Text 23786, 107 rader
Skriven 2015-02-07 12:53:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Provincetown 181
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Blackfish

The question is this the best restaurant in the
Provincetown area or is it the best on the Cape
altogether. It's actually in Wellfleet or Truro,
a few miles down Route 6.

We couldn't get a reservation until 9 pm, but the friendly
voice on the phone said that there were half a dozen seats
in the bar area, which were first come first served, and if
we hustled we could probably snag a pair. So we did, and
we did. Verdict: best meal I've ever had on the Cape, also
one of the costliest ($140 for two, appetizers and wine
only, though lots of appetizers).

We started with seared scallops with Parmesan crisps on
Parmesan fondue - three big sweeties, not so wonderful as
the ones I remember from yesteryear, seared perfectly and
perfectly rare inside. A tiny bit sandy. The Parmesan
stuff went surprisingly well (true Italians and true
epicures don't generally do cheese with shellfish).

I had a glass of Dry Sack with this, which helped the
scallops and virtually sang and danced with the Parm.

Duck confit with white bean and bacon mash, sided with
baby turnips and turnip greens, was a delicious study in
contrasts. The duck leg, not quite salty enough to be
authentic, melded nicely with the bean-and-bacon stuff,
which might have done well with more herbs (rosemary
especially). The turnips were a sweet and bitter pair
of accents.

Home-cured jerk pork belly, cheesy grits - okay, as usual
the pork belly was not fatty enough but was otherwise
delicious. A bit of semi-tender skin was interesting. Its
seasoning was not too jerky - moderate spice, moderate
fruitiness. I'd had enough cheese and don't like grits,
so these got pushed to the side.

Chicken liver skewers on arugula salad with balsamic
reduction - the livers were done medium-rare as requested;
the rest of the sherry went exceedingly well.

Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz (Barossa) 12 was savory and
moderately fruity, plenty of tannin and some acid to cut
through the richness of the food. I detected plums and
coffee and chocolate, a little herbal mintiness. Good stuff.

The Mews

We wanted to go someplace else, I forget where, Fanizzi's
maybe, but there was a half-hour wait, so we trudged down
the road, and this caught our eye. It's pleasant enough;
you go downstairs to the bar area at lunch, where you can
sit by a picture window overlooking the bay. Dinner is I
believe upstairs.

We split a JR's burger, which was your ordinary burger,
rather large, fresh ground chuck on a brioche bun. Decent
food. And then the smoked salmon plate, which though costly
was really excellent; this came with lemon, capers, red
onion, and sieved egg.

I had a Murphy's Irish Stout; Link a screwdriver. A nice
preconcert meal.

Montano's

It was Sunday night, and most places were shut up tight.
We drove down Route 6 with the restaurants either closed
or shutting in our face. There was one deli that remained
open, but it was out of just about everything. On the way
back, Montano's distinguished itself by being brightly lit
and having a full parking lot. In we pulled. The place
was hopping, and they had a prime rib special for not very
much money. Jackpot.

I ordered the St. Francis Cabernet 11 (Sonoma), a decently
made middle-of-the-road wine. I think the word is brambles
and oak and "soft tannins." I prefer hard tannins, but you
take what your budget allows. This in anticipation of the
prime rib special, but we looked at the regular menu anyway.

Ended up with eggplant parm and housemade bronze-die
pappardelle with duck ragu; both also a good match with
Cabernet Sauvignon.

The eggplant was delicious though overbreaded. The noodles
were nearly al dente but with a peculiar disintegrating
bite; at the time I attributed my not being able to eat to
my normal capacity to this slight oddity. The ragu was not
overtomatoed and was thick with meat, which I thought sort
of generic: there was also on the menu a dish with wild boar
ragu, and this could just as easily have been that. It was
a semidelicious dish, but, as I said, I could eat only half
of it and took the rest back - the leftovers filled one of
those big round foil containers with the plastic lids that
get crimped on. The truth came out shortly after midnight,
when these excruciating things started happening to my
insides. I hope someone found the box and it didn't go to
waste.


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