Blue Hill at Stone Barns
Today, Ms.Cake took myself, her husband Mr.Novel, and my husband midnightstation, out to Blue Hill at Stone Barns for a late-birthday luncheon. We had the four course tasting. We had an incredible time - and not just because of the food, as you will read below.
First of all, with all my food intolerances, it was so lovely to simply hand the card with the list of what I'm unable to eat to the server and then say, "do whatever you like". :) My favorite way to eat! Ms. Cake told me she brought a vegetarian friend there and had one of the finest meals she's ever had meat or no meat. So, I highly recommend it to my veg friends, and to all my friends who have terrible food intolerances. They made it easy.
The thing you must know is that there is no traditional menu. There are only tasting menus. Most food is grown on the farm or sourced locally from small farms and farmers. You can tell them what you are allergic to or hate, and it won't be in your meal. Then you just wait ... and are amply rewarded. I loved the fact that all around us, no one ever had the same exact meal we did. We saw great big bones of roasted marrow going to one table and were jealous! Another had perfect tiny beets.....
Out came the amuse - sunchoke soup. Oh! Hot shot glasses filled with a no-dairy yet-incredibly-creamy sunchoke soup. Like a potato and an artichoke made sweet hot love. Fantastic.
They brought out bread and I'd had a bite of the glorious sourdough when the server came back and told me there was potato in it. She said she had another bread for me, so she took away my bread plate and came back shortly with a bread made from some ancient grain (I can't remember now what it was - not spelt, not teff, not amaranth....something red though). It had a small cake-like crumb and a sweet taste to it. I ate a whole basket by myself and meant to eat the 2nd basket they brought me but didn't get to it in time! I meant to ask them, but I am pretty sure it was their GF bread for celiac guests. And it was incredibly good.
Then we had roasted salsify with sesame encrusted ends, raw baby veggies (the carrots were so sweet and lovely - also "black panther soybean" is an awesome name), and a plate of cured ham from the farm.
We were still on the amuse.
This was follwed by the Main sea scallops with perfect tiny brussels sprout, and some kind of blood orange citrus sauce that packed a zesty wallop. Fantastic. midnightstation usually can't eat scallops due to a bad childhood experience with them, and he loved them, which is saying a LOT.
My companions were brought potato fagatini with saurkraut and a "black trumpet mushroom and chocolate" sauce. I WAS SO JEALOUS. I dipped my finder in midnightstation's sauce 3 times it was so good. I was brought microgreens from the greenhouse with basil and pistachio oils.... and then I wasn't jealous anymore. Mostly because I'm pretty sure they went to the greenhouse and cut my salad and brought it to me within 10 minutes. The greens were that FRESH and full of life. Oh, they were glorious. Truly.
This was followed by Stone Barnes Berkeshire Pig - my companions had loin, pork belly, and a house made sausage (with cumin) and spatzle. *I* had pork loin and tender tender TENDER HAM (drooooooooool) with black beluga lentils. Oh yes. Read that and weep, my leetle frengs. Fantastic!
We paused before dessert and contemplated the cheese plate. I was Switzerland due to my dairy intolerance but happy to watch. Ms.Cake was pro, but both men were against, and so there was no cheese plate.
Dessert? Ohhhhh. Dessert.
midnightstation and Ms.Cake had the Bavarian spelt wafters with a caramel filing, served with bartlett pear sorbet. Mr. Novel and I were served Pumpkin Seed Cake - his was topped with sweet potato ice cream, mine with the pear sorbet, both of our plates were graced with butternut squash and kombucha sauces. In addition there were a few slices of pickled black plum on our cakes, which were reminiscent of my pickled pears and peaches! For the table, we were served two bellinis with ricotta filling, meyer lemon sauce and meyer lemon sorbet. I tasted it - just an edge of the ricotta. The bellinis were MAGNIFICENT. Seriously! Mindblowingly good. I could not get enough of that sorbet either - and I am NOT a big sorbet fan. Just wow.
After it all, we went and took a walk around the farm. We were standing by the bourbon turkeys when we started chatting with a man who lives near the farm and comes and walks his dogs all the time there. He told us a calf had just been born not 5 minutes before at an upper pasture. So we went up, and sure enough, there was a tiny black calf lying in the snow being licked by his mother. We decided to wait and see if he got up. After about 15 minutes, more people came and were wondering if the farmers knew. I suggested to Ms.Cake that she call the restaurant and let them know that their calf had dropped. "OMG! REALLY?!" was the response and they said they'd contact the farmer.
We stayed watching for a while and we could see the calf moving his head, and he rolled over a couple of times, but wasn't ready to get up. But it was *cold*. Then another cow came over and started helping the mother lick the calf clean.
THEN we noticed that the 2nd cow had something hanging from her vagina.... We realized the 2nd cow was pregnant, and her water had burst! While she licked her friend's calf, we could see her vagina and perinium bulging, and the beginnings of a hoof or snout begin to press out.
Then the farmer's came. They hustled the birthing cow to the barn then came back and got the still-lying-on-the-ground calf to the barn. When they came back for the mother, she was lowing in total distress because she didn't know where her calf was :( But they herded her to the barn at last, where she was reunited :) We couldn't see much after that, but before we left, we saw the first mother cow and her baby walking around the barn enclosure - he was up at last and adorable.
I could feel my baby moving inside me as I watched all of this. It was really amazing.
Ms.Cake and I are going to go back in the summertime with a picnic and bring her dog Mary and my baby, and just hang out for a day. You don't have to go to the expensive restaurant - they have a cafe with outdoor seating too, and visitors are always welcome on the farm to walk about and see what there is to see. They even have a kids day camp there in the summer!
