Food

    Have you ever read a cookbook cover to cover? Me, neither. But one of the great joys of writing cookbook reviews is to read every single word, from introduction to chapter headings to analyzing each recipe and photograph. This immersion into a book can transport you to wonderful places: to Cyprus for a light lunch in the shade, to a North Fork farm stand for the ripest peaches, or to a Hamptons’ idyll so brightly colorized you’ll need to wear shades.

    Alexander the Great was a big fan, as were George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Charles I of England was so entranced with its flavors that he tried to keep the recipe secret as a royal prerogative.

    The cause of this historical brouhaha? Ice cream.

    History tells us that ice cream — or some form of shaved ice and flavored syrups — first made an appearance in the second century B.C. as a treat for royals. But it took almost another two millenniums for it to reach the masses, and when it did, it took off like an ice cream avalanche.

    With Father’s Day on Sunday, restaurants are putting out the welcome mat for dads and their families in various ways.

    Osteria Salina in Bridgehampton will serve Father’s Day supper from 1 p.m., with specials and items from the regular menu available.

  Zum Schneider MTK

4 South Elmwood

Montauk

238-5963

Lunch and dinner seven days

    Reservations are being taken for a June 21 wine dinner at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor featuring wines from Stonecrop, a 20-acre family-owned vineyard in Martinborough, New Zea­land, that produces handcrafted, award-winning pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. The dinner will be hosted by an owner of the winery, Andrew Harris, who lives in Montauk.

   At $100 per day, the Juicy Naam’s customized cleanse is “not just juice,” said Giuliana Torre, the Naam’s founder and owner.

    A “conscious cuisine” dinner at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton will feature a round-table discussion led by Stefanie Sacks, a culinary nutritionist with a show, “Chew on This,” on local cable TV. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, to be followed by a healthy three-course dinner prepared by the restaurant’s chef, Joe Realmuto, and chef de cuisine, Ed Lightcap.

   Those who have been in East Hampton for a long time will surely remember the rearing red horse that stood in front of the old Levi’s store at Cove Hollow Road and Route 27, the namesake for the shopping plaza there and now the new Red Horse Market.

    The gourmet market opened its doors two weeks ago, and a tradition is taking hold among the mouth-watering displays of meats, pizzas, pastries, produce, and prepared foods — family.

   Andrra

39 Gann Road

East Hampton

329-3663

Dinner nightly

Lunch in summer

   The beautiful new restaurant at the end of Gann Road, most recently the Boathouse, and for many years Bostwick’s on the Harbor, is now Andrra, which means “dream,” and dreamy it is, beginning with the view. This particular spot on Three Mile Harbor doesn’t just have a simple, unobstructed water view; it presents a glorious panorama of boats, inlets, islands, and eddies, more like a delta, as one guest observed.

Farmers Markets Open

    On Montauk’s Main Street, 668 the Gig Shack is serving lunch, with a menu including house-smoked pulled pork sandwiches, burgers, seared sea scallop sandwiches, and fish tacos. This year, the dinner menu includes a house-smoked rack of ribs served with cornbread and slaw, a char-grilled Angus rib-eye steak with fresh chimichurri, yellowfin tuna steaks, and tuna tartare taquitos.

“American Meat”

    Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton will host a reception after a screening of the documentary “American Meat” at Guild Hall on Saturday.

   This is the season of new Montauk restaurants, with more of them to choose from in the eastern hamlet than ever before. Several had soft openings last week and have been pretty busy ever since.

    The Coast on South Euclid Avenue, where Luigi’s used to be, had a crowd last Thursday, its first day. The bar, which in keeping with the coastal theme is called the Sandbar, was filled, the tables there and in the dining room were also filled, and a crowd of locals milled outside near the dock pilings, at slatted wood tables and chairs.

    Restaurants are gearing up for the season, with a host of Mother’s Day specials this weekend.

    Andrra, a new restaurant which has opened near the Harbor Marina on Three Mile Harbor where the Boathouse was last year, will serve brunch on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $30 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

    If there’s a little more traffic near the train station in East Hampton these days, it may be because Peter Ambrose, late of the Seafood Shop in Wainscott and the owner of Peter Ambrose Events catering, has hung out his shingle on Race Lane. Hampton Seafood, with Mr. Ambrose’s catering offices next door, has opened in the spot formerly occupied by Claws on Wheels.

    Mother’s Day is coming and I hope you are all planning creative ways to honor and remember your mothers. Creative being the operative word here. No need to buy a card, make one! No need to buy flowers, pick some wild ones. Cook for her, fold the laundry, pull some weeds. Just about any gesture will do to show her you appreciate all she does.

    Jennifer Meadows, the chef at Fishbar in Montauk, which is at the Gone Fishing marina on East Lake Drive, is back in the kitchen for another season, and serving dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. A mention here of another chef being added to the Fishbar roster was incorrect.

    Fishbar is offering Montauk residents, who can produce ID showing a local address, a 10 percent discount. On Sunday nights, four entrees are offered at 50 percent off.

