Even when dark falls early and the wind off “the End” can make a visit to Montauk feel forbidding, there are still lots of reasons to head east — the Shagwong among them.

    A weekly dinner special at the “Wong” costs just $14.95, and includes an appetizer, entree, and dessert. On Sunday, the menu is “chef’s choice.” Monday is steak night, and Tuesday, pasta night. On Wednesday, the special includes Hungarian beef goulash with noodles, and on Thursday, it is pot roast with potato pancakes. Friday is all-you-can-eat fish fry night. 

Seasons of Honey

    On Saturday afternoon from 2 to 4, Mary Woltz of the Bee’s Needs, a local beekeeper, will be at the Lucy’s Whey cheese shop in East Hampton. Ms. Woltz will have a selection of different honeys from hives throughout East Hampton and Sag Harbor for tasting, along with tidbits of cheese. She will discuss how honey is made and its different seasons.

East End Chefs Series

    Damien O’Donnell, the chef and a partner at the Harbor Grill in East Hampton, will be the featured chef next Thursday at Sag Harbor’s Old Whalers Church cooking series.

    Mr. O’Donnell will prepare pistachio-crusted oysters, flash-seared tuna poke, and shrimp with pasta in a light tomato sauce. Dessert will be fresh berries sabayon. Wine will be served.    

    The evening begins at 6:30 and costs $30, which can be paid in cash or by check at the door. Reservations have been suggested, however, as space is limited. They may be made by calling the church.

    Proceeds of the programs benefit the church’s community house fund, which is used to maintain facilities used by a host of community groups.

Thanksgiving Thinking

    A few early thoughts about Thanksgiving, with more to come next week:

    Art of Eating catering in Amagansett gives holiday meal hosts the option of not having to make myriad dishes. Orders must be placed by Friday, Nov. 18, and food picked up before noon on Thanksgiving.

    Among the more than 40 prepared items available, which are centered on organic, local ingredients, are turkeys raised at Ludlow Farms in Mecox, hors d’oeuvres, soups and salads, stuffing and gravy, conserves and relishes, breads, vegetables, and desserts. For those who prefer not to eat the traditional bird, a baked glazed Virginia ham can be ordered, as can other items, such as lasagna and salmon, to get one through the holiday weekend.

    Orders can be placed by calling Art of Eating, or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

    Among the restaurants that will be serving a holiday feast on Thanksgiving is the Living Room, which is at c/o the Maidstone in East Hampton. A four-course meal will be served from 1 to 8 p.m. and costs $85 for adults and $40 for children. To add wines paired with each of the courses — for the grown-ups only, of course — the cost will go up $45.

At Pierre’s

    A prix fixe special at Pierre’s in Bridgehampton will continue through the winter and be available nightly, but only until 6:30 on Fridays and Saturdays. The cost is $24 for two courses, or $28 for three.

Restaurant Week

    Long Island Restaurant Week began Sunday and will continue through this coming Sunday. Participating restaurants across the Island will offer a three-course prix fixe for $24.95 each night. On Saturday, it will be available only before 7.

    A list of eateries participating in the promotion, which was developed by East Hampton’s own public relations firm, WordHampton, can be found at www.longislandrestaurantweek.com.

Let us begin “Paris Part Deux” with one of the more magnificent and elaborate meals I had the pleasure of indulging in. Chez l’Ami Jean is a restaurant that Tommy and Mike had been sending guests to for years, but had yet to try themselves. Everyone would come back raving about this tiny, bustling, and rustic spot.

    The recommended aperitif was a Spanish cooked wine called txapa. It was a deep pink, slightly sweet, barely chilled, delicious. We decided to go for one of the tasting menus. It began with a bowl of artfully piled small pieces of raw fish. Onto this the waiter poured a piping hot, deep-brick-colored fish soup. The soup slowly cooked the fish bits, which remained slippery and moist while absorbing the flavor of the broth. Somewhere on the bottom were crunchy bits of breadcrumbs toasted in olive oil, giving the soup texture.

