Small Bites

Good morning and happy Monday. Finally a break from the oppressive heat, huh? If only for a day or so. I had a fun-packed weekend with lots of good eats.

On Friday, I went to a garden party. My hosts served the perfect food for such a hot and humid day. The first course was gazpacho:

And then we had those roasted peppers above with poached salmon and a wild-rice salad:

It was so easy (looking) and elegant, and the menu was light and refreshing. Their garden is a great place for a party:

Unfortunately we were chased in by storms not long after we sat down, but that made it all the more fun as we watched the rain from their porch.

On Saturday I went to the Pleasantville Farmers Market, where it was way too hot to take photos. I got myself some tomatoes for making gazpacho on Sunday, as well as some Rainbeau Ridge cheese.

Meanwhile, I’d already had Saturday dinner planned from my foraging at the Nyack market on Thursday. Here is corn and iceberg from R&G produce and lovely Sun Gold tomatoes from Taliaferro Farms. The bread and the pork chops came from Whole Foods.

I also made a blueberry cobbler with fruit from The Orchards of Concklin. It’s a great recipe, and I’ll share later. Unfortunately, I got distracted and the cobbler stayed in the oven about 10 minutes longer than it should have, so I’ve got some charred biscuits. Still delishy.

Sunday morning I was pulling weeds. Will it ever end?! I feel like this is the worst year EVER for weeds. Then the rain came and started cooling things off. I went inside to make gazpacho for my Mad Men party that evening.

And while I was whirring the vegetables around the food processor, I stuck some bacon on a rack on a sheet pan and put it in the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes. Yes, I’m guessing you guys know what’s coming?

The season’s first BLTs!

How about a little close up of that beauty?

My husband was so happy to have good tomatoes that he did a second helping and called it a BLT “salad.” Great idea!

After a little down time, I went back in the garden. The glads are doing nicely.

And my neighbor’s grapes are coming along:

Now the fall crops are starting to get bigger. Apples:

And pears:

And I’m about to harvest our plums:

After working in the kitchen and the garden, a reward… Caiparinhas! (I’ll give you the recipe for that later, too):

And after our cocktail, we headed over to my friend’s house for her Mad Men party. She made all kinds of great 1960s recipes, including an onion-anchovy spread (amazing!), shrimp with gorgonzola (suprisingly good) and an avocado aspic!

We also had Utz (natch) —

— and Ritz crackers with Velveeta, Pimentos and Vienna Fingers:

(Don’t worry. Those were just for decoration.)

I brought along my gazpacho, which I garnished with diced cucumber mixed with chopped shiso leaves. (No, not very 1960s, but very delicious.)

And of course…. Old Fashioneds for everybody!

Fun stuff.

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend. (Lots and lots!):

MH likes Lalibela in Mount Kisco. (NYT)
The Grey Lady pays another homage to Armonk, this time to Mariani Gardens. (NYT)
A visit to KoKo Sushi in Scardale. (SP)
Renaissance Bakery in Scarsdale. (SP)
A review of 808 Bistro in Scarsdale. (SP)
A review of Travelers Rest in Ossining. (CMKP)
The pig roast at Crabtree’s Kittle House in Chappaqua. (CMKP)
A former Blue Hill at Stone Barns employee is opening Local Ice Cream in Chappaqua. (CMKP)
Taiim Falafel Shack opens in Hastings-on-Hudson. (HDFP)
Here’s more on Taiim from Chowhound. (CH)
Meet Manuel Garcia of Gusano Loco in Mamaroneck. (LMP)
Meet James Rosenbauer of Bistro Z in Tarrytown. (TSHP)
Todd goes to Orissa in Dobbs Ferry. (WE)
Aimee Milano demostrates how to make Big Girl Baking Co.’s Olive Oil Tea Cake. (LMP)
Meet Doug Chi Nguyen from Wasabi. (NP)
Prime Barbecue opens in Hartsdale. (CH)

Westchester Magazine’s food issue has hit the stands. Here’s a look:
Jean-Georges on living in Waccabuc.
Our hippest restaurants.
Cold soups for summer.
A tour of the Yonkers food scene with Baron Ambrosia.
A sangria roundup.
Crab cakes, too.
Amuse Bouche.
Restaurant reviews: Day Boat Cafe in Irvington and Masala Kraft in Hartsdale.

Good morning and happy Monday. Those were some storms this morning, weren’t they?

My apologies for not posting much last week — I got all backed up working on the Mad Men package that was in Sunday’s paper. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you’ll be making some of those recipes!

I’m off for a couple of days, so the blog will be a little slow this week, too…. but to keep you entertained, here’s this week’s edition of local links.

I didn’t have much of a supper on Friday because on Friday afternoon for lunch, I went to the Burger Factory in Armonk and sampled tastes from about 8 different burgers!

More on that later, but for now, I’ll tell you that the chili was excellent.

More local sampling on Saturday…. I did a tasting of wines from Prospero in Pleasantville:

I’ll also report more on that later, but for now, I can recommend the Pleasantville White for a nice porch wine.

For supper on Saturday, we grilled a flank steak and had our first caprese of the year:

Along with our first “Doris’ Cucumber Salad” of the year. (It’s a recipe my husband got from his mom, who’s named Doris.)

I had picked up the vegetables at a farm stand at Bill Kolvek Perennials in Chestnut Ridge. The tomatoes, she said, were from Jersey.

On Sunday, I planted my purchases: hydrangea (Limelight, foreground), Coreopsis (moonbeam, yellow flowers on the right) and a butterfly bush (barely visible in front of the hosta, center) in a sad corner of my yard. I’m hoping this will brighten it up and hide the chain link fence behind it!

