Some office lunchtime smells can be gnarly — leftover shrimp scampi, for instance — while others are contagious. Barbecued meat, fries and curries all fall into this latter category. One whiff can alter your own lunch plans. Earlier today, when the spicy aromas from a coworker's chicken tikka masala wafted through the office, my lunchtime fate was sealed.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked. Not from an Indian place, it turned out, but from City Market, which my coworker praised for serving up consistently delicious grab-and-go meals.
I'd have to agree. City Market is like the sleeper of the Burlington lunch category, the place where I turn when I'm in a rush but totally indecisive. When I get there, I know there will be sandwiches and feta boreks and empanadas and peanut noodles and sometimes even tagine to choose from. An army of talented cooks of all backgrounds works behind the scenes there — and a secondary army of talented producers delivers ready-made meals each day.
It's easy to take the place for granted. After I procured my own $7.99 tikka masala today — and tucked into cardamom-scented rice, tender pieces of meat and a creamy, coriander-flecked, slow-burn sauce — I thought about how many times City Market had saved what I thought might be a "sad lunch" day. The only thing I needed to add was my own off-the-cuff raita, with cukes and yogurt from — you guessed it.
It's no secret that food sells, especially when it comes to magazines. Yet the striking blueberry pie that appears on the cover of Vermont Law School's Loquitur — as well as the picture of dean Marc Mihaly sautéeing a veggie omelette — promise something different than recipes within.
The entire Winter 2013 issue of Loquitur, VLS' alumni magazine, is devoted to food — "Good Food," as the cover promises — as well as the people who work to grow, make and protect it.
“We focused this issue of Loquitur on food for several reasons," writes Peter Glenshaw, VLS' director of communications, in an email. "Our faculty and alumni are actively engaged in this sector, and with the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law, we are now seeing a new generation of students express a deep interest in the topic."
Besides the usual alumni news, this Loquitur highlights VLS graduates who have become farmers or food producers; a piece about how the legal needs of the farmers and producers might create a new crop of law-related jobs (written by Ben Hewitt, author of The Town That Food Saved); and a profile of VLS' one-year-old Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, which is developing food-ag curriculum for students and advocacy and policy guidance for farmers and food producers.
"Food offers a good platform to convey the importance of legal education and the power that law has on something we do every day — eat!" adds Glenshaw.
At first glance, food and the law might not seem like natural companions. But they certainly are at South Royalton's VLS, which is physically surrounded by working landscape. "There is so much going on in the food movement, and I think that one of the benefits of having the Center [for Agriculture and Food Systems] at the law school is that we're watching the new food movement unfold here, and participating in it," says Laurie Ristino, who last year left her gig as a senior counsel at the USDA to become CAFS' director. "We want farmers to know that we're not in an ivory tower here."
Ristino and her staff have been dynamic in the Center's first year, setting up an expanded food-based curriculum; a website on food labeling; a legal clinic to provide expanded education and advocacy; and partnerships with organizations such as the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) with whom CAFS will set up a suite of tools for those who run farmers markets.
"[Farmers markets] don't always have advisory boards or governance boards to make sure that they run well," says Ristino. "We're going to provide a suite of user-friendly solutions and documents that can be used off-the-shelf, and stand the test of time — to make sure they have that infrastructure and backbone to stay robust."
These are the unsexy, wonky but necessary parts of a healthy food system. Through Loquitur, we get to read all about it. Hope VLS has plenty of pie at the ready.
Loquitur cover photograph by Bob Rossi; pie baked by Lou's Restaurant in Hanover, N.H.
1696 Williston Road, South Burlington, 652-1155
This weekend, I fell in love. Diner love, one of the most important kinds in my line of work, right up there with eros, agape and sushi.
Coming from the New York City suburbs, where diner food is a proud regional tradition, I have taken nearly 16 years in Vermont to find a diner that I considered completely acceptable. But it's finally happened. And best of all, the Parkway Diner is right in my neighborhood.
You might be thinking, It's just diner food, what's the big deal? One thing is the enviable freshness of the product, very clear in the above-average salad at right. And that's in the off season. Owner Corey Gottfried says he plans to source local ingredients come summer.
