Posts Tagged ‘BYO’
pie for supper at Supper’s pi day!
t says: I just got back from dinner at Supper. It was pi day!! Get it? “Pi” day, as in 3.14, as in 3/14, as in March 14. Pretty cool, right? Yea it is.
So Supper brought out some awesome pies, savory and sweet:
Ritz-and-crab pie
Veal tongue pie
Rabbit pot pie
Pork pie
PB pie
Mississippi mud pie
Pecan pie
Apple pie
Now, it should be noted that these weren’t just “pies”. Supper actually had far fancier names for these, so it’s probably not fair for me to call them all “pies”. But whatever …
Another awesome little coinkidink was that pi day happened to fall on a Wednesday … which means that it’s BYO night at supper!! So not only was there a two-pies-for-$20 deal, but we could bring our own wine! Boo-yah! I immediately signed up the usual crew to go and notified them via email. There was some attrition, so only a, v, and I were able to go. That’s cool – more wine for us!
We didn’t take any pictures and we didn’t get all super-critical, but had a blast. I went with the veal tongue pie which was prepared more like a chili poured on top of a layer of frito’s. It was quite tasty – like the best meat-based tortilla chip dip ever! The one drawback was that cilantro was still served with the stems on – I hate that.
a’s rabbit pot pie was homey and delicious. v’s crab pie was more like a crab cake, but at least a very well done one.
And all of the dessert pies we sampled were quite delicious: the peanut butter one was a densely whipped PB cream with a peanut crust, the Mississippi mud pie was like a moist brownie with a pie crust, and the pecan pie was exactly that – a well-done pecan pie.
In all, aside from the cilantro stems, we really had no complaints with Supper’s pies. For $20 a head, we were full, and our mouths were happy. It was quite a deal! The server was a little weird/awkward, but maybe it’s because customers aren’t spending much moo-lah on pi day. Whatever. He warmed up some by the end of the meal. By the way, can you imagine what’ll happen on 3/14/15? That’s gonna be SUPER-[nerdily-]awesome
OH … and the wine!
I brought two bottles of pinot noir not from what I feel are traditional pinot noir countries: Italy and Argentina. a picked out the Argentinian one. I was excited because the reviewers had nice things to say about it:
“Dark ruby red in color, it reveals a charming bouquet of smoke, spice box, raspberry, and cherry. Silky, sweet and savory on the palate, this elegant, concentrated effort displays impeccable balance and length. It is an excellent value in quality Pinot Noir.” -WA 91 pts
“Quite good and honest, with full raspberry, cherry and tea aromas along with a hint of grassiness. The palate is dark and full-bodied, with toasty cherry and herbal tea flavors. Finishes long, full and several steps ahead of most of the competition. Drink now.” -WE 88 pts
So we poured the wine into Supper’s nice a big glasses, gave it some swirl-action, and then got to it …
2008 Alma Negra Pinot Noir (Mendoza, Argentina, $21.98 at wineworksonline.com). The nose was interesting in the beginning – smelling a lot like earth and chocolate and tart red berries. As it opened up, the nose developed into more like a cranberry apple pie. On the palate, it had some tart cranberries and sour cherry and this hint of something … different. In retrospect, I honestly think that it was indeed that “herbal tea” flavor – you know – it’s what you get when you order tea, but instead someone gives you a cup of some sort of fake Rooibos crap. It wasn’t something I was ready for and it caught me offguard. Overall, it tasted kind of weird but it wasn’t like a restrained, elegantly balanced French pinot, and it wasn’t fresh-and-fruity like new world pinots. It just didn’t quite taste like a pinot. v called it a “heavy beaujolais”. Quite right! And, while it improved with food for sure, ultimately, I don’t think I’ll be venturing any more Argentinian pinots in the near future. Darn.
I wonder what the Italian one will taste like?
