Pete's Dish - May 29

Chapter One, a "New American" restaurant, just opened in Manhattan's cozy West Village. The pub vibe is elevated casual-cool with operating partner Damian Collins and Warren Baird (formerly Esca in Hell's Kitchen) in the kitchen as Executive Chef. A mural of the location circa 1910 lines a wall, accented with Oxblood banquets and pewter-topped dining tables and enough windows to be perfect for people-watching. Classics such as duck confit, celery root, and steak tartar co-mingle with Western European influences, yet remain solidly American, made with local meats, seafood and vegetables. Lingering at the bar, poring over cocktails (featuring a lot of American whiskeys) is most definitely permitted. Sample malt-vinegar chips and pork rinds while at it--or sidle over to a table for something more substantial such as oyster chowder with cream, Swiss chard and a soupcon of dill oil for a starter, and crispy chicken in sorrel butter sauce or pork belly with chorizo-apple pudding for mains. Chapter One is located at 33 Greenwich Avenue, New York, NY 212-842-9146, ChapterOneNYC.com.

 

The Urban Tech Gala Celebration honors the charity that has supported youth and community through technology for 19 years now, connecting students and families to digital literacy, comprehensive health education, and life skills. The lineup of luminaries includes John Starks, Hill Harper, Maurice Dubois, Alicia Quarles, and Mel Debarge--of course, make a racket with award presenters Billie Jean King and Lou Gossett! Check into the VIP cocktail party at 6pm, followed by the dinner and awards ceremony, and a silent and live auction. Maurice DuBois, award winning anchor of CBS 2 News This Morning and the weekend edition of CBS Evening News, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies for the evening alongside E! Entertainment News' Alicia Quarles. Three Sixty.com, located in New York's TriBeCa neighborhood, plays host to the event. And yes, you guessed it, there are 360-degree views of the city. For more info, tickets, a peek at the online auction, and some of the experiences you can bid on during the evening, go to UrbanTech.org.

 

This picture of lobsters is of my own lobsters cooked in Maine, found here, not actually from Luke's Lobster, but the restaurant's offerings will be on hand at The Governors Ball Music Festival, to be orchestrated from June 6 to 8 in Randall's Island Park. 2014 attendees can sample food from more than 50 vendors. A partial list of participants include VIP only Pok Pok Ny, Calexico, Go Burger, Hill Country BBQ--but among the other vendors, such as L'Artusi, Crif Dogs, Momofuku Milk Bar, Pizza Vita and The Taco Tent, their stands are wide open for all. Musician Jack White promises to rock the park while the rest of us have the opportunity to loosen our belts and taste cuisines that span the globe. 

P.S. Tabasco now has its own brand of sriracha sauce, perhaps to be used for pork sliders with sriarcha aioli (the progress is seen above). Just sayin'.

Pete's Dish - March 28

What's going on in and about town! 



Grab a smart jacket, get your fancy hat, leaves your troubles on the doorstep and head to Eleven Madison Park as they host their 6^th annual Kentucky Derby Party on Saturday, May 3^rd. The most exciting two minutes in sports and one of my favorite days of the year! This year, the Park has partnered with Esquire magazine, Woodford Reserve and Nat Sherman among others as they all partake of some mint julep tippling, Derby dishes and live music. Go to MadeNiceNYC.com/events for tickets immediately—I’ll wager they go fast.

Pinkies up! From May 9^th- 13th, the fifth anniversary Manhattan Cocktail Classic will get thing shaken in Manhattan. High spirits with prevail over five days in three boroughs. Apart from all the boozing there will also be educational seminars and pig roasts, lunch and dinner travails and a cocktail party at the New York Public Library. Please knock it back with kind consideration for others and heed these words of wisdom: behave and keep your legs crossed. Get your tickets at ManhattanCocktailClassic.com.

