at the sign of The Pink Pig

London: A Return To St John

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 31, 2015]

I don't even want to tell you how far I go back with Fergus Henderson's cooking.  Well over twenty years: after all, his flagship St John near Smithfield's celebrated twenty years in business last year.

And how far back do I go with this neighborhood? Sorting bankruptcy notices for the London Gazette in its Holborn Viaduct office as a summer vacation job. Eating curries in a greasy spoon cafe under the viaduct. My first Thai meal in a gastropub just up the street.

London: Golden Union

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 31, 2015]

What better way to cap a weary first day in London, after an overnight flight and a stroll around some familiar neighborhoods--Fitzrovia, Soho--than with a comforting fish and chip feast.

Sure, you get fish and chips in New York; at any Irish pub and at a few British outposts. But the real thing is the real thing--served on a massive scale, with the traditional trimmings, and featuring fish unseen (in my experience) in the States.

Transitioning To Madrid: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: August 31, 2015]

A surprisingly busy week despite a few blank pages in the diary, and I was also getting ready for a second trip to Madrid.

One curiosity: my local cocktail bar, Lava Gina, decided to hold a week-long beach party and covered the floor with sand. How quick do you think that sand got dirty? Still, cool idea.

England And Ireland By Mouth

 [Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 24, 2015]

I'll be publishing reflections on restaurant meals from my trip just finished to London, Dublin, Kilkenny, and environs. In the meantime, some random bites.

This wasn't in any way a gastronomical pilgrimage--a search for the finest ingredients or smartest cooking. It was about recovering some flavors of childhood and communicating them to another generation. Which might be more important.

Eight days. Meals, snacks, drinks, family, friends. And we forgot to take photos of the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Rain, Artists, Parties: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 24, 2014]

A drizzly mid-August ten years ago, and I braved the rain to see a selection of home-made and curious musical instruments on the plaza at Lincoln Center.

There were other entertainments, restaurants, and bars, and the week climaxed with a kind of beach party. But first I was making a long format (as we now say) dinner at home for guests.

Pig Abroad

Just back from a working (not sadly, an eating) trip to Vegas, and headed off across the Atlantic shortly. I'll be back before the end of the month, hopefully with some good things to talk about.

Meantime, how about a plate of fried chicken gizzards, and a goat thali, at Mustang Thakali Kitchen on 37th Avenue in Queens?

Bayard's And The Boros: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: Augst 10, 2015]

Looks like I was running all over town back in summer 2005, trying some fabled eating options in the outer boros as well as going upscale in the financial district.

Tides and Uovo were establishing themselves in the rotation too.

Lovely Noreetuh

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  August 3, 2015]

I must be in a good mood when I admit a Beatles allusion to  a review title.  But Noreetuh will make you happy; it's that kind of place. But what is it really?  A Hawaiian restaurant?  A little bit of upscale Manhattan on First Avenue?  A wine geek haven?  A casual restaurant-bar?  Yes, yes, to all of those.

Chasing the zeitgeist, you see, from Virginia's off Avenue C, to this place, tucked into the hole which once glowed red through the night as Kebab Garden. Thomas Keller alumni everywhere.

Tides Rolls In: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  August 3, 2015]

Time, like Stephen King's langoliers, nips forever at our heels. In 2007, I launched the Pink Pig by interviewing the team from Tides, the sweet seafood shack on Norfolk Street. And now I find the page in my 2005 journal, recording my first visit to the place.

Tides was almost ahead of its time (see Virginia's; see Noreetuh); a restaurant with (in its heyday, at least) high quality food, served in a simply furnished room in an unlikely occasion. The chef was Judy Seto, a Mary's Fish Camp veteran, and on my first visit I tackled fried oysters and clams; the lobster roll; scallops; salmon; the excellent corn pudding; and a chocolate espresso brownie with cream.