[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: June 23, 2008]
Not much to report from mid-June 1998. It was rainy, though, not unlike the current season.
I made it through the storm to Citarella's cheese department on a Friday morning, and tasted through the domestic selection - inspired by my recent Picholine dinner.
The next day I dined at the short-lived Gertrude's on 61st Street, offering the cuisine of Laurent Manrique, shortly to leave New York for a successful career in San Francisco (Campton Place, etc.). This was a small, ambitious, modern French restaurant: I started with ravioli stuffed with duck and foie gras. Then, with a '95 1er Cru Beaune, braised, stuffed shoulder of veal Gasconnaise. Research tells me thius would have involved olives, parsley and garlic.
The rain continued for the Puerto Rican parade, and accompanied me on my first trip to the South Street Seaport museum. A casual dinner with friends passing through town: they insisted, as many do, on Little Italy. Rocky's, it was, where at least I got some tripe in tomato sauce.
I cooked at home most of the week; whether or not inspired by Gertrude's, I'm not sure, but I made pork chops Gasconnaise and Lyonnaise style, from the descriptions in Waverley Root's Food of France. I made a trip to the Village to watch Pere Ubu lumber through a tired, too-long-on-the-road set, David Thomas swigging energy from a hip flask.
Finally, the city's first churrascaria, dining in a Brazilian style one might call "all you can meat". This was Plataforma, on the west side, where the beef ribs were a highlight. Who'd have thought it's now ten years old.
And then the sun came up, and it was summer. Time for a frozen cocktail.
