at the sign of The Pink Pig

Ureña And The Melting Pot: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  March 28, 2016]

The melting pot, as we'll see, in a literal sense was one of the highlights of my New York week at the end of March, 2006. But it was also yet another week when gastronomy hit me from a variety of geographic angles.

Not least with the opening of a challenging modern Hispanic bistro from chef Alex Ureña.

Pamplona: Ureña Goes To Iruña

[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 14, 2007]

Eñough with the names.  Pamplona is in the Basque Country, where the Basques call it Iruña - not that the Basques call themselves "the Basques".

Alex Ureña is the gifted Dominican chef who has just transformed his attempted upscale eponymous eatery Ureña into a casual bistro,  Iruña.  I  mean, Pamplona.

Blue Hill, You Saw Me Dining Alone

[Pigging by Wilfrid: October 12, 2007]

I go back a long way with the original Blue Hill on Washington Place (as opposed to the upstate farm outpost, Blue Hill Stone Barns).

But, mea culpa, I completely missed the kitchen under chef-de-cuisine Juan Cuevas, who recently moved on...

Some loose talk recently in the house about a trip to Granada, so I thought I'd look back at my 2008 jaunt.

Granada II: Puerta Del Carmen, Chikito And Sevilla

[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 22, 2008]

Last week was all about what I consider the best kind of eating you can do in Granada - grazing on superb artisanal hams, sausages and cheeses. But let's wrap up the restaurants we visited too.

After all, what would a trip to Granada be without a brain 'n' balls omelette?

Granada I: Pigcheese? Claro!

[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 15, 2008]

Granada, like the Barcelona of ten years ago, is not a major restaurant city.  It has hardly been touched by the post-Adrià revolution, and it's most popular restaurants generally cruise quietly along, serving the traditional dishes of Andalusia.

But there is some very fine eating to be done at the casual level, especially if you tune your radar to pork products - sausages, embutidos, hams, pâtés - and cheese.  Or both if you will: I give you queso de cerdo.  Pigcheese, in a word.

I heard Cercle Rouge has announced closure after a ten year run. Here are a couple of glances back, including its famous Lièvre à la Royale dinner.

A Taste Of Hare At Le Cercle Rouge

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 1, 2010]

The highlight of my dining week had an element of farce to it.  In response to one brief post on Mouthfuls, a gaggle of savvy diners set off in pursuit of their quarry like hounds after a fox.

Two dishes were offered as specials, one hare and one venison: the selection which had us all salivating was the legendary preparation of hare, lièvre à la Royale.

Cercle Rouge Comes Around Again: Vive Les Abats!

[Pigging by Wilfrid: March 17, 2008]

It seems only yesterday - in fact it was fall of 2005 - when I enjoyed the pell mell opening of this lively bistro on the Tribeca stretch of West Broadway.

The reason to pay attention again?  The traditional, one-sided plastic covered menu has a box headed "Les Abats".  Pass the mustard and the Rabelais.

Making Segedin Goulash: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: March 21, 2016]

A quiet mid-March ten years ago, and I set myself to figuring out how to replicate the Ukrainian National Home's spectacular segedin goulash.  Not too much too it, of course: tender pork, lashings of sauerkraut, some sour cream.

Look, ten years on, I don't know if I followed a recipe.  But I did eat it several consecutive nights.