Small Bites

With a dark-stained floor, a big gorgeous clock and antique wood beams reclaimed from an old church in Pennsylvania — plus a bar made from its former pews — you’d never guess from the interior that this French bistro is located in a strip mall on Route 59.

Tania Savayan/TJN

But chef-owner Alain Eigenmann, above, formerly of Sidewalk Bistro in?Piermont, has put quaint, cozy touches on this space, and then put together a menu of French classics such as roast chicken, onion tart, duck confit and, in winter, cassoulet, to complement it. Expect fun flourishes and seasonal ingredients on the plate, too.

Details:?9 Ingalls St. (off Route 59), 845-535-3315. alainsbistro.com.

What had been a neighborhood bar for 70-plus years has been spruced up and revitalized into a swanky new sports bar and grill. The large space — there is a dining room in the back with three gigantic flat-screen TVs and a nice-sized bar up front with high-top tables and more TV’s — opened earlier this year, and has been working hard on changing its image from a gritty drinking hole to a welcoming, affordable restaurant.

What’s nice about the space is that the bar and restaurant are truly separate, allowing for private parties in the back or family dining without the noise or din of the bar (or the sports!). There is also an outdoor patio. Expect burgers, sandwiches and salads, along with wings in your choice of mild, medium or “Holy Mary Mother of God.”

Details: 73 Crotona Ave., Harrison, 914-835-0807.

Story and photo by Jeanne Muchnick

Craving a fish dish that you don’t have to slave over the oven to cook? Look no further than Rockland Seafood in Bardonia. Though they closed last winter for a much-needed four month break, the 20-year old Rockland Seafood has been back all summer — and is celebrating its grand reopening with two new, cooked-to-order specialties.

The first new entrée is fish tacos, with salmon, rock shrimp, or flounder. What makes these tacos (which are huge, especially for $4.99 each) so special are the following ingredients: shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, and sour cream and lime dressing. Another new dish: salmon burgers ($9.99) and tuna burgers ($11.99) on a sesame seeded bun. Call ahead by 15 minutes, and they’ll have the tacos and burgers waiting for you. You may also want to try the famous pistachio-crusted halibut for $14.99. And yes, if you’d rather cook fish your own way at home, owners Tom DeCelestino and Josh Rosen, shown left and right above, and Brian Smith are always ready to help you make a choice from their extensive fresh fish selection.

Details: 110 Route 304, 845-624-3660.

Story and photo by Sandra Levy

Remember John’s on Main Street? It’s now the Metro Café. The deli, which has been feeding downtown White Plains breakfast and lunch for years, is under new management and has added tables and a large selection of baked goods, all of which are made in house.

The bakery case features cheese, apricot, cherry, pineapple and cinnamon crumb Danish, cookies that can be bought by the pound, and muffins galore. Need bagels on Sunday morning? They make those, too, and have all the regulars from plain to everything, and flavored cream cheese to go with them. Don’t worry, they still make wraps, sandwiches, paninis and serve off the hot grill. They also didn’t give up the salad bar or the hot food buffet, which costs $5.99 a pound.

Details: 258 Main St., White Plains. 914-946-0336. Hours: 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.

Story and photo by Jessica Rao

First off, let me say: I hope everyone is safe and dry and for those of you still without power, I hope it comes back very, very soon.

My house in South Nyack made it through the storm fine, but we lost power Sunday around noon. We got it back during the night, so it wasn’t too much of a burden.

I was pretty happy we’d packed the freezer with ice bags — it was so full nothing even began to melt. The refrigerator wasn’t full, and besides a pint of almost-bad cream, I didn’t have to throw anything out. It was mostly condiments, wine, farmers markets vegetables and ultra-pasteurized and unopened Lactaid milk, so we were pretty safe there.

During the storm, a few neighbors and a harbored friend from Manhattan gathered on our porch for BLTs with the last of my bacon from Benton’s and some corn on the cob from R&J produce at the Nyack market. On Sunday, we ate some leftovers from the new Peruvian place in Nyack: Maura’s Kitchen. And we were able to pan-fry some burgers using meat I’d defrosted from the freezer for supper Sunday night. We played board games in the candlelight. It’s not as relaxing as it sounds, though… our nerves were frazzled from a sink back-up in the kitchen (water everywhere in the dark, ack!)  and the noise of a neighbor’s generator. Imagine a leaf-blower or lawnmower going at full volume for 12 hours. Shoot me.

