Sometimes Dining - Pearl Nose Dive

Last night, I went to Waverly's Sometimes Dining for yet another great meal. I realized, I've now been going to this for about a year now, and it's been a pleasure each time.
We started with an amuse bouche of eggplant confit and clove yogurt on a cracker. It paired well with their recommended 2009 Montagny Cru, a sweet white Burgundy/Chardonnay wine.

The first course, presented family style, started with a wonderful salad of fennel, leeks, pear mint peas and arugula. It reminded me of a Thai papaya salad- with the leeks and fennel shredded up and mixed all together. I particularly savored the sweetness of the little peas.
This came with a spéculoos pork tenderloin with roasted radishes and parsley fennel fronds. The pork was sliced thinly and was very good with the veggies.


The second course was a soup with a parsnip base, sea scallops, red peppers, and celery. The broth had a really good sweetness to it which seemed like corn at first, and the scallops were delicious.

We also shared a deep fried pickled artichoke served with an oregano & saffron aioli. The aioli sauce looked like nacho cheese, but tasted much better.

Next up was a platter of housemade mortadella with pickled asparagus and cucumber. The mortadella had asparagus in it as well.
We had a toast with ouzo mixed a with housemade lemon soda.

The main dish was a seafood mushroom crepe with mustard, eggyolk, and grapes. The crepe was chock full of mushroom, crab (I think) and fish. We started in on a bottle of 2009 Sylvaner Reserve, Alsace, Weinbach, a dry white.

Dessert was a light and delicious semolina souffle with a burnt caramel pistachio crème anglaise. I pretty much licked my plate clean of the crème anglaise.

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.

Sometimes Dining- Green Tees

Went to another great dinner with underground dining group, Sometimes Dining this past weekend. Because it's been so warm in the city, we were seated in their backyard under a tarp amidst torches and candles.


We started noshing on a nice charcuterie plate of garlic sausages, lardons, and date roll with some homemade bread that had a wonderful crust.

The first course was pan seared baby artichoke with spring onion pesto served on a nice cider crepe.

The second course was a cool dish of sliced grilled bison with vanilla black-eyed peas, a smoked egg, and grapefruit zest. The bison was nice and lean. I enjoyed the vanilla flavor to the peas quite a bit.

Their usual mid meal toast was a nice sweet drink of Aperol and prosecco. I had only learned the day before about Aperol, a rhubarb based aperatif, which I had with some Dolin vermouth.





Before the entree, we snacked on some nice fresh endive with a tarragon dip.

The main course was one of my favorites I've had at Sometimes Dining: homemade beet and goat cheese ravioli served with prosciutto and olive oil. The saltiness of the meat pair so well with the sweetness of the beets and the creaminess of the goat cheese.




Dessert was also pretty spectacular. We had a minted tres leches cake served with some candied rhubarb. Bigfatlar said he wished fruit rollups were as good as that piece of rhubarb.

Sometimes Dining, Baltimore - A Sign Sure

This past week, I was lucky enough to be able to go to another Sometimes Dining dinner. The theme was "A Sign Sure".
When we arrived, we immediately started with a pleasant amuse bouche of tuna rolled in radicchio and ricotta cheese.

Also, they brought out platters of (literally) housemade charcuterie with homemade crackers. We tried pork garlic sausage and lardo. They also had a date roll and olives accompanying the tasty meats.

Our first course was a nice salad made of fennel, jicama, & daikon with bits of bell pepper topped with a grapefruit chevre dressing and an anchovy.
Course two was a soup described as "pho-style" with veggies and beef tenderloin. It tasted more like a lemongrass broth with chili oil, but still nice. I kind of hoped for some rice noodles when I read the description.

Sometimes Dining's "le trou normande" was a drink of gin and melon. It had a nice canteloupe flavor.
For our main entree, we had halibut with swiss chard served on a bed of wonderful thyme noodles that had a sauce made from mussel sauce. I pretty much cleaned up the whole plate it was so good.

Dessert was also really interesting: it was a honey cake topped with a spicy whipped cream with Aleppo pepper, accompanied by a sauce made of beet puree. An interesting mix of sweet, spicy, and earthy flavors.
Again, we finished off the meal with some nice homemade chocolates, and I had a nice double espresso.

Sometimes Dining in Baltimore

A few months ago, a friend of mine in town told me about Sometimes Dining, kind of an underground dining group in the Waverly neighborhood in Baltimore.
Since their dinners are at an actual residence, spaces are limited, but luckily last week, I was able to score a seat for their Pi day dinner.
We showed up at the house around 7:30pm, and were immediately welcomed by the staff and chefs when we entered the house. We were instructed to sit where we could, and we were lucky to get seats at a large table in the kitchen area.
Everyone was very friendly at our table which consisted a mix of newbies like ourselves and friends of the people who were running things. They were BYOB, but they did include suggested wine pairings in our confirmation emails.
We started with some homemade rye bread that had a fantastic crust served with alder smoked honey butter.

Our first course was a beautifully set salad with broccoli stalked shaved in thin strips topped with fresh beets, cashews, and Unikass cheese (which was like a hard cheddar).
In between courses they served a drink of warm black tea, root beer and ginger.
The second course was homemade cinnamon noodles with a mushroom reduction, served with duck breast with a red onion, grapefruit confit. I really enjoyed how all the flavors were actually very subtle and fit together nicely.
The third course was "le trou normand", or "palate cleanser": a shot of clove infused vodka. At this point, the chefs came out and toasted their guests.
We also got small plates of pickled asparagus and roasted pistachios.
The fourth course was a wonderfully poached hake served wrapped in a scallion crepe with a frisee salad and topped with a poached egg. The whole dish was delicately prepared and delicious.



As the dishes were cleared for dessert, I ordered a really nice and strong cappuccino made with Baltimore based Bluebird coffee.
The last dish was an apple compote with a sage shortbread cookie with some creme anglais.
They finished us off with some homemade dark chocolates.
The whole Sometimes Dining experience was just so warm and intimate and with such wonderful and thoughtfully prepared food and drink, it is a true treasure in Baltimore's food scene.