And for supper on Sunday night, we went all American with hot dogs. (Hey, after hamburgers of Friday, it’s a nice book-end, right?) The dogs were Schaller & Weber (delishy!) and came from Old World Market. Corn was from The Orchards of Concklin at the Thursday Nyack Market, the tomatoes were leftover and the lettuce was from the garden:

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend:

Emily digs Birdsall House in Peekskill. (NYT)
The Blue Pig in Croton is using local ingredients in its ice creams and sorbets. (NYT)
A few reports on Vega, the new Mexican in Hartsdale. (CH) (BTW, I have photos and a menu and will post soon.)
Dara makes a great-looking cucumber and radish salad with feta vinaigrette. (CITK)
Doug accompanies Katherine on her latest ice cream odyssey stops: Metro Desserts in Scarsdale and El Sabor de Michoacan in New Rochelle. (HT)
A video of chef-owner Navjot Arora at Chutney Masala in Irvington. (Hastings-Dobbs Ferry Patch)
A video of chef-owner Rui Correia at Piri-Q in Mamaroneck. (Larchmont-Mamaroneck Patch)
Meet the Chef: Vittorio Scarpa of Sardegna in Larchmont. (LMP)

I have a story in today’s paper that gives you everything you need to know about throwing a Mad Men viewing party. I’ve taken a page from Betty’s dinner party in Season 2, mixed it with a few Sterling Cooper products and slogans and thrown in a dash of alcohol here and there.

Here’s a look — with recipes for Old Fashioneds, Rumaki, Gazpacho Shooters, Lamb Lollipops, Swedish Meatballs and Molded Lime Sherbet. What a winner of a meal!

Plus, check out Chris Serico’s story, map and video about the local references to Westchester on “Mad Men.”

(Click the map at right, an illustration by the talented Chris Brown, to see a larger version.)

The story, after the jump.

Want to win a new grill? We’ve got one to give away, and all you have to do is share a photo or video of a great grilling moment.

We have a brand new YouTube channel called LoHudFood!

I set this up so we can get entries into our grilling contest. Right now, there are about 7 or 8 videos collected there, and I’ll be adding more as time goes on. You can subscribe at youtube.com/lohudfood

Good morning and happy Monday! It’s a scorcher out there today, isn’t it? We finally broke down and put in our air conditioners last night. My husband and I try to last until the Fourth of July each year, but this weather is just too much. As the old saying goes, “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility!”

On Friday night, I headed up to Restaurant North in Armonk, which is opening tomorrow, but had a small cocktail party Friday to give people a sneak peek.

Don’t worry… I’ll be posting more pics later.

Saturday I started the weekend off right with an all-local breakfast:

Strawberries from my garden, sheep’s milk ricotta from Valley Shepherd at the Nyack Market, and honey from Red Bee in Connecticut. (I bought that at the lovely Plum Plums cheese shop in Pound Ridge.) Only the bread wasn’t local. It’s Iggy’s, from Boston, which I bought at Whole Foods Market in White Plains and which is terrific.

I spent a lot of time in the garden on Saturday. Here’s a big fat cabbage we harvested:

I say we’ll be having cole slaw in our future! We also harvested carrots, radishes, green beans, onions and a bunch of herbs, in preparation for our supper on Saturday night: lettuce wraps with rib eye and Korean chili sauce.

Everything but the meat was from the garden! We served this platter with a big bowl of rice and a nice spicy chili paste and had people make their own wraps. So good.

We also had one of my favorite summer dishes for hors d’oeuvres, fried squash blossoms:

I like to use chick pea flour and mix it with cold seltzer, from a Fried Zucchini Flowers recipe I saw by Amanda Hesser years ago in the New York Times. (Speaking of seltzer, I get it delivered the old fashioned way from Joy Beverage in Bardonia. Tom calls every three weeks or so and asks “Need selzer? Call back!” Craig Haney, the livestock manager at Stone Barns, and his wife, Gabrielle Langholtz, editor of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn, turned me onto it, and I haven’t bought seltzer from the store in years.) But I digress.

For dessert, I made sour cherry pie. By now, you’ve probably seen my recipe and video how-to on making sour cherry pie. But I saw a recipe by Melissa Clark in last week’s Times for blind-baking a crust to get it even crispier. I had to fight with that dough – it was very crumbly and didn’t want to hold its shape — but it was worth it for the crunch and crumble it gave one baked:

I used her pie crust recipe — Twice Baked Sour Cherry Pie recipe — but used my own filling recipe. (I don’t care for cinnamon in my cherries.) It was delicious.

On Sunday morning, I met my friends at Black Bear Saloon for a little World Cup action. I had a very good turkey sandwich on rye with cole slaw and Russian dressing:

And on Sunday afternoon, we headed to the movies. Too darn hot in the house! We saw Toy Story 3 — and it was fabulous. So funny, so heartwarming. After that, we decided to break down and put the A/Cs in, so while the house was cooling off, I did a little more work in the garden. We have so many delicious edibles coming.

The neighbors’ grapes climb on our shared fence:

This is the first year for my blackberries:

The pears are coming along nicely!

I tasted one of these apricots…. nothing like home grown. Even better than the ones you can get at the farmers market:

Blueberries are big this year!

I know these coneflowers aren’t edible, but they’re so pretty, aren’t they?

