CrankyCakes

If there’s anything better than living in the food center of the known world, it’s got to be having new food-lovers to introduce.  So I jumped at the chance to give food blogger Jenn Campus and her husband Roberto a foodie tour of the area after their recent move to Vermont.

Deciding where to go was a delightful distraction for a few days.  A walking tour in town was tempting, but I wanted to give them a broader view.  We could have done a strictly grazing tour, eating here and there, but that was going to get too expensive and fattening in a hurry.  And since what’s really awesome about our food world is how close we are to where the food comes from, I went for a mix of farm and store and table.

We met here at Burlington CoHousing (by the way, a dark horse in the Burlington food world called the “best deal in town” in this 2009 Seven Days article.)

From here it was north across town for a stop at Sugarsnap.  Fabulous always, and where else are you going to get take-out food grown right in their own backyard at the gateway to Burlington’s new Food Hub, cooked so creatively, and served to you by a not-quite-able-to-retire Spanish professor?

I had a piece of quiche (huge, delicious, $4.50), Jenn had half a chicken-salad sandwich, and Roberto had a “Dark and Stormy.”  It was a good kick-off.

We drove through the Intervale, waving at Gardener’s, at the amazing piles of compost, at the Intervale Community Farm, Half Pint Farm, Arethusa, and Adam’s.   Next time we’ll park and walk, but we had more stops to get to.

From here it was off to City Market.  I love that we have a locally owned store with such a commitment to selling local products as our downtown market.  While Jenn and I poked around and looked at bulk stuff, and veggies, and cheeses, crankyGreg and Roberto geeked out over having comic art in common.

Then, with purchases in a cooler we had packed, we ate the outrageously delicious Nepali takeout potato salad I had bought to share, and we zipped over to August First for a cup of coffee.   Before we knew it, a scone and a baguette had found their way to our table and we mellowed out on their patio.

Greg had to go home to draw, and we headed over to Red Wagon Plants (a client and a fabulous, fabulous source of food plants).

On the other side of their Hinesburg farm is the Family Cow Farmstand, with their beautiful valley pasture, and the most adorable calves.

From there we headed over to Shelburne Farms and visited the animals at the Farm Barn.  The piglets were incredibly adorable, and I couldn’t believe how big the lambs had gotten since our last visit.

I had wanted to head to Shelburne Vineyards to show them the beautiful tasting room and had crazily hoped for a quick visit to Village Wine & Coffee but we had run out of time.  So it was straight to our last stop, meeting Lara for dinner at Bistro Sauce on the final night of Vermont Restaurant Week.

We all ordered permutations of their Restaurant Week menu.  I had a Bibb lettuce salad with white anchovies, a somewhat deconstructed take on the Caesar.  I liked the touch of using a dusting of bread crumbs instead of croutons.

Here’s a picture of Roberto taking a picture of his olives and grilled bread.  I was so, so impressed when our waitress individually identified each olive for us.   Mmm … cerignola.

Then risotto with guanciale, pheasant back mushrooms, fiddleheads, and shaved Ayr cheese.

Jenn got the brandade fritters.  And what is that on top of the impossibly crispy, light and creamy fritter?  Why that would be a tempura ramp.

The buzz was that the local pork was the right thing to get, and so we all did.  Instead of the pork loin on the menu, the cut they were offering was shoulder, and it was grilled.   More fiddleheads, pepita romesco, mashed potatoes, tastes of root vegetables accompanied.   It was fab.

We all tried a scoop of a different flavor of homemade ice cream or sorbet for dessert.  I had the coconut sorbet.

Jenn tried bay leaf ice cream, and Lara had cucumber sorbet.  It was a beautiful green but really tasted like cucumber, which for me is not a good thing.

And then we had to leave, so we took a long-arm picture and went home, feeling smug and full of good food and conversation and Vermont.

Now I’m pondering what the next tour should include.  CSA pick-up, sure.  Thursdays at the Intervale.  The Burlington Farmer’s Market.  And where else?

[March 24 update: Here's the link to the album from the event itself.   Is it wrong to feel smug when I see a "What Item Do You Wish You Could Try?" poll having been to the preview?]

So I lucked out and heard about the all-star team of Vermont chefs rehearsing the meal they were fine-tuning for their upcoming trip to Manhattan’s James Beard House just before it sold out.   It was a heady line-up:

A little giddy with my score, I called my mother, who certainly deserves to get an occasional call from me that doesn’t end up with her baby-sitting her wild grandsons.  We made plans to go, and before I knew it the day had arrived.

So we got dressed (even in a dress, even eyeshadow, even lipstick):

And off to Richmond we went.  We got there just ahead of the crowd, and caught sight of the prep going on in the kitchen, all looking both energetic and calm.

