at the sign of The Pink Pig

Bringing the Restaurant Home: #6

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid:  June 22, 2009]

This was well worth the trip.  Even on Metro North in the rain.

That's the recommended route from downtown up to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, one of the best food shopping neighborhoods in the city and about eighteen minutes out of Grand Central, plus a ten minute walk from the Fordham station.

Bringing The Restaurant Home #4

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid:  June 9, 2009]

Sunday morning, the sun was beating the sidewalks of Chinatown, and durians were adding that interesting edge of New York summer smells coming out of the drains.

Fortunately,  I knew pretty much where I was headed.

Bringing the Restaurant Home: #3

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid:  June 1, 2009]

I abandoned Manhattan and headed off to Carroll Gardens for a change.  Warm weather, so I was thinking of a light dinner.

The strip of Court Street running north from West 9th, past Carroll Park and up to Bergen Street is good strolling territory.  Book stores, interesting junk stores, and a range of old, family-run, independent food stores. 

Bringing The Restaurant Home: #2

Just as well that you can't eat too much pork, isn't it?  I mean, last week pork belly, and this week...

Well, to be honest, I forgot about the pork belly, and we'll cook a different animal next week.  But hey, there's a fish!

Bringing The Restaurant Home #1

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid: May 4, 2009]

So here's something you can do as an alternative to spending ninety bucks and up for dinner for two.  Because the truth is, if the entrée is twenty dollars, and you order a three course meal, pay tax and tip, that's the price bracket you're in right away.

And let me be honest, I need to balance my own budget after ten days in Paris.  This is the first in a series of six attempts to create an acceptably enjoyable three or four course meal at home in New York City.

Menu Del Dia: Rohan Daft's Everyday Spanish

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid:  December 1, 2008]

I first visited Spain in my mother's womb, but you will understand I have few gastronomic memories of that trip.  I rediscovered the country many years later, and from the late 1980s into the 1990s, visited the stunning city of Barcelona once or twice a year.

Whenever possible, I made a point of staying in an apartment with a kitchen, rather than in a pension, simply because this permitted me to cook the produce I saw in the Bocqueria market, rather than just gawp at it.

After ten years of Spain's greatest city, I transferred my attention to Madrid - estimable in its own way, if no Barcelona.  And from time to time I found myself in Pamplona, Burgos, Tarragona, Granada - although not in Bilbao, where I had to make a last minute cancellation of a trip I never re-scheduled.  But that leaves wide swathes of the country untouched.  Not a mistake Rohan Daft, author of Menú del Día has made.

Sea And Mountains On A Plate: Anticipating Catalunya

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid: July 28, 2008]

It is about time to get of this city for a while, and my first stop this summer will be Barcelona.

Perhaps perversively, my anticipation of the trip had me looking at recipes for traditional Catalan dishes.

Correct Dining #3: Do-It-Yourself Trotters

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid: December 21, 2007]

Wallowing in pig's feet of all kinds at Hakata Tonton last week reminded me that it's been a good while since I prepared them at home.

It's wise to have a short (or indeed long) list of brasserie standards up your sleeve to trot out at short notice, especially when the nights are long and dark.

Correct Dining #2: Caul Me!

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid: October 12, 2007]

Charcuterie  in its various forms may require relatively advanced cooking skills, but anyone who can season, flavor and shape ground meat can make...what shall we call them?  Sausages?  Rissoles?  Faggots, even?  How about crepinettes?

Now any of these can be made to hold their shape, and be cooked, without any skin or casing, although of course you lose some texture, some snap that way.  Sausage casings are inexpensive, but you are also going to need some gadget to stuff them and a good deal of patience.  Easy solution?

Correct Dining #1: What A Martini Is

[Correct Dining by Wilfrid: June 15, 2007]

This is the first in a series of lessons designed to teach the precepts of correct dining.  I am sure my regular readers will be entirely familiar with these rules and principles, all of which might be regarded as a sub-division of the science of etiquette.  But there may be some cads and oiks following along, so we must take no chances.

Let's start with a drink.  It's called "a martini" or "a martini cocktail", and never has so much utter rubbish ever been written on single subject.

(Yes, note the color)