    There are a couple of springtime treats in our waters right now, often only available in spring and fall as the water temperature changes. Weakfish, also known as sea trout and by their Native American name “squeateague,” are a delicious, delicate, finely textured fish. Due to their delicacy, they must be consumed when “fresh, fresh, fresh” as Mrs. Condie Lamb instructed in the 1965 L.V.I.S. Cookbook. The name weakfish is misleading, as they are feisty fighters. But due to the weakness of their mouths, hooks often rip loose just as they are caught, allowing the fish to escape.

    If David Burke, a well-known restaurateur, were to have a precocious baby chef it would be Matthew Guiffrida. His new Muse in the Harbor echoes the whimsy and quirkiness of Burke’s signature dishes: various foods shaped into lollipops, riffs on Tater Tots, tuna trios, and pork extravaganzas.

    As the spring season marches forward, more restaurant chefs are striding back into their kitchens to man their stations for the season.

    In Montauk, the Clam and Chowder House on West Lake Drive has reopened, and is serving dinner on Thursday through Sunday, and lunch also on Saturday and Sunday.

    Gosman’s Dock reopens tomorrow night. Lunch and dinner will be served daily, except Tuesday, at the restaurant perched at the mouth of Montauk Harbor. Drinks are served till midnight.

    In Montauk, Fishbar has reopened for the season. The restaurant is on East Lake Drive, overlooking Montauk Harbor, and has a new chef, Shawn Christman. For now, Fishbar is serving dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m.

Hampton Coffee Competes

Amazing Sorrel Soup

    This recipe is adapted from Patricia Wells’s “At Home in Provence.”

    Serves four to six.

3 oz. fresh sorrel leaves, stemmed, washed, and dried (or you can substitute watercress)

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 small onion, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

6 oz. starchy potatoes, peeled and diced

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper

   Other than the lack of rain, this spring has been beautiful. But what has amazed me the most are the hardy little herbs that survived the entire winter and are now going gangbusters in the garden.

   Those looking to prepare a meal with fresh spring color, as well as the comfort and warmth of rice and spice, might enjoy one of the most popular entrees served by the Seafood Shop in Wainscott.

    The new executive chef on board, Paul LaBue, who brings 23 years of experience, most recently at Navy Beach in Montauk, to the job, shared the shop’s recipe for a traditional paella dish to feed four.

New at Montauk Harbor

    Sam Joyce, a longtime chef at Gosman’s restaurant in Montauk, is opening his own place not far away on West Lake Drive. Calling it Sammy’s, he is taking over the spot where Clemente’s used to be. The menu includes appetizers such as Montauk oysters, tuna sashimi, “Irish nachos,” which feature homemade potato chips with traditional nacho toppings, and lobster salad tacos.

    The Palm restaurant in East Hampton is offering a three-course prix fixe dinner for Easter for $58.90 per person, plus tax and tip. The meal will begin with a choice of salad or lobster bisque, followed by filet mignon served with a choice of panko fried shrimp, bacon-wrapped scallops, jumbo shrimp, or jumbo lump crab cake. Dessert will be New York-style cheesecake or creme brulée. Reservations have been suggested.

    Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton will serve an Easter brunch from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m.

    Jennifer’s mother-in-law cooks her brisket with Coca-Cola. Steve puts Spanish olives on his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Have you ever tried extra virgin olive oil drizzled over premium vanilla ice cream? Who knew these bizarre food combinations could be so good? And who was the first genius to stick a can of beer inside a chicken carcass before grilling?

   Mirko’s restaurant in Water Mill, among the longstanding eateries that have built up a dedicated base of customers from year to year, is getting set for a springtime reopening. After a winter break, Mirko’s will begin serving again next Thursday.

Bavarian Beer Haus

    It’s confession time. Two years ago you would have found me jogging three and a half miles at least four days a week, swimming a few miles at Gurney’s twice a week, and attending frequent yoga classes. But working as a chef is tiring and I’m gettin’ old. I slacked off on the exercise and the pounds crept up on me. This is all it took to lead me to my current status as a person with hypertension: a 15-pound weight gain and sheer laziness.

   I don’t know a lot about beer but when I heard Rowdy Hall was having its 10th annual beer dinner, celebrating local recipes and foods of the East End paired with local beers, I couldn’t resist.

    If the end of summer Shoe Inn warehouse sale is the siren call to all women, then surely the Rowdy Hall beer dinner is the same for all men. Or as one of the few women attending remarked upon surveying the room, “I’ve never seen so many seated men, and so well behaved!”

    Ospreys have been sighted and restaurant stoves are heating up after winter dormancy, so it must be spring.

    At the almost-tip of East Lake Drive in Montauk, overlooking the mouth of the Montauk Harbor channel, Inlet Seafood will begin serving lunch and dinner on Thursday, extending its long weekends. Lunch and dinner is served each day.

Gluten-Free Pizza

    Those following gluten-free diets may be heartened to hear that Pepperoni’s, on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, is now serving pizza made with gluten-free dough.