Food

In honor of Presidents Day weekend, let’s take a culinary trip down memory lane. How our presidents dined and entertained, and how their wives handled White House-housekeeping, is not only historically significant, it is quite revealing.

Should Valentine’s Day bring a desire to look into the eyes of a loved one across a restaurant table, the annual lineup of eateries offering holiday specials includes the following.

News for Foodies

With Valentine’s Day approaching, those who envision a gourmet dinner for two at home — but don’t know how to cook one — may wish to order a heat-and-serve dinner for two from Debbie Geppert Events and Dreesen’s Catering in East Hampton. Orders must be placed by next Thursday. Packages will include a choice of appetizer, first course, and dessert, and one of four entrees: filet mignon with wild mushroom sauce, rack of lamb with fresh mint demi glace, chicken marsala, and roast loin of pork with sausage and apple-cranberry stuffing.

I have always wondered why there is the expression “easy as pie.” Pie is not that easy to make! Turns out the expression began as “easy as eating pie.” Now that makes sense. However, I am hoping that this pie column will encourage you to take the leap, perfect a piecrust, make a bunch, and keep them in your freezer so you can whip one up on a whim.

The Super Bowl this weekend is, for some, as much of an occasion for noshing as it is for watching the game. The fest begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday at East Hampton’s Harbor Grill, which serves a “bottomless” brunch buffet until 2 p.m. The cost is $14.95 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Beginning at noon, those who order food or beverages will receive a free cup of chef Damien O’Donnell’s “championship chili.”

Pasta Night

Tuesday is pasta night at the Harbor Grill, which is on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. Beginning at 5 p.m., a pasta dinner special, featuring soup or salad, garlic bread, and an entree, is offered for $17, plus tax and gratuity. Choices include pasta with clam sauce, meatballs, Bolognese sauce, or with sausage, broccoli, garlic, and olive oil.

Cavaniola’s Gourmet

I generally eat a very healthy diet. This past week, for instance, I prepared wheatberries and roasted carrots from Quail Hill Farm, and last night I had scallops. A variety of greens are always at the ready in my fridge for a quick saute or salad. I love brown rice and oatmeal and just about any recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Ottolenghi,” “Jerusalem,” or “Plenty” cookbooks, which are full of yogurt and chili peppers and all manner of eggplant and other vegetables. However, I am occasionally possessed by the desire for something naughty, wrong, not so healthful.

The Smokin’ Wolf barbecue takeout shop in East Hampton is taking orders for Super Bowl specials. The menu includes sliders, nachos, quesadillas, ribs, brisket, buffalo chicken wings, and more. For every $75 spent on food, those who order will receive a 12-pack of beer.

Weekly lunch specials are also offered by Smokin’ Wolf. This week, the specials include soup or chili made with chicken or beef, served with salad or mashed potatoes, grilled steak salad, cream of spinach soup, and grilled hotdogs with French fries for $7.75.

Closed for Reno

I love bean soups. They are cheap and easy to make, yet require some time and a small bit of attention. This makes me feel like I’m really involved in a cooking project, but, in fact, I’m just making a meal with about 73 cents worth of ingredients. They are healthy and hearty and can be a one-dish meal. You can make them thick and chunky and rustic like a chili, or smooth and silky and sophisticated.

It began with a last-minute invitation. My friend T. had just finished building his house on an island in the Bahamas. The island shall remain nameless because there are good things about the newly built community and a few not so good things. My assignment: Bring Parmesan cheese, a cocktail shaker, and swim goggles.

The Dockside Bar and Grill in Sag Harbor is closed for a winter break. The restaurant is slated to reopen in mid-February.

Gula Gula Store

Luchi Masliah of Springs, the founder of Gula Gula Empanadas, has announced plans to open a store on the North Fork, in Mattituck, in the spring. Ms. Masliah, who has been selling her varieties of empanadas, which feature fresh local produce, at farmers markets and in frozen, prepackaged form for several years, has had her sights set on a brick-and-mortar shop for some time.

Cavemen invented it. Attila the Hun enjoyed the horse-meat variety. Pioneers and cowboys survived on it. We’re not talking about your 7-11 sodium nitrate–filled teriyaki version of it, we’re talking about real jerky, homemade jerky.

Here are some recipes from “Eat Like a Wild Man,” ironically written by a woman, compiled by Rebecca Gray.

Dim Sum Jerky

Make with duck, goose, or beef

Marinade:

1 cup red wine

2 tsp. oyster sauce

4 tsp. soy sauce

4 tsp. brown sugar

2 tsp. garlic powder

Coming right up is the next Artists and Writers night at Almond in Bridgehampton, this one with Francine Fleischer, a photographer. During the special events, Jason Weiner, an owner of the restaurant and its chef, prepares a three-course meal served family-style, and the featured guest leads a discussion.

Ms. Fleischer’s work has appeared in magazines such as Vanity Fair, Conde Nast Traveler, Esquire, and Italian Vogue, and her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is a part-time resident of Sag Harbor.

Stefanie Sacks of Montauk, a chef and nutritionist who has dished far and wide about how the food we eat affects our health — she has a weekly WPPB radio show, “Stirring the Pot,” does a weekly blog, “What the Fork,” and has contributed to three books on the subject, not to mention appearing recently on “The Dr. Oz Show” — has now put her sage advice and considerable knowledge into a new book, “What the Fork Are You Eating?” to be published next month by Tarcher/Penguin.

