Food

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. Enough about Christmas and the music and the decorating and how many more shopping days we have until the big day. To my mind, some of the more interesting aspects of this massive holiday are the Christmas Eve food traditions celebrated by different cultures.

Roman Roth’s Grapes of Roth merlot has been placed on the Wine Spectator list of the top wines of 2015, ranked 64 out of 100 wines that made the list. This wine is from his personal label, using grapes sourced from the North Fork.

Ryunosuke Jesse Matsuoka is the general manager and a partner at the Sag Harbor restaurant. He is also one of the very few kikizakeshi, or sake sommeliers, in New York, quite possibly the only one on Long Island. Who knew sake was so varied, so complicated, so complex?

Today’s a big day for foodies, and here’s hoping that everyone can enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with family and friends.

Today is your lucky day! Today I am going to share with you my absolute favorite recipes of all time. The tried and true, the foolproof, the crowd pleasers, the best of the best.

Orders for pies and cheese platters by Lucy’s Whey can be placed through Monday, for pickup by Wednesday, at the Amagansett Farmers Market. Have Thanksgiving dinner out at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. Service will begin at 1 p.m. next Thursday, with the last seating at 8:30 p.m.

Clams have already been covered in this column, but there’s always more to learn and more recipes to be shared. What better way than to spend the day immersed in clammy activities?

The Amagansett Food Institute, which operates the Amagansett Farmers Market, is taking orders for Thanksgiving foods. The Gulf Coast Kitchen restaurant, in Montauk at the Montauk Yacht Club, will have a Thanksgiving buffet from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the holiday. Thanksgiving at the 1770 House in East Hampton will offer a holiday meal featuring main dishes such as traditional turkey and fixings, roasted Icelandic cod, or a roasted Berkshire pork chop.

Here’s the best advice you’re going to get while preparing for your Thanksgiving dinner. Make room now in your freezer and refrigerator. Be brutal.

Amy Goldman will present and sign copies of her “Heirloom Harvest” book of daguerrotypes at Marders in Bridgehampton on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Artisanal pizza made with organic vegetables and ingredients will be served.

Cittanuova in East Hampton is now offering a lineup of nightly specials on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The well-known painter and sculptor Eric Fischl will host the next artists and writers night at Almond in Bridgehampton. The event will begin at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Here it is, early November, and the farmer’s market in Sag Harbor this past weekend still had peppers, corn, lettuce, and other greens, along with the usual suspects of winter squash, potatoes, apples, onions, garlic, and more.

The first time I reviewed the Topping Rose House I recall coming to the conclusion that it wasn’t so much a place you pop into for a good meal but rather a place for a dining experience, a special occasion. I returned two years ago and it was empty.

Get your Met's regalia on and steal on down to Stuart’s Seafood shop in Amagansett. Customers who say “Let’s Go Mets” with their Mets gear on will receive a 10-percent discount on their purchase.

The chef, Anand Sastry of the Highway Restaurant presents Thai night on Thursdays starting next week. A Sicilian “carnival” Halloween celebration will be held at Osteria Salina in Wainscott on Oct. 31.

“Why Seattle?” asked so many people when I told them I was whisking my son away for a long weekend recently. “Well,” I’d explain, “I was born in Northern California but have never been to the Pacific Northwest.” But the real answer is that it’s one of the few places my offspring was willing to explore with his old, old, uncool mom.

There is a theater and dining deal at the 1770 House in East Hampton. Guild Hall’s John Drew Theater lab has resumed a free series of staged readings and the 1770 House will offer a pre-theater twocourse prix fixe for $27 on reading nights.

At a time when many of us are wannabe chefs, when the TV is as apt to be turned to the Food Network as to ESPN, one woman in Springs has revived a veritable tradition: She has gathered recipes from family and friends and created a modest community cookbook.

Our approach to Via del Mare in Water Mill felt eerie. The curtains were drawn, there were no cars in the parking lot, and it was pitch black inside. I started rehearsing an apology to my editor for not having a review for this week’s issue. It’s happened before, usually at places like Philippe that are only open for vampire weekenders and don’t stay open for people who dine and enjoy food in the evening.

New menu selections at Babette’s restaurant in East Hampton will feature healthy and organic meals with vegetarian and vegan choices. Forage for wild food with Chandra Elmendorf in the woods near Trout Pond in Noyac.

Sant Ambroeus

30 Main Street Southampton

631-283-1233

Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

The village of Southampton feels different. The streets are wider, the houses are bigger, the inhabitants smooth and groomed. The shops on Main Street are predictably peppered with high-end real estate offices that have glowing, interactive features in the windows. Press a button and stare at your Water Mill McMansion pipe dream. There are still pockets of charm, the Village Cheese Shop, Silvers, and the Japanese antique store that never seems to be open.

Lovers of both barbecue and football might want to earmark Townline BBQ in Sagaponack as well as the Smokin’ Wolf barbecue takeout shop in East Hampton as places to go for football watching victuals.

Ryan Murphy, a native of Ireland, is the new chef at the Topping Rose House. His new menu reflects his Irish roots and a French culinary influence. He uses seasonal produce, much of which is grown on the Topping Rose site.

How does Spam tonkatsu sound to you? Would you like to try a tasty paleo breakfast burrito with ham and not much else? Let’s find a recipe for Cowboy Casserole; this is a mixture of Tater Tots, canned soup, canned vegetables, and cheeeeeese. Christmas will be upon us before you know it, so why not perfect your Christmas crack now, your dentist will thank you! This is a mixture of Saltine crackers, lotsa sugar, a cup of butter, and melted chocolate.

Rowdy Hall kicks off its Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. featuring an outdoor German beer garden in the restaurant courtyard. Jeremy Blutstein, the East by Northeast restaurant’s chef will prepare a menu to complement wines by Macari Vineyards next Thursday.

Cauliflower is one of Long Island’s best-known crops. Our climate, with cool evenings and moist air, is perfect for growing firm, sweet, Brassica oleracea var. botrytis.

The top tomatoes from the taste-off at Quail Hill Farm will be for sale at the Amagansett Farmers Market for the rest of the season. Next Wednesday is Mexican Independence Day and La Fondita in Amagansett will celebrate with specials: chiles en nogada, a traditional Independence Day dish, and pozole rojo.

The calendar may say it’s the end of summer, but it’s really not. We still have a good four to six weeks of glorious weather, warm ocean and bays, fewer tourists, and plenty of fruits and vegetables still growing.

The first time I dined at the 1770 House it had only been open a few weeks. It wasn’t for a review; it was for a raucous birthday dinner. We were dressed to the nines, the gents wore ties, and we tried to behave ourselves, but we were noisy and happy and delighted to be in this marvelous new restaurant.

The Wolffer Estate winery in Sagaponack produced Finca Wolffer Rosé in Argentina this year. The wine will be featured at an Argentinian Summer Send-Off dinner on Sunday at the Crow’s Nest in Montauk.