yaokui: Blue Hill at Stone Barns Part 2

Address: 630 Bedford Road, Pocantico Hills, NY

http://www.bluehillfarm.com

Phone: 914-366-9600

I can't believe it's been five months since we ate at Blue Hill in Stone Barns/BHSB. Our constant reminiscing of the memorable lunch at BHSB and our unforgettable day trip to Pocantico Hills lead to our second trip there a few weeks ago. And Thanks to our friend Oi yen for making it happen!

It's hard not to notice while driving that the landscape and scenery in Pocantico Hills had changed since January -- the ice on swan lake melted, the trees are in full bloom, and the road no longer icy and slippery. All these plus the chilly early summer breeze gave the area a totally different feel from the cold January month when we were there. This time around, Gan couldn't make it but we still had a group of six yaokuis making the special trip to Stone Barns for dinner.

I have to admit, the drive to the restaurant was not the easiest without Gan, especially when it got darker. We took a few wrong turns before finding our way there. Don't even think about jogging around the area in the evening, you might end up getting lost in the jungle of expensive mansions, just like one of our yaokui friend did ;P

Since I have tried the lunch menu at BHSB before, it was easier for me to compare between the two meals. To be honest, eventhough the dinner tasting menu was supposed to showoff the restaurant/chef's skills, we were more impressed by the lunch.

Snap peas was one of the fresh ingredients of the day but it was in too many dishes, resulted in lack of varieties. We had fresh snap peas and radish, pea burger, pea and Stone Barns yogurt and smoked rainbow trout with minted peas. And in case you haven't heard, there's no "real menu" at BHSB. Everything prepared by the kitchen is based on fresh produce of the day, and they will serve you based on what they have. But it turned out to be too much peas! Our friend Nan specially requested fish/seafood in place of red meat and she was served with a better mix of dishes, she even had a pasta dish that we were all hoping to get! (the truffle yam gnocchi we had for lunch the last time was AMAZING).

Dishes I really liked this time were the embryonic egg with speck, pea burger and smoked rainbow trout. According to our waitress, embryonic eggs are actually eggs with premature egg yolk harvested from retired chicken and had cured for 3 days. I can't taste the difference between embryonic egg and regular organic egg, but I enjoyed the half boiled egg wrapped with speck, especially the runny egg yolk that oozes out when sliced in half. Thumbs up for the egg dish for me! The mini burger, which was actually one of the amuse bouche, was also good - small but very satisfying. The smoked rainbow trout was another dish that I really enjoyed. The fish was very fresh and went well with the minted peas. It was very nicely done.

I almost missed out on desserts because I was too busy taking pictures. But thanks to Toro (my other friend), I got a taste of the delicious flourless chocolate cake and frozen marshmallow! The seven/eight course dinner lasted for about 3 hours and we didn't get home till 1am. Thankfully, it was a Saturday and coffee definitely helped keeping me awake after the heavy meal. I am already looking forward to our next pilgrimage to BHSB!