Closer to home.

There are some weekends that end up so jam-packed that I just don't have time to make it down to the Union Square Greenmarket. It might be work that needs catching up on, or laundry to be done before a trip, or just too many obligations all around. On those weekends, I'd always resigned myself to grocery store sourced produce - but no longer.

One recent weekend, I decided to check out the Greenmarket's Saturday outpost at 82nd and 1st. I was utterly convinced that there would be little on offer that could compare to the Union Square pickings, and I was wrong. Though the selection is notably smaller, the quality of the produce is just as good as what you can find at Union Sqaure.

When I visited, there were piles of eggplant, some lovely peaches, gorgeous peppers, and - of course - mountains of summer squash and zucchini.

The 82nd Street market is tucked behind St. Stephen's, a Franciscan church, and uses the church's parking lot to house its meat, bread and cheese vendors. Ardith Mae had a beautifully spare display - their chalkboard-and-bare-wood aesthetic screamed "CHEESE" to me. (Their website is great, too - check it out for cute pictures of their goats.)

I walked home laden with potatoes, peaches, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and onions - not bad for a two-block walk and no subway ride. I might be a convert!

A classic.

When I stepped off the bus in Rhode Island a few weeks back, Aunt Cathi declared that we would do some shopping for dinner, and then visit Al Forno for a pizza and cocktails.

I'd heard of Al Forno, but had never visited before. Legendary in New England for its thin-crust pizzas and n0-reservations policy, Al Forno has been central to Providence's dining scene since the day it opened in 1980. For years I listened to people on eGullet wax eloquent about Al Forno's superlative pizza - and now, finally, here was the chance to try for myself.

Since we arrived about five minutes after the restaurant opened at 5 o'clock, Cathi and I were able to snag a table in the arbor-covered garden, where we ordered a margherita pizza and two cosmopolitans.

The cosmos arrived first. Now, as you all know, I am much more a gin girl than a vodka girl - but these cosmos really were spectactular. They were what cosmos are supposed to be. The sickly, syrupy pink cocktails you saw on Sex And The City were a poor substitute for a good cosmopolitan. A proper cosmo should put you in mind of a slightly pink gimlet (made with fresh lime juice), not a CapriSun.

These were proper cosmos.

Then came the pizza. What can I say? It was delicious. The tomato sauce was rich with deep flavor, the two kinds of cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) contrasted fresh with rich, and the shaved scallions on top lent the pizza a fresh, peppery bite that I loved.

I see what all the fuss is about, and I'll definitely be back.

To market, to market...in Rhode Island.

Before we took our bike ride to lobster roll heaven, Aunt Cathi and I did some shopping for Saturday night's dinner. She had planned a seafood-heavy feast (always music to this landlubber's ears): steamers, angel hair pasta with crab, tomato, wine and herbs and panzanella (bread salad with cucumbers and tomatoes).

Our first stop was the Sakonnet Growers' market in Tiverton, where we picked up cucumbers (the green kind, not the round yellows ones above) and basil for the salad. The market was small (compared to the sometimes overwhelming bustle of the Union Square Greenmarket), but well-stocked. Tiverton's citizens are particularly concerned with preservation, and the market is perched at the top of a rolling, undeveloped meadow ringed by tall trees - an absolutely idyllic setting for browsing the local produce.

I gave in to temptation and bought two jars of locally-made jam (Made from local produce, too!) from Cory's Kitchen at Sweet Berry Farm. My picks were peach-raspberry preserves and hot pepper jam - the former will appear, no doubt, on crumpets chez Queenie in the near future. The latter might end up stirred into salad dressings, spread on crackers, or, possibly, eaten with a spoon.

