I know I said I was going to tell you about vegan restaurants in Munich, but that will have to wait a little longer. Tonight hubby and I enjoyed a delicious meal on the covered porch at Alta Restaurant and Wine Bar in Lenox, Mass., and I just had to tell you about it.
This was not our first visit to Alta. We have been for lunch and were pleased with the food and the experience. On my first visit I had a sandwich called The Autumn, which consisted of house roasted turkey, grilled butternut squash, caramelized onion, cheddar cheese, and cranberry sauce. Oh, it was good! I've been back since and enjoyed a number of items but tonight was especially good. The fading light and mild temperature made their contributions to a pleasant evening, but the food was very much to our liking.
We shared an appetizer, Local Goat Cheese Roll, comprising unspecified local goat cheese and dates in a fried egg roll-type wrapper. Creamy and sweet and crunchy. A great start!
For the entree, I had caramelized diver scallops served with pineapple quinoa, Equinox spinach, coconut milk & fresh lime, and I took their suggestion of the Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc 2009, from New Zealand. The citrus and light fruit flavors suggested a tropical setting. A perfect meal for a summer evening. The hubby likes to have a steak when we go out, so he had the pan seared NY strip steak, fingerling potatoes, tomate provencale, with fig veal demi-glace. Eschewing the recommended Russian River Cabernet Sauvignon, he chose instead a 2007 E. Guigal Cotes Du Rhone. He didn't say much while he ate, so I know he enjoyed it.
Winters can be long and cold both where we come from and where we now find ourselves living, so the first outdoor meal of the season is a real treasure, whether at home or on the porch of a lovely restaurant. The long sunset casts a glow that puts surroundings in a special light and memories can be particularly sweet.
In this case, the dessert was especially sweet, because Alta has a cookie on the menu! I think cookies should be on more menus, and I'll cover that in a future post, but suffice to say that the fresh, warm, chocolate chip cookie I enjoyed tonight at Alta was the perfect ending to a lovely light meal.
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