Blue Hill- The Feast of a Lifetime!

A meal at Blue Hill at Stone Barns involves a 2.5-3 hour feast for the palate as well as all of the other senses. All of the food is from their farm as well as other local farms, with an emphasis on sustainability and local (Hudson Valley) food. The most unique aspect of a meal at Blue Hill is that you can never have the same meal twice, nor did anyone in the restaurant on Friday night, eat exactly what we ate. You let your server know if there is any food you do not eat (I am a ovo-lacto pescatarian and F does not do organs) and sit back as the flurry of delicious arrives. The only decision you need to make (other than wine) is how many courses you would like to have. The choices are 5, 8, and (a new!) 12. We opted for 8 courses (6 savory and 2 sweet) like the other two times we were there. You will be neither hungry nor "full" (I hate this expression) but feel just complete- as your body enjoys being satiated with delectable yet simple and fresh food. While their wine selection is impressive, we left the choosing to the sommelier (we were super lucky to have received a bottle as a gift!) and opted out of the wine pairing, amazing but costly and drunk -inducing. Believe me, you want to be sober to fully bask in the delicious experience. Our feast included (I am surely forgetting details but you will get the gist):
**Crudités and a V9 juice- A delightful wooden tray with little spikes upon which there perched were several mini raw vegetables. They had nothing or just salt or lemon on them, but eating this mini produce feels like a great way to whet your appetite and begin to taste food for the first time. The mini smoothie was comprised of 9 ( I guess) veggies. Note that the very small portions as well as the ingenious simple vessels in which the food is presented is part of the charm.
**Mini Tomato Burger- This adorable treat was the size of a quarter and had some goat cheese on it, but its flavor was so rich and delicious that you kind of wanted a regular sized one but also felt like you had eaten a larger one because it was so flavorful.
**Trio of kale chips, red potato chips, and white bean tempura- these were on a tree like structure- just two of each but full of flavor and a touch of grease (yum and almost totally absent in any BH dish0
** Tempura Squash- simple and flavorful (F's had bacon in it too)
**Mini mini radish in a shot glass with a buttery (think pinky nail amount) sauce placed in a bowl of dirt (again, simple but genius presentation) for me and two mini slices of charcuterie for F (pistachio something?)
**Smoked tomato soup that was poured on the spot into a bowl with mushrooms, that acted as a sort of barrier so that not the whole bowl was full. There was some caviar in this which was not interesting to me.
**Seared wahu (fish) with a cauliflower cream. This did not appeal to me visually (looked like raw fish) but was so damn delicious- three small melt in your mouth rich pieces of fish.
**Bowl with mushrooms (mushrooms and tomatoes were clearly the theme) with a lettuce foam (weird but good) and an egg that looked hard boiled but was in batter and actually poached when you sliced into it. How do they think of these flavor combinations?
**Purple potato gnocchi- soft and saporous
**Scone (not sweet made of some grain I cannot remember) with a swiss chard marmalade and a bowl of warm, scrumptious ricotta (apparently this is when cows fatten up for the winter and make their yummiest milk)
**Lobster with ?? I cannot remember (me) and lamb and pork cheek F
**Bamango sorbet (this fruit has another name, it is tropical-like but local and spoils easily so not popular but creamy like a banana) with chocolate cookie (tiny but rich) and chocolate covered hazelnuts
**Pastry filled with a creamy honey on warm pears and some grape thing (this was the only part I did not love). The pastry was the most perfect one I ever tasted- crunchy bottom and fluffy top while crispy and creamy and puffy. Whoa!
**Plate of fruit with some chocolate something
Are you hungry? Do you get the picture?
The service is impeccable and almost eerie in its precision (we were very entertained in watching the synchronized choreography involved in serving of a table of six nearby) and the food is the most flavorful you could imagine. You actually cannot imagine it, you need to save up and go!