    This was followed by squares of cod topped with crispy lardons of bacon and sitting on a bed of julienned sautéed celery. Next came little beef medallions with a salty anchovy sauce, a hint of cardamom and herbs, and an electric green spinach purée, then rabbit that was swathed in an inky-dark foie gras sauce. The portions were small, but at this point I feared I could not keep up with the big boys. Next up, seared rare duck breast accompanied by pork belly, garnished with a ribbon of crisp yet pale cured bacon. All of it sitting atop a potato galette. Uncle!

    The dessert, deceptively simple, was so inspiring that I did my best to duplicate it upon my return. A big bowl of creamy rice pudding was placed in the center of the table and we could serve ourselves as much as we pleased. The accompaniments that made the pudding shine were fresh raspberry sauce, candied sliced almonds, salted caramel whipped cream, an apple bergamot purée, and to follow, a mint sorbet with fresh raspberries. I asked my hosts if requesting a doggy bag was acceptable in Paris. Non! But I couldn’t let my piece of duck go to waste and asked for one anyway. The waiter did not mind a bit, and that piece of duck found its way into a rich cassoulet back at Tommy’s a few nights later.

    In the first of what would be several small world coincidences in Paris, we even ran into some acquaintances from East Hampton at Chez l’Ami Jean.

    One of my favorite wanderings with Tommy was the hardware department in the basement of a department store. Everything looks different, more artfully arranged, from the brass fixtures to the wastebaskets to the electric radiators. Another shop had a window display of corks, all shapes and sizes.

    The Sunday flea market was another revelation. Not so much for the massive amounts of gilded furniture or the distinguished armoires, but for the picnics that each of the vendors was enjoying. It may have appeared that they were working on a Sunday but what I saw were tables laden with red wine, patés, loaves of whole-grain breads, and other round loaves hollowed out into which tea sandwiches had been layered. Nobody seemed to be competing for business; they were enjoying each other’s company, gossiping, smoking, and tossing tidbits to the small dogs that had accompanied them to “work.”

    We ate several dinners at home, prepared by Tommy, a superb chef, in a kitchen the size of a closet. On the few evenings I was permitted into the closet to help, we had to take turns being in the kitchen-closet. One of our at-home meals was simply a salad of Bibb lettuce, arugula, radishes, toasted pumpkin seeds, pistachios, and almonds in a shallot dressing prepared by moi, padded out with some purchased Middle Eastern dips and vegetable dishes such as taramasalata (a salty roe spread), baba ghanoush, tzatziki, and roasted peppers.

    A more elaborate meal at home was a rolled roast lamb prepared by the butcher with sundried tomatoes, herbs, and minced shallots, wrapped in caul fat, a very simple green salad with chervil and parsley, a layered tomato, zucchini, and onion gratin, and a Mont d’Or cheese (similar to Epoisses, which you can get in America). While shopping for this meal we argued vociferously over what to have for dessert. Tommy insisted that a bowl of grapes would suffice after such a rich repast. As a pastry chef, I wanted to buy the pretty square raspberry tart that I’d seen in the window of a shop the day before. I mean, really! Grapes?! Boy, was I wrong. The variety of grapes we bought and served was beyond anything I had tried before. They were the sweetest, most perfumy little things I have ever tasted. Truly, another revelation.

    Before I departed for Paris, I told my son the dates I would be gone. “That’s funny,” he laughed. “Dad’s going to be in Paris at the same time.” Although amicably divorced for 16 years, we have never found a reason to see each other in New York, which would certainly make more sense. But it seemed like a hoot to get together in Paris, merely for the coincidental timing. I also wanted him to get reacquainted with my beautiful niece, Cristina, now 22, whom he hadn’t seen since she was a baby. Coincidence on top of coincidence, she is living and studying in Paris in the same neighborhood where Tommy and Mike live. So we all ended up having a jolly cocktail party with Negronis and red wine, which then turned into an impromptu dinner. Tommy magically turned our leftover lamb and my duck from Chez l’Ami Jean into a quickie cassoulet.

    On another lunch outing (Le Comptoir, brandade de morue, terrine of pot au feu, parmentier of oxtail, panna cotta with strawberries, prune and armagnac glacé . . .), we sat outside next to a couple from Costa Rica. We struck up a conversation and found out that they are friends of my sister-in-law from El Salvador. The coincidences were piling up!

