To one used to soy sauce in neat little bottles, the bubbling goo looked far from appetising, but doing things the neat, convenient way is not what Brown's Field farm – and its latest addition, an inn called Jiji's – is about.
A beautifully cooked filet mignon with a Barolo peppercorn sauce was set on a neat bed of spinach and roasted corn.
Meatless lasagna, with marinara, ricotta and mozzarella, with Ms. Tangorra's fresh pasta, was delicious, though there was a little too much sauce and cheese to cut neat portions.
The tapas include little scallops, cooked quickly and served on the half shell with roe intact; boquerones, or marinated anchovies; Spanish sausage, sliced into neat rounds; shrimp in garlic sauce; a tortilla filled with an omelet and onions and potatoes.
But it's hard to appreciate that neat bit of work with sweet barbecue sauce, raw and pickled cabbage, mayonnaise, pickled shallot, sriracha, shoestring potatoes and spreadable egg yolk fighting it out on the plate.
And this strascinati was tossed with bread crumbs, fresh parsley, tomato sauce and glistened with olive oil — served in a neat dome with the crushed dried peppers on top.
Tops is the clam roll, a neat little bun dressed in a caper tartar sauce and iceberg lettuce, then loaded with just-fried clams ($11).
Cod cakes, however, were a pleasant revelation: tender, egg-shaped puffs, delicately fried and served neat, needing not one drop of goopy dipping sauce.
The shelves are stacked with fine olive oils, vinegars of high provenance, nam pla and soya sauces, tins of this and that, bottles and boxes in neat array.
Usually, it gets an elegant touch, shaped into neat little cylinders or served in a precious spoonful as a jelled sauce.
