A Food Post With Transportable Ice Cream, the Prettiest Potatoes Ever, Lots of Meals Eaten Out, and a Painting of Dad's Favorite Restaurant, Part II

Just like the headline says, I've been enjoying lots of meals out lately, mostly with Joe and my new buddy Lou, who contacted me thanks to a Web site gay men use to find friends, friends with benefits, and boyfriends. And, uh, one-night "friends." On that site, I've posted pictures of me with each of the woofers and one of me on the beach in Cape May. Lou sent me an e-mail in which he told me that he once had a basset hound named Reggie (which is an excellent name for a basset) and that one summer he worked at what was then the Admiral Hotel in Cape May. Lou has some really cute stories about Reggie, which I'll share in my next all-dogs post. But for now, on to the food!

At Chez Jacqueline last month, at our first dinner together, Lou got the asparagus soup as his appetizer. It had the purtiest flower on top, made of a sweet-red-pepper purée or something similar. I got Salade Jacqueline, which consisted of endive, radicchio, apples, and walnuts. It was huge—and delicious. For our entrées, Lou got striped bass and I got a beef stew that had cute little raviolis in it. I enjoyed the meal quite a bit.

Earlier this month, we ate at Home, one of several restaurants the farm I apprenticed on during the summer of 1996 sold produce to. I was a little disappointed in my opener, Hudson Valley Duck Confit Salad, with watercress, candied cashews, grilled apples, and an orange vinaigrette. It wasn't balanced enough for me and had what seemed like an abundance of duck and cashews and not enough of the other elements. Part of the issue, no doubt, was that I'm not a huge fan of duck; the other ingredients sounded so tempting that I decided to give it a whirl, especially since I planned to go with an everyday main course: macaroni and cheese. That's not to say the M&C was pedestrian; it was really good. It's just that it wasn't a particularly adventurous selection.

Lou got the M&C too. He got a soup for his first course. I believe it was butternut. Or maybe carrot. It was definitely orange colored and one that I usually jump on when it's offered.

For dessert, I know for a fact we shared two of Home's highly praised puddings: chocolate and butterscotch. They were absolutely delicious, like I knew they would be. I've made the chocolate pudding a few times before, though only once since I moved to New York. I'm pretty sure I've made the butterscotch at least once before, when I was on the farm. I should make it for Bob since he's so fond of the brown sugar–and-butter flavors in chocolate chip cookie dough.

I took pictures of my salad and the puddings, but the lighting really sucked, so I'm not going to bother to post them.

And speaking of not-great lighting, here's a photo of Lou outside Chez Jacqueline:

And still speaking of not-great lighting, here's a photo of Joe at our table outside Philip Marie on our second dinner date:

I really enjoyed my meal at PM. I got a chicken pot pie (the kind with the crust), and we shared a nice bottle of rosé because there was still a little summer left and it would split the difference between his red-meat entrée and my white-meat one.

Earlier this month, we had a fine dinner at Good. I started with a quesadilla filled with kabocha squash, mushrooms, and cheese. It was tasty but too light on the squash for me. For my entrée, I had the Ricotta Meatballs, which Joe recommended. They came with mashed potatoes and tomato sauce. For dessert, we had the German Chocolate Cupcakes I made for Joe's birthday that I mentioned in part 1. We were both so full that even after letting our supper digest for a while, we could only manage a half cupcake apiece.

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On the last Tuesday in September, Desirée and I met for lunch at Shake Shack so we could indulge in the Red Velvet Frozen Custard. It was the last day for that featured flavor in that month. My cone was even better than the one I got when Joyce and I ate at SS in May, the last time the RV custard was available. This time, I got some huge chunks of cake that were probably visible from space. Oh so good.

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Oh so sad. The last issue of Gourmet arrived in the mail yesterday. Maybe I'll keep it in its poly bag in the hopes of selling it for big bucks someday. Though I found other food magazines more useful as far as recipes are concerned, the superbly written and edited features in Gourmet couldn't be beat. I'll miss it.

