A “croissant tasting bag” from Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo. What could be better than a bag full of flaky, buttery, delicious pastries? More than enough for dessert then breakfast the next morning. Dominique Ansel was the pastry chef at Daniel for years and opened his own bakery in late 2011. His desserts are ridiculously good—spend an extra hour at the gym then visit ASAP.

The halibut taco on the bar menu at North End Grill is the best fish taco I’ve had since moving away from San Diego. It’s nearly a perfect fish taco, and now that summer weather is here, the bar area has been opened up to the outside. With the water nearby and a nice breeze, you can almost pretend you’re in San Diego. Almost. Regardless, I’m going to be there all the time.

Copper River Salmon with blueberry and corn salsa. People have been telling me that FreshDirect is among the better sources for Copper River Salmon here in NYC, so I broke down and ordered a few filets. Except somehow the order was botched, and I received about three times the amount that I ordered. Luckily, it’s really good! It’s all relative—there’s no doubt this is fish that’s flown across the country, but it’s as good as it gets here and I’ll order this again in a heartbeat.

For lunch, I pan seared a small piece of salmon and enjoyed it with a salsa of blueberries, corn, poblano and red peppers, avocado, and cilantro.

A couple of big, beautiful black sea bass filets from Blue Moon Fish, just out of the oven. With fish this good, simple is better. These were seasoned with salt and pepper and dusted with Wondra flour, cooked skin side down for a few minutes, flipped, and finished in the oven for a few more minutes. This technique is great for producing delicious, crispy skin.

A few tips: 1) make sure the fish is as dry as possible before seasoning. 2) Use Wondra flour—this technique comes from La Bernadin, I believe, and really works well. 3) Press the fish firmly into the pan when it first goes in to keep the skin from curling. 4) Finishing in the oven instead of on the stove top takes the skin to the next level of crispiness without drying out or overcooking the flesh.

Flounder fillet, seared scallops, and sautéed ramps. Last night I was busy watching the Yankees come back from 9-0 down to destroy the Red Sox. Too busy to do much work in the kitchen, anyway. It worked out, because my greenmarket haul from the morning included Lani’s Farm ramps and scallops and flounder from Blue Moon Fish. Less than ten minutes start to finish was all that was needed for this delicious, ingredient-focused meal.

Pan-seared tilefish with cauliflower risotto. 

I saw this photo of scallops with cauliflower risotto posted by rightupmyalley a couple of weeks ago and it immediately put me onto a cauliflower risotto kick. I couldn’t find a recipe that I wanted, so I pieced together this Cauliflower Risotto recipe that, for me, works really well with fish and scallops and also chicken or pork.

The tilefish marks the return of Blue Moon Fish to the NYC Greenmarket scene—one of the most welcome signs of spring. I hadn’t actually tried this particular fish before, but cooked barely through I found it to be sweet, slightly firm, not the least bit oily, and really delicious.

“Irish Fries” at Shake Shack. These were really the extent of my St Patrick’s Day celebration this year… Shake Shack’s regular fries with a bit of sour cream, scallions, and nice smokey bacon.

Lunch at Floyd Cardoz’s new North End Grill. Steve was in town and we hit North End Grill for lunch. Never mind the fact that it was a quick lunch on a Thursday, or that it wasn’t even on the menu… Steve went ahead and ordered a whole grilled Nova Scotia Lobster. Good thing he did, because Floyd’s lobster was the one of the most perfectly grilled lobsters I’ve ever seen. The two bites I was allotted were unbelievably good. My salmon burger you can see in the background was solid, but it’s kind of hard to compare a salmon burger to lobster. The spiced thrice-cooked fries are always good.

I’ve been to North End Grill a number of times now for lunch, dinner, and drinks. It had promise at first, but there were clearly some kinks to work out. Today it’s still a few kinks shy of perfect, but there is a lot to like… including a full page Scotch list and really well thought-out wine list.

Fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow from Marea. This might not be news to anyone, but Marea is an awesome restaurant and this, their signature dish, is one of the best things to eat in NYC. It might sound a little weird—it did to me at first as well, but it absolutely works. It’s rich, delicious, and harmonious, and they get the texture of the octopus just right. Last night we asked about the prep, and this is what we were told:

The octopus is braised in red wine and a tomato sauce for 4 hours. Then the marrow is added and cooked until most of it melts into the sauce but some chunks remain.

OK, time to find some octopi and get cooking…

Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2010. I took this photo to highlight the wine, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that I was equally excited about everything on the plate—pan-seared Moulard duck breast from Hudson Valley Duck Farm, mixed roasted potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm (it’s still hard for me to believe that one producer’s potatoes can be so much better than the rest, but still…), and roasted Brussels sprouts marking the return of Lani’s Farm to the greenmarket scene. All great. But, the Rivers-Marie is a special wine. It’s fresh and vibrant, with mostly notes of cherries, cranberries, and baking spices. While young, it’s very well balanced and oh-so-easy to drink. But the really hard to believe part is that it only costs $25… if you can find it, but it!