This Week at the Herdic House
We’re on a bit of a hot weather Blue Plate kick here at the Herd, in an effort to inspire the sluggish spring temperatures to bring on a little heat—but we’re not complaining at all that the sun reappeared yesterday to shower us all with some much needed vitamin D! This week’s Mexican Blue Plate was prepared with the help and advice of Sam in our kitchen (though we’ll probably muck it up with too many American ingredients): Tacos al Pastor, with braised Misty Mountain pork, fresh pineapple, onion and cilantro, served with a beet, carrot and lime slaw and coconut rice. It’s $18 at our House, and $20 to go, like always—but, per usual, our number of to-go orders will be very limited. We’ll hope to see you out tonight! And we should mention that, by request, we’ll have another round of baked brie with raspberry jam as an appetizer tonight… Come join us for our Thursday happy hours at the bar, from 5-7 pm, with $1 off all beers and $2 off wines by the glass. Plus our Thursday night feature that pretends to be healthy, all while loaded with the tangy umami of ranch dressing: house favorite Herdic Pittsburgh salad, this week served with grilled spicy shrimp, fresh-cut fries, grated cheddar and parmesan ranch. Plus, Hannah will be shaking up magnolia sours with petals from our tree out back… Our final guest chef for Women’s History and Heritage Month (which got a bit extended, due to our overenthusiasm) will make her appearance this Friday evening. We’ve been so excited to make the acquaintance of Kashfiah Fatema, a native of Chittagong, Bangladesh, a member of Geisinger’s healthcare staff, and an excellent chef so passionate about food that she cooks not only the cuisines of Bangladesh but has also taught herself dishes from a variety of other cultures—several of which she’ll share with us this weekend!
We were fortunate to meet up with Kash via two different avenues—the excellent local organization Thrive International recommended her to us as a great chef, and then our friend Shahryar seconded that opinion, since Kash is not only a good friend of his but also his frequent personal chef—and we feel so fortunate to have Kash in our midst, where both her cooking and her medical skills are improving our community.
We’ve spent the past few weeks learning from each other as we discussed food heritage, and Kash has concocted a menu for Friday evening that’s a melding of Middle Eastern and Bangladeshi cuisines, including a riff on the Dubai chocolate bar that’s all the rage all over the internet. We’re so excited to be helping with her meal preparations over the next few days—but think it would be fair to say that’s she’s even more excited for her restaurant debut. Stop in on Friday night, check out the delightful paintings by Laurel Gauthé in our lounge (a few of which have already sold), and then join us for Kash’s delicious prix fixe menu (see below). We’ll also try to have a couple of these items available a la carte, if you’d like to sample just a few menu elements…
P.S. We’re getting pretty well booked up for our Easter dinner service on Sunday, April 20 from 11 am-2 pm, but there are still some tables available. Please call down to the Herdic to make a reservation: 570.322.0165