Sometimes Dining- Flanker

On the evening of Superbowl Sunday, Sometimes Dining had their first meal of the 2011.
This year, they're trying to adjust their format- serving a smaller number of diners and introducing a family style of food presentation. Being Chinese, this struck me right away as a good thing, turning the meal into a more communal experience.
We started with a pleasant amuse bouche of halibut, radish, smoked lemon and oregano.

Our first course consisted of two large platters: one had lentils, beets and fresh dill, and the other had pieces of sliced bison with radicchio, grapefruit, and fried leeks.
I thought the bison was cooked nicely, but my favorite was the lentil dish. They were cooked firm, not too mushy, and the beets and dill flavors blended wonderfully.

Our second course consisted of a pot of homemade pork rillettes with Calvados, an apple brandy, served with homemade sourdough, and poached pear slices with cheese.
The third course was roasted artichoke with fennel butter for dipping and blood orange slices. The fennel butter went especially well with the artichoke.

The "trou normande", or palate cleanser, was a very subtle ginger infused potato vodka.
The last savory course was different kinds of ravioli topped with a beef consomme: a swiss chard pesto, mushroom duxelle, and egg yolk. The pasta was fresh and delicious. My favorite was the soft egg yolk.





Dessert was a piece of salted chocolate shortbread topped with rye ice cream accompanied by pieces of marzipan covered with candied lemon pieces. I was really impressed with how well the rye flavor is in ice cream, and I really enjoyed the pieces of marzipan.
The last item was homemade black pepper and nutmeg chocolate pieces.
I was happy to have been able to make it to another special meal with the folks at Sometimes Dining. They've got a great series going, and I feel the changes they've made improve the experience even more.