Selective Palate

This year we didn’t exactly have the coin to go on a vacation but we managed to get some travel in even if it was local. One thing M and I like to on a nice weekend is take a drive through the mountains with the top down. I like to do what I have dubbed “The Loop”. We start going south out of town then we hang a left and climb up a mountain, go around a mountain, and eventually come down a mountain and we end up north of town. Like how that works, welcome to Vermont!

Along the way we stopped at a state park named Texas Falls; falls yes Texas not so much! But it is 1 of my favorite spots to just hang out. It is also, 1 of the first spots we found when we moved here and there is a great story that goes with it but I am not ad liberty to tell it .

There was some kind of wedding taking place this day so we could not get a good picture of the falls, but I can say they were nice.

There is also a blue berry patch that we often stop and pick our own leaving our money in a box left for just that reason and we end up stopping whenever we see something cool.

This year with all the rain we managed to see quite a few waterfalls just along side the road and it made for very nice views as we climbed the mountain. We stopped a couple of times and got some pretty shots. It was a coolish day the sun was in and out with a little rain. We did have to put the top up towards the end of the day but we had a good time none the less.

Here is a view from the top of 1 mountain we climbed that day. It is 1 of my favorite roads. You have to drive (either direction) a very steep and winding road. You are actually riding the side of the mountain and it gives you a weird feeling as you look down and realize you are just hanging off the side of this mountain and there is nothing stopping you from going over except this tiny guard rail. Its pretty cool. (And yes Amity this is the road where I believe you said it “made you week in the knees”!) By the way they close this road in the winter for good reason.

Towards the end of the drive we find ourselves in a nice little town with 1 of our favorites restaurants and a creamy stand! For those not in the know up here they call soft serve ice cream, creamies. It is fitting no?

Well since this is a “FOOD BLOG” I guess I should tell you all about our early evening dinner. If you ever find yourself in Bristol Vermont (about 45 minutes south of Burlington) The Bobcat Cafe should not be missed. We really enjoy this place. The food is always good, never pretentious, and the atmosphere is very comfortable. We have never had a bad time here. Over Christmas I even took my dad for a few drinks and snacks on our way home from Burlington. Even he loved it with its antique bar great selection of wines and home brewed beer.

When we arrived it was fairly early so we were not in the mood for a huge dinner though we deffinately could have gotten our fill. M ordered a small bucket of wings. Now M is quite the wing afficiando and is very picky when it comes to chicken wings and this is 1 of his favorites. They give a good size portion and they are perfectly crispy however, they do their sauce a bit different than other places. It is more of a savory chili sauce. M asks them to heat it up a bit and they have no problem with his request. They are saucey, spicy and crispy served with a side of house blue cheese. He ordered a side of herbed fries with a chipolte mayonaise. Not exactly the healthiest meal but it sure was tasty!

I was a little chilly so I ordered their steamed little neck clams in a bacon potato ale chowder. Yes it was as good as it sounds. It was a good size portion of the steamers bathed in the goodness that is bacon and cream! I think I might have licked the bowl. I topped it off with a nice glass of Chardonay and was more than satisfied.

We finished our meals and took a short walk on over to the creemee stand for dessert. We enjoyed it with a view looking over the mountains. Vermont is really pretty and though “you can’t [always] get there from here” it is a nice place to call home.

Wow I have been gone a long time. I know, no warning, no explanation, I am horrible! Well let me fill you in real quick. I had some business I needed to take care in the old dirty south. Actually I used to live right outside Atlanta and I went to visit friends, family and yes take care a few things I left behind when I moved up to the north country. It was a bit hectic, I had a lot to do and people to see and not a whole lot of time to do so. But over all it was a nice time except for the flight back (which I will get to later) and even had some time to go out for a bite and a show at an Atlanta landmark!

My good friends Mark & Becky took me to Shakespear’s Tavern. We had a wonderful time. We saw a Hamlet and it felt authentic, like this is how it was supposed to be played. The players mixed in some humor in the otherwise dark tragedy and I have to admit the “authentic” english fare made it that much more fun. I took some photos but I had my flash turned off so the pics did not come out so great. But I have to say the food, which was served caffiteria style at the back of the theater, was quite good. They also offered a good selection of beer and wine. Over all if ever in the Atlanta area I recomend this. It’s something a little different than the regular touristy stuff and clubbing the city has to offer, plus it is kid friendly!

Afterward we were still a little hungry, after all we were there for over 3 hours. On the way home we tried out a late night sushi restaurant located in Buckhead called Bluefin. We split a few rolls and a great sashimi appitizer of white tuna in a light yuzu/ponzu vinagrette and a small seaweed salad. They had a nice saki list, though not much to chose from for 1 person. But over all it was very nice and they are open and serving a full menu till 2am!

