Sunday, September 4, 2016
When I visit a new bakery and coffee shop, I typically keep my expectations in check. Making pastries and pulling good espresso shots require a deft hand and attention to detail, and those are not in evidence at most of the bustling coffee shops I've visited.
At Sweet Simone's, though, my first cappuccino (a double shot for $3.95) was just right, and an indulgent coconut cupcake was tender and delicious.
Now, I drop in nearly every time I pass through Richmond. It's a frequent occurrence, as I prefer Route 2 to the interstate. Occasionally I'll have a sweet thing with my coffee — a sticky bun, a piece of coffee cake, a pâte de fruit. But more often I order a bagel and lox. The sandwich, which costs $6.75, comes on a homemade bagel (plain, sesame, everything or Cabot cheddar) with salmon, cream cheese, capers and shallots. Sometimes, the bagel is still warm from the oven.
If salmon doesn't float your boat, the café offers reasonably priced soups and sandwiches, plus flatbread with a variety of toppings, and slices of frittata.
Other things recommend Sweet Simone's, as well. It has the vibe of a happening place but isn't uncomfortably busy. The space is nice and sunny, has plenty of seating, and the local art on the walls changes frequently. Plus, the staff is friendly and helpful; I've had pleasant conversations with several of the people who work there.
Done with my writing … and now it's time to go to Sweet Simone's!
Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.
Tags: Bagel , lox , coffee , breakfast , bakery , Richmond , VT Route 2 , Sweet Simone's , Image , Web Only
Thursday, September 1, 2016
But first, coffee. I drove into Chester, scouring Main Street for signs of a pit stop. Moon Dog Café soon came into view, an off-green Victorian with a small stoop, some wrought-iron patio chairs and a striped “Open” flag urging locals inside. “Cappuccino and Juice Bar,” read the blue-and-red sign outside. “Natural Food Market,” read another.
Inside, Moon Dog Café is as welcoming as a friend’s bohemian apartment from the late ’70s: deep red walls, hanging portraits of the feminine Buddha, crates of vegetables from nearby farms, organic peaches, a cooler of local milk and cheese, air plants, aromatherapy bottles, shelves full of tea, hanging lamps and lanterns, wooden tables with mismatched chairs and an enormous stuffed mermaid draped in purple tulle and blue sparkles.
Tags: coffee , cafe , organic , local , juice , espresso , Chester , breakfast , lunch , road trip , Image , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
On Sunday, a girlfriend and I made this spicy, fresh-flavored pico de gallo, using garden tomatoes and garlic, plus poblanos and onions that I grabbed from Putting Down Roots Farm at Chelsea farmers market last Friday. It's fab the moment you make it, so ladle some off and enjoy it right away. But given a few days to develop, the salsa's flavor deepens to a tart, extra-spicy (and extra-healthy, probiotic) mélange.
For folks who are new to making their own fermented foods, this is a really nice newbie recipe. Unlike kimchi or even sauerkraut, it's a snap to make, and the resulting salsa is familiar and accessible to every palate.
Once you've fermented it at room temperature for several days, stick it in the fridge. It'll last about a month, for continued summer-y enjoyment, even after the first frost.
Tags: Salsa , recipes , fermented foods , probiotics , Image , Web Only
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Let me rephrase that: I’ve never liked the ones found in many cafés, where biscotti sit for weeks in a glass jar becoming ever harder, ever drier and ever more “biscotti-like.” Biscotti get a bad rep next to tender-crumb scones and croissants, butter-permeated from the inside out. While toast springs from the oven warm and fresh and ready for jam, biscotti sit dejectedly in jars. But this is not how it was meant to be.
Tags: Village Wine and Coffee , biscotti , cookie , breakfast , coffee , cafe , Shelburne , Image , Image , Web Only
Friday, August 26, 2016
When was the last time you lunched on a cheap-o Bento box? Or an $8 midday sushi special?
For me, such meals recall a time in the mid-aughts, when I was a broke college kid (or recent post-grad) just getting to know food from beyond New England. Usually alone, and living in Colorado Springs or Chicago, I'd bike to some hole-in-the-wall sushi joint and order the lunch special. For $8 to $12, I'd get five to seven pieces of nigiri and a California roll, or maybe three basic maki. Once in a while, I'd mix it up with tempura or dumplings.
The servers invariably spoke minimal English. But they were nonintrusive and efficient; some at my regular haunts knew my standard order, and they'd just nod and bring it over. Between bites of unadorned fish and nibbles of sticky rice, I'd read a book or the newspaper.
The food was nothing special. But it was fresh (even the seediest sushi spots know better than to serve past-prime fish), and I could sort of afford it. Those quiet solo sojourns felt grown-up, cosmopolitan, modern.
Then one day (perhaps at a pinnacle of broke-ness), I stopped going. My mind mothballed the meals in some corner of my memory.
Until yesterday, that is, when occasion landed me at Asian Gourmet in Barre. The pan-Asian menu meanders through pages of steamed meats and veggies, udon noodle bowls, pad Thai and Chinese American plates like General Tsao's chicken. Japanese offerings include tempura, gyoza and signature maki rolls stuffed with eel and cucumber and avocado or tuna-times-two and double tobiko. During lunch, few dishes break $10.
And on the very last page I spotted a sushi special with circa-2004 prices. Sashimi or nigiri plus a roll and miso soup was $8 to $12; two- or three-roll combos cost the same.
