It's about that time of year when a few, lucky states get the Shamrock Shake and the rest of us just get another, Shamrock-less McDonald's.   You could sulk or plan a layover in Utah for a green milkshake, or you could just make one at home with milk, ice cream, and food dye.   This year, we've gotten more creative and healthy with our food coloring by adding mint, spinach, or an extra thick shake with avocado.   You can easily turn this extra thick concoction into a grasshopper milkshake by adding a few teaspoons of creme de menthe.   Matcha green tea powder and ground pistachios work well too.

• Beer on St. Patrick's Day is one of those unspoken rules, but there’s more than one way to enjoy it, like an icy, beer granita.  We found  a recipe for one in Alice Medrich's cookbook, Pure Dessert.  Take 1 cup of  flat light ale or pilsner, and combine with 1/4 cup,  2 tbsp. water and 3 tbsp. sugar.  Mix to dissolve the sugar, and freeze for an hour until it becomes firm.  Scrape the granita mixture with a fork and return to the freezer.  Repeat this two times, or until the ice crystals are fluffy.  Serve in bowls with vanilla or peanut butter ice cream. 

• You can also transform a foamy mug of Guinness into an ice cream float.   Our  favorite combination is a scoop of peanut butter ice cream in a tall glass of Guinness or stout, but caramel, chocolate, and butter pecan ice cream do the trick just as well.    The finishing touch is a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of toffee peanuts.
  

• People drink Bailey's Irish cream all year round, but it's especially popular for St. Patrick’s Day desserts.  Bailey's happens to be the perfect foil for vanilla or chocolate ice cream.  You can even douse a flourless chocolate cake in one to cut the sweetness.
  

• Irish soda bread seems to be losing its steam over the past few years.  Perhaps it’s all the raisins, or the dry texture.  Here's a solution:  Toast two thick slices of Irish soda bread.  Take softened ice cream (vanilla or cinnamon works best) and spread it on both pieces of toast.  Then, spread jam, marmalade, or chocolate ganache on each slab of ice cream toast.  Stick the two together, and you’ve got an "Irish Klondike Bar."   You can even use the ice cream-smeared bread to make French toast for St. Patty's Day breakfast.   
  

•   Nothing's more quintessentially Irish than potatoes, but you wouldn't think to use it to make candy.  According to Hershey’s Chocolate Cookbook, it's the perfect base for candy.  This is one of the quickest, easiest recipes we've come across to date.   Take 1 medium potato, mashed, with ½ tsp. salt and 1 tsp. vanilla, and combine.  Gradually beat in 1/3 c. cocoa and 4 ½ c confectioners’ sugar until the mixture is stiff.  Roll the mixture into balls, and chill on a baking sheet until firm.  You can dip in chocolate or cinnamon sugar to make them look like real potatoes, or just eat plain.   

Over the past few years, I've become a Dear Abby of the food sorts.  It wasn't something I advertised, but when you write about restaurants, you become an obvious resource for advice for the majority of eaters who can't afford a personal restaurant concierge.  I would get emails from people asking where to their wife for a 30th anniversary or a first date suggestion with a vegetarian or the best Thai restaurant in the city.  I couldn't ignore a fellow foodie's plea for help. 

Suddenly, there was new competition.  Eatery Expert  launched a few weeks ago, offering free restaurant advice as well.   Of course, I felt compelled to investigate their "expert" status.  There are plenty of great restaurants, but they're not all great for every occasion.  Picking the perfect restaurant involves a number of factors, like  cuisine, company, price and noise level.  I wouldn't advise you to "meet the parents" for the first time at a place that doesn't take reservations.  You could end up waiting for an hour and run out of conversation before you even sit down for dinner. I also wouldn't recommend you to take a vegetarian to Momofuku Ssam Bar, The Breslin, or any other pork-centric place in the city.   Would this "so-called" Eatery Expert take into account any of these circumstances?

