Food

Airplane Carry-Ons

Kurt Vonnegut once said of critics: “He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.” As a restaurant reviewer, my job is to literally attack that hot fudge sundae or banana split. And then to analyze it, take into account my guests’ opinions of it, deconstruct its components, contemplate its freshness, price, presentation, and finally to praise or criticize it.

An Easter brunch will be served at Baron’s Cove restaurant in Sag Harbor on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Outdoors on the lawn, there will be Easter egg hunts for kids at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. The 1770 House in East Hampton will serve a Easter Sunday dinner a la carte beginning at 5 p.m.

Il Capuccino Italian restaurant in Sag Harbor is back with a reopening tomorrow night. A new bar menu and a fresh lineup of specials will start the spring season. Cavaniola’s Gourmet cheese shop, which sells cheeses, sandwiches, soups, and other prepared foods in Sag Harbor, will be opening in Amagansett in early May.

For those who care about stocking the refrigerator with the freshest produce on the East End, March is the month to begin signing up for membership in a community supported agriculture program, or C.S.A.

The Am O’Gansett Parade starts off the early St. Patrick’s Day hoopla on Saturday and Indian Wells Tavern on Amagansett’s Main Street will do their part with a $20 corned beef and cabbage special all day. Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will start their Irish food and drink specials next Thursday and continue on March 19 and March 20, the day of the Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade.

St. Patrick’s Day has turned into a silly affair in this country. What began as a religious holiday in Ireland has morphed into an excuse to get buckled, fluthered, ossified, scuttered, and stocious on green beer. There, you just learned some Irish slang for getting drunk. Needless to say, my people have a lot of terms for this national pastime.

Keith and Margo’s Murder Mystery Events will present excitement and skullduggery at the Southampton Inn on March 12. A package deal includes the dinner, open bar, and an overnight stay, along with a chance to participate in the sleuthing. Slow Food East End will hold a “spring market dinner” at Almond on March 24. The dinner will celebrate native and traditional East End foods.

Breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day. Or is it?! You can read studies supporting this theory, and you can find research that refutes it. It definitely makes sense for children.

To say Kosovo, a landlocked country on the Balkan Peninsula, has had a complex history is an understatement. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia during the early 1990s, Kosovo was a region of that country, populated for centuries by Serbs and Albanians.

Colin Ambrose, the owner and chef of Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor, has received the Slow Food organization’s Snail of Approval award from the international group’s East End chapter. A new Jack’s Stir Brew Coffee shop will be opening in Sag Harbor. The company, established in New York City in 2003, has a location in Amagansett in addition to its five Manhattan shops.

Would it be all Rachel Dolezal of me to write about African-American chefs and cooks? Every year during Black History Month it seems there are no books, articles, shows, movies, anything, about the contribution of black chefs throughout our history. There should be a museum, a comprehensive historical compendium, something. Having previously dedicated a whole column to my idol, Edna Lewis, her “Taste of Country Cooking” and numerous accomplishments, it’s time to focus on some other significant African-Americans who have contributed greatly to the cuisine of our country. It is a fact that every president who has lived and worked in the White House was cooked for and served by African-Americans. There was a brief blip on the radar, of Jackie Kennedy firing the kitchen staff and bringing in all French chefs, but this changed back immediately when Lyndon Johnson became president. He brought along with him Zephyr Wright, who cooked for his family from 1942 to 1969. He consulted her on th

Richard Olsen-Harbich of Bedell Cellars will be on hand at Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton next Thursday for a five-course dinner paired with wine. The Peconic Land Trust’s spring lecture series at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton will begin with “The Cocktail Party,” a talk on March 6 with Vaughan Cutillo of the Montauk Brewing Company, Michael Kontokosta of Kontokosta Vineyard, and Noah Schwartz, the chef at Noah’s of Greenport.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I have been to the Highway restaurant and bar’s Thursday Thai night three weeks in a row. It is that good.

Slow Food East End will sponsor a “Shuck Em” Valentine oyster brunch on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Art of Eating in Amagansett. Wolffer Kitchen in Sag Harbor is taking reservations for a Feb. 21 wine dinner with Miguel Martin, a winemaker at Palmer Vineyards.

Despite this week’s snowfall, a sure sign of spring is the announcement of a seeding workshop at Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett on March 19 from 10 a.m. to noon.

The Peter Martin Weiss trio will be playing at Page for a jazz brunch on Valentine’s Day from noon to 3 p.m. Watch the Superbowl at Townline BBQ on Sunday with a whole roasted pig, and raffles during each quarter of the game.

