Food

Memorial Day arrives and the farmers markets are open. Vineyards, restaurants and other venues hit their full stride with the opening of the summer seeason.

M.J. Dowling’s Steakhouse and Tavern, which calls itself “a friendly neighborhood pub,” is just that. It has a friendly atmosphere and very reasonably priced food, especially on its specials nights.

Seafood! Seafood! Seafood! The summer season begins for many East End restaurants serving freshly caught fish out of local waters. Don't miss out!

Start off the Mother's day week with some Texas bourbon then visit a local restaurant for some Mother's Day specials.

After duck, lamb is my absolute favorite meat. It is healthy, delicious in many forms, and sadly, quite expensive. Since I don’t cook a lot of meat, cooking lamb intimidates me. So I order it in restaurants, which is really expensive.

The season gets off to a running start with many restaurants posting their Mother's Day Menus early.

Long Island Restaurant Week kicks off on Sunday with prix fixes at $27.95 at numerous dining places across Long Island.

Reservations are being taken for an April 30 wine dinner at Michael’s restaurant at Maidstone Park in Springs, which recently remodeled to create a wine bar featuring a wide selection of vintages.

Three upcoming sessions of the Wednesday wine-tasting and discussion series presented by Wainscott Main Wine and Spirits will feature wine experts from the East End.

D’Canela restaurant in Amagansett has launched a takeout menu with free delivery service in East Hampton and Amagansett. The extensive menu includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner choices, ranging from eggs to appetizers, sandwiches, and salads, and including items such as burritos, tacos, and tostadas. There is a Monday through Friday lineup of soups of the day and a daily $12.50 lunch special that includes a soup and entree of the day.

Bostwick’s Reopens

It all began with ice cubes, or the lack thereof. Expecting some swells for dinner, I had to choose between having enough cubes for adult beverages or using them to shock and retain the beautiful emerald green hue of my green beans to be served later. The adult beverages seemed far more crucial, so I just rinsed the beans after cooking under cold water for a minute or two until they had cooled off. Mission accomplished.

If you want fresh vegetables, grown with organic methods, and like the idea of being as close to the farming of them as possible, the C.S.A. model may be for you and sign-ups are starting now.

I recently attended a C.I.A. boot camp, and golly did I learn a lot. And no, I’m not talking about the spy agency next to the house I grew up in in McLean, Va. It was the Culinary Institute of America campus in San Antonio, started in 2009.

With the snow mounds melting and the days now longer, the restaurant roulette wheel is spinning as new ventures rev for the coming summer season and others who already have a foothold in the local eating scene try something new.

Matthew Guiffrida, the chef and owner of Muse in Sag Harbor, will reportedly expand this year to Montauk and open a second restaurant in the space most recently occupied by Coast.

Typically, when one orders a daiquiri or a mojito, it is not preceded by a call brand the way a Grey Goose martini or a Jack and coke is. With the advent of premium small-batch rums over the past few years, however, that should change.

Wine Bar at Michael’s

Michael’s restaurant at Maidstone Park in Springs has reopened after a short hiatus during which some interior renovations took place. Michael’s now features an expanded wine bar, with over 40 wines by the glass. An interior wall has been removed, affording more space for the bar area. Michael’s is now open seven days a week.

Monthly Pig Roast

You know how when you order food in a restaurant and you wait and wait and wait and it’s been like 45 minutes, so then you get up to use the loo and lo and behold, your food arrives at the table? That’s what this column is about. Eastern European food. The hearty, heavy, frigid-weather cuisine that keeps the Georgians and Hungarians and their neighbors fortified during long miserable winters.

March Weekends

The Montauk Yacht Club will be open on weekends this month, before opening daily for the season on April 1. Breakfast and lunch are served on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner is served on Friday and Saturday nights, when there is live music. The dinner menu is a la carte, with a $29 prix fixe.

Michaels’ Wine Bar

My friends Cindy and Jimmy have a huge glass jar filled with pistachios on their kitchen counter. When I say huge, I mean it. It is the size of a Southern church lady’s iced tea dispenser. And it’s always full.

I find this comforting . . . and tasty. When I remarked on it the other day, Jimmy asked, “Why haven’t you ever written about nuts? They’re good for you!”

So thank you, Jimmy, here it is.