    Here are a few of the snack-meals that we never told Mike about. (Tommy and I broke the no-lunch-before-big-dinner rule every day.) After a morning of walking for miles on no breakfast, we stopped at a touristy-looking place called Le Moliere. With no expectations whatsoever, we ordered the buckwheat crepe with a creamy potato, lardons, and melted Reblechon cheese known as crepe Savoyarde. It was so rich and creamy and salty and smoky, we savored each bite. We left one teaspoonful on the plate so we could say we didn’t finish it.

    The last, and one of the most perfect snacks, was on my final day. Tommy, the most thoughtful of hosts, was taking me on my desired rounds to find gifts to bring home. The Maille mustard shop, La Praluline for chocolates and that crazy pink praline cake, a knife store for an Opinel picnic knife, and so on. We popped into a wine bar called L’Ecluse. We discussed the temptation of simply ordering a slab of foie gras to have with a glass of Sauternes. Too expensive, too extravagant, I protested. But guess what, folks? The cost of a memorable glass of Sauternes in Paris is no more than a glass of mediocre house wine in any restaurant in East Hampton. My flabber has never been so gasted! We ate slowly and sipped slowly, for there is nothing else you can do when faced with such dreamy French creations.

    My last meal in Paris was a special treat. Dinner at Chez Georges, a restaurant so old that Tommy’s parents had also gone there most of their lives. Another houseguest had arrived, adventurous Rosie, who lives and works as a pilot on tiny Harbour Island in the Bahamas. Tommy chose steak with marrow after a salad of frisée with lardons and a poached egg. Mike went for paté and lamb chops with french fries. Rosie went for the escargots and requested her fillet of sole be served whole. I had the frisée salad, a special of the evening, sautéed girolles mushrooms, and the fillet of sole meunierre. All of it was rich and magnificent, but really no better than our impromptu meals at home or the surprise of the crepe Savoyarde.

    There were more meals packed into those six days that I haven’t even described; onion soup, beet and mache salads, apple tarts with creme fraiche, and the discovery of kouign amann, a buttery Breton pastry I haven’t come across in 20 years.

    This story is mostly about food but the experience was not. The culture of France teaches you, or reminds you, to eat well and enjoy life. It can be done on a budget, and can even be done while you are at work selling furniture on a Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Tommy and Mike, this adventure has given me memories, inspiration, and friendships better than foie gras.

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    At Food and Co. in East Hampton, Pasquale Langella, who prepared his Italian cuisine, including homemade mozzarella, there, has departed, but the takeout shop is still serving pizzas and Tuscan-inspired prepared foods. Items include organic chickens roasted on a wood fire and local vegetable dishes, including a layered eggplant parmesan. The shop has new hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday through Sunday. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Taste, Wine, and Dine

    A dinner tomorrow night at the Living Room restaurant in East Hampton will begin with a tasting of six wines, after which diners will choose four to accompany the four courses of dinner. 

    The menu will include country Swedish paté, Peconic Bay scallops with squash purée, braised Black Angus short-rib beef bourguignon, and a cheese course. There will be two seatings, at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. The cost is $95 per person plus tax and gratuity. Reservations are a must.

Coffee Drinks and More

    The Harbor Grill in East Hampton is tempting visitors to come in out of the cold with a slate of coffee-based cocktails. The Three Mile Harbor Road eatery’s list of “XXX Coffee” drinks includes an Italian version, with amaretto, coffee ice cream, and Kahlua, a “Tennessee,” featuring Jack Daniels and amaretto, and a “Mounds Bar,” which includes Malibu rum, hot chocolate, and Stolichnaya vanilla vodka.

    Those already thinking about ticking holiday presents off their list can buy some stocking stuffers at the grill — gift cards good for use at the restaurant, which is open year round.

Thanksgiving Options

    Two Montauk options for a restaurant Thanksgiving meal include the Gulf Coast Kitchen and Manucci’s.

    Manucci’s will be serving a complete four-course turkey dinner for $34.95, with seatings from 2 to 9 p.m. Limited selections from the regular menu, and a children’s menu, will be available.