Marigold Kitchen hangs with the big boys
t says: a got in on a free Savored.com reservation a while ago and was gracious enough to suggest that it be our January FTC meeting. And where would we be going to kick off the new year? As we pondered the list of 30%-off restaurants , we spotted one place where we absolutely had to go: Marigold Kitchen. a and v had been for restaurant week the past fall and loved it. g, kp, and I had never been. It was go-time!
Since making the reservation in 2011, there were a few [free!] times that the dinner needed to be rescheduled, increasing our anticipation (or maybe it was just my anticipation). At one point, a and I got talking about the wine for the dinner. I suggested that we add some element of a blind wine tasting. It was eventually decided that a would choose a bottle, I would choose a bottle, and the rest of the table would have no idea. It was going to be a show-down and we were pretty sure that it was going to be fun!
In preparation for dinner, I decanted the wine and sent teaser pictures to a. I’m mean like that.
poor corksmanship on my part
my mystery bottle decanting ... (I have no idea why I poured it into my half-bottle decanter)
I poured the wine [with a funnel] back into the original bottle and g and I headed off to the restaurant. Taxis conspired against kp, but g waved her magic taxi-finding wand and we saved the day by picking up kp and arriving at the restaurant only 10 minutes late. Fortunately, v and a were there and situated.
As we settled in, a explained to the server what was going on regarding the wine. The server guy seemed a little lost; I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. In case he mixed up the decanters, I had already tasted my wine beforehand (it was the first time I had ever had it) so I was pretty sure I could pick it out if I needed to.
The menu looked delicious – I found at least three apps and three mains that I wanted to try. It was almost painful trying to narrow the options – the blind double red wine tasting that was to come helped me out. Little did I know that what I was choosing was only half of the dinner experience. Actually – it was more like 1/3 of the dinner experience. One-third of the dinner experience was the wine. And the last 1/3 was the food that just comes out of the kitchen – it was amuse bouche galore! We were sent no less than 7 amuse bouches for the meal. While we wrote down all of the amuses, I think I can say with complete confidence than the “best” ones were probably the simplest:
it's not cappuccino ... it's butternut squash bisque with thyme foam!
Yea – it looks extremely boring, but the taste was so vivid. It tasted even more like butternut squash than actual butternut squash (e.g. like when you eat Capo Giro gelatos and they’re “mango” is even better than actual mangos!). And I know that foam is super-frilly (e.g. maybe they could have just added thyme to the soup), but I believe that there really was something special about having such a powerful flavor in a light foam. Maybe it’s because it’s very pleasant to have a little thyme foam mustache to lick off your lips and accent the butternut squash flavors lingering after your last gulp. Whatever it is, kp is going to steal this simple flavor combination for future soups – all he needs is one of those foam canister thingees. Done deal.
Another awesome amuse was our first amuse: the mango lassi (not pictured). v preferred the chestnut ravioli with fennel salt. Everyone had their preferences among the amuses, but the butternut squash cappuccino was on everyone’s list.
My vote for “most interesting” amuse was the foie-stuffed grape:
looks like a few grapes, right? WRONG. There's foie in there!
When the waiter came around with this little spoon that looked like a sprig of grapes (one for the each of us), we were perplexed. Foie? In grapes? And how’d he get it to look so natural? As I ate my grape, my mouth was so confused. The exterior skin was totally grape. And then the foie’s texture was kind of like a softer, over-ripe grape, so that was still expected. And then the unmistakeable butteriness and flavor of foie crept in. Confusion!! And then v swore there was some kind of chocolate taste going on her mouth and I could’t help but agree (but as far as I know, no chocolate was in it). So weird. I wanted to do it again! But alas – we had none left.
breakfast-style foie
Another impressive dish was the foie appetizer: “breakfast style foie”. It had a slice of foie torchon with cinnamon foam what I think was a blueberry compote. The other side had a nice slice deeply seared. If I closed my eyes and smelled the dish, I swear it was like French toast made from blueberry muffins and a side of some kind of breakfast meat (?breakfast sausage?). And it kind of tasted like that … but 10x better. As I’ve said before – I’m not a huge fan of foie by itself as it’s a very powerfully gamy flavor and a pretty mushy texture – but when chefs find a way to mix the foie with other flavors, I’m a happy guy. This foie presentation totally hangs with the likes of Fond and Bibou. It’s fussy, yes (more foam!), but how can you complain if it tastes this good?