But how does it taste? I know that’s the number-one question on your mind about the new, history-in-the-making, right here on Long Island, this-recipe-was-formulated-by-the God-of-all-fish-cookery-Eric Ripert(!), etc., etc. Dock to Dish Montauk Fishburger introduced at the Bridgehampton School on Friday. Well, you’ll just have to wait a few paragraphs.

For those thinking of Valentine's Day dinner the 1770 House in East Hampton will feature a dozen "amorous and warming" dishes. A once-monthly ladies night at the c/o the Maidstone inn on East Hampton’s Main Street will take place on Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m., when all cocktails and wines by the glass will be offered at half price in the lounge.

If you have ever been to Il Monastero (R.I.P.) in East Hampton, or Il Capuccino in Sag Harbor, or had a sandwich from Espresso or pasta from Cappelletti on Noyac Road, you have had food made by the Tagliasacchi family. If you haven’t, then you live under a rock and you are missing the best garlic knots, focaccia sandwiches, and their delicious, mysterious dressing “like Caesar without the anchovies,” which could keep a swarm of vampires at bay for centuries. If I were to try to explain the restaurant/Italian deli empire and experience and background of this family, it would take up this entire review. In a nutshell, Luigi Tagliasacchi and his wife, Robin, now own and operate Cappelletti, serving all these iconic gems and more.

the Great Bonac Chili Cook-Off will be held at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett from 1 to 4 p.m. on Jan. 31. The Espresso Italian Market reopened last week in the space formerly occupied by the Cigar Bar. Its popular sandwiches on homemade focaccia bread with signature house dressing have returned!

Take part in the new Montauk Fishburger Project! Local chefs and supporters of the local, sustainable, and healthy food movement have initiated a new effort to restore and support the area’s farming and fishing culture. The new fishburgers will become a part of the menu at many East End restaurants including Rowdy Hall and Nick and Toni's.

Sen in Sag Harbor will be restarting its Sake Social Sundays on Jan. 17 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jesse Matsuoka of the restaurant will discuss “Sake 101.” The Highway Restaurant and Bar in East Hampton offers a $35 prix fixe on Thursday nights featuring Thai food.

Beauty is life’s E-ZPass. Wish I could take credit for that witty bon mot, but I believe it was a New Yorker cartoon. I think we would all agree that if you are an exceptionally attractive young girl and you hang out in the right places, like fancy hotels and bars, chances are an older, wealthy gent will whisk you off your feet and possibly marry you. Such was the case with sweet, young Katie Lee from West Virginia when she met Billy Joel, 33 years her senior, at the Peninsula Hotel. At the age of 21 she moved in with him, and they were married for five years.

If you do fail momentarily at your diet, don’t be discouraged and give up; forgive yourself and just start over the next day. This really works.

Last minute ideas for New Year's Eve and news about the Long Island Wine Council.

Zachary Lazar will be the guest speaker at the Artists and Writers Night at Almond restaurant in Bridgehampton on Jan. 5. In Sag Harbor, the Wolffer Kitchen will host a New Year’s Eve dinner with seatings to begin at 5:30 p.m.

Once upon a time in medieval England, a Christmas dinner “pie” was created consisting of two bushels of flour, 20 pounds of butter, four geese, two rabbits, four wild ducks, two woodcocks, six snipes, four partridges, two neats’ tongues, two curlews, six pigeons, and seven blackbirds. Now I’m sure you’re wondering, first of all, what is a snipe, a neat’s tongue, and a curlew? They are shorebird, beef tongue, and shorebird again. I imagine that those two breeds of shorebird, existing on a diet of fish, added a dash of mystery and umami to that monstrous pie. And what the heck did they do with the leftovers?!

Michaels’ at Maidstone bar and restaurant has holiday plans for a Christmas Eve a la carte menu as well as a special Feast of the Seven Fishes traditional dinner that night. The Amagansett Food Institute’s holiday market at the Amagansett Farmers Market on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. will provide an opportunity to buy local food and other holiday gifts.

Now comes the decision of what to drink with your holiday dinner. Have you decided what you are serving? Roast goose? Prime rib? Another turkey, or heaven forbid . . . tofurkey? How many guests will you have? Do you want to splurge on champagne and wines or have you already blown your budget on Christmas shopping? So many decisions, and then New Year’s Eve is upon us, with more debate over what to serve.