This Week at the Herdic House
Back in the Americas for the Blue Plate this evening—a delicious pork carnitas from Misty Mountain Farm, layered on corn tortillas with black beans, sweet corn slaw, cherry tomato pico de gallo and cilantro crema. It’s $15 at the House and $17 to go…
And tomorrow, our Happy Hours continue! Join us from 5-7 pm on Thursday evenings at the bar for some cocktail specials—$2 off wines by the glass, $1 off beers by the bottle and a rotating $9 craft cocktail, plus we’ll be making classic Pittsburgh-style salads, with housemade ranch dressing, crisp seasonal veggies, Yukon Gold fries. grated cheddar and grilled tenderloin tips… And this week’s cocktail will be a fresh peach and blueberry bellini…
Come midsummer, our favorite farms in central PA have some of the best produce you can buy anywhere in the nation, and that’s the pure and unadulterated truth. Sometimes, the veggies are so good, we start to get a little weird about it—this is also quite true (see Daisy, above, with her trumpet flower fingers as irrefutable proof). We go to the outer limits of culinary normalcy to explore the full possibilities of ingredients and make the most interesting dishes out of the bounty we have on offer.
This week we’re bringing you a sweet corn menu on Friday evening, and corn is a house favorite of high summer—never quite as popular as tomatoes, but with maybe an even greater Gumby-like flexibility, an ability to be sweet or savory, satisfyingly fibrous or downright melting. These kernels, whether they be sunny, golden yellow or creamy, pearly white, are the epitome of American summer—and much like summer, they can mold themselves to your every desire and culinary mood (yes, in part because corn has been molded by humans since time immemorial, but let’s not start down that mobius strip). Suffice it to say, when the first sweet corn is ready, we know that summer has arrived.
And we’ll confess that one house favorite corn dish is Liz’s sweet corn ice cream. “Now,” you’ll say reprovingly, “why did you have to go and make it all weird?” But truth is truth, and the truth is that sweet corn makes downright delicious ice cream…and cocktails for that matter. (Just let Hannah show you on Friday night!) Stop down on Friday and let us show you all that sweet corn has to offer…
- Sweet corn daiquiri, shaken with fresh corn and fresh lime
- Cream of sweet corn soup topped with a lump crab, tarragon and cherry tomato salad
- Mexican street corn: a whole ear slathered with chipotle aioli, grilled and topped with cilantro and queso blanco
- Grilled, herb marinated Misty Mountain Farm pork chop served over a chicken of the woods mushroom risotto with sweet corn foam and cherry tomato salsa
- Blueberry tarts baked to order, with a scoop of housemade sweet corn ice cream
Don’t forget to stop in next Friday, August 5 to check out beautiful watercolors by Pat Leibowitz. A little sample below…