However, we were not exactly drinking much that night considering the night before we had all gotten together with our pal Amity and belly danced the night away at a fantastic Mediterranean joint in Alpharetta called Cafe Efendi. If you ever get the chance I recomend the Iskander and Adana kebab, oh and the Baba Gannuj! Fantastic night, from what I remember!

Lastly, before I left we held a BBQ where Becky and I went crazy with the food. I am waiting for our friend Mark (another Mark) to get me the pictures and I will tell you all about it. We had everything and that girl Becky can cook! The 2 of us in the same kitchen was insane but the guests sure liked it! We ate and drank our fill then they sent me on my way to go back home to Vermont.

So my ride home left me sick and sitting on a plane for hours. It’s not a long flight but the computer system went down in Baltimore so that left us and many other planes stranded just sitting on the tarmack. I didn’t land in VT til after midnight and couldn’t wait to drive the hour home to get to bed!

By the morning I was not feeling any better and desided I needed a nice gental elixer to soothe my turbulant tummy. I whipped up a Sweet Ginger Tisane. This is a great alternative to tea. It works hot or cold over ice and dare I say with a boost of vodka on another occation. This set my tummy staight and it was very tastey to boot!

Recipe:

6 cups water
1/4 cup peeled and chopped fresh ginger
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup firmly packed fresh mint leaves
6 tablespoons dark honey (or to taste, I used about 4 T. and that was enough for me)
1 lemon, cut into 6 wedges

Combine the water, ginger and lemon juice in a sauce pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add the mint, and let steep for 5 minutes.

Filter the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing down lightly on the ginger and mint. Discard solids.

Stir in the honey and serve hot or iced, garnished with a lemon wedge and some extra mint if you like!

CHEERS!

As promised another Montreal post. Saturday we slept in but awoke to a beautiful but cold day. We headed out to discover Old Montreal around noon. On the agenda was the Basilica and lunch! Other than that we figured we would just see where the day took us. To start it was frigid and the sidewalks were covered in ice. A logical person would take a taxi but us we wanted to walk, so walk we did, alot! But to be honest walking really was the best and any excuse to cozy up to M works for me. Fist stop was the Basilica d’ Notre Dame. A miniture version of the 1 in Paris. It did not disapoint. It was majestic and awe inspirering. It had me thinking the whole time that this was only a minature of the original! After that we were famished! After wondering down a small cross street we found a nice cafe with a wonderful brunch menu of crepes, eggs benedict, and the like. Across the street we saw a dive hole in the wall advertising pizza and puotine. We walked right in! This place tiny. We were immediately sat at small (small really doesn’t describe it, more like miniture) table in what seemed to be an old alley that had been converted into a room. M ordered the pizza with a side of poutine with bacon and I ordered a grilled four cheese sandwich with a side of puotine. For those not in the know, puotine is this wonderfully heart attach inducing dish made with french fries, a veal or chicken gravy and fresh cheese curds. It is sinful and it took the chill right out of us real quick!(Sorry cell phone pic)

After that we walked around down to the river and stumbled upon a festival; The Festival of Lights! They had actually built an ice slide in the heart of Old Montreal and people were lined up to take the plunge! I didn’t grab any pictures because honestly my hands were just too cold.

We made our way back to the hotel and relaxed and warmed up till dinner. We took a cab this time back to Old Montreal to an old women’s prison. Yes you read that right, a women’s prison. The restaurant’s name was Da Emma; a quant and qwerky Italian restaurant. As soon as we walked it we were welcomed and seated at a table for 2 in what felt like our own person spot in an other wise busy dinning room. The decor was dark wood beams and stone and cement walls and a mesh of contempary and traditional styles. It actually came together quite nice and had a very warm feel despite once being a penatenchery. We were quickly served an amuse of fresh tomato bruschetta and our drink order (Chinati) was taken as well as the menu presented to us. The menu is hand written on a chalk board entirely in Italian. I was surprised I was able to make my way through the menu ok but the assistance of the waiter was much appreciated!

I am going to forwarn you, the dinning room was very very dark (just the way I like it) but I have this thing about not using my flash at restaurants so the pictures barely came out. I did the best I could but what ever you see imagine 10x more vibriant!

