Rigatoni alla Vodka

Rigatoni alla vodka is one of those Italian-American classics that always pleases a crowd. It also happens to be easy to prepare and, like our basic tomato sauce, can be made in less than the time it takes to boil and cook pasta. Our version is nice and garlicky with some heat from hot pepper flakes, mellowed by the creamy pink sauce. It is also healthier than the classic, substituting half and half for heavy cream. Feel free to add mushrooms, prosciutto or your other favorite ingredients.

The principal function of the vodka, which has little taste of its own, is to deglaze the pan before adding the tomatoes to pick up the delicious bits of garlic and onion that have stuck to the bottom. If you don't have any vodka at home, leave it out, or substitute white wine for a subtly different flavor. Fast and delicious, this dish could become one of your weeknight staples.

Sushi Yasuda

Sashimi at Sushi Yasuda - a beautiful sight

We're fortunate that New York has a lot of excellent sushi restaurants. Many others have unfortunately embraced a recent trend of focusing on overpriced Japanese-American "fancy" rolls with half a dozen kinds of fish, sauces, and condiments - perhaps as a way to distract from having not the freshest of fish. While these fancy rolls have their place from time to time - such as when paired with large amounts of sake - a meal at Sushi Yasuda is a helpful reminder of what traditional sushi can be at its best.

Assorted pieces of maki: tuna, yellow tail, arctic char

Founded over 10 years ago, Sushi Yasuda still serves the best sushi in New York. And they do it in a traditional and understated way. Just unbelievably, uniquely, fresh fish and expertly skilled sushi chefs. After a meal at Sushi Yasuda you may believe, as I did after a recent meal, that all other sushi you've ever had before were imitations. This is the real deal. 

It is also not that expensive - many other places with far inferior sushi are pricier. For example, for $22.50 you can have 5 pieces of nigiri and 2 rolls or 4 pieces of nigiri, 1 roll, and 3 varieties of sashimi (2 pieces each). 3 rolls are $20.50.

Almond - Bridgehampton

Goat Cheese Ravioli with Onions Five Ways and Red Pepper Sauce

Perched on a prime corner in Bridgehampton, where the turnpike meets the highway, Almond is taking well to its new location. Relocated there last summer from a more isolated spot along the highway, this Hamptons-chic bistro looks like it has been there for years. Happy Hamptonites, glowing with the joys of summer--but never shedding their New York City sophistication--descend on it to enjoy updated bistro fare and good conversation.

Co-owner Eric Lemonides works the dining room. He is confidently charismatic; the kind of guy you want to like you. Remembering us (or convincingly pretending to remember us) from previous visits to his restaurants over the years, he brought our entrees over himself, greeting me with a warm handshake and my wife with a kiss on the cheek. On the way out, he said goodbye to us by name. These kinds of gestures just make you feel good, particularly in a glamorous place like the Hamptons where some places treat even their repeat customers like an afterthought (or worse, a nuisance), and they really do make you want to return.

Pok Pok Ny

The famously addictive fish sauce-marinated wings - though Pok Pok Ny serves far more than just wings

We have recently written about Chef Andy Ricker's dangerously addictive Vietnamese-inspired chicken wings at Pok Pok Wing on the Lower East Side. That location's 2-item menu provides only a slight prelude to Ricker's exceedingly impressive "Northern Southeast Asian" restaurant in Brooklyn: Pok Pok Ny. (The last word, oddly, rhymes with "my" yet still somehow indicates "New York"). It is also very hard to get to, sitting across from a shipping yard in an un-named neighborhood in Brooklyn between Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights far from all subways. In that sense, it is keeping up with other top notch yet hard to get to Thai restaurants like Sripraphai, out in Woodside, Queens (at least that one's near the LIRR stop). But that doesn't stop the crowds from lining up well before the restaurant opens for dinner service.

The line waiting for Pok Pok Ny to open for dinner

Now is the time to go to Pok Pok Ny, since their ample outdoor garden greatly supplements the smaller indoor space (though, perhaps a few weeks ago before the N.Y. Times review was published would have been better).

The food is inventive yet authentic and unlike anything you'll find at the city's more pedestrian Thai restaurants (no Penang Curry or Pad Thai here for example).  Not everything is amazing, but the food is certainly worth taking the hike - and lining up for a visit.