FORK PLAY June 1, 2011 Delicious Sex Redux. Taste of Home. Dutch Treat. MP Taverna. My Career in Chocolate. Zero Otto Nove. Dear Friends and Family, Launching my candid, explicit, funny and surprisingly practical 1986 erotic classic Delicious Sex in a 25th  Anniversary Edition as an e-book last week reminded me of different times. I had been so sure this playful 1986 guide with menus, recipes and sexual fantasy chits to cut out and pass around would be a best-seller, like my 1976 novel, Blue Skies, No Candy. I was boldly sharing the seduction insights I'd gathered in a decade of being single and grownup in the golden age between the pill and the plague in chapters like "Feeling Good in Your Bedroom," "60 Ways to Turn Him/Her On," "Verbal Foreplay," "Fork Play," "Floor Play," "Ford Play," "Fur Play" and "Fjord Play."
But by the time it came to print, AIDS was thr eatening to go full blown in the heterosexual population. Cautiously, my publisher wrapped the book in pink and pearls. The ads looked like a pitch for hair-growth tonic. True, self-documented sexual adventurers like Craig Claiborne of The NYTimes called it "one of the most amusing, serious and outrageously humorous books on the subject of sex I've ever read." I felt it never really had its chance.
Now it's back for just $4.99, a download on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, with the original illustrations by Dave Calver and a delightful new cover by Diane Velletri. In this cool new era when both men and women come to bed in t-shirts with their notebooks and cell phones, Delicious Sex seems more needed than ever. And it's never been more delicious. ***
My 100th edition of Fork Play today shares the colors of the cover on the new Delicious Sex -- lipstick red and sunburn pink. *** A Taste of Home
In recent years we have had strict limits on ticket sales and set staggered arrival times for what always turns out to be th e best food event of the year, with dancing under the stars at Citymeals-on-Wheels' annual Chefs Cookout in Rockefeller Center Garden. That makes it less crowded on the esplanades and in the garden and in the Patina Group restaurants given to us for the night. It will be easier to collect a plate and a glass of wine from this year's family wineries and more than 40 chefs from across the country cooking "A Taste of Home." This past weekend sales were near capacity, but I asked our special events department for 75 discount tickets to sell to Fork Play friends and readers - $400 instead of $600. I'd love to see all of you there. Call 212 687 1290 now with your credit card in hand and use this code GGCMOW.
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The Dutch Treat
There is a signature gutsy-ness in Andrew Carmellini's complex American classics at The Dutch in Soho. From the day it opened, it was crowded in all three rooms - the no reservation bar, the Oyster Room and the quieter dining  room that looks into the kitchen. I couldn't wait to taste. I joined a friend (who had partner Josh Pickard's private email) at a big u-shaped booth and watched food world professionals and nocturnal smoothies gather late-ish. For me, one meal wasn't enough. I needed to go back and explore the cider-glazed crackle of the big fat pork chop and the lush richness of creamed Vidalia onions on silken polenta alongside. By the time the chef's smart gentrification of old fashioned veal pizzaiola arrived, I was worried I wouldn't have the spirit to rally for rhubarb pie. But I did. Find out exactly what you want to order. Then figure out how to get in if you can. Read more, click here. 131 Sullivan Street NE corner of Prince.
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With Love from the Bronx
The Food Maven, my long time friend Arthur Schwartz, led us to discover Zero Otto Nove in the Bronx. The free-form slightly crispy pizzas lived up to advance notice and it was a kick wallowing in old fashioned Italian home  cooking in Roberto Paciullo's charming recreation of a piazza in Salerno, complete with trompe-l'oeil winding streets and a balcony. Raves like mine clearly inspired Paciullo to try to recreate that Arthur Avenue experience in Manhattan on 21st Street in a failed sushi spot just west of Fifth Avenue. Instead of hiring a decorator as he had in the Bronx, he did it all himself, he told us on our first early visit, pulling up a chair to our table. "My father was an artist so I should be able to do it," he reasoned, pointing proudly to arches he'd drawn everywhere for the builders. "Everything you see is me," he said.
