Last week's dish of slow-smoked lamb loin with roasted carrots and flowers (day lily, nasturtium) on a porridge of local rice and einkorn wheat offered meaty satisfaction in a nimble form. More recently, the lamb has been braised shoulder, shredded and served alongside the flowery porridge in separate bowls: these undulating brown examples, newly arrived from Romulus Craft in Vermont.
A Man, A Plan, A Ham, Prosciutto
Behold, the very first Fish & Game prosciutto, fifteen months after its introduction to the cure. It's ready to eat, and sublime, so come and get your ham on.
Lunch
The season's first asparagus from Samascott Orchards with kimchi brine hollandaise, cured pork belly, and chervil, now appearing on the new lunch menu at a Fish & Game near you.
Derby Day
Tomorrow, May third, beginning at 2:00PM, Kentucky Derby Day will commence at Fish & Game. Come celebrate in fine style: dress like an adult (wear a hat) and get your Julep on. What could possibly go wrong?
Seasonally Appropriate
The pre-dessert for the last few weeks has been this ultra-luxe take on grilled cheese: rye brioche, Consider Bardwell Farm cheese, Fish & Game's own maple syrup and cultured butter emulsion. On the side, kohlrabi sauerkraut mixed with fresh grated apple.
Sweet Tart
Tomorrow's Valentine's menu features this dark chocolate ganache on a rye/spelt/flax crust that Walter Grohs, baker extraordinaire, developed recently. That's preserved rhubarb and Hawaiian black salt on top.
Posole Mio
We haven't given much love here to the bar menu, so herewith a remedy. This is a bowl of posole made from heirloom corn, nixtamalized and cracked in a mortar, then simmered with pork stock and gilded with two kinds of lamb sausage plus lamb loin slow-cooked on the high shelf over the grill. Supplies are limited, so act now.
Ten Best
The tomato soup with lamb pancetta and pasta from the last week of July has been declared one of the ten best restaurant dishes of the year by Food & Wine.
Wine Dinner
Last night, winemaker Frank Cornelissen came for a special dinner featuring his wines paired with an eight-course menu. Grown organically on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily and made without sulfur, his wines offer a unique "sense of place." Here he is talking to renowned natural wine expert and author Alice Feiring.
Chowdah
Speaking of Rhode Island, the marine bounty from that state also featured prominently in this chowder from the most recent menu.
Butternut Squash
Here's a glowing review in the Albany Times Union from last week, and here's a picture of the butternut squash dish mentioned in the second paragraph:
All The Pretty Courses
Some new dishes came in recently, allowing for even more plating variations—like this sturgeon and turnip concoction.
Pretty Sweet
Little doughnuts with honey for dipping featured on the recent pastry assortment during the weekend breakfast salon.
Milking It
Here's the milk jam again, this time as part of the pre-dessert course: brushed on a plate under a scoop of fior di latte ice cream with toasted hazelnuts and lavender. Both ends of the sweet dairy spectrum—clean to caramelized—throw each other into sharp and flattering relief. And who among us does not enjoy toasted nuts?
Bread And Butter
That's a pretzel roll, aged cultured butter rolled in vegetable ash, and some of Jori's milk jam. The milk jam and several other delicacies are available at Lady Jayne's newly-launched apothecary.
Fall Is Here
Here's the duck dish from Sunday night: braised leg, spit-roasted breast, spelt cooked risotto-style with red wine, pan-seared cauliflower, and Concord grapes. Decadent yet austere, rich in textures and clean in flavor, this dish may be the first without a green garnish since the beginning—a harbinger of colder days to come. It's hard to imagine a more suitable dish for celebrating the return to sweater weather.