FORK PLAY July 27, 2010
Wooing the Elderly. La Fonda del Surprises.
Stylish Co Ba. Arturo's Pesto.
Dear Friends and Family,
I'd never seen the epithet before: "the olds." Am I so old, I missed it? It was like a shiv in the side from Sam  Sifton in his review of
David Chang's half-hearted-welcoming uptown seed, Má Pèche, in the Chambers Hotel. Sifton said it was Chang's first spot you could bring "the olds." He tried to dodge elder hate mail by blaming the Internet for inventing it. But there was Sifton just spitting it out, as if he could no longer control himself. Well, now it's out there. I didn't mind sharing a table with strangers at Chang's downtown spots and I'll put up with backless cushionless wooden stools. I'm just not standing in line at restaurants that don't take reservations. Never would. Never did. Nothing to do with age, just congenital irritability. Click here to read why I went back twice to Má Pèche.
Meanwhile, good news from Mayor Bloomberg for the "olds" and boomers suddenly aging at an astonishing pace.  A special city commission has come up with Age-Friendly NYC, a blueprint of 59 initiatives to make the city friendlier for the elderly, like art classes, taxi vouchers and discounts at a fitness club. The commission asks for suggestions. On my wish list is a Boy or Girl Scout to carry my bags home from the supermarket. Late Bird as well as Early Bird dinner specials. A discount on Botox if you bring a friend. And a personal shopper at Fairway.
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Today's colors are corn husk green and early tomato.
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La Fonda del Surprises
We stopped by for tapas just after La Fonda del Sol opened last January in the worst financial gloom the city  had ever seen. I remember how grand it looked, how sedate, how quiet, how delicious the dinner. Last week the dining room was peopled to the brim, almost raucous, and I wondered if chef Josh DeChellis could even focus on delivering the gift of dinner our six-some had bought with a $3000 donation to Citymeals-on-Wheels Annual Corporate Dineout.
Unnecessary anxiety. DeChellis was inspired beyond what I imagined. At times he indulged us with costly imports from Spain, cured meats simply served, ham wrapped around white peach, vintage sherry vinaigrette. At other moments he captured us by tweaking the classics. A  properly pedigreed monster octopus from the shallow waters came with a cantaloupe sauce. Prime ribs arrived still in flames from a dousing with Scotch. An impressive fuss just for us, I thought. But no, next day DeChellis assured me almost everything we ate is on the menu. Click here to read what we ate. 200 Park Avenue Entrance on Vanderbilt at 44th. 212 867 6767.
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Vietnamese Street Food with Panache
I hadn't realized that Steven Duong had closed Tet and O Mai for a two year swing through the homeland he left at 13 to settle in Michigan. But he called two weeks ago to say he was back refreshed and inspired from roaming the food  alleys of Vietnam. I found him serving street food with a twist at Co Ba, a stylish narrow closet of a space on Ninth Avenue. After tasting the juicy grilled lemongrass baby back ribs, the steamed coconut rice cake and luscious grilled honey plum glazed pork on house made rice ravioli, I couldn't wait to go back. In less than a week locals and Duong's fans from the days of Cyclo and Nam had filled every seat in the house and the kitchen felt stretched. But giant prawns in the clay pot were exquisitely cooked and our companions who live nearby said they'd be back. It's refreshing to find this welcome and gentle prince so close to the high rent ambitions of the Meatpacking District. Click here so you'll know what to order when you go. 110 Ninth Avenue between 18th and 19 Streets. 212 414 2700.
"It's still hot as hell outside, and who wants to cook anyway," my friend Arthur Schwartz emailed this week, offering recipes for a handful of variations. Use them on pasta of course, or on toast -- bruschetta -- on boiled potatoes or as a dip for crudités. Pesto may be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week but is best on the day it is made.
PESTO TRAPANESE/TRAPANI PESTO
Makes 3 cups, enough to sauce 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of pasta
Sicily has nothing if not almond trees, which is why the island's cuisine uses them in everything from antipasto to dessert.
6 ounces blanched almonds (1 1/3 cups)
3 large cloves garlic, peeled
2 cups firmly packed fresh whole basil leaves
1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
1 pound very ripe tomatoes (can be cherry tomatoes), washed
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
In a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the almonds and garlic. Process until very finely chopped, almost a paste.
Add the basil and salt. Process again until the basil is very finely chopped.
Add tomatoes and oil and process one more time until the mixture is a fine paste. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary.
Use to sauce 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of spaghetti, linguine, or tubular pasta such as penne or ziti. Also good on grilled lamb, steak, or chicken. If serving with lamb, you may want to substitute some mint for part of the basil.
PESTO DI CAPERI/CAPER PESTO
Makes about 1 cup
In places where they commercially grow most of the world's best capers, it's only natural that they would use these precious pearls of the field in some prolific manner. On Salina and Lipari, the two big islands of the Aeolian archipelago between northern Sicily and Calabria, and on  Pantellaria, the Sicilian island near Tunisia, they make a pesto like this and it's sold in jars to the tourists.
