Valentine's Day, Take 2

After coming down with a truly nasty cold on Valentine's Day, we had to postpone our celebrations until after Leslie got back from her trip to Nashville and Los Angeles. Last night was the second take -- dinner at Palena in Cleveland Park. Dinner was wonderful, I must say. The menu is short, but packed with so many intriguing dishes, it's hard to decide what to get. Leslie started with a sweet and spicy Japanese ceviche (snapper, I think). I had the salt cod on an italian braise -- both dishes were excellent starts to the evening.

I followed that with parsley ravioli that started strong on the parsley and then melded into lovely heat. The ravioli are accompanied by mushrooms and frogs legs (that I forgot were in the dish until the main course came, when I said to myself "oh yeah, those were frogs legs in my pasta"). Leslie had the saddle of rabbit and enjoyed it. My main course was pork done three ways, including a cube of smoked pork belly (basically a very fine bacon) and loin cooked to perfection (slightly pink still). Leslie had monkfish. We finished off with wonderful desserts -- I had the chocolate almond cake with chocolate sorbet (naturally), and Leslie had the cannoli (also a natural choice for her. The cannoli looked more like a fried wonton and open-faced, instead of the traditional tube. Both our plates were clean in seconds (maybe a minute or two).

The wine was a difficult one. We looked at some pinot noirs and I thought maybe a St. Emilion (though from 2004) might go well. The wine steward recommended a barbaresco from 2001, noting that its floral and lavender notes would go well. My first impression was twizzler -- a faint candy cherry smell. The wine was good, but didn't really pair well with any of the dishes all that well. Ah well, you experiment and sometimes it doesn't pan out perfectly.

All in all, it was a wonderful dining experience. I would go back -- perhaps to try the cafe in front, but wouldn't turn up a chance to eat in the formal dining room again.