 

Entrepreneur Miki Agrawal (WILD, THINX) has partnered with fellow restaurateur Walid Hammami (former owner of Café Rafaella, Angelina and Atlas Cafés) and together they are set to open a new farmhouse-chic location of her gluten-free pizza and Italian specialties restaurant concept at WILD in Williamsburg to form a triptych with the other locations in Manhattan’s West Village and Las Vegas, which are already serving healthy and farm fresh fare. Forage for black quinoa and kale salads as well as spinach and artichoke pizzas, comforting gluten-free pastas dressed a la vodka, and wild chicken Parmesan entrées. Don’t forget about the homemade, vegan kale cupcakes for dessert. So stick a fork in it! WILD is located at 340 Bedford Ave, 347-599-0699, EatDrinkWild.com. 

Pizza & Beer Party

Despite the presence of PBR, this wasn't exactly a throwback to college days. Our friend was visiting from Turks and Caicos sort of last minute and so we wanted to have a party! We filled up a few growlers of beer, picked up our Pabst, made our own pizzas and off we went. It wasn't a huge affair, or at least didn't start that way, but the evening did seem to grow as unexpected guests stopped by.

Prepping ingredients should always be first and foremost!

Baby made the crispy, exquisite (easy!) dough for our pizzas from Jim Lahey's book. Shown here are the Cubano and Veggie.


Cubano Pizza
Ingredients: pernil al horno, sliced ham and pickles
Sauce: mustard bechamel
Cheese: shredded provolone
Note: for the pernil, Baby does not use a mortar and pestle to make the time consuming paste; he just throws the ingredients into a food processor.

Veggie Pizza
Ingredients: thinly sliced zucchini and yellow squash
Sauce: leek-onion balsamic jam
Cheese: sprinkling from a bag of Emmi gruyere and Swiss cheese


Sausage Mushroom Pizza
Ingredients: sweet fennel sausage with sliced oyster and shiitake mushrooms
Sauce: San Marzano sauce with basil from Fresh Direct
Cheese: grated mozzarella

French Onion Soup
Ingredients: click here
Sauce: strained onions from the soup!
Cheese: more of the Emmi cheeses

Lex and the City

My niece Alexzandria is no longer a little girl; somehow the years have slipped by and she's become an extraordinary young lady. The first article I had published back in 2001 was about Lex (her affectionate nickname), as I imagined what a trip to Manhattan might be like for her and what we'd do. She was only six when I wrote it, and now she has a driver's license and a boyfriend.

We've spent many fun summers together, Lex and I, at the family cottage in Friendship, Maine but she hadn't been home to New Hampshire for Christmas in about 12 years and she'd never been to New York. Lex turned 16 over the summer and since we were unable to be together for that important event, Baby and I flew her from Lavergne, Tennessee to see the Big Apple at Christmastime as a birthday present. After a wild four days in the city, we whisked her to New Hampshire to meet up with her father and my parents.

Naturally, I started planning the itinerary weeks before her arrival.

Saturday, the week before Christmas: After traipsing the Highline, a beautiful elevated railway-turned-park in our neighborhood and taking her to one of our favorite Chinese places nearby, we threw a party in her honor. It wasn't a huge affair, just about 20 people. They all sat and chatted with her, absolutely adored her and were thoroughly impressed by her demeanor. We made Chasen's chili, chicken mole, mac n' cheese and pork cracklins corn bread to make Lex feel right to home. Of course, we brought out a cake with 16 flaming candles on it and sang Happy Birthday to her.

