Whether eating in your kitchen, a friend's dining room, or a hotel room bed, you cannot escape associating your surroundings with what you are eating. Even if you are eating the most wonderful (three days of work) cassoulet that Jacques Pepin has ever made, if you are uncomfortable, such as standing in line at the DMV or filling out tax forms, it will affect your appreciation of this incredibly complex food. On the other hand, pickle loaf on white with colby and Miracle Whip, has never tasted better after a morning of working hard on an endeavor with friends and then finding a big shady sycamore on which to lean back and have lunch. The goal for true enjoyment of food as other than just sustenance, it would seem, is to have a balance of excellence in food and view, comfort and taste.

The give and take necessary to create this balance is a constant battle for the frustrated gourmand, but when it does happen that wonderful food meets a beautiful and relaxed atmosphere, it is a sensory satisfaction that is uniquely subjective to each of us. Why mention all of this? To tell you about eating at the Ginkgo Tree Café; how great the expectations were, and then how it actually managed to supersede them.

The Ginkgo Tree Café is in a small outbuilding, the old smokehouse, of Ashland: the Henry Clay Estate that provides beautiful food to accompany the home's beautiful 20 acres of manicured land. Imagine dining here under the huge trees, in the shadow of the house, and walking among the peony garden, which is in full bloom right now, and lunching there with other women all in white linen, discussing practical and important social issues while sipping iced tea and eating intelligently prepared sandwiches.

But, fairly certain that this romanticized idea is not going to happen, this vision should not preclude you from enjoying the food and the grounds. One would think that eating there was something that needed to be planned, but last week, an extemporaneous drive to the estate for a meal found that many other people had the same idea for a calming lunch hour.

I met John Martin, owner of the Ginkgo Tree Café, on the brick patio that surrounds the old smokehouse and holds several black iron tables with umbrellas and small vases of fragrant cream roses. He told that the café was so named because the Ambassador of China had given Henry Clay eight ginkgo tree seedlings and one of those originals is still standing not far from where we decided to sit that day. Mr. Martin is a very genteel man and suited to his backdrop, who made sure that I was immediately comfortable at my table.

Seven days a week, 11 o'clock until 4 o'clock, April 1st until October 31st, weather permitting, box lunches are served to those touring the historic house and locals who know about this secret treasure. All of the food served at the café is prepared at the Greentree Tea Room on Short Street, of which Mr. Martin is a partner. The daily box lunch consists of a sandwich, soup or salad, and dessert and although the menu changes, there are some consistencies when people declare their favorites. All of the sandwiches are served on wheatberry bread, but if that is problem, please call in advance and they will be happy to arrange a substitute.

Fortunately for us, Mr. Martin is a vegetarian, so there is always a good selection of delicious and interesting vegetable sandwiches to choose from including pimento cheese with a touch of brown sugar and garlic, artichoke and swiss, fresh spinach spread with green onions and water chestnuts, egg salad with curry and a cream cheese base, and a layered sandwich of black olives, sun dried tomatoes, cucumbers, hearts of palm, roasted red pepper and pesto mayo. There are also sandwiches of chicken salad made with toasted almonds and dill, shrimp salad, and a turkey club and box lunches are available for offices by calling ahead.

The soups and salads that accompany the sandwiches are delicious and not typical. Roasted red pepper soup and seafood bisque with shrimp, crab, and lobster were being served the day of my lunch, as was tomato aspic with bleu cheese, new potato salad, cucumber mousse, and sweet Vidalia onions with baby lima bean salad.

The desserts are also ever-changing, so on this day, I enjoyed a slice of caramel cake. It is an incredibly moist layered cake with rich caramel icing that really just melts in your mouth and was the perfect end to my meal.

So, here we have the happy balance: Ashland is a beautiful, historic home to tour, its grounds create a lush oasis within our city in which to walk and take deep, long breaths of air, and the Ginkgo Tree Café gives us the opportunity to sit awhile and take it all in while tasting interesting regional fare.

Please email your culinary heads-ups to Karen at kworkman@aceweekly.com.