For a nice little seaside lunch, we headed to Moonshadows in Malibu. I couldn’t stop myself from humming Cat Stevens as I pulled my car up next to the Pacific Coast Highway and headed in for my meal. Although the outdoor seating area was full, we found ourselves a nice little ocean view window with a door open nearby so we could get a little taste of the ocean breeze. I took a look at my menu and immediately knew what I had to order.
This would be the Niman Ranch Wild Boar and Cranberry Sausage with Stone Ground Grits. As if that wasn’t enough, it also came with Fuji Apple raisin gravy and fried hickory smoked bacon chips. I was deeply intrigued by wild boar being from a ranch. In my mind, that would make it a domestic boar and no longer wild, but maybe I just don’t know the first thing about farming swine.
I enjoyed my company and view as I waited for my boar, and when it came, it looked beautiful, except for the couple of pieces of green on top of it. I flicked these off and stared at my manly meal. There were two full sausages and plenty of grits to keep me happy. My recent grits experience had left me disappointed, so I hoped these would be better. I dug into this boarish concoction and was quite pleased. The boar was decent on its own, but tasted great with that gravy and those grits. The grits were nice and creamy and blended well with the gravy. The bacon was also a nice touch. It was perfectly crispy and there wasn’t too much of it to overwhelm the taste of the wild boar.
I was pleasantly surprised by my Moonshadows experience. A lot of the time, restaurants with great views can get away with having subpar food, but Moonshadows definitely delivered.
