[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: October 19, 2009]
Back from the pastoral joys of the vendange in Burgundy, and the drizzly if romantic pleasures of Paris, I had to find things to do and eat in Manhattan, fall of 1999. I seemed to do pretty well with a mix of home cooking from Waverley Root's classic The Food of France and a few restaurant meals.
Thumbing breathlessly the heavy vellum pages of my journal, I find lunch at Ten Kai, smoked salmon and champagne at The Bubble Lounge, steak and chips at Café Centro and a spot of goat at El Castillo de Jagua. And can it really be ten years ago that the Met opened its new Greek galleries? I seem to have eaten a lot of matzoh ball soup at home, which puzzles me. It's not something I generally make, and there's no sign that I was sick. Reading Hesiod's Works and Days must have been preparation for an upcoming job change.
Oxtail in red wine is more like it, then a dinner at Sakura in NoHo consisting of a series of sushi rolls. The Yankees, wouldn't you know it, were engaged in an A.L.C.S. series against the Red Sox, having just trounced the Rangers in the Division. That was keeping me up nights, but I found time for Iskender kebab, suitably yogurt-smothered, at Turkish Kitchen, followed the next evening by fried chicken and shoestring fries at Barfly, also in the neighborhood.
Next up was a five hour battle between the Mets and the Braves, climaxing with Robin Ventura being robbed of his grand slam by his own team-mates who pinned him to the ground and prevented him reaching home base. I toiled in the kitchen during the game, producing côtes de porc à la Gascogne, a garlicky preparation of chops, with pommes parmentier and a slice of Vacherin to follow. Diligently, I tried an alternative Waverley Root-sourced recipe the next evening, côtes de porc à la Bayonne, which calls for the addition of porcini mushrooms and potatoes. And finally...
...ba-dum, ba-dum...
Buzzcocks at Irving Plaza, as it then was, supported by the ear-splitting howl of Lunachicks. And Buzzcocks are still on the road today. Good luck to Pete, Steve and the boys. It left me deaf as a post.
