Since I believe in getting things off my chest quickly and moving on, I'll start with one of our two meals out.
I thought that it would be a good idea to head to World Pie on a Monday night in Bridgehampton. We had picked up Thibault on Saturday on East End Avenue near Gracie Mansion and had driven directly to the shore for a week’s vacation but still hadn’t quite regrouped as a family of four after his 8 weeks North. I thought that it would be quiet on a Monday. No one told me that it was Moms-take-as-many-children-under-six-as-you-can-gather and-their-nannies-out-for-dinner night. Mothers and young daughters alike had long tangled hair, sun dresses and metallic sandals. The nannies were not as flashy but enjoyed wine at the table with the crew, dealing with their young charges while the Moms busied themselves with their iPhones. Did I mention that the kids were a combination of terribly spoiled, over-dressed in designer kiddie apparel and frighteningly sophisticated? There were very few men in the crowd and oddly, the children were overwhelmingly girls. I took Nora to the restroom which was also overrun with them, two to a stall! More were roaming unattended through the outdoor dining space, including a child named “Gracie” who crawled under our chairs a few times to access the back yard area where she climbed onto another chair and pounded her little entitled fists on the window of the dining room. One or two times an adult appeared and sighed, “Gracie,” only to disappear again.
I almost forgot! World Pie is a restaurant. It was so distracting that I almost neglected to mention the food which is okay, and the pizza, which is pretty darn good. It was really far better than that. And our long-suffering Lithuanian waiter was top notch and made me laugh when he caught my eye and said that usually he needs at least two martinis before coming work.
We had three salads to start with. Nora had fresh mozzarella with tomatoes and pesto dressing, something she was recently turned onto. Thibault had the Caesar Salad and Sylvain opted for radicchio, endive and arugula. I nibbled here and there. Nora adored hers but I thought that they were all just okay. When you are used to eating only local produce all summer, the mass-produced stuff trucked in from afar just doesn't cut it. With the explosion of small farms on the East End now and a great organic movement, there just isn’t any excuse to serve anything else!
For main courses we ordered three small thin crust pizzas – one plain, one Puttanesca and one shrimp with roasted red peppers. All were excellent, especially my choice of Puttanesca. Remember that Pasta Puttanesca is supposedly “whore’s pasta,” made quickly in the ten minutes or so between clients - chopped anchovies, black olives, capers, garlic and parsley. It translated well to pizza and the proportions were just right and enhanced the pie and rather than overwhelmed it. Yum!
We devoured our wonderful pies, paid our substantial Hamptons bill and got the heck out of there. We’ll come back for the food and the service but I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until it is off-season.
We had much better luck on our second night out, as I knew we would, at La Fondita, a family favorite. The food is excellent, the setting is fun and unpretentious. Food is ordered at the counter and then taken to picnic tables scattered across the lawn near a neighboring garden center. The grounds are fun to roam while waiting for food and kids love exploring the forest of giant bamboo.
I tried the pollo tostada, a corn tortilla filled with shredded chicken, refried beans, lettuce, pico de gallo, queso fresco and crema, and the elote con mayonesa y queso, corn on the cob slathered with mayo and coated with fresh cheese and chili powder. Both were excellent washed down with an icy Negra Modelo! Sylvain reveled in his tongue taco appetizer. I still am not sure if he orders it because he actually likes it or to see people's reactions. It's probably a bit of both.
When we go to Bridgehampton for summer vacation each year with extended family, more often than not the best meals are those we make at home. They are pure and uncomplicated and usually feature grilled meat or fish accompanied by grilled vegetables, corn on the cob and various salads. Over the course of the week we enjoyed t-bone steak, Griggstown Farm chicken sausages, monkfish, tuna and lemon-marinated chicken on the grill.
Side dishes included heirloom tomato salad, tomato and mozzarella salad, mixed greens with sesame dressing, grilled summer squash and eggplant, and an amazing salad that Thibault cooked up of artichoke hearts, beans, red peppers and zucchini!
In spite of the intense development of the Hamptons and in fierce defiance of it (or perhaps because of the demands of the people behind it), a growing movement of local farmers growing organic produce, making artisanal cheeses and raising livestock has been steadily growing over the years. As a result, there are some great area farm stands. Our local favorites are the Pike Farm and the Mecox Bay Dairy stands. Also, the Saturday morning Sag Harbor Farmer's Market has small but broad selection. We picked up a bag of beautiful Satur Farm mesclun with bright orange nastursium blossoms and a box of miniature Japanese lemon cucumbers the size of olives at their stand. We also bought some tiny yellow pleurotus grown in Bridgehampton by David Falkowski and a wedge of local cheddar from Arthur Ludlow of Mecox Bay Dairy. An amazing lunch resulted! Of course prices are high but so is the cost of farming on the East End.
One morning Dad, Thibault and I set out early to beat the crowds at Loaves and Fishes. I had read in Edible East End that Anna Pump, my former boss, had a new cookbook out and anyway, we needed some pies.
The simple white-washed space was unchanged since my long ago summers working there and some of the classic original salads remained joined now by more recent additions. Pies were just being pulled steaming from the ovens and set on the sill behind the counter. A clever idea as Dad observed. We selected a blueberry and a peach-blackberry. We also bought a couple of baguettes, also still warm from the oven, and three copies of “Summer on a Plate” which Anna graciously signed for us. One of the baguettes made it home, the other we finished off in the car between the three of us. That night many of us agreed that the pies were the best we had ever sampled.
Seeing Anna and revisiting my culinary past reminded me of her role in the direction my life later took. Even though she was a no-nonsense boss and I didn’t much like her at the time, I loved the hours I spent working in her kitchen for the summers of 1981 and 1982. I appreciate now what I learned from Anna about food, cooking, dealing with difficult customers and running a business. Now that I think of it, after my mother she was the first in a long line of women who instructed me in “cuisine de femme.” Another was the infamous Martine who I worked for in Corsica and oddly enough had run into at the Sag Harbor Farmer's Market in July.
I biked to work those summers to start the day at 7 a.m. Thursday to Monday. In spite of the early start to the day, I was out most nights and would get a ride to the beach for a swim during my lunch hour. I’d head again to the beach after work. I had a job, a great social life, and was living completely independently at the beach. If I had complaints, they are forgotten! The pleasures I get from time spent in Bridgehampton have clearly evolved over the years since my childhood and young adulthood, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. The trick is focusing on what is still wonderful and valued and blocking out the distracting noise of Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Ferraris.
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