Our next stop (after a beautiful driving tour of Tiverton) was Coastal Roasters, widely known in the area as the best coffee for miles. Aunt Cathi, primarily a tea drinker, wanted some help picking out a dark, rich coffee for my Uncle Jack. This was a challenge to which I felt equal. The shop roasts most of its own beans, and the selection was fantastic. We ended up choosing a Sumatran blend with cocoa tones to it for Uncle Jack, and ordering a latte (for Cathi) and a café au lait (for me). The coffee was great - rich, round, and strong.

Finally, we stopped at the fish store to collect the crab and steamers. No pictures , sadly, but I can confirm that many times of mollusk were on offer, including the little necks they gave us by mistake (something we only discovered upon opening the bag to clean them just before dinner). Oops.

I have to say, I was seriously impressed with the availability of local, sustainable foods in this little corner of Rhode Island. Everywhere I turned, it seemed, someone was offering me fantastic coffee, delicious ice cream, succulent fish, or fresh fruit - all grown or made within the surrounding 50 miles or so.

Looking for links to all the places we visited, I even found an amazing site called Farm Fresh Rhode Island, a comprehensive guide to buying local and fresh across the (admittedly teeny) state. Pretty nifty, I have to say.

I'm off - again!

Dear readers, it has been a travel-heavy summer for this Manhattanite - and this weekend is no exception! I'm off to Massachusetts and New Hampshire this weekend. I'll be staying in Newburyport, exploring Plum Island, and making a pilgrimage to my old stomping grounds up in Exeter (where I went to high school) and Portsmouth.

Any recommendations for food or fun? Leave 'em in the comments! And, obviously, I'll be back with a full report next week!

Phillips Exeter library photo courtesy of atelier/Ed Brodzinsky. Portsmouth photo courtesy of Philip Case.

The lobster roll at the end (well, middle) of the bike path.

Last weekend, I went up to Bristol, Rhode Island to visit my Aunt Cathi at her new digs smack on the water. My family are a bunch of New Englanders at heart, and it's nice to finally have a member of the parental generation back in the neighborhood (especially when she's as good a cook as Cathi happens to be).

She and my uncle are splitting their time between a fantastic condo in Bristol and a home in Dallas; I haven't seen the latest Dallas place, but I can tell you that the Bristol residence is spectacular. Downtown Bristol (the most patriotic town in American, apparently) is adorable and eminently walkable, and Cathi's condo is part of a complex made entirely of salvaged industrial buildings. The view from the pool gives you an idea of what a gorgeous spot this is:

On Saturday morning, Cathi took me on a tour of her favorite local food shopping destinations (more on those later, I promise). That afternoon, we took a (very warm) bike ride down the East Bay bike path, through Colt State Park, and on to Warren for lunch at Blount's clam shack.

We split the nine-inch lobster roll, which came with a side of fries and coleslaw. The lobster itself was great - tender, flavorful (almost definitely cooked in seawater) and cut into manageably bite-sized pieces. The bun was similarly delicious. The traditional, side-cut New England hot dog bun was toasted all over and lined with a leaf of Bibb lettuce before receiving its precious cargo. The lobster was sparingly dressed with a mild mayo, which was the only thing I would have changed. I like a bit of tang in my lobster roll, and would have killed for a squeeze of lemon or a slightly kickier sauce.

Altogether, though, there's nothing bad about this kind of reward waiting for you at the end of a bike ride - am I right?

Momofuku fried chicken dinner, or: we almost finished the whole thing, except not really.

A few weeks ago, word came down from on high that Momofuku Noodle Bar would be offering a fried chicken dinner for $100 via their online reservations system. Obviously, I signed up immediately. I knew my brother, Jeremy, would be as excited as I was, and he and my sister-in-law Miriam agreed to join me. We still had two spots open in our reservation, so I consulted the Twitterverse. Sure enough, the lovely and freshly-married Kathryn Yu (who also photographed the meal) volunteered to join us, and to bring her husband Dan along for the fun.

