Beer and Nosh

For most of my life I’ve lived about twenty to thirty minutes from the Atlantic coast line. However, it’s only been for the last few years that I have had a real appreciation for this fact. I mean, just look at a map of the U.S.  There’s a whole lot of rectangular states in the middle. I imagine that there are  folks who live their whole lives having never seen the ocean. Meanwhile, I could have just mosied on over to the beach anytime I felt like it! What was I thinking? Recently, because of our night job we’ve had much more occasion to spend time down by the sea, specifically Plymouth Massachusetts. I’ve really grown to love this town. It’s got it all:

Gorgeous seaside vistas,

Purty

History galore,

The Mayflower ll

Plymouth Rock

Yup, it’s just a rock.

We travelled halfway across the world for this???

Charming architecture,

Historical society = white paint.

And a downtown area that has miraculously escaped the corporate  chain restaurant / mini-mall scourge.

So cute!

Meet me for a cappuccino!

In addition to ocean views and history, you will find a plethora of restaurants and pubs in the area, all clamoring to win over tourists and locals alike. This is a winning situation. Most recently we had the opportunity to enjoy a special event at one of our favorite new eateries, Nosh Tavern. If you are local, you’re welcome, this will be your new favorite place as well. If you are not, well, sorry…but you can enjoy the pictures, right?

This evening Nosh was hosting a beer dinner sponsored by the Mayflower Brewing Company. Each course of the dinner would be paired with one of their superb brews and what’s more, the chefs responsible for each of the offerings were in competition with each other. All the better for us.

Mayflower Brewmasters

Yes, this table of youngsters are the crafters responsible for creating new varieties of Mayflower beer. Feel old.

Menu / Scorecard

On to the first pairings. This course started off the evening on a delectable note.

The Beer: Summer Rye, paired with a savory crepe of marscarpone-cheddar, caramelized apples, pancetta, and bacon fat powder dust.

 And the Second pairing.

The Beer: Autumn Wheat, paired with cold smoked lobster tail, pea shoot avocado salad, Autumn Wheat vinaigrette, and pickled ginger.

These two pairings highlighted my ignorance of what works together. I would have assumed the the lighter Pale Ale would have best paired with the salad, while the Autumn Wheat would work better with the more savory notes of the crepe. Not so, the balance was perfect for each dish.

Course three was my favorite!

The Beer: Pale Ale paired with rabbit terrine, Pale Ale-Espresso glaze and Pale Ale sabayon.

The depth of flavor here was outstanding. This is one of those dishes where each component was so delicious, but when you combined them, it became one most perfect bite. The star on the plate, believe it or not was the pickled carrots. These were pickled using the Pale Ale. I could have just eaten them and been wowed, but they took on a whole different flavor profile when paired with the rabbit. Carrots, who woulda thought?

The last savory course:

The Beer IPA paired with house corned beef, braised red cabbage, russian dressing.

This dish was my least favorite, which is not to say it wasn’t delicious, it just had some components that didn’t work for me. The corned beef was tasty and the braised cabbage, oh my, I could have eaten a cereal bowl full of that stuff! What I didn’t care for was that the portions were served on edible rye “spoons”. While they looked cute, they were not house made, which stood out, considering everything that goes on a plate here is house made as a rule. Besides that, they were dry and not very good. I would have much preferred the beef served atop a nice triangle of homemade caraway rye. I also didn’t dig the consistency of the sauce that was on the plate.  That being said, everyone around us loved it and thought the spoons were a hoot, so what do I know?

A quick visit to the powder room before desert. This painting greets you in the hallway. Analyze away.

Dessert!

The Beer: Porter paired with a biscuit roulade, espresso syrup, coffee, buttercream and chocolate ganache.

My all time favorite beer is a Porter.  I’m one of those people who loves beer that you can’t see through. Porter is great because it has the flavors of a Guinness without being as filling (read: you can drink more).  The dessert was phenomenal as you can well imagine. Aside from Jeff getting cocoa powder all over his shirt from the edge of the plate, it was an absolute success.

While there are dozens of restaurants in the downtown Plymouth area that are well worth spending some time and money at, Nosh has proven to be a gem. In addition to the Beer dinner, we’ve stopped in for a quick cocktail and an appetizer and enjoyed chatting with the staff as well as had full out meals there celebrating special occasions. Every time has been a memorable experience. Cheers to them! We’ll continue to do our part help them succeed. Yum.