    Other news from Manucci’s includes a weekly buffet breakfast being served on Sundays. It includes an omelette, waffle, and carving stations, and costs $10.95. Sunday night, dubbed “locals’ night,” Manucci’s has a menu of a dozen dinners for $12.95 each, and on Monday, pasta night, there are 11 different pasta dish choices for $11.95 each. Manucci’s is open year round, serving dinner nightly at 5.

    A Thanksgiving buffet at the Gulf Coast Kitchen will begin at 1 p.m. and be served until 8 that night. Roasted turkey, honey and clove-roasted Virginia ham, and prime rib will serve as the centerpieces, although there will be dishes offered at a pasta station, an organic salad and soup bar, risotto station, and side dishes and desserts as well.

    The cost is $29.95 for adults and $16.95 for kids from 6 to 12 years old. Those under 6 can eat for free.

    East Hampton Gourmet Food, in the back of 66 Newtown Lane, has occupied the same space for the past 17 years, although its first incarnation was as a wholesale shop, specializing in baking for Dean & DeLuca’s and Balducci’s.

    “When Ina [Garten of the Barefoot Contessa] closed the shop in East Hampton, we saw it as a nice opportunity to open our doors,” said Kate Pratt, the shop’s co-owner with Michel Mazuret.

    The first year of their retail business, 1996, the shop sold over 5,200 pies in three days. “That was pretty intense,” Ms. Pratt said with a laugh.

    The refrigerated case displays a rainbow of dishes, the freezer is filled with heat-and-eat hors d’oeuvres and desserts, the shelves are stocked with cookies, crackers, and other dry goods, and on the counter are fragrant pies.

    So what’s the twist?

    If one looks at the ingredients, healthy rules the day.

    Many of the ready-to-eat salads are vegan, or gluten-free. If meat is used, it is only fish and poultry, as local and free-range as possible. Pigs in blankets are available frozen — but instead of traditional hot dogs, the tiny sausages are chicken and apple. The three-berry, cherry, and apple pies are vegan, and gluten-free cookies and crackers dominate the walls.

    A steady stream of customers visited the store on Sunday afternoon, some picking up salads, pies, frozen food, and fresh-squeezed organic juices for the ride back to the city; some placing orders for Thanksgiving, which includes a vegan main course featuring a homemade tofu turkey bearing an eerie resemblance to the real thing.

    Ms. Pratt said that the shop may be able to squeeze a few more orders under the wire if they are made within the next day or so.

    Those who prefer animal products are not left behind: East Hampton Gourmet Food also offers a free-range herb-roasted turkey, along with crab cakes and other specialties like steamed vegetable and tofu dumplings which are delicate and fresh — a far cry from what passes for this Asian delicacy in some fast food joints.

    Some of the dishes are infused with the spices of the Far East — Ms. Pratt spent some years in India and has “always made a lot of paneers and dals.”

    Although Ms. Pratt and Mr. Mazuret have long been health conscious, it is in recent years that they have become “bothered by using white flour,” Ms. Pratt said. Gradually, over time, the shop has substituted brown rice flour, or gluten-free substitutes, in most of its dishes.

    The shop even offers gluten-free chocolate chunk and peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies in frozen balls, ready to drop on a baking sheet and serve up hot and gooey. “We’re trying to encourage our customers to drop the Tollhouse habit,” Ms. Pratt said.

    “And the containers are biodegradable,” she added. Even the to-go forks and knives are made of corn.

    The East Hampton Gourmet Food team is now branching out into skin care, too. Its line, Hampton Botanicals, is due out in the spring. Ms. Pratt has a background in biochemistry. “Sixty to 70 percent of what you put onto your body goes into your body,” she said. The products are made with essential oils, are plant-derived, and are as organic as possible.

    The shop is open Thursdays through Sundays through the winter. Sample menus can be found on its Web site, easthamptongourmetfood.com.

    It’s a good bet that a lot of foodies are in their element today, having prepared a groaning board full of delicious Thanksgiving dishes. On a holiday that’s not just about food, but also gratitude, let’s hope that those with a lot have made an effort to help those without, by donating to our local food pantries so that everyone is enjoying a Thanksgiving meal today.

Learn, For Free

    On Saturday, visitors to the Loaves and Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton between noon and 2 p.m. can learn how to make cranberry-orange mini loaves at a free cooking demonstration.