Our motley crew met up at Momofuku Noodle at eight o'clock last Thursday. We were the second fried chicken dinner of the night; the restaurant does three (6 PM, 8 PM and 10 PM). The night got off to a serendipitous start when we found out that our waiter was none other than Eric Murdoch, who'd performed as an actor for the first play Jeremy produced here in Manhattan. Eric got us going with a round of the restaurant's justly famous alcoholic slushies (these were watermelon spiked with soju, a Korean rice wine).

Eric told us the chicken would take about 20 minutes to cook, so we decided to kill time by ordering a couple of appetizers. We ordered the pork buns, the heirloom tomato salad with melon and the corn with fingerling potatoes.

All were fantastic, though the tomatoes and pork buns outshone the corn a bit. The pork buns, which are the same ones you find over at Momofuku Ssam Bar, are just flat-out insane. Fluffy and chewy and filled with pork belly and lightly pickled cucumbers, they're just ridiculously good. The tomato salad was really interesting; I was surprised at how well the sweetness of the melon complimented the tomatoes instead of competing with them, and the smoky saltiness of the ham crisp brought the whole thing safely back to porky Momofuku land.

The chef sent out a special treat: seared scallops with corn and chili oil. These were delicious as well; we couldn't quite suss out what seasoning had made its way onto the scallops, but it was something truly yummy. The scallops themselves were large, but still tender and moist. And who doesn't love corn?

And then, finally, the main event. A giant - and I do mean giant - platter of chicken was set down on the table, along with a stack of moo shu pancakes and a bowl of gorgeous herbs and veggies, including radishes, carrots, shisito peppers, opal basil, thai basil, mint, bibb lettuce and shiso leaves. Next came a flight of four sauces: hoisin, jalapeño-garlic, bibim, and ginger-scallion.

There were two kinds of chicken: half of the meat was dipped in buttermilk and seasoned with Old Bay, while the other half was cooked Korean-style, triple-fried and basted with bibim sauce and vinegar.

The idea is that you take a little of everything - the veggies, the herbs, the lettuce and, of course, the chicken, fold it up in a pancake, add some sauce to your liking, and eat the whole thing. After a few minutes of tearing into the chicken with our bare hands, it became clear why the restaurant had covered the table in a sheet of butcher's paper. We left grease stains everywhere, evidence of how thoroughly we enjoyed ourselves.

Overall, our group preferred the Korean chicken to the buttermilk; the meat seemed a bit more tender and well-seasoned, whereas the Old Bay seasoning was confined to the crust of the buttermilk chicken. That said, we enjoyed both offerings and tried to divide our attention as evenly as possible. We didn't want any chicken to feel bad about itself.

We were divided on the topic of the sauces; I was partial to the bibim sauce spiced up with a dash of Sriracha, while Jeremy favored the jalapeño-garlic mixed with the hoisin. Obviously, though, there was something for everyone. The only thing I would do differently? Order a pot of the house pickles to go with everything.

Despite Eric cheering us on, the five of us were not up to the task of eating every last bit. Though I'm sure they were ever-so-slightly disappointed in us, the staff did a crack job of boxing everything up (in three containers) for us to take home and enjoy cold from the fridge.

All of these gorgeous photos were snapped by the very talented Kathryn Yu. You can find more of her work at KathrynYu.com.

What are you drinking?

Season Three of my current favorite television show premieres tonight. That's right, it's time to re-join Don, Betty, Peggy, Joan, Pete and the rest of the Mad Men crew for another season of debauchery, advertising, overwhelming social change and, of course, cocktails.

As you all know, I love a good cocktail. When I sit down to watch tonight's episode, I will be partaking of a gin gimlet (gin, lime juice, sugar), most likely made with rhubarb simple syrup. Gimlets are Betty Draper's drink, and I feel it might be the right occasion to express solidarity with my fellow Bryn Mawr grad.

So, what will you be drinking tonight? An old fashioned? Scotch, neat? Do tell!

Photo courtesy of Men.Style.com.