WHY:
Eating at this restaurant (while really good) is a bit dicey for a vegetarian. Their non-meat options are a seasonal gnocchi dish or a pasta special. I ultimately decided on the latter. So, this drastically narrowed my options from the get go. However, this is the second time I've eaten here, so I knew what I was in for.
I decided to get the pasta special over the gnocchi based on the seasonal ingredients of each. The gnocchi dish was in a sage cream sauce with butternut squash and brussels sprouts. Basically, it screamed WINTER to me, while the other dish contained more 'spring' vegetables. I don't think I can handle eating another heavy, root vegetable laden dish until next October. This actually makes sense, as it's March now, and brussels sprouts / gourds are no longer in season. Continuing, it wasn't just that I wasn't in the mood for it, but I figured that these wintery vegetables also wouldn't taste as good, because their shining moment has passed for the year.
The price - didn't come into play very much in this food decision. I didn't have much to decide over, and both dishes that I was thinking about were also the two cheapest dishes on the menu. Score for the vegetarians! However, later I did get to thinking over the price of this dish, and restaurant mark-ups. All of the vegetables in my dinner are currently in season, meaning they are also the cheapest on the market right now. Pasta isn't expensive. When paying for this meal, I wasn't paying for the ingredients, but rather the restaurant overhead. I was paying for the the rent and the labor that goes into making Northeast Social stay afloat. I'm alright with this fact though, because it simply is how restaurants stay in business. And I'd much rather be giving my money to a local neighborhood restaurant than any chain restaurant found around town.
Thanks for posting about eating food that is in season Grace! I think about eating food that happens to be in season, but I don't actually know what food is in season at what time in the midwest. I found this website which, if accurate, could be helpful-http://localfoods.about.com/od/searchbyregion/a/minnesotaseasons.htm. I am going to try looking for it, which I guess coincides with my endeavors to eat local food.
ReplyDeleteI also find I avoid ordering pasta when I go out to restaurants because I eat it all the time at home because of how cheap it is, and feel ripped-off when I pay $15.95 (like we did today at Olive Garden) for it.
It occurs to me that I would not have known a haricot vert if it bit me on the butt when I was in college. Words seem to have evolved--and with them, distinction among foods.
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