Food

    There are a couple of springtime treats in our waters right now, often only available in spring and fall as the water temperature changes. Weakfish, also known as sea trout and by their Native American name “squeateague,” are a delicious, delicate, finely textured fish. Due to their delicacy, they must be consumed when “fresh, fresh, fresh” as Mrs. Condie Lamb instructed in the 1965 L.V.I.S. Cookbook. The name weakfish is misleading, as they are feisty fighters. But due to the weakness of their mouths, hooks often rip loose just as they are caught, allowing the fish to escape.

    If David Burke, a well-known restaurateur, were to have a precocious baby chef it would be Matthew Guiffrida. His new Muse in the Harbor echoes the whimsy and quirkiness of Burke’s signature dishes: various foods shaped into lollipops, riffs on Tater Tots, tuna trios, and pork extravaganzas.

    As the spring season marches forward, more restaurant chefs are striding back into their kitchens to man their stations for the season.

    In Montauk, the Clam and Chowder House on West Lake Drive has reopened, and is serving dinner on Thursday through Sunday, and lunch also on Saturday and Sunday.

    Gosman’s Dock reopens tomorrow night. Lunch and dinner will be served daily, except Tuesday, at the restaurant perched at the mouth of Montauk Harbor. Drinks are served till midnight.

    In Montauk, Fishbar has reopened for the season. The restaurant is on East Lake Drive, overlooking Montauk Harbor, and has a new chef, Shawn Christman. For now, Fishbar is serving dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 9 p.m.

Hampton Coffee Competes

Amazing Sorrel Soup

    This recipe is adapted from Patricia Wells’s “At Home in Provence.”

    Serves four to six.

3 oz. fresh sorrel leaves, stemmed, washed, and dried (or you can substitute watercress)

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature

2 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 small onion, peeled and sliced into thin rounds

6 oz. starchy potatoes, peeled and diced

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock

1 cup heavy cream

Salt and pepper

   Other than the lack of rain, this spring has been beautiful. But what has amazed me the most are the hardy little herbs that survived the entire winter and are now going gangbusters in the garden.

   Those looking to prepare a meal with fresh spring color, as well as the comfort and warmth of rice and spice, might enjoy one of the most popular entrees served by the Seafood Shop in Wainscott.

    The new executive chef on board, Paul LaBue, who brings 23 years of experience, most recently at Navy Beach in Montauk, to the job, shared the shop’s recipe for a traditional paella dish to feed four.

New at Montauk Harbor

    Sam Joyce, a longtime chef at Gosman’s restaurant in Montauk, is opening his own place not far away on West Lake Drive. Calling it Sammy’s, he is taking over the spot where Clemente’s used to be. The menu includes appetizers such as Montauk oysters, tuna sashimi, “Irish nachos,” which feature homemade potato chips with traditional nacho toppings, and lobster salad tacos.

    The Palm restaurant in East Hampton is offering a three-course prix fixe dinner for Easter for $58.90 per person, plus tax and tip. The meal will begin with a choice of salad or lobster bisque, followed by filet mignon served with a choice of panko fried shrimp, bacon-wrapped scallops, jumbo shrimp, or jumbo lump crab cake. Dessert will be New York-style cheesecake or creme brulée. Reservations have been suggested.

    Pierre’s restaurant in Bridgehampton will serve an Easter brunch from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m.

    Jennifer’s mother-in-law cooks her brisket with Coca-Cola. Steve puts Spanish olives on his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Have you ever tried extra virgin olive oil drizzled over premium vanilla ice cream? Who knew these bizarre food combinations could be so good? And who was the first genius to stick a can of beer inside a chicken carcass before grilling?

   Mirko’s restaurant in Water Mill, among the longstanding eateries that have built up a dedicated base of customers from year to year, is getting set for a springtime reopening. After a winter break, Mirko’s will begin serving again next Thursday.

Bavarian Beer Haus

    It’s confession time. Two years ago you would have found me jogging three and a half miles at least four days a week, swimming a few miles at Gurney’s twice a week, and attending frequent yoga classes. But working as a chef is tiring and I’m gettin’ old. I slacked off on the exercise and the pounds crept up on me. This is all it took to lead me to my current status as a person with hypertension: a 15-pound weight gain and sheer laziness.

   I don’t know a lot about beer but when I heard Rowdy Hall was having its 10th annual beer dinner, celebrating local recipes and foods of the East End paired with local beers, I couldn’t resist.

    If the end of summer Shoe Inn warehouse sale is the siren call to all women, then surely the Rowdy Hall beer dinner is the same for all men. Or as one of the few women attending remarked upon surveying the room, “I’ve never seen so many seated men, and so well behaved!”

    Ospreys have been sighted and restaurant stoves are heating up after winter dormancy, so it must be spring.

    At the almost-tip of East Lake Drive in Montauk, overlooking the mouth of the Montauk Harbor channel, Inlet Seafood will begin serving lunch and dinner on Thursday, extending its long weekends. Lunch and dinner is served each day.

Gluten-Free Pizza

    Those following gluten-free diets may be heartened to hear that Pepperoni’s, on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, is now serving pizza made with gluten-free dough.

