This Week at the Herdic House
Now this is more like it! 50 degrees, ice melting so fast it’s nearly in the rearview—any moment we’re prepared to see the tips of daffodils sprouting behind the Inn. Which means it’s time for one of our other favorite Blue Plates to make an appearance: join us tonight for fish tacos, complete with broiled cod, crispy slaw, local black turtle beans, salsa casera and avocado crema. 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!
P.S. We should mention that if Mexican food is your thing, you’d better make a reservation now for our own Samantha Gonzalez’s guest chef evening next Friday, March 7. While the menu is still in the works, we know Sam will be making posole, tamales and several other yummy dishes she’s been making us sample. You’d be a fool to miss it! 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 tenderloin tips, fresh-cut fries, grated cheddar and parmesan ranch. Plus, Hannah will be mixing up black manhattans at the bar—the current Herdid favorite cocktail… We’re kicking off a month crowded with exciting menus concocted by amazing female chefs with a menu this Friday celebrating one of our favorite American (yet not exactly) cuisines—the amazing Creole and Cajun food they serve up in and around New Orleans, Louisiana.
Williamsport for years celebrated Mardi Gras like they do in NOLA, kind of, with lots of masks, beads and exposed flesh. And, as Liz can testify, that part of Mardi Gras is an awful lot of fun—like many other folks, she’s had an…unusual…time down in New Orleans over the Mardi Gras weekend, with a heavy emphasis on dancing, drinking, parading and even occasionally eating.
But as Wilpo’s Mardi Gras festivities have calmed down, here at the Herdic we discovered that our favorite things to celebrate in the lead up to Fat Tuesday are the incredible dishes created by generations of cooks from the world over, who arrived in New Orleans from their home lands on pirate ships, on slave ships, by horse, on foot, and in so many other ways, and each brought with them their own techniques, their own ingredients and their own approaches to the unique foods available in Louisiana, until they gradually shaped a cuisine that’s unlike any other in our country.
So sure, we’ll have our masks out, and our beads on, and you’d better believe we’ll be listening to wide variety of the excellent music also gifted to us by NOLA’s multicultural melting pot (Second line? Louis Armstrong? the Meters? Dr. John? yes please!), and yes, of course, Hannah might just give you a free cocktail in return for a peepshow…but the real action will be in the kitchen, where you’ll find us making a few of our favorite dishes from the Big Easy…
- Landis Farm chicken, shrimp and sausage gumbo
- Cajun barbecued shrimp, in their shells, with rice
- Fried oyster po’boy with cajun remoulade
- Redfish served in a creole meuniere over Tebbs’ sweet corn maque choux
- Housemade bourbon ice cream with pecan pralines
And we don’t want to miss a chance to mention our upcoming guest chefs:
- Samantha Gonzalez with recipes of Mexico on March 7
- Alivia Tagliaferri with recipes of Rome on March 15
- Marleni Feinstein with recipes of Singapore on March 28
- and Kashfiah Fatema with recipes of Bangladesh and the Middle East on April 4
Keep an eye on our Facebook page for menus!
And another P.S. We can’t speak for anyone else, but, when the weather turns cold in Wilpo, our thoughts often turn to people in our area who don’t necessarily have a hot meal on the way, or a warm spot to eat it in. So we were delighted when Jolene from the Food Bank called to ask us to contribute to the Ladles of Love fundraiser that will help the Central PA Food Bank keep putting food on people’s tables and toasty, filling dinners in kids’ bellies. The fundraiser is aptly timed as well—selling warm and filling soups just when the weather is still a bit chill. While the Herdic soup has sold out (undoubtedly thanks to many of you!), we hear there are a still a few quarts available from other awesome chefs. Order online at centralpafoodbank.org/ladles-of-love, then pick up your soup at the Holiday Inn Express in downtown Williamsport on February 28 between 11:30am – 1pm or 3:30pm – 5pm.