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lillibetOn Saturday we drove out to The Butterfly Place in Westford and spent a lovely half hour or so watching thousands of butterflies swoop and soar. One of them took a liking to J. and sat trying to taste his shirt for several minutes as we strolled around. Afterwards we drove out Rte. 113 past some lovely farms, old homes and big, old barns until it was time for dinner at Silks.
We joined our friends Ren & Joe at the Stonehenge Inn in Tyngsboro, MA for a lovely meal in the very elegant dining room. For starters, J had the Caesar salad, which he felt was possibly the best instance of that salad in his experience, while the rest of us took the Hudson Valley duck confit with wild raspberry chutney and baby frisee in a shallot-chive vinaigrette. The other three shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio (the St. Michael-Eppan, I believe) with that course, before switching to the 2004 Niebaum-Coppola Cabernet Sauvignon--I had very small tastes of each, just enough to make me even sadder that I'm not allowed to drink these days. Jason enjoyed the grilled hanger steak with roasted sweet peppers, Italian zucchini and Japanese eggplant; I thought the sauce was almost like that in boeuf bourginon. I believe Joe had the pan-seared breast of chicken with summer Herbs, asparagus, shitake mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, but I didn't hear much about it. Ren and I both had the pan-seared sriped sea bass with a fabulous rosemary-sage risotto, shaved fennel and lemon-lime butter and enjoyed it very much. I took a side of lightly creamed spinach with mine and while it was good, it made me notice that there was no salt & pepper on the table. I understand the theory that the chef has prepared a dish as it should be eaten, but since I like my food saltier than most people, I think it's reasonable for me to adjust to my taste, rather than having the chef's enforced on me; I would also have wanted pepper on the salad, if that had been my starter. For dessert, Jason and I both took the strawberry yogurt terrine with fresh berries, which was light and cool and lovely. The others had the dark chocolate mousse in puff pastry with peach ragout and seemed to enjoy that. With dessert they had a half-bottle of the 1999 Beaulieu Vineyards Muscat, which smelled fantastic, but didn't live up to its bouquet. Generally, the service was excellent, although there was some confusion over the check at the end, and we all agreed it was a really lovely meal. We were especially glad to be sharing it with Ren & Joe, as we haven't managed to get together in about a year, which we all agreed was far too long!
After a very successful workday, despite the weather's making many of us pretty cranky, we took a cold, sort-restoring shower, picked up![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gilana and heliopsis and met alfie1981 and ironpoet for dinner at The Wine Cellar.
The restaurant is tucked into a cozy basement just over the Mass Ave bridge in Boston and the six of us were squeezed fairly tightly around a corner table. I was intrigued by the tomato & mussel salad, but skipped it in order to share the cheese fondue for two with Jason. It came with both chunks of bread and lightly fried, crispy potato wedges, which made excellent and unusual dippers. Meanwhile the others very much enjoyed large bowls of leafy salad well tossed in a light champagne vinaigrette with fresh raspberries, blackberries, and spicy pecans--and I thought I saw cashews in there, as well. Gilly and Mike shared the cheese fondue as their main, while Jason and Kerri both had the chicken breast sautéed with artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers, then baked with fresh mozzarella and topped with crispy potatoes allumettes (i.e. fresh potato sticks)--Jason found it fairly underwhelming. John and I both had the shrimp and beef fondue in a healthy vegetable broth and served with dipping sauces (barbecue, bearnaise, aoili, sweet-and-sour) and more of the potatoes. The meat and shrimp were both very good and the sauces made for a fun mix-and-match exercise. For dessert we had one of each of the three chocolate fondues: dark, milk with caramel and almonds, and dark with coconut cream. All were served with strawberries, bananas, marshmellows, grapes and a dish of whipped cream with pirouette cookies that made good scoops. There were a few odd moments of service: the end spot (Gilly had it through the starters and then we switched) was doomed never to get a full glass of water, our waiter apparently spilled something on the table behind us as he tried to get to the end of our table, and there was some miscommunication such that two orders of ravioli came instead of chicken and had to be re-filled while the rest of us were served. But the fondues were tasty, the company was excellent, and it was nice to have such a different meal after the small variations of the past few days.
