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Food

Of capers and cupcakes: Big Apple trends headed our way?

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published May 24, 2006

NEW YORK

Spring in Manhattan means good eating despite the grumbling and kvetching about the James Beard Awards.

The second guessing is legitimate but not half the fun of a few days of grazing on genuinely new tastes. Modern New York chefs do celebrate the seasons in predictable ways with first fresh crops of the year: soft-shell crab, skate, trout, hanger steak, asparagus, beets, peas and ramps, that wild and stinky Appalachian onion that went uptown a few years ago.

What's moving up next? And will it find its way to Florida tables? From a few days of casual menus of $20 to $25 entrees from smart chefs, I liked:

Fried capers: The big caper berries are something I like to brown and char at home for fish. Flash frying the little guys puts a crunchy punch and tart pop in salads and pastas.

Death by dessert: After bread bakeries and biscotti-laden coffee bars, all-dessert restaurants, sweet shops, cupcake chains and all-cream puff restaurants are everywhere. Have your guilt glazed, powdered or slathered in butter cream for $2.50.

Explorateur wines: Bordeaux, Rioja and Napa? Fuhgeddaboutit. Smart lists go to the Loire, British Columbia, Sardinia, Slovenia, Greece, the Basque Country, Anderson Valley and Austria to bring back flavor for $30 to $50.

Back to the woods: Arugula gone wild is sylvetta; wild nettles are as cool as fiddlehead ferns.

Cool, white fire: Radishes are boring no longer. Old-fashioned red bulbs are as good as daikon or horseradish for a garnish with bite on salads and sandwiches. Or dippable in bagna cauda.

Raisins and nuts: Especially hazelnuts and walnuts with a tad of toasting are great in pestos and salads; raisins are golden in meats and curries.

Hot-cold salads: Grilled calamari or sautéed mushrooms dance with lemony greens.

Anchovies and sardines: If you don't get it, don't get 'em. I love them grilled or fried.

The other red meat: Rack schmack, lamb is grand as a steak or ground in sausages and ravioli stuffing.

Edible eggs: Chefs are going to any length with plain old eggs in salads, soups and sandwiches, boiled and poached, from three minutes to an hour.

Salmoriglio: Sicily's pesto is made with olive oil, oregano, lemon and garlic.

Cheeses: Goat cheese is still here and on more cheese plates than ever, but chefs now play with soft, creamy cheeses including ricotta, quark, mascarpone.

Florida flaIR: Tangerines mix it up with olives and onions; orange plays with fennel, olives and capers, grapefruit parades as pomelo and Meyer lemons get grilled.

Basil begone: Mint, sage and saffron spice up old Italian dishes and freshen comfort foods.

Rhubarb: Parting company with strawberries, it's a sweetheart of a solo act in cobblers and puddings.

Everything but the squeal: Fie on chicken breast, pork is on almost every menu, boldly as pork belly or jowls with the imported cachet of guanciale, a sort of Italian bacon.

Salt of the earth and sea: Good salt sits pretty in porcelain bowls of big crystals or shavings of bottarga, blocks of pressed black mullet and tuna roe.

Beyond balsamic: Saba vinegar delivers a thicker, sweeter hit.

Beans go three ways: Lentils and runner beans soup it up with greens and fish. Pole and bush beans, yellow wax to green haricot, fat favas and flat flageolets, dip in soups, hashes and fries. Chick peas made into flour put protein crunch on fried food and form fries .

Shape-shifting grain: Old world spelt, farrow, corn and amaranth show up as sides and more in salads, and even spicy fried hominy munchies.

Chris Sherman can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or sherman@sptimes.com.

[Last modified May 23, 2006, 10:45:18]