Amazing food on the Westside with global flavor. We had our engagement party here and served mac and cheese, kobe beef sliders and hors d'oerves and cocktails. Then stayed after to have dinner in a private room.
Thai-style fried whole snapper with fish sauce
Indian-flavored cumin chicken with lentils and greens
Green musssels in yellow curry sauce
mini ice-cream sandwiches
Outstanding in the Field is an organization that encourages diners to eat farm fresh food. And by fresh, I mean straight from the soil, through the rinse, and onto your plate. It's a movement to make people aware of a fresh organic more sustainable way to shop for foods and feed your body. They travel the country in a big red bus and organize dinners at farms. They match local chefs with local farms and local produce. They set up one big long table for diners and prepare the meal on the farm. It's a unique special romantic experience. If only we could all live this way.
The menu for the evening:
Cocktail Appetizer:
goat cheese crudite with squash blossom relish
First Course:
Farm Fresh roasted carrot and squash salad
Second Course:
Haricot Vert soup
Third Course:
Fresh Caught Ventura Harbor Snapper with farm fresh beats
Fourth Course:
Grilled Pork Belly with farm fresh turnips
Fifth Course:
Lavender infused pound cake with farm fresh strawberries
From their website:
Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure - literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999 we have set the long table at farms or gardens, on mountain tops or in sea caves, on islands or at ranches. Occasionally the table is set indoors: a beautiful refurbished barn, a cool greenhouse or a stately museum. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table.
Ingredients for the meal are almost all local (sometimes sourced within inches of your seat at the table!) and generally prepared by a celebrated chef of the region. After a tour of the site, we all settle in: farmers, producers, culinary artisans, and diners sharing the long table.
A week into our vacation in Costa Rica, we had been accustomed to the routine of local tica plates for lunch which consisted of rice and beans, plaintains, and some stewed mystery meat. The Ticas know how to do their rice and beans, but even so, a tica plate everyday does begin to make the palate wander. Then came a ray of sunshine found in Monteverde, a place that's known for cloud cover. Chimera restaurant is located in the town of Santa Elena on the road leading to the Cloud Forest Reserve. It serves tapas style food using local farmed ingredients. Behold our delicious samplings: stewed white beans with bacon, coconut tamarind shrimp, coconut rice, hearts of palm salad, a hearty tortilla soup, local spice onion rings and for desert local-spiced apple cakes. The flavors and quality of execution far exceeded the local standard and elevated local food to a higher level. HIGH RECOMMENDATIONS for Chimera.
