Friday, June 27, 2014

It's Sprig and Vine Season for the Beans

When the weather warms, that means it's time for us to visit our favorite place for outdoor dining: Sprig and Vine.

 

We always order the same lunch, so why don't we just get that deliciousness out of the way.


Two Vietnamese cauliflower banh mis: pickled carrot and jalapeno, shredded lettuce, cilantro and mint, lemongrass aioli.  Best sammie in PA!


And kennebec potato wedges: grain mustard aioli to share.  As good as always.  Ok, maybe better.


What makes up the element of surprise is our appetizers and sides, which vary by season.  On this day, we chose a side of red chili coconut broccoli rabe: with roasted peanuts as an appetizer. As broccoli rabe tends to be, it was a little unwieldy; not exactly date food.  But, although we have very different spice tolerances, we both really enjoyed the sweet/spicy balance of this dish.  My only complaint is that it was served at room temperature when I expected it to be hot.


We also ordered the seared potato pave appetizer with pickled asparagus, grilled ramp, cashew, saffron aioli.  The waitress recommended it, but had a hard time explaining it; we immediately saw why: there was just too much deliciousness on one plate to put into words.


Ramps don't really do it for me, but the aioli (they're heavy on aioli at S&V) and the pickled asparagus were perfect taste and texture complements to the gorgeous brick of uniformly-sliced potato that was crisp on the outside and almost creamy on the inside.  It was as yummy as it was beautifully presented.


With no arugula in sight, 89 was extremely bored.


Luckily we were spied by some old friends and that perked her right up!


The very many benefits of dining al fresco.  Thanks for a wonderful afternoon, Sprig & Vine!

12 comments:

  1. I wish I had the recipe for the cauliflower in your sandwich. It sound so delicious. And the potato! I can't even recognize it as a potato, nor can I wrap my mind around your description of the taste and texture. I guess that one of these days I'll just have to go to Sprig and Vine and try it for myself.

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    1. Andrea, as soon as the Ethiopian cookbook is released, the recipe I adapted my cauliflower from will be available to all!

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  2. That Potato is too gorgeous to eat. Is it carved from a big Russet Potato? What a thing of wonder.

    Love 89's little barrette.

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    1. I was thinking possibly a Yukon Gold? It's mine from when I was a kid!

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  3. 89 is so adorable, so I'll get THAT out of the way first.
    The potato thing sounds good, I guess, but it just looks too unorganic for me for some reason! It looks like space food or something. The potato WEDGES on the other hand, yes please.

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    1. Oh, those potato wedges. It makes you wonder why you'd ever even glance at a fry.

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  4. Where is dessert? What happened?

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  5. Abby! I just finished browsing your Vegan London recap, and it was so helpful! I've been looking through a few sites (including VeganLondon.co.uk) and many of the places I was thinking about, you included! I was noticing that a few of the places I want to go to are in the same area (SoHo, Neal's Yard), and I'm not sure how often I can drag my carnivorous brother down there. I know we're going to go to Wagamama's, and a few other joints that are pleasing to both of us. Leaving tomorrow (gulp!).


    By the way, the broccoli rabe looks fantastic - too bad about the temperature. 89!! (I'm going to miss my little love nugget when I'm there!)

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    1. Have a FABULOUS time! We didn't make it to Wagamama's, which we're told was a major fail. Wear big pants and have a blast.

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  6. It took me ages to work out what that pave was actually made of! It really looked like fish! Freaky. Sounds amazing and has asparagus on the side, so I think I'd very much like to stick it all in my face. I wonder why broccoli rabe doesn't exist over here? Double freaky. For what it's worth, Wagamama's fine, but I wouldn't make a special trip there or anything. Reliable and useful if there's nothing more exiting nearby, but no more than that.

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