HUNGRY GERALD

El Faro was HG/BSK’s favorite New York Spanish restaurant for lusty seafood dishes enlivened by an exuberance of garlic (sadly, El Faro closed in 2012). The restaurant was located at the corner of Horatio and Greenwich in Greenwich Village. Amanda Hesser was Food Editor of The New York Times for many years (she left in 2008 and founded Food52). When at the Times she published a book of essays: “Eat, Memory.” Subtitled: Great Writers at the Table–A collection of essays from The New York Times. One of the essays is by Gary Shteyngart, the Russian-American novelist . He grew up in a home without garlic. He longed for garlic. At age 19, he and a girlfriend discovered El Faro. “We ordered two dishes (and in many visits thereafter I have tried no others: a mariscada in green sauce, a sizable pot filled with shrimps, mussels, scallops and clams coated in olive oil, parsley, onions and, yes, melting cloves of garlic; and shrimp al ajillo, saturated in garlic and hot sauce, perfect for scooping with fried Spanish potatoes or pouring over rice.” Shteyngart supplies recipes for both. The mariscada has an odd ingredient–asparagus juice from a can of asparagus. (that’s why you’ll find canned asparagus in HG/BSK’s pantry).