I sent them several questions from three different email accounts with different names on each account.  I also sent the same question from two different accounts to see how consistent their suggestions were.   My biggest concern  is that they don't cover the the dining possibilities in Brooklyn, Queens, or any of the boroughs, but we'll get to that in a bit.   Before I get into recommendations, I have to give them props for being prompt.  They returned all three of my initial emails within 24 hours.  However, they don't work on the weekends.  (My Saturday email wasn't returned until Monday.)    They're also extremely polite.  "Thank you for giving Eatery Expert a shot,"  was the first line of every response I received.  They even wished my hypothetical foodie friend a happy birthday before rattling off  suggestions for an affordable restaurant to celebrate the occasion with twelve friends.

In the birthday case, they offered me three options, listing La Carbonara first as their first choice, then Macondo followed by Supper and Alta.   Supper and Alta are both respectable suggestions, but I can think of much better options than La Carbonara and Macondo like Il Buco, which has better food and a better wine list.  Personally, I think foodies like to get creative with birthday dinners, like going for the bo ssam at Momofuku Ssam Bar or the fried chicken in Koreatown or at Locanda Verde on Sundays.  So I inquired again, thanking them for their initial suggestions and asking for "something more chef-driven."  The second time around they proposed Yerba Buena Perry, Sorella, and L'Artusi, which are all great, but why did I have to ask twice to get their best recommendations?   
I also wrote them from a male user's account, asking where to take a vegetarian on a third date.  I explained, "I don't want to take her to a vegetarian restaurant, just somewhere she can actually eat that has good food and wine."  They came up with Bottega Organico, Paprika, and Agave, which are fine for everyday, but a little generic for a special occasion.   So I asked again, steering them toward something more special.  The second time around, they came up with Craft and Cafe Boulud, both excellent choices.  They've obviously done their homework, but why not give me the best advice you've got right away?  Fortunately, they did just that when I asked for a sushi spot with very fresh fish and traditional rolls somewhere on the Lower East Side or the East Village.  They had me at Kanoyama, which happens to be one of my favorites in the city.   

But not once did the folks at Eatery Expert suggest a restaurant in the boroughs.  After I posted this piece, Eatery Expert updated me that they had added "Manhattan" to their website for clarification and pointed to the 212 in their logo, which I didn't initially assume was literal.  This becomes a problem when you're looking for the best Mexican food and tacos in New York.  They proposed Cascabel, Mercadito, and La Lucha.   What about La Superior or Ricos Tacos, both in Brooklyn?  Or La Casa De Los Tacos in Harlem?  When I asked for the best Mexican from another account, they came back with the same recommendations, so they're certainly consistent.  Overall, I was impressed with their suggestions, but I might considering changing the name to "Manhattan Eatery Expert."

By Executive Chef Patti Jackson
(Serves 4-8)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup hot water
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 bunch broccoli rabe, leaves and florets removed, stems cut into 1" pieces
• ½ cup almonds, toasted

Procedure:

1) Mix together flour, water and salt using dough attachment of a stand mixer to form an elastic dough. Allow dough to rest 10 minutes, well-covered.

2) Cut into 4 pieces, cover 3 and roll out remaining dough into a ½" thick rope. Cut into 1" pieces, and using 2 fingers drag each dough piece across work surface to form a cylinder shape. Repeat with remaining dough, placing finished pieces on a sheet pan.

3) Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the broccoli rabe stems, cook 5 minutes; add the leaves and florets, cook 5 minutes longer, add the cavatelli and cook until the pasta bobs to the surface.

4)  Drain well, place in serving bowl, toss with olive oil and sprinkle with toasted almonds.

Address: 122 E 27th St., between Lexington & Park Aves.
Phone: (212) 481-7372  

Visit Spain or your nearest tapas bar and you'll find olives stuffed with everything from blue cheese to marcona almonds to anchovies.  And just because you're entertaining at home, doesn't mean you have to settle for the pre-stuffed, jarred variety.   Few people (myself included) have the time or the patience to stuff each olive, individually by hand. 

