Archive for Local

Huntington Farmers Market

June 24, 2008 · Filed under Local, Organic, Produce · Tagged

If you couldn’t tell, we’re huge supporters of the Huntington Farmers Market. Every Sunday morning we’re out there bright and early, picking up eggs, cider and fruit for the week.  We find that when we buy less (only enough fresh fruit/eggs for the week), we eat fresher because every Sunday we restock with fresh supplies.  We also pick up fresh cheese from the new cheese vendor and I highly recommend their feta which we always have on hand these days.  The blueberries and cherries have been great so far; wish I could say the same for Long Island Strawberries.

So, along with some photos, I’m going to include my list of can’t miss items:

Apple Cider, Cinammon Honey Sticks (5/$1), Apple Cider Donuts and Farm Fresh Eggs from the Orchards at Concklin.

Jams and tapenades from Miss Amy’s Preserves (My dad and I are partial to Peconic Blackberry and Blue Point Blueberry).

Fresh feta (or some of their raw milk cheeses) from the new cheese vendor.

Anything fresh from the Golden Earthworm organic booth; the sugar snap peas last week were gobbled up as soon as they made it home.

I urge everyone to stop by the Huntington Farmers Market on Sunday mornings and support the vendors that make it possible.  Eat fresh, local foods and see what wonders it will do for your life.

Huntington Farmers Market

Sponsor: Long Island Growers Market
Location: Elm St. parking lot, Main St., (Rt. 25A)
Time of Operation: Sunday, 7 AM to 12 Noon
Season: July through Mid November

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Forest Pork Store

June 17, 2008 · Filed under German, Local, Market · Tagged

Forest Pork Store

Having a resource like Forest Pork Store within walking distance can be really dangerous.  It’s not often that one encounters a traditional butcher store; men in white paper hats behind the counter who are actually knowledgable of their craft.  Not sure what to do with a pork butt?  Just ask and you shall receive.

With a manufacturing plant in Ridgewood (the Ridgewood retail shop closed its doors in July of 2007 after 60 years in business), the last remaining retail establishment is located on Jericho Turnpike in South Huntington, and busy does not even begin to describe the place.  I went in last Saturday morning around 9:00am and waited 10 minutes before my order was placed, even with six butchers behind the counter (I mention this only to advise you of how busy the place is.  Far, far from any complaint, I am very patient and happy to wait.  Couldn’t say the same for Number 60 who couldn’t help herself from uttering huffs and puffs every few minutes, expressing her impatience, but I digress).

In addition to a selection of imported beers, breads, candies, and other staples, the well tended meat department turns over a steady supply of fresh protein on a regular basis (would have read daily basis if they weren’t closed on Sundays and Mondays).  Definitely order a couple of TV Sticks, little finger length sausages.  Think of them like fresh Slim Jims.  I picked up four of them the other day for when I’m sitting around looking for a meat related snack (yeah I said meat).  I also picked up a half pound of bacon, of which they sell numerous varieties.  The double smoked is excellent and doesn’t require any cooking, but since I needed the bacon to make my short ribs, I picked up the regular bacon.  I also picked up a few pounds of short ribs and these great chicken pinwheels (stuffed with ham, cheese and spinach).  Something that I haven’t yet gotten into, but other Forest Pork Store veterans can’t stop preaching about, is the fresh, warm leberkase.  I’ve been handed the warm, stump of this meatloaf product before and while I definitely give the product its due respect, I still can’t get through the warm bologna feeling it gives me.  You try it out and let me know what you think.

The chop meat is always fresh and the meatloaf mix that they have makes great meatloafs and meatballs (its a mix of beef, pork and veal) and they always have marrow bones in the freezer for when you’re arteries need a little clogging.

Forest Pork Store
380 Eash Jericho Turnpike
Huntington Station
NY 11743
(631) 423-2574

Open Tues.-Fri. 8am-6pm, Sa. 8am-5pm.
Closed Sundays and Mondays

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El Picacho Catracho

March 14, 2008 · Filed under Local, Restaurant · Tagged

After the other day’s recollection of opportunities missed, it feels good to sit down today and report about a most excellent dining experience the wife and I enjoyed the other day. After picking my snowboard up from the Board Shop we stopped into the former site of Fonda Coyoacan, which Stefani and I never got to enjoy.

El Picacho 1

El Picacho Catracho is owned by two, young Huntington mill workers, one of whom hails from Honduras. It was a desire to taste this regional cuisine that El Picacho Catracho was born. As there are no authentic Honduran restaurants on Long Island, the two went into another business together, serving some of the tastiest, freshly prepared Latin food.

If it’s bought in, it’s from Honduras, otherwise everything served in this place is freshly prepared. The chips and salsa are neither bagged nor jarred and are totally addictive. We quickly finished our little snack before we jumped head first into Honduran specialties. Freshly prepared seafood soup was more than enough for two people and was full of shrimp, crab, lobster and locally sourced clams. Easily the best seafood soup we’ve had, and this is one of those dishes that we get everywhere we travel, totally trumping Cafe Jose in Montreal. Baleadas Picacho, handmade white flour tortillas filled with chorizo, avocado, beef, eggs, cheese and beans were tasty and filling as were the tacos with fresh relish and salsa.

