Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!
The pictures below were posted a few days ago...from the luncheon we had at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. I'm finally adding the details that I took down while having the lunch!
That restaurant is ranked pretty high (#2 maybe) on OpenTable.com as Best Overall in the NY area, also listed as romantic and great for foodies. Well, the episode of TopChef last season is what spiked my initial interest in this restaurant, the OpenTable results just made me want to try it even more. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the reservation online because it showed they were fully booked so I didn't get to earn 100 dining points, but at least we were able to get a table for 11:30AM!
We got there pretty much with everyone else...I think they open 11:30AM - 2PM for lunch. We got seated at a booth that didn't touch the wall. The booths were actually longer than the table itself, giving us enough room to put the camera bag next to me! The pictures below are of the foods they decided to bring to our table. There was no traditional menu, only a list of ingredients that they had for the day, going as local as possible starting from their on-premise farm. The 4-course meal is prepared and designed by the chef, but they do accept your requests of likes and dislikes or allergies. I really wished they told us exactly how the dish was prepared or at least spoke louder when they told us what the dish actually was.
First thing I noticed was the fresh flowers on the table. It looked almost fake! (Note on the camera: I LOVE how clear this picture turned out!)
The bread was sliced at the central table in the dining area. The potato-onion bread was super crunchy on the outside; some of them actually looked a bit burnt on the bottom. Even though the bread they said was potato-onion, I only tasted a slight hint of onion, and didn't taste the potato at all. The butter was...buttery (duh!) made it easily spreadible on the bread. We actually filled in some of the holes in the bread with the butter. Who could resist? I wonder if they make their own butter.
Cocktail - Seville Orange Madras
I loved the fact that there's orange meat in the drink gave the drink a natural sweet and tangy-ness, and the alcohol wasn't overpowering at all.
Jacky's "cocktail" - Non-alcoholic Pinot Noir wine
I never knew they made non-alcoholic wine! They brought the bottle out, and it actually said Pinot Noir-grade grape juice! That's what the waiter described the wine to be...glorified grape juice. I tried a sip of it, and it does taste more intense than regular grape juice.
Amuse bouche 1 - Beef salami
From the look of it, it first reminded me of pepperoni they put on pizzas. Can't really remember much from what it tasted like since I don't eat much salami to begin with. It wasn't too salty and the chewiness was just right.
Amuse bouche 2 - Asparagus
Back to this dish...all the waiter said to us was "Asparagus". It felt like I was taking a shot of asparagus soup. Slightly too salty.
Amuse bouche 3 - Asparagus and pancetta with sesame seeds and beet burgers
Not sure if these food items are considered amuse bouche or not, but we surely hope they didn't count towards the 4-course meal because that would've meant the meal was more than half over!
Close up of the asparagus + pancetta and sesame seeds. Loved the taste of toasted sesame...I'm not such a big fan of asparagus, but at least it was something I could eat.
Close-up of beet burgers. I would have to say this was my favorite! Not sure if the sweetness came from the beet themselves because I don't usually hear about fancy restaurants cooking with sugar except for desserts maybe. But I wish I had more of these, they were super tiny.
First course - Sea trout, ramps, and spring fruits and nuts with saffron almond sauce
The strip of bubble on the top of the plate tasted slightly sour, without knowing what it was, I asked the guy who gave us the bread, and he had to find out for us, which is how we know it was saffron almond sauce. Once again, I really wish they told us how these dishes were prepared! The sea trout tasted a bit fishy and only warm. The ramps reminded me of the leeks used in dumplings, which is not a bad thing. And who can say no to pine nuts (except maybe people who are allergic to nuts)!
I got yelled at for using flash in the restaurant! Well, not yell, but they asked us not to use flash. Hmm, that's what happened when we saw Jeannette Lee play pool, but that I thought was because the flash would distract her concentration...
Farm fresh hen eggs
They brought over the display above to our table right before our second course came out to let us know that the eggs we were about to enjoy are from their own farm, which produces about 10,000 eggs a year (omg!). Also told us to taste the creaminess of the yolk that's different from the usual eggs sold at the supermarkets.