Sunday: Manicures and pedicures with Baby's niece, who is also 16 years old! They had never met before but had texted each other for some time and of course they are facebook friends. We took them to Laurent Tourandel's burger joint, BLT Burger for lunch, before taking them to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and then letting them loose in Saks to go shopping. Before long, they were walking down 5th Avenue arm in arm, like old pals. We stopped into a penthouse punch party at Royalton hotel and then made our way to the Village to Cowgirl Hall of Fame for nachos, quesadillas, chicken fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

Monday: Oak Bar in The Plaza for a lunch of lobster bisque, Cobb Salad with lobster, a tuna melt and the most outrageous chocolate and cream something or other for dessert. What a gorgeous, warmly paneled room! The afternoon sun was winding down while we took a leisurely stroll through Central Park, up to the American Museum of Natural History for the wonderfully fun Journey To The Stars show in the Planetarium. The Hurricane Club, a marvelous tiki bar/supper club styled after exotic monsters of yesteryear such as Trader Vic's finished us off for the day.

Tuesday: Hudson Hall in Hudson Hotel for lunch, where Lex confirmed just how much she really could eat! A walk to Times Square and thereabouts led us to the Phantom of the Opera theater where we found a couple of reasonably priced seats for that night. While we waited for the curtain to rise, we ducked across the street to have some New York pizza at John's with Baby. Then home and time to pack!

Wednesday: En route to New Hampshire on the bargain and remarkably clean megabus, we stopped off in Boston for a tour of Faneuil Hall and a night at Ames hotel. We all had a delicious, eat-way-too-much dinner at Woodward in the hotel with some friends before collapsing into bed in our respective rooms only to depart the next day to wrestle with relatives over the ensuing holiday.

I was nervous how everything would turn out, but I'm very happy to say it was just perfect. I just wanted to do something good and perhaps toss in a little inspiration along the way. We should inspire children.

Ah, my dear Lex. She may very well be on her way to growing into womanhood, but she will always be a sweet little girl to me. Happy Birthday Lex! And Happy New Year to everybody! Thanks for reading Evenings With Peter!

Notes To My Nutritionist

Given my flair for rampant entertaining and general proclivity toward excess, my nutritionist friend suggested over the recent 4th of July weekend that I should take some time off to detox. The task was to eliminate wheat, dairy, eggs, citrus and booze and to be accountable to her, reporting back on a daily basis. I thought about how this would really affect me: there goes my weekly slice of pizza! My pasta quick fix! There goes the grapefruit juice I add to the vodka in my Greyhounds--in fact, there go my Greyhounds! The occasional Eggs Benedict or bacon, egg and cheese sandwich I could dodge easily enough. Welcome to fresh berries, melons, fish, meat, chicken, any number of greens and lotsa water. My friend also put me on Culturelle, a course of probiotics to aid digestion and encouraged me to go back to taking my Solgar dietary supplements.

Apart from the fact that I was unable to sleep the entire time, it was the worst week to start an elimination diet, as every night was booked, but I suppose that was part of the challenge, navigating a social calendar while being mindful of what I consumed. I had a restaurant review scheduled (an Italian place of all things, the worst idea--no pasta, meatballs, or wine), a party for the magazine I write for (I ate the sliders, skipped the buns), a wine and cheese party (stalks of asparagus, edamame and I became very close), and the week culminated in a extraordinary Saturday BBQ with a bunch of my friends--none of us had all been in the same room for over 20 years. I confess I strayed a little that day with a few indulgences.

So yes, I have successfully arrived intact a whole week later. I'm supposed to add stuff back here and there, but I think I'm just going to play it as it lays. I have to say I feel better! I dropped five pounds or so and was even so moved to go for a run and a swim today. I think staying away from wheat was surprisingly, oddly helpful. But I'm a food critic and food blogger for God's sake: food is my hearth and home. I'm not Richard bloody Simmons or Jillian what-have-you from The Biggest Loser, nor do I want to be.

What will I take away from the experience? I enjoyed the regimen, the consideration of what we all eat and the pondering over what comprises our daily allowance. Although I don't wish to always be as rigid and loathsome in my dietary habits, the point of the exercise was well-taken, with a fine tether on such a delicate balance.