The main courses were pretty solid (three of us got venison, two of us got rabbit), but I think compared to all of the amuses and appetizers that we had had beforehand, none of us were really blown away. I did the venison dish, which featured a small-but-thick slab of venison accompanied by a venison scrapple. Both preparations were “very very good”, as it was technically executed quite well, but all of the whimsy and creativity of flavors and cooking in the amuses were absent, so it came up shy of “excellent”.
a says: I agree with t on all counts. The mango lassi and soup were the most flavorful and interesting dishes of the night. My marinated boquerones were a pleasant surprise in that I don’t normally love anchovies but found these fresh, light, and well-paired to the apple salad. My experience with the venison was much like t’s – a nice preparation but I thought the scrapple had more going on. (v interjects: The helping of scrapple was outstanding. I ate scrapple twice in the same day, once at Cochon – they have an updated menu for brunch which is excellent – and once at Marigold. Both were great, but I preferred Cochon’s.) My profiterole and mint ice cream dessert was imaginative and whimsical but lacked something, in the end. [It was] one of the most enjoyable meals from start to finish that I’ve had in Philly. However, none of the dishes had the depth of flavor – that ‘wow’ factor – of say a Bibou pig’s foot or the fish soup at Han.
t says: Oh yea! My dessert was the chocolate-chocolate-chocolate one – it was chocolate in all kinds of forms and textures. The whimsy was back, which I appreciated, but the depth of chocolate wasn’t all there. They backed away from a deeper/darker chocolate and went for a sweeter, milkier chocolate that, while fine, didn’t really hold up to the red wines that were on the table.
In conclusion, I will say that I believe that the amuses prop up the meal to something really special. I mean, it was probably a 3.5 hour meal and at no point was anyone bored. At one point, with a glisten in my eye, I remarked that I felt like some of the tastes reminded me of Bryan Sikora’s cooking – back in the old days of Talula’s Table (and Django) … back when he’d surprise you by making something that looked unfamiliar taste familiar, or something that looked familiar taste completely new … back when his food kept me on my toes and kept me thinking … Oh those were the days …
I only wish that some of that fun would find its way into the mains. Regardless, I believe that Marigold, like Cochon, is one of those under-the-radar Philly restaurants that are making wonderful food and pushing boundaries, even if no one is giving them any credit. Better make reservations and go there while you still can …
But wait! There’s more! We forgot about something! What could it be … ?
the wine! we forgot about the wine!
It’s been a pretty long post, so we’re going to have to save the wine showdown for the next one. It’s coming, I promise.
FriSatSun – so close but so far!
t says: Friday night rolled around and g and I lacked plans. It was time for date-night! But where to go – where to go? It was cold outside and we didn’t want to be bothered with a cab … so we instituted “dz Dining Requirements” – I’m coining the phrase right here, right now. As we scanned the list of neighborhood restaurants, we found one that fulfilled criteria numbers 1 through 4: FridaySaturdaySunday. And even though it was right around the block, we had never gone! And why not? I think it’s because every time we go online to check the menu, we get turned off by the silly pic and slogan on the website. We decided that tonight was the night to put that behind us.
