I don't know if I would call myself a foodie. I love food, I love to go out to new restaurants and talk about the food, and I know what my pallet likes and doesn't like. But I'll leave the reading of Gourmet, Food and Wine, and others to my husband. He's the cook in the family anyways. I just eat.

That being said, I felt compelled to write about our experience this weekend at Sanford - a Zagat rated, nationally renowned restaurant right in the heart of our own Milwaukee. I feel that some people are intimidated by this small, intimate establishment. Not sure if there is a preconceived assumption that being one of the best restaurants in the area, that it it the most expensive. However, it truly isn't. Don't get me wrong - it could cost you a pretty penny to explore the menu, but all in all it is quite reasonable for the quality of food served. It was our third trip here, and our second time venturing the chef's 7-course tasting menu and wine pairing. My husband and I try to make an effort to frequent Sanford at least once a year, and this was our first experience in the spring. I'll try to describe each course as best I can from memory, but truly, you all need to try Sanford for yourselves. It's a religious food experience not to be missed.

Amuse Bouche: a chilled spoon of smoked salmon, tarragon, and an orange gel (gelee?). A small, bite-sized welcome to the meal. The flavor packed a powerful punch and got our pallets warmed up for what was to come. I'm not a huge smoked salmon fan (maybe the texture) but it was an interesting flavor combination, and truly a pretty presentation.

Course #1: Pepper crusted pork with shallots and pickled cucumbers, topped with a veal reduction. This dish was paired with a lovely, very light and very crisp Reisling from California. I'm more of a red wine drinker, Reislings especially tend to be too sweet for me. But what I learned from this wine was that there's a difference between sweet and sugary, and this was definitely the former. It worked amazing with the natural sweetness from the pork. The pickled cucumbers were really interesting, they added an interesting acidity to the dish while still retaining their cool cucumber flavor. This was a great way to kick off the tasting. We restrained ourselves from licking the plate.

Course #2: Scallop atop a pea mash (with pancetta), topped with a raisin reduction. This course was paired with a Vuvre (sp?), again from California. You've seriously never had a scallop until you've had this scallop. Perfectly carmelized, buttery, melt-in your mouth. The pea mash was amazing - sweet, but salty from the small bits of pancetta. The raisin reduction, I'm thinking had a bit of red wine vinegar too, packed a punch. A little went a long way, but if you delicatly dipped the scallop in it, it was awesome. I love that savory foods can have such distinct sweetness to them. It was almost like a scallop dessert, and very well-balanced with the wine. Each brought out the flavors in the other. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Course #3: Sea bass with a ginger brown butter, asparagus puree and bits of charred asparugus. This was paired with an un-oaked chardonnay. A very simple, but elegant dish. It seems as the courses progressed, the sweetness began to evolve into more savory flavor pairings. The sea bass was beautifully prepared, and the asparagus was both sweet and earthy, the charred bits gave a really nice soft heaviness to each bite. The champion of this course was definitely the ginger brown butter, subtle yet flavorful enough to carry its own weight. The chardonnay complemented the earthiness of the asparugus, but also worked extremely well with the ginger. Again, we had to restrain ourselves from licking our plates clean.

Course #4: Steak with red wine braised celery (I think there was some red wine vinegar in there too, that gave it a little zip), atop a celery root mash. This was paired with a lovely cabernet. The meat was a perfect medium rare, nice and dark pink and juicy. For some reason, celery tends to hit a sour note with my tastebuds, but the red wine braise helped mask the metallic flavor that I tend to taste with celery. This was just a nice, honest dish with great flavors. The cab was a great partner to the steak, also. (*Note, by this time in the meal, we're a bit loosened up from the wine, so my attention span with the whole analysis part of the meal was waning, and I was just enjoying my meal).

Course #5: This was my husband's favorite of the evening...Roasted leg of lamb on top of an israeli couscous with zucchini, drizzled with morroccan bbq sauce. This was paired with what I think was a syrah. I love lamb, and the flavors in this dish were amazing. The couscous was plump and somewhat al dente, they had a nice texture to them, and the lamb itself was heavenly. Medium rare, bright pink, juicy, coriander, cumin...We savored this dish. It was a great finale to the entrees.

Course 6: This was kind of a pre-dessert, pallet cleanser of a great Wisconsin blue cheese, some candied/spiced walnuts, and a poached pear. There was no wine pairing for this course, so we opted for an espresso to give us a little caffeine buzz.

Course 7: Dessert consisted of a curried ice-cream with currants (my husband is positive that they made this with coconut milk), with a praline morangue on top. There was also a small pistachio tart, fresh from the oven - it was buttery, and warm, and decadent. My favorite was the tart, but my husband died over the curry ice-cream. The final wine was a muscat wine - refreshing and sweet. Muscat grapes are a bit deeper in flavor, almost raisin-like to me, so it went really well with the currants in the ice cream. We were also offered an additional taste of a Muskateller - a warmer, carmel colored wine - kind of bourbony and nice. I liked this one a bit more, but both were great with the food.

So, that's the culinary journey that we took this past weekend. Sanford is just a terrific restaurant - the staff is so attentive, the dining room is very cleanly designed, intimate, simple. I highly recommend everyone to go - it is well worth every cent. Cheers Sanford, until the fall!