June 4 through June 11, 2012 This was a crazy week of eating, press events, and socializing. How did we ever do it when we were young travelers -- eating two meals out, day after day. I really crashed at the end of the weekend when all I could do was eat animal crackers. Ha! What made me think of animal crackers?! I think it was a trip to my second carousel this month. This time it was at Prospect Park. (Several weeks ago it was the new carousel in Dumbo.) We were there to celebrate the 100th birthday of the beautiful carousel, complete with a beautiful "carousel cake" made by Hudson Cakery (located in Weehawken, NJ.) The cake was delicious and all around it were small horses made out of a kind of hard sugary fondant. The excursion through Prospect Park and a visit to the Vale of Cashmere was courtesy of the Prospect Park Alliance, which continues to restore the park to its former Revolutionary glory. It is still glorious, however, and frequented by families, dogs, frisbee throwers, bikers, capoeira dancers, marathon runners, barbecue-ers, sightseers, drummers, and carousel goers.

Taste highlights: Wonderful, homemade string cheese!, compliments of Laurie Sandow, who, with her friend Midge, twisted many braids of the delicious cheese and was thoughtful enough to share some of it with me.

Freaking good fresh figs, compliments of the California fig advisory board. A "fig feast" at abckitchen. Standout: honey-glazed turnips and fresh figs with rosemary and lemon.

A trip to Sunset Park, Brooklyn to Ricos Tacos at 505 51st St. (near 5th avenue) for tacos al pastor (marinated pork), tacos especiales with crispy tripe, and huarache grande (a sole-shaped flour tortilla) topped with ground meat and cheese. We'll be going back for the carnitas burrito which looked big enough to feed four.

A Lebanese banquet of mezze at ilili on 5th avenue. Chef Philippe Massoud has brought Lebanese food to "four-star" status. We especially loved the "sliders" (ask for them -- they melt in your mouth), mouhamara w. walnuts, sundried peppers and pomegranate molasses, the shankleesh (a salad of feta, tomato, onions and za'atar), washed down with an excellent (and rather inexpensive) white wine from Lebanon, Masaya blanc, 2010.

A fabulous lunch at Gramercy Tavern with star chef Michael Anthony. Loved the fourchu lobster "salad" and monkfish with nettles -- one of the most sublime fish dishes I've ever had.

A lovely "media" dinner sponsored by Olive Oil from Chile at chef Todd English's restaurant Olives, located at the W Hotel near Union Square. Standouts: the extra-virgin olive oil mini martini, Hudson Valley foie gras potage. olive oil tres leche cake with caramelized honey ice cream (and figs! 'Tis the season.)

Enjoy your own special tastes of the week!

August 7 through August 14th Began this morning with a bowl of yogurt and a copious pour of raspberry-rhubarb birch syrup brought to me by a friend who just returned from Alaska. Apparently they use this brooding, deeply complex elixir, instead of honey, in many ways. Birch syrup is a unique flavor from Alaska's forests and is apparently quite rare. It takes an average of 100 gallons of sap from paper birch trees to make 1 gallon of birch syrup (www.alaskabirchsyrup.com).

Great french fries at the Hotel Kitano jazz club where we heard the remarkable saxophonist Ted Nash and his quartet the other night. The burgers looked good, too -- and so did the drummer! Ted Nash, is one of the country's top jazz musicians -- we met him a few weeks ago in Ravello when he was traveling with Wynton Marsalis.

I finally went to the Park Slope Food Co-op! It's considered one of the best in the country and it's only a few blocks from my house. Purple okra, bouquets of perky basil, wild fennel, and watermelon with seeds!

Fabulous dinner at ilili-- a very sophisticated Lebanese restaurant (Fifth Avenue and 28th St.) -- whose chef, Philippe Massoud is becoming a rock star. Begin with a table full of cold mezze (the best labneh!) and follow with a round of hot mezze, (and fried sweetbreads!) and savory pancake "sliders." Baskets full of warm, homemade, ultra-thin pita. Great pounded raw meat (kibbeh naya) that you place on the pita with a slice of onion, jalapeno and fresh mint!

An amazing tasting dinner at Eddie Schoenfeld's new restaurant Red Farm in the West Village. The bbq'd Filet Mignon Tart with curried vegetables & frizzled ginger was one of the best "first tastes" I've ever had! Also great? Kumamoto oysters wtih meyer lemon-yuzu ice, grilled vegetable salad with artichoke-bean curd dip and amazing homemade "crackers," and shu mai shooters, with carrot-ginger juice and fresh morels!

A great lunch, on one of New York's most beautiful afternoons, at Mario Batali's La Birreria on the rooftop of Eataly! Sat outdoors and chomped down on a terrific sausage of pork and beef, flavored with coriander, a kind of half-cured chunky kraut, and a fabulous dish of maiitake mushrooms with asparagus and peas. I can't wait to go back.

A morning snack of Sicilian pesto (made with almonds, tomato, very good garlic, and basil) at Arthur Schwartz's house, followed by one of the year's best caponata's (check it out in Arthur's book "The Southern Italian Table"), eaten on crusty loaves of grain bread from Orwashers. I used to buy Orwasher's bread for Mayor Ed Koch when I was the chef at Gracie Mansion -- in 1978! A peach so good at Union Square Market that several people stopped me, as the juices were running down my arm, to ask me where I got it. I think they were from Breezy Hill Orchards.