So how did you do? What did you eat? Did you have any hurricane parties?

Are those of you without power eating down the contents of your fridge? Do you have any ideas and helpful hints to share with fellow readers?

And restaurant owners: are you open? Closed? Serving a limited menu?

Please do share in the comments section below.

If we lose power from Irene and flooding keeps the utility companies from restoring it for several days, we may have to deal with spoiling food and a lack of a cooking source.

I’ve put together some ideas for coping from the following web sites:

From Preparing and cooking food without power:

Examples of dry goods you can eat without cooking include: canned beans, canned soups and stews, dry and canned milk, canned fruits and vegetables, granola bars, granola, canned meats like tuna and chicken, nuts and chocolate.

Of course, this is summer, so there’s plenty of fresh produce, too. Tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and more are delicious with just a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

If it looks like your power will be out for longer than 24 hours, move refrigerator and freezer contents to a cooler packed with ice.

After the rain ends, you can cook outside on the grill. Cook the most perishable foods first.

From Stock an Emergency Food Pantry:

A few more ideas for no-cook food: dried fruit, nuts, electrolyte drinks.

From Cooking Without Electricity: Hurricane Preparedness With Style:

Some great ideas on this one! I love this: Use bulgur for a perfect no-cook meal or side dish.

Others include: Use foil packets, rely on cured meat, which doesn’t have to be refrigerated (and is so darn tasty), and use foil packets for cooking outside over an flame.

And here’s one from me: Hard boil a bunch of eggs tonight. They can go back in the fridge for now, but if you lose power, they can always sit out on the counter for a while. Most safety recommendations say 4 hours max. But I’ve seen them sit out on the bar at French bistros a lot longer than that.

If you think cookies can’t be delicious and beautiful, think again. Cookie Girl Bake Shop offers custom-made, hand-decorated cookies that are simply scrumptious and just gorgeous.

They can be used as party favors, centerpieces or specially packaged to celebrate special occasions. The buttery sugar cookies are made from scratch by owner Stacey Damesek, left, who is a former art teacher at Washington Irving Intermediate School in Tarrytown and PS 128 in Washington Heights.

She decorates with Royal Icing, which contains confectioner’s sugar, water and meringue powder, and hardens like a candy. Then she packages the cookies: on sticks, in various sized clay pots, made into bouquets, gift arrangements as well as platters. Going to a housewarming? Try cookies that are decorated like trees, welcome mats and mailboxes. Having a superhero-themed party? Get a bouquet that includes Spiderman, Superman and Batman. To welcome a baby, how about a pastel-color bouquet of baby carriages? Special wedding anniversaries can be celebrated with a bunch of heart-shaped cookies. The Cookie Girl also takes special orders for cupcakes. There’s also always a supply of classic homemade cookies available in chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and triple chocolate macadamia.

Details: 191 South Main St., 845-708-5888.

— Story and photo by Sandra Levy

Derek and Carol Todd of Wine Geeks in an interview with Fox Business. They discuss their organic, small production wines and how they got their start in Armonk.

Here’s a link to Wine Geeks Armonk.

This might be a bit premature — and possibly in bad taste if Irene ends up doing a lot of damage — but  in light of Hurricane Irene, which is barreling up the East Coast as I write this, I’ve had a couple of people ask me for a cocktail recipe for a Hurricane.

Anyone who’s ever been to New Orleans has probably had a Hurricane. It’s the house drink at Pat O’s — Pat O’Brien’s, the very well known and popular French Quarter bar.

I should rephrase: popular with tourists. A survey in the Times Picayune said that 95 percent of first-time tourists go there. I’m guilty of such my first time in NOLA, but not my second. I’m not sure if these guys are tourists, but they sure look like it. And this photo is hilarious.

(Photo courtesy looka.gumbopages.com via Trader Tiki.)