I went for the $12 three-roll special (my old-time go-to, which always seemed like the best value), with spicy tuna, yellowtail and California roll. Another time, I might choose a Bento box with teriyaki, tempura or negimaki (rolled meat with scallions). That includes salad, California roll, fruit and petite shrimp dumplings for $8 to $10. Or maybe, a Chinese entrée with soup and rice for $6 or $7.
The fish was clean, cool and fresh. As at the pared-down spots of my past, I savored the virtue of keeping basics basic.
This time, I ate with a girlfriend instead of a book. But as we caught up over tiny glasses of sake under a tree on the porch, steps above the tractor-trailers and dump trucks rolling down Route 302, the food tasted like reconnecting with an old, familiar friend.
Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.
Tags: Sushi , Asian Gourmet , Barre , Lunch , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Remember this game? We post a picture of a recent meal, and the first person to correctly identify the location wins a restaurant gift card. Sweet deal!
So, where am I eating?
Wherever it was, let me just say that the food was really, really delicious.
Also, when I asked for a "little ketchup," they took my request literally.
Post the name of the restaurant in the comment section below. If you're the first to correctly identify it, you win!
Tags: Game , quiz , prize , yum , hash brown , sausage , salad , ketchup , Image , Web Only
Friday, August 19, 2016
To be sure, one of the finest things about summer is a heavy, ripe tomato sliced and slicked in olive oil — the heel reserved for coarse salt and eaten in three bites over the sink. Yet there comes a time when I’m hit with a meat craving that halts me mid-stride. Red meat, specifically. A thick, stacked, pub-style cheeseburger. Eaten outside with a beer so cold it hurts my teeth, which is only the proper temperature for beer when it's 90 degrees outside with 85 percent humidity.
That’s how I ended up on the shaded patio at Worthy Burger last weekend.
After perusing a swoon-worthy draft list stocked with rotating local gems — such as Hill Farmstead, Burlington Beer Company, Zero Gravity and Tunbridge’s recently opened Upper Pass Beer Co. — I tucked into a cheddar cheeseburger and a draft of Swamp Monster in Love, newcomer River Roost’s crisp, biting pale ale. The patty was fat and gloriously funky from its former life as a grass-grazing cow from the town next door. It was grilled to a blushing medium rare by the wood fire crackling in Worthy’s open kitchen, and trimmed with Plymouth cheddar, lettuce, red onion and a slab of tomato.
At only $8 ($7 without the cheese) for a wood-grilled, locally raised and grass-fed cheeseburger with quality accoutrements, this burger quelled my animal-meat craving without eating my wallet in the process. My date and I also split an order of beef-tallow fries and a zippy, perfectly acidic plate of housemade pickles for less than $4 each, which still kept me at my $12 budget.
Nestled in a renovated railway house along South Royalton's train tracks, Worthy Burger is a proper name for such a sterling pitstop. Bonus note: Next door's South Royalton Market has a freezer full of ice cream sandwiches and hard-to-find growler fills from three rotating taps.
Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.
Tags: Worthy Burger , South Royalton , burger , beer , grassfed , beef , cheap eats , Image , Web Only
Head to Brotbakery in Fairfax, which is open Friday afternoons, now through Thanksgiving. Grab a loaf of Hieke Meyer's masterful sourdough (also available at Burlington's City Market/Onion River Co-op on Wednesdays, and at Hudak Farmstore in Swanton on Fridays). Lop off a slice of bread; fry it in hot olive oil along with a crispy egg, sunny side up.
Cut a fresh-fresh, juicy tomato into hearty slivers; layer these over the bread and sprinkle with salt. Toss the egg on top; Scatter fresh basil if you've got it.
Doesn't get much better than that, folks.
Breakfast Club is a series that explores what we eat in the morning. Do you have a favorite? Drop us a line at food@sevendaysvt.com.
Tags: Sourdough , Bread , Breakfast , Recipes , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
But for now, in the sleepy morning hour, Barber leads me to his porch overlooking the mountains for a glass of water and a piece of grape cake in the kitchen.
Alice Feiring, the lauded wine writer, emerges from Barber's guest room with a notepad and camera. To call Feiring a “lauded wine writer” is an understatement, and I’m momentarily tongue-tied (which I attribute to careful chewing of the grape cake). An open advocate of natural wine, Feiring is a significant voice in the wine world as a writer for publications such as Time magazine, the New York Times, New York Magazine, Forbes Traveler, the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has three of her own books and just finished a fourth, which she calls “a most unusual wine guide” that she’s “very glad to be rid of — it was grueling to write.”
There’s a James Beard Foundation Award in her history as well, but the laurel I like best comes from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which has dubbed Feiring “the high priestess of natural wines.”
Tags: La Garagista , Fable Farm , Shacksbury Cider , Osteria Pane e Salute , Alice Feiring , wine , biodynamic , vineyard , lunch , farm , farming , agriculture , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
A few months ago, Stonecutter Sprits released its Heritage Cask Whiskey According to co-owner Sas Stewart, it's "distilled like bourbon, aged like Irish whiskey and finished like Scotch." Whatever the process, it's a smooth, woody spirit with a vanilla nose and notes of dark fruit and clove, with an off-dry, spicy finish.
Since the bottle retails for about $60, I like to savor it as a sipping whiskey. But it also makes a fine cocktail.
Tags: Cocktails , Recipes , Whiskey Smash , Whiskey , Stonecutter Spirits , Image , Web Only