Investment Advice.

I am far from a financial guru. I pay a mortgage on my house and I have a 401K in mutual funds. That's about the extent of my knowledge on investments. But I will tell you one thing, if I had a spare half mil hanging around, I now know what I would do with it. I would so be buying property on the North Fork of Long Island.

Like any good Bostonian, I have a fair share of - how should I say this? - prejudice about New York. I think that City (see? I used a capital C just to be friendly...) is dirty and full of itself and upstate is (forgive me, in-laws) dull. All I knew about Long Island is that the people there have that funny accent with the exaggerated vowels. Not to mention the enormous guilt I was riddled with by visiting any part of the state while the Sox are in the playoffs. However, it was like the North Fork was calling out to me.

I love wine regions... I've visited five in the last few years and it's always a fabulous trip. One Sunday, I read an article in the Boston Globe Magazine on suggested Fall getaways which included a review of the North Fork wineries and then, literally, less than a week later read a similar review in Everyday with Rachael Ray. It was fated that I needed to go. [Sidebar: Somehow this blog makes me seem obsessed with Rachael Ray, which is not (entirely) true. I do think she has an accessible style about her and the magazine is excellent.] A few calls later, Paul and I were booked on the New London ferry and set for a quick weekend away.

Getting to the North Fork is unbelievably easy - it's a brief ninety minutes down 95 South and then a relaxing, hour-long ferry across the Sound. Once you get to Orient Point in New York, you can travel the whole length of the North Fork in about an hour - passing no fewer than forty vineyards along the way. Plus, it_is_beau_ti_ful! One minute, you're on a narrow bridge with the wide expanse of Long Island Sound on one side and the peaceful of Peconic Bay on the other, the next you are passing farm stands overflowing with amazing, technicolor produce, the next you are in the middle of a quaint town with honest-to-god country stores and gingerbread trimmed houses from the turn of the century, and the next you're passing mile after mile of open stretches of vines heavy with plum-colored grapes and fields of kelly-green sod.

North Fork is also super unpretentious, which I found fascinating, considering that the Hamptons are about ten miles away as the crow flies. I've never been to the Hamptons (only virtual visits via "Sex in the City" episodes), but it seems to be a place all about seeing and being seen. North Fork could not be less like that, observed by the locals in their flannels and boots and dusty pick-up trucks on the side roads. It seems to be the Martha's Vineyard to its neighbor island Nantucket, or the Sonoma to its twin valley Napa. I've been to all of those places and, if you have as well, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Here's the interesting part - despite all of this incredible loveliness and terrific laid-back atmosphere, the place seems totally undiscovered. Whenever I visit someplace charming and somewhat remote, I always call it, "the land that time forgot." North Fork really is the land that time forgot - almost to a fault. Some gorgeous old buildings go beyond quaint to simply dilapidated. Several storefronts in each little town are boarded up. The one place that this is definitely not true is at the wineries - they are enormous, modern, and ridiculously gorgeous. And - they were packed. At some places, we had to push our way through the crowds to get our tasting. This is a place on the verge of becoming huge. I'm telling you - now is the time to buy.

Aside the investment advice, I implore you, New Englanders, to at least visit North Fork! I did not see a single non-New York or New Jersey license plate the entire weekend. At one point, a server in a tasting rooms asked Paul and I where we were from. When we answered, "Boston," her reply was, "Oh." And then she turned away. At another vineyard, after we revealed our origin, another patron said to his buddy, "I stayed at a hotel just outside of Fenway last year. We won the game that night - it was awesome." I looked at Paul and and quipped loudly, "When he says he 'we,' why don't I think he means the Sox?" My husband grabbed my arm and whispered to me none-too-kindly, "Don't start a fight." Bring it on Yankees fans. We can get to North Fork just as quickly as you can! We just need to start going!

Oh, by the way - you can also eat on North Fork! And eat well. Due to a somewhat strange schedule, we only really ate two meals out while in the area. The first is at a highly unusual little place in Mattituck called the Iron Skillet. I really don't even know how to begin describing this place. It is in the tiny dining room of an old Victorian house, run by an older couple that live upstairs. The dining room is packed with a mix of antiques, collectibles, and straight-up junk, all covered in a not-so-fine layer of dust and grime. The proprietress is so chatty, I am not sure how she manages to cook our breakfast. But, when she finally does, I could not be happier about it. Thick, spongy blueberry pancakes and crisp bacon for me, veggie omelet, cheesy potatoes, and homemade toast for Paul. Everything is slathered in a full inch of sweet butter and it's all delicious. Aside from the crazy decor, the strange part about the restaurant is that everything is served on disposable dishware. After leaving fat & happy, we stroll down and check out the shops on Love Lane. Yup, that's the name of the street that the restaurant is on. Ick.

That night we have the pleasure of eating at the North Fork Table. This was the one restaurant mentioned in both articles that have led us to the area, so it seems like a no-brainer - it was. The restaurant focuses on serving food made with local and organic ingredients as much as possible and offers a lot of regional wines. The meal is outstanding from beginning to end. I start with a red & gold beet salad, served with goat cheese, salted pistachios, dressed with tiny sprouts and sherry vinegar dressing. It's an enormous portion and I eat every bite of the sweet, salty, tangy dish. Paul has three large potato-cod cakes, served on homemade tartar sauce - also excellent.

We go super-local with our entrees - duck for me and venison for Paul. The duck is tender and succulent with a tart glaze, served on a bed of fluffy couscous dotted with black olives and mission figs - another great sweet and salty combo. The dish also comes with caramelized endive - definitely not something I've ever seen on a menu. Again, the sweet-(this time) sour balance is well done. I don't especially care for endive, so I'd be hard pressed to call it "good." Paul's venison is equally delicious - smoky and full-flavored, but not at all gamey. The venison also has a nice tart pomegranate glaze and is served on pureed parsnips, speckled with tiny, tangy baby brussels sprouts (chefs get all the cool ingredients) and meaty black mushrooms.

Keeping with the theme of balance of flavors, we finish with a "coffee-toffee ice cream sandwich with roasted bananas and salty peanuts." It is fabulous... the ice cream is served between two lightly-chocolaty meringue cookies, with an ample portion of bananas and nuts. It's like an ice-cream sundae for grown-ups! Turns out that the pastry chef, Claudia Fleming, won a James Beard award in 2000. I am certain she deserved it. The meal finishes with coffees and complimentary homemade mallomars - tiny, fun, and tasty!

Oh yeah - we also actually tried some wine! We visited seven vineyards in all, sampling a lot of decent merlots (what the region is known for) and some interesting whites, especially the Chardonnays which tend to be almost smoky, full of tobacco flavor (usually something you only get in certain reds). I am not entirely convinced that I liked it, but it was unique. All of the wine in the region tastes young; no surprise seeing as the oldest vineyards on the island have only been around about thirty years. Three of my favorites were Shinn Estates, where the owners - who own a famous Manhattan restaurant! - served us personally. We had a bottle of their Wild Boar Doe (ha ha) with our dinner that night. Old Field Vineyards is a place full of North Fork history and down-to-earth owner. You have to dodge the roosters to get to the tasting room! The best wine we tried came Bedell Cellars, which has a chic new tasting room.

I'd give the North Fork Table in Southold, NY and A. Even if it was "B" food, I'd be going back to the area. A quick hop to a secret piece of food & wine paradise. What more could a Boston foodie want? Gotta run. Gotta write my deposit check.