Summertime in Montauk

Jul 23, 2012 By Smith & Ratliff in Food, Travel 3 Comments Tags: beaches, lobster rolls, long island, momofuku, montauk, summer, tacos

On Saturday we took a day trip across Long Island to Montauk to eat lobster rolls, relax on the beach and stroll around the village.

We got our rental car as early as we could stand and, after fighting a bit of traffic on the Long Island Expressway, made it out of Manhattan and Queens towards Long Island.

Our first stop was La Fondita in Amagansett, where we paused for some lunch. La Fondita features traditional Mexican cooking, with obviously amazing fish tacos; it’s a must-visit nearly every time we go to Montauk. After getting full on tacos and micheladas, we finished the drive into town.

Our first order of business was to stock up cookies for beach lounging from the new Momofuku Milk Bar stand, adjacent to Cynthia Rowley’s cute surf-shack boutique. Armed with a box of six cookies, we hit the beach and proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the next couple of hours.

The highlight of our day was dinner at Duryea’s Lobster Deck. Not so much a restaurant as it is a fish market, Duryea’s has just a few tables where they serve the day’s catch (and of course, lobsters). Duryea’s is one the biggest seafood wholesalers in the New York area, and their restaurant—situated right on the docks—is something of a cult favorite. With a no-frills menu of fish and shellfish, cash-only and BYOB, Duryea’s is simple perfection—watching the sun set over the water while cracking open a freshly steamed lobster and sipping wine from a paper cup.

As we finished eating up our lobster roll and broiled flounder, we could hardly believe it was time to head back to the city. For the rest of the summer, every time we see one of their wholesale trucks driving through the city, we’ll immediately be transported back to those docks.

- Ryan and Laura

A Daily Dinner: Shrimp Tacos with Crema and Salsa Verde

Aug 21, 2011 By Smith & Ratliff in Food, Living 5 Comments Tags: daily dinner, mexican cuisine, seafood, shrimp, tacos

Perhaps it’s my Texan roots, but summer brings about a fierce craving for tacos.

Even though New York sadly lacks the Tex-Mex that Texas has in abundance, tacos are happily up to par. While it’s so easy to grab a taco from one of the ubiquitous trucks, I got a wild hair this week and decided to make my own.

In my opinion, “real” tacos are only served on corn tortillas (double-layered, of course) and will never see lettuce, tomatoes or processed cheese.

While today’s dinner has more of a California flair, reminiscent of San Francisco’s great taquerias, they’re still entirely authentic and also entirely delicious.

Rather than barbacoa or carnitas filling, we used plump, fresh shrimp, with their shells on. Cooking shrimp with their shells retains juices which means more flavor once they make their way to the tortilla.

After cooking the shrimp in a garlic butter, we shelled them and piled them high on tortillas, topping them with shredded green cabbage, homemade crema and salsa verde.

Shrimp Tacos with Crema and Salsa Verde

1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 pound large shrimp, shells on
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 garlic cloves, minced
8 6-inch corn tortillas, warmed
1 cup shredded green cabbage
Jarred salsa verde
Lime wedges
Kosher salt

1. For the crema, whisk together sour cream, mayonnaise, milk and ground cumin. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix the melted butter and garlic. Toss shrimp to coat.
3. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp for about 4 minutes per side or until opaque.
4. Let shrimp cool, then peel. Sprinkle with salt.
5. Divide shrimp evenly among tortillas. Top with cabbage, crema, salsa verde, and a squeeze of lime.

Tacos like these are simple to make and can be modified to suit virtually anyone’s tastes, so don’t feel as if you need to stick to a recipe too closely. Make what you like, and enjoy! Paired with an ice-cold beer and some guacamole, you simply can’t go wrong.

- Laura

Friday Night At Madison Square Eats

May 14, 2011 By Smith & Ratliff in Food, New York 5 Comments Tags: calexico, flatiron district, hong kong street cart, madison square eats, madison square park, pizza, resto, robertas, spring, tacos

Tonight, we walked over to Madison Square Park to explore the plethora of good food that has temporarily landed in General Worth Square. Madison Square Eats has brought nearly 30 food carts and restaurants to the tiny square for the remainder of May and into early June.

There’s an overwhelming amount of delicious food in such a small area, so we started by making a few laps around to size up our options. While we were deciding what we wanted to sample, we started with a homemade soda from P&H Soda Co.

P&H is Brooklyn-based and makes all of their soda syrups from fresh, all-natural ingredients. Our hibiscus lime rickey was just the right balance of sweetness, without being cloying.

Next, we wandered across Spices And Tease. The Spices And Tease booth was awash with the aroma of, well, spices and teas, and the colors and textures of the various spices and teas made for some fun photos.

They don’t yet have a permanent storefront, but their selection included some really rare things that I’ve actually never seen in the city before—dried long peppers, Ras el Hanout, and juniper berries, to name a few. They also had their own proprietary blends of rubs and teas.

Our next stop was the tent for Roberta’s. We love Roberta’s, but we don’t get to make it over to Bushwick as often as we would like, so getting the chance to have a Roberta’s pizza close to home was a treat.

We went for the Bee Sting—tomato sauce, mozzarella, and spicy soppressata, finished with a drizzle of honey. The soppressata had a nice kick, but just as the spice began to take hold, the smooth sweetness of the honey drowned it out. It was an interestingly simple combination, but certainly one that I would try again.

The Hong Kong Street Cart had a Beijing Ya bun that I wanted to try, so we got that and then headed over to former Vendy Award winner Calexico‘s cart. My duck bun didn’t disappoint, and I don’t think Ryan’s gringo ground beef taco did either.

By this point, we were pretty full so we settled in at Resto‘s comfy bar (in the middle of the Square) and shared a glass of Allagash White Ale. (By the way, we didn’t try it, but Resto apparently has a pig’s head Cuban sandwich that is so good that they keep selling out. Maybe if you get there early enough, you’ll get to see for yourself.)

The evening wasn’t complete without one last treat though—a hand-shaved ice with rhubarb syrup.

Madison Square Eats runs through June 3 and is open every day from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Enjoy!

- Laura