10/2011, Friday Dinner, Party of 2. We walked in to a very very bizarre atmosphere. It had these mirrors all over the place, a chalkboard illuminated by blacklight, and weird murals (and I’m sure there were some other weird things there that escape my memory). We didn’t know if it was intentionally bizarre or if someone thought it was “cool”. Be that as it may, we took our seat, pulled out our bottle of wine (that’s right – NO corkage at FriSatSun – even though they sell alcohol! Buzinga! … and we’ve had it twice before – we like it a LOT), and got ready to eat. Bring on the food:
"Poached" asparagus
g ordered the aspargus appetizer. g liked it a lot, but I felt that the asparagus could have used a few more seconds poaching. I preferred the tomato-caper vinigarette which had a sourt-sweet-salt which was quite nice. I found myself eating it on the table bread (which, by the way, is delicious – crusty outside, soft inside). Overall, though, I felt like the dish was too much summer, and not really fall … which was the next dish:
butternut squash ravioli
A sucker for pasta, I of course picked out the ravioli. It smelled like a wonderful mix of hearty fall flavors – seeds, nuts, squash. Unfortunately, I found the dish to be quite mediocre. The ravioli’s dough was a bit dry/sticky and there wasn’t a whole lot of filling (but the little that was there was pretty good – a creamy butternut flavor) and the sauce was a little bland (I actually can’t remember what it was supposed to taste like … so I guess that makes it very bland). On the flip side, nothing tasted bad – it was just … too “subtle” for my taste. For example, when I think of butternut squash and pasta – I think of a mouthful of flavor more along the line of this risotto that we make.
salmon with rice and swiss chard
The grilled salmon and lemon creme fraiche was similarly mediocre. I take that back. The fish was cooked superbly – a beautiful texture. So … they mastered the hardest part of the dish (the fish cookery) … but missed out in other areas. The fish could have used more seasoning (salt, pepper, and maybe an herb or two), and the creme fraiche was on the weak side. The rice … straight-up bland. It boggled my mind – why would someone let this dish out of the kitchen? Then I got the answer: the Swiss chard. Mmmmmm. It made everything better. It brought in a salmon-worthy accompaniment and sang with our wine (the rice, on the other hand, was beyond repair). Was the resultant flavor worth a full 20-something-dollars? No. But, it was a sizable piece of fish that was cooked well – so I’d go as high as $19 (it is fish, after all …).
g's crabcake
I don’t have much to say about g’s crabcake because I only had one taste. From what I gather, the cake, itself, was a nice consistency and rich (g couldn’t imagine having to eat the two-cake “large” plate), but lacked oomph (noticing a pattern here?). BUT – the jicama slaw and mustardy sauce swooped in to the rescue. Tada! All better! g liked the dish just fine – and I liked the flavor combos more than those in my salmon. I think I’d like my crabcake a little more “crabby” (i.e. more obviously composed of crab – less filling), but, given the richness and accompanying flavors (and the size), I’d pay $19 for this dish, too … and that’s exactly how much it was! Woohoo!
After such sizable plates of food, g and I were both kind of full. As we stared at our wine, we realized that we still had a glass or two left. We obviously had to stick around for dessert, right? Having the larger sweet tooth, I was the one that had to decide our dessert fate. Molten chocolate cake was on the eerily-glowing blackboard (the blacklight, remember?). I figured why not? Plus, if we really finished the bottle of wine, then the dessert’s taste wouldn’t matter so much …
molten chocolate cake ... with whipped cream
This dessert was awesome. I’ll say my one quibble with it up front so I can go on gushing about it afterwards: yea, it could have been served warmer. There. Done. Now let’s talk about how delicious it was. The crusty outside gave way to moist cake and a thick, sweet, chocolate that you could eat with a fork (I hate it when it’s too liquid-y). I was about to say, “you know, this might be too sweet” but just put a forkful covered in some of the whipped cream … shazam! That was it! The whipped cream [to me] tasted unsweetened and it added a perfect balance and beautiful additional texture to the cake. Was it a simple “molten chocolate cake and whipped cream”? Sure. But it was a delicious, delicious guilty pleasure.
In summary, I’d say that FridaySaturdaySunday did a “good” job. Sure, nothing was particularly novel,but at least now I know that every bite should have a mix all of the components of the plate. Add on the reasonable portion size and that the excellence of the dessert and bread. Add on the fact that they’re BYO and have a bar. Add on the dzDD compliance. Voila. You have a restaurant that I’d be ok with going back to again in the future (maybe with dz?). Of course, I’d order something different (except the dessert … that’s staying the same) – but at least I’d come back!
