Amagansett Sea Salt East Hampton Blend

On our real vacation to Long Island this weekend, I made a personal vow not to let writing creep into the experience. I was here with my wife to share some quality time…no note taking, asking detailed questions about food, or taking elaborate pictures of everything I was eating. In short, I was to be a normal tourist only interested in generalist activities…beach, wine tasting, hiking, casual window shopping…along with taking time to hold hands, look into each others eyes and take pleasure in the small things. On most fronts it was a success but I couldn’t resist delving into the foodie heaven that are “The Forks”.

For those who aren’t familiar with Long Island’s East End, I’ll go with this metaphor: The North Fork is the pantry and the South Fork is the show kitchen where all the ingredients are combined into a myriad of artfully presented and tasty cuisine. Farms and wineries by far outnumber restaurants and chain stores on the North Fork. One tiny exception to this breadbasket-showcase dichotomy between the two forks is Amagansett Sea Salt Co.. Located just east of the Hamptons where luxe town centers give way to the carefree open spaces of Montauk, Amagansett sea salt is made entirely by hand in small batches from seawater harvested directly from the Atlantic Ocean. It’s filtered, solar evaporated, and packaged…ocean to bottle…right on site.

The entire process is 100% natural carefully balancing solar evaporation and exposure to the wind. Salt crystals form slowly

Amagansett Sea Salt Combo Pack

over time producing a mild, sweet, briny flavor and a distinctive crunch. No washing, bleaching, boiling, kiln drying, or anti-caking agents like in mass produced salts. The resulting unrefined sea salt retains nutritious trace minerals that naturally occur in seawater.

Another important distinction between common table salt and Amagansett Sea Salt is that it’s not used during cooking but rather as a “finishing salt.” Dishes are typically made without salt and these finishing salts are only added when serving as a flavor enhancement. In this way, salt crystals have a more intimate contact with your palate resulting in a nuanced boost to the flavor, aroma, and texture of your food. Start imagining the possibilities with their East Hampton Blend mixed with Herbes de Provence, Montauk Blend mixed with fresh lemon zest, or Southampton Blend soaked in Madagascar Vanilla, perfect for topping desserts like chocolate ice cream….or homemade caramel candies?

photos courtesy of Amagansett Sea Salt

Dining Table at Le Grand Fooding Exquisite Corpse

So what exactly does artfully prepared cuisine have to do with corpses? Exquisite Corpse, this year’s NYC Le Grand Fooding event, was held at a pop-up restaurant in Chelsea’s Honey Space Gallery. Adopted from the surrealists’ concept of the “corps exquis,” every chef’s first course featured an ingredient used by the chef in the preceding shift. Nonstop for 52 hours, 13 top chefs from Europe and the United States embarked on four-hour, round-the-clock shifts feeding jet setting gourmands, bleary eyed night owls, and curiosity seekers willing to part with $100 each for the experience.

Featured chefs were a hand-picked mix of established culinary wizards and rising stars blending different countries, experience levels and styles. The main premise behind Le Grand Fooding events such as this was to shakeup the classical French approach to cooking and explore this venerable school of art’s practices through different lenses. In addition to the surrealist theme, it was the limitations of a residential-style kitchen as well as chefs personally

Ana Ros in the Kitchen

lugging ingredients from their own local purveyors in coolers from as far away as Italy and Belgium.

I sat down to a long narrow table set for 40 with hundreds of candles as the centerpiece peppered with champagne holders filled with half bottle servings of Veuve Clicquot. A huge chandelier made from clusters of large glass jugs hung directly over the center of the table. A Foosball table along with a baby grand piano stood on the fringes where they were sometimes used by dining guests in between courses. Ana Ros of Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia, cooked up 4 courses featuring her native ingredients like figs, goat’s milk, trout,

Black Cod w/ Black Truffle Foam Braced w/ Asparagus

deer tartare, and her black cod with black truffle foam and asparagus…my favorite.

“The countryside where I come from is not globalized. We traditionally rely on what each season yields and craft our dishes from these basic elements,” said Ros. Building on Ana’s passion for expertly crafted Slovenian dishes using locally-sourced ingredients, I can’t wait to see what next year’s Le Grand Fooding NYC experience brings!

photos courtesy of Steve Mirsky

Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce

For those who regularly read my posts, it will come as no surprise that I use my grill…a lot. Steaks, tipsy cooker chicken, turkey bratwurst, foil packet fish are a few I’ve shared with you before. Tonight I grilled up some lamb chops, one of my favorite meats due to its light yet hearty flavor. Juicy like a steak yet possessing the lightness of lean chicken, flame broiled lamb brings the best of both of these worlds together. Usually I coat the chops with some steak seasoning before cooking but this time I paired them with Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce. It turns out that the simplicity of grilled meat is the perfect marriage with this dipping sauce consisting of sugar, apple cider vinegar, fresh garlic, red chili peppers, and sea salt. That’s it! No hard to pronounce artificial mystery ingredients.