“Bah humbug,” you may think after reading this review. Or “She sure is a Grumpy Cat!” Sorry, but this job is essentially to provide a community and consumer service. Therefore, I am obligated to tell you about a recent evening I spent pushing food around my plate and being treated indifferently for a few hours, and then paying for it.

For New Year’s Eve

Those looking toward the last night of December to have an evening meal out and ring in the new year have numerous choices as to where they might go.

Holiday Meals

When it was suggested to me that I participate in a latke-making party and write a story about it, my initial response was, “Hmmm, doesn’t sound like much of a food story. Grated potatoes fried in oil? How interesting or complicated can that be?” When I heard that a number of children would be helping, I thought, “Now it’s getting interesting.” And when I learned about all the delicious varieties of latkes in existence, I was much enthused.

Winter memberships in Quail Hill Farm’s community supported agriculture program in Amagansett are still available and cost $395 for a family. A first-time fee for new members is $50. Individual shares are $250. 

The bounty can include carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, burdock, squash, beets, celery root, parsley, dried beans, wheat berries, and smoked hot peppers, among other things. Carissa’s Breads is also offering season-long bread shares through Quail Hill, and people can buy loaves individually on Friday pickup days.

This is the time of year when warm, comforting foods are very appealing. What can be even more appealing are melty-cheesy dishes like Welsh rabbit, Kentucky hot brown, fondues, and raclette. The fun of fondue and raclette is that they are interactive meals. You simply set out the ingredients and let everyone do their own thing. While some would consider fondue a meal, I prefer to have it as a fun first course, followed by a light, yet heartily packed vegetable soup like ribollita.

Cavaniola’s Traditional Swiss Fondue

It is important to use the best ingredients for best flavor. Supermarket cheeses probably won’t yield the same results, so I strongly urge you to get the best cheeses you can for this fondue recipe.

Cavaniola’s very kindly shared its recipe for fondue, and the results were spectacular. If you want, the shop will blend the cornstarch and grate the cheeses for you beforehand. Bring cheese to room temperature before beginning.

Serves two to three.

3 oz. grated Gruyere

3 oz. grated Emmental

Tree Lighting and Treats

Food will be a part of holiday festivities at two local restaurants this weekend.

Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m., the Topping Rose House in Bridgehamtpon will serve hot chocolate, hot toddies, mulled wine, and Christmas cookies during a tree-lighting ceremony. Children from the Our Lady of the Hamptons school will sing carols.

On Sunday, after a tree-lighting event at c/o the Maidstone inn in East Hampton, the Living Room restaurant there will offer a Swedish holiday dinner menu for $42 per person.

Tutto il Giorno

56 Nugent Street

Southampton

377-3611

Dinner, Thursday through Monday

Lunch, Saturday and Sunday

If you are a fan of Tutto il Giorno in Sag Harbor, you will definitely like Tutto il Giorno in Southampton. For starters, you have a better chance of getting a table. The Tutto in Sag Harbor is a tiny, or should I say “piccolo” restaurant with a mere 38 seats that fill up fast. The Tutto in Southampton is much bigger and airier, but has similar, attractive decor and plenty of banquettes with pillows.

Highway Diner and Bar

290 Montauk Highway

East Hampton

527-5372

Dinner Wednesday through Sunday

Lunch Saturday and Sunday

Holidays at Harbor Grill

The Harbor Grill in East Hampton is once again offering a deal for those who purchase restaurant gift cards for the holidays. For every $50 gift card, the purchaser will receive an additional card worth $10; for every $200 gift card, a $50 gift card will be issued as well. The offer will be good until Jan. 1.

Book on Sweets

For those whose Thanksgiving plans don’t include trussing and roasting a turkey at home, there is the following list, by no means exhaustive, of places where one could eat or get takeout for the holiday next week.

Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton will serve an a la carte Thanksgiving dinner all day next Thursday — turkey along with lobster, lamb, and burgers. Child-sized portions will be available.

Lights! Carrots! Action! It was Colin’s Carrot-Palooza at Estia’s Little Kitchen last week, as splashy a media event as you can expect for a Wednesday . . . in November . . . for a vegetable. There were local rock star chefs and their Daucus carotas, served raw, steamed, and in various dishes. The carrots, that is.

Heading out to Montauk for a weekend drive? Inlet Seafood restaurant, which has a harbor and Block Island Sound view from its high spot on East Lake Drive, is serving lunch and dinner Fridays through Sundays, and a Sunday brunch.

Zagat Comments

The 1770 House restaurant in East Hampton has asked its fans to sign in to the Zagat dining guide website and weigh in on the eatery. Zagat is doing its first survey of Long Island restaurants in several years. Comments can be made at zagat.com/vote through Jan. 6.

Slow Food Reps

South Fork

Kitchens Cafe

Student Center

Stony Brook University

239 Montauk Highway

Southampton

Open from 11-2 Weekdays

A few weeks ago a friend asked if I would like to sample some of the best, freshest, cheapest food available, in other words, one of the best-kept secrets on the East End. How is it I didn’t know of this special place, this little jewel of a cafe, open five days a week for lunch? One reason could be that it is essentially a Russian nesting doll.