Dinner starters include truffled potato ravioli with duck confit, $11.75, grilled pancetta wrapped shrimp with black lentils, $13.25, and coastal mushroom and rabbit tart, $11.50.
RECOMMENDED DISHES: Sformato of ricotta and potato; duck rillettes; BLT of pancetta, tomatoes and arugula; roasted poussin with walnut butter; steak rubbed with zaatar; poached snapper with clams, cockles and shrimp; strawberry-blueberry shortcake.
His first offering to each of the 28 guests lucky enough to score a reservation was a duck heart wrapped in pancetta and wearing a fig. The choice could not have been more apt for this earnest, heartfelt dining "experiment".
Traif 229 South Fourth Street (Havemeyer Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, (347) 844-9578, traifny.com RECOMMENDED DISHES Salad of carrots, oranges, feta, spinach, grapes and sunflower seeds; hamachi carpaccio with nectarines; corn cakes with rock shrimp; duck confit lettuce wraps; cockles with pancetta; scallops with creamed corn.
Yes, on Christmas Day perhaps – but currently we are lost in a quagmire of pre-recorded-in-July Yuletide food specials celebrating a murky obsession with pushing a poussin up the arse of a duck, then wrapping the lot in pancetta.
He turned to a small bowl heaped with sweet and spicy Italian pork sausage and a quarter-cup of diced pancetta, the beginnings of the duck's stuffing.
500-600g large new potatoes, peeled and cooked A couple of good knobs of butter 6 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped 8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into ½cm dice or 120g pancetta or bacon cubes 4 duck eggs Salt and freshly ground black pepper Coarsely crush the potatoes with a fork or potato masher, mix in the onions and butter, season and keep hot.
Your meal may start with an earthy, puréed white bean soup scented with truffle and pancetta, or a tamarind-sauced Thai-style duck confit.
I tried an exciting white asparagus with an anchovy dressing; a fine "salad" of leeks, smoked duck breast and ricotta; and cuttlefish with creamy potatoes and pancetta.
At year-old Chez Nous, 1911 Fillmore Street, (415) 441-8044, a narrow storefront in the Fillmore District, the changing selection of small dishes has featured Moroccan-spiced duconfitfit, Greek tarama and tsatsiki, and gnocchi with peas, pancetta and mint.