A Bit o’ the Irish

    A two-course special for St. Patrick’s Day will be offered at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton on Saturday and on March 25, the day of the Friends of Erin parade in Montauk. A two-course meal for $20 will include a choice of an appetizer and entree, or an entree and dessert. Menu choices include potato leek soup, corned beef and cabbage with potatoes, bangers and mash, shepherd’s pie, and sticky toffee pudding. There will also be drink specials and, on Saturday, live Irish music from 3 to 6 p.m.

At the American Hotel

    Spring is springing, and now might be a good time to shake off the winter doldrums and go out to eat.

    At Michaels’ restaurant at Maidstone, a March to Spring food and wine dinner is being offered nightly all month. The special is $45 per person, which includes wine paired with an appetizer, entree, and dessert, or $30 per person for the meal only.

   So I went to the doctor a month ago and got the bad news. All of a sudden I have high blood pressure. My entire life I have had low blood pressure. The blood pressure of a lizard sunning herself on a mesa in New Mexico — chill, baby, chill! The doctor recommended the DASH diet. DASH is a silly acronym I keep forgetting. It’s something like “diet to abolish stupid hypertension.” No, seriously, it’s “dieting approaches to stop hypertension.”

   Sunset Beach Farm memberships are available for the 2012 season of community-supported agriculture. The crops are grown using planting methods based on earth and moon patterns, without pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers.

    The farm has an acre of its own in Sag Harbor and has leased two in Amagansett. Farmers will harvest spinach, chard, kale, and peas in the spring, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, and peppers in the summer, and carrots, beets, sweet potatoes, turnips, and cabbage in the fall.

New Muse

    Muse in the Harbor will open today on Sag Harbor’s Main Street. Matthew Guiffrida, the chef and owner, who opened Muse Restaurant and Aquatic Lounge in Water Mill in 2007, has closed that location and will turn his attention to the new eatery, which is in the building that formerly housed the JLX Bistro.

    The space has been redone, with driftwood floors and light blue and silver-gray colors, and includes a Muse “signature design element”: a lighted, 8-foot-by-4-foot fish tank filled with tropical fish.

little/red

76C Job’s Lane

Southampton

283-3309

Lunch Wednesday through Sunday

Dinner Tuesday through Sunday

   The space at 199 Pantigo Road, previously occupied by Pumpernickel’s Deli, has an eye-catching sign in front of it now, heralding the opening of Fish 27, a new seafood store with a familiar face or two.

    The shop is a mom-and-pop venture. Actually, it’s pop-and-son, owned by Jay Gold, a former Clio-winning commercial editor and director, and his son, Derek Miller, who has been in the seafood business on the East End for 15 years.

   At 8 p.m. tonight, Montauk, and a notable number of the hamlet’s standouts, including the surfcaster Gary (Toad) Stephens, Capt. Amanda Switzer, the Miss Montauk party boat, Jenny Meadows, chef at the Fishbar, Todd Mitgang of South Edison restaurant, and last but not least, Paul Melnyk, king of “skishing,” will be featured in the premiere of Ben Sargent’s “Hook, Line, and Dinner,” a Cooking Channel presentation.

   On Friday, Feb. 24, the Living Room restaurant in East Hampton will have a Taste, Wine, and Dine event. Seatings will be at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. For $98 per person, plus tax and gratuity, diners will get a four-course dinner and a tasting of six wines chosen by Chris Miller, the restaurant’s sommelier. On the menu will be duck leg cassoulet, and veal cheek braised in red wine with truffle potato purée and sweetbread-stuffed cabbage rolls.

Annual Oscar Contest

   Chances are, the last time you bit into a sweet, buttery ear of corn was five or six months ago. Wasn’t it delicious? Your last fully ripe, deeply red tomato salad scattered with herbs followed by a perfect local peach? Seems like such a long time ago.

    Perhaps you have been perusing seed catalogs, dreaming about next summer’s garden. When you go grocery shopping this time of year, do you look at the produce section and go . . . “Meh”?

   It’s fairly common knowledge by now that, as the band Queen sings, “fat-bottomed girls, they make the rockin’ world go ’round,” but can the same be said for confectionery?

    According to Donna McCue, whose East Hampton business, Fat Ass Fudge, has been on a steady spread for the past four years, the answer is yes.

   As Valentine’s Day is a holiday that gets even the most stalwart homebodies out for a meal, here is the scoop on some places where diners can celebrate.

    In Montauk, Manucci’s, which specializes in seafood as well as Italian cuisine, will offer a special Valentine’s Day menu. Items from the regular menu will also be available. Dinner is served nightly at Manucci’s beginning at 5 p.m. Reservations have been suggested.

Oyster Prelude

“If this combination doesn’t fire up the love engine, I don’t know what will.” Woo hoo! Just let it cool down first.

Valentine’s Day is coming and perhaps you have been planning a special meal for that certain someone. We tend to think of Valentine’s meals as an indulgence, perhaps an elaborate recipe, some expensive and rich ingredients, all topped off with a gooey, chocolaty dessert. Ca­vi­ar, champagne, steak with béarnaise sauce, oof!

   I am going to just say it, even though I may be labeled un-American: Super Bowl Sunday is as much about the food as it is the football.

    One of the great pleasures of working in the restaurant industry and writing about food is getting to know our local chefs. And when you get to know the chefs, sometimes you can get recipes from them. If you’re really lucky, you may get some of their signature recipes or favorite dishes to cook at home.