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend:

Best of Westchester is out by Westchester magazine. Here’s a link to the food and drink category. (WM)
Julia gives Birdsall House in Peekskill a mixed review. (WM)
Zachys, uncorked. (WM)
Great salads in Westchester. (WM)
The Burger Factory in Armonk. (NYT)
Rain Water Grill in Hastings is OK, says MH. (NYT)
Chenin blanc from Long Island has reached a cult status. (NYCR)
Rinku’s recipe for beet greens. (CIW)
Doug gets donuts from Acorn Farm on Mamaroneck Avenue. (HT)
Phyllis’ recipe for Star Spangled Berry Tarts. (SP)

The Moderne Barn restaurant — the restaurant owned by the Livanos family of Oceana in Manhattan — opened yesterday in Armonk. Here’s a little video about it:

And the story, which appeared in today’s paper, is after the jump.

The sour cherries — or tart cherries, as they’re sometimes known — are early this year! Usually they start appearing this week or next and last just until about the Fourth of July. This year, they’re already at a farmers market near you.

Last year, I made a video during sour cherry season, where I show you my favorite sour cherry pie recipe, and my no-fail pie crust recipe. You’ll want to watch til at least the 5:10 mark, where I demonstrate and my very special method of pitting cherries. Oh, and the oven almost explodes, too. Good times.

Here’s the video again. I you enjoy it, and please — if you make the pie, comment here and let me know how it turned out! If you have questions, post them — I’m happy to help.

By the way, in the video, I misspoke, calling the almond extract cherry extract. No, it is indeed almond extract, like in the recipe, which you’ll find after the jump.

After the jump, the recipes for No-Fail Pie Crust and Sour Cherry Pie.

We’ve written about Sweet Teez before, but I personally had never been. So when Doug Yuan and Katherine Curry included it on their recent Westchester Hot Dog and Ice Cream Tour, I tagged along.

How’s this dark chocolate ice cream with espresso brownies from Walnut Beach Creamery in Connecticut look?

Yeah. It tasted as good as it looks.

You all may remember a video I posted on Small Bites a few weeks back. Doug Yuan, blogger for Hungry Travels, made on a fun ice cream excursion he and Katherine Curry, a freelance food writer for the JN, did about a month ago. Just in case not, here’s a reminder:

They visited Walter’s, the famous hot dog stand in Mamaroneck; Sweet Teez, the candy and ice cream shop in Larchmont, and So Dam Hot, the hot dog joint in Valhalla.

For the first two stops, I was along for that trip. And naturally, as you guys probably expected, I took some photos. But I’ve fallen behind on my blogging lately, and so I’m only now getting a chance to post them! My apologies. And a tour of Walter’s, after the jump.

Good morning and happy Tuesday! Hope you all had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend, and did plenty of barbecuing, grilling and other outdoor eating! I certainly did!

But not on Friday night. I started the weekend out at Cafe Barcel (I know I go there a lot, but it’s walking distance from my house.. and what does that say that I’m going there on my own dime all the time!) This time we had the fabulous patatas bravas:

And a bunch of other great dishes, including a new pasta with broccoli rabe and roasted peppers that was great. On Saturday, I did another garden tour on the Open Days program. This one is Rocky Hills in Chappaqua:

Gorgeous, isn’t it? I discovered a new flower that I must have for my own garden, called Love in a Mist, or Nigella:

Isn’t that so cool looking?

On Saturday night, we did burgers. (I used my freshly ground recipe that was in last Wednesday’s paper… did you catch the story? Great burger recipe article right here.)

But we started off with strawberry daiquiris!

Mmm. I’ll post the recipe later. Supper was burgers with blue cheese, barbecued beans and boiled potatoes and salad from the garden:

Speaking of the garden, it’s doing nicely, thanks for asking. Currants are almost ready:

The sour cherries are super-early this year:

And the peonies always bloom for Memorial Day weekend:

Gosh they smell great!

On Sunday night, we had burger redux. Leftovers, basically. But we switched it up for cocktail hour and went for the margarita:

Those are my raised beds in the background… chives are blossoming and the strawberries are ripe!

On Monday morning, I fried some local eggs from my neighbor’s chickens. There’s nothing like a superfresh egg:

On Sunday for supper, we had the neighbors over to eat in the backyard. They brought one of my favorite hors d’oeuvres, radishes with sesame butter:

Here’s the recipe, from Epicurious: Radish-Chive Tea Sandwiches with Sesame and Ginger.

We’ve modified it over the years, and this was a build-your-own version.

For dinner, we did our famous hickory-smoked chicken —

— which we served with grilled asparagus, fennel and spring onions, garlic bread and potato chips. Yum!

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend:

Another fabulous local video by Doug: Hemlock Hill Farms in Cortlandt Manor. (HT)
Rinku goes to So Dam Hot in Valhalla. (CIW)
Julia likes Juniper in Hastings. (WM)
Julia doesn’t like Bangkok Spice in Shrub Oak. (WM)
MH likes One Twenty Three Restaurant in South Salem (NYT)
Alice is inspired by O2 Live Food Cafe in Cross River. (NYT)
A rave for the Bedford Post Inn on Chowhound. (CH)
Some suggestions for lunch in White Plains. (CH)
Good reports on Marnie’s Asian Kitchen in Putnam Valley. (CH)
Meet the Chef: Anna Maria Santorelli of Anna Maria’s in Larchmont. (LMP)
Meet the Chef: Matthew Karp of Plates in Larchmont. (LMP)

Reporting for last week’s story on the (dining) pleasures of Pelham, I (naturally) had to go to Fairway. I mean, that was the point of the story, wasn’t it? To tell you what else there is to taste, once you’re picked up all your amazing groceries at Fairway? So while I was there, I snapped a few photos.

