Barking Frog

Friday the 13th meets our 13th wedding anniversary (a few days earlier).  The Critic and I deposited The Guys with his mom and skedaddled off on our own for nearly 24 hours.  We stayed at Willows Lodge and despite a LONG night dealing with young 20 somethings playing tag in the hallways (and getting some compensation for it, thank goodness) we did enjoy our relaxing stay.  

Dinner was at The Barking Frog.  I have never been, though I have heard of it.  It was good, albeit a little loud for our taste.  If we hadn't just done Rover's we likely would have splurged for The Herb Farm, though that will be a splurge on another day I'm sure.

Interesting tidbit of information I recently heard.  The awards and success for Herb Farm are largely attributed to the chef/owner of Poppy, Jerry Traunfeld.  So it's kind of nice to have experienced the talent at a fraction of the cost.

But this trip was for Barking Frog.  It's a wonderful concept that is becoming an increasing trend... farm to table with the farm being close to the table.  It was a delight to walk through the garden and see all the things that were on our plate.  It also means that planning ahead and looking at the menu is only partly helpful, since what will be presented depends on what is fresh in the backyard.

First up -- bread of course.  I cannot even begin to impress upon you how hungry we were to start this meal!  We nearly ordered any sort of appetizer or starter, but were planning for the bread.  It was okay... it was bread!  The sauce on the side is a sundried tomato tapenade of sorts with fried capers.  I think this might be my first time actually eating fried capers and they are pretty cool... crispy with a saltiness that disappears quickly.  Even The Critic liked it... capers are not his thing.

But of course, we're not really here to talk about bread.  Main course!  I chose scallops.  Of course I did!  You can't read this blog and not know of my obsessions with scallops by this point.  The cauliflower risotto (promised on the website) was replaced this evening with a brown-butter quinoa, which was good, except it was way too buttery for me.  Seeing as how I haven't had so much as a tablespoon of butter in nearly 2 months, it was a bit strong.  But still, I think I made the best choice I could have and the scallops were definitely seared to perfection and fairly well cleaned.  The grilled veggies on top were also quite good.  I debated ordering with "light butter and oil" and likely should have.  I would have enjoyed the meal more had I been so bold.  Still, it was tasty.

The Critic won this round of "who picked it best."  Sadly his "rack of lamb" had been changed to lamb loin on this particular evening, and it tasted rather "lamb-y", but it still was a deeply flavored dish with some amazing stuff going on.  Not amazing was the grilled asparagus.  What's that you say?  How can The Critic and The Coach Foodie not enjoy grilled asparagus?  One word.  It was pickled!  Seriously!  Weird, I know.  I'm not sure why it was.  A braver woman would have asked.  But we just chose to ignore it.  Three stars on that plate... the braised fennel, that port jus, and the DELICIOUS Israeli cous cous.  Those were delicious and brought this meal from so-so to extraordinary pretty quickly.

 

Skipping an appetizer gave us license to try some desserts.  One was great... the other interesting.  First up, maple bacon creme brulee.  Now, creme brulee is not something we often order in a restaurant.  The Critic is quite the pastry chef in his own right with this dessert, even going so far as having a couple years of auctioning off "creme brulee of the month".  But in his repertoire of Kahula and cream, lavender, vanilla bean, and caramel he has yet to tackle maple-bacon.  So we decided we needed to taste that.  First off, I'm not sure where the maple came from.  It really was a more salty/savory dessert (we were properly warned by our server of that).  But it was intriguing and the bacon brittle on the top was certainly sweet.  But otherwise it was much more reminiscent of a breadless breakfast casserole or souffle.  Not bad, mind you, just maybe misplaced?  It seemed like a fancy breakfast treat.  But then I've never been a fan of bacon in dessert.

Last up, chocolate. I mean really, in our house, dessert = chocolate and chocolate = dessert.  No easy substitutes.  This had a lot of fun elements all working together, including a cinnamon "snow" which was both powdery and cold, as well as a malt frozen yogurt.  And then there were the cocoa nibs... I think I have to order cocoa nibs when I see them just to say I did.  This was tasty and quite a delicious way to end the meal.

So happy Friday the 13th, and happy 13th anniversary to my love who gets me and enjoys this crazy dining out passion along side me.  He's not nearly as critical as his name lets on, either.  Love you, Love.  Here's to many more than 13 more.

Salumi

The Guys and I had an iconic Seattle Foodie day today... and I have not one picture to prove it.  We began by heading to Pike Place Market where The Guys both chewed and added gum to the gum wall... I did too.  Never done that.  Yuck.  I'd like to pass from EVER doing that again.  After that, we walked around Pike Place Market where I was careful to avoid all the munchies until I took them to Beecher's.  I mean, every kid needs Beecher's mac and cheese.  Trouble was... they couldn't decide between mac and cheese or grilled cheese.  So I got both.  Wrong decision.  They LOVED the mac and cheese... neither would eat the grilled cheese... which took forever to make and wasn't all that and a bag of chips at the end of the day.  Finally we ended with a stop at "my favorite produce stand" and that's as much as I can tell you about it... it's the place where they snap the bag open (though they didn't do that this time... sad).  Do you have any idea how much money I could spend at the market?  Yeah, me either.

After that, we headed to Pioneer Park (place? park place?  I can never remember...) where the legendary Salumi is.  At the request of The Critic, we went and were going to get several things to try out.  This was really hard for me.  First, the line to get in was easily a 45 min. wait and I had two squiggly worms with no where to sit, and not even the real promise of anything to eat at the end of it, because I'm not spending that much on cured pork for them when they won't appreciate the difference over pepperoni from a pillow bag.  Second, it was just so overwhelming!  Actual food, cut meats, warnings to not place slicing orders without 24 hour notice if there was a line, warnings that certain cuts required a professional slicer... it was nerve wracking! When I did finally manage to order (side note... when sandwiched between two gentlemen in a line, they will assume I am with one of them... even the poor 21 year-old guy behind me who was called "Dad" by the gal behind the counter, to which he responded "I'm mildly offended" and I said "I guess I just turned into a cradle robber?"), I was able to get a sample plate, opting to forego the cheese and olives since they aren't The Critic's thing and I'm not supposed to be eating cheese anyway (15 pounds lost, people!). 

Bottom line?  Delicious and quite the experience.  And someday I'm going back for gnocchi because, well, it MUST be done. 

Annie Bailey's Irish Pub

Welcome to Pennsylvania and a night out on the town! Guess what? Irish food doesn't jive with healthy eating. Here's the best I could muster up...

I cut off about 3 oz of a pork chop that was grilled, added a couple roasted potatoes, and a couple pieces of grilled asparagus that were dripping in oil, so I didn't think I could muster manage more.  Not nearly as tasty as The Critic's  BBQ brisket sandwich, but it will do in a pinch.  Other than this place, we ate out once at Baja Fresh where I just had salad and then also at Hershey Park where we opted for the character dinner... not the best food but the kids were happy and we were hungry.  Washington D.C. restaurants will need to wait for a future trip, though I did enjoy the cafeteria at the American History museum where I was able to get a build (and weigh) your own salad bar with some tasty options, including roasted beets and steamed broccoli. 

Been a fast trip, most of it spent with good friends... and sadly, no Pennyslvania Dutch soft pretzels this go around.  Oh well, there's always time in the next two or three years.