Adieu, Till Next Year

    Bostwick’s Chowder House in East Hampton has closed for the season, but those who enjoy the hospitable style of that restaurant owned by Chris Eggert and Kevin Boles can visit their year-round eatery in Amagansett, the Indian Wells Tavern.

And the Special Is

    The lineup of prix fixe specials this week includes those at Cafe Max in East Hampton, which offers a three-course special for $24 on Monday and Wednesday nights, an early bird special on Friday, two courses for $23 between 5:30 and 5:55 p.m., and on Saturday evening, a 20-percent discount for those who sit down at 5:30 sharp. There is also a three-course brunch on Sunday for $20 between noon and 3 p.m. Cafe Max is closed today.

    Nick and Toni’s, also in East Hampton, has crowned Thursday “date night” and offers couples a complimentary glass of wine, selected by the sommelier, with a meal. On Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, a three-course special allows diners to choose three items from the regular menu for $30, although for some items supplementary charges apply.

    It’s “film and food” at Nick and Toni’s on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, with two courses served for $30, along with a voucher for the movies.

Restaurant Week Success

    Word is in that the sixth annual fall Long Island Restaurant Week, which ran through Nov. 13, drew plenty of diners out for $24.95 prix fixe meals. Partipating restaurants served an estimated total of 197,600 meals, according to WordHampton, the organizer of the event. Revenue from the 197,600 meals was estimated to be in the neighborhood of $7.6 million, which includes $419,060 in taxes for New York State.

    As part of the event, there was a food drive at participating restaurants for Island Harvest, which distributes food to the needy, and donations were made to the Interfaith Nutrition Network and the Family Service League.

    Another Long Island Restaurant Week, and the second of two annual Hamptons Restaurant Weeks, will take place in the spring.

    In the 1830s, when the temperance movement was flourishing in America, fanatic teetotalers took up axes and flailed away at whole orchards of apple trees. With no thought for the delights of warm apple pie or syrupy baked apples or roast pork with applesauce, they were bent on eliminating the evil of hard cider.

    From colonial times, cider had been the most popular drink in New England. Not only was it served at meals and offered to all guests, it was even used as barter. An 1805 diary entry recorded the following transaction: “one-half barrel of cider for Mary’s schooling.”

    Well, let’s all be grateful that these overzealous fanatics failed to destroy one of our most valuable, delicious, and nutritious fruits, the Malus pumila.

    Apples are one of the first fruits to have been cultivated, and are now the most important fruit in Europe, North America, and temperate regions in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. There are now close to 8,000 named varieties. The sweet, crunchy fruit we are familiar with is nothing like its ancestor, the tiny, sour crabapple.

    From the beginning, we have been enamored of fruit, and apples in particular. Besides milk and honey, fruit is “nature’s only pleasure-laden natural food,” according to Mitch Lynd of the Midwest Apple Improvement Association. Throughout history, apples have been associated with love, beauty, luck, health, comfort, pleasure, wisdom, temptation, sensuality, virility, and fertility. In Greek mythology, the romantic and sexual connotations of the apple may even be the reason it has become dessert at the end of a meal. Besides aiding digestion, it was believed to be a powerful aphrodisiac for the pleasures to follow.

    Taste in apples varies around the world. In England they are divided into two distinct categories, apples for eating and apples for cooking. Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen” divides apples more specifically into four categories. Cider apples are high-acid fruits rich in astringent tannins, perfect for making that naughty, naughty hard cider. Dessert or eating apples are crisp and juicy and have a pleasing balance between sour and sweet. Cooking apples are distinctly tart when raw, well-balanced when cooked, and have a firm flesh that holds its shape when cooked. Dual purpose apples are good for eating raw or cooking.

    One of my favorite activities this time of year is visiting the Milk Pail in Watermill where you can sample different varieties. There are also helpful signs to guide you through the choices between Macoun, Gravensteins, Mutsus, Cortlands, Pippins, and so on. There are also plenty of pick-your-own orchards, a fun activity for small children because it takes approximately three and a half minutes to fill a bushel basket!