I had been tweeting with Chef Mark Timms, who had nicely told me to pop in to the kitchen to say hi.  Since it seemed safe, I ducked my head and did, and caught a picture of the first course he was preparing:

I scooted out to the reception, where these soon appeared – Chef Timms’ take on the Caesar salad, with the rolled wafer with a dab of shredded romaine, anchovy foam, parmesan ice cream, and parmesan cheese tucked into the bottom.  Though I heard one person refer to it as “ice cream from the fish shack,” I was taken by the whimsy, the presentation, and the juxtaposition of the strong and soft flavors, and thought it was both fun and interesting.

Though I didn’t have the light to get a good picture of it (don’t worry: a Free Press photographer was there and I hear they’ll be publishing photos in a week or so, when I’ll link to them here), another hors d’ouevres stand0ut was crostini with Red Hen bread, Jasper Hill blue (Bayley Hazen, I assume), thick-cut bacon, and a drizzle of honey.  There was also a lovely little take on the BLT:

And this amuse bouche, with beef tartare (or was it carpaccio), topped with a fried cornichon:

Then we sat down for the meal, right after the batteries in my camera (allegedly freshly charged) completely died.

I probably shouldn’t even post the pictures, which are so terrible.  Maybe you could join me in pretending they’re relics from a 1960′s newspaper society section.  Or if you could just back up from your computer 5 or 6 feet and squint, I think you’d see that they’re pretty reasonable.

Anyway, this was Chef Steve Atkins of the Kitchen Table Bistro‘s Heirloom Squash Soup with Roasted Sun Chokes, Misty Knoll Chicken, and Spiced Cream. I’ll admit that I had stifled a yawn when I saw a winter squash soup on the menu, but I found it revelatory, subtle, just lovely.  The squash was sweet and deep and delicate, the chicken a perfectly light and tender addition, and the sliced sun chokes added just the right touch of tooth to the dish.

And Flounder, Rutabaga Puree & House Cured Guanciale by Chef Rogan of Verde (Chef, if you’re reading this, we didn’t spot the turnip greens mentioned on the menu).  The guanciale was delicious, and the rutabaga puree was delicate and sweet.  I would have gladly eaten a plate of the two of those.

Though I’m not a crazy lobster buff, I was excited about the next course: Maine Lobster with Hen of the Wood Mushrooms, Winter Squash, and Cider Brown Butter by Chef Eric Warnstedt of Hen of the Wood.  And it was sumptuous, with each ingredient perfectly shown and in the barest bit of the sweet brown butter broth.  When we had finished the course, I had to sit quietly for a few minutes to think about what I had just eaten.  Oh my.

Next up was Cavendish Quail with Pork Belly, Greens, & Cider Glaze by Chef Sean Buchanan of Solstice.  Mmmm … pork belly.

And then Deconstructed Beef Wellington that Chef Mark Timms of Topnotch was presenting with Pickled Tongue, Oxtail, a Demi Cube, and Virtual Egg. I couldn’t imagine what the virtual egg would be, and wondered if they had forgotten to do some kind of substitution because the dish clearly had a wedge of hard-boiled egg on it.  But Chef Mark is a wizard of molecular gastronomy, and the egg turned out to be a white made of various cheeses, and the yolk a frozen tomato foam.  Really nice, though maybe more “trompe l’oeil egg” than virtual.  Beneath the egg garnish were layered duck liver pate (the chef told us he couldn’t get the beef heart he had wanted to use for this part), thin savory crisps, pickled tongue, oxtail, and a cube of demi glace on top.

Even for meat-eaters, there could be an ick-factor with this offal that we don’t normally eat.  But as I explained to my boys when I was telling them about the meal today, the more we eat all the parts of the animals who die for our consumption, the fewer animals get killed.  Is it really grosser to eat all the parts that we safely can rather than throw out everything that we can’t turn into chops or stew?  Of course not.

I know Chef Mark will be tweaking this one, and I’m looking forward to learning what the final version will be like.

And then we ended with the Kitchen Table Bistro‘s Chef Lara Atkins’ Open Faced Coffee Chocolate Sundae, Candied Almonds, Vanilla Anglaise.  We didn’t know if we’d be able to eat one more bite after all the rest, but yes we did rally, and ate every bit of this.  Though it might have been nice to end with a simple citrus sorbet to follow all those flavors, Chef Lara put the bracing coffee flavor in front of this, and it really did shine.

It was a fun and convivial evening.  The Kitchen Table staff were terrific hosts, and the fact that Team Vermont donated the proceeds from the event to the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger made it all even better.

Vermont’s an awfully fun place to be in the food community, with a prestigious (maybe proto-prestigious) event like this is open to the public, and priced accessibly, and with the chefs coming out to meet the diners and even seek feedback.  If there’s one thing I would change, I would have liked to have seen local ingredients highlighted on the actual printed menu.  It would have been fun to have any farmers or cheesemakers introduced if their items were featured, especially since we Vermont localvore types so appreciate that farm-consumer connection.

Stay tuned as the team prepares for their trip to Manhattan on March 22.  Oh, to be the onsite blogger … and with a camera that works.