‘Dinner in the din[ing room], nothing could be finer’. We had family, one of whom had never been to New York, so we decided not to stay in the breakfast room. The red placemat should have been a dead giveaway, even if I hadn’t described the location, which involved a mahogany table.
We started out with a salume, continued with shellfish, followed that with a cheese course, and finished with a gingerbread pastry.
- thinly-sliced Alto Adige Speck from Eataly, each piece rolled around the tines of a fork and put on a plate, drizzled with some very good olive oil, accompanied by mixed baby greens from Norwich Meadows Farm, the greens seasoned and dressed with good oil and drops of local hot house Lisbon lemon
- the salume was accompanied by slices of a loaf of ‘rustic classic’ from Eataly
- the wine was an Australian (South Australia) sparkling, Taltarni 2011 from Chelsea Wine Vault
- sea scallops from Pura Vida Seafood, washed, rinsed and dried very thoroughly, seasoned with salt and pepper, pan grilled for about 90 seconds on each side, finished with a squeeze of Lisbon lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil, and scissored little chive plants from Rogowski Farm, placed on a bed of pea shoots from Alewife Farm [the basic recipe, minus the chives and the shoots, is included in Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’, ‘Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe‘]
- parsnips from Norwich Meadows Farm, scrubbed thoroughly, sliced, mostly into 1/4-to-1/2″ discs, tossed with olive oil, several garlic cloves from Norwich Meadows Farm, unpeeled, salt, and pepper, roasted in a 425º oven for about 30-40 minutes
- ‘Evenstar Smooth’ kale from Alewife Farm, barely wilted in some olive oil after one clove of peeled garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved, had been cooked in the oil until it was beginning to brown, finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
- the wine was a California (Santa Barbara) white, Rasmussen Chardonnay 2014
- the music throughout was our happy conversation