The Dancing Bears Lounge - Lake Placid

We traveled up (although it is actually south of us) to Lake Placid yesterday so that my fiance could look at venues for our wedding in 2012.  We had lunch at the Dancing Bears lounge which is adjacent to the High Peaks resort.  The main objective was to check out the quality of the food served at the hotel, as it is a top contender for a wedding venue.  While we know the food at the restaurant for lunch would be nothing like wedding food, one would assume that if they are able to do lunch well, they have a better chance at having good wedding food.

As is my favorite thing to do - we shared!  We started with what they call Baked Onion Soup - which is really just your traditional  french onion soup - done well, don't get me wrong, but certainly not unique, although some traditional foods are just not to be messed with.  Personally, I don't think you can ever go wrong with melted Gruyere cheese.

For a main course, we shared a lobster roll (the fiance's first ever) and the baby back ribs.  I started with the lobster roll, and it certainly remained true and any New Englander would not be disappointed.  Buttery roll grilled to be crispy on the outside and really well cooked lobster (no rubbery or chewy morsels here) with celery and onion which provided a really nice crunch.  The one comment I have, and this is really just me, is that there was too much dressing.  And this is really because I am not a mayonnaise person.  The dressing was light and certainly a necessary part of the lobster roll equation, but I did think it was a bit much and made the roll almost wet.  The roll came with a side of fries - and let me tell you, these fries were so good, my fiance was definitely interested in seeing if they could be served at the wedding.  If I had said yes, I think that would have sealed the deal for that decision in his mind.

Our other entree was the baby back ribs.  Again, the fiance was impressed - neatest and easiest ribs to eat EVER.  They were fall off the bone tender, easily eaten with a knife and fork.  They were supposedly covered in a mango BBQ sauce, which while it did have a slight sweet flavor which I liked, was lacking in volume.  This definitely should have come with a side of sauce or at least some additional sauce poured over the top.  The small amount of sauce did result in some of the meal tasting a bit under seasoned.  The other highlight of this meal was the side of coleslaw.  Again, on the same theme of not liking mayonnaise, I don't traditionally like coleslaw, and my fiance isn't a huge fan of it either.  He, however, raved about this coleslaw.  He felt that the cabbage and carrots were nice and crisp, and that they were the star of the show and not over powered by the dressing.  We felt the same way about the side of fresh vegetables that we ordered.  Fresh broccoli, squash, peppers and red onions, simply seasoned and allowing the natural flavors of the vegetables to shine.  They weren't over cooked as is the main downfall of vegetable sides.


We were planning on getting dessert...  but we were simple too stuffed from the meal to even remember this aspect of our plan.  I guess that in and of itself if saying something about the food as I do always try to "save room for dessert".

As there are so many wonderful places in Placid I want to try still, I am not sure The Dancing Bears is going to a place we go for every visit into the Adirondacks, but we'd be happy to eat there again.

Birthday Duck

Let me tell you the story of the duck birthday dinner....

One of my favorite foods is duck, which I was introduced to by my father's girlfriend as a Christmas meal.  I tell the story like this:  2 jews and an atheist sit down for Duck A L'orange....  It's almost like the start to a joke or something.  My father's girlfriend is an amazing cook and her forte is definitely french food.  This duck was amazing - the skin crispy, the flesh tender and juicy, and we would each get half a bird to ourselves...  and as much as I loved the food, I could never even half finish my bird (especially since I would save room for the tart tatin my father had made for dessert).  Well, I have been raving about this meal and always love to order duck when it is on a menu, so my fiance requested that I make it!  The first hurdle was finding a duck (not really something I think Price Chopper regularly stocks) - but we have an acquaintance who offered to sell us 2 ducks he had - score!  I got the recipe for the Duck A L'orange from christmas past and thought I was all set.

On the day before my fiance's birthday, I went to the freezer and found one of these said ducks to thaw.  To my dismay, this was a fully skinned duck - none of the beautiful skin and thick layer of fat which was to render out keeping the meat moist and no skin to crisp with the orange glaze.  Hum, this was a twist I wasn't expecting.  On the advice of my mother, I looked for recipes that would require skinless duck or chicken.  A quick sear on foodnetwork.com for "skinless duck breast" struck gold:
Duck with a cherry and champange reduction
While, I don't feel the need to describe the recipe in detail - if you can read this blog, you can read a recipe - I would like to comment on some of the unexpected things I encountered.

