at the sign of The Pink Pig

Paris: Celebrating At L'Ambroisie

[Pigging by Wilfrid: April 27, 2009]

Much to celebrate.  The Pink Pig two years old today, with hundreds of restaurant reviews under its ever-tightening belt.  And a milestone birthday for the man behind the snout.

Time to empty my pockets and fulfill the long-cherished dream of dinner at L'Ambroisie, the classic Michelin three-star in the Place des Vosges.

Paris: Kandinsky's Outer Spaces

[A Pig at Large by Wilfrid: April 27, 2009]

I couldn't fathom the Beaubourg.  You know, the centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou - or the Richard Rodgers pile with the pink pipes sticking out, which I could almost touch from the window of my rental apartment.

Scroll down for Asger Jorn

Quick Bites: Hea On Third Avenue

[Pigging by Wilfrid: April 27, 2009]

Hea is, I suppose, a pan-Asian concept occupying upstairs and downstairs of a very square building with windows opening onto the corner of 13th and 3rd, and its name announced in large letters, high on the redbrick façade.

Large windows offer great views at both levels.  Everything about the look of Hea says "big" and "bold", except that it has always seemed a little quiet inside.

New York French: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: April 27, 2009]

Back in spring of 1999, I went casual and formal French, a few days apart, at two survivors still with us today.

A Pig In Paris: Spring 2009

[At Pig at Large by Wilfrid:  April 20, 2009]

I will always have Paris.  With rumors that the Titanic sails at dawn, and domestic prospects rarely gloomier, it seemed appropriate to return to the city of lights for a few days of inexcusable profligacy, over-consumption, and indulgence.

The trip was also a celebration of a milestone for me.  While I look forward, of course, to all tomorrow's parties, I fear the author is right who said "Never again will we drink so young."

Quick Bites: Cru Ordinaire

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  April 20, 2009]

A very long time indeed since I last dined at Cru, the Michelin-starred five-year old which overcame the teeming ghosts of restaurants past at 24 Fifth Avenue with a vast wine-cellar and Shea Gallante's much-praised cuisine.

Not much praised by me, to be honest.  I couldn't understand the initial enthusiasm for the cooking at Cru, and I found the room frankly shabby.  It seemed a better as a drop-in place to sample rare wines by the glass, but the front bar area was small and poky.

A Quiet Week In NYC: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: April 20, 2009]

Not much to report, returning from a tour of New Orleans, the bayous and Dallas, Texas ten years ago.

Wechsler's Wursts: Alles Ist Gut

[Pigging by Wilfrid: April 6, 2009]

This narrow newcomer behind an almost missable door on First Avenue seems to have evaded the attention of the online foodie horde - perhaps surprisingly, because it's inexpensive, unusual and good.

 

And it's authentic, German-owned, German-staffed for the most part, echt Deutsch, and not in a self-parodic way like the NYC wurst veteran Hello Berlin!

Quick Bites: Hail And Welcome Defonte's

[Pigging by Wilfrid: April 6, 2009]

I have no standing to write at any length about the new Manhattan branch of DeFonte's.  I confess, I never ordered a sandwich from the original: an unspectacular corner store on Columbia Street in Red Hook.

Was I aware of the place?  Sure.  I walked by any number of times, admiring the big, blocky red-and-green letters announcing Defonte's Sandwich Shop. 

The Decadence Part Three: London Again

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid: April 6, 2009]

I was rather pleased with my formulation of  late nineteenth century  literary "decadence" as a triangular trade between Paris, London and New York.  Then I came across this less geometrically precise but largely consistent comment:

"I remembered, as I read, that mood which Edgar Poe found in a wine-cup, and how it passed into France and took possession of Baudelaire, and from Baudelaire passed to England and the pre-Raphaelites, and then again returned to France, and still wanders the world..."