Breakfast at A'Canela Restaurant, Amagansett, East Hampton

Before going back home after a long weekend at the Hamptons, we thought that it would be a good idea to start the day with a good, solid breakfast. We headed to A’Canela Restaurant, in Amagansett, East Hampton.

A’Canela is known for their fine Latin cuisine.

This restaurant is highly recommended for its good value...the breakfast menu is served all day. A good-size serving of a delicious breakfast meal is priced at $10.00, max! We indulged ourselves and ordered one each of the breakfast specials, and shared everything. We were not disappointed.

Fritata: made of eggs and cream on a thin crust, with corn, bell pepper, onion, spinach, tomatoes and topped with Monterey Jack cheese; and served with tortilla chips, coated with an enchilada sauce.

Burrito: filled with eggs, bacon, cheese, and potatoes; and wrapped in a flour tortilla, 

and served with potato wedges

Pancakes: with berries, banana, and green apples

If I were to prepare these things at home for a Sunday brunch or a brunch party, I will be substituting and eliminating some things to make them a little bit more healthy.

Fritata: Omit the crust and serve chips with salsa

My Recipe for salsa:
In a bowl add –
I clove of garlic finely chopped
1 quarter of an onion, diced
6-8 sprigs of Chopped cilantro, coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper to season
Squeeze a quarter of a lemon, mix
Seed and dice 2 tomatoes (preferably the Roma variety)

Drizzle with olive oil and mix. This is now ready to serve.


Burrito: Use whole-wheat tortilla instead of white-flour tortilla; serve with mango salsa.


My recipe for mango salsa:–
In a bowl add –
I clove of garlic finely chopped
1 quarter of an onion, diced
6-8 sprigs of Chopped cilantro, coarsely chopped
Seed and dice 2 tomatoes (preferably the Roma variety)
Salt and pepper to season
Squeeze a quarter of a lemon, mix
Add one mango – score the mango meat with the blunt edge of a table knife or use the rounded end of a spoon handle. Then scoop mango meat into the bowl.

Drizzle with olive oil and mix. This is now ready to serve.

For the Pancakes, I will turn it into a complete meal by pairing it with Spanish Tortilla. I will prepare the pancakes, made with a blend of white flour and whole wheat flour, and cook smaller-pancake portions; and use agave syrup instead of maple or pancake syrup.

Are you in the kitchen, yet? Have fun creating your own versions of a Mexican breakfast or brunch!

Fine Dining: Beacon, Sag Harbor, East Hamptons

A weekend at the Hamptons for the Memorial Weekend celebration with some good friends turned out to be a most palatable experience. After driving around Montauk, Amagansett, and Sag Harbor in East Hamptons, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant by the Sag Harbor



Newly opened for the season last May 12, 2010, Beacon was highly recommended to us for a fine-dining experience with Executive Chef Sam McCleland's epicurean creations.



We joined a line of people to be seated...and went to the bar, first, for a round of mojitos.



The surrounding view was spectacular, especially, as the sun was about to set.



After a twenty-minute wait, we were assigned our table and we settled down to what became a three-hour dinner. Perusing the menu made us salivate for some Mediterranean and Asian inspired items. We started with Steamed Mussels "Beacon Style" with garlic, white wine, lemon-thyme, creme and tomatoes...and some Braised Pork Belly, wrapped in soft tortilla, with pickles and spicy hoisin sauce.



We finally ordered our main courses, which were among the specials of the day: A whole Seabass, garnished with a quinoa-based salad...



and Bouillabaisse.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how the Bouillabaisse was plated. I am familiar with this dish as a fish soup. Here, the presentation was all together, in one serving platter, topped with the crispy slice of bread with rouille mayonnaise.

A quick check on Wikipedia gave me additional information that this is a traditional Provençal fish stew, that had it's origins in the port city of Marseille. The word Boullabaisse comes from two verbs bolhir (to boil) and abaissar (to reduce heat, i.e., simmer.

It is a fish soup made from a long list of ingredients, consisting of a variety of cooked fish and shellfish and vegetables, herbs and spices such as garlic, orange peel, basil, bay leaf, fennel and saffron. There are at least three kinds of fish in a traditional bouillabaisse, typically scorpionfish; sea robin; and European conger; and it can also include gilt-head bream; turbot; monkfish; mullet; or silver hake. It also usually includes shellfish and other seafood such as sea urchins , mussels ; small crabs; spider crab or octopus. More expensive versions may add langoustine. Vegetables such as leeks, onions, tomatoes, celery and potatoes are simmered together with the broth and served with the fish.

Bouillabaisse is uniquely different from other fish soups in the way it is served. Traditionally, the broth is served first in a bowl containing the bread and rouille, and the seafood and vegetables are served separately in another bowl or on a platter. The broth is usually served with bread and rouille, a mayonnaise made of olive oil, garlic, saffron and cayenne pepper on grilled slices of bread.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouillabaisse

For more on the history of bouillabaisse, check the following link. There is a recipe included if you are inspired to create your own.
http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/id/70/

The bonus to dining in Beacon is to watch the sunset.









While we waited for our main courses to come, which we ordered family style, we also had time to make friends and chat with people around us. As it turned out, there were three sets of customer changes on both sides from us, as we dined a la French style, sipping our wine, taking our sweet time to savor each others' company and the different flavors of the gourmet food. We sweetly capped the night with Maple Crème Brûlée with Fresh Berries and Lemon-Pudding cake with a Berry Compote.

What a lovely way it was to spend an evening. The whole experience was sensually delightful!