Here's how I ate:

MONDAY
water all day
1 Gala apple with scoop peanut butter (it gave me an itchy throat)
sugar free grape ice pop
refried low fat vegetarian beans
corn enchilada sauce
corn tortilla
sugar-free grape ice pop
grapes, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon

TUESDAY
water all day
grapes, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon
almonds
refried low fat vegetarian beans
enchilada sauce
corn tortilla (I should have eaten another one but the hot weather suppressed my appetite and then I became starving after the little I could eat at the review, below)
watermelon
From a review of an Italian restaurant (this was tricky):
sparkling water (no lemon or lime) Grilled baby octopus, arugula and potatoes in olive oil, no butter or lemon
grilled sardines in olive oil
veal prosciutto, no wine in sauce, or butter, mozzarella removed
string beans in olive oil
mint tea
sugar-free grape ice pop

WEDNESDAY
water all day
grapes, blueberries, strawberries
seltzer flavored with a little cherry syrup
sauteed fresh kale with sesame oil, garlic, liquid aminos (soy protein), rice vinegar
pan-seared chicken with sauce from the kale preparation
sugar-free cherry pop (I planned to have watermelon but I accidentally dropped the two pieces that were left. I wanted to scream!)
Sharon’s blueberry sorbet
At the Next magazine event:
seltzer water (no lime)
2 burger sliders (no bun, or cheese, only ketchup, wiped off the mayonnaise)
guacamole with corn chips
French fries
Beck’s non-alcoholic beer (only barley, yeast, hops, brewing water—no wheat or alcohol!) perhaps another sugar-free pop for dessert!

THURSDAY
Water all day
watermelon, blueberries
seltzer flavored with a little cherry syrup
Oscar Meyer turkey frankfurter
Bush’s baked beans with maple cured bacon
The Allen’s Sunshine Kale, “seasoned Southern style”
corn chips and mild garlic hummus from Whole Foods (where I bought San-J Tamari)
fistful of green olives and seltzer at Hudson Library Bar
Navigating a Wine and Cheese Party (ack!!):
water
asparagus
edamame
blue corn chips with only one swipe of guacamole (before I realized it might have lemon juice in it—didn’t eat the edamame hummus, it did have lemon in it)
strawberries
Beck’s non-alcoholic, wheat-free beer

FRIDAY
water all day
watermelon, blueberries
no lunch (can explain later)
corn chips and salsa Chicken Pad Thai (rice stick noodle)
Hobo Noodles (broad rice noodle) with broccoli
Clausthauler non-alcoholic, wheat-free beer
Hummus with celery

WILD SATURDAY 20 YEAR REUNION BBQ !!!
water
mixed berries, watermelon, pineapple
blue corn chips, guacamole, mango salsa
white wine sangria with tequila (agave-based), white cranberry juice, pineapple, berries
bacon blue cheese stuffed dates
chicken/beef burgers, ketchup, relish, mustard, some BUNS!
chicken/beef BBQ skewers
tres leches cake—a few bites, but beside the berries on top there was also some whipped cream and tres leches translates to ‘three milks’

SUNDAY
water
chirashi sushi (sashimi with only a chopstick or two of seasoned white rice)
lobster sushi (didn’t eat the rice, just some lobster, and seaweed)
homemade hummus with ½ piece pita bread

Thanks to pathtofatloss.com for the photo.

A Marvelous Party!

Garden Party 27 officially kicked off Pride Week on June 21 with more than 50 restaurants, caterers and food trucks participating. The tasting event at the Hudson River Park Trust’s Pier 54 featuring these fine foodies brought everyone together to raise money for the LGBT Center, so they may keep their doors open year round and continue their commendable efforts to support the LGBT community.

An estimated 2,000 guests flooded the Pier to celebrate the gayest time of the year, chowing down while the sun set over the elegantly tented proceedings. We started at the free-flowing Ketel One vodka bar made entirely of ice and checked out the bidding booths offering dining packages at the ‘Foodies’ Silent Auction, which this year included gourmet food baskets, wine classes and tastings, and tickets to Broadway shows. Chad Carns, previously featured in Next, was on hand to sign his book The Gourmet Bachelor along with a chance to win a private cooking lesson with the chef and author. The auction’s premier package included Lunch for Four at Food Network and a taping of Iron Chef America.

