W/E February 16th. Happy year of the snake

Thank you to everyone who made the effort to join us on Friday night last week. It was Jon's 60th birthday and he was performing. When he is playing and singing you are seeing him in his "zone" and experiencing his passion. You were an attentive audience and that is the biggest payoff for him. Thank you.

I finally have the Filipino Flavor Excursion dinner menu somewhat finalized. There may have to be last minute modifications based on ingredient availability, but I already have most of it. I have now sent the menu to my wine guy and he is working with his experts to pair up 4 wines to accompany the courses. We still have 4 slots as of this writing. The cost is $60/pp and includes the wines. It'll be happening on Saturday February 23rd at 6 pm.

Amuse bouche~fresh summer roll with nuoc cham dipping suace

Appetizer~ Chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce

Soup~Chicken soup with coconut

Salad~ Green papaya salad 

Seafood~ Filipino paella-shrimp, mussels, octopus, calamari, mahi-mahi

Fresh Fruit~ papaya, mango, kiwi and lychee with Salabat ginger tea

Meat course~ Pork adobo with rice noodles

Dessert course~Cashew custard in meringue

The Valentine's dinner is this week. We will be open regular hours and the full dinner menu will be available. However, I have put together a special Valentine's dinner available in limited quantity. The oysters are a variety called Fanny Bay and are being flown in from the Pacific northwest coast. Fanny Bay Oysters are found in the nutrient rich waters of Baynes Sound on the eastern side of Vancouver Island, BC. The flavor profile description is medium salty and firm texture with a pronounced cucumber and fruity finish. When you make reservations you may select your time frame. The cost for the special dinner is $28/pp. Here's that special aphrodisiac menu~

Oyster shooter~chili rimmed glass, fresh oyster, vodka, cocktail sauce, lime

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Oysters on the half shell with fresh remoulade 

or Oysters Rockefeller- cooked on the half-shell with bacon and bread crumbs

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Spinach and arugula salad with feta, strawberries, marinated figs, pomegranates 

and walnuts topped with our sweet sesame dressing

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Mussels in a light curry sauce over freshly made black squid pasta

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Palate cleanser~cucumber ice cream

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Roasted garlic-studded beef sirloin roast with creamy horseradish sauce and duchess potatoes

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Raspberry tira misu or chocolate cheesecake

We hope to have some Asti and champagne available as well as our usual lineup of wines. 

We've begun planting some of our fresh herbs and sprouts. The pea sprouts will be the first to come out and hopefully you'll see signs of them on your plates soon. I love how spring is a slow build up of energy here. It is palpable. Even before the bales of soil go out in the feed stores' parking lots, plans are bring made for seed swaps and discussions fill the air over which varieties to plant. Now, more than ever, avoiding seed in your food plot that has been genetically modified is a big topic. GMOs are creeping into our diets more insidiously than a runaway kudzu. It is hard to believe you actually have to seek out seeds that have not been modified to work with "round-up". We prefer to buy our produce from folks who are paying attention to these issues and support their choices. During the winter months we buy much of the produce that goes into the stir-fries from Maranatha Farm. Mary and Skip Badiny are committed to growing organically and we love what they bring us. They also produce much of our summer tomatoes, herbs and fresh veggies.  

We get our mushrooms locally from Willow Mountain Mushrooms—buttons, portabellas, and shitakes and occasionally oyster mushrooms. Our eggs are from an Amish farm in the Seymour area. They are free range, antibiotic-free and very tasty. I often find double yolkers. If you know anyone raising Aracana chickens please tell them I'd like to buy eggs from them. They come in with shells already a lovely greenish blue—almost the color of our walls. I just love peeling them for the spinach salad. We now have staff that are ardent gardeners themselves and the peelings and produce trash that doesn't make it into our weekly veggie broth goes home with them for their compost heaps.

