Food

Whether you prefer to celebrate New Year’s Eve by dancing or indulging in a gourmet meal, local venues are offering plenty of festive ways to ring in 2020. Reservations are recommended in all cases.

The holidays are coming up — Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s. This means shopping, parties galore, and possibly travel. Don’t go broke; make some original and creative food gifts or go out and buy some local ones.

Whether an "accidental caterer” or neophyte dinner party host, preparing bistro food like a cassoulet is both a life saver and a crowd pleaser in its cozy simplicity.

Specials for the holidays, a new tasting room for Sagaponacka vodka, a family style Asian dinner at Bridgehampton Inn, and more

A holiday party, a dinner benefit to keep Sag Harbor warm, taco and pizza specials, and more.

Some of the essentials of Brunswick stew, it can safely be said, are chicken, tomatoes, lima beans, and corn. From there it can include any number of pork products, kielbasa sausage, bacon, and more.

Winter community farm shares at Quail Hill and restaurant specials on the East End.

Every little hamlet should have an eatery like Bel Mare Ristorante. It is clean and casual, welcoming and very reasonably priced.

Best Pizza & Dive Bar

2095 Montauk Highway

Amagansett

631-668-8378

Thursday and Friday, 3-10 p.m.,

Saturday and Sunday, noon-10 p.m.

Thanksgiving options for dining in or taking home from several venues and some Greek specialties for the holiday season

Thanksgiving at home courtesy of Carissa, drawing and drink at Townline, a wine class, and new specials.

There are two books about cooking that have been published recently, one with deep, deep roots in the community and one more along the lines of celebrity chef autobiography with recipes.

LI Restaurant Week continues, a four-course vegan dinner at Almond, a Beaujolais wine dinner at Fresno, and more

Among the many other reasons a wine dinner at the Halyard piqued my interest was the fact that it began at 4:30. The restaurant is located at the groovily refurbished Sound View in Greenport, a motel so close to the Long Island Sound that you feel like you are on a boat, not on Route 48.

I read an article the other day that claimed that if everyone gave up meat and dairy (animal products) at breakfast time, the environment could be improved by 20 percent. I barely eat breakfast, but this suggestion seems daunting nonetheless.

Seasonal specials, Long Island Restaurant Week, a new Artists and Writers Dinner at Almond, a Night Out With Beth O'Donnell at Golden Eagle and Nick & Toni's, and more

A branch of Provisions Natural Foods Market and Organic Cafe has opened at the Mill shopping center in Water Mill.

Chowder mavens had their fill over the past two weekends in East Hampton. On Oct. 12, the Montauk Chamber of Commerce held its 38th annual Fall Festival, which included a clam chowder contest. Then, on Saturday, the East Hampton Historical Farm Museum held its second annual chowder contest. On both occasions, Laura Donnelly was a judge.

Wine is the focus with a dinner at Lulu's Kitchen and class at Park Place Wines and Liquors coming up this week, Coche Comidor is serving brunch, a new after-school special premieres this week at Rowdy Hall, and more.

Charlie Whitmore has been a vegan for 30 years. After a surfing trip to Mexico about eight years ago, he returned with a desire to learn how to make his own tortillas for his family's Taco Tuesday nights. Laura Donnelly was invited to one of these Taco Tuesdays a few months ago.

Oyster Fest at Gurney's Star Island, new dinner and happy hour specials, and more

Firemen may have a reputation for being excellent cooks, but members of the East Hampton Volunteer Ambulance Association think their culinary skills are unrivaled.

Is it Carissa’s the Bakery or Carissa’s the restaurant or just Carissa’s? I am talking about the newish establishment on Pantigo Road in East Hampton. No matter the name, it is an exquisite place, serving delicious food.

New specials all around, a wine dinner, and Scott Bluedorn will hold forth at next Artists and Writers night

The rapid sellout of pumpkin spice Spam leads to a rumination on how many pumpkin spice items are available to us to live a pumpkin spice life.

There is still plenty of time for you to get some big tomatoes to make sauce, smaller ones to oven dry, and corn to freeze. And you don’t want all those herbs in your garden to go to waste, do you?

Oyster night at Bell and Anchor, new prix fixe at Bel Mare, brunch is back at Nick and Toni's, and more

New seasonal specials, Oktoberfest returns to Rowdy, Harvest time at Wolffer, and Rosh Hashana treats to order

Julia Child changed the way we cook in this country. She taught us that cooking is not a chore to be finished quickly; it is a joy to be shared. Her iconic “Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume One” was published in 1961. Her program “The French Chef” was the first national cooking show, debuting in 1963.

Israeli Cuisine

In 2013, Roger Sherman, an award-winning filmmaker, traveled to Israel with Michael Solomonov, the Israeli-born chef whose Philadelphia restaurant Zahav was named the best restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation in May. The result of their visits to restaurants, wineries, home kitchens, markets, and street vendors was the 2016 documentary “In Search of Israeli Cuisine,” which illuminated the diversity of that country’s previously little-known culinary scene.