Restaurant review: Lago

A few weeks ago, we ventured back out to Tremont for dinner, this time visiting Lago.

Lago is another cozy little restaurant located in a historic building, as many in Tremont are. Their focus is on northern Italian cuisine (though if you asked me, I couldn’t give you the difference between northern and southern food). They also feature “the most eclectic collection of wine in the area,” and the wine list is exclusively Italian. Which, again, would be of more interest to us if we were big wine drinkers, but for those who are, this could be a nice perk.

It was a little on the noisy side, but not so much that we couldn’t hear each other. We were also seated at the table nearest the waiting area, and close to the bar. This wasn’t a problem until it got a little later and more people started to arrive… and slowly migrate toward us, to the point where I was ready to ask one lady if she just wanted to pull up a chair and join us. Kind of weird, and maybe it’s just me, but I’d expect most people to have enough awareness of their surroundings that they wouldn’t end up carrying on a conversation right next to the table of other diners. In any case, this was not the theme of the night – for the most part, we were not bothered. I just don’t like rude people.

On to the food.

For starters, we had a beef carpaccio with marinated fennel, arugula, and a truffle mustard vinaigrette. We’re not really carpaccio connoisseurs, but I have to say, this one was delicious. The beef was perfectly, evenly sliced razor-thin, and almost literally just dissolved in my mouth. The truffle and fennel added a nice level of flavor.

S got the gnocchi, which was a veritable feast, and came with lobster chunks, corn, roasted tomato, basil, and truffle. Very creamy and quite flavorful (with ample amounts of lobster), and the gnocchi were perfect – not too soft, not too chewy.

I selected one of the nightly specials, which on this evening was a papardelle pasta, complete with scallops, tomato, and asparagus, and finished with a saffron cream sauce. Again, the flavors all melded together wonderfully, and there was a fine mix of textures, with the tender chewiness of the scallops and the slightly crispy asparagus.

And finally, for dessert, we enjoyed a scrumptious almond cake with a strawberry-fig compote. Dense, moist, and yummy.

Final verdict: we’ll give Lago 5 3/4 stars out of seven. Not quite at the six level, but still very good. Prices were maybe slightly above average (most entrées in the $18 -25 range), service was acceptable, if not consistent (I think a different server took care of each course for us), and the food was very good. Recommended.

Bees!

We are now officially the proud owners of one bee hive. My family has had a couple for the past several years, and when my dad was ordering new bees, he ordered an extra and asked if I wanted it, so here we are. Not really on the schedule for this year, but most things around here don’t go by any kind of artificial schedule I have planned. And I’m okay with that… mostly.

If you’re looking to get started with apiaries, the book Beekeeping for Dummies is a great reference, and where I got most of my initial information. Based on what I’ve read, this isn’t an overly time or labor-intensive hobby, and should be fun. I’ll have extra pollinators for the gardens, and maybe even get some honey in the fall.

If you haven’t dealt with large quantities of bees before, it can be a little intimidating. Though honeybees are relatively docile (unlike yellow jackets and hornets), it’ll still get your heart pumping when you’re dumping out a box containing several thousand bees, and instinct is naturally telling you to keep them in the box where they’re (you’re) safe. It did end up being fun though, and getting to see inside the hive after they’ve been settled in for a couple weeks is pretty cool. Quite interesting little creatures.

Look for more updates as the summer goes on!

This is what they’re shipped in. Funny to see the mailman’s face…

That’s a lot of bees.

Starting to dump them into the hive.

 

At home. Time to get to work.

Strawberry rhubarb ricotta-stuffed French toast

We kick things off this week with a recipe. And not just any recipe, but that for the ricotta-stuffed, strawberry rhubarb French toast that I made for S for Mother’s Day last weekend. This received rave reviews all around.

First, I whipped up a batch of fresh ricotta. You can use store-bought (1 or 2 cups), but fresher is always better. I also diced up a couple strawberries and added them to the cheese. This was the most time-consuming part; for as awesome as it turned out, it really didn’t require a ton of time.

Next, I sliced up a fresh loaf of bread into pieces about 2″ thick. You should end up with about 6 slices from a regular sized loaf.

Carefully cut each slice in half, about 2/3 of the way through. You could also just use regularly sliced bread, and make a sort of sandwich, but I kept each thick slice partially intact so it was all one piece. Then put a heaping tablespoon of the ricotta filling inside each slice. You can stuff it as much as you want, but I didn’t stuff it so much that things were spilling out the sides.

For the dip, whisk together one egg, one cup of milk, and a teaspoon each of vanilla and cinnamon in a large bowl. Put each slice in the mix, flipping to coat each side well. Place on a hot griddle for about 3-4 minutes per side, or until golden brown.

He really wanted some…

To make the strawberry-rhubarb compote, cut up strawberries and rhubarb (I used roughly a 2:1 ratio, so about 2 cups berries and 1 cup rhubarb), and add to a medium saucepan. Add a tablespoon or two of honey and the juice of one lemon, or 1/4 cup orange juice, then simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until things get nice and soupy.

To serve, top a piece of the French toast with a spoonful of the compote and some freshly whipped cream, and maybe even a fan-cut strawberry. These are big enough that one is plenty for each person, and maybe even too much for some… although they’re so good that it’s hard to stop eating

Garden update 5/18

I’ve been able to harvest a few different things from the garden so far, with some more coming very soon. We might be just a little bit ahead of last year’s schedule, but not too much so, even with that warm spell in March. The potatoes are all up, the peas have reached the point where they seem to grow many inches in a single day, and the garlic is the tallest I’ve ever seen. I’ve been gradually planting more over the past week, and hope to get most of the rest of it in over the weekend.

I transplanted the tomatoes and peppers outside at the beginning of the week, since we’re approaching the average last frost date, and the extended forecast looks pretty good. Definitely dodged a bullet though – yesterday morning there was scattered frost throughout the area (even just down the road), but fortunately we didn’t get any. That could have been a disaster.

I’ve been mulching, and moving more topsoil into new beds, and slowly but surely, we’re making progress. We’ve planted some more perennials, a few annuals, and threw some seeds in a few beds. I told S it finally feels like something’s being accomplished, and things are starting to take shape a little more. Still a lot to go (and nothing’s ever really finished), but it’s looking better. And the peonies started to bloom, including a deep magenta one that hasn’t bloomed before. Very nice.

Destined to grow

C got his first real taste of gardening over the weekend. The work part anyway – he’s been enjoying the fruits of the garden since last year… He’s always liked to play in the dirt, and tried to help earlier in the spring when we were planting flowers. So since we had some nice weather and I was ready to plant a few more things, I let him help me out with some watermelon and pumpkin seeds.

He did a pretty good job of putting the seeds in the holes that I dug, then we covered the seed and patted the dirt down. When we were finished planting, he used his ducky watering can to help me water. He’s still just a wee bit overzealous with everything, and would much prefer simply digging holes, but I’d say he has a good future ahead of him.