[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: June 8, 2015]
From storied old New York French to chirpy family Southern, from Friedlander to Basquiat, from Sondheim to sausages.
All life is here.
Or it was, with a real mix of a week at the beginning of June 2005. I saw two big new exhibitions: Lee Friedlander at MoMA and Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I attended a reception for the MoMA show, and had members' viewing privileges; for the Basquiat I waited in the longest line I have ever, ever seen for an art gallery, and struggled to see the works for the crowds. Worse than Van Gogh.
Interestingly, I'm sure I enjoyed the Friedlander retrospective more at the time; had more negatives to say about the Basquiat. But I now remember the Basquiat better.
Home cooking (I promised you sausages): Italian sweet sausage with ramps and enoki mushrooms over polenta, with a hearty 2001 Cornas.
Casual dining: massive beef ribs, rice'n'peas, from a stand in the African bazaar in a lot outside BAM.
Entertainment: A small but excellent production of Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along at the Gene Frankel theater. Highlight, the heartbreaking "Not a Day Goes By." (I've seen all the shows except Candide, The Frogs and Bounce.Yes, even Saturday Night.)
At the high end La Grenoille, ruinously expensive and gloriously reliable:
Foie gras with rhubarb, balsamic
Oxtail braised in red
Crème brûlée
A Beaune 1er Cru with the oxtail.
At the middlebrow end, I suppose, Mara's--a long-time survivor (now closed) in the East Village, offering a family's take on Souther cooking:
Crab fingers, garlic butter
Soft shell crab po' boy
Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes gravy
Collards with andouillette
Bananas Foster à la mode
If it's a Burgundy at La Grenouille, at Mara's it was a simple Zin.
And I was starting my four-and-a-half year at the restaurant lunch game. After the children's museum on Lafayette Street, lunch at Savoy: the burger, chicken liver crostini, salt cod croquettes, and yucca fries. All for sharing, or spreading all over the table.
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