Second course - Farm fresh eggs with asparagus, mushroom, and pinenuts
They told us very quickly what mushrooms they were, but of course I wasn't able to hear or remember what it was. The puree looked like was made from asparagus once again, but the mushrooms were a tad too salty for me.
Close-up of the egg
The egg was perfectly cooked...we think it was poached. We loved the fact that it laid so perfectly on the plate. And they were right, the yolk tasted super creamy!
Third course - Lamb shoulder with chick peas, parsnip, and parsley (?) puree
When the meal started, we decided not to tell them what our likes and dislikes are. Even though we noticed the lamb on the list and I don't eat lamb, I figured the chances of that happening is slim and I don't want to strip the opportunity for the rest of the party to taste fresh lamb because it seemed like everyone in the same party is served the same thing. Turns out, the chances of lamb were pretty high. We all got lamb, and it seeemd the piece I got was the biggest of the three. I decided to try one tiny piece of the meat, but couldn't bring myself to eat my main entree at all.
The lamb was slow-roasted with the skin, and from what I hear, it was good. The parsnip and parsley part in the dish are only based on their quick blurbs when the dish was brought out and settled onto our table, so I could be completely wrong. I'm not a big chick-pea fan either, so the two boys split my entree.
Dessert time! Unlike the other courses, we each got a different dessert.
My fourth course - beet and chocolate cake with coffee ice cream and espresso meringue
I was glad there was another dish with beet in it! The chocolate didn't overshadow the taste of the beets, and it again had the natural sweetness I enjoyed in the beet burgers. The crunchy espresso with the coffee ice cream made the chocolate taste even lighter, and the caramel swirls on the plate were good too!
Jacky's fourth course - Spiced pineapple with heirloom greens
The ice cream I think tasted almost like lychee...or was it pineapple? The chunks of pineapple in the picture didn't taste spiced. But the ice cream on top was good!
Fourth course - Parsnip cake with ginger ice cream
The foamy top was also made from ginger, so this dessert had a bit too much ginger taste for me. We rotated the dessert plates between the three of us so we can taste every dessert.
It came to our attention that not every table is served the same thing for every course. I wish I could take pictures of the food we weren't served, that way we'd know what we're missing out on. Maybe they serve different things to different tables depending on their likes and dislikes? One of the other dishes for either the first or second course for other tables were tiny tiny radish and carrots served on pins on a wooden block. While the presentation was interesting, we only want to take a picture of the dish and they should keep it moving because we don't want to eat those; we're not rabbits! Good thing they didn't serve that to us, or else I wouldn't know whether or not to eat the greens on the top. The actual carrot/radish part was maybe an inch tall at most! Another main entree they served to other tables was roasted suckling pig. Looking from our table, the piece of meat looked small, so it was a good thing that we didn't get the pig because we got more meat.
Walking to the car after lunch, we saw the herd of sheep they let out to graze the grass! It was right by our cars, so we stood there for a few minutes just listening to the sheep "baaaaah" with each other and chewing the grass. Now we know where the lamb came from!
The lazy dog that is supposed to keep an eye on the sheep. All it did was stay in one place! In this picture he was up because there was thunder. After a few seconds he went right back to lying down.
I wanted to take a picture of this sheep because of the udders. Some of them had such big udders that they couldn't even walk right! The little lambs tried to get some milk from the mommies, but the mom was too busy eating grass herself and didn't feed the baby lamb.
Even though the sign by the fence warned of electricity, the sheep didn't seem to be affected when he started chewing grass on the other side. This was how close the sheep were to us!
Two sheep close to us eating grass. Some of them pull the grass downward while others pull them upward or even both ways! Maybe that's like how humans can be right and/or left-handed...hmm
A random little lamb that was staring at us for a few seconds.
Blue Hill at Stone Barns was an interesting experience. There's a lot of things I wish they had done differently...maybe they could've given us a list of the name of dishes that they served us, told us how they were prepared, opened more of the farm to public (I wanted to see cows mooing dammit!). While I wouldn't say it was the best restaurant I've been to, the ingredients were certainly the freshest. We might go back for a very very special occasion, because it was just too expensive. Dropping over $100 per person for lunch is too rich for my blood...but if there was a really special occasion that calls for a celebration with super fresh ingredients, I would consider going back there. Maybe even for dinner!
