MitchW

I have to say that watching a few playoff games here and there, I realized why these teams are still playing. I mean, I have seen some amazing defense played, along with some pretty significant clutch hitting.

Ahhh...

Did a little striped bass fishing this week. I have about 4 lbs. of filets cut up, vacuum packed, and in the freezer. Last night, I took two nice, fairly thick filets that I hadn't frozen... And cooked 'em a little Spanish style. First, I par baked some thinly sliced Yukon gold potatoes, doused in olive oil, for about 20 minutes. Then, I took the seasoned filets, put them on top, and threw some cherry tomatoes and Spanish olives all around. Back into the oven for another, oh 12 minutes, and done. A little more olive oil, some lemon wedges, and one of the best meals you can imagine was had. Oh, I also ought to mention, that when we butchered the fish a couple of hours after they were landed, I took the collars, salted and peppered, and grilled them; they were amazing.

Went out fishing for striped bass this week, with a friend who has a house (and a boat) out in Mastic Beach, which is a bit west (and a bit less fancy than) of Westhampton. At first, during the early afternoon, he wanted to play around (i.e. fish) on the jetties which line the Moriches Inlet... Moriches Inlet Now, I enjoy fishing; it's relaxing, it's fun, it allows me to commune with nature, etc. etc. You see people enjoying it, sitting on a dock or on a boat, perhaps smoking a corncob pipe or chewing on a blade of grass. Like this: This was nothing like that. My first task was putting on waders. I've never put on waders; had it not been for the fishing part, this was one of the hardest things I've ever done. These keep you dry, even while standing on the shoreline and casting into the surf, praying that you're not gonna get pulled out by the undertow, which is, let's just say, stronger than you think. (Being told to stand on one leg when you think the undertow is going to pull you down was not necessarily a comfort.) While surf casting on the beach is fun (and driving on the beach is even more fun, though sometimes it feels like driving might be like on the surface of the moon), getting onto the jetties in order to cast into the inlet, is a whole different story. For that, you have to put on boots with spikes on the bottom. Like these: Because the jetty is rocks, which are wet, uneven, slippery and dangerous. Let's also just say I didn't last too long on the jetty; my first cast get caught on the rocks, I lost the lure, and that was that. Here's a screenshot of the beach we drove along, from Smith Point to Moriches Inlet on the right-hand side. When the beach is impassable (high tide, dunes, whatever), there's a "road" just behind the beach which gets used; it makes 2nd Avenue look like the smoothest road you've ever been on. Okay, so that was fun, and after an hour or two we drove back to the house to relax a bit, and then went over to the boat to fish again, an hour or two before sunset. First, I had to put back on the damn waders, and we had to gas up the boat on the way out... Gassing up in one of the marinas at the inlet, look how beautiful it is! Also, this is one of the few pictures I could take, as it was one of the few times I wasn't holding on for dear life. Actually...I kid...a little - it was mostly pretty smooth. Getting in and out of the inlet to the ocean, not quite as smooth. One of the little pieces of advice given to me by the captain: always have one hand for the boat; meaning, if we hit a wake or a wave and start bouncing around a bit (trust me, you bounce), you want to be able to grab a rail and hold on. Out of the marina, out of the inlet, and into the ocean we went. My friend is a fisherman; i.e. he knows how to find fish. Every minute or two he would say: "Did you see that?!" My answer: "What?" You're basically looking for birds diving for bait fish, and you're looking for the ocean to boil - or what's called a blitz. While we never hit a true blitz, there were birds, there was bait, and we ended up with these beauties: Recreational striped bass fishing is highly regulated. One fish per day per person may be kept - we each caught one. And the size must be between 28" and 31" (used to be 35"), which these are. Successfully we fished the sun going down; coming back in the dark is interesting as well, but my buddy, in addition to being an experienced fisherman, is also an experienced boater. Radar helps! We went out again the next morning (or, as they like to say, at first light (I learned so much on this short trip)), but no fish were around. After a leisurely breakfast, I drove back into the city (as any experienced cab driver might do) with my gorgeous striped bass fillets. He went out again that afternoon, and caught and released a bunch of fish from the shore. I'd do it again in a NY minute! Here's what a real blitz, off Montauk, looks like:

Yes, obviously not a classic sit-down restaurant, so I guess no good reason to use a reservation platform. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C6OPkkyZb6Fq7Arowxbdmp-vAoBMWti6/view

You do have to factor in what they have to pay to the platform, no? Here, it's $0.

Phil was undoubtedly one of our favorite bartenders in the days of the serious cocktail bar renaissance.

Everyone saw this Robert Simonson piece, right? The Martini Whisperer

Try Dry Curacao?

I try to make all my food look like nuclear explosions!

Poultry shears (good ones) are your friend.

Twice-baked potatoes (one of the more annoying things to make, as it involves first baking the potatoes, removing all the baked stuff (don't burn yourself!) from the skins without fucking the skins up, then mashing the insides with in this case (perfect use for the Foley fork!) butter, sour cream, Parmigiano, herbs and spices, restuffing the skins, and baking them again), which were delicious. And chicken thigh persillade. I was so annoyed by how annoying the potatoes were to make, that I failed to even clean up the plate before serving. Oh - steamed broccoli and carrots, tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, Silk chili, salt and pepper on the side.

As a friend of mine said, one of the greatest screamers in the history of television.

And a regular donabe, as well!

I prefer to fling them from the bowl to my hand, with whatever implement they gift me!

Penne with mushrooms marinara. Roasted (heirloom) carrots with cumin, parsley and lemon.

Let us know how you like the TV dinners!

This is actually a place I'm NOT curious about... Two Bridges Luncheonette has bagels, coffee, ice cream and $3 PBR Who? What??

As Robert DeNiro once got asked, what's a mook mote?

Tis the season...

Dusted off the paella pan last night... Chicken paella. With a nice socarrat.

That must've been me, as I recently saw the tribute to Doc for his 100th birthday at the Rubin Museum. Tennessee Stud...

I'm pretty sure the same woman said the same thing to me. That's something I have not tried (not the exploding head, but fish kidneys), at least not to my knowledge.

Current Octoberfest menu has some nice stuff on it, including fried pig's feet (here called sulze), sauerbraten and a smoked pork shoulder. This is the smoked pork shoulder, over sauerkraut, and topfenknödel. We shared this dish, and I still brought some home. The greens were broccoli rabe the other night.

God bless him! Not quite in the same vein, but a number of years ago we went to see Glenn Tilbrook at City Winery. For a number of songs, one of his sons played guitar and maybe sang some background vocals. Then, for the encore, he brought out another son to play a mini keyboard...I think the kid was about 7.