Weekend in Vermont: Quechee, Chester, & Perkinsville

On our way back from Montreal last week, we took a little detour through Vermont to check out the Cheese Trail and relax at a B&B.  I thought I'd share some highlights from our short trip.

Our B&B, Inn Victoria, is in the little town of Chester.  Southern Vermont is so pastoral and picturesque, with beautiful mills, perfectly dilapidated and rustic structures, and gorgeous covered bridges.

On our way down to Chester, we stopped in Quechee (near Woodstock) to have dinner at the Simon Pearce Restaurant.

The restaurant (and store and workshop) are located in a mill that is adjacent to a historic covered bridge and the stunning Quechee Gorge.  The night we were there, local kids were having a blast jumping off the rocks under the bridge into the gorge -- it totally freaked me out, but no one seems to have gotten hurt.

The restaurant's terrace overlooks the falls.  The rush of the water provided a melodic soundtrack at dinner.

And while we were waiting for a table, we checked out the glassblowing workshop, where a few artisans were crafting some of Simon Pearce's delicate (and expensive) glassware.

The food was scrumptious; I had a panko-crusted fish with crispy onions.  The entrees were probably slightly overpriced, but you can't beat the experience and the view.  Sadly, Hurricane Irene did a number on the mill; the gorge apparently flooded, and the mill is temporarily closed while they assess the damage.  I hope they are able to make speedy repairs; it's really a beautiful building and site.

Our B&B, Inn Victoria, is the second highest-rated B&B in Vermont.  The Inn takes its Victorian seriously -- lots of tchotchkes, a glorious selection of mismatched china (which I love!), florals everywhere.  You probably know that's not exactly my aesthetic, but it's got tremendous character and is really comfortable and well-appointed.  Also the inn-keepers are so welcoming and hospitable that it's no wonder the Inn has such glorious Tripadvisor ratings.  I particularly loved their afternoon tea; they even dress up in Victorian garb!

Of course, even an extravagant afternoon tea wouldn't keep me away from a delicious dinner experience.  We managed to score a last-minute reservation to Restaurant Verterra at the Inn at Weathersfield.  The chef at Verterra is at the forefront of the farm-to-table movement, and we were treated to a menu of Vermont delights, beginning with a corn chowder with a corned beef hash.

The main course was a soy-glazed sirloin, from cattle raised on a local farm.

The dessert was a carrot cake with cream cheese ice-cream (!), pickled rhubarb, and peach chutney.

Of course, since we were in Vermont, we couldn't pass up the cheese plate, which featured a tarentaise from Spring Brook Farm, and two cheeses from Consider Bardwell Farm, including Consider Bardwell's Dorset, a pungent, soft cow's milk cheese that is probably the best cheese I have ever had.  (Consider Bardwell's cheese shows up regularly at Per Se and French Laundry, so you know it has to be good.)

The Times this morning reported that many areas of Southern Vermont, including Chester, sustained quite a bit of damage from the hurricane.  Thankfully, the Inn Victoria did not report any damage.  My heart goes out to the other residents of the area . . . .

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Montreal Jewish Food Tour

This past week we took a little jaunt up to Montreal to see my husband's bubbe and extended family.  We hung out, made taiglach with bubbe (watch for a HUGE post on that later this week), but mostly we ate, and ate, and ate.  

Our first stop in Montreal -- always -- is the Snowdon Deli, off of Blvd. Decarie.  Their smoked meat sandwich is my husband's favorite food in the universe: tender, melt-in-your-mouth pieces of spiced smoked meat between two mustard-schmeared pieces of rye.  Smoked meat, if you've never had it, is similar to corned beef.  It has a different spice rub from corned beef, however, and is cured, smoked, steamed, then hand-cut to order.  We both got our smoked meat "medium" (slightly fatty).  Mine is old-fashioned (slightly more spiced), and my husband's is regular.  And of course we both got fries.  Snowdon's fries with vinegar are amazing.  Add a black cherry soda, and you've got a perfect meal.

Our next stop was Moishe's Steakhouse, which is a Montreal institution.  My husband's family has been going there for 40+ years (back when Moishe was still around), and it's still their go-to place for special occasions.  Of course, this being a steakhouse, I had the most amazing filet mignon there -- probably the best steak I've ever had.  But the real highlight at Moishe's is the sides, like their cole slaw, boiled verenikas, and fried onions.  I also tried sweetbreads for the first time . . . and they were delicious, so long as I didn't think too much about what they are.

Of course, no one can leave Montreal without tasting a Montreal bagel.  Unlike a New York bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, less puffy, crunchier, and sweeter.  And unlike a New York bagel, the Montreal bagel usually comes in just two varieties: white seed (sesame) and black seed (poppy).  Our favorite place for these bagels is REAL Bagel, on Cote St. Luc, where the bagels emerge fresh from the wood oven.

