A typical breakfast was hot or cold cereal sweetened with raisins or fresh fruit, not a Pop-Tart, jelly doughnut or 500-calorie bagel with 200 calories of cream cheese.
These sour and sweet berries can be used to make a variety of recipes, including tarts, jelly, soup and cocktails.
The peanut butter is a French-American hybrid, more a flavored butter than the dense paste that Americans grow up with, and the tart Concord jelly represents an upgrade from the dull, sugary American version.
Where the trees gave way to heather, the berries of the rowans had, in the space of hours it seemed, turned blood orange, an auspicious tree come to fruition; you can make a tart, smoky jelly from rowan berries, mixed with apples, that is good with venison, or, for vegetarians, a crumbly, soft cheese like Wensleydale.
You get a tiny parfait of sea urchin layered with sliced raw scallop, cooked blue crab and a luscious, citrus-tart ponzu jelly.
Its inventive American fare, like smoked deviled eggs, suckling pig meatballs, country-fried quail with biscuits and gravy, roast lamb with bourbon ribs and a peanut butter and jelly tart, has a Southern accent, but it's easier to understand than what Mr. Witt formerly cooked up: 2398 Broadway (88th Street), (212) 874-7400.
A peanut-butter-and-jelly tart with marshmallow-flavored ice cream ($9) prompts memories of Fluffernutter sandwiches.
Sadly, they usually show up only as a smooth jelly to tart up a rich sauce (the venerable English accompaniment to game, Cumberland sauce, is based on red currant jelly) or to offer a racy backbone to braises like ones of red cabbage.
But I managed to knock up a decent vegetable curry (at the back of a cupboard, I found some rice that was a year out of date, but fine to eat), with mange-tout on the side and - for pudding - sultana tart and a fruit jelly.
An exceptionally tart but sweet lemon quince jelly is $13 for 7.4 ounces.
