Love food and love New York road trips? Your greatest inspiration yet hits bookstores nationwide Tuesday.
“I ♥ NY,” by chef Daniel Humm and Will Guidara of Eleven Madison Park and the NoMad, is a 511-page ode to more than 50 local ingredients (from apples to scallops to walnuts) and their respective producers, all within easy driving distance from New York City. It’s part cookbook, too (completely doable). Pick a recipe, grab a map and fill your reusable shopping bag.
Here’s a trip idea, based on “Baked Egg With Spinach, Mushrooms and Cheese”: Less than four hours north of the city in Washington County is Flying Pigs Farm (flyingpigsfarm.com). Call 518-854-3844 to set up your visit with their pigs and chickens, then buy ham and eggs. Next, get some of Tonjes Farm Dairy’s Rambler — a raw cow’s-milk cheese similar to aged cheddar, available at four weekly Sullivan County farmers markets (sullivancountyfarmersmarkets.org) and at Peck’s (pecksmarket.com), a grocery. In Dutchess County, Migliorelli Farm (migliorelli.com) has stands in Rhinebeck and Red Hook that are open daily. Pears get the shout-out in the book, but Migliorelli has many other fruits and vegetables, too (you’re seeking creminis, shallots and spinach). You know these ingredients from the Union Square farmers market (mmm . . . Migliorelli’s doughnuts are the market’s best), but everything tastes better closer to its source.
The idea of this book is that some of the world’s most amazing agriculture is well within reach for New Yorkers. Embrace that fact. Farm to table isn’t just for restaurants. Bring the farm to your table.