Porcini and chanterelle mushroom strudel with apple-glazed Berkshire pork belly and armagnanc beurre fondue. (Michelle Lara/The Palm Beach Post)

FALLING FOR SEASONAL MENUS

Absent the turn of leaves and chilly fall weather, our autumn is more notably marked in local menus and in the earthy dishes they offer this time of the year.

And I’ll take it.

Give me creamy pumpkin dishes, hearty meats and hints of holiday baking spices and I’m happy to ignore the humidity – and the fact that the air conditioner is still on at home. Particularly when the seasonal menu comes with a splendid view, as it does at Top of the Point in downtown West Palm Beach, or with eclectic culinary touches, as it does at Pangea in Wellington.

I visited both places last week and sampled the new seasonal items, which evoked a delicious, yet ever-so-fleeting taste of autumn.

Top of the Point

Perhaps the most decadently earthy offering on Top of the Point’s Harvest Menu is its braised beef short rib pot pie, a grand oval of a beef, root vegetable and mushroom stew beneath a crispy puff pastry. A fragrant steam from the hearty ragout rises when your fork just pierces the pastry, foretelling of hearty flavors that are deepened by that buttery crust. Oh, I could go on.

You can enjoy this pot pie – or a plump, cedar-planted salmon fillet, butternut squash tortellini or an elk striploin in aged balsamic jus – if you make it to Top of the Point by Saturday night. Next week, a new menu of fall dishes arrives and will be available until Nov. 23.

The Harvest Menu three-course prix fixe option costs $49.95 per person (excluding tax and tip). The Point’s recent rotation of seasonal menus is the work of chef Brian Schuyler and Bill Lalor, the director of restaurant development for The Breakers, which owns the restaurant.

Top of the Point, at the Phillips Point Club, serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday at 777 S. Flagler Drive, Suite 1209-E, West Palm Beach. Info: Directions, make reservations, invite friends, more.

Pangea

Chef Ryan Vargas, Pangea’s culinary mind, makes a mean pumpkin bisque. Of course, when imagined through the prism of his Hawaiian-meets-world influences, the bisque takes on more flavorful dimensions. It becomes a creamy, coconut-laced soup thick with won-ton tortellini and spiced mascarpone cream.

The soup, along with other new items, earned a spot on the Wellington bistro’s updated menu. Among the stellar dishes: a salmon charmoula with a Moroccan-spiced quinoa vegetable tagine and the Kona coffee-macadamia nut lamb chops with coconut-sweet potato puree.

Pangea is at 10140 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 170 (just west of SR 7, by the LA Fitness plaza) in Wellington. (561) 793-9394.