Esca’s Pasternack to Pitch Fish-and-Chips at Citi Field
We’re not Mets fans or anything, but Gael Greene’s (Web-only!) scoop that David Pasternack of Esca was planning a Fish Shack for Citi Field has really got us in a Flushing frame of mind. Pasternack told us the new Fish Shack would feature “simple stuff” like fish-and-chips, fried clam sandwiches, and lobster rolls. As at other Citi Field concessions, you’ll be able to see the game while you wait. So what makes Pasternack’s menu special? “I don’t know yet,” the chef told us. “But it’s going to be really good.” Pasternack also hears that there will be a Shake Shack at Citi Field, the same rumor we told you about in August. Is this going to be the greatest stadium food court ever or what?
Related: Hark! New Shake Shack to Open at Shea Stadium
Mediavore
Esca Chef to Work for Mets; Bourdain Back on Food NetworkEsca chef David Pasternack will be right at home in the new Mets stadium come 2010, running a place called the Fish Shack. [Insatiable Critic]
Related: Hark! New Shake Shack to Open at Shea Stadium
Kim Severson just ruined our breakfast with a look at PETA’s “Got Pus?” campaign and the question of whether or not milk contains pus. Let’s all share the nausea, shall we? [Diner’s Journal/NYT]
A Brooklyn pizza maker accused of gunning down a mobster was acquitted yesterday, but the case still reinforces those old mafia-in-cahoots-with-Italian-joints stereotypes. [NYDN]
NewsFeed
Dave Pasternack Serves Fancy Food But Prefers Not to Eat ItToday over at Midtown Lunch, Dave Pasternack, the chef and co-creator of Mario Batali’s highbrow fishery Esca, sits down for a quickie profile. There’s nothing particularly revelatory (that angle was more than covered in a lengthy New Yorker profile from 2005), but we just couldn’t wrap our heads around one little thing:
Favorite Kind of Food: I mean, I like everything — but my favorite is ethnic food. I find it more intriguing. I’ve worked in fancy restaurants for 25 years, but my favorite foods are still Chinese, Thai, Indian … pretty much everything.
What to Eat Tonight
Snow Crab, Sure. Ritz Crackers — Definitely!The icy waters off the Canadian Maritimes bring special bounty at this time of year, and right now, that takes the form of one of the biggest and best of all crab species: Chionoecetes opilio, or snow crab. These monsters, which can easily weigh between five and seven pounds each, are just beginning to show up on menus, David Pasternack of Esca tells us.
User’s Guide
Don’t Tell Al Gore: Soft-Shell Crabs Already HereWhen, in the very first week of March, soft-shell crabs appeared at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, they seemed as unnatural as two-headed kittens. These molted creatures, normally a summer treat, have been appearing earlier and earlier. (The Oyster Bar folks claim they’ve cornered the winter market.) Are they a product of … global warming? And are these freaks any good? We asked David Pasternack, executive chef at Esca and our adviser on all things briny.
