Vermont Dining

We just returned from a long weekend in Vermont recently, spending five wonderful days near Sugarbush. We stayed at the Inn at the Round Barn in Waitsfield, which is a great place a little off the beaten track. The staff is very friendly and helpful, and the three-course breakfasts give you plenty of energy to make it through a rough day of cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or alpine skiing. And at the end of that long active day, warm cookies and appetizers await you on your return.

The Mad River Valley also has some excellent restaurants, from the humble to the refined. On our first night, we ate at the Big Picture Theater & Cafe, which adds a whole new dimension to movie-theater cuisine. We were there on a mid-winter weeknight, so there weren't the usual pasta, vegetarian, and other specials, but the remainder of the menu was still quite impressive. I had a quarter chicken with french lentils. Any time you add bacon to lentils, you have something grand. The chicken was moist and well seasoned. Only the Roma tomatoes were listless and lacking in flavor, but then I have no idea where they came from given that Vermont is not known for its winter tomatoes. Leslie had the chili and a Switchback ale, both of which hit the spot.

Halfway between "downtown" Waitsfield and Warren, Vermont, is the relatively new Terra Rossa Ristorante, which has some of the best thin-crust pizza I have ever had. The bruschetta is also well done, and the salads are fresh and appropriately dressed (that is, not dripping with dressing, as opposed to sporting evening wear). And it is all reasonably priced.

Saturday night was the big night out, when we headed to the Common Man, just a little further up the mountain from Terra Rossa. The restaurant is in a spacious, high-roofed barn-like cabin with a strange touch of Dom Perignon bottles signed by their respective consumers ringing the beams. Dinner was slightly put off by some bozo next to us (sounding like a dead-ringer for Richard Dreyfus) spouting off about late night TV politics all night. The food, though, is excellent. I had perfectly cooked duck breast with chestnuts and cherry reduction. The accompanying risotto was a bit thick and porridge-like for my taste, and my red and golden beet salad was obviously just pulled from the fridge (please, please, please let those salads come to room temperature so I can taste something!). Leslie had a duck confit cassoulet that was rich, satisfying and warming. We washed it all down with a pleasant bottle of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from J Winery. After all that, we couldn't force any dessert on ourselves and waddled back to the car.

Our final stop on this culinary tour (besides lunch at the Burlington Airport, that was above standard airport fare) was at the Green Cup Cafe for dinner on Sunday. Chef/owner Jason Gulisano is obviously accomplished and is integrally part of the local foods movement. We had some grilled squid, perfectly done and lightly seasoned, and Portuguese sardine for starters, which showed how a light touch can bring out the flavors and beauty of ocean product. Leslie had a halibut for her main, which was well done, but the plate had about 9 or 10 elements that made for too much on the plate. I had braised rabbit with noodles that was satisfying, though the rabbit by itself would have been too dry, and the side pate on a crostini seemed out of place. The cucumber salad was refreshing. We rounded out the meal with a small tasting of local cheeses, some of which were very well done, though the Von Trapp cheese was a bit chalky.

On our way back to the airport, we stopped at the Vermont Liberty Tea Company, whose tea we had tried at the bed and breakfast. Although a modest establishment, the proprietor has a wealth of knowledge and has traveled widely. From the lemon Rooibos to the Keemun, all the teas were excellent.

Bowmore Tempest 10 Year Old

After reading on John Hansell's blog about Bowmore's new limited edition, ten-year old Tempest, I was interested in getting ahold of a bottle. After corresponding with the good folks at Morrison-Bowmore, however, they tell me that this first release will not be available in the States, but they hope future releases of this annual bottling will be. I can hardly wait!

Crispy Duck in my Scotch?

I've been enjoying the first bottle of scotch from my new membership in the Scotch Malt Whisky Society of America, an 11 year old from the Isle of Arran. For those note familiar with the SMWSA and it's parent (now owned by Glenmorangie, Plc) the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the society bottles single casks from more than 120 different distilleries (largely in Scotland, but also a few from Japan, I believe) and distributes these one-of-a-kind bottlings to members of the society. The catch is that the bottlings are not identified by name, but by a numbering system (this first bottle I received is number 121.30) that started out from an agreement to not advertise the origins of the whisky in order to maintain access to a broad array of distilleries. That said, the hints are often quite heavy as to the origin, and a number of other writers (such as Jim Murray and Serge Valentin) have freely identified the distilleries in their reviews.

The society also seems to have a lot of fun with devising tasting notes to put on the bottle. This Arran, for instance, coming at 11 years of age and bottled at 55.6% abv is described as "crispy aromatic duck and Waldorf salad." Well, Waldorf salad is quite a stretch, but the crispy duck I can see once I get into the glass. The color is bronzy-gold and the un-diluted nose is burnt sugar, varnish, rose petals and, yes, glazed chicken or duck -- Asian style, not French. I get surprisingly little nose prickle on this one, and its mouth feel is quite round, spicy, with some citrus notes at the end. With water, the nose develops more caramel or taffy, more flowers, honeysuckle, and butterscotch. I also get turpentine, but not in a bad way. The taste is still spicy and austere, but with more honey coming through. An enjoyable dram, but not a stunner.

The Frozen Chosen

Some folks in New England have an innovative approach to saving heritage breeds of various animals from the fainting goat to the Gulf Coast ram. They've created a fertility bank to cryogenically freeze sperm and eggs from these breeds. Read more about it here at the New York Times.