Thursday, August 28, 2008

These days, it's hard to get past the tomatoes and white sweet corn at the Union Square Green Market but recently, the Forks made two wonderful discoveries - shishito peppers and fairy fairy tale eggplants!

Let's start with Japanese shishito peppers. These long little peppers are big in flavor. The name means "Chinese Lion" and they were originally brought to Japan by the Portuguese. They began being a hot little pepper but over the years, they've become milder and sweeter. Keep your eyes out on Fridays for YUNO'S FARM stand that carries them. Simply divine when sauteed in olive oil and coarse sea salt or Kosher salt.

These are the fairy fairy tale eggplants. They are the mini version of the small fairy tale eggplants. Maybe they're picked early? What matters is how sweet and delicious they are. Here's a simple recipe. Cut off the tops (careful, not too much or you'll lose it), then slice in half and coat with olive oil. BBQ or sautee in a frying pan and your soul will be captured. They're divine!Eat the bounty of the season before it's over! The Union Square Green Market runs on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday - vendors change on the different days.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

We heard the raves and now, we can rave ourselves. We went to dell'anima with TDF alums, Frances Cassidy and Karin Lundell for a belated birthday celebration. It was amazingly delicious and exciting because the menu has such new offerings.

dell'anima means "of the soul" in Italian. With a menu that changes daily, this restaurant will surely steal yours. As you can see by this photo, we were not the only diners in this restaurant enjoying ourselves. I can't wait to go back and here's why. The bruschette. You have a choice from one to five. We recommend trying all five - this too changes so write in and tell us the ones that you picked. My fave was the egg and bottarga. The bread is divine too - crispy and toasted with oil. The salads were so fresh. The two that we tried were the chicories salad served with robiolina cheese and campari-honey dressing - and the endive salad with an anchovy citronette and pecorino.The open kitchen in this restaurant adds to the excitement of the food - you can watch the chefs cooking it and the aromas can drive you wild while you wait for your dish to find its way to your table.

The pastas are divine. They too change daily. We never made it past the pasta to get to the secondi choices on the menu. The only part of the meal that didn't hold up were the desserts - not as memorable as the rest of the meal.