Connections: Goodies Galore
Corn and tomatoes. What more could anyone want at the height of the season? Right?
But nothing, even luscious just-picked corn and tomatoes, is simple on the East End anymore. I wrote East End rather than South Fork or the Hamptons to describe this region because the food grown on the yet-to-be Hamptonized North Fork is surely among the best anywhere in the country.
We boast of perfect meals at this time of year, with fresh local fluke or porgies, perhaps, adding to the pleasure of corn and tomatoes. But no matter how good such a repast may be, it is, well, old-fashioned. The atmosphere of excess that pervades the air in these parts at the height of the season even affects the fish and produce we buy. If you have enough money, the world is your oyster, literally and figuratively.
I suppose expanding variety was to be expected. After all, for years fish markets here would sell primarily tried-and-true fish caught in local waters at the right season. Most city folks arrived here with a taste for fish and other foods from all over the world, and little awareness of why one might prefer a fish that is local and seasonal.
About three years ago, I asked the person behind the fish counter at the East Hampton Citarella if the bluefish on display was local, like the sign said, although I knew bluefish had yet to arrive in our waters. My friends at the Wainscott Seafood Shop set me straight: Certain fishmongers had taken to calling fish caught anywhere along the East Coast local. Okay. I got it.
By the way, bluefish, which my family thinks makes great eating, is so unpopular these days that it isn’t often put out for sale even when it is abundant here. Fishmongers have taken note, it seems, and are more likely to offer red snapper, for example, which is indigenous to the Gulf of Mexico.
I have no quarrel with red snapper, and, as for produce, I am willing to try almost anything that comes along. Garlic scapes, for example. I brought a quiche home the other day from Open Minded Organics in Bridgehampton, intrigued that it was made with scapes (the stalks of garlic) and fennel. It was good, and obviously more nutritious than one with traditional ham and cheese.
Checking up on the Halsey family’s Green Thumb in Water Mill, one of the longtime organic produce markets on the South Fork, I found it had gone upscale, or you might say, been carried off with the tide. It grows and sells Asian produce, including red and green mustards, mizani, tatsoi, and shiso. I haven’t looked the latter up just yet. The Green Thumb also makes seven different kinds of pesto. That’s right. Seven!
I forayed into the farmers market in the Nick and Toni’s parking lot when it first opened for the season to find numerous out-of-town vendors with high-priced goodies. Sang Lee Farms of Southold was among them. Depending on whom you ask, Sang Lee may be from away — or completely local — but, either way, I am not going to complain about the innovative and tasty sweet potato sliders I took home.
Yes, exclusive Manhattan restaurants have popped up here this summer, but in any event the East End has become more and more like the metropolis even in the food we buy and take home. If this is a revolution, I am happy to take part in it.