Plates of Local Goodness

The third Saturday of the month always gives me a happy belly and a pleasant experience. I do love my wine club. Tonight's outing had us dining at a the Corner Table. One of their guiding principles is that nothing on the menu should travel more than a hundred miles to get to you mouth. have to love local fare. And it's a quaint little place that provides a good vibe. I must say, the Minnesota food scene is definitely a good one. So good that it received praise in the latest issue of Food and Wine magazine (which makes me a tad nervous ... because I don't want it to get any more competitive to get a table when I want to enjoy good eats.)

The Corner Table had a lot of buzz about it the last six months, because it went through new owners and a new chef. Well, they new owners and chef pledged to keep it close to the original experience, and just improve upon it. Our server enjoyed himself, and was extremely helpful, guiding us through the menu, suggesting wines and interjecting humor when appropriate. He suggested we enjoy some vinho verde on the hot summer evening. I will say it is the first time that we ordered bottles of wine, instead of each getting our own separate glasses, and the light, effervescent wine was a  lovely complement to the meal.

I started the evening with a trout terrine with a  house made créme fraîche on a cucumber salad:



It was amazingly fresh, which is just want I needed on the ridiculously hot night. I will say that i don't think it is for everyone though. You have to enjoy eating raw tuna, and also the consistency of it is sort of like pate. So if either of those two things don't float your boat ... I would recommend sticking to the greens. For this lady, however, I am fine with both of those things and it tasted like summer on a plate.

I followed my starter with the recommendation from the server and enjoyed the pan roasted duck breast, sunchoke 2 ways, radish with black currant jus:

The fat on the duck was crispy, crispy goodness. It was cooked to a medium rare perfection. I could have passed on the black currants in the jus and the peas sprinkled with it didn't add much ... but I could have eaten even more of the duck! There was this delicious earthy layer and a hint of smokiness that just brought me to a safe place as I enjoyed each bite.

To top of the evening for dessert, I had a panna cotta with blueberries and candied orange zest:

 Panna cotta is always the safe gluten-free dessert. I fear that this may be what I am relegated to everywhere. It was okay, but definitely not the highlight of the evening. I enjoyed the fresh blueberries, but could have had them hold the orange zest, it actually gave the dessert an extra layer of flavors that almost seemed metallic, instead of citrusy.

All, in all, I definitely want to come back and try their 5-course tasting menu with D ... not sure if I can convince him ... but I'll work on it!