The Dunaway Restaurant at Strawberry Banke


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A preview of the Chef's 9 course tasting menu. As you can see at the bottom. Foie Gras is $15 extra on top of the $95 tasting menu price. But Ben Hastings was in a good mood, he gave me complementary Foie Gras in the duck course! We'll get to the oysters, but I want to talk about the bread appetizers. There were 3 kinds of bread - fennel seed, garlic bread sticks, and pain de provence (herbed). I loved the attention to detail! The breads look plain on the surface, but the bottom s Menu: Oysters - 3 locally harvested oysters on a half shell with pickled shallots. The oysters were fresh, sitting on top of a bed of rock salt. I usually have these with hot sauce, but there was no need. The pickled shallots were wonderful and provide
Menu: Peekly Toe Crab Salad - Summer melon, rosemary, navel orange, frisee, & cinnamon sherry vinaigrette. Peeky Toe Crabs are awkward looking crustaceans, small in size but with a big claw All the meat is in the claws. I'm getting inspired to reproduc This was the first time I had frisee salad. I'm gonna have to make one! It has sweet peppery flavor, and an awesome texture mixed with the crab meat juliennes. The summer melon / naval orange mixture really tied everything together! Menu: Seared Atlantic Dayboat Scallops - Roasted baby eggplant, elephant garlic, local Swiss chard & Olio Verde extra virgin olive oil. The scallops were cooked well, much better than mine! The sauce was a nice eggplant puree and beautifully presented!
My favorite part of this course were the sweet Swiss Chard, and stunningly good roasted eggplant, and roasted elephant garlic. The texture and flavor were top notch! Menu: Butter Poached Local Lobster - Thumbelina carrots, English peas & Strawberry Banke mint. The butter poached lobster was surprisingly non-oily. The lobster meat, sitting on top of peas and baby carrots, retained the buttery flavor on a subtle level. The Dunaway has their own herb garden, and the mint on top was extremely fresh. I will be making a pea puree in my future dishes I'm just hoping the colors will be as bright as this one! For the courses thus far, I enjoyed a glass of Laurenz Gruner whi
Menu: Roasted Guinea Hen - Black mission figs, golden raisins, pearl onions, couscous. The Mediterranean couscous was fantastic. The Guinea Hen had a fabolous flavor, stronger and more rustic than a chicken. From this course onwards, I was drinking a light, dry Pinot Noir, that goes very well with food. The waitress suggested a full bodied carbenet, but I wasn't interested in a heavy accompaniment. What I had was a MacRostie Pinot Noir. There were three sauc This is a good view of the artistry in the saucing as well as the pearl onion, and Fig topped with shallot slices.
In between courses, I was taking pictures of my surrounding, taking advantage of some natural lighting! I sat at a table with a view into the kitchen, and was able to see Ben Hastings work his magic. I've been loving S. Pellegrino sparkling water since coming to New Hampshire. It's all I buy at the grocery store. I made the mistake of having it with my dinner. Sparkling water is an excellent pallet cleanser.. but it's also very expensive (you'll see
Will waiting for my meal courses, I was also reading a collection of old cook books that were right beside my table! Did they know someone dining alone could get bored? I experimented with depth of field on this shot. I actually found some interesting recipes that I want to try! Like a Summer Canape, or an Italian Canape... I also found a nice recipe for a sauce to accompany fish using green peppers, mayonnaise and chili sauce. Simple! More depth of field experimentation!
Menu: Pan Roasted Hudson Valley Duck Breast - Double smoked bacon, local broccoli, duck confit, & chanterelle mushroom potato broth This was my favorite course of the night! It's actually duck 3 ways.. but if you count the complementary pan seared Foie The brown sauce was the chanterelle mushroom potato broth, the green sauce was a vegetable puree (I think it was broccoli. Lightly butter poached broccoli hid in the back holding it up... and splattered everywhere were potato and bacon bits cooked to perf I absolutely loved the plating of this dish!
The one single favorite moment was biting into the tender braised duck. The best part was the flavorful, crunchy, chewy skin! The restaurant looked like a barn from the inside. It was 2 storey restaurant with a rustic feel. How does the rustic feel of the restaurant look in black & white?