Legend has it (doesn’t legend always have it when it comes to cocktails?) that when Pat O’s opened just after prohibition, whiskey was very hard to come by. In order to get one bottle of whiskey, you had to buy an entire case of rum. So how to get rid of the rum? A house drink, naturally. Pat O’s drink was originally made with passion fruit syrup, which is a dull orange color, so who knows when or how it became the bright red color you see in the photos above. Pat O’s uses a mix today, and surely it has grenadine in it.

Pat O’s is also famous for introducing the Hurricane glass, named because it’s shaped like a hurricane lamp. (Speaking of hurricane lamps, does everyone have their candles and kerosene ready?)

There are other versions of the Hurricane’s history. (Aren’t there always other versions when it comes to cocktails?) In his book, “The Craft of the Cocktail,” Dale DeGroff writes that the drink was made famous by Pat O’Brien’s, but that according to Brian Rea, the author of Brian’s Booze Guide and The Modern Bartender’s Guide, the rum-based Hurricane first appeared at the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens — at the Hurricane Bar. DeGroff says the Hurricane cocktail recipe does not appear in the 1937 Famous Drinks of New Orleans by Stanley Clisby Arthur.

Rea also says there was another Hurricane version, this one made of cognac, absinthe and Polish vodka. Wikipedia also lists a version with coffee liqueur, Rum 151, Irish cream and Grand Marnier.

For our Hurricane (Irene), I’ll stick with the rum versions. I have four versions — all from actual books, not cobbled off the Internet: “Craft of the Cocktail” (which has the most ingredients), “American Bar,” “Mr. Boston’s Platinum Edition”  and “The Ultimate A-to-Z Bar Guide,” which appears to have the simplest recipe.

Yes, I have quite the cocktail library. And quite the collection of booze, too. It won’t be a problem for me to make Hurricanes on the fly. But should you be needing Passion Fruit Syrup (almost all the recipes call for it), Torani makes it. Maybe you can get it at specialty stores? Or go online. (Or go crazy and make your own. Here’s a recipe from Epicurious.com.) If you want to use passion fruit juice (which is terrific in smoothies, by the way, and I have a nice rum-jalapeno drink you can make with it later), you’ll find it at Latin grocery stores under the name of maracuya, the Spanish word for passion fruit. Ceres makes it, too, and I’ve seen that at Whole Foods and other gourmet markets.

And PS: you don’t have to go out and buy hurricane glasses. A pint glass works just fine. And so does a big wine glass.

Some cool resources:

Looka.gumbopages.com
Robert Hess’ video on making a Hurricane.
Suite 101 recipe for a Hurricane.

The recipes, after the jump. Stay safe, everyone — and cheers.

On a recent Saturday morning, By The?Way Bakery had a line of people out the door, including customers who came in from the Hamptons. OK, so they stopped off on their way to a wedding in Connecticut, but still, the Hamptonites had read about this new gluten- and dairy-free sweet shop and wanted to try it out, says owner Helene Godin.

Godin, pictured above serving a customer, is a former corporate lawyer, doesn’t have any food allergies herself, but when the longtime Hastings resident left her job a year ago, she wanted to do something “completely different from law.” After taking a vegan baking boot camp, because it was “the only course she could get into,” and doing plenty of research, which she describes as “bake, bite, throw out,” she perfected her own gluten-free flour mix.

In May, Godin started offering cookies, cupcakes, teacakes, and muffins. Her layer cakes are works of art: There’s a Classic Chocolate, Red Raspberry, Coconut Cloud, Spiced Carrot and Very Lemony Lemon. Besides confections, Godin features other local treats: She serves coffee by Giaco Bean and has a table of vintage-inspired gifts from Pretty Funny Vintage in Tarrytown. And, in case you were wondering about the name, it refers to the fact that the missing ingredients are not something you would notice, but are rather an afterthought.

Details: 574 Warburton Ave., Hastings-on-Hudson. 914-478-0555, www.btwbakery.com. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday.

— Story and photo by Jessica Rao

This time of year, there’s no excuse for eating bad food. Tasteless tomatoes? Woody zucchini? Pallid chicken? Not in August, my friends.

Farmers markets are overflowing with end-of-summer bounty — corn and tomatoes, cantaloupes and plums. It’s the time of year when a dinner party can be as easy as slice-and-serve.

