Late September, when the air is warm but dry, might be the nicest time of year in Connecticut. I began a beautiful weekend day with a kayak trip on the Mill River in New Haven.
Then I went to dinner with friends at the Mayflower Inn in Washington, the quintessential New England experience.
For those who haven’t set foot in this lovely building, let me show a few highlights.
We took a couple of drinks with some finger food
in front of a fire,
before heading into the dining room.
We were started off with a nice selection of breads
as well as butter and olive oil.
We ordered a nice Spanish red wine to accompany our meal.
The soup special was a lovely corn purée with cilantro and chili threads.
Our other starters included a delightful summer melon and Feta cheese salad,
a lovely smoked salmon salad
and a luscious seafood risotto with grilled baby octopus, Maine lobster and garlic chips.
For our entrées, we ordered seared New England diver scallops in a saffron cream with sugar snaps and almond froth,
grilled Colorado lamb loin chops with chick peas, pomegranate seeds, goat cheese and pistachio purée
and grilled bone-in rib-eye steak with ricotta-stuffed squash blossoms, heirloom toybox tomatoes and saba.
Quite stuffed, we nevertheless couldn’t resist finding out what the Mayflower Inn had in mind for dessert. We ordered pan-seared rice pudding with quince ice cream and quince coulis,
an almond financier cake with hazelnut crémeux, cocoa foam and white chocolate ice cream
and pumpkin donuts with apple cider caramel and pumpkin ice cream.
We also ordered assorted fresh baked cookies to go,
right before we were brought these lovely mignardises.
It was a quintessential New England experience all right, but one few, if any, places could duplicate.
The Mayflower Inn & Spa, 118 Woodbury Rd., Washington, 860-868-9466, www.mayflowerinn.com