A Blow Out At Union Pacific: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  October 19, 2011]

Where were we?  Oh yes, mid-October 2000.  A quiet week during which I found time to be sick, but also to eat myself silly in a good cause at Union Pacific, that fine and sadly missed restaurant.

I lived five minutes from it and always paused to check the constantly changing menu posted outside.  It was authentically responsive to the market and the seasons when that wasn't yet a universal catchword.  I wish Rocco di Spirito was still cooking in a New York restaurant kitchen.

The good cause was "Windows of Hope," a benefit for the World Trade Center kitchen workers.  The more we ate, the more money would be raised.  I loosened my belt and did my best.

Tomato terrine up first with a flute of champagne, then a light salad of baby lettuces with pickled vegetables.  After a smooth aubergine soup, the fish course was roast hake with a shallot marmalade and a pork crackling garnish.  A pink wine from the Touraine with that; then we opened up the Zin to go with rack of lamb and a plate of cheeses.  Chocolate soufflé with ice cream?  Why not?   And a spot of Calvados for digestion's sake.

Rocco prowled the restaurant, and stopped by my table to congratulate me on my charitable efforts.

I cooked at home for the rest of the week.  Magret de canard with potatoes and asparagus; jamon Serrano followed by Spanish-style tripe; roast squab stuffed with chorizo, bulgur cooked with dates; some Garrotxa cheese and the odd bottle of Rioja.

On Friday night, fully recovered from whatever illness it was - plainly no loss of appetite - I had a casual meal in a local restaurant, Plate 347 on Second Avenue.   A simple place which never quite took off:  frisée aux lardons, steak frites, apple pie.  And the week wound up with one of the city's finest cabaret performers, Christine Pedi, in  concert at the Firebird.  I can't have had dinner there - just a drink I suppose - as I see I picked up fajitas on the way home.