    Happily, like heirloom tomatoes, there has been a revival of interest in antique and heirloom varieties of apples. We now realize that a beautiful apple does not necessarily mean it tastes best. Some are russet and some are lumpy but still delicious!

    Try Cortland apples for fruit salads; their flesh is slow to brown. McIntosh apples have a soft, juicy texture, a nice combination of tart and sweet, and are good for cooking or eating. Granny Smiths, distinctive for their green color, are crisp, juicy, tart, and are my favorite for pies.

    Last but not least, apples are the perfect, portable snack, available year round, and good for your heart, digestion, lungs, and bones.

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    A fun destination this time of year is Hank’s Pumpkin Town in Watermill. There are corn mazes, face painting, stuff to climb on, and . . . pumpkins! Most people probably see this as a fun fall activity with children. Me? When I drive by those acres of low-to-the-ground greenery with bright orange orbs by the thousands peeking out, I think food! I see Tunisian sweets, French soups, African stews, and American cheesecakes.

    It’s pumpkin season, folks, and there’s a lot more you can do with these cucurbita pepos besides carving jack-o’-lanterns. You can eat almost every part of them save the stems and their somewhat bland flavor makes them a versatile fruit-vegetable that can be used in sweet or savory dishes. The flesh tends to absorb the flavors of what it’s cooked with, whether garlic and herbs, or apples or plums.

    Pumpkins, along with other members of the cucumber and squash family, have been a dietary staple all over the world since 5500 B.C. There are endless varieties to choose from in every hue from white to red. Some are good for pies, some for seeds, some for soups and stews, and some for baking and stuffing.

    When selecting a pumpkin, choose one that is firm and heavy for its size, and consistently colored throughout. It’s okay if there’s a slightly flattened pale area on one side, this simply means your pumpkin was resting comfortably in the field while growing.

    The tradition of displaying carved pumpkins with candles in them came from Irish immigrants. All Hallow’s Eve, Oct. 31, marked the end of the Celtic calendar year. Hollowed-out rutabagas, turnips, and beets were displayed in windows to ward off evil spirits, welcome home deceased ancestors, and scare away one particular restless soul called Stingy Jack, hence “jack-o’-lantern.”

    Whether you go to Pumpkin Town to play or to buy pumpkins for decorating, keep in mind that those playthings are also a versatile, healthy, inexpensive, and ancient food that is adaptable to many kinds of dishes.

____

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    A brunch at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. will raise money to help Allyson Wald, a local resident who recently suffered a brain injury after having a heart attack. Tickets are $100 each and will include passed hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and a performance by Tom Postilio, a singer. They can be purchased by calling the Salon at Amagansett Square. Donations are being accepted as well, including checks or items that may be raffled or auctioned off.

Red Wine, Dark Chocolate

    If pumpkins or fall harvest vegetables aren’t enough temptation for a trip to the North Fork, red wine and dark chocolate might do the trick. On Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m., Roxanne Browning, a chocolate sommelier (who knew of such a thing?) with Exotic Chocolate Tasting, will give a class on pairing the two tasty things at the Comtesse Therese Bistro in Aquebogue. Award-winning, artisanal dark chocolates will be paired with Reserve Estate merlots and cabernet sauvignons. Tickets are $30 per person. Reservations can be made by e-mailing [email protected].

Fall Specials

    Things to know now that autumn is settling in, traffic is thinning out, and the year-rounders are the ones remaining: Fresno in East Hampton, which is serving dinner on Wednesday through Sunday, offers two prix fixes all night at the bar — an appetizer and entree for $28, or appetizer, entree, and dessert for $30, as well as in the dining room until 6:32 p.m., the time the Long Island Rail Road’s “Cannonball” rolls in nearby.

    Also, at Cittanuova, there is a weekly lineup of specials. Sunday is family night, with a dinner including salad and the chef’s daily pasta for $16 per person, $9 for kids; Monday night, free chicken wings are served for those watching football at the bar, and Tuesday night all bottles of wine normally $50 or less are half off. Wednesday brings steak night, with a New York strip steak in a choice of three styles for $19, and on Thursday any pasta entree on the menu is $15.

    Michael’s at Maidstone, up in Springs, also has a steak night on Wednesday, with a choice of steaks for $21.95. Thursday night is lobster night, for $21.95. Michael’s has a prix fixe menu nightly, excluding holiday weekends, and a daily happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. with free hors d’oeuvres.