One of our newest additions to the staff is Amy. She comes with an impressive experience history that includes several years of working in a vegetarian restaurant in Lawrence, Kansas. She also spent time in a cafe much like ours where the quality of the food was a high priority and visiting with customers an important part of her job. We are excited to have her as a part of our collaborative team. She brings a fresh level of passion and excitement to the game. We plan on starting to open for Monday lunches around the beginning of March and Meatless Monday lunch specials will be her personal contribution. Watch for it.

More and more we seem to be becoming something of a community hub. We are proud of that and want you to know that if you have a group that likes to meet casually on a weekly or monthly basis, we are happy to host it. We currently often have knitters meeting about 10 am in the annex on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Even though we are not open for business, our tables are available for a quiet meeting space. Did you know we also have free WiFi? Our password is LunchBunch. All one word with the L and the B capitalized. 

If you want get our weekly blog with the upcoming menu specials, be sure to sign up with your email address at the counter. Alternatively, you can find us on Facebook—A La Carte Cafe WP. If you liked our food please tell the world via Facebook or one of the rating sites like Yelp.com. We always are seeking your feedback, good or bad. We listen and try to keep up with your desires and preferences. We know we can't please everyone—but we wish to be more inclusive than not. Our commitment is to producing fresh real food from scratch using as much local sourcing as possible. We let the food speak for itself and thus far have grown almost entirely via word of mouth. Now in our third year, we have an ad in the Buzz to help build the midweek dinner "regulars." Please continue to share us with your family and friends. The comment we most frequently hear from newcomers is "This is here in West Plains? I feel like I'm eating at a place I'd only find in a big city." Thank you. My personal creative mission is to expand your palate by presenting a variety of foods not generally found in the local dining establishments. This might translate to using a wider variety of vegetables in your salads or stir-fries, or acquainting you with the foods from a foreign cuisine. Sometimes we just flat out get experimental. It is all about having fun and really enjoying your meal-time. In this fast-paced world we invite you to take a few moments to breathe, visit with friends and family and enjoy the flavors passing over your tongue. 

Now to this week's lunch and dinner specials~~

~~Lunches~~

Tuesday~ Crab and pimento cheese quesadilla with all the fixings-sr cream, guacamole, salsa, chips $7.99

Wednesday~1905 salad—Adapted from the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, FL—Romaine, Swiss cheese, turkey, tomatoes, Romano cheese, Kalamata olives and the 1905 dressing which has strong lemon and Worchestershire flavorings.**customer favorite heads up!$7.75

Thursday~Valentine's Day~De-constructed chicken pot pie—crepes with creamy chicken filling plus a variety of fresh mixed veggies and a side salad.$7.99

Friday~Swiss Chard, fennel, bacon and muenster cheese quiche with a side salad $7.99  

~~Dinners~~

Flavor journey~~Lemon chicken pasta plus soup or salad. Made with fresh lemon juice,olive oil, capers, fennel sprigs and garlic plus linguine. $12.99 Available all week.

Seafood~~ Available Wednesday through Friday~~ Havana Mahi-mahi $19  Papaya and mango Mojito glaze, Caribbean kimchee, served with a citrus and arugula salad, pencil asparagus, and jasmine rice. You asked for good seafood...

Also available Wed- Fri or until gone—Flown in fresh from the Pacific northwest! Fanny Bay oysters on the half shell. Half dozen $16, dozen $24.

As you can see, we are starting to have some real fun. I love having the additional collaborative energy. I've always wanted to have this be more than the sum of its parts. There is some serious synergy starting to happen. I am really tickled to get to share a bit of our creativity via the Flavor Excursion. Thank you for the amazing level of support you have shared with us. It keeps us motivated and excited about what comes next.

Hope this week is a grand one for you.  Don't forget to take care of your Honey!

~~Susan

Calm before the storm...

Wow! Last week was really something! It started off with Bruce calling in sick for the first time in a year. Then Jon's back went haywire. We had events scheduled all week and in spite of all the craziness, things went well. In fact we had our strongest week ever. Thank you!

