This Week at the Herdic House
Welp, the Lunar New Year has caught us a bit by surprise this year…but what else could you expect for the dawning Year of the Snake? We’d already started simmering the spiced Misty Mountain beef stew that will form the base of a Southwestern Shepherd’s Pie (complete with a cornbread crust, slivered scallions and pepper jam) for this evening’s Blue Plate Special, when we suddenly realized that today is a spectacular Asian holiday that inspires parades and parties half the world over.
But we find we can’t pass up an opportunity to cook a little comforting yet unusual Asian food to help ring in a python of a New Year—so we’ll be featuring Chinese-style chicken noodle soup and some crispy shrimp and kimchi dumplings to round out this evening’s features. As for that Blue Plate, 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! Don’t miss 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 ribeye tagliata, fresh-cut fries, grated cheddar and parmesan ranch. Hannah will be mixing up blood orange black old-fashioneds at the bar too! It may seem like winter lasts forever here in central PA, and certainly blustery weeks like this one make it feel that way. But even this past Sunday, if you were picnicking in a sunny and protected corner of the Water Authority (see above), listening to the conversation of the chickadees, you could see a path clear to the warmth and blossoms of spring. And we, foragers and hobby farmers and sun-bunnies that we are, are not complaining about that: nature’s queer ability to hide the seeds of hope and change right in the thick of our winters of discontent.
Nonetheless, this paradoxically both long and short season means that we at the Herdic have only a few precious weeks, between the hubbub of the Christmas season, the titillating tornado of Valentine’s Day and the arrival of those first spikes of daffodils, in which to gorge ourselves on cold weather recipes and satisfy that eternal human desire for all the butter, all the protein and all the carbs that comes upon our species when we’re faced with an extended cold front. So, with some inspiration from our Francophone friend Maggie Furst, we’re planning to indulge all of our best and richest desires this very Friday evening, as we feast on some of the finest, warmest, most thoroughly fortifying recipes the French have to offer, and snuggle up with a tasty cocktail or two…
- Not-particularly French martinis with fresh pineapple and chambord
- Almost Julia Childs’ potato-leek soup, with a bit of chipotle and parmigiano
- Escargot and wild mushroom tartlets with garlic butter
- Cassoulet: hearty French bean stew with pork sausage, shoulder, bacon, and duck confit…with just enough veggies to make it savory
- Apple tarte tatin with housemade vanilla ice cream