If there’s one weekend you should get out to the market and stock up on local produce, meat, herbs — even cheese, bread and sweets — it’s this one. To tempt you, I’ve put together a dinner party menu with some of my all-time favorite recipes — the ones I turn to again and again during summer. Whole chicken on the grill. Steamed corn. Tomato-watermelon salad. These are no-fuss recipes that you can put together in moments — leaving you the rest of the evening to linger at the table under the stars.

If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, I’m including starters, a cocktail and two desserts, too.

One thing I will say about these recipes — they’re all utterly delicious. So good, in fact, they might be destined to become classics in your repertoire, too. But aside from the taste, the best part about this menu is that you can get (almost) all of it at the farmers market. If you have citrus, olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar — and, if you go the extra mile, the makings for dessert, such as flour, brown sugar and walnuts — you already have everything you need.

So throw your reusable bags in the car and head out to your local market. I’ve even made you a list. I can promise there won’t be a tasteless tomato to be found.

Here are the recipes:
Watermelon-Basil Mojitos
Fried Zucchini Blossoms
Cranberry Bean Crostini
Smoked Chicken
Steamed Corn
Zucchini-Fennel Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Watermelon-Tomato Salad with Feta and Herbs
Lemon Verbena-Cantaloupe Sorbet
Plum Tart

Photos by Tania Savayan/TJN.

After the jump, a shopping list for the market.

I like this recipe because you press the crust into the pan, instead of rolling it out.

You’ll need to freeze the cylinder of an ice cream maker the day before you start this recipe.

I just discovered this recipe this summer, but it’s already become a favorite. The vinaigrette is so lemony and delicious. It’s best the day you make it.

The fun of this salad is the shape. If you have beautiful heirloom tomatoes, slice them into rounds. Then you could use a melon baller to make watermelon balls. Or slice the tomatoes into wedges.

Here’s a version with melon balls and sliced green zebras:

Here’s a version with Sun Golds, where people added the feta at the table. (We had some lactose intolerant diners that evening.)

Recipe, after the jump.

It might seem silly to give you a recipe for steaming corn, but I figure most people boil it — so this is a new way of looking at a summer favorite. Try it — it’s great when you don’t want to heat up the house with a big pot of boiling water.

I bet I cook this every other week in the summer. You start with a brine, then butterfly (or spatchcock, which is the technical term) the chicken by removing the backbone. Then cook over indirect heat for 1 hour. This is a great dish to do for a party because you really can “set it and forget it.” You don’t have to keep checking the grill and worrying the chickens — they’ll be fine on their own.

Photo by Tania Savayan/TJN

Cranberry beans, shown here on the right, are white beans with beautiful red striations, and come similarly colored, long pods. You can substitute dried cannellini beans, if necessary, but soak them first.

Recipe, after the jump.

I adore squash blossoms. It’s the only reason I’ve planted a zucchini plant. Zucchini and squash are OK, but it’s the blossoms I’m really after.

Kasha Bialas, whom you’ll find working the Bialas Farm stand at the Pleasantville Farmers Market each Saturday, has a great memory of a great garden snack: kohlrabi.

Kohlrabi, in case you aren’t familiar with it, is a greenish-white (or sometimes purplish-white) vegetable in the cabbage family. It looks a little like a turnip, but it’s round, and has hard stems coming out of one end. Which brings us to her memory: a kohlrab-a-pop.

“I remember my father pulling the root out of the soft black dirt and, with his ever-present pocket knife, scraping the root clean,” she writes in her blog, “The Farm Girl Cooks.” “Then he’d clip off the leaves and peel the thick woody skin off all of the bulb except the bottom. He’d hand it to us with his dirty calloused hands and we’d happily hold our ‘pops’ by the root and nibble away at the crisp, juicy, white interior.”

So it’s a natural that, for our occasional series highlighting farmers and their recipes, she chose one with kohlrabi: Kohlrabi and Apple Salad with Walnut Vinaigrette. (See below.)

Bialas Farm grows kohlrabi and more than 80 other varieties of vegetables on 55 acres in New Hampton in Orange County — black dirt country. Kasha’s grandfather purchased the land — on Celery Avenue (really!) — in 1939.