1.  I had a whole duck, and to be honest, it wasn't a very meaty duck.  I took the breasts off the bone and also thought there was enough meat on the legs/thighs that I attempted (somewhat successfully) to remove them as well.  I did take some of the fat from the rest of the carcass and melted that down in my pan to sear the meat in.
2.  I thought I had dried cherries, but I was wrong, I had dried cranberries and I think those worked just fine.
3.  I used Goose Watch Winery's Rose sparkling wine - so good.  A good excuse to open a bottle!!!
4.  The legs/thighs were not a success - very tough!  I definitely think we ate a wild duck, this was no farm raised animal.  However, I guess we have to take the source into account, and for $5, I can't be too picky.  Next recipe we shall stick to the breasts.

I don't think I would call this recipe a raging success, I've definitely experimented and had greater success with other things.  I think we may also try to get a farm raised duck and try the christmas recipe with that and I doubt our friend is going to make the effort to pluck and clean a duck while keeping the skin intact.

1844 House

Well, now that I've introduced myself, I thought I would share the culinary experiences which inspired this blog.  To give credit where credit is due, the idea was my fiance's (whose thoughts I will also try to accurately include as well to give a second perspective). 

Last Saturday evening  we went to 1844 House in Potsdam, NY.  I have to admit that I am a bit biased as I love this restaurant.  I do think it is one of the best places to eat in St. Lawrence County.  We don't eat there too frequently for 2 reasons - the first (and in my mind, primary) is that it is a bit out of our price range.  When we go out to eat, we do like to do it up with drinks and most of the time at least 3 courses, so it can get expensive.  We've eaten there 3 times together previously - once for Valentine's Day and twice with my parents (I did want to show my parents we didn't live in the boonies and there was good food to be had here).  I won't comment on the previous meals as I want to focus this blog on recent meals so the thoughts are fresh in my mind.

Last Saturday was a anomaly in our life - my fiance was actually able to get away from the farm before 6pm!  We used this as an opportunity to take advantage of what I feel is the best deal on a meal in the county.  1844 House does an early bird special - if you are seated before 5:30pm (they open at 4:30) and order off their early bird menu, then you can get:  soup or salad, entree, dessert and a non-alcoholic drink for $16 per person.  Now, this is certainly an abridged menu.  There are normally 5 entree options (maybe about half their regular entree menu) and appetizer and dessert are also limited.  Appetizer is either the house salad or the soup of the day (this day is was a wonderful roasted fennel and tomato bisque) and dessert is the dessert of the day (strawberries with shipped cream in a puff pastry) or their fantastic chocolate mousse. 

Now, for the specifics on the meal we had. We both had the Fennel Tomato Bisque (with Parmesan and butter croutons), and I was certainly trusting in the fact that everything I've had there has been good because I traditionally don't like either fennel or tomato soup.  This certainly made me a believe in both those ingredients.  The soup was velvety and rich without being heavy.  The croutons gave a little crunch and texture and the cheese a little salty kick.  I was surprised that the fennel did not taste like licorice as I had always anticipated (which is why I always assume I won't like it) and the tomato base not acidic at all.  I could have eaten an entire pot of the stuff.  My fiance also ordered a la carte off the menu for a salad in addition to his soup from the early bird menu.  It was the 1844 House salad, and I am not sure if it is the larger version of the house salad listed on the early bird menu or a different salad.  It was a good salad - I don't think it was anything overly unique or special, but certainly well executed.  It's a salad of baby greens with walnuts, apple and blue cheese with a maple-balsamic vinaigrette.  The dressing really makes this salad great - it's not heavy and does not hide the ingredients.  The one negative I have, and I always find this with nuts in salad, is that it is difficult to great a bite with all the ingredients without creating a balancing act on your fork.  I don't know if I would order the salad again - simply because when we order off the main menu, there are normally 2 or 3 other things that are new on the menu and I am excited to try them more than the salad.  But I am glad we tried it.