***

I made Guinness Gingerbread last weekend and, oh man, was it good. I got the recipe from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.

All day last Friday, I was hoping I'd have a chance to hit the Union Square Greenmarket and get a half Ginger Cake from Our Daily Bread. But we were still too busy getting the magazine finished for me to leave early enough to hit Union Square and get back in time to meet Paula and Mark for a 5 o'clock dinner at Fresh Basil's. P&M were in the city at their timeshare hotel, and they'd gone to the Statue of Liberty that day with other members of the SOL group they belong to. Since she knew they'd be getting up really early that morning, Paula hadn't wanted to commit to trekking out to Brooklyn for a late pizza dinner with Bob and Jen and me, which was my first suggestion.

Becco was booked, so that killed my second suggestion. Paula didn't want to venture even as far downtown as the Village that evening after such a long day, so we couldn't do my third suggestion, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich's Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, which I thought would be a good alternative to Lidia and Joe Bastianich's joint in the theater district.

I asked Paula to pick a place, and I selected FB from her two suggestions. It's a couple blocks down Lexington from my office, and I pass by it all the time. The food was OK—I got the Tricolore Salad and penne with meat sauce—but the service was don't-need-to-go-back-there bad.

On my way home, I stopped at Sweet Melissa to see whether there was any gingerbread to be had. There wasn't, so I figured I'd just have to make it myself if I was going to get my fix for something sweet and gingery.

SM's recipe called for white pepper, which I didn't have. I decided to spring for some to make it the way Melissa intended. And I knew I could always use it in place of black pepper in my day-to-day cooking, so it wouldn't go to waste.

I actually used St. Peter's Cream Stout instead of Guinness because I found it unrefrigerated and in a single small bottle in the store where I went looking for the Guinness. And because, I guess, I liked the idea of a cream stout, aka milk stout, even though I didn't know at the time what it was.

I doubled the recipe, which also called for a good amount of cocoa and, of course, ground ginger. I took a pan with me when I hung out with the Gerbers on Sunday (I'll probably write about that visit in my next post) and I gave half a pan to the Schultieses. I took the other half pan with me to work. I had a couple of pieces for after-lunch desserts before splitting the last three on Wednesday with Joyce and Missy, who both really enjoyed it. And so did Nate; Missy took hers home. Joyce described it as "very moist! Delightful. ... Dark and earthy. ... Pfeffernussy.* Almost. But no anise. ... Run, don't walk, to eat this cake!**"

***

And speaking of sweet and spicy and, earlier, butterscotch, I wish I'd gone to the Gamesters gathering two Sundays ago so I could have tried Barry's Butterscotch Spice Cookies.

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A couple weeks ago, I saw a guy standing near the high school on the southwesteastish corner of 7th Avenue and 4th Street painting a picture of Dad's favorite Park Slope restaurant, Sotto Voce. I guess if I were really the best son ever, I would have asked the guy whether he planned to sell his work. But does my Dad really need an oil painting of SV when he can eat there anytime he likes just by making the trek to my hood? I snapped a photo of the painter in action and sent Dad a copy.

***

Finally, to wrap things up, here are photos of some more purty produce:

This variety of heirloom tomato often has the word garden in front of it. It's got a very interesting texture, more delicate than most tomatoes. And it tastes fruitier too.

Romanesco cauliflower, which I should try if I see it at the farmers market again tomorrow

And habenero peppers. I took this photo only last Saturday, and they still looked summertime beautiful.

*The Barefoot Kitchen Witch's recipe doesn't actually call for anise, but the page was so gorgeous I had to link to it. This recipe contains anise extract, and this one, crushed anise seed.

**Obviously, I added this last part myself. Because my ellipses made Joyce's e-mails sound like movie review quotes.

Comments

[Stash]

Home is great.

Haven't been there in a couple of years. The previous owners now have a B&B/winery out in Long Island.

[Chris]

Hi! Thanks for linking to my cookies. What a lovely surprise. :) Have a great day!