Recently I had an opportunity to go to a wine tasting meal at the Robinhood Meetinghouse. This is a place I've never really heard anyone talk about but years and years ago the owner/chef's daughter was one of my students. When I lived nearby I went with some of my family for dinner and the duck (three ways) was so good, it made my oldest sister cry. This is a hysterical culinary moment we like to bring back whenever the meetinghouse or duck comes into conversation. I moved back to New England four years ago; and this was where I wanted to go to celebrate. I'm just getting to it now. See how time flies? You can learn about the restaurant from the website, this post is going to focus on our dinner specifically.
The wines were from Eberle Winery. The owner was there to speak for each pairing; again, the talks focused on other things than the food, and as we know, I'm all about food, so I'm not really going to talk about him either except to say I think my party annoyed him and we were all pretty much ok with that. We were having a great time.
The amuse bouche was an oyster on the half shell with prosecco gelee, with shaved fennel and pickled carrot (paired with a 2010 Mill Road Viognier). We were mixed on this dish. The gelee had melted by the time it go to our table but we did agree the crunch and the pickling of the carrot added a nice citrus flavor to the oyster. The oyster itself was very very fresh...I love an oyster. We also liked the presentation, an ice cube made from a muffin cup. So cute!
The meetingouse is famous for their cream cheese biscuits and with good reason. So yummy! We also tried a sweet potato variety that will most likely be available in your freezer section (we found the plain ones in Hannaford and Whole Foods) soon. The herbed butter was a bit hard when it got to our table but melted quickly; I liked it more on the plain biscuit than the sweet potato one.
The next course was a dry seared porcini pepper dusted lamb carpaccio with arugula, mint, and grape salad (paired with 2007 Zinfandel from Steinbeck/Wine Blush Vineyards). I've never had carpaccio before; it's not something that appeals to me. It was tender and very mild flavored. I didn't get any porcini flavor in it at all. The salad was fresh, we all loved the grapes, but someone at my table said his was too minty and we all agreed that the arugula should have had the stems cut off. They were tough. I also thought the salad was just the slightest touch overdressed, maybe too much acid in the salad overpowered the lamb. This was my favorite wine of the night!
The next course was a seared skate wing with tomato/caper tapenade, caramelized fennel, corn fritter, and sweet corn "foam" (paired with 2009 Eberle Estate Chardonnay). This was my favorite wine/food pairing of the night. I am not a chardonnay fan. At all. It worked here, though. I don't know enough about wine to say why but I can tell you that the skate wing made the wine taste better, and the wine made the fish taste better. Most everyone at the table loved some parts of this dish. Before it was presented to us we were commenting on the foam element. I said that it would be liquefied before the servers got the dishes up to our table (they were serving everyone at once on two different floors) and I was not surprised to see our foam had flopped. My party was disappointed, as they have been in the past with foams (exception: see my earlier post from Iceland). I agree that if a foam isn't going to "WOW" the diner, don't serve it. This was just corn soup. The fritter was not too dense and the fish was quite delicious (if just a tiny bit stringy).
For me, this course was the highlight of the night; a lavender sorbet served in lemon. I don't love the smell of lavender at all so I was skeptical; my cynicism was quickly put to rest. This was a great palate cleanser after the fish; light, bright, flavorful, sweet, and tart. It was also stunningly beautiful. I don't think this picture does it justice.
This course was a lemon-butter poached lobster tail with chervil puree, tournedo of beef, sauteed parsnips and asparagus with roasted portabella, black garlic, and "anna" potatoes (whatever those are) (paired with 2008 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon). I have just copied that off the menu (except the "whatever those are," obviously!) and I have to say, I agree with my fellow diner who stated that the dish should probably be described on the menu as a way of highlighting the main ingredients in the dish. Let's be honest, there are more beef and potatoes than anything else on this dish, yet the lobster tail is listed first. And for a dinner in Maine, 1/6 of a lobster tail is a surprisingly small amount when it is listed first on the menu, at least that's my opinion. This dish had a lot of flavors that worked well together. I really liked black garlic and mushroom with the beef. This was the only dish where I left something on the plate--several cloves of black garlic. It was very good but just a little too much for me.
The final course was a lime coconut souffle with warm lime curd (paired with a 2009 Estate Muscat Canelli). I loved this souffle. It was crunchy on the top, not too sweet, and the lime curd was very tart and super lime-y. so yummy. No comment on this wine; I'm not much of a dessert wine person.
Overall this was a great meal and a lot of fun. Most of the dishes had at least some mixed review around the table but everyone agreed that everything was done well and that the sorbet was the hit/surprise of the night. A word about the service. It is incredibly hard to pull off service for an event like this. There were hiccups for sure; however, the servers were super nice, our water glasses were always full (sparkling; nice touch), and the chef came to every table to chit chat and make sure we were happy. For a formal setting, service, and meal, this felt very homey to me. I can't wait to go back and order off the menu; I won't be waiting 10 years, that's for sure!
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