan dessert is a challenge. Trying to make a flaky, delicious vegan pie crust even more so.

    Some recipes for vegan desserts are better left ignored, or improved upon, or at least challenged. Ignored because some things just don’t taste very good with alterations. Improved upon because some recipes show promise but are sloppy. And some should be challenged because there really is no substitute for whipped cream or meringue or many other things, taste and texture-wise.

    You can make a vegan version of whipped cream but it is time-consuming (it takes three stages of whipping, temperature monitoring in and out of freezer, and will cost ya!) and is just as sugary and fatty as a dairy version.

    My theory about fake bacon, mock meat, faux cream, etcetera is just don’t bother. These things simply don’t taste good and they certainly don’t taste like what they are engineered to mimic.

    My long and arduous experiment into vegan pie dough was educational. After a good deal of research I settled on two recipes, one from Food 52, an awesome and reliable website, and one from About.com. Another website, Post Punk Kitchen, was fun to read but sure had a lot of curse words and opinions about ex-boyfriends and stuff.

    The Food 52 recipe called for coconut oil. The flaky vegan piecrust from About.com called for margarine. I also made some of my own favorite pie dough for comparison.

    Having never worked with coconut oil or margarine, I made mistakes with both. I chilled the coconut oil, which made it flaky and chunky, too hard to measure until I let it come back to room temperature. With margarine, I made the really stupid mistake of buying tub margarine instead of stick. This has more water. The first batch of dough was very soft as a result. I went back to the drawing board and repeated the recipe with stick margarine.

    As a professional pastry chef, I had great confidence in my ability to make the doughs properly, not overwork them, measure meticulously, and roll at the correct temperature without too much flour. I made all of them in a food processor, a quick and reliable method. The Food 52 dough came together nicely and rolled out well once chilled. It did, however, have a few solid chunks of coconut oil that reminded me of candle wax. The About.com recipe also came together nicely and rolled out into a disc cooperatively, but then completely fell apart when moved.

    For taste tests, I made each dough into cookies and apple turnovers. Although it looked like a holy mess, the margarine dough tasted okay and had a short texture. The Food 52 recipe was sturdy, very sturdy. My own recipe, with butter and a bit of shortening, was divine and flaky.

    After testing and tasting and tasting and testing, I began to wonder, how does one cleanse the palate between piecrusts? Fat is fat and flour is flour and regardless of what kind you use, your tongue is going to start feeling coated with spackle after a while.

    I also began to question some of the vegan websites I came across in my research. There are few vegan dessert cookbooks in the mainstream so these resources are all I had to go on. One recipe for vegan chocolate cake suggested chocolate chips for the frosting. Not vegan chocolate chips, just chocolate chips, which contain milk.

    The vegan website Ohsheglows does point out that the most popular desserts are anything no-bake, quick and easy, and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. So perhaps this is the way to go. I am not going to include the recipes I tried; they are not worth it. If you think you have a good vegan piecrust recipe, don’t send it to me, make it for me. In the meantime, my vegan friends will have to be content with frozen banana “ice cream” with caramelized nut topping. That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

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Farm Bounty

    Balsam Farms farm stand on Town Lane in Amagansett is still overflowing with fall bounty, but with a more limited schedule. The stand is open Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for Thanksgiving week, when it will be open Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as well.

Empanadas to Order

    Those missing the taste of Gula Gula Empanadas, which were sold at farmers markets this summer, do not have to wait until spring to get their fix. Empanadas with such fillings as bison, seasonal greens, ham and cheese, chicken, fish, and more, can be ordered via the business’s website, gulagulaempanadas. com. And, in November, Gula Gula is offering a two-for-one deal. Those who buy a dozen empanadas can get their second dozen of equal or lesser value at half price.

Danish Coffee Bread

    For the next cooking demonstration at Loaves and Fishes in Bridgehampton, people can learn how to bake wienerbrot, a Danish coffee bread, based on a recipe from “Country Weekend Entertaining” by Anna Pump with Gen LeRoy. The demonstration, on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m., is free.

Swallow East

    Swallow East in Montauk is offering a fall prix fixe featuring two items from its “small plates” menu plus a dessert, and a drink for $24.95. Sunday is “funday,” when $3 Bud Lights pair with $11 jumbo wings.

