Lucky Eats
I’m back from my once-in-awhile great trek up north to visit family and friends, and I had some fantastic food along the way.
In the spirit of Hanukkah, beef brisket with latkes at my husband’s friend’s restaurant in upstate New York. Oy vey, it was so good. Steak frites at cozy neighborhood French bistro down the street from my friend’s apartment in Queens. A decadent but wildly budget-friendly lunch at Perry Street, the highlights being super-smooth sweet potato soup with parmesan cream, pristine Arctic Char sashimi and the couple quietly getting engaged at a nearby table. Borscht and pierogi at a Ukrainian diner in the East Village. Soup dumplings and tofu with ground pork and chili sauce in Chinatown. Mascarpone and pumpkin gelato. Lots of everything bagels (with poppy seeds, garlic, onions, sesame seeds and very important and something I always feel lucky to find on my everything bagel, coarse salt). And of course, a real NYC slice or two…okay, a whole pie with mushrooms and sausage at Lombardi’s (I shared it).
I love getting a chance to eat some of the things I can’t get find around these parts, but I have to say, it is nice to be back in my own kitchen. I’m looking forward in particular to making dinner tomorrow night for some friends. We’ll celebrate New Year’s Eve with seafood paella, which we feasted on last year, too.
Paella is perhaps Spain’s most famous dish. There are as many recipes for it as there are Spaniards, I think, but the basic idea is rice cooked with stock, almost like a risotto without cheese. I’ve had paella with chicken, artichoke hearts and sausage. This year, I’ll probably look for squid, mussels, shrimp, and small clams such as little necks. And I’m borrowing a real copper paella pan to cook everything in. It’s not essential - I made due with my largest saute pans last year after checking out paella pan prices online - but there’s a better chance that I’ll get the paella’s famous and tasty crust on the bottom of the rice, called the socarrat.
Paella is delicious, but it’s not necessarily a dish that’s traditionally thought to bring luck on New Year’s Eve and Day. If you’re looking for some of that - we could probably all use some in 2009 -you have choices beyond the Southern classics like black-eyed peas, collards and cornbread. When I lived in Pennsylvania right after college, many families with Pennsylvania Dutch roots ate sauerkraut religiously on New Year’s Day (cabbage is green, and resembles money…you may want to really load your plate this year). Italians like lentils (they look like coins) and the French like foie gras because well, it’s good and they are French. In Spain and Mexico, one New Year’s tradition is to eat 12 grapes on the stroke of midnight. Unrelated to food - they also favor wearing yellow underwear as a way to ensure success in the new year.
Whatever you’ll be eating on New Year’s Eve and Day, have a happy one!