Which is why we fell for the Olivator (pictured right,) which does the stuffing for you.  Use the hollow end to core the ideal size and shape for the filling.  Then add your fresh filling, press the red button, and it shoots it right inside the olive.  We recommend jalapeno, garlic cheese, and tuna for stuffings.  You can also prepare an assortment of stuffed olives or garnish any martini.  The Olivator isn't limited to olives.  You can use it to stuff hors d'oeuvres or desserts, like strawberries filled with chocolate or goat cheese stuffed figs.

$20, iloveuma.com

If you see a chef wtih fresh rosemary in his shirt pocket, it's Cesare Casella.  "I think the Italian cuisine in New York has improved a lot over the past two decades.  Most of the time the Italian food here can be even better than you find in Italy,"  Casella asserts.  One of New York's quirkier chefs, the chef drew attention at Beppe with his unorthodox Tuscan cooking before opening Salumeria Rosi Parmacotta on the Upper West Side.   He grew up handing out menus at Vipore, his family's restaurant, only to return home after cooking school to earn Vipore a Michelin star before moving to New York.   His latest project, a market-cum-restaurant, features an impressive selection of Italian charcuterie, cheeses, as well as handmade desserts.  Salumeria Rosi also puts his spin on  "Tuscan-style tapas," like rigatoni all'Amatriciana with a nine-meat ragu, a leek and pancetta tart, and a bread pudding that changes nightly. 

Single/Married/Divorced?
Married

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A chef!

What was your first job in food?
When I was a kid, I worked at my parent’s restaurant Vipore in Italy. 

At what age did you start working at the family trattoria called Vipore?  What was it like being your mother’s sous chef?
It started when I was eight years old, and I would hand diners the menu.  And every year I would gain more responsibilities – I grew up in the restaurant!

What did you learn from your mom and working at a restaurant at such a young age?
I would watch my mom cook, and learn from her that way.  Only after I was 17 years old did she start to really teach me.  She really taught me how to respect the ingredients and the food.  I also learned how to talk to the food – like when I go to the market, I look at the ingredients and they talk to me.  The next time you go to the market, look at the fish, tomatoes, and fruit you’re buying.  If it looks sad, then it’s old.  The food must talk to you.

You’re never seen without your signature, fresh rosemary in your shirt pocket.  Do explain your fondness for herbs and "herbal cuisine"...
I have a real passion for herbs, and never leave the house without rosemary in my pocket.  And ladies love it!  They come up to me all the time to ask me about my rosemary!

You also attended the Culinary Institute of Ferdinando Martini in Montecatini.  Looking back, do you think you benefited more from the education you received in your family's restaurant or culinary school?
They are two very different things, and they work together to give you a culinary education.  The education combined is important.

After graduating from culinary school, you returned home and earned your family’s trattoria a Michelin star.   What compelled you to leave for America?
I used to come to the US all the time for vacation.  And even though I loved it here, when they asked me to come work here I refused.  Then they offered me to come work in the US only one week every month, so I could spend the rest of my time in Italy.  I started to really love it, and would spend more and more time here.  So my move to the US was gradual.

You make your real debut on the New York dining scene with Beppe and unconventional Tuscan cooking.    What kind of liberties did you take with traditional dishes and how do you think Tuscan food has evolved over the past few decades?
I think my Tuscan cooking has involved a lot.  At my restaurant, I take traditional ingredients, traditional dishes, and do it my way.  Since I’m the Dean of the Italian Culinary Academy, I also cook more Italian, not just Tuscan.

How has the Italian restaurant scene in New York changed since the early 90's when you arrived?
I think the Italian cuisine in New York has improved a lot over the past two decades.  Most of the time the Italian food here can be even better than you find in Italy

Your latest venture, Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto, is a market-cum-restaurant.  What was most difficult about collaborating with your partners, the Rosi family and how did Oscar-winning set designer, Dante Ferretti, become involved in designing the interior?...