Lamb Jam: not a baaaad way to spend a Sunday

When I first came to the US, I was surprised to find that lamb was not a popular meat. It was rarely on menus, and hardly ever available in grocery stores. (My go-to celebration dish became lamb navarin, for which I'd make a special trip to WholeFoods, one of the few places that carried the meat in different cuts back then.)

These days, lamb is getting special attention. It even gets its own parties.

Today we went to the Charles Hotel in Cambridge for Lamb Jam, am American Lamb-hosted celebration of all things sheeptastic that featured chefs from 17 area restaurants presenting baaa-centric dishes.

So we tried lamb loin roulade with smoked lamb shoulder from Lumiere's Michael Leviton:



A lovely spoonful of lamb leg with a touch of ricotta, topped with miner's lettuce, from Joseph Margate at Clink:



Roast lamb with a sweet, delicate curry sauce and flowers (and a shard of caramelized sugar, which was a genius touch) from Clio's Thomas Rice:



Roast lamb with tomatoes and spiced yogurt, from Camillo Diaz at Casablanca (the meat here was closest to my childhood ideal of roast lamb — my lamb-madeleine, if you will):



A lamb canelloni with lamb ragu from Robert Sisca at Bistro du Midi (this was The Boy's favorite):



A braised lamb shoulder on a bed of creamy Ansons Mills farro, the whole thing given complex depth with Kalamata olives and garlic, courtesy of Chris Parsons of Parsons Table in Winchester (this was my favorite):



Roast lamb served with a light, fresh tart of leeks, feta and peas (and more lamb) from Sel de la Terre's Ben Knack:



A fabulous crispy lamb fritter accompanied by picked radishes I could have eaten by the handful, from 606 Congress's Greg Griffie:



A completely obscene slider of lamb confit topped with triple creme Brie on a brioche bun (send cardiologists' invoices to Toby Hill of Pain D'Avignon):



And, from Peter Davis at Henrietta's, BBQ lamb shank braised in beer with local beans:



There were more, of course, but even we couldn't do all of them.

We also got to sample beers from local breweries (Watch City, Berkshire Brewing, Cape Ann, Mayflower). And we met some fun and cool people, including the lovely Sarah of Pink Shoe Diaries and (with Adam) Brew England and their damn-cute friends Andy and Peter.



And then we loaded up on lamb swag (lamb tote! Lamb tattoos! Lamb jerky! Lamb lip balm! Yes! SPF 15!) and trotted home, feeling just a little woolly.