On the side
FARM & TABLE ★★★1/2
8917 Fourth NW, 503-7124, farmandtablenm.com
Fields stretch out from the patio toward the west at Farm & Table, where the sinking sun silhouettes greenhouses and a geodesic dome. The restaurant’s design reflects its rustic setting, with thick wooden posts and corbels looming over painted wooden tables and chairs draped with Navajo rugs.
The menu is succinct, with the list of small plates and entrees fitting on one side of a piece of paper.
The small plates include a rotating selection of soups; on this night, it was corn soup ($7) with pumpkin seeds and goat cheese. The lumpy cheese melted into the butterscotch-colored soup, creating a silky textured balance of tangy and sweet that was a superlative start to the meal.
A starter of arugula salad ($12) was equally proficient, the namesake greens spiked with unique flourishes such as fat pitted cherries that had almost all the sweetness pickled out of them. All the ingredients, including corn, radicchio, candied pecans and goat cheese in a creamy lime dressing, were exquisitely balanced, provided you exercise caution with the blazing-hot jalapeños.
The least expensive among the six entrées on the current menu is an apricotglazed pork belly ($21) over barley, mushrooms and almonds. The glaze brought tartness to the rich, succulent meat, and the mustard jus underneath it all was like the sweet and spicy liquid essence of the mustard seed.
A beautifully presented fillet of steelhead trout ($25) with grilled asparagus and quinoa is a more season appropriate choice. The trout has the pink-orange color and meaty, flaky texture of salmon, but with a milder flavor. Tomato jam, a spread of pureed green chile and half a grilled preserved lemon bring bright colors to the plate and, more important, an acerbic charge.