Food

Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos, is a celebration that originated with the Aztecs of central Mexico thousands of years ago. These are not days of mourning the passing of friends and family, they are celebrations of their lives, and the rituals that accompany these holidays are to welcome them back for a day.

La Fondita in Amagansett will celebrate Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, with traditional food specials Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 3. Reasons to visit Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton this fall: three prix fixe specials to choose from, wood-oven pizzas, and “social hour” at the bar.

Tonight’s the night for a dinner at Almond in Bridgehampton featuring spirits from Widow Jane, a Brooklyn distillery, and pork from a pig raised at Root ’n’ Roost Farm in Livingston Manor, N.Y. Stefanie Sacks, a “culinary nutritionist,” will present a series of workshops with instructions for “meatless Mondays” beginning next week at a private residence in Bridgehampton. The 5:30 to 8 p.m. sessions, suitable for adults as well as children ages 10 and up, will begin with a brief discussion followed by hands-on cooking instruction.

In summertime you can get away with slicing up a watermelon, dropping some berries in a bowl, or stopping at a farm stand for a fruit pie, and voila, dessert is done. But this time of year don’t you want to make a little more effort with a homemade dessert?

Coast Kitchen restaurant at the Montauk Yacht Club has a $29.95 (plus tax and tip) three-course prix fixe special for fall, served daily from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Getting through the first workdays of the week might become easier with a Tuesday night visit to Indian Wells Tavern in Amagansett, which is hosting Taco Tuesdays. Diners can choose among three different tacos, served with chips and salsa to start, topped with radish, cilantro, and queso fresco, and accompanied by rice and beans.

The weather may still be disconcertingly balmy, but the farm stands and supermarkets and nurseries are all letting us know it’s fall! Hank’s Pumpkintown is up and running and busy as ever. The folks at John’s Drive-In in Montauk are cranking out their delicious pumpkin ice cream. There are pumpkin lattes, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin ales.

So you’re in Southampton for the Hamptons International Film Festival, going from the Southampton Cinema to the Southampton Arts Center, and you’re really hungry and want to grab a bit to eat between films. Where to go? Luckily, there are quite a few options, from the simplicity of a healthy smoothie or salad from the Village Gourmet Cheese Shop to the quiet opulence of Sant Ambroeus.

A dinner with a theme of “chef, farmer, and winemaker” will be served later this month at the James Beard House by Michael Rozzi, the chef at 1770 House in East Hampton, along with Michael Cohen, the restaurant’s wine director. The theme pays homage to the teamwork behind the success of the restaurant, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Luis D’Loera, the owner and chef at Michael’s restaurant in Springs, is set to open a new restaurant next month, The Blend at Three Mile Harbor, in the space on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton formerly occupied by the Harbor Grill. The restaurant will feature local ingredients, made in-house and influenced by the dishes of northern Italy, southern France, and the Mediterranean. This week’s Oktoberfest offering at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton, available today through Sunday, is sauerbraten with braised red cabbage and turnip-potato puree, along with Black Forest ice cream bombe for dessert.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Hamptons International Film Festival, which runs from next Thursday through Oct. 9. Congratulations, HIFF!

When it comes to our attention that a food establishment has not only survived, but thrived, for more than 20 years on the East End, that is worth noting and celebrating. Such is the case with the Hampton Chutney Company, based in Amagansett Square, with two more locations in New York City and one soon to open in Los Angeles.

Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton will restart its Artists and Writers Night series on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with Allie Wist as the presenting artist. Ms. Wist, the associate art director at Saveur magazine and a recent graduate of New York University’s food studies master’s program, is an artist, art director, and photographer whose work is anchored in food culture and food systems. Sunday brunch is back at Nick and Toni’s. The weekly menu, served from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will be a la carte, and will include specialty brunch cocktails.

James Lubetkin, an amateur baker who lives in Amagansett, brought home four blue ribbons and a second-place prize for baking from the New York State Fair in Syracuse, and was among seven people chosen to compete for the fair’s culinary grand prize.

Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will kick off its Oktoberfest celebration with a traditional festival from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday. The restaurant and its courtyard will be transformed into a traditional German beer garden, with picnic tables outside and communal dining tables indoors. La Fondita, the Mexican takeout shop in Amagansett, will celebrate Mexican Independence Day by offering some specials tomorrow and Saturday.

What happens when 13 chefs from 13 restaurants around the country come to Montauk to fish for striped bass, fluke, and bluefish, and then form three teams, prepare their catch-paired side dishes, and compete to win in their category? Crazy good food, that’s what happens!

