Just got back from dinner at Northeast Kingdom. I’ve been there a few times for either dinner or drinks and each time has been wonderful. Really a diamond in the semi-polished rough.
Tonight was date night so we went whole hog. I have a weird fascination with Croatian and Hungarian wines, so I was excited to find a bottle of 2006 Plavac Mali from Dingač Pelješac. A slightly off-dry wine, we found flavors of raspberry and dark cherry.
To start off, we had a skewer of roasted lamb, onion and red pepper, served over braised French lentils. The lamb was tender and delicious but the portion was definitely too small to share.
As for entree we shared the Berkshire pork loin with beer and cheese soup and dressed greens. The pork was prepared perfectly and came with chopped sweet potatoes (or were they yams? I can never tell the difference). Dressing on the greens was super mustardy and salty. Mustard was nice, salt was a little much.
I think the beer and cheese soup was the most interesting thing. Definitely a take on French onion soup and definitely a departure from tradition. This soup featured crusty sourdough and kale in a broth of beer and basically raw onions, topped with cheddar and gruyere. I liked that the onions were unsweated; it gave a flavor intensity to match the kale. The beer flavor was pretty mild, I presume a light pilsner or something. Considering the cheese plate that featured 6 different artisanal domestic cheeses, I thought they could’ve done that better. Eh still pretty good. Oh and it came with cornbread. I’m pretty particular about my cornbread and I normally don’t like versions with pepper. This one had regular black pepper (as opposed to jalapeño) and I actually enjoyed it. Kudos.
We also ordered the “smoked and pickled,” which was speck and pickled vegetables but the waitress didn’t hear us or forgot us. Oh well.
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Lastly, we came home and made hot toddies. Now whiskey doesn’t last very long in my house but I do have some tequila. So I combined regular black tea, cinnamon, ginger, sugar and a touch of lime juice with Sauza Hornitos reposada tequila. Mmmmm.
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