While visiting my mother this weekend in Westchester we tried a
restaurant that has been only minutes from her home for decades.
Whitby Castle (www.thewhitbycastle.com) was built about 150 years ago
for a local tycoon and actually has stones in it from the historic
Whitby Abbey in England (not far from Will's hometown, and
subsequently more famous for being the resting place of Dracula's
coffins in the Bram Stoker novel). The "castle" ultimately became the
restaurant for a country club and was eventually purchased the city of
Rye as a public golf club. The rooms are pleasant enough and have a
kind of old world flair with tables well separated and service pretty
decent (although we did have to pour our wine several times). While it
is not fine dining (I was quite surprised to see it is not even Zagat
rated!), some of the food was quite delish.
Samuel ordered the requisite CHICKEN Fingers & Fries and finished off
with a bowl of Chocolate Ice Cream (we think it was Haagen Dazs). We
settled in with a bottle of 2006 J. LOHR "Arroyo Vista" CHARDONNAY
from Monterrey, California that we have always enjoyed. It has lots of
flavor, a hint of oak, but it is not overpowering and is a great buy
at $32 (the wine sells for just about half that).
Will's SEAFOOD BEIGNETS were a failure in that you could not really
taste shrimp, scallop or lobster (as described on the menu) in these
New Orleans style fritters which came with pickled English cucumber
and a dollop of Chipotle mayo on top of each of the small round
fritters. They also were on the dry side and needed a tad more mayo
for flavor and moistness.
My mother's CRISPY GOAT CHEESE with MIXED GREENS, Dried Cherries,
Spiced Walnuts and Raspberry Vinaigrette fared better in that it was a
superb salad save for the quite mealy texture of the small lightly
battered and deep fried discs of goat cheese.
I hit the jackpot in taste and presentation with the Seared NEW
BEDFORD DIVER SCALLOPS on a Bolivian Salt Slab with Marinated Yellow
Oyster Mushrooms and GAI LON. The slab was about 6 inches by 3 inches
by 1 inch and came scalding hot on a black napkin with the scallops on
top searing. It was quite impressive, although I must admit, quite
salty as well (which I did not mind). The scallops were superb,
although the Gai Lon looked alot like baby bok choy to me. The server
said Gai Lon was Chinese Broccoli, but that for some reason they had
run out and used bok choy instead.
The bread came warm and tasty and was served with Boursin Cheese,
Butter and a whole head of roasted garlic that we all dug into with
glee.
For the main course wine, I first tried a taste of the INDABA South
African Merlot they offer by the glass which was quite spicy for a
Merlot, so we choose a superb smooth MONTEPULCIANO Riserva from
ZACAGNINI in Abruzzo, again for the mid-$30 range that seems to be the
deal here.
My Mom choose another starter of Marinated Grilled PRAWNS with Sesame
SHRIMP TOAST PLANK and Pickled Garden Veggies that was another hit
while Will ordered the King's Cut portion of PRIME RIB with Baked
Potato, Asparagus & Red Peppers. I mention KING's Cut as there was an
option for $2 less for QUEEN's CUT. The portion that arrived had to be
at least 2 pounds and we ended up taking home more than half of it! I
wonder how much less in size the smaller portion was?
My CRISPY SKIN DUCK CONFIT was a nicely cooked leg and thigh with
Chinese LONG BEANS, Bok Choy and excellent moist and tasty Forbidden
BLACK RICE. There could have been a bit more GINGER-HONEY Soy Sauce
for the duck as it was a bit dry in a couple of bites.
Right about this point, Samuel got up to give his grandmother (yaya,
as we call my Mom) a kiss and as he did so, lost his second tooth (the
first had come out about 2 weeks prior on the cruise!). I told him
that I thought the NY Tooth Fairy paid off for teeth much higher than
in DC, and indeed he collected $7 last night as the three of each
deposited different amounts not knowing what the others had done!
Lucky him.