To start we enjoyed an appetizer of smoked salmon carpaccio. This generous portion of salmon concealed a bed of pickled onions and dressed with a healthy drizzle of fruity olive oil and finally topped with fresh baby arugula for a nice peppery bite at the end. I have to say when I first saw this on the menu I was not compelled to order it but M wanted to try it and it was well worth it. However, I was still hankering for sliced prosciutto and fresh buffula mozzerella. Again nothing extra ordinary but so delicious. It was like I had never had either, it was so simple and fresh; it was perfect.

After appetizers we shared 2 entrees. 1 a fresh fettuccine with wild mushrooms and grilled sword fish with cherry tomatoes and cured black olives in a spicy tomato broth topped with fresh baby arugula. The freshness of both were paramount in their success and they were unbelievably successful. The sword fish dish was surprising. I was not expecting the spiciness and the oil cured black olives added that pop that really made the dish stand out. The pasta could not have been better; freshly made and simply dressed with a little garlic and olive oil. The mushrooms were tender and flavorful. Again it was like I was experiencing pasta for the first time. These dishes made me really appreciate the simplicity of fresh ingredients and how wonderful these flavors can be without all the fuss you often find at say some of those chain “I”talian restaurants you find everywhere these days. Along side these dishes was again another simple dish of room temperature grilled eggplant and zucchini dressed with just salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil.

The major disappointment of the night was dessert. I had been looking forward to the Tirimsu all day. I had heard it was the best tirimsu ever and I was going to find out! However it was not to be. They were sold out so I had to settle for a cup of esspresso and an apertif of amoreto.

All was not lost on the dessert front. When we arrived back at the hotel the lounge was still open so we enjoyed a traditional creme brulee and 3 more amorettos! Over all a great night!

After about a week of having a less than harty appitite I am feeling better. Thanks guys for caring Anyhow I am finally going to wrap up Montreal. Brace yourself boys and girls its gonna be a long one so if you need to grab a snack go ahead I’ll wait…. Ok we good? Then lets get on with it!

First I want to say this will definitely not be our last trip to Montreal. It is a beautiful and friendly city and the food; oh the food! So where di we leave off? I believe I left you hangin on my birthday night dinner. On my way home from walking in the rain all day I spotted a very cozy bistro just about 4 blocks from the hotel. Considering my day I figured that would be a perfect little spot to enjoy a nice relaxed dinner. So around 9pm we headed out, it had stopped raining so we figured we would walk. We got about 1/3 of the way there and all of a sudden the sky opened up and pummeled us with ice. M quickly grabbed my hand and pulled us into a bus stop to let it blow over. After a while it hadn’t stopped so we just braved it! We arrived at l’Aromate and were quickly seated in a nice cozy table in the back. The atmosphere was very comfortable, though not overtly a “date” spot it was romantic and casual. We promptly ordered a bottle of wine to take the chill off, a nice Bordeaux; you just can’t go wrong! We also ordered an appetizer to share while we mulled over our dinner options. Roasted baby pears stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped with duck prosciutto with a roasted red pepper coulis. YUM! Sweet, salty, creamy, everything together in 1 bite. So perfect in fact that right now I have baby pears in the refrigerator just waiting for my interpretation!

(Sorry about the quality of the pictures they were very dark)

Next we ordered our main courses. M ordered Chicken Breast stuffed with Portobellos wrapped in prosciutto and topped with a buttery oregano sauce. I know it does not sound extremely interesting but it was extremely tasty. The chicken was cooked perfect, still juicy with a nice touch of fat from the prosciutto. The sauce was not too heavy and went great with the grilled polenta it was served with.

Considering it was my birthday I decided to go for it and I ordered Grilled Sirloin topped with Foie Gras and a Red Wine reduction. Oh Yeahy! My only complaint with this dish was my own fault. I like my meat rare, always have. As a child I used to sneak raw meat from the cutting board. My mother used to say I must have been switched with Rosemary’s Baby at the birth. However, my love of rare meat does not include rare fat, it fact its quite the opposite; I like my fat crispy! Though the meat was cooked perfect to my order given with the cut I could have gone a medium rare. That being said it was still luscious! Just look at that big hunk of fioe gras just sitting on top!

After a wonderful dinner we both ordered dessert! M has this trick he plays, see I prefer to share a dessert but sometimes he just wants it all to himself. To insure that, given my dislike of chocolate he orders the most chocolately thing on the menu and that he did. Warm brownie topped with a tiramasu mouse. From what he says it was to die for! I did try the tiramisu mouse and yes it was yummy.

I decided to finish my dinner with light Vanilla Pot D’ Creme with a raspberry coulis. Very nice and perfect after such a heavy dinner!

Thankfully by the time we had finished, the weather cleared up and though brisk was a much needed and delightfully gratifying walk back to the hotel.

