Um, Excuse Me

Am I in paradise? I think so. Long story short, I'm doing a workshop for Smith that involves "reflecting on life goals" and "contemplating the meaning of success." But that is neither here nor there. Where it is, though, is at the Egremont Inn in the Birkshires... our advisors for the program thought we could better understand our relationship with Smith's notion of success if we ran away to an old inn and ate amazing food and, y'know, "retreated" a little. Fine with us! But this isnt about the inn (which is wicked cool and gorgeous and has a ghost! and real fireplaces!)-- this is about the food. Which, by the way, Smith is paying for. Good deal!
Dinner last night was in the side dining room, at round tables set with white table clothes and beautiful rustic china and real tulips on the tables. (Real tulips!) The bread was delicious-- a sweet, cakey cornbread that definitely topped Georgia Brown's, and a salty rosemary foccacia with olive oil. Satisfying and wonderful We had our choice of 5 or 6 appetizers, 6 or 7 entrees, and dessert. Um, Restaurant Week much? The appetizers ranged from a butternut squash and apple soup to a crab and shrimp salad. I had the fried scallops with housemade tarter and cocktail sauces, which were wonderfully light and crispy and served snuggled into a white cloth napkin on a plate to keep them warm. I think I counted about 8 morsels of goodness-- perfect. Entree options included salmon, chicken or veal parmesean, and a couple others, but I opted for the exotic-sounding "curried chicken with cremini mushrooms" which turned out to be less curry and more just savory but excellent. Two large paillards (is that the right word? i mean "thin chicken breasts") butter-sauted to be a little crispy on the outside but still tender inside, stacked on top of a suitably plain risotto, with a small stack of thin green beans to the side, all luciously smothered in a buttery/salty/balsamic-y/mushroomy sauce. Pretty much perfect. And then dessert-- lots of sundae options, fruit, chocolate cake, etc. I chose (clearly) the brownie sundae-- a thick, rich, fudgy brownie covered in a perfect scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and gooey hot fudge. That doesnt really need any more explanation, but suffice it to say, I was a fat and happy camper. And then after dinner we all settled down to play apples to apples with a bottle of red wine, and the inn keeper, this amazing old woman, came out with a *better* bottle of something made with grapes older than Christ (thats what she said!) and made us all taste it for free. I'm in food-and-wine-and-old-inn induced heaven. I might never leave.

The Egremont Inn
10 Old Sheffield Rd.
P.O. Box 418S.
Egremont, MA. 01258
http://www.egremontinn.com/