Posts Tagged“fork finds”

Fork Finds: Orient Country Store, Orient, NY

Sorry. It was my Summer of Selfishness; I haven’t been sharing my Fork Finds as promised. Maybe I didn’t want to fight crowds of loyal NYCR-ers who’d run to my recommendations causing longer lines and a survival of the fittest reality TV-style contest to see who’d get the last blueberry cream pie. (Ooops, that already happened.) Since Lenn reminded me our readers are courteous and less likely to throw a punch over pastry than your usual winery visitor, I am back. And since I’m spilling all of my secrets, I might as well blow up one of my favorite spots…

Fork Finds: Paumanok Vineyards Centennial Chardonnay 2012 @ Grand Central Oyster Bar, New York, NY

This weather cycle has not been particularly kind to those attempting to visit or live and work on the East End in 2013. The Blizzard Formally Known as Nemo shut down the LIE for days and less-than-aggressive snow clean up on residential streets made it a little hard to get around out here. Fear not! There’s a way for Long Island wine loving concrete jungle dwellers to get a fix of something new and different from the North Fork without leaving Manhattan. Or even Midtown. Although she doesn’t look a day over 70 and her marble staircase is as grand…

Fork Finds: North Fork Smoked Fish Company, Cutchogue, NY

When I was four years old, my aunt and my mother left me unattended in the kitchen while they quickly went to handle something before a huge crowd arrived for brunch. I climbed the mountainous bar stool and sat daintily on the edge of the kitchen island. Seeing an unknown food — pale, orange and gleaming — artfully strewn across my Aunt Elaine’s good platter was too much for me to resist, I took a fistful and stuffed it into my mouth. Family legend states that day, I consumed a pound of belly lox and two of nova before they…

Fork Finds: Topping Rose House, Bridgehampton, NY

I used to work in reality television so I’m not really giddy about ‘celebrity ‘chefs. Except for Eric Ripert. He is the second Mr. Tracy Weiss. I also tend to avoid restaurants that are hyped to a level where food bloggers are foaming at the mouth to get in. How can any meal live up to expectations when I’m inundated with wild praise just a few months into opening? Yet, I didn’t let any of my usual rules get in the way of booking a table at Tom Colicchio’s Topping Rose House in Bridgehampton at the first opportunity. His people…

Fork Finds: The Bloody Boar, North Fork Table and Inn, Southold, NY

I used to think a Bloody Mary was the brunch beverage for weak-stomached, hung over companions who couldn’t handle a bracing mimosa in their current state. I’d laugh and focus on the bottom of my champagne flute, mocking their delicate constitutions as I watched them nurse a drink that brought to mind an astringent-laced salsa. That was before I had the Bloody Boar at the North Fork Table and Inn. Happily ordered on a whim, the lure of drinkable pork products overcame the tiny, high-pitched voice chirping “but you don’t like Bloody Mary’s” in my brain. House-infused vodka captures the…

Fork Finds: Scotto’s Pork Store Hampton Bays, NY

Sometimes the best Italian meal is the one you don’t have to make yourself. And have the option of enjoying in your own home. In Hampton Bays tucked between a real estate office and an UPS center, Scotto’s Pork Store has all the supplies for a red sauce Italiano feast. If you’re on your way in/out of town or too lazy to recreate your grandmother’s gravy, this well-loved eatery’ll do the heavy lifting for you. Many Italian grocery stores do what they do, but if you’re on the South Fork, it’s worth a stop for Scotto’s fresh sausages (both the…

Fork Finds: McCall Ranch Beef, Cutchogue, NY

It’s not quite as adventurous as offal, but there’s something kind of wrong and taboo about eating your juicy burger in front of other cows. It seems rude. After all, the sandwich you’re enjoying used to be their friend. But in a world where *not* eating local is virtually a felony, it was only a matter of time until the North Fork would have access to neighborhood red meat. A region with an abundance of produce, seafood, and wine grown in our backyards would eventually need more protein to balance out the food pyramid or food plate or whatever they call it these days. Beef could join…

Fork Finds: Greenport Harbor Brewing

Where I went to college, there was a lot of beer.  Disclaimer: I didn’t drink any of it*. Natty Light, The Beast and an occasional mystery keg abounded, sending me directly to the bottom of a bottle of bourbon. The blanket statement of “I don’t drink beer” made me pretty unpopular when I lived in Boston, Massachusetts during graduate school.  I danced to chants of “you’re so wicked high maintenance” as I threw another stoli doli on my credit card. It wasn’t until I started worshipping wine that I saw the potential craft brews had to offer. But a girl…

Fork Finds: Blueberry Cream Pie from Briermere Farms, Riverhead, NY

My husband is a pretty low energy guy. Mets baseball (even when they stink), air conditioning, and sleeping later than 7 a.m. are pretty much all he needs in a weekend. He’s not loud or hyper or excitable about most things. So when you spy the pair of us in late June do-si-doing around a gravel covered parking lot, high fiving and screeching like six year olds on a roller coaster, you have to know the inspiration for our behavior must be pretty damn special. We didn’t hit the Mega Millions. It’s something better. I present to you: The Blueberry Cream Pie from Briermere Farms…

Fork Finds: Aldo’s (Greenport, NY)

I have a very severe caffeine addiction. While I’m sure illegal substances have their allure, I’ll always stick with my favorite: a steaming hot cup of speed. In the city, I have a rotation of coffeehouses I can hit when I start to droop. I also have a well-documented love affair with that green and white java chain threatening to take over America’s souls. But when on the North Fork, it feels dirty and unsupportive of our small business owners to throw money at a corporation. But I need to feed my habit. And God forbid, I should make my own coffee EVERY morning! So through…