Offbeat Eats

(Closed) As those that know me locally can verify, I’ve often complained that there’s just not a lot of BBQ action out there around the Upper Valley. Sure, there’s “Barbecue reformulated for New England Tastes” at Big Fatty’s, but that shouldn’t count (and doesn’t, the only thing salvageable on their menu is the pulled pork). Similarly, I’ve had a gazillion recommendations for Curtis’ BBQ in Putney, but I’ll agree with PigTrip.net that it’s disappointing. And I’ll let my review of Sweet Fire BBQ in Claremont speak for itself. I’m getting used to the fact that people up here don’t really know what BBQ is, but heard about it once and decided to make up something similar. And my recent trip to Texas didn’t help, either, since it just reintroduced me to what I’ve been missing. But, I’ve always held out hope that someone around here could figure out the basics of running a smoker, so when I hear of new BBQ places, I usually still feel compelled to give them a try… So, about a year ago, up in Fairlee, VT, the owners of the Whippi Dip ice cream stand decided that on the first Saturday of the month in the good weather months of the year they’d do the BBQ thing by setting up a tent in the parking lot and making some decent BBQ…

(Closed) After an April filled with trips to Austin and San Francisco, it was time to take a break and spend a little more time exploring my local area. In this case, it meant heading down to Stonewall Farm in Keene, NH, for their annual “Dance of the Ladies”. Having been in the barn all winter, this is the first time the cows have been in the pasture all year, and they generally respond with manic bounding and “dancing”, as well as the occasional head-butting and just hanging out. It was rather a cool sight, actually, and you can check out flickr photos of the event. But afterward, we were craving a breakfast, and decided that this would be a good opportunity to cross the river and see what we could find in Brattleboro, VT. After driving about a bit, we happened across Elliot Street Cafe. Nestled into a small building that, from the presence of a large pizza oven, apparently used to be a pizza joint, Elliot is a modest little neighborhood cafe with a decent breafast menu, with a selection of burritos, omelets, biscuits, bacon, and other breakfast sandwiches and wraps…

Last weekend, we found ourselves heading up to Burlington, Vermont, for some light shopping and entertainment. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Burlington is that it has a good restaurant scene, with a lot of good-looking spots that I haven’t yet tried. One of these that I noticed on a recent trip was Asiana Noodle Shop, nestled into a basement on Church St. Opened back in 2009 in a fairly dark subterranean space with the office-supply-store vibe that seems to be common with many Asian places, the folks at Asiana converted what used to be a burrito shop into a noodle houlse with a very extensive menu of Asian noodle dishes, as well as a fairly extensive sushi menu…

There are a lot of New England traditions I really enjoy this time of year. Snowshoeing. Winter Carnivals. Maple Sugaring. And community suppers. Almost every weekend in late winter, harvest, and game season, there are a wide variety of community breakfasts and dinners, sponsored by a wide variety of local organization, churches, fire departments, and clubs, all of which provide a good way to meet a good cross-section of local society, as well as have a good hearty meal. While there are many such local dinners, however, quality really can run the gamut from “cheap spaghetti dinner” up to “homemade top-notch feast”. And the Hartland Congregational Church (known locally as “The Brick Church” to distinguish it from the white painted church down the road) hosts a top-notch example of the later: the Hartland “Famous” Roast Beef Supper.

A few weeks ago I was driving to upstate New York, which involves the rather difficult process of negotiating Vermont, which lacks major East-West highways (while I love the scenery of Vermont, if they ever wanted to create an interstate heading across the state from either Bennington or Rutland, I wouldn’t complain). This time I went on Highway 7, passing through Chester, and used it as an excuse to visit MacLaomainn’s Scottish Pub, which I had noticed on several recent trips, but never had reason to stop in. Being 1pm and my not having lunch, stopping in for a late lunch seemed to be the order of the day.