How does the rustic feel of the restaurant look in sepia? Menu: Artisinal Cheese Dancing Ewe Farm Prima Caciotta - Raw sheep milk - Granville, New York. The third last course lightened up a bit with a strong cheese served with Rhubarb toast and a flavored Soda I love the way the lined the utensils! The way I ate this was to cut a bit of cheese to put on top of the toast. I would eat both together, and then swoosh it a taste of soda in my mouth and let them all come together.
A shot of the upper dining area Menu: Plantain Sorbet The plantain sorbet was topped with a piece of caramelized plantain and plated with walnut crumbles. The key is to scoop up some of the crumbles before scooping a bite of the sorbet. The sorbet hadg good flavor but wasn't the best I've had... I don't think dessert was this restaurant's strong point.
More shots of my surrounding area. More shots of my surrounding area. Here's a shot of what the 6 course tasting menu would look like. I appreciated that they had different selections than the 9 course.. guess I'll have to come back again?
If you couldn't see the top of the 6 course menu, here it is larger and clearer If you couldn't see the top of the 9 course menu, here it is larger and clearer I liked this little stain glassed number separating the bar from the dining area.
Menu: Chocolate Cake: Peach sorbet & vanilla peach compote Did I tell you I love how they arranged the dessert utensils? Cute! But I forgot to take a picture of the chocolate cake which had the compote wire meshed at the bottom of the plate. On top sit I loved photographing candle light. the light play certainly changed the way the water looked. I loved photographing candle light. the light play certainly changed the way the water looked.
Here's the bill... I gave a good tip too! I found the waitress very knowledgeable, attentive, but also knew when I didn't want to be bothered. She's been there since Thanksgiving 2006 only.. .not even a year yet. Paying the bill As I walked out, I took a picture of the sign outside.
The Dunaway restaurant was rustic looking inside, and unassuming outside.. a typical New England restaurant! I wanted to take a pic of the restaurant with the sign, it didn't quite turn out. After dinner, I went for a quick walk around the habor and was instantly enticed by siging and loud talking. It was a outdoor play in the park - The Sound Of Music! Awesome! The play started after 8pm. I arrived at the restaurant at 5:45pm. My dinner was
I didn't want to use flash and make myself noticeable... so a lot of these stage pics will be hazy.. but can't you tell this is the scene when Nun Maria was introduced to the Von Trapp kids? There were a lot of people sitting in the park enjoying the musical! It was just a great finish to a great night.. too bad I was by myself.. =(
Doe.. a deer... a female deer.. you know the rest! A pic of Porstmouth, NH at sunset. I was entrapped by the beautiful lighting fo this fountain... alas the pic didn't turn out
Here's the statue with flash photography A closeup of the statue. Using flash in dark environment resulted in what photographers call, a reverse silhouette. There was a garden near by with fountains. I took this pic with flash because (see next pic)
This is what pics look like when you take it without flash. too dark, and not enough light! More garden pics. I call this composition. Little Miss Sunshine. The reverse silhouette effect really brightened up the colors of the sun flowers!
You are my sunshine.. my only sunshine... A white sunflower..... One more shot and I headed back on the road home. On the way, I cut through downtown Portsmouth which had a kick ass night life going on with pubs, cafes.. and a night street market... Portsmouth is an excellent summer vacation spot!
   
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Description: While here in New Hampshire, I decided to continue my quest to eat at restaurants of Iron Chef / Iron Chef challengers. I came across Mary Dumont who battled against Iron Chef Cat Cora. The episode has yet to be aired. Mary Dumont was executive chef at The Dunaway in Portsmouth, NH. But to my dismay, she left The Dunaway in March 2007. However, new executive chef Ben Hastings, more than picked up where Dumont left off. Ben, who was there since the restaurant opened, was also a sous-chef on Dumont's team during her Iron chef battle. Ben also apprenticed with famous chef, Thomas Keller, at the renowned French Laundry. You can clearly see the clean French influence in his plating presentation.
Location: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA

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