“He started as a sharecropper, and decided that he didn’t want to work his butt off to give the money to someone else,” she says. The family had six children, and everyone worked the farm. “My aunt and uncle would tell stories about getting off the school bus, having a quick snack and going out to relieve my grandmother in the fields so she could go and cook dinner.”

From 1939 to 1970, the family grew celery until its harvest, then a quick crop of spinach before the winter set in. (And Celery Avenue got its name because of an old wooden sign painted with celery pointing the way for truckers to come pick up the produce for market.)

Between 1970 and 1991 — “after the celery market went to hell,” says Bialas — they grew onions. In 1991, they started doing farmers markets and diversified.

Bialas Farm — which is owned by Kasha and her parents; her brother left the family business to start his own: J.A. Bialas Farm — now has three greenhouses, which allows them to have a winter CSA (or Community Supported Agriculture). They also sell their produce at markets in Goshen, N.Y., on Fridays and Ringwood, N.J., on Saturdays.

But in Pleasantville, you’ll find Kasha Bialas, who can tell you anything you want to know about any vegetable she’s selling: where it was planted, when it was harvested, how it was harvested, how to store it — and, of course, what to do with it in your own kitchen.

“I was helping a lovely woman in Pleasantville,” she writes on her blog. “After weighing them, I put the two kohlrabi bulbs she was purchasing into her canvas bag. ‘I bet these would make a great salad with some crisp, fresh apple,’ I said. It was like a light bulb went off and illuminated us both… a farmers market think tank, if you will. ‘What a great idea!’ said the woman. ‘I just bought some apples!” [Yes, I’m aware… considering I’ve recently been rooting around in your bag.]

“I added the suggestion of apple cider vinegar for the dressing and she countered with extra virgin olive oil.  As she was walking away I flashed a winning smile and popped out with, ‘nah.  Roasted walnut oil would be great.’

“She turned and grinned and thanked me for the inspiration, vowing to give me a full report next week. I couldn’t wait for her, so I whipped something up myself — after a much-deserved but painfully brief Sunday afternoon nap on the sofa.”

After the jump, Kasha’s kohlrabi recipe.

(Portrait by Alan Shapiro; Kohlrabi Salad by Kasha Bialas)

Voracious Reader’s sibling has arrived — and boy is she cute. According to owner Francine Lucidon, above, whose motto has always been about catering to young people “with an appetite for books,” the store’s new tea shop and lounge — it’s expanded into a space that formerly was a Scandinavian rug store — perfectly combines one’s passion for reading with space to hang out and mingle. The space is sunny, with pretty patterned vinyl tablecloths, book posters and seating for 15.

Left to right: Veronica Guerrero, Steve Mandracchia and Hillary Rubin.

It is meant to be a place where parents can “breathe” and slow down and enjoy time with their children, she says. It’s also a terrific — and cozy — venue for the many authors who come to the book store for readings. Tea and pastries are the focus — there are more than 20 different kinds of teas as well as scones, cupcakes, cookies and gluten-free pastries.

Also of note: coffee is made with a cold-drip process that creates a smoother, less acidic taste. There is also fresh lemonade served with a sprig of mint. Down the road, there might be finger sandwiches and salads. The chef is Steve Mandracchia, formerly of Larchmont Shore Club and executive chef at Trump Grill.

Details: 1999 Palmer Ave., Larchmont. 914-630-4581; www.thevoraciousreader.com Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

— Story and photo by  Jeanne Muchnick

“Feel like a kid again” is the slogan of newly opened Uncle Louie G’s Homemade Gourmet Italian Ices and Ice Cream, which specializes in cold summer treats, including blended frozen coffees, smoothies, milkshakes, sundaes and, of course, ice cream and Italian ices.

Ernie Aiello and his wife, Melissa, opened Uncle Louie G’s in Yonkers last May and had such a successful year, they decided to focus on another neighborhood. The product, which incidentally is also kosher, is part of a franchise. It is produced in Staten Island and sent to the store within 24 hours of the Aiellos placing an order. Popular flavors include cappuccino chunk, Brooklyn cheesecake, vanilla Snickers, and apple pie ice cream, along with canola, chocolate Oreo, mudslide, rainbow and watermelon ices. They also make old-fashioned egg creams, root beer floats and hot brownie sundaes. Limited indoor seating; this is mostly a get-and-go establishment.