Closing, Open

    Turtle Crossing in East Hampton, which tried out a new style this year and included light, bistro-style offerings along with its tried-and-true Southwestern favorites, closed for good after last weekend.

    Harbor Bistro on Three Mile Harbor has closed for the season, but its compadre, the Harbor Grill, also on that road but a bit closer to town, will remain open all year.

    La Fondita Mexican takeout in Amagansett remains open five days a week for lunch and dinner. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Book Signing and Demonstration

    On Saturday, visitors to the Loaves and Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton have been invited to “Party Like a Culinista,” or at least to meet the authors of the book by that name, Jill Donenfeld and Josetth Gordon. They will be on hand for a demonstration and book signing from noon to 2 p.m.

    The news for local foodies this week includes notices about restaurants one can cross off the list, either seasonally or permanently.

    Rugosa restaurant in East Hampton closed up shop for good as of last weekend. In Montauk, Dave’s Grill ended its 2011 season, and, on Napeague, the Lobster Roll will serve its final plates of seafood for this year on Sunday.

Cape Cod Scallops

    Scallop lovers can tide themselves over until local scallops are in by stopping at Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett, which for now has Cape Cod scallops.

Brunch Goes Down

    The price of Sunday brunch at Cafe Max in East Hampton has gone down, from $20 to $18. It includes three courses. A la carte entrees, for $14 to $16, are also available. The brunch is served from noon to 3 p.m.

Fudge on Food

    Footage from a visit by the Food Network to the indoor Sag Harbor farmers market will air on Monday at 1 p.m. It includes coverage of Donna McCue and her Fat Ass Fudge.

    The company now offers a chocolate martini mix. Products can be ordered online at Fat-AssFudge.com.

Steak, Fajitas

    Tuesday is steak night at Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett. A three-course dinner includes soup or salad, steak with potato and vegetable, and a choice of dessert, all for $26. On Wednesday, fajita night, a choice of fajita with steak, chicken, or vegetables is $17, and there are discount margaritas.

    Late nights at Indian Wells — from 10 to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays — are ladies nights, with $6 glasses of wine and cosmopolitans for those of the right gender.

Wine and Dine

    Taste, Wine, and Dine, a four-course wine-tasting dinner at the Living Room restaurant in East Hampton, will take place tonight with two seatings, at 6 and 6:45. The evening begins with a tasting of six wines and an opportunity for diners to choose four selections to accompany the meal. The cost is $95 per person plus tax and gratuity. Reservations are required.

Halloween Cookies

    Cookies for trick-or-treating will be prepared during a free cooking demonstration at the Loaves and Fishes Cookshop in Bridgehampton on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m.

    Green mustard, pink-flecked cakes, squid-inky-black quenelles, and oysters and crabs and scallops overflowing from sidewalk vendors. These are just a few of the sights and tastes that thrill a gourmand’s heart.

    I had the great good fortune of spending last week in Paris as the guest of my fellow foodie and dear friend Tommy. Upon arrival in late morning we were greeted by his partner, Mike, with a staggering platter of croissants, whole grain breads, apple tarts, slices of ham and cheese and butter and jams. “No, no,” insisted Tommy. “If we’re going out for lunch we shouldn’t eat now.” I grabbed the apple tart and skulked away with it, nibbling away at the flakiest, sweetest little pastry I had ever tried. I may also have nicked a slice of ham and a dainty wedge of cheese but I don’t recall. I was jet-lagged.

    Lunch was at Chez Janou and began with tiny fried fish called éperlans, a type of smelt. I virtuously moved on to a simple salad with baked slices of goat cheese. Mike enjoyed the rouget (red mullet) over a bed of saffron-infused julienned vegetables, and Tommy tucked into a smoked duck salad. As we all agreed that dessert was completely unnecessary, a large bowl of chocolate mousse passed by our table. “Just a taste,” we told our waitress. Well, that’s not the way it works in France. When it comes to dishes like celeri remoulade or rice pudding or the aforementioned chocolate mousse, it is most likely to be placed on your table, the entire bowl, and left for you to scoop out as much as you desire. It’s kind of an honor system that would never work in America, much less get by any health department inspector in the U.S.

