Wednesday, July 23, 2014

coming back to Cooperstown (NY)-the BLUE MINGO always makes for a magnificent feast (7-20-14)

We've been here at the Glimmerglass Festival for several days, but this year we enjoyed the superb Glimmerglass Patron events in the house catered by the excellent Horned Dorset Primavera.
Last night was our first night "out" and we returned to the casual, yet excellent, Blue Mingo right on the lake, where Samuel immediately befriended a mother duck and her six ducklings, whom he later managed to sneak some oyster crackers to!
The Cosmos here are yummy and even with the tiniest martini glasses ever, but at least you get a small carafe with multiple refills.
The Chateau Routoas Rose was dry and crisp and excellent with the may starters we decided to share.
Golden Potstickers with chicken, lemongrass & soy broth were crispy and tasty and Sam insisted on having his own whole bowl of six, not to mention stealing one from the other order!
Moody Blues are the best sliced and baked potatoes slathered with blue cheese, green onion and the most yummy balsamic reduction.
Pork Belly Lollipops are divine --crispy and tasty skewered on a slab of fresh pineapple with golden pineapple salsa, magnificent mango sambal (not too spicy) and  roasted red pepper jam. These new creations win the starter prize for sure.
Coconut Shrimp are also tasty and crisp.

Sam ordered the 14 oz. NY strip steak but was already full, so this is going home for eating later as it was a tasty piece with a five cheese sauce, potato lunette (a huge duchesse style slab of layered potato, cream and crispy top), stewed zucchini and chimichurri drizzle.
We moved on to a wonderful Laboure-Roi Vallon d'Or Pouilly Fuisse which was perfect with the excellent Soft Shell Crabs that 3 of us had. There were three smallish but tasty crabs from Maryland with a pesto sauce and a large fontina cheese tuile filled with a cold lemon and parsley pasta salad with balsamic syrup. I've missed these treats.

The chef here is Asian and offers up a super Penang Curry with chicken, shrimp, meat or vegetarian and one of our guests loved the latter. The Osso Buco had to be the size of a trailer truck and left plenty to take home was well.

Desserts were okay and nice, but no major home runs:
Coconut Pound Cake (with or without raspberry sauce)
Carrot Cake
Peanut Butter Fudge Chocolate Cake
Key Lime Custard and
my Mango Mud Pie with Oreo Crust and Toffee Ice Cream seemed to be missing much of the toffee crunch.

Our server Nathan seemed to be new and wasn't there to pour the wine as often as we would have liked, but he was super sweet with Sam as he teaches 6th grade, which is where Sam heads in just over a month.
A wonderful night of fun and food with friends is always a treat.