FORK PLAY April 14, 2009
Home from Italy. Eating Deals. Keste, Anthos Upstairs. Exploring Puglia. Marea for Citymeals. Roasting Julian and Alex.
Dear Friends and Family,
 I'm back from two weeks of dedicated research in Italy, eating of course. (Click here to know what Tuscany tastes like when chef Cesare Casella calls the plays.) Our time away was a welcome relief from IRA shrinkage, unemployment woes and the meltdown gloom of New York. Not every hotel offered CNN and we gradually kicked the habit. In Puglia, with Tony May's busload of merry pranksters (Il Gruppo Ristoratori Italiani), it was a challenge to find the Herald Tribune. Italians don't seem to be in quite the same shock as we are. You don't hear bargainista ravings. Perhaps they're less spoiled than we by exuberant good times. Or maybe I missed an element of fear and panic because the newspapers are all in Italian.
The best part is the soft light at night. You don't need reading glasses or flashlights in most restaurants. Imagine. You can actually see what you're eating.
 First night home, I satisfied my usual just-back-from-overseas craving for tuna with mayonnaise. Then I focused on our town's fierce appetite for bargains and restaurant deals. So many new burger joints, pizzerias and sandwich shops have arrived to feed the masses too lazy to cook at home. Banh mi, panini, heros. It's a carbohydrate conspiracy. I confess I used a connection to get a table at Keste Pizzeria ahead of the queue for what is definitely the most authentic Neapolitan pizza I've ever tasted in New York. The chef himself served small squares topped with tuna-mashed artichoke to the standees. (Possibly forestalling mayhem, even murder). Click here and scroll down to read BITE on the new Baoguette and eating my way through the history of pizza.
About the pirates. Those Somalians can be stunningly handsome. Let's get one of them on American Idol. Maybe even a pirate. Voting for their favorite could unite warring factions in Somalia and its dissident young would be totally distracted as the world's ships slip by.
You probably notice we are new grass green and forsythia yellow today, just like Central Park.
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Deals Deals Deals
Frugal Friday is so hot at Craft that owner Tom Colicchio and his chef Damon Wise are now offering frugal fare every night of the week except Tuesday. Everything - small pizzas, food in a jar, meat on a stick, offal, food in a bundle, snacks and small plates - is $10 or less. Ditto at brunch starting Saturday May 2. Hill Country is advertising all-you-can-eat meat Mondays for $29.95 (no doggie bags). Daniel Boulud has extended the $24 three-course lunch at Bar Boulud indefinitely. Picholine's new value menu runs from Monday through Thursday. For the first time in its 30 year history, Chanterelle has an a la carte menu. At Eighty One, Ed Brown faces reality with a two-course $30 menu. You gotta give them credit for trying. Though some are a bit grudging about it. For example, you have to ask for the four-course $35 deal in the Enoteca at Del Posto because it's not advertised.
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Tripping the Cheap Fantastic
First night back we unpacked and headed to Le Cirque, invited by Dan Dorfman, once a stalwart of New York magazine for his market coverage and an avowed follower of the Insatiable Critic's gospel. Besides intense loyalty to the Maccioni clan, it's the $35 lounge dinner that draws him. I can't swear the lobster risotto the kitchen sent out was not an exaggeration but close to a standard serving. But the careful cooking of the lobster got stars from me. Want to wade into nostalgia for the Sirio that was and Le Cirque on 65th Street? Click here to read, "I Love Le Cirque But Can I Be Trusted?" a vintage Insatiable Critic from New York, January 31, 1977.
Positive buzz sent six of us to Anthos Upstairs (36 West 52nd Street ) where we planned to try everything on the menu, small plates priced from $9 to $15. The latter was for three large chunks of sensational lamb loin on pebbles of pistachio. Our scheme didn't work because most small plates could not be divvied up in six shares without diamond cutters so we doubled up and spent more than we planned - I don't think the sommelier should be recommending $40 wines to Anthos fans seeking stimulus relief. If you want to taste what I loved in the Anthos attic, click here. Or if you're already in love with Chef-owner Michael Psilakis' Greek-inspired daring, just throw a dart at the menu.
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Eating up Puglia
 Tony May, proud son of Italy, has been introducing New Yorkers to authentic Italian cucina since he first brought carpaccio to his Italian Fortnights in the Rainbow Room in the 70s. His highly-rated San Domenico on Central Park South opened as a faithful clone of the original Michelin-starred Mecca in Imola in 1988. Refusing to bow to terms of a daunting new lease on Central Park West, he bravely abandoned one Park for another, signing up for space in a residence rising on Madison Square Park scheduled to open in fall. That gave him time to scout Puglia ahead of his annual spring taste-around.
There are pleasures and pitfalls on a bus with 40 divas and even emotionally-stable entrepreneurs. Still, we like the idea of letting May and his team scout meals and inns and wineries and drag us along. Some of the most exciting moments were actually improvisational. An enterprising enthusiast from Antonori's Tormaresca winery, Matteo Santoiema (ask for him if you get to the vineyard in Tofano), put together an astonishing buffet lunch at Osteria del Borgo Antica, (62 Via Spada Tel: 39 080 3430837) a modest spot in Gioia dal Colle (Bari). On a table opposite the bar he'd gathered all sorts of local products, vegetables, fruits and grains. That was Matteo's mother demonstrating how to roll and shape the "ears." Artisanal pasta ribbons and Mexican hats in technicolor - tinted with carrot, beet and spinach - got big photo ops, especially when the manufacturer dropped fluted ribbons on our table and we wrapped them around our wrists and the stems of our wine goblets.
Since this was Puglia, we ate a lot of cavatelli and set some sort of a record for orecchiette, sometimes twice in one day, more than a dozen ways. My favorite was at this lunch: tinted black by cuttlefish ink in a black seafood sauce with a clam or two, squid and a few slivers of tomato.
Everyday was a day for burrata, and here, ricotta three ways, fresh mozzarella, and a pig made from caccio cavallo.
 "When we entered, I thought to myself, this is not an auspicious-looking place," May said at the end. "I had no expectations. But you surprised us." He turned to chef-owner, Ottavio Suric, presenting him with an honorary GRI membership plaque, adding pointedly: "And the chef is in the kitchen. How rare."
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CITYMEALS: Sailing with Marea, Roasting Julian and Alex
In an evening dedicated to Citymeals-on-Wheels, Chris Cannon and his three star chef-partner Michael White will open Marea, an Italian seafood restaurant in the San Domenico space. It will be a bittersweet moment for those of us with memories of festive dinners and flirtatious lunches past. But it's also a great positive surge of faith for the generous and caring team behind Marea. May l. Write it in your date book now. Call 212 687 1290 for more information. I'll see you there.
Julian Niccolini and Alex Von Bidder are all larded for a roasting and spring dinner at the Four Seasons May 5, also to benefit Citymeals. Among those signed up to roast are Pete Peterson, Daniel Boulud, Edgar Bronfman, Cesare Casella, Sirio Maccioni, Drew Nieporent, Liz Smith, Martha Stewart and me. Kathleen at 212 754 9494 has more information.
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Photos of Thao Nguyen assembling a banh mi at Baoguette, a sixth century pizza at Keste Pizzeria, mussels in avgolemono at Anthos Upstairs, the entrance to Osteria del Borgo Antico and Tony May's wife Halima with a ribbon of multi-colored pasta may not be used without permission from Steven Richter. Email by clicking here.
Fork Play by Gael Greene copyright 2009
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