at the sign of The Pink Pig

Final Dishes From A Diary: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  April 17, 2017]

Turning the dust-encrusted heavy vellum pages of my journal, I realize with a mixture of regret and acceptance that: This is where we came in.

Ten years of meals, ten years of travel, galleries, books, and theater.  I did just celebrate twenty years of living in New York. It's simple math...

A Bunch Of NYC Restaurants: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: April 3, 2017]

A lot of moderate dining out in this city, ten years ago around the end of March.

Let's take it from the top. A lunch at Otto featuring the testa--tasty, if too mushy at room temperature-- a quattro stagioni pizza, and from the great Meredith dessert lab, a Guinness gelato.

A Boston Bash: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  March 13, 2017]

It was off to Boston in a rental car, that cool March ten years ago, to see a family member perform in Joe Jackson's musical Heaven & Hell at the Boston Conservatory.

I took the opportunity to fill in some gaps in my Boston historic dining experience; but I did eat in New York before we left.

Quietly Prune: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: March 6, 2017]

After the rigors of the Food & Wine extravaganza in South Beach, a quiet week back in New York in the residual snow. Some home cooking, some German poetry, The Battle of Algiers on video.

Oh and a couple of restaurants meals.

Headed For South Beach: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  March 2, 2017]

Ten years ago, and I'm headed for the South Beach Food & Wine Festival in Miami for the first time. Something which would never have occurred to me a few years earlier--traveling not just to eat (nothing strange about that) but traveling to a commercial food event; and one where I expected to run in to chefs I knew.

A few bites in New York before leaving.

An Anniversary: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  February 21, 2017]

This week I celebrated twenty years of residency in New York--which means it's closer to thirty years ago I first visited the city. After considering many options, I celebrated quietly, remembering those I love who I never would have encountered had I not headed across the pond with one suitcase for, well, a year's stay in February 1997.

From which it follows, of course, that ten years ago I was celebrating my tenth year of living here.

Back to Ali's: Ten Years Ago

[Pink pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  January 26, 2017]

Easy to pick the highlight of mid-January 2007.  A return bout with Ali at his humble but great Kabab Café on Steinway Street in Astoria.  Occasionally Ali would--doubtless still will--put on a special show for friends.  This dinner was a chance for him to show off his polished French chops.

It was a big party too, with bottles brought.

Baby shrimp

Oysters with crème de cassis

Manila, cherrystone and razor clams

Brook trout en papillotte

Selection of whole baked fish

Goat ribs

Lamb shank

Egyptian sweets

Among the wines, a Codorníu cava, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and a Gevrey-Chambertin, My own contribution, the weighty Rotllan Torra Tirant from the Priorat.

Joël Robuchon And Kangaroo: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  January 16, 2017]

A sluggish start to the New Year in 2007, with some seasonal illness, and apparently some attempts to make Norwegian fish pudding.  Now there's a recipe no longer at my finger-tips.

I did stagger back to the Met for another round with Vollard, and made it to a show of Fred McDarrah's downtown photos somewhere in Chelsea.  A couple of dinners out too.

The Holiday Season: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine:  January 2, 2017]

Christmas Eve 2006 fell on a Sunday, so it was home cooking for three days before climbing back aboard the restaurant wagon. I was reading Anna Karenina, wandering around Bay Ridge, and working my way through an on-demand Star Wars marathon, having skipped all the movies when they first came out.

Letcho at the Ukrainian National Restaurant

I also bid a sad farewell to one of my old haunts at its closing party...drum roll...Danny's Broadway Piano Bar and Skylight Room at the Grand Sea Palace, where Broadway Meets Bangkok.  The late Jerry Scott hosting.

More Favorites: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  December 19, 2016]

I was mixing it up with old French writers and visiting familiar dining haunts, this week ten years ago. 

Émile Gaboriau and the stunningly over-named Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly were contemporaries--although Gaboriau was younger and died earlier. Very different reads, though.