If you're looking for fall flavors, the booths in the new Harvest Hollow area will satisfy your craving for warming spices and comfort food classics. Our favorite in this new area is Milled & Mulled, which specializes in autumn-inspired desserts. Bramblewood Bites is serving up the main dishes, though the brussels sprout and root vegetable side dish may be the best of the booth.
👍 Grilled Cider-brined Pork Tenderloin with fennel apple slaw and apple cider gastrique (NEW)
The pork tenderloin is beautifully plated and lives up to it's name – it is very tender and juicy. Often the roasted pork dishes at the festivals are on the tough and dry side, but this was perfectly prepared. While the fennel apple slaw was simple, we thought it added some bright freshness and a welcome crunch. Our favorite element was the apple cider gastrique that brought a welcome sweetness and tied all the flavors together.
👎 Grilled Bison with butternut squash purée, roasted mushrooms, and huckleberry gastrique (NEW)
After the delicious pork, we had high hopes for the bison and it certainly looked delicious. Unfortunately, this one just didn't come together the way we hoped. The biggest problem was the bison itself - it was very tough and sinewy. The mushrooms were very earthy and overpowered the other flavors, including the bison itself. While we really liked the squash puree – it had a delicate truffle flavor and was quite nice on its own – it unfortunately got overpowered by the other flavors, particularly the mushrooms. The huckleberry gastrique added a little tart sweetness, but it didn't elevate the dish. Ideally, a dish like this with contrasting flavors will come together and become better than the sum of its parts. That just didn't happen with this one for us.
👍 Cast Iron-roasted Brussel Sprouts and Root Vegetables with dried cranberries, candied pecans, and maple bourbon glaze (NEW)
This was my favorite item from the booth, though Erick preferred the pork. This dish is bursting with big, bold flavors, primarily the marinade that is described on the menu as a maple bourbon glaze but tasted more like a balsamic glaze that was loaded with fall-forward herbs and spices. There was also some sort of ground meat in the dish that we really enjoyed, but weren;t sure why it wasn't mentioned in the description. In fact, nothing about the dish really matched the description. We didn't taste bourbon, we tasted vinegar. It was called a brussel sprouts dish, but we had one half of a singe brussel sprout in our whole serving. We got this on the first day and part of me wonders if there wasn;t a mix-up somewhere – either on the menu or in the preparation of the dish. That said, I really liked it – it just wasn't really what was described.
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