A little cream cheese, lox, fresh tomatoes from the garden . . . the perfect breakfast with bubbe.

Been to Montreal lately?  What are your favorite Montreal eats?

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A week in LA

Sometimes I am able to overlook the ridiculous traffic and the seasonless weather and -- for perhaps just a fleeting moment -- kind of love LA.

bluffs at pacific palisades

pch

umami burger

looking toward santa monica

looking toward topanga

adorableness

fried egg sandwich at huckleberry cafe

homecoming

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Crane Beach

Clear skies, bright sun, warm sand, and cold water at Crane Beach in Ipswich.

A glorious picnic on the sand.

Followed by cider doughnuts and strawberry wine at Russell Farms.

And a portrait session with a very photogenic duck.

A beautiful start to the summer!

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Eating Singapore: Rojak

As you know, I ate A LOT of food in Singapore.  Like a small child's weight in food.  And while I enjoyed Hainanese chicken rice and drooled over banana fritters with kaya, the single food I thought was most memorable, most delicious, most fantastically awesome is this ugly mess of a dish called rojak.

Rojak is a fruit salad -- yes, that's fruit under that mound of sauce! -- but it's not some prissy fruit salad: it's a sweet, sour, savory, spicy POW of a fruit salad.  Scratch that.  It's a flavor experience.

Rojak is Malay for "mixture."  And that's exactly what this salad is: a weird mixture of stuff that really, really, really should not be delicious together.  Rojak commonly has jicama, pineapple, cucumber, green mango, taupok (deep-fried tofu), beansprouts, and youtiao (Chinese-style dough fritters).  Sometimes there's even squid!

But what makes this melange delicious is the even weirder dressing, which is made with varied ingredients, including tamarind, belacan (shrimp paste), sugar, chili, and lime juice.  I know it doesn't sound at all yummy, but trust me when I tell you that this sauce is bombtastic.  It's so good, in fact, that I seriously licked the plate after devouring all the fruit.

While we had rojak at a few places, the very best iteration we had was at Toa Payoh Rojak at the Old Airport Food Centre, which we found through my favorite Singapore food blog, "I Eat Shoot Post."  TPR operates out of a tiny space, just enough room for the two people (son and mother?) who operate it.    There's such a long wait for the rojak here that you have to take a number and wait . . . and wait.

This is because they make each order a la minute.  The guy toasts the youtiao and chopped peanuts over a charcoal grill, while the tiny, stooped-over elderly woman peels the jicama by hand and chops all the fruit.  He then mixes the sauce according to your spice specifications (hot or mild), then puts everything in a wooden bowl and tosses it by hand.

It's so humbling to watch these two people quietly at work, executing a dish that they've perfected.  Eating it, you taste all of the fresh ingredients, the secret dressing recipe (that's been passed down through the generations), and the earnest dedication of these people to serving the very best version of their prized dish.

Have you tried rojak?  If someone put squid in your fruit salad, would you run away screaming, or pick up a fork and dig in?

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Eating Singapore: Sweet Snacks, or All About Kaya

I am sure you must have been drooling in anticipation for the next installment of my "Eating Singapore" series.

Oh.  I think that was actually me drooling.

In any event, we're up to my favorite class of food: sweet snacks!  Singapore totally gets my palate on this front, being that the first snack item I encountered there was banana fritters with kaya fondue.

For this dish, the geniuses at the Gluttons Bar and Sweet Spot at Makansutra Gluttons Bay have taken sweet plantains, fried them, and served them with a dipping sauce of kaya (a delicious jam made out of coconut milk, pandan leaves, egg, and sugar).  The fritters themselves are pretty awesome: a crispy, light coating enveloping a sweet, melt-in-your-mouth plantain.  But dipping them in the kaya makes them totally out of this world.  I could have eaten the whole plate by myself, but my sister forced me to share.

I know that when it comes to battering and frying food, Americans are supposed to be the champs, but everywhere we went in Singapore, we saw stands touting banana fritters, and each one I tried, with or without the kaya fondue, was amazing.  At this stand in the Old Airport Food Centre, for example, they sold nothing but banana fritters, and they were doing brisk business at dinner hour with lots of fried-food lovers clamoring for some plantain goodness.

Well, sometimes deep-fried fruit is too healthy.  That's when you have to get your kaya kick on toast instead, like the kaya fondue with toast sticks at Gluttons Bar and Sweet Spot.