Look around, you'll get the idea, even though the real posters he picked up in Salerno are not exactly decorative. His pizzas are more faithful to the Neapolitan style than I remember them from upcountry. The toppings are excellent - especially the spicy sopressata sausage - and the crust is full of flavor, but too soft for me. There is a full menu of appetizers from grilled octopus and calamari alla  peperonata to eggplant and zucchini parmigiana, insalatas and sides, entrees like whole branzino al forno, brick-flattened Cornish hen, short ribs braised in beer, from $16.95 to $27.95. But our tasting crew stuck to pizzas and pastas: spaghetti with tiny meatballs, the evening's special bucatini with asparagus and favas, very good linguine puttanesca you see pictured here. I ordered rigatoni Salernitana baked in an oval dish with delicious small meatballs, sopressata, ricotta, mozzarella, sliced egg and tomato sauce. It looked like the kitchen sink but I loved it. 15 West 21st Street.
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Psilakis on the Road
Having exited partnerships in Mia Dona and his three star, sadly shuttered Anthos, then confounding fans as well  as critics with philosophical digressions on his menu at Fish Tag, nothing Michael Psilakis does surprises me. Not just to find him seemingly somewhat subdued, even, he insisted, humbled and more mature, spreading the gospel of Greek food in Roslyn. Friends who weekend not far away and lament their corner of Long Island as a culinary wasteland couldn't wait to check out MP Taverna. It was only the third night but they almost fell back at the powerful roar as they walked in. They escaped to a quieter upstairs dining room to report, "Already amazing."
Will you make the detour too? Are you a Psilakis groupie? Do you love an occasional out-of-town adventure? Then you must. I'm suggesting it's a good spot to pause on the Friday drift to the Hampton. Linger over dinner, share sensational meze, follow my advice by clicking here and then rejoin the traffic snake to the beach in a mellower mood. 1363 Old Northern Boulevard. Roslyn, NY. 516 686 6486
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Watch Out Jacques. Chocolate Is Me.
Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods sent  me a chocolate bar he'd designed. And yes, it was a little bizarre for me, studded with coffee beans. But it sent me to the source, Chocomize.com, to design my own. I had no trouble deciding between dark, milk or white Belgian chocolate. It would be dark, of course, $3.95. But then I was overwhelmed by so many choices of nuts and fruits, seeds and spices, and candy! Gummi Bears, Oreo pieces, crushed peppermint, sprinkles, mini-pretzels, real or vegetarian bacon. With add-on prices, 40 cents for sea salt to $1.85 for beef jerky, up to $3.25 for 24 karat gold pieces.
I created a wildly overloaded bar and then couldn't find my way through checkout. Next day I got a call suggesting I order four  or five bars for the same $4.95 postage, offering to take my order verbally and give me a $10 discount at the end. That helped calm me down. I discarded the acai and blueberries and the chocolate covered mints and focused on citrus with surprises. I would share with foodie friends and get their reactions. If the bars were awful, Chocomize (they surprised me with a $32.05 credit for all four) and I would share the blame. Frankly, I thought the fixings should be inside, not scattered across the top.
At Daniel, five of us shared the dark chocolate bar ($7.35) with orange peel, diced lemon peel, cayenne pepper and papaya dice, and a second creation ($6.70) with roasted pistachios and butterscotch and toffee bits. There was a cayenne objector and a cayenne lover. I was pleased with both and it didn't seem to matter that the embellishments weren't tucked inside.
After a night of excess at Beauty and Essex six of us divided a ($6.35) bar with sea salt, curry powder, dark chocolate chips and butter-toasted peanuts. Maybe the curry could have been hotter. Maybe my first bite lacked salt, but the second was perfect. The toasted peanuts were genius, if I must say so myself. Alas, the fruit in my sour cherry, mango, toffee combo ($6.70) was too big and too chewy.
If this wanton chatter drives you to Chocomize.com, and you decide to order, be sure to enter Fork Play as your coupon code for a 10% discount.
Break an egg.
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Photographs of The Dutch hanger steak, Zero Otto Nove's pizza and pasta, and MP Taverna's lamb may not be used without permission from Steven Richter.
Fork Play copyright Gael Greene 2011.
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