Capers being as expensive as they are, this is nearly as luxurious as caviar, but saltier. It's salt content makes it perfect to spread on bland crackers, bruschetta or crostini to go with drinks, or to toss on pasta, or to spread on a sandwich of, say, tomatoes and mozzarella. Or to dab on top of a cross-cut cherry tomato for a cocktail party. It's also great on fish, and as a vegetable dip-raw on red, orange, and/or yellow pepper strips are particularly good. On Lipari, I even ate cold sliced tongue dressed with a caper pesto like this, making me feel it's an excellent topper, too, for a carpaccio of tuna, or raw roast beef.
4 ounces (2/3 cup) salted capers, rinsed well
2 anchovy fillets
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup loosely packed parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 tablespoon white or red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
In a mortar with a pestle, pound together the capers, anchovies, garlic, parsley, oregano, and hot pepper. When the ingredients have formed a coarse paste, add the vinegar.
Keep working the pesto with the pestle, then add the oil and continue grinding and pounding until the pesto is relatively smooth, or you get tired, whichever comes first.
The pesto can be served immediately, but it is better after it sits at room temperature for a few hours. It can be stored for several weeks in a tightly closed jar in the refrigerator.
PESTO CETARESE/PESTO FROM CETARA
In Cetara, a small fishing town at the top of the Amalfi Coast, pesto is made with the salt-preserved anchovies the town is famous for, and with colatura, the town's most esoteric product -- a liquid essence of anchovy "expressed" by the fish when they are preserved in layers of sea salt. Add to the anchovies some walnuts - the fat and flavorful Sorrento walnuts from the peninsula are famous-- pine nuts, fresh basil and parsley, and salt-preserved capers, another regional favorite food.
1 rounded tablespoon pine nuts
1 rounded tablespoon walnuts
1 tablespoon almonds
1 large clove garlic
4 loosely packed cups basil, well-washed and dried
1 loosely packed cup parsley, well-washed and dried
3 tablespoons condiment quality extra-virgin olive oil
1 3.5-ounce can or jar of anchovies, drained of oil or 8 to 10 salted anchovies, filleted and rinsed
2 rounded tablespoons salted capers, rinsed and soaked a few minutes in cold water, and drained
Colatura (optional)
In a mini-processor, finely chop the pine nuts, walnuts, and almonds with the garlic. Add half the basil. Process until finely chopped. Add the remaining basil, the parsley, and the olive oil. Process again briefly. Stir up from the bottom, then process again until all the herbs are a fine paste. Add the anchovies and capers. Process again, until homogeneous.
Season with colatura, if desired.
MATAROCCO
GARLIC PESTO FROM MARSALA
Makes about 1 1/4 cups enough for 1 lb. of spaghetti, linguine, or any macaroni
When I get to a city, town or village, it's my fun to search for the dish that locals love but that hardly anyone outside that city, town or village knows about. There usually is one. In Marsala, on the west coast of Sicily, the same  local dish was cited by everyone I asked: Matarocco.
Matarocco is a small town just outside Marsala, and the same sauce in some Sicilian cookbooks is also called pesto Siciliano, or pesto alla Favignana.
Whatever the name, there are two ways to combine the ingredients. The old way is to pound everything together in a mortar with a pestle, in which case the sauce is a true pesto. It isn't a pretty pesto. Even with tomatoes, it turns out beige. But what it loses in looks it gains in a creamy quality that the other form of Matarocco lacks. If you don't enjoy pounding, you can make a reasonable version in a mini-processor. Either way, Matarocco is always made in the morning and allowed to sit at least until midday, to mellow and cure.
3 small heads spring garlic, or 2 small heads mature garlic, each clove peeled
1 loosely packed cup basil
1/2 loosely packed cup parsley
A few celery leaves, if available
1/4 cup pine nuts
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper or a rounded 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound round tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and juiced
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Combine all the ingredients, except the olive oil, in a large mortar. Grind and crush the ingredients until you have a rough sauce.
Alternately, put all the ingredients into a mini-processor and grind to a loose paste.
Add the olive oil and continue to work the ingredients, whether in a mortar or processor, to make them finer, the pesto creamier.
Let stand for at least 3 hours before using.
To read more of Arthur "Arturo" Schwartz musings and recipes, click here. And to buy "The Southern Italian Table" cookbook right now at Amazon, click here.
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Photograph
of the ageless martini drinkers courtesy of Jimmy Alquino, photograph of pesto mortar courtesy of Alan Richardson from "The Southern Italian Table: Authentic Tastes from Traditional Kitchens", photographs of La Fonda tapas and octopus by Ellen Grimes, photographs of Ma Peche ribs and Co Ba front may not be used without permission from Steven Richter.
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