    We briefly mapped out our priorities for the upcoming days. As Mike lives and works in the Marais, he had no other obligations than to enjoy my scintillating company and witty repartee. Tommy, a designer, was on a mission to find dining chairs from the flea market for a client in San Francisco, visit some hardware stores, and be my partner in food crimes. My mission was to taste as much as I could of what Paris has to offer without breaking the bank, and find inspiration as pastry chef and food writer. Neither the Louvre nor d’Orsay nor a double-decker bus tour nor bateau mouche down the Seine were on my list.

    We tried hard to establish rules: Only one major piglet fest would be allowed per day, for both monetary and digestive reasons. If a nap seemed a possibility, then a little daytime drinking was permitted. As Tommy is a superb cook, we also planned out a few meals to have in the apartment.

    The biggest thrill of being in Paris is walking everywhere. The subway system is also efficient, as is the rental of a public bicycle to get around swiftly and deposit somewhere else in the city for the next person who needs it. What astounded me most were the specialized shops. Yes, there are still butcher shops and pastry shops and bakeries and candy stores and cheese mongers. But there was one store that sold nothing but quenelles, savory little oval mounds of pike and veal and squid ink or vegetables, sweet quenelles of apple and vanilla and pistachios. To accompany them, you could choose from an array of appropriate accompanying sauces. Imagine that, a store that specializes in a side dish!

    Quenelles are a French version of German dumplings, basically a ground mixture of fish or meat or whatever, bound with a bit of breadcrumbs and egg, then poached.

    Another specialty shop sold nothing but tremendously amusing cakes made of brioche dough into which crushed hot pink pralined almonds have been folded and baked. “Think Sara Lee coffee cake,” suggested Tommy before my first bite. Indeed, it was reminiscent of those rich, nutty, buttery breakfast cakes of my youth. My first Proustian moment in Paris!

    One store specialized in honey, another in mustards. One store, looking like a sleek medical laboratory, sold nothing but frozen foods. I was assured that the quality was surprisingly good, but we passed on purchasing anything.

    One of my goals was to try food from the lowest end of the culinary spectrum of Paris (our McDonald’s, natch) to the highest, perhaps Taillevent. Was it true that the Paris McDonald’s is superior? That Gruyere cheese was used on le grand mac instead of American? Non! It was exactly the same except for a nice little curry sauce instead of ranch or barbecue. Taillevent was deemed too expensive and time-consuming, even for lunch, so we “settled” for some less expensive establishments.

    One of the highlights of exploring food in Paris was the diversity of choices. One lunch was at a tiny, popular Vietnamese restaurant. Spring rolls, lacquered duck, sticky rice, pork belly, and a zesty salad of julienned carrots, vermicelli noodles, crushed peanuts, and cilantro, all washed down with beer. Uh, that was one of our “no lunch because we’re having a rich dinner” days. (The Vietnamese have been migrating to France since the early 20th century due to France’s colonization of Vietnam. By the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, there had been a massive influx of refugees.)

    There are also many Middle Eastern restaurants and food stalls throughout Paris, serving tagines with couscous and fiery harissa. We paused just long enough at one to enjoy a pastilla stuffed with pigeon, almonds, and raisins, along with a few links of spicy merguez lamb sausage to fortify us. We stopped for another snack at a Chinese restaurant and had chunks of crispy fried chicken, topped with chopped onions and served with a spicy ketchup.

    For over 20 years, a friend has been sending me seeds from a plant shop named Vilmorin. No offense to the folks at Burpee, but these seeds grow tastier mache, mesclun, and arugula than any others I have tried. We made a pilgrimage to Vilmorin and I spent more euros on seeds than I did on my smashing new scarf! I can already imagine next summer’s salads, born in France, raised on Long Island, dotted with chervil, lightly dressed with mustard from Maille. Perhaps followed by my own attempts at that kooky, candy-colored Proustian pink cake!

    Stay tuned for Part 2 coming soon, where we break baguette with ex-husband (!), run into friends from East Hampton (!!), and get serious about the best and most affordable ways to eat in Paris.

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