As we’ve reported in several stories before — and I’m quoting Linda Lombroso here — the supermarket is 75,000-square-feet — the biggest of the chain’s six stores. It carries all the usual Fairway fare, plus kosher fish, an expanded hot-food section, store-made pasta, a salad counter and a 60-seat cafe.

Walk in and you’ll see the produce first — a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including organic. Head to your left and you’ll arrive at the dried fruits, nuts and granola section, followed by the bakery, the deli, the cheese counter (600 varieties), the olive bar (70 types), the fresh pasta section and the seafood department.

After the jump, a little tour.

Good morning and happy Monday. I really don’t feel like going to work today… I’m wishing I had another few days in the garden! We did some planting, but we also were inspired to change some things after visiting Phyllis Warden’s amazing garden in Bedford for the Open Days on Sunday. More on that in a moment.

We started the weekend off by meeting friends for dinner in the city. First we had drinks on her rooftop, with a great view of the Empire State Building:

Then we headed to El Parador, the old Mexican restaurant on East 34th Street. Wow, what a treasure!

Beamed ceilings, deep red accents, twinkling lights — and great food, too.

We shared a bunch of dishes, including the grilled corn —

And the fish tacos:

It’s right around the corner from my friend’s apartment, so I know I’ll be back:

On Saturday I cooked in — and made sea bass with fennel and orange.

I shaved the fennel and tossed it with evoo, orange juice, green onions and orange zest, then let the fish marinate for a little while. I cooked them at 400 for about 12 minutes.

I served them with roasted asparagus and boiled buttered potatoes:

The asparagus and the fish came from the Palisades Farmers Market!

On Sunday we visited that great garden in Bedford. The Open Days are a fundraiser for the Garden Conservancy. People open the doors to their private gardens for a fee, which goes toward their efforts to “save and preserve America’s exceptional gardens.”

Here are a few snaps:

A lawn with perennial borders:

One of a gazillion water features:

The, um, croquet court:

The formal vegetable garden:

And, at the back end of the 7-acre property, a marshland:

Hey, little guy!

Sorry… I digress.

But I believe food and gardening really do go hand-in-hand, so even though a lot of you restaurant fans might not be interested, I know a lot of our cooks out there are. It really brings you closer to your food. I mean, what’s more beautiful (and tasty) than walking out the door to grab a handful of blueberries? Or snip some rosemary to season your steak? Maybe it’s not a marshland, but I grow what I can on my 1/10 acre.

On Sunday, we headed to my folks’ house for dinner. My mom prepared some pork chops with — you guessed it — more asparagus (hey, it’s in season!):

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend:

David Corcoran steps down as the NYT critic for the New Jersey section. His farewell article reflects on a decade of dining. (NYT)
Emily likes the food but is frustrated with the service at Dish in Mahopac. (NYT)
MH likes the stone patio at John Michael’s in North Salem. (NYT)
Doug is transported to France by his meal at Buffet de la Gare. (HT)
Doug posts another fabulous video, this one of Rinku cooking a Tamarind Glazed Salmon:

Pier Restaurant & Tiki Bar opened 20 days ago — with what I would have to say is the most spectacular water view in Westchester. Don’t get me wrong, the Hudson and the Byram River and the reservoirs up north are beautiful, too. But when you look at this —

— you just feel like you’re somewhere else. How can this even be Westchester?

More photos of the space, and the food, after the jump.

[From Liz: Chef David DiBari of the Cookery in Dobbs Ferry is on a wine tour of Italy, and is guest blogging along the way. Here’s his report from Rome.]

I had one free day in Rome after arriving at about 8:00 Am. I fortunately had the privilege of hanging out with Robert Conte, the owner of Conte’s restaurant in Mount Kisco. (His father has owned  the adjoining fish market for over forty years.) Needless to say we have a lot in common and we were on a mission to spend our day slightly like a Roman would, except that my flip camera was would be every  5 minutes. It’s kinda of hard when everything you see is worthy of a picture.

First stop was Tortuga, which means turtle in Italian almost exactly the same in Spanish. I knew it wast the beginning of a good day when the first bottles of beer on display were Nora and Mayan. Both are Italian craft beers and for those who know me I am a beer freak. We sat on wooden stools surrounded by a very mixed crowd, predominantly high school kids who pulled up with their vespas and carried their helmets as if they were part of their uniform. Everyone (and I mean everyone ) was enjoying a cigarette before their meal, during and after. I could have sat there all day.

I didn’t want to spoil my appetite so soon in the day but after acquiring a quick buzz from the Nora and watching the plates arriving at every table I was inclined to taste something. Pasta…. We started with a spaghetti with calamari tomatoes and a slight grating of pecorino. The pasta was perfectly al dente and the taste of  the slightly sauteed calamari was glazed the the pasta with just as it should. Eggplant parmigiana—a far cry from what is produced way to commonly in the US. Here, the eggplant was unpeeled, cooked in a sauce of tomatoes and topped with a smoked cheese which I thought was provolone.

On my way down to the toilette at Tortuga I stumbled upon the kitchen, where I met the chef. He was proud to anounce that this was his work. And work he did very well. The chef and I will now be facebook friends.

After a great lunch, we’re off to accomplish something even more important. Find a statue of St. Rocco for Uncle Chub. For those of you who don’t know Uncle Chub, he’s my godfather—and his heart, soul and physical strength are greater than anyone could imagine. Lately, he’s been battling some some health issues, and there is no more perfect Saint to watch over you than one your grandson was named after.

So, Uncle Chub, after searching high and low, I’ve found St. Rocco to watch over you. When I get home we are going to raise our middle fingers to the  the trials of life and sip a glass wine in front of the wood oven where the fire licks the crust of our blistering pizza laden with fresh mozzarella olio novello and garlic.