Many of the favorite East End seasonal places will remain open through September, or even beyond, providing those who eschew the heavy crowds a chance to partake. Another end-of-season focus for some foodies is the gleaning program organized by the Amagansett Food Institute, which mobilizes volunteers to collect excess produce from farm fields that would otherwise go to waste. The yield is donated to food pantries here.

Corn and tomatoes will be plentiful into October, but the locally famous treasures you should be enjoying right now are melons. The East End has long been famous for outstanding musk melons, cantaloupes, and watermelons.

As we near the end of the summer season (waaaaaah!), I have been reflecting on how many really very good restaurants opened this year. The new Wolffer Kitchen in Amagansett is most certainly one of them.

On Wednesday at Navy Beach restaurant in Montauk, a Hook ’Em and Cook ’Em dinner will also serve as a competition among 14 chefs from Barcelona Wine Bar and Restaurant locations across the country. Tickets are on sale for the 11th annual North Fork Foodie Tour, an opportunity to visit 20 sites and get a glimpse behind the scenes at farms, wineries, and other places that produce local artisanal foods and beverages.

Dinner nightlyBistro Eté is a little jewel. It is the kind of place I’m not sure I want to share with you because it is tiny and charming and the food is a delicious mash-up of French, Middle Eastern, and Greek . . . oh, let’s just call it Mediterranean cuisine.

Tickets are on sale at $100 each for a “hook ’em and cook ’em” event at Navy Beach restaurant in Montauk on Sept. 6. Fourteen chefs from Barcelona Wine Bar locations nationwide will spend a day fishing for fluke, striped bass, and bluefish and then prepare a meal from their catch.

A chance to learn Chinese cooking with Karen Lee, the author of five cookbooks and a caterer and cooking teacher based in New York City, is coming up in Amagansett, where Ms. Lee will teach a session on Aug. 27 at a private residence. Sammy’s Restaurant and Bar in Montauk has opened a new grab-and-go window for Hawaiian poke bowls, raw fish (typically tuna) that is cubed and tossed with seasonings and blended into a bowl of greens and other ingredients.

Walking through the Sag Harbor Farmers Market the other day, I decided to try some of the more peculiar and obscure vegetables. There were some bright yellow striped globes nestled in with the heirloom tomatoes and squash, so I assumed they were some kind of unusual hybrid squash. Turns out they are lemon cucumbers, one of the more ancient varieties. When cut into, the flesh is bright white and the seedy part is pale lime green. Beautiful!

Imagine a farm that starts at 85 feet across, narrows to 50 feet, and goes back far enough to fill a total of 1.4 acres. Sort of like an extra-skinny railroad flat in New York City, or a much attenuated flag-lot oasis.

Fresh local oysters will be served paired with wine during a tour of the shellfish hatcheries at the Suffolk County Marine Environmental Learning Center in Southold on Friday, Aug. 18, from 6 to 8 p.m. The Slow Food East End chapter has a potluck dinner planned for next Thursday at Myron and Susan Levine’s residence in Sag Harbor. Reservations are required and can be made at slowfoodeastend.org

Everything about our recent meal at Elaia Estiatorio in Bridgehampton was a delight. From the simple but elegant renovation of the space at 95 School Street to the food to the dinnerware to the friendly staff, the evening was everything one could hope for.

The families of the Organic Krush founders — Fran Paniccia, James Tchinnis, and Michelle Walrath — have played an important role in what they do and the food they offer at their shops in Woodbury, Lake Success, and now Amagansett.

Susan and Myron Levine of Sag Harbor will host a Slow Food East End potluck at their house on Aug. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. Reservations are being taken online at slowfoodeastend.org. Karen Lee, a New York City caterer and cookbook author, will offer two cooking classes in Amagansett this month focusing on using organic and/or local ingredients to make tasty and healthful meals.

Share the Harvest Farm in East Hampton will hold its eighth annual sunset barbecue in its farm fields at the East End Community Organic Farm on Long Lane in East Hampton next Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. A star lineup of chefs will be preparing dishes for the Hayground Chefs Dinner on Sunday at the Hayground School in Bridgehampton. Among the local participants are Claudia Fleming of the North Fork Table and Inn, Josh Capon of Lure Fishbar, Jason Weiner of Almond, and Christian Mir of the Stone Creek Inn.

The East Hampton Library’s Tom Twomey Lecture Series brought together three leading local winemakers to talk about the region's wines.