It seems that the older we get, the more we value gifts of experience over material things. We celebrate milestones more and more now by sharing together an experience that we can fondly remember years on down as the "thing" we did for such occasion. To celebrate our 9-year wedding anniversary, we splurged and gifted ourselves the epic 9-course culinary journey at The Herbfarm in Woodinville. Friends and family who know us well know our great love for food, so this should not come as a surprise.

The Herbfarm is a complete experience. It's not only about the food served on our plates, but it's also about this institution's history. It's about how the menu changes weekly, seasonally themed using only the freshest ingredients from local sources. Each dish also highlights the flavors from herbs harvested at the last minute from the kitchen gardens just across the street from the restaurant.The Herbfarm experience is also about the  local wines thoughtfully paired with the food. It's about the staff, from the reception lady to remarkably talented executive chef, whom they take the time to introduce at the beginning of the meal. And last but not least, it's about the little details and overall aesthetic of the whole place that conjures up childlike  anticipation while at the same time cultivating a sense of comfort and romance.

The Food: 9 Songs of Summer

Every week the menu changes, which is thematically presented. This also gives them the flexibility to use ingredients that are currently in season. The theme for our menu was 9 Songs of Summer, featuring the flavors of summer in the Northwest. 

Washington line-caught Albacore tuna grilled on coals with purslane-kelp sauce, intertidal sea beans, and radish. Smoke-kissed fresh fish could not get any better than this. This was paired with a 2011 Argyle Brut Rose from the Knudsen Vineyard in Oregon's Willamette Valley. ❤️

Fried Green Tomatoes, a medley of Herbfarm's own heirloom tomatoes, blackberries, with green coriander aioli & Oregon olive oil. This was paired with a 2014 Efeste "Feral" Sauvignon Blanc, which was surprisingly bolder than your typical sauv blanc. To our surprise, it was the fried green tomatoes that carried more of the acidic tones instead of the wine. And yes, those flowers are also edible.

Clayoquot Sound gooseneck barnacles & squid ink pasta in sweet corn and lemon thyme sauce. This dish is all about the rich buttery sauce and the slight sweetness of the corn. Paired with a 2013 Ashan Chardonnay Conner-Lee Vineyard right in Woodinville. This was Stuart's least favorite in terms of food-to-wine pairs of the evening.

Herbfarm's "Pellegrini" beans, roasted peppers, roja garlic chips, white currants, house-cured ham & thyme sauce. We agreed that this was our least favorite dish. Dafny is not too keen with beans, and the white currants were too sour and distracting. However, the 2010 Benson Sangiovese from the Estate Vineyard in Lake Chelan this dish was paired with was excellent.

Dry-aged grass-fed ribeye steak served with grilled beef fat marmalade on top of new-crop Walla Walla onions with some dill. At first, we were a little put-off by how lean the ribeye looked, but when you take a bite of the meat with some of that beef fat marmalade, the flavors melded even creating new taste perspectives. Before anyone mocks red blends, we have to declare that the 2012 "D2" Bordeaux Blend from DeLille Cellars was an impeccable match for this course.

The next three courses are all desserts. 

Strudel of Patricia Morford's River's Edge  goat cheese drizzled with Sorrel honey and flowers that were surprisingly citrusy. Gooey, flakey, slightly sweet, and deliciously cheesy.

Peach & anise hyssop liaison served with beeswax ice cream. We asked the server what beeswax ice cream entailed. She said that the beeswax was steeped in the cream and spiciness from the beeswax is then infused. It was sooo yummy!

Graham cake topped with a terrine of Lemon Verbena frozen yogurt, with wild huckleberry compote, and (a glob) of toasted meringue. This was our favorite of the three dessert courses. It was amazing how the frozen yogurt looked like frosting and maintained its structure instead of melting all over the cake. The last wine pair came with this course -- a Thurston-Wolfe 8-year cask-aged tawny port. Dafny enjoyed it throughly, but Stuart was never a fan of ports to begin with.

Saskatoon berry biscotti, black currant rosemary chocolate, red currant sweet woodruff pavlova, and malted barley drinking chocolate. We reached our reasonable limit back with the peaches, but we kept going. The piece of chocolate was the highlight from this dish, while the sipping chocolate was more savory than sweet.

Romance in the Details

Dafny will post the rest of the detail pictures on Facebook, but here's a few of our favorite touches. 

While there were some things that didn't jive with our personal tastes, we still insist that from start to finish, this culinary journey that The Herbfarm took us on was extraordinary. Overly indulgent? Perhaps. But how many times will we really get an opportunity to celebrate our 9-year wedding anniversary with the same number of courses served? Did we really have to? No. But it sure makes for a great story and memory.

The HerbFarm @ 14590 N.E. 145th Street, Woodinville, WA 98072 U.S.A.