After a long day of walking around Rome, Robert and I grew hungry and thirsty again. Our mission was pizza this time. I needed to find out the true difference between Roman style pizza and Naples style pizza. Maybe this guy could give me an idea.

Chef Antonio at Val di Sangro Ristorante is 61 years old and has been making pizza for a very long time. Chef discusses with me the temperature of his oven, ratios of flour to water and how many he can actually cook at the same time. He asked me if  I made pizzza at my restaurant and I replied , “Yes. The only thing is that I don’t have and oven YET!!! So I cook them on the grill.” He slapped me on the back and told me that’s not pizza. I really like our pizza but I wasn’t going to argue with the master.

After pondering the menu I finally decided on a pizza with smoked provola, fresh arugula and tomatoes. I have a grave  fixation for smoked items which is prevalent in our menu at The Cookery. The pizza arrived at the table uncut which to some people might be a slight inconvenience. I guess I will just have the fortunate experience of not dining with them.

The dough was extremely thin and yielded the texture of cracker bread. I made a very similar dough at Five Points restaurant on great Jones Street in NY. The cheese was lightly smoked and was sliced thin. The fresh arugula and tomatoes adorned the top of the pizza cutting through the richness of the cheese and adding a burst of tomato love to a crisp thin crust. It was truthfully perfect and I could have eaten about three of them they were so light.

The Roman style of pizza differs a Napoletana style in that the Naples style dough is much softer with a spongy blistered crust.  The toppings are distributed upon the two styles of pizza equally so the integrity of the dough is not compromised by heavy toppings.  Napoletana dough yields a much more wet consistency before cooked and the ovens are usually dome shaped inside. The dome shape helps the fire just lick the dough and reaches temperatures of 800 to 1000 degrees cooking the dough within 1.5 to 2 minutes.

The Roman oven which is the style of oven I have in Uncle Chub’s back yard only arches in the middle going left to right. The oven reaches temps of 700 to 800 allowing the moisture to evaporate more slowly and creating a crispier thin crust.  Both Styles of pizza are fantastic. I guess it just depends on what your in the mood for.

It was a late nght in Rome and we had to be on the bus heading for Campania at 7:30 Am. It will be there where we first visit La Cas Dell’Orco in the Compia region of Italy known for it’s indigenous grapes such as Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo, Falanghina and Taurasi.  After we will meet the de Corato family of the Rivera Estate in Apuglia where we sample the juice of nero di troia, aglianico, primitivo and negroamaro.

I will report on lunch and wine in the upcoming blogs, as of now I’ve drank way too much and need to go to bed. Ciao.

Hope you like it!

We’ve combined the food page and the Small Bites blog into one. Above, you’ll find tabs. Each one is pretty self-explanatory, but since this is a welcome post, I’ll go over them:

Restaurants: our restaurant search.
News: stories from the food section and links to headlines from local blogs
Podcast: Video podcasts you can watch on the blog for now (and soon on your iPod)
Recipes: our recipe search, and below that, links to recipes I’ve shared on Small Bites
About: my bio
LoHud.com: A link to our home page.

You’ll find you can log in to Small Bites with facebook, or click through to my links on FB and Twitter.

And the sidebar has links to our farmers market map (It’s still from last year’s markets, but I’m working on updating it), videos and Tweets.

Also, just below the farmers market map, you’ll see thumbnails of your own submitted photos (keep sharing!)

Poke around. Tell me what you think!

Hey cooks and foodies, David DiBari here.

Five years ago I had the privelege of embarking on an educational wine trip to Italy. Along with Johnny Vesce, the vice president of  Bedford International, one of the leading importers of Italian juice, we toured some of their finest vineyards and producers. Upon visiting these estates we felt the soil upon which the grapes were grown, studied the process on how they were harvested and sipped the passionate reward of there product. ALL DAY LONG!!!!

At each of the estates, during the day a small nosh was prepared by the family, and paired with wine. In the evening supper was prepared by the woman of house and more wine was tasted. After a couple of glasses of wine I suddenly thought I could speak fluent Italian and found my self roaming the house trying to find the kitchen where i would spend a good portion of the evening picking the Chef’s brain (mom), watching and trying to converse as much as possible.

When you converse about something you are passionate about sometimes there is no language barrier. Five years ago, this trip spawned many culinary ideas which have surfaced at my restaurant The Cookery in Dobbs Ferry.

In Le Marche, a region in central Italy, I was witness to a White Lasagne — it’s flavor and consistency still remains on my taste buds and in my brain.  It was rich with the creaminess of besciamella and  the earthiness of the fungi, saltiness of the ham and fragrance of white truffle.

After five years of experimenting I have finally come close to emulating this piece of culinary heaven. The white lasagne has been a signature at The Cookery for an year now.

Now I’m heading back on another wine trip to Itlay. I look forward to making another pilgrimage to a culinary mecca, bringing back new ideas of food and wine to my play ground at The Cookery. We’re leaving tomorrow, and we’ll be back on May 22.

I’ll try to blog as often as I can along the way.

Here’s the itinerary:

May 14: Rome.
May 15: Casa dell’Orco in the Avellino area of Campania, then to the Rivera estate in the region of Puglia.
May 16: Ancona, home of Umani Ronchi and the Bernetti family in the Marche region; then to Umani Ronchi Winery
May 17:: Palazzo estate in Montalcino in Tuscany and Salcheto in Montepulciano in Tuscany.
May 18: Colle Massari Castle in Poggi del Sasso – Cinigiano in and Vignamaggio in Greve in Chianti Classico
May 19: Le Sorgenti, in the Colli Fiorentini appellation near Florence
May 20: Torre Rosazza in the Colli Orientali area of Friuli, then Castellani in Marano della Valpolicella
May 21: Contratto cellars in Canelli and dinner with Giacosa Fratelli in Neive

You can find the entire itinerary on the Wines from Bedford International’s website here and on The Cookery’s facebook page here.