Like most foods that are extremely tasty and wholesome, Wild Thymes has a story behind their creations. Mother and daughter Enid and Ann Stettner are the family’s hands-on duo for concocting recipes using ingredients raised on their 400-plus acre Hudson Valley farm. It all started when Enid and her husband introduced a line of 25 different herb and fruit vinegars, including opal basil, hot pepper and blueberry. Using homegrown herbs, they were bottled by hand and sold at farmers markets and craft fairs. Word spread and in the early 1990′s, major retailers like Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma began selling them to a swelling fan base.

I think what makes Wild Thymes Thai Chili Roasted Garlic Dipping Sauce sauce work so well is the yin-yang effect, the sweet sugar and mild apple cider vinegar coalescing with the lively chilis along with the lamb’s salty char and succulent juices. Best of all, no additional messy step of marinading or glazing is required to elevate grilled meats to a whole new flavor experience. And this works perfectly for a discerning yet at times lazy cook like me.

photo courtesy of Steve Mirsky.  Coverage resulting from a complimentary sample.

Leopold Gourmel Premieres Saveurs

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending a full portfolio wine tasting sponsored by Frederick Wildman, a major importer of top quality vintages. Held at Guastavino’s which is located under NYC’s 59^th Street Bridge, both levels were packed with tasting tables. Amidst the sea of tasty and venerable wines & spirits, Leopold Gourmel‘s fully organic cognac made a huge impression on me. Not only was their lineup unique and flavorful, visiting their table was like taking a full-immersion trip to France and witnessing their passionate craftsmanship firsthand.

Spend a few minutes with Leopold Gourmel co-founder Olivier Blanc and you realize that you are in the company of a true cognac aficionado who knows the business. His distillery goes out of its way to produce a line of cognacs that buck convention. “So many of the established cognac houses adhere to the same formula year after year and critics are fixated on how each year’s batch matches up to its VSOP, XO standards. Our cognacs have unique subtleties between batches instead of being locked into a rigid pattern of refinement”.

The white wines used to make Léopold Gourmel cognacs come from the 1st growth organically cultivated Fins Bois grapes. Their vines have roots that plunge 80 to 100 ft into the soil of the vineyards’ hilly terrain near Gente France. This environment yields stronger, richer, and more aromatic wine possessing mineral overtones.

All Léopold Gourmel cognac is made from wine of the same year meaning that the vintages are never mixed.

Aging takes place in un-toasted extra fine-grain French oak casks. This wood is harvested from the oldest French oak trees called Allier which are known to prevent oxidation while adding very delicate notes of wood giving these cognacs a long finish and very clear color. Instead of the typical chill filtering which invariably removes some flavor and aroma, Leopold Gourmel uses a light screening technique yielding the same taste in the bottle as in the cask. Distillation is done additive-free unlike other top brands that prematurely darken the color and soften the taste for mass marketing appeal.

Before embarking on the tasting, Olivier Blanc advised avoiding a snifter or cognac balloon which accentuates too much of the

Leopold Gourmel Age du Fruit

alcohol. Go with a simple white wine glass instead. The thinner, straighter, and sharper edged glass the better. He also advised against warming it which again brings too much alcohol to the forefront. Swirling three times oxidizes the cognac by coating the glass with a thin film. Allowing it to breathe in this way showcases the spirit’s full bouquet. Lifting the glass to your nose and pulling it away a few times lets your nose adjust and gradually discover the aromas. Tasting on your lips first prepares your palate for the full blossoming. Each serving size should be limited to a few splashes to maximize this experience.

So it was with this background and advice that I enjoyed a narrated tasting of the following:

Premières Saveurs

This 6 year old soft gold was fresh and supple with white fruits like pear and white peach poking through with a refreshing long-lasting finish.

Age du Fruit

Leopold Gourmel Age des Fleurs

With a delicate bouquet hinting at fresh almonds, this pale gold lasts longer in the cheeks all the way to the throat. Its beautiful finish exudes preserved fruits, apricot, and citrus zest. Optimal times to enjoy include after imbibing great white wines, after white meat or fish, and complementing Asian or Scandinavian cuisine.

Age des Fleurs

Warmer, balanced, floral vanilla along with delicate wafts of rose, jasmine, and lilies on the nose. Rich

Leopold Gourmel Age des Epices

on the front of the palate, silky on the tongue, velvet on the throat, deep in the stomach with a honeysuckle and delicate lime finish. Perfect with game meats or after steaks. Typically appeals to cognac lovers since it reminds them of their favorite traditional brand yet possesses a far more elegant un-caramalized taste experience.

