Salve Tiberius Dionysius Draco!
After being granted probationary citizenship (I was hesitant to attend otherwise), I did go!
Here is my summary that I posted to the newroman group:
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The Location: Lohr's Family Restaurant (
http://www.lohrsonline.com/ )
A quaint family restaurant nestled in what I'm assuming was downtown Frederick, Maryland that's run by an *excellent* chef with a solid background. From the way I was coming, I passed through what appeared to be an industrial area before seeing a few houses and then the restaurant. Once inside, you go past the main area with its tables and bar, to a backroom that's decorated in lovely strung-up white lights and larger tables with maroon or dark green table clothes (can't remember). I would say the area was about the size of a townhouse's living room. I found it to be very cozy and relaxing. All the way in the back was a long table, the dinner table, with plates, wine glasses and condiments set up and waiting.
The Cookbook Used: "A Taste of Ancient Rome" by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa
The Food (Apologies if I leave anything out):
Appetizers
The gem of the appetizers was hands down hard boiled eggs with a sauce. The sauce recipe can be found in the book on pages 46-47 (Apicus 328/329). I believe it was the sauce recipe for medium-boiled eggs that lists pine nuts, vinegar, honey, pepper and lovage. At any case, it was to die for. Simply delicious! Other goodies include figs (amazing), green olives, peppers, grapes, nectarines, pears and homemade Italian bread (also really good).
There was a leafy salad, but I couldn't tell you what exactly was in it. It made a nice light snack. For a beverage we were given a mead made locally--that which is closest to mulsum. It tasted almost exactly like a white wine with honey in it.
Main Course
Now for these, I can't find any of the recipes in the book. My apologies. And not being a cook, my descriptions are going to be a little vague.
There was a shrimp dish with large, shelled shrimp in some kind of really good dill sauce with cut up hard boiled eggs. There was a chicken dish that was simply delicious, but I have no idea what the ingredients. It could have been something similar to Chicken a la Fronto (pg 105, Apicus 248) or Chicken a la Elagaballus (pg 106, Apicus 247). Hopefully someone can fill it in. In place of boar, there was a pork dish, I believe basted in its own sauce with salt and pepper and something else in it. For a vegetable there were green beans and I think leeks in some kind of garlic sauce.
Desert
I honestly have no idea what the desert was. It was circular and had I believe a honey over it with pine nuts. It was beige-ish and had a gelatin-like consistency. I want to say it was some kind of egg or lard dish, but I really don't know.
All in all, it was a wonderful dinner. Great service, fun experience. Much more entertaining than eating at your generic restaurant. And again, the food was beautifully cooked--very professional and satisfying. I left the dinner wishing there was a Roman-themed restaurant somewhere. Minus the really obscure and possibly unpalatable (to the modern tongue) dishes, I believe it would do really well, especially if the themed restaurant let people recline or something of the sort.
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Gnaeus Equitius Marinas added concerning the dessert:
It was flan. It's a custard that is usually served with a carmel
sauce, but ours had a honey and pine nut sauce. While I don't know
the exact recipe our chef used, here's a web page with lots of flan
recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Desserts/ ... ewAll.aspx