Fond Brings Back the PORK BELLY
t says: g and I went back to Fond with a bunch of peeps – it was the night they brought in their Fall menu. While we were excited from our past Fond experience, I was especially excited for the menu change, as it marked the return of their super-awesome, super-ridiculous PORK BELLY (remember: Pork Caps)! Because we had so many peeps, I’ve pooled together their reviews for you here. Sorry – not a whole lot of pictures, though (it was dark in there).
I will start off and post the wine list that I created for the night:
the wine list for the evening
smn says: SO MUCH FUN. Can we please do it again? Like soon? The restaurant was fantastic- welcoming staff, neat area of the city, cozy feeling inside. The food was equally fantastic. The amuse bouche [t says: I think it was some kind of root vegetable soup] made my mouth oh-so-happy. I could have had a whole bowl of it, along with more of the tasty olive bread! Speaking of bowls, the the cauliflower veloute was soooo good. Could have had more of that, too, even without the dollop of greek yogurt/saffron. My scallops were delish and cooked perfectly. Surprisingly, dessert didn’t blow me away. I didn’t love the passionfruit sauce, and without a sauce of some sort the mousse cake was just mousse cake. I loved every single glass of wine put in front of me- nicely done, t. I also sampled g’s short rib and kp’s PORK BELLY- yummo all around! As for dz, he also liked the amuse bouche, enjoyed his salad appetizer (in part because of the large portion size), and inhaled his tuna dish. One observation on my end is that Fond is lacking a solid vegetarian dish to round out the menu.
kp says: So here’s my take …
Re: Foie Gras App: The foie gras was expertly seared with a nice crunch leading to a nice creamy interior. The flavoring (a sweet accent of sweet potatoes, turnips and pecans) was a nice but a little overpowering and too sweet over the foie gras. Maybe just hint of next time would be much better, the carmelized were a little lost in the mix too.
PORK BELLY ... looks like a slab of meat, but it's so much more.
Re: Berkshire PORK BELLY: Holy crap- this thing was porktastic. One of the first times i have the PORK BELLY expertly crisped on the outside but the meat still easily falls apart- you could eat with a spoon. The escarole was nice cut to the fattiness of the meat and buttery sweet potatoes but I think there needs to be a more stronger cut to balance that fattiness. The sweet potatoes were the perfect accent of delicate sweetness to the meat and again was expertly prepared, it so well caramelized. PS If your really nice to the waiter they may offer Sirachi- which for one bite of the PORK is nice (but I love spice).
Re: Cannolis: These little cream filled delights were amazing and the brown butter apples and cider were just the perfect fall accent to bring to this dish. The pastry remained crunchilious the mascarpone filling was and airy delight!
t says: I went for the tuna crudo. Shocker, I know! We had a nice white, so I eschewed the escargots I normally go for in favor of the fish. Take a peek:
tuna over asian pear and sesame seeds
It was a delightful dish, with all the right flavors – but composition was a little off. I think it was because those sticks of pear were a little hard to eat and juggle on the same fork as the fish and the sauce. Great flavors, but just needed a better way to put it into my mouth.
Next up, I went for the PORK BELLY, as kp mentioned already above. It was every bit as delicious as I remember it from the past. Without a doubt the best piece of PIG you can get. It’s all about the contrast between the top crisp layer and the rest of the tender meat with just the right amount of fat (so I guess whoever’s providing them with PIG should also get credit). But I also agree with kp – it needs a little something else to brighten the plate. It’s kind of like making football players take ballet to keep them light on their feet – but come on – this is one helluva kick-ass football player nonetheless.