Between appetizer and entree you always get a palate cleanser of a sorbet.  On this day it was earl grey flavored, which I did really like.  It had a subtle lemon after taste which was nice as that goes very well with the tea flavor.

For our entrees, I got a chicken breast stuffed with pesto and asiago cheese with homemade mushroom raviolis and my fiance got their steak au poivre.  The steak is from the local beef farm - Windy Point Angus - and while my fiance put it in his top 5 steaks, the person at the table next to us did rave about it and said it was the best steak he had ever had.  I didn't taste it as I don't particularly like pepper, although I did taste the potatoes on the side and they were divine.  We might have referred to them as butter with potatoes as opposed to the potatoes in butter that they actually were.  I think the best part of my meal was the mushroom ravioli - it was pure mushroom flavor and a perfectly cooked ravioli.  No other fillers and the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente!  I wish there had been more on the plate.  The chicken was good, although the pesto did overpower the asiago cheese a bit, and there was a coating on the breast that I could have lived without and just had it seared.  The breast was over a lovely bed of wilted spinach and it was all in a marsala wine pan sauce that was beautiful and velvety.  While I would never pass up having it again, I would certainly try the risotto on the menu as well if I get another crack at the early bird dining before they change to the spring menu.

For dessert we both got the cream puff with strawberries.  I thought this was the essence of having ingredients speak for themselves.  The strawberry was perfectly ripe and I would put money on the cream being local - it was so thick and creamy and rich.  Every bite was light and full of flavor.  I think I could have eaten 4 of these.

Ambiance - earlier I did refer to 2 reasons we don't come here more.  The first being price (what can I say, we both have student loans and now a wedding to save for) although I do think they are well priced for the quality of food they put out.  The other reason is the dining room itself.  1844 House is just that - a house built in 1844.  I love that they have tried to maintain the integrity of the architecture and history, and it makes it more of a experience than simply going to a restaurant, but I also have a fiance who isn't in any was a petite person and the furniture makes him feel a bit like a bull in a china shop and that does make it somewhat less of a relaxing experience for him.  I do however, think the early bird dining is the deal of the century for quality food and at $16 per person for 3 courses, you'd be insane not to try and make it a regular haunt.  You do have to have the ability to get there and be seated before 5:30, which is harder with our schedule, and be willing to eat slightly smaller portions and the menu is more limited.  however, with a seasonal menu, you're not going to get bored and there will always be something new to try.  I commend 1844 House for supporting local agriculture and staying as local and fresh as possible.

Please support this restaurant - we certainly want them to be a successful North Country business for as long as they want to be here (although I doubt they are going to have any problems with that).  More information can be found at 1844house.com

Definitely a 5 out of 5!

Why should I be blogging about food?

Well, I'm not a chef and I don't claim to be an expert about food.  I DO however, watch a lot of The Food Network, try to cook and bake interesting food and LOVE to eat.  I grew up in Los Angeles, went to college in Burlington, Vermont and graduate school in Massachusetts.  I've eaten a some pretty amazing restaurants all over the world and now find myself in the North Country.  If you don't know where the North Country is, it's the very top of New York State - no, not Buffalo, although that does also border Canada.  Think about where Syracuse is, and then draw a line 2 hours north of that - that's where I live.  I live about 20 minutes from the border with Canada and about an hour and a half south of Ottawa - the closest major city.  If you think I'm surrounded by farms and cows, you'd be right.  I actually now live on a dairy farm - what a far way I've come from going to dinner and the theater in Los Angeles after a day at the mall!  I am on a mission to find great food here in the North Country - where many from the major cities (like I once was) probably think all we eat is white bread and fried foods.  My goal is to go to as many of the local restaurants as possible and give you (if anyone is out there) an impression of what I thought of the restaurant.  We may take some side trips to Ottawa, the Thousand Islands region, Lake Placid or even farther, or even rave about a great recipe I tried right here at home.  Some restaurants have seasonal menus, so we will try to go back and try them as they change or try different meals - Sunday brunch is a fave!

Happy eating!