So keep an eye out for photos (hopefully video) and ideas to inspire the menu at The Cookery.

Last night at Cafe Barcel in Nyack, I had a terrific soft shell with a macademia slaw. Tender but crunchy nuts mixed in with citrus and cabbage and a sinful brown butter sauce — with one sweet and beautiful crab on top:

So great. If the restaurant were open tonight, I might go back and have another one. I guess I’ll have to wait til Wednesday….

But I also had a great soft shell at Red Hat on the River in Irvington a week or so ago. It was tempura-fried atop a salad of white bean and chorizo with baby arugula folded in, and a lemon herb vinaigrette drizzled around the plate. (It sounded so good that even though I was only planning on staying for one drink with my friends, I caved in and ordered it! It was well worth it.)

And on its Facebook page, Hudson House of Nyack posted this funny video of chef Christopher Dunn plating a soft shell crab dish in the kitchen:

I love what this means for seasonal menus. I mean, think of the possibilities: asparagus, morels, strawberries — can tomatoes be far behind?!

So where else have you seen soft shells?

One year ago: Eating Family Style at Spadaro.

Good morning and happy Monday! Boy is it blustery out there. I spent most of the weekend inside — on Saturday because I was cooking all day (happily!) and on Sunday because I was doing chores: the dreaded Switching Out the Closet chore. Hopefully I didn’t put away all my wool sweaters too early.

Luckily we didn’t lose any plants to frost last night. Did any of you? I was careful to bring in the plants I bought at the Nyack Garden Club Plant Sale — since those were not in the ground yet, I thought they might be more susceptible. Especially the fig tree (!) I got from Bumps & Co., the grower in West Nyack.

So as I mentioned, I spent most of the day Saturday cooking, because we celebrated Mother’s Day on Saturday night with my parents and my grandmother. My grandmother is from Texas, so one of her favorite dishes is pimento cheese. I made it for her:

I’ve been noticing a lot more Southern influence on food lately, how about you all?

Another of my grandmother’s favorite dishes is shrimp cocktail. So, natch:

And a third of her favorite dishes is the stately hamburger. For the first time, I ground my own meat. Half brisket-half sirloin. It really was simple and I felt good about knowing what was in my hamburger. I seasoned with salt and pepper.

I topped mine with pimento cheese:

I also made oven fries and a parsley-endive salad with orange, grapefruit and coconut. It’s a grown-up version of ambrosia and I found it in the new Simple Fresh Southern: Knock-Out Dishes with Down Home Flavor by Matt Lee and Ted Lee. It was fabulous.

Best part? I tossed the leftovers with some wheatberries and I now have my own kicked-up version of tabouli.

For dessert, I served one of my favorite recipes, a Pastel Vasco from Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers at Lucques cookbook. Instead of blackberries, as she suggests, I did a strawberry compote.

I spent most of the day Sunday working on the closet situation. Ugh. Finally, it’s done. We lit a fire and I read on the couch, curled up with a wool blanket, determined not to put the heat on for just one measly night. My friend Lettie stopped by for a little while and then left to celebrate her owner Mother’s Day (as the mom of Rudy, a corgi).

For Sunday supper, we had a one-dish meal: Cannellini beans (from Rancho Gordo, of course!) with spiced lamb and cilantro:

My husband made the beans with an easy-peasy mirepoix that I picked up all chopped and ready to go at Old World Market. He mixed that with some double smoked bacon from Schaller & Weber (also Old World) and let the beans bubble away for a few hours. Meanwhile, I was marinating the lamb with some very Moroccan-esque spices: cumin, coriander, cinnamon and cloves. The meat is more of a garnish, really. This dish is more about the beans. But with those spices, and a nice sprig of cilantro — this is something worth trotting out for company.

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend:

Jerry Embider has a new series on Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow Patch called Meet the Chef. First up: David Thomas of Jack & Dyl’s in Tarrytown. (P)

Doug has a super-cute video of Katherine Curry out on some “research” for upcoming JN articles. (I’m in there, too, and so is Colin Muldoon, who is interning with me for six weeks.) (HT)

Here’s the video, embedded from YouTube:

Some good words on Stephen’s Green in Crestwood. (CH)
Todd visits Mex-To-Go in Croton. (WE)
Alice enjoyed her meals at Day Boat Cafe. (NYT)
And, in her sidebar on the review — Quick Bite: Shell’s Kitchen — Alice weighs in on the debate sparked here in response my blog post on Day Boat about whether the price of the lobster roll is fair. Though I wonder: Is Small Bites so influential that it’s now known as the “blogosphere” to the New York Times? Next time, Alice, come on over and join the conversation! Right, folks?

One year ago: Local Links: North Fork of Long Island edition.

A few weeks back, I profiled Mario LaPosta, the pizzaiolo of Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, as he was heading off to the World Pizza Championships in Italy. Here’s a link to the Mario story. Below, a video of Mario by Mark Vergari.

Now, Mario is back. And, as he promised, he’s blogged about his experiences at the competition. Read his story, and see some of his photos, after the jump.

Hi everyone, Katherine Curry again, guest-blogging today about chili dogs instead of ice cream.

There’s a hot dog underneath there, really there is.

