leFarm is again leFabulous

Saturday night after Thanksgiving was a special one for me this year.  I usually don't like to make a big deal over my birthday other than I want a good meal.  And a good meal was had by the hands of the teamwork at leFarm.  Rachel Golan, who is the wife of Chef Bill Taibe managed to squeeze us in for Saturday night.  Since the opening 2 months ago, the place has been very busy.

We were greeted by Rachel who told us our table would be ready in a moment, which gave us an opportunity to sneak into the back and give a hello to Chef Bill.  We were seated and offered the choice of still or sparking water both of which are filtered right in house.  We were looking at the dishes that were leaving the kitchen as we sat there trying to decide what to get.  Everything as usual looked amazing.

Anita, my wife, started out with Marinated Beets, Fuji Apples and Womanchego cheese salad.  The beets are selected from Holebrook farm in Bethel CT and were the highlight of the dish.  Both red and white-striped beets were served and they were delicious.

I on the other hand had a hard time deciding what to eat.  Since I have tried many of Chef Bill's dishes I wanted to re-live some of them as well as try something new.  So I decided to re-live the appetizer of the Roasted Bone Marrow.  As before it was a large bone cut lengthwise and roasted to soften up the marrow till its at a spreadable texture.  It was then topped off with parsley and shallots and served with Parsley Mustard. The dish is served with olive bread that you could make a meal of alone with a bit of butter.  But this bread had other plans for this evening.

For the Entree's Anita had gotten another appetizer as it struck her eye.  Soft Polenta and salted Codfish came out in a bowl with sauteed scallions and topped with freshly shaved pecorino cheese.  The dish also had a soft boiled egg mixed in which really smoothed out the texture.

When I asked my server Frank, who has been with Chef Bill from restaurants in the past, what he thought about the lambsteak, he had a good answer for me.  He said, its not something I recommend to everyone since its not a popular cut of Lamb here.  The problem that some people have with this particular cut of lamb is that there are a few large bones located throughout the steak that you have to surgically negotiate through.  Since he knew I was a bit of a foodie, I would personally have no problem with the dish.  And he was right on all accounts.  The bones were located differently than you would find on let's say a bone in Ribeye which runs along one side of the steak.  But what you get in return is more flavor in the steak due to the fact that you have more bone to meat surface.   It just needs a little extra time with the knife but when your out to a meal at Lefarm, your not in a rush.  The Lambsteak is served upon a bed of soft Polenta and speckled with roasted broccoli.  The dish is pulled together with the sofrito which is a sauce traditionally made with small diced onions and tomatoes.  If you like lamb, I highly suggest getting this dish.

Usually I stop there when I go out for a meal but when Frank listed off the desserts, one of them sounded so unique I had to try it.  I have had Chef Bill's cornbread before but not like this.  He served the cornbread with drizzled Honey and a quenelle of maple cayenne pepper ice cream and topped with Crumbled candied bacon.  WOW is what I thought and WOW is what I said after I ate the whole thing.  It was amazing.  The cornbread is great on it's own but with the ice cream and candied bacon it just made it a savory dessert that I would get anytime.  I have heard of candied bacon before but getting to try it was a real treat.  It has the extreme flavor contrasts that you get with a chocolate covered pretzel.  Extreme salt and extreme sweet.  It worked great with this dish since it accented the cornbread rather than taking it over.

Anita had just experimented with pumpkin cheesecake over the Thanksgiving holiday and it came out great.  Since it was her first foray into this type of cheesecake, she was anxious to see what others tasted like and ordered a slice this evening.  The flavor of the cheesecake was very good and it was a lighter fluffier consistency.  It was served with Maple ice cream and a nice smear of nutella.

Again, another fabulous meal at leFarm.  If you haven't tried it yet, you have to get in there.  Make sure you check them out on the web at www.lefarmwestport.com
Also Check them out on facebook where you will see specials of family style dinners.  This is where they put all the tables together and for a nominal fee you get a constant flow of food and wine mixed with people from all over.