Manhattan trick or treat: A foodie's guide to what's an avenue and what's a street

The best thing about Manhattan has to be its neighbourhoods. They are what make visits so stimulating, whether you are sightseeing, windowshopping or just walking around. No two are alike yet each one seems to be totally vibrant and alive in its own right.

Since I like shopping for wine, I have now begun to associate wine shops with certain neighbourhoods, like Martin Brothers Wine & Spirits with the Upper West Side or Chamber Street Wines with Tribeca. And as I've been getting to know them both the shop and the block it's on have become a little anthropomorphized in my mind. All human like, you know?

On Hallowe'en, it's particularly fun to let your wires get crossed and transpose Manhattan 'hoods. Swap the personality of, say, Murray Hill with the Meatpacking District. Hmmm. Interesting disguise.

Here's one that's veh-ry scah-ry!Try it yourself:

Instead of hitting Madison Avenue's Sherry-Lehmann (where I recently was thoroughly pampered at a Bordeaux tasting)...

...end up at the Lower East Side's Madison Liquor on Madison Street. Whoops! Hey where's that map? It's like walking into a vegan dinner party with Ronald McDonald.

Clash. And so I found out that Manhattan's got two Madisons, both on the east side. But the Upper East Side and Lower East Side could not be more different, and not just when it comes to wine shopping. So I felt it appropriate that I would dress up each one in the other's costume today. The theme, as always, is "wining and dining." Can you tell which Madison is which?

A

This first duo shown above is especially tricky. Those bell peppers seem a little too perfect to be real don't you think? And a Cherry Nail only looks juicy enough to slurp up -- so you've been warned. (Who says it's only Madison Avenue where the admen play?)

B

Only one is labelled here as Madison but actually they both are! To figure out which is "avenue" and which is "street" look to the other writing on the wall: One says Nesquik and one says Marché. Yes, that's French and that's about as big of a hint as you're going to get.

C

Can you separate these two twin green awnings and get to who's really behind the disguise?

D

"Madisons under glass"

Onion Square

Union Square greenmarket. Monday. Half past ten. The square looked more like a pumpkin patch than anything else but it was a display of gourmet onions -- including its smart cipollini onions -- that caught my eye.

(Actually the woman using her baby stroller to balance a giant pumpkin was quite eye-catching too... don't be alarmed, there was no child in the stroller at the time -- it was 100% pumpkin buggy and up to the task.)

I love onions. Many cooks say garlic is the most indispensable ingredient in the kitchen but something about garlicky cooking draws me away from wine and toward cognac (its ability to act as a breath freshener maybe?). This happens especially after I've just finished a garlic-heavy dinner and usually calls for my favourite alternative to Cognac: St-Vivant V.S. Armagnac, with its lovable wonky bottle. Onions, on the other hand, make me a better wine lover. Don't ask me why. All I know is please don't make me eat them raw.

Caramelized or blanched, roasted or stewed. Anything but raw.

* * *

A.O.C. Bedford. Moving SW to Houston and 6th Ave. Ten hours later. My New York hosts Frances and James and I made a wise choice to dine at A.O.C. Bedford. Mondays are corkage-free BYOW night (maximum one bottle of your own -- the restaurant remains fully licensed for additional drinks, should you desire them). But not only was it Monday; it was October. And you could really tell, in a good way. The chefs presented us distinctive seasonal dishes. Harvest time at the greenmarket was particularly evident in their butternut squash soup. It was made with 100% fresh squash and no cream. Amazing! It was richly and deeply flavoured -- the essence of squash with only a dab of garnish added to the centre of the bowl.

...I wonder if swan neck gourds have a similar culinary claim-to-fame or whether their interesting physiology is their best contribution to autumn. That's what the schoolchildren touring the greenmarket early in the day had thought. They grabbed one after the other by the goose neck and flung it about their heads. Or at least until the swan neck gourd farmer noticed...

The wines we drank seemed suitably autumnal as well. The bottle I brought was a rather light-ish Cahors and I rushed through it to get to Clos Del Mas Priorat 2003, a Grenache-Carignan blend on the wine list that really embraces fall fare like rack of lamb, duck breast and suckling pig, which were the three dishes we ordered.

This was my first taste of Priorat. It lived up to all the hype. Full, gripping flavour profile, extracted, not flabby at all. But it'll be A.O.C. Bedford that will have so much to live up to when I return for more at the next possible opportunity.