We enjoyed our meal with freshly prepared horchata, or semilla de jicaro as it is known in Honduras. So much better than the rice horchatas served elsewhere, this milky beverage is made with ground jicaro seeds.

All in all, El Picacho Catracho is one of the best authentic, Latin cuisine experiences that we’ve had and we’re glad they’re so close.

El Picacho 2

El Picacho 3

Here’s a link to their menu:

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El Picacho
1026 New York Ave.
Huntington Station, NY 11746
(631) 683-4224

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Pumpernickels, Northport

March 12, 2008 · Filed under German, Local, Restaurant · Tagged

I’d like to begin this post with the following statement; food writers can’t love every restaurant they visit. They can’t love every dish they’re served. There are some dogs out there people, and you deserve to hear about them. Not to go so far as to bash or degrade anyone; no negative energy here, thank you, but I do feel as though it is terribly suspect when every review is a great review.It bothers me so much that once, in October, I wrote an email to a publication that has a food column and asked them if they’d ever had a meal that they didn’t like. Here’s the response I got from their publisher:

We only tell you about the good ones. If we don’t like a restaurant, we don’t print a review. As a community newspaper we are not looking to hurt small businesses in our area. We are however looking to recommend good restaurants to our readers. Try some we’ve liked and let us know what you think.

Regards,

Foodie Mike

Publisher

Now, I really can’t argue with the “small business” angle, but maybe there’s a way we can come off as seeming less like, “Invite us for a free meal at your restaurant, and we’ll write a great review.” This is like those community newspapers that let you write your own “editorial” if you buy a big enough piece of advertising, somewhere in the edition.

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest.

Pumpernickels
Now, I really wanted to like Pumpernickels. I mean, it has all the pedigree of a great German restaurant; waitresses dressed like the St. Paulie girl, gigantic German beers and a continuous operation at the same Northport location for over 30 years. This is what I’m looking for, and this is what I got. I figured that with these credentials, the German grub would be fresh and delicious. It hurts to overlook some of the less tasty bits such as the smoked salmon and the Wiener Schnitzel á la Holstein that was begging for a pan reduction sauce of some kind. My wife said that her sauerbraten was just “eh,” and following the meal it was disheartening to hear that none of the deserts were made fresh in house except for a rice pudding which cried for sugar.

Not to say that the entire experience was a bust. I still have passing thoughts about the crab salad appetizer my father-in-law ordered (who didn’t even argue as I invaded his dish with my fork) and the potato pancakes were excellent, but I’m not gonna say that there there weren’t a few hiccups that left me with a “what just happened” kind of feeling. I will definitely try Pumpernickels again, but I’m going in a little more focused than I was the first time.

Wiener Schnitzel á la Holstein
Pumpernickels
640 Main St.
Northport, NY 11768
(631) 757-7959

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Chicken or the egg?

February 18, 2008 · Filed under Local, Market, Organic, Poultry, Produce · Tagged

Makinajian Poultry Farm

There’s something about the lifeless, pale cuts of bird sold at our usual foodshopping haunts that always leaves me with this sticky, icky feeling. Cooking is not an issue. We usually buy a whole bird and break it down for what we need; sometimes roasting it whole in the rotisserie, other times fricasseeing the pieces in a dutch oven. It’s the shopping for poultry that kills me.

Without sounding too much like a hypochondriac, I’m super picky when it comes to chicken. Red, blood spots, discolored yellow/white skin kill me as does chicken packaged with bloody juices. That’s why we make the extra trip to the poultry farm to pick up fresh killed chicken and free range eggs. Makinajian Poultry Farm has been doing this since 1948. So when we go food shopping, we leave out chicken and eggs until we can make the run to Makinajian (helps that we live five minutes away). And they’ve got way more than chicken and eggs. They sell all sorts of poultry, from duck and turkey to cornish hens and capon. Plus, they’ve got all sorts of fresh, local, organic produce including local honey and fresh baked pies. The extra effort to secure a turkey on Thanksgiving from Makinajian usually results in a far greater experience than buying some Perdue bird from King Kullen.

Knowing that the chicken we eat today was probably breathing that morning means that the chicken is fresh and never frozen. Plus, instead of some large factory, profit driven machine cutting and cleaning the meat, there’s a local business owner who has been doing it his whole life. Last I checked, Frank Perdue’s phone number is unlisted, but if I need to talk to Mick, I just call down to the farm. They also have a huge selection of fresh organic produce, a lot of which is locally sourced. Local honey, cider, New York Maple Syrup and farm fresh veggies are available everyday as well as fresh baked pies and other baked goods.

Makinajian Poultry Farm

276 Cuba Hill Road, Huntington, NY 11743

631-368-9320

Store Hours: Sunday 10:00 to 3:00 Monday closed Tues. to Sat. 9:30 to 6:00

EggsFritatta

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