The surprise of the evening was the shortrib.
shortrib
The shortrib was g’s dish. I had some. HOLY. CRAP. I haven’t had a shortrib this good since the slab of shortrib included in Talula Garden’s beef duo. It was fall-apart-tender and glazed in that rich thick sauce. I can’t tell you what was in it, but what I can tell you is that if I go back, I’d actually not be able to choose between the shortrib or the PORK BELLY. But of course – there are worse things in life than being forced to choose between the two. I don’t recall the accompaniments (?Brussels sprouts? ?onion spatzle?), but like the PORK BELLY, I don’t recall there being much counterpoint to the rich lusciousness of cow meat.
In the end, I think everyone enjoyed their dishes at Fond. The apps and mains are done superbly well. For some dishes, all the right flavors are there, but maybe a dish here or there could use a little more tweaking in terms of composition/presentation. For others (i.e. the pork belly and shortrib), I don’t think you can find better cooked slabs of meat in Philly. Period. With a little bit of brightening, these are best-dish-dish-I-ever-had worthy (crazy good!). The desserts around the table were all thought of as “good”, but not really life-altering. They ended the meal on a sweet note which [I believe] is necessary, but I don’t think they’re going to change anyone’s life – but I’m not even sure if that’s a fair assessment – “ragging” on dessert because it wasn’t life-changing? Hmmm. I guess there are worse situations for Fond to be in …
Fall Fits Cochon like a Pigskin Glove
a says: October 2011, Dinner, Party of 3. My mother was in town, so we wanted a nice dinner out but nothing too expensive. This likely meant byob and unfussy food. v and I have hit most of these places in Old City several times and wanted to show my Mom something new. I narrowed it down to two finalists, Chloe and Cochon, and after some debate, we decided on Cochon since they recently switched to a fall menu. (I realize Cochon is not located in Old City but it was close enough for our purposes, and more importantly, it never disappoints.) Readers of adsz are already familiar with our (a, v, t, g, and kp) amorous relationship with Cochon’s brunch but we felt their dinner service deserved some love, also.
Holy flying pigs did they deliver. We arrived to find the place almost empty, not a complete surprise on a weekday but undeserved considering the Cochon experience. There are always a few menu additions so we waited to hear those before making a final decision – v and I were leaning toward pork (duh) and my mother, toward escargots and gnocchi. The specials for the night only confirmed our initial inklings of pork and snail-filled bliss. Among the important information provided by our waitress was this lovely nugget: for $30, a patron could have 3 courses and a complimentary beer. OH. MY. GOD. Each course’s options were limited to a few dishes, but get this, escargots were a first course option and PORK BELLY (t’s “Pork Caps”) was a second course option, even though it wasn’t on the menu. After dinner, I sent t the picture below and this tidbit: “Yeah, that’s right, the PORK BELLY dish is in full effect @ Cochon… and it was amazing.” (update: It looks like the $30 prix fixe menu is only for October, their anniversary month, so get on over!)
My mother ordered the fried oysters and the vegetarian gnocchi, an off-menu option, which comes with roasted vegetables. I went with the $30 prix fixe and chose the escargot, PORK BELLY, and poor boy dessert (and Great Lakes Burning River pale ale). v only ordered an entree, slow-cooked suckling pig, since we knew a lot of food was on its way. Cochon is never one to be fussy with plating but everything looked lovely when it came to the table and the flavors soared from there.
"PORK BELLY"
All protein was cooked perfectly, with the PORK BELLY soft and tender less the crispy, crunchy skin. The sleeper dish of the night was definitely my mom’s gnocchi which had the perfect pillow-y consistency paired with harmonious flavors. v has had her share of homemade gnocchi and has even made some herself – none have compared to the consistency of these light, fluffy, tender gnocchi. The fried oysters with fennel were somehow light (for the night) and refreshing, and the escargots were solid. A slight edge for escargot flavor might go to Bibou but the surrounding pancetta, garlic-butter sauce at Cochon made us ask for extra bread to sop-up every last bit.
One knock on the meal from v, the lentils under her pork were “overpoweringly” salty and did not compare to the tour de force that are Bibou lentils. We ended with the poor boy dessert which was some mix of bacon ice cream, shortbread, and caramel gooeyness served warm in a ramekin. This was better than I expected as I don’t think of Cochon as a dessert place, and put a smile on each of our faces. v thinks this dessert was reminiscent, but not as delectable as the caramel budino at Barbuzzo.
