We launched the weekend Friday night by having dinner on the
Solomons at Bistro Belle Maison, housed in the Blue Heron Inn. We preceded that by having cocktails at the
back end of the CD café. That
progression provided a very nice evening.
The Next Door Lounge (correct name) is a nice place for such activity,
and has pretty good drinks. Our server
was apparently new, and had no clue what MFO’s Gimlet was, nor not much of an
idea what a “dirty” Gray Goose Martini meant.
Fortunately the barkeep was near enough that he heard, and explained it
to her. We got there early enough that it
wasn’t filled with people waiting for tables so conversation was easy. Nice prelude. After that, we proceeded down to the Bistro. Second visits can sometimes turn out to be not
as successful as the first, but I am happy to report we very much enjoyed our
dinner. The food was outstanding. As I said before, I struggle a bit with the
“little plates” concept, because of the specter of “sharing”. Makes selections a bit difficult for the
whole table.. but that’s just me. Anyway
we settled on the table sharing a Cauliflower Squash Bisque and a green salad
for starters, and main courses of Pan Seared Rainbow Trout, Tuna Tartare, and
Seared Scallops. While I am not a
cauliflower fan, the soup was quite tasty.
Maybe it’s the floret of the real thing I object to. The main courses were quite fine. Everything on the plate was good, from the
center of the plate to the “sides”. The
portions are just nice, each person can have a bite or two with the result
everybody is satisfied and you get to taste more than one dish more than
once. Nice way to experiment.
The dining space is kind of awkward being a living room most
of its time, but it works okay. And now
that it is light later, there is a nice view toward Back Creek. With a fewer
number of tables conversation is easy and we enjoyed that along with the food. Of
course you have to have “Kim’s Key Lime Pie” for dessert and we did. A most enjoyable evening. Our server was youngish man, did a good job
with the table, didn’t hustle us, and was quite pleasant.
Now I know I am relatively alone in this crusade, but once
you are sensitized to it, you are doomed.
Our table consisted of two females and me, generally recognizable as a
male. From the time we sat down until we
left there was a barrage of “you guys” directed at us. “would you XXXX like the wine list?; how is
everything XXXX?; can I get you XXXX dessert?”.
Sigh. More wine please. Thursday through Saturday only, so a
reservation is definitely recommended.
If you haven’t been I am now fairly confident that you will enjoy dining
there. We will certainly return for the
trifecta. (DFD certainly appropriate –
business casual fit for Bistro). And try to endure the XXXX.
Then Saturday, I went out to that lecture at Sotterley
Plantation, on the impact of African American Foodways on modern cuisine. The program was given by (I think) the
Education Director of Historic London Town and Gardens, which is up in
Edgewater. I have not been there but
probably will make a visit one of these weekends. The program began with a lot of material on
Slavery and Slaves in general, going over the origin of the slaves that mostly
wound up in Maryland, “Senegambia”. One
of the things that came out during that part was the importance of Yams (NOT
sweet potatoes) in the process. She said
that Yams were imported from Portugal which I didn’t know. They provided one of the mainstays of food
during the crossing from Africa to the colonies. Thousands were necessary. Once here in “America”, new foods were introduced,
like Sorghum and Maize/Corn neither of which were available in their native
Africa. That represented another break
from their familiar culture. There was,
however Okra, and the Melegueta Pepper which were more familiar to them. She
did demonstrate one of the dishes, a vegetable ceviche (lime for acid, garlic for flavor!)
Besides the ingredients, cooking methods used by slaves
evolved into today’s things like roast and fried chicken, slow cooked stews,
and of course barbeque. I am not sure
that I came away with a newer knowledge of the impact of African American/Slave
foodways on “modern cuisine”, but it is a convoluted subject. Anyway, it was a nice way to spend part of
Saturday..
The rest of Saturday was unfortunately (?) spent in front of the
Tele, watching the golfers play their way around Augusta National Golf
course. Having been there last year, of
course I had to yell out “I’ve been there!” several times which had MFO looking
for the human mute button. For dinner we
had some beef sausages from the WAG meat farm.
Quite good. On Sunday I helped
start a little project you may hear more about, but it involved food and
photography. That finished in time to
watch the conclusion of the Master’s, one of the better finishes there has been
lately. Somebody actually WON it with
good golf rather than somebody collapsing at the end. And how can you not like Adam Scott? He and Angel Cabrera made a fine statement
about the game of golf.. and see, I didn't use the "T" word once!!
DFD
More on R-sters to come
No comments:
Post a Comment