MOMOFUKU-PRIX FIXE LUNCH

The prix fixe lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar is so good and it's such a good deal, I don't know why I don't eat here every day. The first thing is a piece of smoked duck with a strawberry liquid. Afterwards I went to 11th Street Bar and watched Spain beat Portugal with my friend Mike.


Sweet Pea and Strawberry soft serve twist.

NSFC

Phil and I met at Northern Spy Food Co. He's become a regular there and learned that Lydia Lunch used to live in the space that is now the restaurant. Adding to the cool New Yorkiness, Richard Hell was seated at a counter right near us. I had fluke brandade, chicken with broccoli rabe (thanks to our server Olivia for taking pictures of someone else's chicken--I dove right into mine and forgot to shoot it) For dessert, we each had the raspberry sorbet with homemade shortbread. We didn't share.

TAIM

I'm not Mr. Falafel or anything, but when I get one, my favorite is Taim. They make their own bread (you can get white or whole wheat) and they deep fry each order to order. There are three different flavors of falafel:plain, harissa and green. I usually get harissa, but today I was in the mood for plain. Not such a great picture.

TUNA

Rode my bike from Montauk to Shelter Island. It was a long but flat ride, the best part was taking the ferry. We grilled pizzas and fish at Mindy's beautiful place. I guess I'll try and stop eating so much tuna.

NAVY BEACH

Jules and I had lunch at Navy Beach. It's at the end of a strip of funky houses on Fort Pond Bay. The whole thing is a little too New Yorky, it's designed to look beachy and it's pretty expensive. We had halibut cebiche and fried seafood. Afterwards we went to Coffee Tauk, I like the dumb name and the logo is kind of cool. I guess New Orleans iced coffee with chicory is a new thing in the coffee scene.

DURYEA'S

Duryea's has a great view of the sunset across Fort Pond Bay. It's BYOB. Jules and I brought a bottle of white wine and shared some steamers, scallops and flounder. They weren't that great.

MULTI AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS

Thank you to Anonymous for suggesting we check out Multi Aquaculture Systems. It's a fish farm and market that serves it's seafood right there on the bay. There are geese trying to bite you, tanks filled with fish being farmed and all sorts of lobster, conch and crab traps lying around.

GUYS

Not to sound too faggy, but I don't get to spend time with groups of men that much. So it was nice that Jules and Tony joined Ben and me in Montauk. Breakfast came together in a very natural way. Someone chopped up some leftover avocado and onion, there was some salmon, someone made eggs, someone made toast and someone else squeezed some lemon on to some arugula.

CLAM BAR

More golf, more tennis, more Wimbledon, more World Cup. Lunch was at the Clam Bar. Ben had a grilled tuna sandwich (he's kosher) I went for the lobster roll.

SUMMER SOLSTICE

The longest day of the year was very fun. Ben and I watched Wimbledon and the World Cup on TV, played golf for five hours and then tennis for two more hours. For dinner we grilled this steak and these hotdogs. Pretty manly.

RIP MANUTE BOL

I sat next to Manute Bol on a plane, he slept most of the time. It was cute to see such a giant guy asleep. He was a humanitarian.

MONTAUK

Ben and I drove out to Montauk for a week of dude-style vacationing: tennis, golf, fishing and cooking. I got these shishito peppers and snow peas at the farmers market before we left. The pasta was leftovers: snowpeas cooked in butter and garlic, with tarragon and red onions. The ugly bowl is from the rental house.

DUMONT BURGER

Kevin and I rode our bikes to Dumont Burger in Williamsburg. It's fun to sit at the bar near the window and drink a bottle of Coke and then have a beer with your burger. Afterwards we checked out some plants at the really cool store, Sprout.

IPPUDO

Ippudo is a great place to go to lunch by yourself. There are communal tables so you don't feel weird sitting alone and there are tons of girls there eating by themselves, not that I would ever speak to them. For an extra 3$ you can have the lunch "set" which adds a salad and little bowl of rice with chicken, pork or eel. I had the Shoyu Ramen.

SEL DE MER

My friend Kate B. asked me if I knew of a place that served normal, fresh seafood that wasn't "insultingly expenesive". I know what she means. Every seafood place I know in NYC makes me angry. It's not good and it's expensive or they ruin it with a bunch of sauce. My favorite is in East Williamsburg, Sel de Mer. It's tiny. They have tons of specials and tonight they were out of clams which was disappointing but a good sign. Our whole meal including wine and dessert was $60 a piece, a great deal.

We started with some fries while they cooked and then chilled our shrimp cocktail and lobster.

These scallops were on top of pureed pear with rosemary, which would make the best baby food ever.

Sea Bass with corn pudding and roasted tomatoes.

Corn on the cob.

MOTT AND SARA

Mott, Sara and I cooked up the stuff we got at Marlow and Daughters for their kids Georgia and Lily and their friends. The weather was perfect in Oyster Bay. We made sausages on the grill.

Ricotta with olive oil and thyme on grilled bread

As I was taking these pictures I was thinking (and even said out loud) "I wouldn't like me if I read this blog"... And for lunch the next day we grilled burgers with ground beef from Marlow and Daughters. This was one of the best I've ever had.