# Tkern Dinner



## WildBoar (Jul 27, 2013)

This is overdue by a couple weeks, but better late than never. This is the dinner tkern put together for my wife and I to celebrate her birthday.

Started off with a pork headcheese dumpling. Phenomenal.





And onto the charcuterie platter and accompanyments. Duck, pork and rabbit goodies, hot pickles, pickled mustard seeds and ramps, and grilled bread. All that hard work really paid off -- the cured meats were fantastic.. Heck, I even ate -- and thoroughly enjoyed -- the rabbit pate (I attribute that to the pistachios. Like bacon and frying, pistachios can make anything taste great :biggrin





Salad with pickled onions, local feta, candied pecans and beets.




Uh, since it was my wife's birthday, I unselfishly gave her the beets from my salad... :angel2:




Next up was shrimp and grits, with a creole twist. Really took the dish in another direction from the traditional cream/ butter preparation they used to serve. My wife really enjoyed the switch to 'heads-on' shrimp.

View attachment 17398


And while she enjoyed the shrimp and grits, I was the recipient of the 'turf' portion of the course -- braised pork belly with some crispy skin. The pork was so good I even ate some of the lima beans (see above -- anything with bacon added... )




sensing a chink in my armor, Travis follow up with sweetbreads on a pea/ herb risotto. This is the second time I've tried sweatbreads (my wife loves them). The first time was on our first visit to A&S a while back. I really expected to not like this, but it was quite good! 




Okay, enough appetizers -- time for main courses! For her, some kinda fish thing 




And for me, perfectly cooked lamb loin and a delicious lamb sausage. And I even ate some of the garbanzo beans -- even though they were not cooked in bacon fat! :O


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## WildBoar (Jul 27, 2013)

and for the final entree, a fantastic plate of rabbit two ways. The ravioli filling was awesome.




At this point Travis was taking pity on our poor overstuffed souls. He spared us the cheese/ grilled bread course, and brought out a single dessert -- a blueberry muffin cake with vanilla ice cream. A great, unexpected twist. Perfect!





If you are in the DC area, do yourself and your stomach a big favor and visit Travis! :thumbsup:


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## stereo.pete (Jul 27, 2013)

Wow, I will most definitely visit Travis if I ever end up in DC.


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## Lefty (Jul 27, 2013)

Looks and sounds great! Nice work, Travis!


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## tkern (Jul 27, 2013)

About the garbanzo beans, they were cooked with the skin of a bacon'd belly in the pot. Thanks for the review and picts. Always a great time to cook for you and the missus.


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## Zwiefel (Jul 28, 2013)

[email protected] Wish my trip northwards would have allowed for a diversion through here....<sigh>


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## WildBoar (Jul 28, 2013)

tkern said:


> About the garbanzo beans, they were cooked with the skin of a bacon'd belly in the pot..


 Travis, you are truly one of the great ones :doublethumbsup:


tkern said:


> Thanks for the review and picts. Always a great time to cook for you and the missus.


it's always a treat for us.


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## mr drinky (Jul 28, 2013)

That's awesome. Thanks for the post. 

I need to get back to the DC area. 

k.


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