Here’s a video about the new Ethiopian restaurant that recently opened in Mount Kisco. It explains some of the unfamiliar aspects of the cuisine. (No cutlery; communal eating; different spices). Have a look:

Today in the food section, I pay a visit to Lalibela in Mount Kisco, the first Ethiopian restaurant to open in the region. Not familiar with Ethiopian food? Neither was I. Owner Selamawit Tesfaye showed me a few things in this video:

Here’s Selamawit Tesfaye:

And here’s the story:
A new Ethiopian restaurant opens in Mount Kisco, and its food is a celebration for the senses. (me/TJN)

A full recap of the James Beard Awards. (AP)
Corn smut, aka, huitlacoche: good for you? Apparently, yes. (AP)
Recipes for Cinco de Mayo. (MCT)
A recipe for a quick paella. (MCT)

Lalibela opened a little less than two weeks ago on South Moger Avenue in Mount Kisco. (If you’re familiar with the area, it’s next to the Jamaican restaurant and across from Okinawa.) Last week, I met with owner Selamawit Tesfaye to learn more about the cuisine, and why she decided to bring it to Westchester.

First up, a video, which explains some of the unfamiliar aspects of the cuisine. (No cutlery; communal eating; different spices). Have a look:

After the jump, a story about Selamawit —

— the cuisine —

— and why you either love it or you hate it.

All these lovely photos and the terrific video are by Tania Savayan.

The 411 on Lalibela is coming soon. Til then: Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant, 37 S. Moger Ave., Mount Kisco. 914-864-1343. lalibelamountkisco.com. Open for lunch and dinner daily.

Click on for the story:

Good morning and happy Monday. I had quite the weekend. We had to remove a 60- to 70-foot tall Norway maple tree from our back yard after a limb fell on our neighbor’s roof!

It’s always sad to see a mature tree go, but no one should have allowed this tree to grow here in the first place. I mean, look how close it is to our two houses.

It took a crane, a chipper, and five men three hours to get the whole thing down.

And then they left me with the firewood —

— which it took 2 guys 5 hours to split and stack. Phew!

After all that, I decided to get out of the house and go for a bike ride. I rode down to Piermont — down on the River Road and back on the bike path. Who else besides me would come home from a bike ride with a bottle of bourbon in the basket? :-0

See, yes, I was getting ready for Derby Day. And of course we had mint juleps. I just forgot to take a photo of mine until it was almost gone!

(Did you see my mint julep recipes in Saturday’s paper?)

We had originally invited one friend over, but after the trying afternoon, we extended the invite to the neighbors, too. So along with our supper — our famous hickory-smoked chicken, plus asparagus and bread from the farmers market — they brought along theirs: skirt steak and brussels sprouts. Our chicken:

Asparagus:

Bread (grilled and scratched with a garlic clove, then drizzled with great olive oil):

And then grilled skirt steak:

And roasted Brussels sprouts:

A smorgasbord indeed!

We set the table out in the back yard for the first time this year. Here’s my new Mexican oilcloth tablecloth I brought back from my trip to Texas:

It’s so festive. By the end of the evening we were calling it Frida. As in Kahlo.

On Sunday, I worked in the garden most of the day. I planted some phlox and yarrow that garden writer Bill Cary so generously gave me, plus I got 35 gladiola bulbs in the ground behind a big boulder in my yard. I think they’ll frame it nicely.

I planted seeds for cosmos, daisies and nasturtiums, plus I planted a whole bunch of herbs: lavendar, tarragon, basil, sage and oregano (another gift from Bill).

After all that work I was pooped, so for supper, we just seared the scallops we brought home from the farmers market and threw the mushrooms we got there on a sheet pan to roast. Nope. No vegetables.

Sweet and simple:

I know, I know. The photos from this weekend’s meals are pretty bad. Sorry for that. It’s with the tree and all it was a little stressful, and I didn’t feel like styling and composing food shots. You can forgive me for not wanting to work on my weekend, right?

And with that, here’s what people have been talking about this weekend:

Phyllis Kirigin of Sweet Paprika remembers her time as a student of James Beard. (SP) Speaking of the Beards, I’ll be going to the awards tonight. Peter Kelly is up for Best Chef, Northeast. Let’s all root for him!
Doug goes to the new Chipotle in Rye. (HT)
Rinku gets takeout sushi from Hunan Ritz in Thornwood. (CIW)
MH says Caffe Azzuri in Hartsdale is ‘Worth It.’ (NYT)
And MH likes Bridge View Tavern in Sleepy Hollow. (NYT)
Some hounds weigh in on the new Ehthiopian restaurant in Mount Kisco. (CH) PS: Look for my story and video to come out on Wednesday.
Suggestions for good bread near Armonk or Mount Kisco. (CH) PS: Mount Kisco Seafood carries Wave Hill bread, among the best around IMO.
Box Car Eatery in Mount Vernon is now Azul Latin Fusion. (CH) PS: Hounds are speculating on the ownership; one of the owners is Brian MacMenamin of the Post Road Ale House.

Anything else I missed over the weekend?

The Journal News has a story on New York State Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada and 19 current or former executives of his Bronx not-for-profit health-care company, who were charged today with allegedly “siphoning” more than $14 million from the clinic where he serves as president and CEO.

My favorite paragraph:

(He) charged hundreds of thousands of dollars on Soundview’s credit cards for about 660 restaurant visits totaling more than $80,000. That includes $20,000 at Mamaroneck-area sushi restaurants for delivery to the Espada’s Mamaroneck home.

At first, when a reporter asked me for phone numbers for the owners of these “Mamaroneck-area sushi restaurants,” including Red Plum and Toyo, I thought the $20 grand was for one meal! But no, it was over many, many meals.