Ok Maybe I won’t be wrapping up Montreal today. But I am very close. Tomorrow I will try again. At least I have given you something to chew on on for now!

Hi there! I just wanted to pop in and say hi. And no I have not forgotten about the post I promised to finished up my Montreal trip. You see I came down with the crud and to be honest the last thing I want to think about is food if you get my drift and I think you do. It must have been all that walking in teh rain, sleet, ice and COLD!

Again sorry to keep you waiting and I will be back hopefully shortly to finish up with Montreal.

I have been so busy since getting back. I took alot of pictures but I will spare you some of the more mundane/unrecognizable photos. So where do I begin? I really enjoyed my trip to Montreal. It is a great city, very inviting and really has a European feel to it except its in North America and for me only 2.5 hours away! Given that alone I believe we will be making this trip quite abit.

We stayed right in downtown and only about 4 blocks from Old Montreal. We arrived on Thursday night around 8pm and quickly checked in and unpacked! Since we both had a long day we decided to dine in and ordered room service. Sorry I did not take any photos, to be honest I was hungry and tired and when M reminded me to get the camera I had already taken a bite of my salmon. Later that night I turned off the lights curled up with a glass of wine in front of the huge bay window and looked out on this view and began to settle into vacation mode.

Friday was my actual birthday and I had the day to myself. M had to be at a conferance at 9am so he was up and out while I was still in my robe. I got to relax and enjoy a good cup of coffee as I read the paper then I was off to the spa, it was my birthday after all! After enjoying (yes I said enjoying) a vigarous workout I laid about in the whirlpool before starting my day. I know, oh poor me.

Ok so now on to the good stuff… the food! I decided that nothing would be better than wandering the city on foot, enjoying a nice brunch at a cafe and finishing off by roaming around an art museum. I had this picture in my head and NOTHING was going to change it. So as I headed out for the day not even the rain was going to stop me.

By the time I walked into the cafe I was completely drenched and rather cold. The cafe I found looked so perfect. When you first walk in all you see is a row of delectable pastries. Chocolates, tarts, eclairs, everything you can imagine. They looked too good to eat; like they had all been photoshopped into perfection! Then as you worked your way to the back the savory cases took over. Now I know most people have a real sweet tooth but me I am all about the savory and salty and as soon as I laid eyes on the charcuterie case I was completely in love. They had all sorts of home cured meats from french dried salamies to proscuitto. And oh the cheese all the lovely cheeses. Then there was the gourmet salads and of course the bread; all the wonderous bread! So as was standing there just gawking my number got called and I had to order fast. Being that everything was in french and there was many people waiting I looked at the board and ordered the first thing that I understood; Croque Madame, Soup de Jour and to warm me up a cup of hot chocolate. When they handed me my food they also gave me the dessert of the day; a chocolate filled eclair.

A lot of food right! Yes, though I tried valienty I could not eat it all. I was not quite prepared for the hot chocolate however. I am not a huge chocolate fan, actually I really don’t like it but I do enjoy a cup of hot coco on a rainy day. Well what I think of as hot chocolate apparently is not what they were thinking. I was served a cup of molten melted chocolate and a side of steamed milk. I know for almost everyone is the world that would be heaven but me not so much. I drank almost 1/2 before given up, just way too rich and too chocolately for me. Being that I am not a chocoholic I was not so keen on the eclair either. I had that wrapped up to go for M who has an unbelievable sweet tooth.

This is what I presented M as he returned from his long day of Microsoft ramblings.

This is what I got in return!

Well like I said alot of photos! Tomorrow I will fill you in on how we braved an ice storm to have a fabulous dinner at a classic french bistro. Au revoir!

Well yes I am home but honestly I am not to thrilled about it. We had a great time and ate very well! I promise I will update you all with lots of photos and fill you in on everything.

Bon Voyage (for now!)

So I am basically writing to ask for help. My other half is taking me away for my 30th birthday this weekend. We are not going too far, Montreal, but I have never been or atleast not really. I remember stopping at a McDonalds when I was a kid and it was the best McDonald’s burger I remember ever having. So as you can imagine I am anticipating this trip very much. We are staying downtown and plan on going over to Old Montreal for the site seeing touristy stuff. But really what I am looking foward to is the FOOD! I have been reading so much about the food scene in Montreal and needless to say I am psyched. But I think I am reading too much. There are so many places I want to try yet I only have 4 days to do so. I NEED HELP!!! Where should I go? What should I eat? I promise I will take plenty of pictures and let you all know where we chose to go and fill you in on all the details. I just need your help deciding on all the fantastic places in what seems like a really cool (literally) city.