at the sign of The Pink Pig

Quick Bites: Prime Rib Panino, La Rosticceria

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  February 29, 2016]

Sorry, just so busy with stuff, and I don't know when I last pulled up a seat in a restaurant. But here's a much-discussed hot sandwich, the prime rib panino from Eataly's La Rosticceria.

 

The way this place works, it's just an ordering counter with a couple of tables nearby (plan to take out). Every day there's a meat of the day--porchetta, leg of lamb, etc--available in a sandwich or by the pound.

Gilt Again: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  February 29, 2016]

You certainly don't a checklist of my maladies, but I had more than one health problem as we approached the end of February, 2006. Not that anything stopped me getting around, and I even managed a dinner at Paul Liebrandt's Gilt.

I started the week at O.G., thathomey neighborhood place.

The Cheese: Toma Walser

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  February 22, 2016]

This is worth a look; a hearty, creamy cows milk tomme from Murray's. It's from Piedmont, and the rind is a thing of beauty.

You might think, when you see it on display (or from photos online) that the paste is quite firm, leading you to expect the usual sour-sweet and tangy tommes experience.

Floating Down The Danube: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  February 22, 2016]

I have a very clear memory of coming down with a bronchial illness ten years ago.  You see, it happened during a movie.  And oh, believe me, there was plenty of time.

In fact, I saw two new(ish) movies in February 2006, and certainly Steve Coogan's Tristram Shandy was the funnier.

Quick Bites: Faro

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  February 15, 2016]

These haven't been great nights for going out to the restaurants, have they?  I've been staying in, eating in; but I did find myself hungry on Wyckoff recently, and I was curious about the venison duo at Faro.

And there was an empty bar (the tables were busy), so that's what I did.

Hearth Again, Snow Again: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: February 15, 2016]

It wasn't as cold in February 2006 as it is this year.  But we did see snow: in fact, my diary says we saw the biggest snowfall in New York history. Correctly, it seems: 26.9 inches.

But it didn't stop me getting around, for example to the spectacularly good David Smith centennial exhibit at the Guggenheim, and to a less obvious show of Dwight Ripley's drawings at Poet's House.

Encore, Chevalier

[Pigging by Wilfrid: February 8, 2016]

This dinner happened a few weeks ago.  I never got around to posting about it, because I was considering making it the center-piece of a more general reflection on last year's New York dining scene.

I never wrote that, and I'm not sure why. It may be I'm a little jaded; not so much by restaurants--there have been some very good openings in the last twelve months--but by the un-historical, uncritical, open-mouthed coverage dining out generally receives from the media.

Costly Kurumazushi: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  February 8, 2016]

Today, it's still the prime contender for least known expensive restaurant in New York City. Ask an informed diner where dinner costs most.  The chances are they'll say Per Se.  Then if they remember sushi, they'll say Masa.

Kurumazushi, that rather plain dining room reached by ascending a functional elevator in a midtown office block, was pulling in over $400 a head for an omakase meal ten years ago.  I know: I was there.

Nai Tapas: Shockingly Good

[Pigging  by Wilfrid:  February 4, 2016]

Or: spherification, that's the name of the game.  And what a shocking statement of intent too.  An East Village tapas bar which sends out an homage to Ferran Adrià to start a meal risks falling flat on its face. That's not what happens at Nai.

But to fully understand what's going on in this semi-basement space on First Avenue, and what's planned for upstairs, we need to start with a little history.

Hearth Actually: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  February 2, 2016]

Paintings, books and dance this week ten years ago.  Rare editions of literature about arctic expeditions at the Grolier Club; a nice reading copy of Verlaine from Gotham Book Mart.  Krasner and Pollock at the Robert Miller Gallery.  A Lucius Beebe reader (an inspiration for the occasional drawings here).  A tango show, Historias Breves, at the Skirball Center.

And as constant background, the Four Tops, from a comprehensive CD set I'd just picked up. I ate too.