By Jacque Burke

An incredible thing happened at the Thanksgiving dinner table. As my food-adoring family and I all dug into our meals, my 12-year-old cousin, Gabby, said, and I quote “This spinach thing is pretty good.”

Silence.

We all stopped, forks poised, as if Gabby had just announced that she had single-handedly put an end to world hunger. Her mother, trying desperately to hide the triumph in her voice, agreed. “Yes it is, great spinach, terrific spinach.” We all followed her lead, clearly sharing the wavelength that giving the kid a standing ovation would probably throw her perception of her own self-importance way out of whack.

I may not be a parent, but I know that coaxing young kids to eat anything but white bread, French fries and chicken nuggets can be an exercise in futility. Gabby is no different. Her Thanksgiving dinner plate consisted of mashed potatoes, turkey and sliced bread (Mark Bittman’s infamous no-knead recipe) until my aunt sold her on trying the Spinach Maria by stipulating that there was cheese in it. The warm, savory spinach-based casserole was a combination of organic spinach, sweet Vidalia onion, garlic, a mixture of farm-fresh ricotta, imported pecorino and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. This has been a staple of my aunt’s for as long as I can remember, but now, we all think of it as the Trojan Horse of Green Food.

Gourmands are rarely born that way. I used to think Wonder Bread and peanut butter were the ultimate culinary pairing. Spinach Maria was Gabby’s first step into a world of food appreciation, and it got me thinking about my own gourmet “awakening.”  It was the first time I tried authentic capicollo, from my grandfather’s favorite Italian pork store in Massapequa, Long Island. I was 7-years old. Ever since, whenever I come near cured pork, I swoon.

So, I polled my fellow Bullfrogs and came up with a list of some of their own breakthroughs and the age at which they occurred. You may be surprised by the findings:

Alexandra Hynes: Coffee, 17

Amanda Hathaway: Legumes of all types, 27

Charlotte Melcher: Spicy food, 20

Evyn Block: Herring from Russ and Daughters, 35

Katherine Bryant: California avocados, 25

Melissa Flores: Oysters, 22

Rachel Baumgartner: Brussels sprouts, 24

What I’m:

Reading: The Elements of Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman

Watching:  Nip/Tuck

Eating: Leftover peach-cherry pie from Briarmere Farms in Riverhead, Long Island

Listening To: Iron and Wine, The Shepherds Dog

By Samantha Bryant

As a recent Los Angeles transplant embarking on my second winter in New York, and now having realized that it is officially fall and officially cold, all I want to do on the weekends is spend time indoors: seeing movies, visiting museums and eating great meals at cozy restaurants all over Manhattan. In an effort to avoid the winter blues, I’m offering up a few excursions to fill fall weekends that I have discovered and think are very cool.

The LES.  Everyone should visit The Tenement Museum. They offer tours that vividly display life in New York’s early days. Most tours last an hour leaving plenty of time to wander around all the boutiques blooming on and around Orchard Street. The last stop must be Allen & Delancey for an early dinner. The candle-lit room with enviable brick walls is a perfect escape from the weather, not to mention serves as an interesting contrast to the Tenement Museum exhibits. And the Caramelized Bone Marrow with Caviar and Shallot Puree instantly became my favorite fall dish.  It is fatty, rich, filling and incomparably delicious.

Central Park. On that special Sunday when you want to venture into Central Park to see the leaves changing color, head to Belvedere Castle to take it all in. The Wollman ice skating rink is now open as well. If you want a quiant lunch after, head to Alice's Tea Cup for tea and sandwiches served on beautiful china. Or walk down to BLT Market instead for brunch and have the Baked Ham, Eggs & Cheese on a Gruyere Popover. The dish is so good it literally beckons me from my warm bed.

Cinema! As the season of great, Oscar-worthy films is upon us, head uptown to Lincoln Center to see Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead  or Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and then eat your heart out on classic Chinese deliciousness at Shun Lee Palace. If you call a day in advance, you can indulge in their specialty dish, the beggar’s chicken baked in lotus leaves and clay.

These three excursions make cold weather not only manageable but enjoyable.

What I’m:

Reading: Kleopatra by Karen Essex

Watching: New York: A Documentary Film by Rick Burns

Eating: Orzo with crab and artichoke

Listening to: Bruce Springsteen Magic

By Becca Brown

After being in the culinary industry for a few years, you begin to look back on The Time Before and see the places in your life where food played a role and you didn't even know it.  All of a sudden, the focus of certain memories is shifted to the gem of a restaurant or the delightful table spread that created a backdrop. 

Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee, VT is one such place for me.  The irony of Vermont’s culinary landscape is that although the state produces some of the best ingredients you'll ever taste, great restaurants to sample them in are few and far between.  More pop up all the time, but at present the dearth of restaurants is most likely because of the fact that just about everything is few and far between –  houses, roads, grocery stores, you name it.  So when Simon Pearce opened in 1983 people took notice of the food immediately.

I began going at age nine and always thought the food was a treat but on a recent trip it struck me for the first time how much of pioneer the Irish glassblower was (and still is).  Even 25 years ago he was way ahead of the "green" curve.  All of the electricity for the building is provided from turbines installed to harness the power of the waterfall - it's a great view AND cooks your bread.  Beneath the restaurant are glassblowing and pottery studios, open to the public, that provide glassware and flatware for the tables above – so this means that the carbon footprint for all the shipping and manufacturing of these items is greatly reduced.  I got to thinking – in New York everyone is atwitter about the locavore movement, but every once in a while it’s good to remember the ones who have been doing it for years.

www.simonpearce.com

What I’m

Reading:      A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Watching:    Next Iron Chef (The finale is Sunday!!)

Eating:        All different kinds of squash from the Greenmarket

Listening to: Dynamite Walls