[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: July 5, 2010]
Remember when a young chef named Rocco Di Spirito was setting the woods on fire with imaginative French-Asian cuisine at a place in Gramercy called Union Pacific? Can it really be ten years ago I first ate there?
I remember the little bridge you had to cross to get to the host station, the effect of running water underneath. It was an attractive, tall, buzzing space, about five minutes walk from where I then lived. I used to read the regularly changing menu when I passed by on the way to the subway. My first dinner here, I didn't yet know how to order. To get the best of Di Spirito, you needed to delve into the more Asian-inflected creative dishes. I leaned toward the more classical.
Seared Spanish mackerel, apple and celery
Sweet onion soup
Young rabbit with snails, sugar snap peas,
Cheeses
Madeleines
Quite a French meal, nicely done, with European wines. The Scheurebe Spätlese, rich enough for the mackerel and soup; a young Bearbrook pinot noir with the rabbit, the charmingly named Bec en Sabot, Pessac-Léognan with the cheese.
My diary can't resist informing me that England beat Germany 1-0 at soccer that same day.
The week had begun with baked ham and pineapple at The Old Stand, a pub in midtown east, and continued through a spectacular show at the James Graham gallery - "On the Cusp of Modernism" - which introduced me to the painting of Stuart Davies, to a great show of photos and movies by Rudy Burckhardt at the Grey Gallery in Washington Square. The movies featured artist and poet friends of Burckhardt pretending to be actors - John Ashbery, Larry Rivers - and the exhibit incorporated paintings by other members of the circle such as Joan Mitchell and Jane Freilicher.
And to dinner again, this time a return to Eleven Madison Park, now something of a regular spot on the rotation. My diary is uninformative this time, referring to an assortment of seafood to begin with a spot of Sancerre. The main course was solid cuisine bourgeoise, lamb loin with pommes boulangère. Margaux with that - but oh diary, details...details...? Pineapple fritter to finish.
Then packing on a hot day for a protracted U.K. trip. Business in London first; then to the countryside, of all places, for a wedding.