Last month we went to the Cabot Hosiery Mills (a.k.a. “Darn Tough Socks”) annual factory sale in Northfield, VT, and afterward decided to go into Montpelier for a little bit of light shopping and eating. We eventually ended up at Skinny Pancake for some crêpes. Skinny Pancake didn’t start here, they actually started back around 2003 as a little cart selling crêpes on Burlington, VT’s Church Street pedestrian mall (not too far down from one of my other favorite Church Street food vendors, Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, which I reviewed last year. I had enjoyed their crêpes from the cart a few times, and then in 2007 they went big time, opening up a storefront on College St down by the waterfront.

For the nth year in a row, Carol and I went to the Vermont Brewers’ Festival in Burlington, VT. Every year we like to attend on Saturday, enjoy the festival, and then explore downtown Burlington a bit, and then find a new place to try to eat. This year, we settled on Pho Hong. I’ve always loved Vietnamese food, but it’s one of the hardest cuisines for me to indulge in. From my house in Grantham, I can draw an approximate 60 mile radius circle without enclosing a single Vietnamese place. The nearest is in Manchester (Golden Bowl, which I’ve reviewed here). But I’m always looking for new places, and sometime in 2008 Pho Hong appeared, making it the third Vietnamese place in the Burlington area, and (I believe) the first in the actual city.

On Memorial Day, we decided to drive up to Burlington, Vermont, and go bike riding on the Island Line bike trail. Afterward, we then headed into downtown Burlington for some dinner, ending up at American Flatbread after stops at Three Needs for some beer and Hong’s Chinese Dumplings for a quick snack. We’ve long been fans of American Flatbread. Being first introduced to them via their frozen pizzas (which have outstanding quality, unlike most frozen pizza), we then visited their main bakery in Waitsfield, VT back in 2001. That place is an experience; they’ve taken an old barn, and 4-5 days a week they produce the frozen pizzas there, and for the weekends they put away the assembly line, rolls out tables with red-checked tableclothes, and run a very informal restaurant and bar. It’s quite the experience, and one I recommend (I’d write it up here, but I still don’t have photos from there), since it is about as “Vermont” as things get around here. In 2005, American Flatbread opened up a location in downtown Burlington, which brings a good part of the Flatbread experience to town.

(Closed) On our recent trip to Montreal, on the way back to our home in Grantham, NH, we decided we needed to stop for lunch someplace near Burlington. While the Burlington area has many establishments we rather enjoy (including Hong’s Chinese Dumplings, Sneakers, and Penny Cluse Cafe, the last of which I realize I’ve never blogged here. I’ll have to correct that), we decided to try another area establishment, finally settling on checking out Libby’s Blue Line Diner, just off of I-89 in Colchester, VT. Libby’s sits up on a hill right off of Route 2, and is your basic Worcester diner (Worcester Diner #838, to be exact), although like almost all extant Worcester diner cars, which suffer from a lack of facilities, when it was moved from MA and installed in Colchester, the owners build some additional seating area, an entryway, and an expanded kitchen onto the building. But they did an outstanding job with the interior restoration, so this particular Worcester Diner’s seating area isn’t as worn and tired as most (the exterior, however, looks like it could use some paint and mild repairs)…

Two weekends ago, Carol and I attended the Vermont Brewers Festival as we usually do. However, instead of our usual trip to Coffee Corner in Montpelier (note to self: haven’t reviewed Coffee Corner yet!), we decided to shake it up a bit and find someplace new to try. Doing several online searches, Sneakers Bistro in Winooski seemed to be consistently recommended, so we gave it a try. The place is very nondescript, with the primary signage being a pair of Converse All Stars hung outside the restaurant (shown here). It’s a fairly cozy little storefront, but they have a reasonably large amount of outdoor seating as well. Which was good, since when we arrived, there was a healthy crowd of hungry people waiting for tables. Luckily, two-seaters were turning over quickly, so Carol and I got seated almost immediately at a nice sidewalk table…