Age des Epices

This vintage has a deeper gold hue with sweet aromas of wood and honey.  Rich and powerful peppery spice and coriander opens slowly on the tongue with a warm complexity in the finish reflecting ginger and cloves. Blanc indicated this cognac penetrates slowly into the casks until after 20 years it naturally reaches the best part of the wood. Divinely pairs with pure black chocolate.

Quintessence

Leopold Gourmel Quintessence

Leopold Gourmel’s signature cognac that dazzles with a wide variety of flavors on the pallet. Inspired by the best old vintages of 1st growth Bordeaux wines, this vintage is something you would spring for to celebrate a major business deal or one of life’s other major milestones.

photos courtesy of Leopold Gourmel

Pistachio Encrusted Truffle

The word Xocolatti (choco-latti) is derived from the ancient Aztec word xocolātl, which ascribes cacao as food of the gods. In this spirit, Shaineal Shah, Bombay-born master mind behind his own line of Xoxolatti chocolates takes Valrhona chocolate to new levels like hand crafted sake truffles and bark-like mango-paprika slates. Over the past twenty years, true chocolate lovers have graduated from quantity to a world where chocolate, like cheese and wine, is considered an art form. Each truffle in Shah’s Port

Rose Hip Pistachio Bark

Chester, NY factory is made from single origin chocolate meticulously painted and rolled by hand. Just like a fine wine, you can taste the bouquet of flavors lingering long after biting through the delicate shell and savoring the intense ganaches.

The slates (or more commonly known as chocolate barks) are kaleidoscopes of color in and of themselves loaded with exotic ingredients like almond nougatine, Persian pistachio, saffron, and rose petals imported straight from India. Lucky for you, Shah sells assortments online as well as through Chocolate Library and Food Emporium.

photos courtesy of xocolatti

Trio of Pierogis: Meat, Potato, Goat Cheese and Arugula with Sauteed Onions and Sour Cream

If you’re in NYC this weekend, you simply can’t miss the 3^rd Annual Dumpling Festival set for this Sat. from 12-5 in Sara Roosevelt Park. A must-attend event especially for those who think dumplings don’t have much variety and are uninspiring. The ubiquitous and much-loved pot sticker is just the tip of the dumpling iceberg with each culture showcasing different cooking techniques, regional ingredients and flavor profiles with their own recipes. Dumpling types range from Korean mandoo to Italian ravioli. Fillings both sweet and savory are steamed, boiled and fried inside a variety of wrappers that are sure to take you on a culinary journey across

Chicken Momos in Signature Spicy Sauce

the globe.

In addition to sampling a full international array of dumplings from cultures like Italy, China, Malaysia and Poland, this festival will also feature the 8th Annual Chef One Dumpling Eating Contest, where Guiness World Records will preside over participants vying to beat the 5-time champion and current record holder, Joe Menchetti, who ate 66 dumplings in two minutes.

photos courtesy of Tang’s 2011 Dumpling Festival

Cowshed Inside Views

Getting its start in 1998 on the Babbington House grounds in Somerset England, Cowshed was named after the actual bovine inhabitants who at one time occupied this first location. Since then, Cowshed Spas has expanded to nearly 10 locations including several outside England like on the 3rd floor of Soho House Hotel in Manhattan.

A big point of pride for Cowshed is that all their treatments, no matter where the location, still have a little bit of Babbington in every single bottle in the form of a special herbal infusion sourced from within its walled Gardens. All ingredients use the best organic and wild crafted plant extracts.

Treatments like Grumpy Cow, Lazy Cow and Bullocks might have playful names but Cowshed is serious about ensuring that all ingredients come from fairly traded botanicals grown using sustainable practices. They guarantee that nothing artificial is used, including sulphates and oil based ingredients. Going a step further that’s not always easy to adhere to, they never use animal based ingredients except for organic beeswax and wildflower honey.

So go ahead, make a statement with your spa indulgence of choice and book one of their Pretty Parties for you and your girlfriends in good conscience. You have to either be a guest at Soho House or have a private membership to visit this Cowshed location but it’s worth it! Equipped with eucalyptus steam rooms and the full range organic bath & body goodies, expert therapists are on hand with treatments along with dinner and wine for you and up to 10 friends. During a Pretty Party, you can choose two of the following 30 minute treatments: Speedy Manicure, Speedy Pedicure, Cowshed Massage and Cowshed Facial.

Directions & Hours: Take the L train to the 8th Ave. – 14th St. Station in Chelsea. Walk 1 long block down to 9th Ave., turn left, and look for #29. Call for hours and prices

photo courtesy of Cowshed Spa

Killmeyer's Old Bavaria Inn

On the southernmost point of Staten Island and all of New York State for that matter, Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn is a quick trip to the old country without buying plane tickets at euro prices!  And summer is the perfect time to make the trek not only for their heaping Bavarian platters of knockwurst, weisswurst, and bratwurst sided with sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, and sweet stewed purple cabbage but most importantly, their outdoor beer garden, once-a-month Sunday pig roasts, and 9 thoroughly German beers on tap!