The basil-speckled tomato soup was also delicious. And for $4.75, the combo could have made a satisfying meal on its own.
Each day there's a choice of two homemade soups, but I might make a special trip for a repeat of the thick, rich tomato.
No such efforts are necessary for one of the best burgers I've had in recent memory: The VT Burger is always on the menu.
The fluffy, slightly sweet, brioche-style bun was griddled for a crisp, buttery finish. It brought me back to happy childhood meals at Fuddrucker's, a chain with the slogan "Better Buns, Better Burger." At Parkway, it was so true.
The burger itself was ideally seasoned with just enough salt and pepper to bring out the natural taste of the juicy beef.
The Spicy Burger with fried onions and jalapeños piqued my interest, but I suspect I'll be sticking to the VT Burger for its dual crunch of fresh apple and delightfully crisped bacon, and its layer of sharp cheddar that bites through the apple's sweetness.
As much of a triumph as the burger was, my diner food of choice has always been the hot turkey sandwich, and the Parkway nailed it.
While I was eating, a cook took from the oven two whole turkeys surrounded by vegetables. Clearly, I'm not the only one loving the turkey.
One of the keys to the sandwich's success was its combination of white and dark meats. The white was meltingly tender, while the dark gave it flavor and texture.
The giblet-flecked gravy boasted the complex flavors contributed by the symbiosis of turkey and veggies roasted together. I appreciated the extra cup of gravy I was given along with my basket of crisp, skin-on fries.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go finish my hot turkey leftovers so I can stop drooling.
Alice Eats is a weekly blog feature devoted to reviewing restaurants where diners can get a meal for two for less than $35. Got a restaurant you'd love to see featured? Send it to alice@sevendaysvt.com.
This weekend, the brand-new executive director of Slow Food USA, Richard McCarthy, will tour some of Burlington's culinary hotspots — the Farmers Market, the Intervale South End Kitchen and Hen of the Wood among them.
Why is he here? This year, Slow Food Vermont was one of the top four U.S. chapters in terms of new membership; McCarthy's visit is a reward of sorts.
"I have been so proud of our chapter for the past five years, coming up with good, clean and fair programming for all in Vermont," writes Mara Welton, co-owner of the Intervale's Half Pint Farm and the leader of Slow Food Vermont. "I'm in awe when I reflect on the growth of our chapter, the awareness of Slow Food increasing, and all of our events having such an amazing response. It will be really wonderful to share that with the man himself."
Slow Food USA is a branch of Slow Food International, an organization founded in Italy in 1989 with the goal of preserving local food traditions — or, in Slow Food's words, "to counter the rise of fast food and fast life."
Millions of people worldwide now count themselves as Slow Food members, even as the organization has gone through growing pains with regards to its mission.
McCarthy joined Slow Food in 2001, a few years after working with neighbors and growers to create New Orleans' Crescent City Farmers Market in 1995.
On the eve of his visit, McCarthy took some time to answer a few questions.
SEVEN DAYS: When (and why) did you first get involved with Slow Food?
RICHARD MCCARTHY: I became a member of Slow Food USA back in 2001, when I was in New Orleans working as an advocate for food workers and farmers in the region. I became involved with Slow Food because I believe in a good, clean and fair food system for everyone, and the organization provides a way to support that in a grassroots way.
SD: You were instrumental in getting a farmers market up and running in New Orleans, and served as its director for 17 years. What was the biggest challenge?
RM: There were two big challenges in reinventing the neighborhood public market tradition in New Orleans at the tail end of the 20th century: One, supply, and the other, demand. Few believed that in a crime-filled city, people would support a downtown market. Two, there were fewer farmers than we had imagined, even in our worst calculations.
SD: New Orleans has been singled out for its food deserts (in Vermont, we have a few as well). What has Slow Food done in terms of improving affordability of/accessibility to local food in the Crescent City?
RM: Maybe it's bioregional, but we tend to think of it in terms of food swamps. There is plenty of bad food around, much of it sold in convenience stores, corner stores and the like. Many neighborhoods are swamped with high fat, high salt and endless sweets to stretch the dollars. After the infrastructure collapsed in Katrina, which flooded the city, it was interesting was to see how few of these corner stores did not have the capital to restart operations. At this point, what was swamp became "desert."