I went with a Graf Hardegg “Vom Schloss” Riesling 2008 which I thought could hold-up to pork while matching well with the appetizer options. We’ve had this in the past and it has always served us well with its medium body, off-dry crispness. The apple and citrus flavors cut through the richness of the pork and escargots. The Great Lakes pale ale was a nice treat to start dinner and clear the palate. Oink.
t says: Loving the Pork Caps.
Pumpkin: “Good but not Great”
t says: We journeyed to Pumpkin last week with kp and another dinnermate. Weirdly, even though it’s close to where we live, we hadn’t quite been able to get to it despite trying to visit for years (it was always our second option). But not this time – this time we were going to go, damnit! (Actually, I had originally wanted to revisit a.kitchen with kp, but alas, they’re still too busy).
August 2011, Thursday 8pm, Party of 4. We walked in to a pretty tiny place – maybe a smidge bigger than Bibou. They do it old school (BYO and cash-only) at Pumpkin, so we came prepared with some pinot noir and riesling. We were seated promptly and introduced to our menus. A lot sounded tasty, so we initially had some personal crises (e.g. duck or pig – duck or pig?!) When the dust settled, this is what came out:
Escargots and Chicken Wings
kp and I ventured the escargots and chicken. It was accompanied with cucumber and sauced with something green that I actually cannot remember what it was. While the escargots were cooked appropriately (soft, not chewy), I found them to be a little lacking in flavor. Whereas Bibou’s tend to hit you in the mouth with a big “HEY – I’M A SNAIL” flavor, Pumpkin’s were much more subdued. The chicken wing was the same – cooked beautifully, but underwhelming flavor (although this was more likely due to underseasoning). I was a little sad because I couldn’t quite look past these two issues to concentrate on whether the accompanying flavors were a good combo or not.
Selection of "Summer Vegetables"
g and our friend had the summer vegetables, which featured some raw, some cooked, and some pickled. Additionally, it was served with an egg yolk, some kind of grain, and a broth poured on at the last second. I don’t know what they thought – maybe g’ll chime in sometime.
Double-duck!
This was my main – confit leg and ?roasted? breast, with some sort of jus (brown sauce), figs, and a crunchy-coffee-flavored pile (crumbs in the upper right corner), and a disk of what I believe was cherry. The duck cookery was right-on for the leg, but the breast was actually a little tough, requiring a bit of force with my knife, which I view as a bad sign. As for the other components, they just didn’t quite come together for me – it was like 5 separate components that I had to manually mix together, myself. To be honest, I think this dish could have gone further (the coffee+cherry+fig+duck sounded good) had the components been combined in a more cohesive manner – but the pretty presentation left them strewn around on the plate, leading to disjointed flavors/textures.
At our table was also the pig entree. We have no pictures of it, but our friend’s exact words were, “good but not great”. This was going to be the theme of the evening …
Cod
The cod was a pretty impressive hunk of fish accompanied corn, potato, and a vermouth sauce. kp really enjoyed the sauce (really REALLY enjoyed the sauce) but found that the fish could have been given a better sear, because the texture was monotonous throughout. There was also a lack of razor clams on the dish, which would have added some other kind of flavor to play with the cod.
Polenta
The polenta was a side-of-the-day. But to be honest, it was kind of a snooze-fest. Yea, it was polenta. And I guess the purpose is to increase the carbs of the other dishes. But please, do something to it!
All in all, it’s not that any of the food we had at Pumpkin was bad – I believe we all finished our plates! But, it didn’t leave with that “gee, I gotta come back here tomorrow” feeling. Perhaps I just had it built up too much because we had heard too many good things about it but felt that they didn’t deliver (e.g. like with Audrey Claire). We wish them a little better luck in the future.
after dinner sneeze 