Food

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

Corn is one of our most precious and plentiful summer treats. Steamed corn on the cob with some good butter slathered all over it is something we look forward to all year, along with that perfectly simple beefsteak tomato sandwich on white bread with mayo.

Breakfast is the thing at Sugar, a new eatery in Montauk, which has design-your-own bowls of cereal and fresh-made donuts daily, as well as sundaes and milkshakes. It is open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and is downtown on South Edison Street. Dan’s GrillHampton, a cooking competition and tasting event at which eight East End chefs will compete against eight chefs from Manhattan, will take place tomorrow night at the Fairview Farm at Mecox in Bridgehampton.

Anybody who’s ever made a pie knows they’re not that easy. Making a good piecrust can be a delicate and somewhat complicated process. If you overmix or add too much water, you may end up with a tough one. Even the humidity in the air can wreak havoc with your efforts. Getting the bottom crust to bake thoroughly without burning the rim is nerve-wracking. Choosing what kind of fruit filling can also lead to mistakes: Do you add cornstarch or flour to bind it? How much? You may end up with a runny mess, a glutinous one, or a dry-as-a-bone one.

The Ludlow family of Water Mill will have a grand opening of the Farm Store at Mecox Bay Dairy on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. featuring a barbecue, tastings of the dairy’s cheeses, and farm tours. Tickets are on sale for a Taste of Montauk, a smorgasbord of the hamlet’s culinary offerings to be presented at the Montauk Yacht Club alongside Lake Montauk on July 23 from 6 to 9 p.m.

If bluefish are the Rodney Dangerfields of the fish world (“don’t get no respect”), then surely porgies are the juvenile delinquents. They are tough little fellas — thick-skinned, bony, and travel in gangs. But once you get past that “rebel without a cause” exterior, they are sweet and worthwhile.

We knew going to Duryea’s Lobster Deck on the Sunday night of July Fourth weekend could be a freakout. Navigating the half-naked human traffic by the Surf Lodge was an exercise better suited for the driving skills of Juan Manuel Fangio, arguably the greatest Formula One driver in history.

Four Long Island restaurateurs will be on the panel at the next “Out of the Question” discussion at the Southampton Arts Center, hosted by Warren Strugatch next Thursday at 7 p.m. A potluck dinner will be held tonight at the Peconic Land Trust’s Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton from 5 to 8 p.m. in conjunction with Slow Food East End.

Let’s begin with the good news: The food at Le Bilboquet in Sag Harbor is excellent. Now permit me to regale you with the gauntlet we had to run to get into the place.

Rick’s Crabby Cowboy Cafe in Montauk is now open daily for lunch and dinner. The restaurant has added a sushi bar, where the chef will be making platters featuring three, six, or nine rolls from the menu, which includes a choice of 10 local sushi selections. Eric and Adam Miller, the father and son behind Bay Kitchen Bar on Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton, have opened a new restaurant, Flagship, on the docks in Montauk. The menu features local seafood, meat, and poultry entrees, small plates to share, crudos, and raw bar items, and there is a seasonal cocktail menu.

Slow Food East End is gearing up for a summertime potluck on July 6 at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton. Reservations are being taken online for the event: slowfoodeastend.org. Peter Gethers, the author of “My Mother’s Kitchen: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and the Meaning of Life,” in which he describes his effort to give his aging mother, the daughter of a renowned restaurateur and a friend and mentor to famous chefs, the final gift of a feast featuring all her favorite foods, will be at the Sylvester & Co. store in Sag Harbor on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. for a book signing and cocktail party.

Summer is upon us, so now it is time to think about salads and grilling, which means it’s also time to think about oils — olive for salads, peanut for frying up those zucchini blossoms and chips, flavored oils for marinades, etc.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that dining at the new Cove Hollow Tavern, in its infancy at the time of our visit, was a seamless, professional, and delicious experience. The reason it shouldn’t have been a surprise is that this new restaurant in East Hampton is brought to you by the fine folks of Vine Street Cafe on Shelter Island.

Tuesday night is now country night at the Springs Tavern. Besides a light bar menu, with $5 hot dogs, pizza slices, and more, there will be live music by the Spaghetti Westerners at 9 p.m. The Bridgehampton Inn will serve small bites, wine, and beer at a reception this evening from 5 to 7 to celebrate “Sea Rakes,” an exhibit of photographs by Lindsay Morris that will be on view throughout the summer.