We joined our friends Ren & Joe at the Stonehenge Inn in Tyngsboro, MA for a lovely meal in the very elegant dining room. For starters, J had the Caesar salad, which he felt was possibly the best instance of that salad in his experience, while the rest of us took the Hudson Valley duck confit with wild raspberry chutney and baby frisee in a shallot-chive vinaigrette. The other three shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio (the St. Michael-Eppan, I believe) with that course, before switching to the 2004 Niebaum-Coppola Cabernet Sauvignon--I had very small tastes of each, just enough to make me even sadder that I'm not allowed to drink these days. Jason enjoyed the grilled hanger steak with roasted sweet peppers, Italian zucchini and Japanese eggplant; I thought the sauce was almost like that in boeuf bourginon. I believe Joe had the pan-seared breast of chicken with summer Herbs, asparagus, shitake mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, but I didn't hear much about it. Ren and I both had the pan-seared sriped sea bass with a fabulous rosemary-sage risotto, shaved fennel and lemon-lime butter and enjoyed it very much. I took a side of lightly creamed spinach with mine and while it was good, it made me notice that there was no salt & pepper on the table. I understand the theory that the chef has prepared a dish as it should be eaten, but since I like my food saltier than most people, I think it's reasonable for me to adjust to my taste, rather than having the chef's enforced on me; I would also have wanted pepper on the salad, if that had been my starter. For dessert, Jason and I both took the strawberry yogurt terrine with fresh berries, which was light and cool and lovely. The others had the dark chocolate mousse in puff pastry with peach ragout and seemed to enjoy that. With dessert they had a half-bottle of the 1999 Beaulieu Vineyards Muscat, which smelled fantastic, but didn't live up to its bouquet. Generally, the service was excellent, although there was some confusion over the check at the end, and we all agreed it was a really lovely meal. We were especially glad to be sharing it with Ren & Joe, as we haven't managed to get together in about a year, which we all agreed was far too long!
After a very successful workday, despite the weather's making many of us pretty cranky, we took a cold, sort-restoring shower, picked up
gilana and heliopsis and met alfie1981 and ironpoet for dinner at The Wine Cellar. The restaurant is tucked into a cozy basement just over the Mass Ave bridge in Boston and the six of us were squeezed fairly tightly around a corner table. I was intrigued by the tomato & mussel salad, but skipped it in order to share the cheese fondue for two with Jason. It came with both chunks of bread and lightly fried, crispy potato wedges, which made excellent and unusual dippers. Meanwhile the others very much enjoyed large bowls of leafy salad well tossed in a light champagne vinaigrette with fresh raspberries, blackberries, and spicy pecans--and I thought I saw cashews in there, as well. Gilly and Mike shared the cheese fondue as their main, while Jason and Kerri both had the chicken breast sautéed with artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers, then baked with fresh mozzarella and topped with crispy potatoes allumettes (i.e. fresh potato sticks)--Jason found it fairly underwhelming. John and I both had the shrimp and beef fondue in a healthy vegetable broth and served with dipping sauces (barbecue, bearnaise, aoili, sweet-and-sour) and more of the potatoes. The meat and shrimp were both very good and the sauces made for a fun mix-and-match exercise. For dessert we had one of each of the three chocolate fondues: dark, milk with caramel and almonds, and dark with coconut cream. All were served with strawberries, bananas, marshmellows, grapes and a dish of whipped cream with pirouette cookies that made good scoops. There were a few odd moments of service: the end spot (Gilly had it through the starters and then we switched) was doomed never to get a full glass of water, our waiter apparently spilled something on the table behind us as he tried to get to the end of our table, and there was some miscommunication such that two orders of ravioli came instead of chicken and had to be re-filled while the rest of us were served. But the fondues were tasty, the company was excellent, and it was nice to have such a different meal after the small variations of the past few days.
