Very good meal at Manor Rock in Hudson. Maybe the platonic ideal of an upstate restaurant focusing on farm produce but moving beyond fetishization or farm to table as an aesthetic (thinking of some LA restaurants, though I know my opinion on this is controversial).
Blue cheese and cured, spiced date. Not earth shattering but really hit.
Lettuces and snap peas. A little too beautiful and restrained. Would have been great with a steak. On its own a little one note.
Loved this tartare served on a hot panelle, garnished with shiso. Sometimes tartare feels boring, but this was arguably the best bite of the meal.
Headcheese with sichuan vinegar.
Chicories with goat cheese, beets, dates, pickled celery, and fennel seed. Didn’t know I needed another beets and goat variation, but this was in the running the best dish of the night. Fennel seeds on salad is a new idea, one I’ll steal.
Duck pie is what I want homey English food to be.
And the desserts were also stellar. Biko, a filipino sticky rice cake, not too sweet. And a blancmange with strawberries and sorrel.
Not sure I would drive up from the City to go to Manor Rock, but this was a really good meal, a level of creativity and technique beyond say Stissing House or other restaurants in this loose category.