Ice cream lovers should head down to Smokin’ Wolf, the takeout barbecue shop on Pantigo Road in East Hampton. The shop has reopened its ice cream freezer for the summer. The folks from the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton have opened the Squeezery, a juice and coffee bar by day and bar bar by night, on Amagansett’s Main Street.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Thanks to the generosity, wisdom, and hard work of Margaret de Cuevas, the Peconic Land Trust, and those coolest-of-cool “lady farmers” Amanda Merrow and Katie Baldwin, the former Amagansett Farmers Market has reopened as Amber Waves Farm Market, and the gals now own the nine acres behind it.

Robert Sieber, the new executive chef at the Surf Lodge in Montauk, is making some changes to the menu, which includes dishes such as sea urchin linguine, fluke ceviche, crispy prawns, and fish tacos. The South Fork’s easternmost farmers market starts up for the season next Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Montauk green, and will continue weekly through the summer.

Everyone loves cookies. Cookies are so good they have their own monster. No other food has a monster, does it? Does lasagna have a monster? Cheetos? No, only cookies.

Carissa Waechter’s new shop in East Hampton is the inevitable culmination of something she has been cooking up for quite a while. Carissa’s Breads have been popular at South Fork farmers markets, and now she will bake and sell not only breads but also cakes, pastries, croissants, and pies and jams made with fruit from local farms.

A new Greek restaurant called Calissa will open on Montauk Highway in Water Mill this weekend, taking over the space occupied a few years back by Trata East and a slew of short-lived followers.

Lulu Kitchen and Bar opened on Sag Harbor’s Main Street a few weeks ago and I like it very much.

At East Hampton Point, which opens this holiday weekend, Craig Atwood, who served as the restaurant’s chef from 2008 to 2010, has returned this year and revamped the menu. Dan’s Taste of Summer culinary events begin this weekend with Dan’s Rosé Soirée on Sunday at the Southampton Arts Center on Job’s Lane from 5 to 8 p.m. There will be more than 30 types of rosé to taste, and food from top chefs and restaurants including Baron’s Cove, Loaves and Fishes, and the East Pole.

Here is the latest roundup of local celebrity cookbooks.

A new evening farmers market will begin June 1 on the grounds of Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton and take place weekly from 5 to 8 p.m. through August. More than 50 rosé wines from Provence, Sancerre, California, Italy, Oregon, Corsica, Spain, Washington State, and other locations will be available for tasting at a spring preview at Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m.

For decades, serious foodies have been coming to the East End to partake of the simple pleasures of its summer produce and seafood. Later, they showed up at harvest time for its wine tastings and fine restaurants. More recently, they have left the city to live here year round and produce their own organic food products, such as heirloom wheat, honey, beer, distilled spirits, and fermented vegetables.

Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits will have a spring rosé preview from 2 to 5 p.m. on May 20. More than 50 rosé wines will be available for tasting. Round Swamp Farm markets are reopening for the season on Friday, May 19. Both the East Hampton farm market on Three Mile Harbor Road and the Bridgehampton market behind Main Street will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

A few years ago I decided that the greatest gift I have ever received came into this world on Aug. 13, 1987, at 2:30 p.m., eight pounds, six ounces, 21 inches of Adrian William Taylor, sound of wind and limb. So now we celebrate Mother’s Day by me cooking for him.

Union Cantina in Southampton will celebrate the Mexican fifth of May holiday by offering free passed hors d’oeuvres during a 4 to 7 p.m. happy hour, along with a variety of drink specials, including a lineup of the restaurant’s new summer cocktails. Beginning today, Westlake Fish House in Montauk will be open weekly from Thursdays through Sundays, noon through dinnertime. They are serving brunch daily and sushi, as well as the regular menu.

Vienna has a reputation for having the best desserts in the world, which is why a most thoughtful fellow invited me.

Noah’s restaurant in Greenport will host a Slow Food East End dinner on Sunday focused on “slow fish,” or local and sustainable seafood. The event begins with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $110, $95 per person for Slow Food East End members. Advance reservations are required. Lulu Kitchen & Bar opens tomorrow in Sag Harbor, in the Main Street space once occupied by the Paradise and most recently by Doppio Artisan Bistro.