Bloody Mary Bar

    Riding the D.I.Y. cocktail wave, Nick and Toni’s has recently introduced a new item to its brunch experience called “the board,” the establishment’s version of a Bloody Mary bar. The concept allows guests to customize their own drink using the elements provided from four categories. They can choose from an assortment of liquors (think house-infused sweet pepper, onion, and basil Absolut), mixes, garnishes (from stuffed olives to mozzarella balls), and condiments that include the usual horseradish but also some surprises. The board costs $29 and serves two to four people.

Holiday Entertaining Class

    Debbie Geppert, an East Hampton caterer, will share what she knows about the art of “easy entertaining,” just in time for the holidays, with classes on Sunday at 3 p.m., Nov. 20 at 7 p.m., and Dec. 3 at 6 p.m.

    Each costs $50 and will cover designing holiday cheer and making easy recipes with phyllo dough and puff pastry. They will be held at the kitchen of Dreesen’s Catering on Lumber Lane in East Hampton. Reservations may be made by e-mailing [email protected].

Traveling Lunch Truck

    Starting this week, the North Fork Table and Inn’s food truck will be making a new stop at the Hampton Jitney terminal on County Road 39A in Southampton. Menu items available Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through the end of the year include an artisan hot dog for $5, a Berkshire pulled pork roll for $10, organic spicy chicken posole for $12, and a lobster roll for $16.50.

Wine, Beer, Conversation

    Myles Romanov of Martines Wines will be on hand at the Riverhead Project this week as part of an ongoing series of Tuesday wine dinners. The dinner, which will begin at 7 p.m. will feature a multi-course menu paired with Martines Wines and a discussion of the pours. The dinner will be served family-style at the restaurant’s long farm table and costs $40. Reservations are required. The restaurant is at 300 East Main Street in Riverhead. The restaurant also offers a similar series of beer dinners, book dinners, and dinners and discussion with its executive chef, Lia Fallon. A full list can be found at riverheadproject.com.

    Winter’s a ‘comin’, the days are darkening early, what to do? Girls nights! Gentlemen, you can turn straight to Jack Graves’s sports page or reread the police blotter, this column is not for you. It is for me and my girlfriends.

    What is it about a gathering of good friends getting together to eat and drink and talk that is so fun and so vital? And I’m not talking about a night out on the town with your gal pals or a weekend in Vegas. I’m talking about a gaggle of friends at home, eating junk food, playing cards, talking about books, work, life, whatever. This kind of activity is restorative for us.

    I grew up with two brothers and no sisters. Hence I was a tomboy and hung out with my brother’s friends. They were so easy, so black and white. It was “Let’s go find some M-80s and blow stuff up down by the pond,” not “I’m not sure if Susie likes me, she’s acting all weird and is hanging out with Molly more than me, do you think it’s because I talked to her boyfriend, Jocko?” By high school, I recognized the ultimate and infinite value of female friendship.

    Once we are adults and are busy with families and work, the time we spend with our girlfriends becomes that much more important. Some of my friends have book groups, but I know for a fact these books are often dense and dull and some of you don’t even read them! Some friends have game nights, with card games, Bunco, Scrabble. But really, it all comes down to the eating, drinking, conversation, and company.

    My friend Amanda gets together with her fellow alumni from a documentary they worked on together years ago. They “eat hummus and pita, crudites, cheese and fruit, pate, dolmades . . . drink wine, generally, although we’ve been known to make margaritas or martinis. We talk, catch up on news and gossip, compare notes on films and books we like. . .and play charades,” she said. “That’s the best part, I love charades.”

    Judiann gets together with her “Scrabble bitches” once a month. “Aside from our very competitive games, we eat some pretty amazing fare. . . . Just last week Nicolette prepared the most incredible boeuf bourgignon served with rice and roasted vegetables made in true French style. The month before it was another amazing meal of grilled meats, sauteed kale and spinach and some other amazing tidbits,” she wrote. “We are talking gourmet Scrabble!”

    Ellen’s groups starts with wine and/or martinis or rum punches depending on the season. “Lots of hors d’oeuvres, pimento cheese, hot artichoke dip, bacon wrapped breadsticks, smoked salmon spread, pigs in a blanket, anything normally naughty and off limits . . . and cards, bridge, or Wizard. As the evening progresses . . . lots of talking and a lot less cards.” She also tried something once called Reuben dip, recipe to follow.

    To make it easy for whoever is hosting, make it a potluck or just serve appetizers. You can make it a movie night, a pampering spa night, D.I.Y. pizzas, or a book swap. Serve Cosmos and cupcakes. Have a wine tasting. How about cheese or chocolate fondue? Counting calories over fondue is a fondon’t.

