2017/05/04
One of our sons (who is vegetarian) and his girlfriend (who is vegan) took us out to Harvest Kitchen for a belated birthday dinner for SWMBO. HK has several options along the meat/vegan spectrum, so there was something on the menu for each of us. The restaurant has a very comfortable, homey feel to it. The two hours we were there did not feel rushed at all.

We started out by sharing a dish of Crispy Eggplant (vegan), which was battered with a fresh herb tempura. The outside had a nice crisp to it, and the inside was good, soft and mushy. On the side was a pleasant tahini sauce for dipping.

SWMBO had the Southern North American Bowl, and added organic chicken. This was a brown rice dish with many Tex-Mex ingredients, such as retried beans, pico de gallo, cheddar, lime, cilantro, salsa verde, guacamole, sour cream. Fresh ingredients and tender chicken made for a nice dish.

I ordered the Napoleon Printemps, which was a portobello mushroom cap with many other things. However, after ordering, our server came back and said they were out of them. While I was contemplating other options, our server came back and said, although they didn't have anymore prepared ones, the chef was going to put one together for me.

Imagine a large mushroom cap, sitting upside down, like a small bowl. Now stack it high with grilled eggplant, goats cheese, sautéed spinach. Then wrap the whole thing in rice paper, and bake it. Put the round mound on top of a beet coulis, with wilted greens, and sprinkle toasted almonds on top of everything. Sweet from the beets, salty from the cheese, crunch from the almonds, soft from the eggplant, earthiness from the mushroom. Each bite had something going on.

Good conversation + good food = very good dining experience.