A break from berries

June in Ann Arbor doesn't just mean strawberries, not that you'd know it from my recent posts. It also means peonies and restaurant week.

Peonies have been popping up all over my neighborhood, a delight for the senses with their endless fluffy petals and intoxicating floral aroma.  On Friday, though, I took my mild interest in peonies to the next level when I visited the peony garden at the Arb, a 123-acre park filled with thousands of trees.  There are also hundreds of peony beds in its stunning peony garden, which for about one week each year erupts into a deliciously fragrant sea of blossom.

The weather was not ideal: it started raining almost as soon as I arrived, but luckily there were enough pauses between the raindrops to sate even my overenthusiastic interest in these ruffled pink behemoths.

But I know you probably didn't come here for the blossoms - thanks for indulging me (again) as I find myself distracted by a resplendent garden.  Enough with that nonsense; let's get down to business: lunch.

This week was restaurant week in Ann Arbor, when dozens of local restaurants offer prix fixe lunch menus for $12, and dinner menus for $25.  It's a great opportunity to try out a new spot or visit an old favorite.

On Tuesday, I had lunch at Vinology.  I hadn't been there before, and I'll have to go again someday when I don't have to be at work right after my meal and I can actually indulge in a glass or three of something from their extensive wine list.  All was not lost, though - restaurant week was a perfect excuse to meet up with some old friends from high school: Liz, Jen, and Jen's sister, Stefie.

Vinology's restaurant week lunch menu offered a variety of burgers playing on cuisines from around the world: Capri, east Asia, California, Greece, wherever vegetarians live.  After much deliberation, I went for the Peking Duck Burger, which was made with (according to the menu) ground duck breast, cabbage slaw, hoisin glaze, sesame wheat bun, and served with sweet potato fries.

I think the sweet potato fries made my choice for me (I'm a real sucker for a sweet potato), but I'm a big fan of duck, too, so it was a good choice.  The burger was well-seasoned and quite flavorful, though I didn't get much duck flavor from it - more just a generic meat taste.  It was super juicy, though, and paired nicely with the sweet hoisin and acidic cabbage.  That cabbage slaw was fantastic, by the way - crisp and with good earthy cabbage flavor and a tart dressing - delicious on its own or with the burger.  The fries were crisp, soft, sweet, salty, and everything they ought to be.

Stefie also got the duck burger, while Liz chose the caprese and Jen went for the low carb burger-on-a-salad (my name, not Vinology's).  Unfortunately, I didn't end up tasting anyone else's lunch, so we'll just have to imagine how good they were.  (Note to self: always mooch bites of others' lunches; you write a blog, you are therefore totally justified in needing to test everything.)

At the end of the meal, there was a choice of one of two liquid nitrogen milkshakes (I understand the shakes are prepared with liquid nitrogen, though it's not actually an ingredient to be consumed in the final product - sorry for getting your hopes up.)  We all chose the peach and mango, and three of us chose to leave off the whipped cream:

It was cool and creamy and tropical, if not particularly memorable.  What was memorable, though, were all of the stories we reminisced about and the gossip we caught each other up on: who lives and works where, who used to date whom, who is now married to whom...  Sometimes it feels we've come a long way since graduation, and sometimes it feels we never really left.  I'm glad we did leave, though, because in high school there's little chance I would have eaten duck, or even sweet potato, and it would have been my loss.  What can I say, I was young and, clearly, stupid.

So there you have it, a brief break from berries.  But not to worry, I believe in making hay while the sun shines and jam while the strawberries are sitting in my fridge waiting to be used, so we'll be back on my favorite June topic soon enough!