On Saturday night I had the privilege of working at a new station, on the opposite end of the line from where I usually work. This meant that I got to learn three new dishes. The first was the shrimp box, which is one of the few dishes that remains from our old menu. Served in a Chinese food-style box, the dish starts with honey mustard, followed by stir-fried shrimp with Thai basil and scallions, followed by a salad of Napa cabbage, red peppers, broccoli, radish, Daikon radish, and carrot, which is then topped with an asian barbecue style braised beef- after working with it on my station I think it is one of my favorite things in the entire restaurant- and the box is finished off with organic brown rice.

The second main course on the station was our vegetarian option- a deep-fried sweet potato croquette. The croquette is served on a base of red chili gravy, and is topped with creamed corn and a salad of fresh pea greens, pickled peppers (which we pickle ourselves), cherry tomatoes, shaved red onion, and lemon vinaigrette.

The starter on the corner station is our clam dish. Steamed clams are served in a bowl of broth with lima beans, smoked tomato, blanched onions, and lemon balm.

Aside from learning the new dishes on the station, working in the corner allowed me to work next to the sauté station, which I am usually far removed from. Ryan, one of our cooks who is usually on the corner station, was working sauté on Saturday. Even though that was a new station for him, it made it easier for me to learn my station since he knows it better than anyone and was readily available to help me learn the dishes. He was in charge of the chowder, the mushroom starter, and the salmon main course. The chowder is a butternut squash and corn chowder topped with squash, potatoes, corn, and onion all smothered in homemade ancho butter.

The mushroom starter is one that I found especially enticing, which is odd because I am not usually a fan of mushrooms. The dish includes a variety of mushrooms, spaghetti squash, stracciatella cheese, and a poached egg. I think that anyone who has ever poached an egg can appreciate the concentration and patience it takes to run that station, as it can be incredibly difficult to get an egg perfectly poached and on the plate in the midst of many other tasks.

Although the experience was slightly chaotic, it was nice to learn what goes on on the other half of the line, and I gained a new respect for my co-workers after seeing what they do on the other stations.

I will have more menu updates as the week continues, and we got a few lambs in this week, so expect to see at least one lamb dish on the menu. We are also continuing to play with the dessert menu- we are no longer making the sweet potato pound cake, but we do have a flour-less chocolate cake (served with raspberry sauce, fresh raspberries, and whipped cream), and the crisp has changed to a pear-cranberry crisp. I will continue to update as we come up with new dishes.