Fork Debuts Winter “Our Terroir” Menu


Fork is already one of the best restaurants in the city–a place that’ll surprise you as well as feed you, and make you think (though not in any kind of annoying way) about where your food comes from and how it got from the field to the table.

That’s on a normal night. But if you’re down for some true culinary exploring, Eli Kulp‘s “Our Terroir” tasting menus are where it’s at. With these multi-course menus, Kulp and his crew are able to more deeply explore the links between Pennsylvania’s farms and its tables through the medium of food, and push the envelope even more than they already do during regular dinner service–a place where scallop crudo with fermented parsley, raw veal and tuna, and branzino with rice cakes and tamarind broth are just par for the course.

Anyway, the new Terroir menu is out now, and looks like a fascinating board. I’ll let them explain it all to you…

“The meal begins with a selection of small bites, including Hodecker Farm celery served with farm-raised oysters from Sweet Amalia Oyster Farm in Cape May, NJ; and soft scrambled eggs with pickled ramps, beet ribbons, crispy breadcrumbs and smoked eel, served family-style, in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. Additional courses include: Onions and Sour Cream, a 1930s-era Pennsylvania Dutch dish featuring smoked local onions with goat yogurt, served with agrodolce-glazed radicchio chips and ‘House Funions’; Rabbit and Buckwheat Pasta featuring Berks County’s Brooke-Lee Farm rabbit ragu and buckwheat raised on the same plot of land, served with poached wild quince; Highbourne Farm Venison, served with roasted pine mushrooms, venison jus, charred marinated cabbage, kale chips and venison sausage in pine nut crema, a dish inspired by New Jersey’s Pine Barrens; a transitional course of Yellow Springs Farm Blue Velvet Cheese served with red corn shortbread, raw alfafa honey, candied walnut and bee pollen; and finally a sweet finish of Chocolate Bark with roasted sunchoke, black walnut and sarsaparilla meringue.”

So, yeah. Eel, radicchio chips, bee pollen, goat yogurt, sarsaparilla meringue, Funions. Basically what we all had for dinner last night, right? You know what they say about Eli. Dude just doesn’t have an original bone in his body…

But seriously, if you’re interested in the Terroir menu, make your calls now for reservations. It’ll run you $110 per person. The menu is served family-style for the whole table, so yes, everyone has to agree to it in advance. And it’s available Tuesday through Saturday nights.

Fork [f8b8z]