Kaya toast is the quintessential Southeast Asian snack food: decadent, not too filling, and highly portable.  At Ya Kun, a chain kopitiam (coffee shop) famous for their kaya toast, the little old ladies behind the counter toast wheat bread on a countertop grill, carefully divide the toast into two super thin slices (it's like watching someone pull apart two layers of kleenex -- they are so delicate with it), brush on a thin layer of butter, and schmear on a generous amount of kaya.

They treat the kaya toast like it's some art form: the butter has to be cold (they put it back in the fridge between every order), the bread super thin, and the kaya room temperature.  The composition is delicious (though, as my sister points out, not nearly as delectable as the version we had in Thailand).

Have you had kaya?  Are you a fan?  Are you drooling thinking about the dessert post I'm putting together next?  Or is that still me?

P.S. Intrigued by kaya?  Susan Feniger of "Top Chef Masters" fame has a recipe for kaya toast that is supposedly the bomb.  (It's the top-selling dish at her restaurant, Street.)  I haven't tried it yet, but if you beat me to it, please share your results.

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Eating Singapore: Savory Snacks

We have a nor'easter here in Boston, which makes this the perfect time to reminisce about the 80-degree weather in Singapore and to continue my Eating Singapore series.

I'm a big fan of snack time.  Given the choice, I'd much rather nosh my way around town than actually sit down for a full meal.  (Then again, why choose?  Given my seemingly endless stomach capacity for good food, I'm not too worried about "ruining my appetite by snacking.")  

My favorite Singaporean snack, ever since I was a little girl, is satay, charcoal grilled meat skewers.  Back in the day in Singapore, THE place to go for satay was a section of Beach Road called "Satay Club."  All the open-air hawkers there sold satay, and (as my mom fondly recalls), you'd get charged at the end of your meal when the vendor would settle the accounts by counting the number of wooden skewers left on the table.  (Naturally, people tried to cheat the vendors by throwing the skewers on the floor or pocketing them!)  

Alas, Satay Club is no longer, but one of the original hawkers has set up shop under the name "Old Satay Club" at Makansutra Gluttons Bay.  I love that they present their satays in banana leaf cones.  Garnishing every plate are cubes of sticky rice and diced cucumbers, both of which are designed to be speared with a satay skewer and dipped into the spicy, garlicky peanut sauce that accompanies the dish.

We also tried the famous satay at Chuan Kee Satay at the Old Airport Road Food Centre.  Unlike the satay at Makansutra, which while pretty was kind of tough, the satay at Chuan Kee is so tender it literally melts in your mouth.

These folks are so serious about the quality of their satay that they grill them right as you order them.  Accordingly, there's always a huge line.  And they serve it with a sauce that is lick-your-plate-clean good: it's a small bowl of intensely flavored peanut sauce with a heaping dollop of minced garlic in the middle for a pungent, spicy, nutty, sweet kick.

For some reason, Singaporeans are also really into chicken wings.  I'm kind of "meh" about chicken wings, but my sister, who can't resist trying anything there's a line for, got these wings at FoodRepublic and claims that, with a squeeze of the lime-like calamansi, they are quite delish.

I, however, like to save room for the unusual, like these kueh pie tee ("top hat") cups we tried at Blue Ginger.  The pie tee cups are like crispier, lighter versions of mini pate brisee shells.  They are made with rice flour and deep fried in metal molds that have the shape of upside-down cannelles.

The initial crunch of the delicate shell gives way to the tender mix of bamboo shoots, turnips, and shrimp.  It's sweet, savory, and spicy.  

My mom's all-time favorite street snack, however, is popiah, which is sort of a Singaporean burrito.  Well, it's not really Singaporean, in that it actually originates from the Chinese province of Fukien (where my grandpa is from).  But immigrants from China brought the dish with them to Singapore, and now it's super popular in the Straits.

Popiah consists of a thin crepe made from wheat flour, which is then wrapped around goodness such as jicama, turnip, eggs, bean sprouts, meat, and seafood.  What makes the dish pop is a spicy hoisin sauce that gives a sweet and savory "bite" to the popiah.  We had the dish at various food centers, including Maxwell and FoodRepublic, the latter of which was deemed superior by my popiah-loving mom.  (She's not the only one in the family who pines nostalgically for popiah: my grandpa has spent hours in Xiamen, China, searching for the best popiah maker and has imported box-loads of popiahs from Fukien to Hong Kong.)

In my next installment, sweet snacks and desserts!

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Snapshots from Singapore

With the Totally Rad Lightroom presets, I finally got around to editing some of my non-food photos from Singapore.

A close-up of the tower at the Hindu temple

View of the blue buoys off Marina Bay

The Chinese temple

A lantern at the Chinese temple

The full tower at the Hindu temple

Aren't the colors and details amazing?  I can't imagine how long it must have taken the artisans to create this tower.

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