Details: 439 White Plains Road, 914-346-5962, www.unclelouiegee.com. Open daily.

— Story and photo by Jeanne Muchnick

Hi folks: I’m looking for help! I want to make some recommendations for back-to-school recipes — but not for lunch boxes. I’m talking dinners on busy weeknights that you can get on the table in 15 to 20 minutes.

A few of my ideas:

Sauteed or grilled sausage over salad

Sauteed or grilled chicken breast with steamed fresh vegetables (green beans, broccoli)

Pasta with quick tomato sauce

Turkey burgers

Roasted vegetables over steamed rice

Pita pizzas

Tacos or burritos

I know these are pretty boring, but they’re just the first ones that came to my mind. Do you have some better suggestions? Let me know below and we might use them in an upcoming story.

The beloved 50s-style diner, known for its locations across the globe, has officially opened in the Shoppes at Eastchester.

The chain is known for its hamburgers, fries, sandwiches and ice cream, but also features a host of salads and starters, all with the calories listed on the menu. No reservations at the moment, except for large parties, though this policy will change down the road.

Details: 777 White Plains Road, 914-723-3303, www.johnnyrockets.com. Open daily.

— Jeanne Muchnick

To enjoy an elegant anniversary or just a casual dinner, consider the new outside terrace at 2 Spear Street, where you can look out onto the Hudson River from your table. Owner Angelo Rubino wanted to keep it “intimate and simple” with a “combination of New York City and New England feel.”

Submitted photo.

He improved the space by installing French doors to lead onto the terrace, where guests can sit at tables that face the river. This small restaurant offers a diverse menu for every appetite, including porterhouse steak, Chilean sea bass and half-roasted chicken.

Details: 2 Spear St. www.2spearstreet.com. 845-353-7733. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open for dinner Wednesday-Sunday and?Sunday brunch.

— Jennifer Kessman

I went to Chop’t, the choose-your-own salad spot in Rye Brook, for lunch today. I really like Chop’t. There are a ton of choices between lettuce, mix-ins and dressings, and even though there’s a line, it usually moves fast.

Usually.

Today, I got in the line — I was about as far as this photo, which was taken in June — and three women were standing off to my left a little. They slithered in in front of me, which I ignored, since they were kind of there to start with anyway.

Then they saw their friend at the door. “Over here!” they started waving. Then two teenagers arrive. They waved for them, too. Now there were 6 people in front of me.

The line moved forward a little and another teenager arrived. Then a man in Madras shorts came. The two women behind me and I looked at each other in disbelief. We got to the front of the line, and I was just about to order my salad when — yes, you guessed it: another woman arrived at the front of the line.

I’m not usually one to say anything, but I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer.

“Will there be anyone else joining you for lunch today?” I asked, with as much as sweet sarcasm as possible.

And do you know what they said? Not “Sorry.” No. They said: “Oh, just one more.”

As I was about to order my salad, I looked across the crowd standing in front of the counter, watching their salads get chopped (or “chop’t,” if you will) and every single person was someone who had cut the line.

I believe it was the worst line-cutting I’ve ever experienced. So that brings me to ….

What was yours? Do share. Vent.

And let’s hope that some line-cutters might (just might) see our grievances and have a little less entitlement next time!

UPDATE:

One of my friends just sent me the link to Larry David’s Chat and Cut! Here you go folks!

The River Club in Nyack is not only known for its seafood dishes but also for its gorgeous view of the Hudson River.

Recently, the restaurant was renovated inside and created a 28-seat bar for customers to watch the river as they enjoy their meal. Owner Michael Hekker says the new relaxed setting makes the restaurant perfect for an older crowd. What better way to look out onto the Hudson than with one of its most popular dishes, Black and Tan Burger or Lobster Rolls, while sipping a frozen drink?

Details: 11 Burd St, www.nyackriverclub.net. 845-358-0220. Open for dinner Monday, for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.

Story by Jennifer Kessman; photo by Seth Harrison/TJN