We love getting the calls from the doctors' offices requesting we cater their tech meetings. To our delight, several have begun requesting our food, telling us it provides about the healthiest and tastiest options in town. Yeah, us! I really have tried to keep the dining options ones that make you feel good about your meal decisions. Too many times, I, myself have ordered something at a restaurant and thought, oh what have I done? Later, my body is trying to handle the results of too much fried foods. Tasty food is easy to order. We want to make healthy food just as tasty and easy to choose.

Friday night last week was a hoot! Rick Mize and Dustin Collins took us to the Emerald Isle with rollicking Irish folktunes. Thank you for joining us. We had a blast! You'll be seeing more of Rick as he is helping us out in the cafe both at lunch and dinner. His experience should help expedite getting your meals on the table faster and keeping your glasses full.

I continue to be delighted with the fresh fish we have been able to serve Wednesday through Friday evenings. This week we will have FRESH mahi-mahi. Since there are no commercial fish farms raising mahi-mahi we can be sure it is wild-caught. This brilliantly colored fish swims close to the surface eating shrimp and small fish in warm tropical waters. You may have heard it called dolphin or dorado. It is not the porpoise, a mammal we often call dolphin—like Flipper. This light flavored, pink meated fish has some of the sweetest meat in the fish world. We are thinking tropical here in our treatment. Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi is first par-baked then finished with a slathering of coconut milk, melted butter, panko bread crumbs and ground macadamia nuts. We'll pair it with rice that has been cooked with coconut milk to give it a soft finish and our stir-fry made with various Asian vegetables. For a first course you will be given a choice of soup or salad. $14.99 FYI~ we usually only have about 10-12 servings available for the week. If you really want it, I encourage you to call in with a reservation and a request that we hold a serving for you.

I've been all over the map (pardon the pun) with regard to this week's Flavor Journey. I finally decided the Flavor Journey this week takes us to France—specifically the Burgundy region. We'll experience the well-known French dish Beef Burgundy or Boeuf Bourguignon. The meat for this dish is a beef rump roast that is cut into bite size pieces and marinated a long time in a good quality red wine. In this case we are using Traver Home Winery's Chambourcin from just up the road in Willow Springs plus a bit of brandy. It may remind you of a good beef stew but the marinating in wine for many hours gives a distinctive flavor to the beef. Cooked in a braise of carrots, onions, beef broth and herbs for several hours, the result is gentle on the tongue. The dish is finished with butter-sautéed mushrooms. We'll pair it with our red-skinned garlic mashed potatoes. You'll get your choice of soup or salad, as well. $11.99 Are you hungry yet?

Here's this week's lunch menus~~
Tuesday~ 50 cents off the Winter Salad. We're running out of time for this yummy salad that begins with your choice of arugula or spinach, red onion, chunks of tomato, feta cheese, avocado and red grapefruit, pomegranate and almonds and served with our honey mustard dressing. Don't miss it or you'll have to wait until next year.
Wednesday~ Empanadas~ at the request of one of our customers (Phil, this is for you!!) we are bringing this dish back for an encore. We are doing the Argentinian version here by wrapping meats and veggies in a blanket of pie crust and baking it. Served with a side salad $6.75
Thursday~Sweet Italian sausage tamales, marinara and rainbow rice. Bruce's melding of cultures is always a delight and his home made tamales are sure to fill you up. $6.75
Friday~Chicken pot pie. We'll make it all from scratch using fresh veggies and our own pie crust. Served with a side salad. $6.75

Update on the license—step 2 is the paperwork to change the sales tax number to the LLC. That should be done by Wednesday and the final package to the state should go out this week. I have spoken to the person on the state level who will be handling our application. She seemed optimistic that we might have it in the timeframe we're hoping for— St. Patrick's Day. Fingers crossed!

Have you noticed the bright yellow mums on the tables? I love how they brighten the place. Spring is so close I can taste it!

As always—we are here because you are letting us know that what we are doing, while unusual in these parts, is what you are looking for. We thank you for sharing your love and energy with us. Your feedback, input and ideas mean the world to us and we look forward to what you have to tell us. When we get it right, we love to hear about it. When we miss—we need to hear about it, too.

Have a warm early spring week!~~

Susan