    A University of California, Los Angeles study conducted in 2002 found that girlfriends are stress-busters and have an impact on our overall mood. Women with a lot of female friendships live longer. A Harvard University Nurses Health study found that “not having regular contact with girlfriends was as detrimental as smoking or gaining weight.” Pass the Reuben dip, girlfriend!

    Again, I hope the gents aren’t reading this because it is a scientific fact that the life expectancies for men are shorter than for women. Our women friends become a very important source of social support.

    We know our children and families and doggies and friends and husbands and lovers adore us. Our bosses rely on us and the house doesn’t clean itself. But sometimes we just need to be ourselves, laugh, kick back, and know we are loved and appreciated among friends, friends who don’t mind that you’re entertaining in your Uggs and there’s a speck of dolmades grape leaf stuck on your teeth. Our girlfriends are a mirror of ourselves. I like what I see.

    As a final note to all the dudes who couldn’t resist putting in their two cents worth on Facebook: No, Doug, you can’t photograph us, and thank you, Jimmy, for your menu suggestion of dripping brisket sandwiches on foot-long hoagies with dark stout ale followed by Cohibas. I think we’ll stick with your wife’s awesome corn chowder!

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New at Harbor Grill

    The Harbor Grill, on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton, has a new menu reflecting a fresher and healthier take on some comfort food selections. Damien O’Donnell, the restaurant’s chef, who is also at the helm of the seasonal Harbor Bistro, now closed for the winter, has added starters such as a vegan hummus-and-guacamole duo serv­ed with vegetable sticks and tortilla chips, baked clams, spinach-and-artichoke  dip, and a shrimp and avocado cocktail, along with a soup of the night. Entrees, served with a cup of soup or a small salad, include Mongolian-style barbecued baby ribs, lump crab-crusted swordfish, teriyaki grilled salmon, pork Milanese, strip steak au poivre, Texas-style beef brisket, shrimp linguine, and herb-roasted chicken.

    The burger and sandwich section of the menu includes classic burgers, a veggie black-bean burger, chicken, steak, roast beef, and brisket sandwiches, and a chicken quesadilla.  Macaroni and cheese has been added to the kids’ menu, and desserts include thick shakes and root beer floats, as well as nightly cake and pie specials. The Harbor Grill also has a $12 burger-and-brew special at the bar, live music every Saturday night starting at 7, and happy-hour prices on drinks and appetizers all day on Sunday from noon to closing.  Sundays also bring free meals for kids 10 and under, and a $14.95 Sunday brunch.

Sag Harbor’s Sen

    Sen restaurant in Sag Harbor has new fall hours. The restaurant will serve dinner until 9:30 p.m. from Sunday through Thursday, including a tasting menu, featuring a choice among seven categories of items, for $28.

Thai Cooking Class

    Members of the Boahirun family, which oversees Boa Thai restaurant in Southampton, will present the next East End Chefs class at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor next Thursday. The menu will include Thai spring rolls and wontons served with plum sauce, Thai salad with peanut dressing, and Pad Thai noodles with sliced chicken, along with gelato for dessert.

    The session begins at 6:30 p.m. and costs $20. Wine and water will be available for purchase. Space is limited. Reservations may be made by calling the church.

New Hampton Coffee

    The Hampton Coffee Company has a new location at the State University at Stony Brook, called the Corner Café. Run by students and overseen by the college’s Faculty-Student Association, Lackmann Culinary Services, and Hampton Coffee Company managers, the site is the first licensed location for Hampton Coffee Company, which is based in Water Mill and run by a local family. Additional campus locations on Long Island and in New York City are planned.

Duck, Red Wine Dinner

    Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will present a dinner featuring duck and Long Island red wine next Thursday at 7 p.m. Wines by the Channing Daughters Winery and Paumanok Vineyards will be served, along with such items as duck prosciutto and torchon, duck confit ravioli, and duck breast served with baby beets and pistachios. The cost is $75 per person.

Soup and Salad Lunch

    A soup-and-salad lunch special at the Living Room in East Hampton is offered from noon to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, for $19. A glass of local wine can be added for $8. Soup choices will vary, while the salad offered will be the Living Room Salad —  arugula, endive, dried cranberries, candied nuts, and shaved cheese, with an apple cider vinaigrette and a choice of grilled chicken or salmon.