So, yeah. Blue Hill at Stone Barns was pretty amazing - and not just for the food!
N.
First of all, with all my food intolerances, it was so lovely to simply hand the card with the list of what I'm unable to eat to the server and then say, "do whatever you like". :) My favorite way to eat! Ms. Cake told me she brought a vegetarian friend there and had one of the finest meals she's ever had meat or no meat. So, I highly recommend it to my veg friends, and to all my friends who have terrible food intolerances. They made it easy.
The thing you must know is that there is no traditional menu. There are only tasting menus. Most food is grown on the farm or sourced locally from small farms and farmers. You can tell them what you are allergic to or hate, and it won't be in your meal. Then you just wait ... and are amply rewarded. I loved the fact that all around us, no one ever had the same exact meal we did. We saw great big bones of roasted marrow going to one table and were jealous! Another had perfect tiny beets.....
Out came the amuse - sunchoke soup. Oh! Hot shot glasses filled with a no-dairy yet-incredibly-creamy sunchoke soup. Like a potato and an artichoke made sweet hot love. Fantastic.
They brought out bread and I'd had a bite of the glorious sourdough when the server came back and told me there was potato in it. She said she had another bread for me, so she took away my bread plate and came back shortly with a bread made from some ancient grain (I can't remember now what it was - not spelt, not teff, not amaranth....something red though). It had a small cake-like crumb and a sweet taste to it. I ate a whole basket by myself and meant to eat the 2nd basket they brought me but didn't get to it in time! I meant to ask them, but I am pretty sure it was their GF bread for celiac guests. And it was incredibly good.
Then we had roasted salsify with sesame encrusted ends, raw baby veggies (the carrots were so sweet and lovely - also "black panther soybean" is an awesome name), and a plate of cured ham from the farm.
We were still on the amuse.
This was follwed by the Main sea scallops with perfect tiny brussels sprout, and some kind of blood orange citrus sauce that packed a zesty wallop. Fantastic. midnightstation usually can't eat scallops due to a bad childhood experience with them, and he loved them, which is saying a LOT.
My companions were brought potato fagatini with saurkraut and a "black trumpet mushroom and chocolate" sauce. I WAS SO JEALOUS. I dipped my finder in midnightstation's sauce 3 times it was so good. I was brought microgreens from the greenhouse with basil and pistachio oils.... and then I wasn't jealous anymore. Mostly because I'm pretty sure they went to the greenhouse and cut my salad and brought it to me within 10 minutes. The greens were that FRESH and full of life. Oh, they were glorious. Truly.
This was followed by Stone Barnes Berkeshire Pig - my companions had loin, pork belly, and a house made sausage (with cumin) and spatzle. *I* had pork loin and tender tender TENDER HAM (drooooooooool) with black beluga lentils. Oh yes. Read that and weep, my leetle frengs. Fantastic!
We paused before dessert and contemplated the cheese plate. I was Switzerland due to my dairy intolerance but happy to watch. Ms.Cake was pro, but both men were against, and so there was no cheese plate.
Dessert? Ohhhhh. Dessert.
midnightstation and Ms.Cake had the Bavarian spelt wafters with a caramel filing, served with bartlett pear sorbet. Mr. Novel and I were served Pumpkin Seed Cake - his was topped with sweet potato ice cream, mine with the pear sorbet, both of our plates were graced with butternut squash and kombucha sauces. In addition there were a few slices of pickled black plum on our cakes, which were reminiscent of my pickled pears and peaches! For the table, we were served two bellinis with ricotta filling, meyer lemon sauce and meyer lemon sorbet. I tasted it - just an edge of the ricotta. The bellinis were MAGNIFICENT. Seriously! Mindblowingly good. I could not get enough of that sorbet either - and I am NOT a big sorbet fan. Just wow.
After it all, we went and took a walk around the farm. We were standing by the bourbon turkeys when we started chatting with a man who lives near the farm and comes and walks his dogs all the time there. He told us a calf had just been born not 5 minutes before at an upper pasture. So we went up, and sure enough, there was a tiny black calf lying in the snow being licked by his mother. We decided to wait and see if he got up. After about 15 minutes, more people came and were wondering if the farmers knew. I suggested to Ms.Cake that she call the restaurant and let them know that their calf had dropped. "OMG! REALLY?!" was the response and they said they'd contact the farmer.
We stayed watching for a while and we could see the calf moving his head, and he rolled over a couple of times, but wasn't ready to get up. But it was *cold*. Then another cow came over and started helping the mother lick the calf clean.
THEN we noticed that the 2nd cow had something hanging from her vagina.... We realized the 2nd cow was pregnant, and her water had burst! While she licked her friend's calf, we could see her vagina and perinium bulging, and the beginnings of a hoof or snout begin to press out.
Then the farmer's came. They hustled the birthing cow to the barn then came back and got the still-lying-on-the-ground calf to the barn. When they came back for the mother, she was lowing in total distress because she didn't know where her calf was :( But they herded her to the barn at last, where she was reunited :) We couldn't see much after that, but before we left, we saw the first mother cow and her baby walking around the barn enclosure - he was up at last and adorable.
I could feel my baby moving inside me as I watched all of this. It was really amazing.
Ms.Cake and I are going to go back in the summertime with a picnic and bring her dog Mary and my baby, and just hang out for a day. You don't have to go to the expensive restaurant - they have a cafe with outdoor seating too, and visitors are always welcome on the farm to walk about and see what there is to see. They even have a kids day camp there in the summer!
So, yeah. Blue Hill at Stone Barns was pretty amazing - and not just for the food!
N.