A blog to follow: Find. Eat. Drink.
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I’ve been following the site and blog “Find. Eat. Drink.” for a while now and find it a great source of advice on where to eat from chefs and other restaurant professionals around the country. And for cocktail enthusiasts -- and who isn’t these days -- the site also features cocktail recipes from top bartenders.
Headed to Charleston? Or Chicago? You can download PDF city guides to more than 40 cities, including Vancouver, B.C.; Santorini, Greece; and the Spanish Basque country. ‘Travel like a chef,’ urges the copy. Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens each have their own guides. California wine country, too.
I was hoping for Istanbul, but not quite yet, though you can explore guides to Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona and Madrid. Hong Kong, but no Beijing.
In Santorini, for example, fourth-generation winemaker Mattheos Argyros of Estate Argyros there recommends several restaurants, including a tavern on the beach with a sommelier. The Basque country guide includes hotels and restaurants in Getaria, Bilbao and San Sebastian, with suggestions from Andoni Luis Aduriz (Mugaritz), chefs Kevin Patricio and Alex Raij (Txikito, NYC) and Terry Zarikian (the now-closed Bar Basque, NYC) and they do know what they’re talking about.
You can also look up restaurants and chefs—Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park), David Kinch (Manresa), Sam Beall (Blackberry Farm, Tennessee), for example, for a short interview and “Chef’s 6 Things” feature. Humm, for example, gives a shout out to one of my faves, Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side, Franny’s in Brooklyn and Torrisi Italian Specialties in NoLita. And for drinks, the ever popular PDT in the East Village.
It’s almost as good as calling up the chef and asking him or her yourself just where to eat in their town.
I just printed out the recipe for the West Manhattan from David Wolowidnyk (how do you say that name, anyway?). He’s the bar manager at West restaurant in Vancouver, BC, who won this year’s Bombay Sapphire competition in Morocco and has been named ‘Best Mixologist in Canada’ by Grey Goose. His version of the Manhattan is made with rye and Vya vermouth and I can’t wait to try it.
ALSO:
April Bloomfield’s rhubarb fool
Drinks! The way the ancient Greeks did it
-- S. Irene Virbila