Update Time

Hey,


I do know it's been awhile, and the purpose of a blog should be communication. I just had more on my plate than food lately and totally ran out of time to talk. But... this time I have a few things to say.


How long has it been since you've been out to dinner with friends? Especially for a special event or special evening? We did that this week, as my husband and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary. Yep... finally getting up to the eyebrow raising years... (how many??) or the inevitable question (to the same guy???) Yes... to the same guy. Now, about dinner.

We live in the Hudson Valley of New York State. That is a 98 mile trip from Manhattan, or a full train ride up here.(About an hour). We are a stones throw from the Culinary Institute of America, so our area spawns a significant number of decent restaurants. (I admit when I travel that I see how we are spoiled in our neighborhood). There was one restaurant that I found recently, that I had my eye on. I wanted to try it, so I waited for a special event because it was nearing the pricey tag for food. (Not real expensive but creeping up there).

Our friends went with us, and that was the best part. The food, unfortunately, was not. Let me tell you about our evening.

I'll start with the service. We were greeted very well by a team of wait staff. Apparently, without saying so, one of them must have been training the other one, as she didn't let her more than a few feet away from her the entire evening. The only problem was, for me, I couldn't tell who was training whom. They started with a crucial error. Instead of telling us about the specials they could please us with, they told us what they were out of and could not have. This immediately made me disappointed. Now personally, I can live without razor clams or ramps, but after she talked about it, I wanted them. The focus wasn't about what good things were on the menu, but things that were missing. The next problem was the server really didn't know the menu that well. She confused the soup (not really knowing the product) and had to look at the menu several times to explain things. My friend and I decided to not order anything at all but to leave our meal entirely to the chef. (Her) choice. As a chef, I've had this happen some, and I enjoy doing a few new ideas with food that I have or doing something entirely off the menu. The chef didn't do this, just gave us some things that were there. I was hoping she would take the option and run with it as this restaurant had a reputation for being somewhat eclectic, but not this time.

The chef did send out an amuse bouche. This for me was the best tasting piece of food we had all evening. It was a version of hummus with peas on pita with microcelery and it was charming and flavorful. Next came our bread. The bread was a crusty loaf, sliced and grilled (you could see the grill marks). The bread had parmesan cheese on it and was served with a sun dried tomato tampanade. This was the highlight of our meal.

My friend and I tend to be rather adventurous eaters but sometimes our husbands are more traditional. For his appetizer, my husband had a lobster macaroni and cheese. This sounded good, but seemed rather bland, and there wasn't much lobster either. There wasn't much depth of flavor from many different cheeses, just monodimensional. He said he wasn't really that impressed. Her husband had a Caesar Salad. It looked good and he said it was good. (But really, not much to do with that anyway). She was served a goat cheese and mushroom strudel with a salad on the side, which was drizzled with a vinegar glaze. (I'm not sure whether it was sherry vinegar or balsamic). The product was nice, but seemed to be lacking in seasoning. My appetizer was a pate, with pistachios served with slices of toasted baguette. I can say the pate was nice, but again, as a theme to our meal, lacking in seasoning overall.

For our main courses, my friend asked specifically for seafood. She was served a crusted grouper with a fruit accompanient. It was a type of a fruit salsa which was very good, but the fish itself again lacking in seasoning was decent. My friend summed up her meal and probably the entire evening with her remark. "It's good but not WOW. I was looking for WOW." So was I. My meal was a stuffed quail served on mashed potatoes. The quail was not deboned so it was slightly difficult to eat (especially if you were unfamiliar with quail). The stuffing was nice, cornbread and sausage, but primarily I could taste the cornbread, and not much of the sausage. Sauces were demi's which were good but not a WOW. My husband had a seared Ahi tuna which to our liking, was slightly overcooked for tuna and could have used more acid. Her husband had a steak, which was somewhat undercooked. If we could have had the tuna with the same amount of doneness as the steak, and vice versa, all of us would have been happier.
Desserts were some better but they were mixed in our opinions. I had a bread pudding, one of my personal favorites. It had decent flavor but I felt it could have been sweeter. I should have gone with the creme brulee, which is another of my favorites. I might have liked it better. My friend and her husband had a sampler dessert. There was carrot cake and chocolate cake on it, some ice cream (not sure if it was a gelato or sorbet actually) and a creme brulee, all in a sample few bite sizes. The sampler was charming, they seemed to like them. At this writing I cannot remember what my husband had so I cannot comment.

Personally, when we go out with friends, the best part of the evening is the social aspect of it, but for my friend and I, who are major foodies, we love to "dissect" the food and try new things. We were hoping to love the place. We only barely liked it. We doubt that we would return.

Comments are welcome or you can email me. Or follow me on twitter @drenapaulson