Bites

Rock Shrip Chimichangas F.H. Riley's, 400 New York Avenue, Huntington, NY 631-271-7600 fhrileys.com

I had the rock shrimp chimichangas (shown above) which were $9 and a side of Caesar salad ($6.50) Both were very good! This is a newish place in Huntington and well worth a visit. Good service, too. Google their menu; it's worth a spin through.

DiRaimo Pizzeria, 76 Wall Street, Huntington, 631-673-5755 This is our go-to pizza stop and has been for years. It's also the yardstick for West coast pizzas out here. DiRaimo's does something I haven't seen out here and that is "garlic knots." These are strips of leftover pizza dough, tied in a "knot," rolled gently in olive oil, studded with chopped garlic and baked. Yowzzer! Bring 'em on!

Deninos Pizzeria and Tavern, 524 Port Richmond Avenue, Staten Island 718-442-9401 Richie, his brother and I were in Staten Island, visiting their cousin. John suggested we walk the two or three blocks over to Deninos and so we did. It didn't seem like a good idea once we were inside. The bartender was looking rather sullen (perhaps because he had only two customers -- at opposing ends of the bar) and the sole waitress seemed to be aout 17 years old and unsure of herself. We were the only lunch customers and she dithered about what table she should put us.

But: when we finally got a table, ordered and the food had come - great idea! I had a shrimp po'boy composed of: French-fried shrimp set on melted mozzarella cheese which lay on top of a thin smear of tomato sauce, all on a crusty Italian long roll. It was delicious and it was $7!

Bistro Cassis, Huntington (previously reviewed) now serves escargot in the traditional six snail dish, but each snail now wears a jaunty top hat of toasted bread -- a tiny little circle of it. The Caesar salad came with a "tower" spilling out the salad. Evidently, a thin slice of rye bread is wetted, wrapped around a PVC pipe about 4 in. long and 3 in. wide and toasted. The pipe is removed and this then becomes the tower for the salad. It was showy, sure; but it didn't bring anything new to the dish. I like the olive-oil sauteed croutons at Rin Roof Bistro a lot better...