Although we couldn’t hit all of the stands, we certainly did try. North Square offered little cups of Tomatillo Gaspacho with poached shrimp, which was almost as good as the Chilled Watermelon Gaspacho with chipotles from Boqueria; we loved the Mini Kobe Beef Brats from Klee where Chef Daniel Angerer himself doled out the little sausages on a brioche roll with cranberry mustard; Grass-Fed Meatballs from Colors were served with a piquant chimichurri sauce; we continued drinking with tasty Rum Punch from the South African restaurant Braai; the Grilled Asian Chicken Salad tossed with lemon ginger vinaigrette was refreshing and a favorite; Green Chile Mac & Cheese from Good topped with tortilla crumbs was actually really good; we had more cheese courtesy of La Bottega Trattoria with their sumptuous Robiola Pizza and we drank more too, imbibing their fabulous White Sangria; On The Plate, an underground supper club, presented wonderful Low Country style Butterbean Paté with pickled onion.

For dessert, we descended upon Peanut Butter & Co. for a fantastic PB&J. The Rice Crispy Treats from the Treats Truck (treatstruck.com) were delightful and the Red Velvet Whoopie Pies from This Chick Bakes were utterly beyond.

What a great way to start our Pride Week! Congratulations to the LGBT Center for throwing the marvelous Garden Party—such an important, delicious evening!

More information is available at gaycenter.org, gaycenter.org/gardenparty27

First published for Next magazine.

Rise and Shine

Jim Lahey knows dough. The founder of Manhattan's Sullivan Street Bakery is renowned for his fabulous breads; Baby and I have also had the opportunity to try his incredible pizza crusts at Co. restaurant in our neighborhood. Now, the new book My Bread written with Rick Flaste lets us in on some of Lahey's secrets to try at home.

None of the recipes involve kneading, but Baby and I just made The Basic No-Knead Bread Recipe and it couldn't have been easier. The few ingredients are combined and left to rise for 12 hours to 18 hours (the author's preference), before being formed and baked. We think it's a great idea to make the dough ahead of time and bring it to a friend's house for a dinner party and bake it there to fill the kitchen with a warming aroma of yeasty goodness--just make sure not to monopolize the oven if it's already being used!

The Basic No-Knead Bread Recipe

Adapted from My Bread by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste

Ingredients

3 cups bread flour (we prefer all-purpose flour!)

1 1/4 teaspoons table salt

1/4 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast

1 1/3 cups cool (55 to 65 degrees F) water

wheat bran, cornmeal, or additional flour for dusting

Combine first three ingredients in a bowl and mix for about 30 seconds with a wooden spoon. Add water and mix for another 30 seconds (add more water a little at a time if necessary to absorb the flour and create a batter).

Cover with a plate and let sit for 18 hours.

Lightly flour a surface. Remove the dough from the bowl and on the floured surface, gently pull the sides of the dough into the center, forming a ball. Sprinkle a tea towel with cornmeal and gently place ball seam side down in center. Fold corners of tea towel over dough to fully cover. Let rise for two hours.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees 30 minutes before this second rise. Put oven rack on lower third of oven and in the center place a covered 4 1/2- to 5 1/2-quart heavy cast iron or enamel Dutch oven on it. Working quickly but carefully, remove the vessel that has been pre-heated for 30 minutes from the oven and removing the tea towel, dust with wheat bran, cornmeal, or flour, place dough in the pot, seam side up. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove lid and bake until a "deep chestnut" color is achieved, for about another 15 minutes. Keep checking on it so as not to burn. Take out of pot and place on a cooling rack. Exercise patience and wait until bread has completely cooled before eating, about an hour.