It Sure Isn't Mac and Cheese!

We drove down to Frederick, MD last weekend to have a late-birthday celebration with our daughter, Laura.  She had asked if we could have lunch at an award-winning restaurant in Frederick.  The chef had been named "Chef of the Year" several years ago by the Restaurant Association of Maryland and has won other awards and his menus are works of art.  Well, we're pretty much plain farm-fare folks or Tex-Mex aficionados but it was her birthday, after all, so we said, "yes."

We took little Auggie down to meet his cousins, the Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and he was really happy to play with them.  In fact, he was SO happy that he spent the first 10 minutes chasing Sadie Ann all over their yard.  She finally ran up a tall flight of steps to their upper deck so we all retired into the house.  We hadn't even been inside more than 2 minutes when we heard a big "thud."  Sadie had ran down a half flight of steps to go to their lower level and Auggie had launched himself after her, not realizing that he didn't know how to go down steps yet.  He had fallen down the flight and was at the bottom.  True to his little "tough guy" persona, he shook himself and went to the top of the next flight to look down at Sadie.  We retrieved him before he could repeat his performance.

Soon it was time to crate the dogs and head off to the restaurant.  We had chosen a 3-course lunch.  You had to pick two courses of regular food and then a dessert.  I chose goat-cheese ravioli for my first course.  Here is what arrived.  I took one look at the plate and my first thought was "Someone spit on my food."  When the waitress left us, I said to Laura, "Who slimed my food?"  She laughed and told me that this was called "foam air" and it apparently is all the rage in haute cuisine.  Alrighty then!  Don't ask me what the rest of the stuff was.  It looked like some clover leaves and some seaweed bulbs but Laura said it was fennel and I forget what the green stuff drizzled over the raviolis was.  It did taste ok, though.

The Commander got something with avocado in it.  This is what it looked like.  That green log was avocado paste.  Don't ask me what the rest was.  Our son-in-law got something that looked like twigs but it had dried apple in it.  I have no idea what the rest was.

Laura assured me we needed to order an order of maple bacon glazed donuts so we did.  They were fine but I had to butter my bites.  They were a little dry but maybe it was because we weren't seated until the 2 p.m. seating and they'd been out for awhile.

For the main course, I had a lobster omelet with hen's eggs.  I was a little leery of ordering this when the emphasis seemed to be on HEN EGG.  I wondered what was the catch.  Maybe this was code for some weird type of egg but my son-in-law assured me that the eggs were from regular chickens.  OK, it sounded safe enough.  It came with stuff drizzled over it and was bland but I was afraid to ask for salt and pepper.  I didn't want to insult the chef seeing as how there were no condiments on the table.  I guess they figured his food should be expertly seasoned.  Well, maybe for an expert palate.

None of the dessert choices looked particularly appealing but Laura said to go for the one that had the words "chocolate" and "Marshmallow" in it.  I did.  this is what they brought out.  Words failed me.  That tan smear on the side of the bowl was the marshmallow.  The brownish stuff was very chocolately ice cream that had been freeze-dried (flash-dried?).  Then there was some lacy chocolate thing stuck in a dollop of some unidentifiable ice cream.  It wasn't DQ!

The Commander opted for a cheese sampler plate for dessert.  I kept smelling stinky cheese as I chipped away at my chocolate ice cream.  The fusion of smell and taste was NOT very compatible.  When he was finished with it, I told him, "You're not kissing me with THAT cheese breath."

They brought us individually-wrapped mini loaves of coffee-cake bread with the bill.  Let's just say that I could have bought a Coach handbag for what this meal cost us.  After we returned back to PA, the Commander said to me, "I don't think I've ever spent that much on a meal."  It was an experience I don't think we'll ever repeat.  I, for one, would have enjoyed a $1 box of Kraft mac and cheese much more but it wouldn't have been much to blog about, eh?