at the sign of The Pink Pig

Lafayette From The Rear-View Mirror

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 19, 2013]

People say restaurants get reviewed too fast these days.  No sooner are the doors open, than hordes of bloggers and Yelpers, not to mention the Daily Candy crew, are posting about bum service and deflated soufflées--or herlading the restaurant as the final arrival of paradise on earth.

Critic Robert Sietsema reflected recently on the effect on professional reviewing: "In order to compete with the web-based and largely amateur product, critics shortened the lag time between when a restaurant appears and when they write about it."

I'd just like to say: the chance would be a fine thing.  Take Lafayette, for example.

The 2003 Blackout, And Jean-Georges: 10 Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  August 19, 2013]

The 2003 blackout fades into insignificance compared with the catastrophes we've faced since then--several major blizzards, and of course, above all, Hurricane Sandy.

But it seemed inconvenient at the time, after the initial novelty wore off.  It didn't do much to interrupt eating, though.

The Cheese: Fiacco Di Capra

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 15, 2013]

Here's an old friend, Fiacco di Capra--which apparently means "weariness of the goat."  Nobody seems to really know why.

This sample, from Murray's, is actually quite fresh; indeed, I wonder if it's a little immature.

A Birthday At Montrachet: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  August 13, 2013]

A special birthday for someone close to us took me back to Montrachet for the first time in a while. I think this was during Harold Moore's spell in charge of the kitchen.

Judging by the dusty pages of my journal, different people at the table took different routes through the tasting menu until we reached the beef.  I don't think we all ate all of this.

Masala Wala: The EV Spice Guy

"Adding it to the rotation," I said of my first visit to Masala Wala, too many months ago. Elsewhere, I mentioned "fresh, tasty food (at) reasonable prices." And then, as so often, I failed to return.

 

So I was happy, if slightly embarrassed, to accept a recent invitation to tour the menu as a guest of Satyen Mazumdar and his son Roni.

Fritzl's, A Bushwick Boîte (Plus Sampler, Mama Joy's)

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 5, 2013]

A thoughtful post on Mouthfuls asked what sense we can now attach to the term "destination restaurant," when so many of the ordinarily good new eating places in Manhattan are sprinkled across Brooklyn and Queens.

It used to be that we'd speak of Outer Boro restaurants worth a trip from Manhattan as "destinations," but these days, unless you head out occasionally to Greenpoint, Bushwick, or even the Gowanus canal, you'll miss the city's dining action--even if the specific restaurants in question are not what we used to mean by destinations.

Fritzl's Lunch Box is a case in point.

The Old Veau D'Or/London/Il Buco: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 5, 2013]

It was a busy end to July, ten years ago.  Multiple dinners in New York sandwiched one of those exhausting 48-hour business trips to London.

And is it really ten years since MoMA was temporarily located in Queens?  I can hardly remember the old Manhattan MoMA, before the major changes.

Splitbin Loves Wine

[Free stuff by Wilfrid:  August 2, 2013]

I was pleased to accept a recent invitation to meet the people behind Splitbin and sip from a few bottles at the Madison Room atop a flatiron apartment building.

Splitbin is a membership wine-buying community.  It offers wine for sale online (of course), but also a monthly subscription which delivers pre-selected wines, BinPass--with free shipping.

The Cheese: Le Thérondels

[Pigging by Wilfrid: August 1, 2013]

I don't often meet a cheese I really don't like--not a real, farmhouse cheese anyway.  But this one I must discrecommend. I picked it up at random at Bedford Cheese; hadn't heard of it.

It's from the Auvergne, made from uncooked, unpasteurised milk from Cantal and Puy cows.  As for that crust...