Wine Classes

Wainscott Main Wines and Spirits has launched its newest series of Wednesday night wine-tasting classes, held at the Montauk Highway shop in Wainscott each week at 5:30 p.m. “Noble Grapes: A Comparative Look at Riesling and Pinot Noir” is the topic for Wednesday’s session, with Kevin Tunney of David Bowler Wines and Mike Mraz of the North Fork Table and Inn. The cost is $10. Those interested have been asked to sign up by calling the store or sending an email to WainscottMain@ gmail.com.

I used to keep a menu book. No one seems to know what those are anymore. If you Google them, all you get are restaurant supply stores offering you big leather-bound menu covers, or books like “7-Day Menu Planner for Dummies” and “Dinner: The Playbook — a 30 Day Plan for Mastering the Art of the Family Meal.” In other words, all you find are books for people who hate to cook, or don’t have time, and probably don’t even want to sit down to dinner with their family and friends. One friend asked, “Isn’t that something socialites used to do?” Probably.

The Peconic Land Trust’s spring lecture series, Long Island Grown II: Food and Beverage Artisans at Work, will kick off Sunday at 2 p.m. at the trust’s Southampton office at 300 Hampton Road with “The Drink,” a discussion featuring Jennifer Halsey Dupree of Milk Pail Farm, Roman Roth, winemaker and partner at Wolffer Estate Vineyard, and Richard Scoffier, the beverage and food director of Honest Man Restaurants. Laura Donnelly, food writer for The Star, will moderate. Subsequent programs will be held at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton.

Healthy bar snacks are available during a nightly 4 to 6 p.m. happy hour at Fresh in Bridgehampton.

Small bites on the menu include baked kale chips, steamed edamame, corn tortillas with salsa or guacamole, and dry-roasted cashews with chili, lime, and sea salt. More substantial menu items include organic chicken wings, local grass-fed beef sliders, whole-wheat pizza, and fish or vegetarian tacos. Bar food, house wine and beer, and house cocktails are half price during the happy hours.

Should Valentine’s Day bring a desire to look into the eyes of a loved one across a restaurant table, the annual lineup of eateries offering holiday specials includes the following.

In honor of Presidents Day weekend, let’s take a culinary trip down memory lane. How our presidents dined and entertained, and how their wives handled White House-housekeeping, is not only historically significant, it is quite revealing.

News for Foodies

With Valentine’s Day approaching, those who envision a gourmet dinner for two at home — but don’t know how to cook one — may wish to order a heat-and-serve dinner for two from Debbie Geppert Events and Dreesen’s Catering in East Hampton. Orders must be placed by next Thursday. Packages will include a choice of appetizer, first course, and dessert, and one of four entrees: filet mignon with wild mushroom sauce, rack of lamb with fresh mint demi glace, chicken marsala, and roast loin of pork with sausage and apple-cranberry stuffing.

I have always wondered why there is the expression “easy as pie.” Pie is not that easy to make! Turns out the expression began as “easy as eating pie.” Now that makes sense. However, I am hoping that this pie column will encourage you to take the leap, perfect a piecrust, make a bunch, and keep them in your freezer so you can whip one up on a whim.

The Super Bowl this weekend is, for some, as much of an occasion for noshing as it is for watching the game. The fest begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday at East Hampton’s Harbor Grill, which serves a “bottomless” brunch buffet until 2 p.m. The cost is $14.95 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Beginning at noon, those who order food or beverages will receive a free cup of chef Damien O’Donnell’s “championship chili.”

Pasta Night

Tuesday is pasta night at the Harbor Grill, which is on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. Beginning at 5 p.m., a pasta dinner special, featuring soup or salad, garlic bread, and an entree, is offered for $17, plus tax and gratuity. Choices include pasta with clam sauce, meatballs, Bolognese sauce, or with sausage, broccoli, garlic, and olive oil.

Cavaniola’s Gourmet

I generally eat a very healthy diet. This past week, for instance, I prepared wheatberries and roasted carrots from Quail Hill Farm, and last night I had scallops. A variety of greens are always at the ready in my fridge for a quick saute or salad. I love brown rice and oatmeal and just about any recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Ottolenghi,” “Jerusalem,” or “Plenty” cookbooks, which are full of yogurt and chili peppers and all manner of eggplant and other vegetables. However, I am occasionally possessed by the desire for something naughty, wrong, not so healthful.