For the freshest flavors of the spring season, head to Lotus Farm to Table on State Street in Media, where Chef Ryan Sulikowski continues to amaze with gorgeous plates that would be too pretty to eat if they weren’t so utterly delicious.
The new menu, launched nearly two weeks ago, features everything we love most about spring: ramps (grown and picked by Lotus owner Courtney Rozsas), fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, rhubarb, beets and pea tendrils, to name but a few of the seasonal ingredients lovingly and purposeful sourced for each beautiful dish.
Chef Sulikowski, a fan of small plates, draws inspiration for his works of art from other chefs, social media and the food itself. First, he determines which ingredients he’d like to use; then, he decides what to do with them. His mantra: “Treat all food with respect.”
Among the “Small and Lite” dishes you’ll find on the new spring menu are chilled potato & leek soup accented with charred baby leek, pickled fiddlehead ferns, pickled ramps and bacon; white asparagus with truffle oil, hazelnut, chimichurri, boiled egg and olive; and sambal compressed rhubarb with red beets, broccoli, artichoke and maple ginger. For the latter dish, Chef Sulikowski compresses just-cooked rhubarb in a cryovac with the sambal spices before plating it with the other vegetables, which are prepared in their own juices (a painstaking process) to bring out their best, brightest flavors.
Other small plates include chilled Thai BBQ shrimp with red cabbage; heirloom carrots with red miso, brown sugar, turmeric and meringue; and shaved kale, cilantro, pickled sunchoke, breadcrumb and dehydrated ramps.
From the “Main” menu, the chicken breast, paired with olive & fennel roasted asparagus and parmesan chip, is graced with a crispy skin and tender interior. As with other dishes on the spring menu, the crunch is key. Vegetables are just barely cooked to showcase fresh flavors, and the parmesan chip (so simple!) is a worthy accompaniment.
Main dishes for spring also include a New York strip steak with smashed fingerling potatoes, parmesan, chimichurri and broccoli rabe; rainbow trout with charred baby bok choy, cauliflower and radish; clams and wild mussels with roasted garlic, ramps, jalapeno and baguette; lamb osso bucco with whipped parsnip and parsley root, arugula pesto and dehydrated onion; and more.
The scallops, however, were the star of our meal, perfectly cooked and perched on a pool of dreamy risotto made creamy with a hefty dose of chevre, crunchy with hazelnuts and sweet with the addition of pea tendrils. Chef Sulikowski’s thoughtful treatment of ingredients is on full display in this satisfying dish, which straddles the still-lingering need for winter comfort foods with the anticipation of summer.
Do not miss dessert. (The restaurant, after all, was the 2015 Best of Main Line Today winner for Chef-Driven Desserts.) We recommend chocolate for two: flourless chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate sorbet and ice cream, macaron and dehydrated chocolate. Other choices when we visited were chevre cake with vanilla crema, orange sherbet, burnt marshmallow and blood orange curd as well as spumoni roll with cocoa sorbet, pistachio nougatine, tuille and sour cherry.
In addition to its spring menu, Lotus Farm to Table is looking forward to a May pairing dinner with Media’s Sterling Pig Brewery featuring three courses paired with three brews (more on that later!), and Dining Under the Stars, which returns to State Street on May 4.
Visit Lotus Farm to Table at 112 W. State Street in Media; phone: (610) 565-5554.
