The Food Maven Diary
[Archives]
On the Radio, Buttermilk Falls, From the Email Bag
Many of you write to me to bemoan the fact that you can't
hear my dulcet tones and pearls of gastronomic wisdom on the radio anymore
when, in fact, you can. Every Monday morning at about 7:30, I do an
approximately 25-minute segment on Robin Hood Radio (WHDD), a National Public
Radio affiliate in Sharon, Connecticut, my old stomping grounds in the
northwest corner of the state. Naturally, unless you live near Sharon
or in the southern Berkshires (Sheffield,
Egremont, Great Barrington), you won't be able to get the signal on your radio.
However - my segments are podcast.
That means that by about 11 a.m. every Monday you can listen to the segment -
on the program called The Breakfast Bunch with Marshal Miles and Jill Goodman
-- on your computer. Go to www.robinhoodradio.com.
Click on "On Demand." Find my name in the list on the right side of the page.
Click on my name. You'll find the current segment and an archive of segments that
date back more than a year, when I started broadcasting on this station.
ESCAPING THE CITY
I didn't think I needed an escape from Brooklyn.
In August, I am usually quite happy to stay in my air-conditioned apartment
looking out over the trees of Prospect
Park. That's plenty of
green for me. I leave the house mainly to go to air-conditioned movie theaters,
the air-conditioned gym, and the air-conditioned supermarket. (Okay, lately I
go to walk on the Brighton
Beach boardwalk.)
However, at the invitation of a friend, Bob Pollack, I went
to look at and stay at his get-away property in Milton,
New York, up the Hudson River from New York City in lower Ulster County,
minutes north of Newburg. It's called BUTTERMILK FALLS INN AND SPA (www.buttermilkfallsinn.com) and
it is 70 acres of gardens and walking paths with breathtaking river views, not
to mention splendid, luxurious guest rooms and guest houses.
The spa building itself has the requisite treatment rooms
for messages, facials, reflexology, etc., an indoor pool, and a whirlpool. There
will soon be a gym, too. To the delight of children of all ages, there are
llamas and Angora goats - petting animals - in
a field, and peacocks in an aviary. An organic garden and orchard provides some
vegetables, apples, pears, and peaches for the table. A hen house provides eggs
for the sumptuous breakfasts served to all overnight guests.
The property is, incidentally, available and perfect for
weddings and other large parties. There are enough rooms and houses to sleep
nearly 50, and there are nearby hotels to house other guests. Wedding
ceremonies are held on an amphitheater-like brick terrace overlooking the Hudson. Magnificent!
Only breakfast and tea are served daily at Buttermilk Falls,
although Bob and his managers, Dan Rayburn and his wife Dina, also hire a local
chef - Mike Rozman - to come in as needed. While I was there, Mike made a pizza
and salad party, baking his pies in the beautiful stone-faced, outdoor
Neapolitan pizza oven on the main building's terrace. The next night, Bob's
housekeeper, Sophia, who is from Oaxaca,
cooked several delicious dishes for a Mexican buffet. Mike also cooks more
elaborate dinners in the tiny kitchen that is used to make breakfasts. By the
way, breakfast is a generous buffet with yogurt, fruit, bagels, bialys, cream
cheese, muffins, jams, smoked salmon with garnishes, as well as daily specials,
including egg dishes made with the inn's organic eggs. Breakfast and afternoon
tea are included in the room price, but the point I am angling to make here is
that there really is no kitchen facility large enough to do dinner justice.
Mike really has to be creative to cook for everyone in the tiny breakfast
kitchen.
This is where I come in. Across the path from the main
building, an eighteenth century house that has been expanded into the main inn,
Bob is constructing an 80-seat restaurant with a kitchen that will double as a
cooking school kitchen. He and I are planning on having classes - both hands-on
and demonstration classes - in this gorgeous facility. Yes, that means you
don't have to come to Italy
to spend some kitchen and table time with me.
My groups will cook in the morning, eat lunch together, then
everyone can go and get a message, or a facial, or take a nap, or take a walk. There
are also some cultural things to do in the area. DIA, the contemporary art
museum is nearby, as is West Point. Beacon, an
old river town has antique shops and boutiques. In the evening, we'll have
special dinners cooked by someone other than yours truly, but planned by me and
including a wine tasting.
I'll keep you posted about this. The kitchen and restaurant
building is not expected to be finished until Thanksgiving-ish. My first group
will likely be sometime in early March. I will be in Italy from Christmas until mid
February. Meanwhile, if you need an escape, you can't do better than Buttermilk Falls.
FROM THE EMAIL BAG
Carol Berman from Great Neck (not Wine Chick Carol Berman)
asked me if I knew what chicken carp is. I was pretty sure it is another name
for paprika-rubbed smoked sable, but to be sure I asked my friend Mark
Federman, third-generation owner of Russ & Daughters. His answer is so much
more complete:
"To my understanding, 'chicken
carp' was the term used in the New
York appetizing world for smoked sable when it was
first sold. Sable was introduced as a substitute for carp since it was cheaper,
cleaner tasting (carp is a bottom fish that often has a muddy taste), and less
bony. In fact, in New York, it
was smoked in the same way as carp; with some garlic and paprika. (I
believe that in Philly they don't use the paprika coating). Ultimately,
the Feds determined that it was neither chicken nor carp and could not be
called by that term, and then it became Sable or Sablefish. Occasionally
some old-timer , a Jewish Rip Van Winkle type, stumbles in looking for 'chicken
carp" and refuses to believe that the Sable we sell is the same
thing. Oh, one other point: Sable was once considered to be the 'poor
man's sturgeon.' Now it's almost as expensive as sturgeon. And, by the way, I
love a sandwich that has both gaspé salmon and sable, a thin schmear of natural
cream cheese, and a slice of tomato. What could be bad?"
By the way, Mark's daughter, Niki,
and his nephew, Joshua - the fourth generation -- now operate Russ &
Daughters day to day, and clever young people that they are, they have a
beautiful and informative website - www.russanddaughters.com.
- from which you can also order your appetizing by mail.
