Feed Me
The dish on Long Island's restaurant and food scene
Erica Marcus
Erica Marcus has covered food for Newsday since 1998. She has written features about the origins of Grandma pizza, the controversy over matzoh brei, the mystery of the soft-shell lobster and many many articles that attempt to justify the hundreds of dollars she spends every year on knives and knife-sharpening. Since 2005 she has written a weekly column, Burning Questions, in which she answers readers questions. In 2002 her article, “A Knish is Still a Knish,” was nominated for a James Beard award, and in 2003 she won the New York Newswomen’s Club Front Page award for her “Food Without The Fuss: a history of TV Dinners.” After graduation from Swarthmore College, Erica took a job at Crown Publishers, first in production and later in editorial. She rose to the rank of Senior Editor and worked on a wide range of books, including many award-winning cookbooks. She left book publishing for newspaper journalism the same year she left Manhattan for her ancestral home of Brooklyn, where she still lives. She eats most of her meals on Long Island.
Ground turkey: Not a safe bet
Photo credit: Jordan Gibbons
Think ground turkey is a healthful alternative to other ground meats? It may have less fat than some beef and pork, but it may also be a hotbed of bacterial contamination.
For an eye-opening investigative article that just went up on its website, Consumer Reports studied 257 samples of raw ground turkey and patties purchased at retail stores nationwide and found that more than half tested...
Read more »The Riverhead Project: Chef changes
Photo credit: Doug Young
Greg Ling, who had been executive chef at the Riverhead Project since it opened in May 2011 (and earned three stars from Newsday's Peter Gianotti), has left the restaurant. Taking over for Ling is Roy Wohlars who was, until recently, executive chef at South Edison in Montauk. According to owner Dennis McDermott, Wohlars will introduce a new seafood-focused menu in the next few weeks.
When...
Read more »This week’s restaurant reviews
Photo credit: Barbara Alper
In this week’s Newsday, Peter Gianotti visits Hemisphere in Bay Shore, a self-described “bar-lounge-restaurant” which “comes across in exactly that order. The stylized, upbeat spot livens up nightlife in Bay Shore with high-decibel music and high-octane beverages.” The kitchen is under the direction of Jeffery Slade (most recently at Madison’s on Hillside in Williston Park) whose “carefully manicured...
Read more »Madison’s on Hillside: Closed in Williston Park
Photo credit: Johnny Simon
Madison’s on Hillside, which opened last September at 38 Hillside Ave. in Williston Park , has closed, according to Joe Lester, chef-owner of The Ivy Cottage, Madison’s predecessor. The attractive New American restaurant earned two stars from Newday's Peter M. Gianotti when chef Jeffrey Slade was in the kitchen. (Slade has since moved on to Hemisphere in Bay Shore.)...
Read more »Opera House in Roslyn Heights: First bites
Photo credit: Newsday/Erica Marcus
Opera House, the four-month-old Asian-fusion restaurant that opened in the former Roslyn Heights home of Tofu, proved to be a very mixed bag on a recent visit, with high highs, and very low lows.
I was there with a friend who had never tried honey-walnut shrimp, the resolutely inauthentic and improbably delicious Chinese dish made from battered, deep-fried shrimp and sugar-infused, deep-fried...
Read more »Cavaniola’s opens a Greenport branch
Photo credit: Katelyn Luce
Cavaniola’s, Sag Harbor’s specialty market, has opened a satellite location inside Vines & Branches, the olive oil and balsamic emporium on Main Street in Greenport.
Michael and Tracey Cavaniola preside over a little gastronomic empire that also includes a cheese store, takeout shop and wine cellar in Sag Harbor and a Manhattan branch in TriBeCa. The Greenport store opened on April 10.
Tracey...
Read more »Eric’s Italian Bistro opens in Mineola
Photo credit: Handout
Rejoice, George Echeverria fans. Today marks the official opening of the chef’s new restaurant, Eric’s Italian Bistro in Mineola
Echeverria’s first restaurant, Soigne in Woodmere, was a South Shore favorite for eight years before the chef headed north to Huntington to join the team that opened Amicale in Huntington in 2011. A year later he took over the kitchen at Andiamo in Mineola, with...
Read more »La Piazza in Melville: The rush to capellini cakes
Photo credit: Newsday Erica Marcus
Perusing the lunch menu today at La Piazza in Melville, I was immediately drawn to the capellini cakes ($11), described as “golden-fried pasta cakes, stuffed with green peas, Parma prosciutto, mozzarella, over pink sauce.”
How could those be bad? They sound like the fried capellini balls at King Umberto in Elmont, one of the tastiest morsels on Long Island. I ordered the appetizer as soon...
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