The biergarten, an open-air courtyard filled with picnic tables, bandshell, and octagonal gazebo bar, punctuated by a crackling wood burning fireplace rocks out Thursdays-Sundays with international oompah bands like The Happy Tones or Liz Wojtal and Next of Kin. Inside, a large 20 seat “G” shaped polished mahogany bar from the 1800s complete with a wooden rail centers around a gigantically ornate carved dark wood backboard with sectioned mirrors, and large glass door cupboards with ancient brass hinges housing the liquor selection.

Generous portions of tangy sauerbraten, robust goulashes, schnitzels, and smoked pork chops are served with aplomb in the tin-ceiling dining room with creaky wooden floors, chandeliers hanging from the extremely high beer haus style ceilings, and walls plastered with stuffed moose heads and shelves filled with decorative steins.  While reveling outside under the stars, remember Killmeyer’s interior as a most fitting refuge during the coldest depths of winter.

By Bus From Ferry:- Take the S78 to Craig Avenue and call a cab for 4254 Arthur Kill Rd. (about 3 miles away)

By SIRT (train) From Ferry: Take the train to the very last stop at Tottenville.  Again, call a cab for 4254 Arthur Kill Rd. (about 3 miles away)

Inside South Fin Grill

Did you know that NYC is home to 14 miles of sandy beaches?  No? Well if you’re just picturing Manhattan, I can see why!  But when you include getaways like Rockaway Beach in Queens, Orchard Beach in the Bronx, and Coney Island in Brooklyn, the mileage really starts to add up.  But wait, what about Staten Island?  Surrounded by ocean between Jersey and New York Harbor, there should be something notable on its shores.  Well there is and it’s South Beach….no I’m not confusing the Big Apple with Miami.  This South Beach is about an hour away from midtown but 100% accessible without a car.

Just hop on the Staten Island Ferry and then a City bus to South Beach on

Staten Island's South Beach

Seaside Blvd, one of NYC’s most spacious expanses of sand.  While not so great for swimming, you can go beyond perfecting the tan, strap on your roller blades and test out their recently refurbished 2.5-mile boardwalk.  And once you work up an appetite, South Fin Grill is right there with sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Verrazano Bridge.

But just because the scenery is lavish doesn’t mean the food is an afterthought.  No funnel cakes or hotdogs here!  Fresh seafood is king from a raw bar to grilled fish like ginger soy Chilean sea bass.  Their signature South Fin Sushi Roll refreshingly combines unagi and peach.  Keep dessert on theme with a cheesecake spring roll drizzled in raspberry and mango sauce.

From the Staten Island Ferry Terminal take Bus S51(21 minutes) to Father Capodanno Blvd. and Sand Lane

photos courtesy of silive.com & South Fin Grill Restaurant

Inside Fort Place Bed & Breakfast

Not up for spending hundreds of dollars for a tiny hotel room in Manhattan?  Don’t want to economize by staying the night in a closet?  Keep that wallet in your pocket, hop on the free Staten Island Ferry, and sit back for a 25 min. ride through New York Harbor grazing past the Statute of Liberty and Governors Island with continual views of lower Manhattan’s skyline.

Upon disembarking in Staten Island’s brand new glass walled terminal graced with 2 large aquariums teeming with colorful tropical fish, breeze past the cabbies waiting to scoop you up at the exit door.  You my friend only have to walk 3 blocks until you reach 22 Fort Place, home of the Fort Hill Bed and Breakfast. Walk straight across Richmond Terrace up the stairs along City Hall and continue straight up the hill to St. Marks Place. Make a quick right and then a left onto Fort Place. You’ll see the property’s distinguishing white and green edifice to your left on the corner of Montgomery Place.

Once inside this Victorian classic built in 1864, a large sun porch greets you…perfect for lounging or cracking open that novel you always wanted to start. Ornate marble fireplaces in each room, multi-hued wood floors, tin ceilings, and 8 foot tall wooden carved doors may give you pause that perhaps youre on a historic home tour rather than checking in for the evening.  Industrial Designer and Artist Paul Gorlach along with his wife Patricia restored this gem in 2005 and have been running it as a B&B since 2006.  Paul’s own colorful paintings hang on many of the walls beckoning for a closer look.  The downstairs room has a bed large enough to fit 4 people and the upper floor rooms feature a skylight bath with Verrazano-Narrows Bridge views.  Don’t expect a lavish breakfast but a continental spread including plenty of fresh bakery bread is delivered to you on a tray each morning.

photo courtesy of Steve Mirsky