Big River Keep on Rolling

Another delightful meal at Burdick's Cafe, this one to remember our wedding, nineteen years ago in Rockingham, Vermont, a short way from the Connecticut River. It was a perfect day, just like today.

Pomegranate cocktail

• vodka, pomegranate juice, Cointreau, lime juice

Salade lyonnais

• frisee, warm lightly poached egg, warm bacon dressing, croutons

Braised rabbit

• cooked in riesling with fennel and mirepoix
• kale braised with bacon
• fingerling potatoes

Beaujolais

• served in a proper glass at a proper temperature
  

Eierlikeur taart

• layers of pleasure on a fork
• base of thin flaky pastry glazed with dark chocolate
• toasted hazelnut cake
• raspberry coulis
• vanilla-bean whipped cream
• egg liqueur

Without realizing it when I ordered it, my meal had a theme: Big Rivers.

First, the Lower Rhine. That is, the river valley just as it begins to broaden into its distributaries and forms one of Europe's largest river deltas. Rabbit, riesling, potatoes, eggs, chocolate, hazelnuts, raspberries, kale, frisee, cream, and bacon are common in this region, the borderlands of Germany's Ruhr and the Netherlands' Gelderland.

Farther afield, I'd like to thank the ancient peoples of the Baltic region between the Vistula and Daugava rivers for vodka, the Atrak river valley's pomegranate cultivators, and Burgundy's wine and salad progenitors. This meal, consistent with previous meals at Burdick's, was a delight to the eye, the palate, and the intellect.

Our server Juliette, a friend of many years, was affectionate, attentive, and accommodating.

The pleasures of John Calvi's company can't be beat. We talked about the past, the present, and the future, a river on its way. Love is inexhaustable, inevitable, ever changing and unchanging. How much different I was 19 years ago. As different as the Connecticut River in Canada is from the same river known at Old Saybrook.