Today is my husband Topher's birthday (yay!), and last night we celebrated with our friends Randy & Kim at Stove restaurant in Portsmouth.
One thing I like about their menu: most of their dishes come in both small and large portion sizes. So, if you can't decide between two dishes, you can order one as an appetizer and one as your entrée. Which is exactly what Topher and I did last night.
What We Ate:
- artisan cheese plate: Syd's Neo-Pimento, Farmstead Fresh goat cheese (Virginia), Gorgonzola (Italy), and Bellavitano Black Pepper served with bread & house relish
- my appetizer: the "Stove-o-tarian," a mix of local, in-season vegetables including Brussels sprouts and several different squashes, topped with a fried onion ring
- Topher's appetizer: "visiting greens" salad - "different lettuces from the farms with our visiting cheese tossed with a mustard vinaigrette"
- my entrée: rockfish topped with cabbage and rutabagas - I love rockfish, but I mainly ordered this dish for the rutabagas, and they didn't disappoint
- Topher's entrée: Hereford strip steak topped with brie and "lardo," served with Brussels sprouts and smoked tomatoes
- for dessert: country apple tart - the crust on this was amazing: so light, flaky, and buttery!
- to drink: Trinitas Old Vine Petite Sirah
Randy & Kim have been to Stove at least half a dozen times, and Randy always orders the "Pork-o-rama" - "local darden farm’s pork sausage, my smoochie bear ham & black pig pork belly on visiting potato sauté with cured lardo and stove-b-que sauce."
Well, last night after our meal, chef Syd Meers came out and sat & talked with us for a while, and he ended up giving Randy and Topher the recipe for his "stove-b-que" sauce. It must have 2 dozen ingredients in it! Fresh herbs & spices, peppers, bacon, ketchup, molasses, apple cider vinegar - the list just went on and on. I know the guys are going to want to try to make it sometime, but grocery shopping for all the ingredients is going to be a genuine scavenger hunt.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment