Food, Glorious Food. Seven New Discoveries.
By Karen and Erica
We love certain foods. Actually, we love pretty much all foods, but rich and creamy foods are top of the list. So we are delighted to share some new sources—new to us, at least—for rich and creamy wonders.
Butter. We use it for everything—on bread, of course, on pasta, to bake, to cook. Here is some simply wonderful butter— from Ploughgate Creamery. The unsalted cultured butter is perfect for most uses, but do try the maple syrup butter on your morning baguette. Put the pleasantly salty seaweed butter on lots of thing fish, baked potatoes, popcorn. Delicious.
Cheese. Ploughgate Creamery butter can also be obtained from Saxelby Cheesemongers. This company was started by Anne Saxelby to showcase American artisanal cheese. Ms. Saxelby tragically died, way too young, but leaves behind a vibrant organization with fantastic cheeses that make great gifts. Try something from Lazy Lady Farm.
Bread. Butter and cheese call out for bread. If you are in NYC, go to Crispy Heaven, in SoHo. Or Frenchette Bakery, in Tribeca, cleverly installed, with seating, in the lobby of a gorgeous Walker building. If you are not in our town, tell us about your favorite bakery in your home town. And if all else fails, order from Zingermans. They have the best mail order bread, in our opinion.
Olive Oil. We just discovered Masia el Altet Gold Label olive oil from Spain. Expensive, but really special.
Jam. We are inordinately fond of blood orange marmalade—indeed all marmalade. We suggest Mrs. Bridges. (Yes, the Upstairs, Downstairs cook.) She also makes fine lemon curd, another item we swoon over. What could be better than a mixture of lemon and butter??? There are of course quite a few other wonderful sources—here is a very fine list.
Salt and Spice. Of course butter also leads you to cooking and baking generally, which leads us to think about salt and spices. One of the best stores we have seen is Skordo, in Portland Maine, with a fine assortment of spice blends in particular. Skordo also has salts, which are plentiful in Portland, as you might imagine. The Salt Cellar is another resource for creative salts.
Tin Building. Finally, if you are in NYC, no matter what you need for your next major culinary adventure, start with a trip to the Tin Building, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s latest extravaganza. You can eat, drink and shop in the old South Street Seaport’s former Fulton fish market, a rollicking place in its day—at least at 5 am. JGV’s products rule in the amazingly renovated Tin Building, though he also showcases lots of small producers of fine foods. There’s wine too, and more cheese and butter and bread and all the other things that make life worth living! And if all that intense shopping tires you out, you can stop for a glass or a sandwich.
Have fun with your food!