Here’s a video of me and Linda Lombroso visiting several of those restaurants for a story last year:

This leads me to a question: How much is the most you’ve ever spent out at a restaurant meal?

For me? About $300 per person. I’ve racked up that much at The French Laundry, Momofuku Ko, Per Se and Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenee in Paris. Gramercy Tavern and Blue Hill at Stone Barns come in second at about $250 to $200 per person, depending on the visit. (And no, in case you’re wondering, The Journal News does not pay for those meals.  That’s out of my pocket.)

What about you?

Mario Giuseppe LaPosta, the pizzaiolo at the Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, is completely obsessed with pizza. So obsessed that he can’t sleep at night. But you’ll read about that in my story, which I’ll post after the jump. Here’s the online version — with video and photos.

First, the video. Mark Vergari put together this lovely one about Mario, his obsession and how he makes pizza.

Now, the photos. Here’s my trip to Tarry Lodge to report for the story. Mario showed me how he makes his pizzas. Here, he’s cutting one of my favorites, the guiancale with egg and black truffles. Mmm.

The process starts on this marble slab.

Sauce and cheese for toppings:

Other toppings at the work station:

Putting the toppings on his capricciosa:

Putting the pizza in the $12,000 Mugnaini oven.

More photos and the full story, after the jump.

Hi all. I think we’ve got a lot to keep you entertained and informed in today’s section. We start off with a profile on Mario Giuseppe LaPosta, the pizzaiolo — that’s pizza-maker in Italian — at Tarry Lodge in Port Chester. He’s heading to the World Pizza Championships next week to compete in Italy.

Photo by Mark Vergari/TJN

Here’s a link to Mario’s story.
And here’s a link to a some words of advice for Mario from Bruno DiFabio, a six-time World Champion who owns Amore Pizza in Scarsdale and Pinocchio Pizza in Pound Ridge. (He also owns Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Fran, which Food & Wine just named one of the best Italian restaurants in the country.)

I’ve also got a story from our sister paper in Poughkeepsie about a class at the Culinary Institute of America that parents and teens can take together. (Karen Maserjian Shan/PoJo)

And the first in a month-long series on Green Eats. First up, True Food in Nyack.

And here’s a list of farmers markets in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam.

I also ran some great recipes for using up the rest of your Easter ham, but for some reason they’re not online. I”ll come back and fix that link later. I’ll also post some photos from my reporting trip to Tarry Lodge, and  fabulous video by Mark Vergari of Mario LaPosta making his pizza.

Peter X. Kelly,  chef-owner at X20 Xaviars on the Hudson in Yonkers, Restaurant X & Bully Boy Bar in Congers, Freelance Cafe & Wine Bar in Piermont and Xaviars at Piermont, has been nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef, Northeast, for his Xaviars at Piermont.

Chef Peter Kelly prepares a holiday dinner, a rack of pork and gingered sweet potatoes, Dec. 3, 2008 in Journal News Food editor Liz Johnson’s kitchen in Nyack.  ( Tania Savayan / The Journal News )

The category includes chefs with restaurants in Connecticut, Massachuttses, Maine, New Hampshire, New York state (not NYC), Rhode Island and Vermont. The other nominees are:

Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier, Arrows. Ogunquit, ME
Michael Leviton, Lumière, West Newton, MA
Tony Maws, Craigie on Main, Cambridge, MA
Marc Orfaly, Pigalle, Boston

A few other local food professionals have been nominated for the Journalism awards, too.

Tanya Steel of Port Chester has been nominated for  Website Focusing on Food, Beverage, Restaurants, or Nutrition for Epicurious.com.

Tanya Wenman Steel, editor of the award-winning Web site Epicurious.com and co-author of “Real Food for Healthy Kids” photographed Oct. 2, 2008 in her Port Chester home with healthy Halloween treats. ( Tania Savayan / The Journal News )

Lettie Teague (a part-time Westchester resident) has been nominated for Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer for a column in Food & Wine magazine, “Is Grüner a Great Wine or a Groaner”

Photo by Bruce R. Jaffe

And Alan Richman of Mamaroneck, king of the Beard awards, has been nominated for three categories for his writing in GQ magazine.

Alan Richman of Mamaroneck used to hang out at the former illage Luncheonette in Mamaroneck, Nov.3, 2004. ( Mark Vergari / The Journal News )

“American  Pie” got the nod for Magazine Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs
“Hillbilly Truffle” was nominated for Magazine Feature Writing Without Recipes
and “Le Petit Gourmet” was named a finalist for the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award

Congrats to all the nominees, but I’m pulling for our local talent! The entire list, after the jump.

Today in print, correspondent Katherine Curry has a great story on an Irish pub crawl in Pearl River. We focused mainly on the places that specialize in food, too, but I can think of a bunch of other great stops you might like to put on your list, not the least of which is the Pearl River Hotel. Love that bar.

Katherine recommends you start off with the full Irish breakfast at Gildea’s:

Then, after a few more pints (you’re not driving, right?), have a corned beef and cabbage at Murty’s:

Here’s a link to her pub story. I’ll also post it in full after the jump.

We also have a wire story with some St. Patrick’s Day recipes using — what else? — BEER.
Recipes include Beer-Battered Fish & Chips, Murphy’s Irish Beer Stew, and Guinness Chocolate Cake. Yum. Here’s a link to the beer recipe story.

The other story in print is about our Hudson Valley Restaurant Week guest bloggers. But if you’re reading Small Bites, you already know all about that, right?

Katherine’s story, after the jump.