In many ways, this was the age of rural encroachment. Isolation in poor neighborhoods was always an issue, but with scaled-back public transport and very few retail food outlets, vulnerable families found themselves even more vulnerable. However, it also triggered a period of significant innovation: Food trucks rolled into town; new markets and new gardens grew; a convergence of public health and community development yielded new collaboratives. And here, in particular, Slow Food played a role in drawing attention to the role of traditional foods (like red beans and rice) as worthy of praise.
This struck such a different chord than the prevailing public health tone that stresses the irresponsible behavior of the vulnerable. The work I led focused largely around the development of health incentives (for seniors, children and parents on SNAP and FMNP) that reward vulnerable consumers for taking the risks to change behavior — to purchase fresh foods directly from food producers. The other primary investment was to grow innovative school garden programs at charter schools into the Edible School Yard.
SD: With "farm-to-table" part of the common vernacular, how might you explain Slow Food USA's relevance in today's foodscape?
RM: While Slow Food USA definitely celebrates the farm-to-table movement, our network encompasses a larger scope of today's current food landscape. From fair wages for farmers, to better access to healthy food, to preserving our traditional foods and knowledge, the principles that Slow Food was founded on are still at the heart all that we do: Good, clean and fair food for all.
SD: As the new executive director of Slow Food USA, what do you hope to accomplish during your tenure?
RM: I hope to reinforce to community members, leaders, families and farmers that Slow Food USA is committed to helping communities build a food system that fairly serves everybody, helps connect people, and supports leaders around the country as they come up with creative and effective solutions to some of our country's food issues — access, fairness and industrialized agriculture. It's what is at the root of Slow Food: connecting community members to each other, sharing ideas — and, of course, sharing pleasure in food.
SD: Have you visited Burlington before? (If not, what do you expect to find?)
RM: During New Orleans' summers, many of us would dream of Burlington and its gregarious municipal life amidst a sparsely populated and green (during the summer) land. I've long been intrigued with how Vermont touches French-speaking Canada and is likely influenced by its close geographic and cultural affinities. And then there's the high level of interest (or at least comfort with) the idea of rugged independence, if not secession. And yet, I've never been. So very excited to finally visit.
SD: Only last week, you moved from NOLA to Brooklyn. Has anything in particular struck you about the Brooklyn food scene?
RM: The NOLA food scene is largely shaped by a longstanding devotion to tradition, to the Creole blending of cultures into a single (French) cuisine. Of course, the end result is not exactly French, but Creole. Regardless, the excitement is in the blending, the mixing of cultures: African, French, Spanish, Houma nation, Italian, Croatian, German and Irish (to name a few).
By contrast, Brooklyn (and the rest of NYC) is a place where ethnic enclaves work hard not to mix. Rather, it's authentic Chinese, authentic Pakistani, authentic Haitian, etc., but no mixing. The DNA is very different here. Since I crave the various immigrant flavors, I'm loving it. Where you see new, daring food work is in the cottage industry incubation, urban agriculture and a fascinating belief that in an urban core we can produce our own food (on rooftops, etc.). The cottage industries cover the gamut: Sweets, spirits, and tempeh. Though there's a danger of these efforts forgetting the importance of rural food production, thank heavens for the presence of the GrowNYC Greenmarkets. They bring dozens of farmers into town each week. They remind us of the city-state that exists in commerce (if not in politics).
SD: What did you eat for dinner last night?
RM: Oh, how funny. I cooked (for the first time in some time) Gado Gado. It's something of a national dish in Indonesia — a boiled vegetable salad served with rice and peanut sauce. Though I respect culinary traditions, I also can't follow a recipe. So I improvise. Instead of peanuts, I used sunflower seeds. Sunflower sprouts and cucumbers; instead of white rice, I used a Filipino black rice (on the Slow Food Ark of Taste of endangered foods); and instead of tofu, I used tempeh.
This week: Cidre Bourgeois from Citizen Cider
Cost: $11.99 for a 750-ml bottle at Healthy Living Market in South Burlington
Strength: 6.2 percent abv.
The pour: Almost clear but faintly tinged with gold. There's no head to speak of, just a few lazy bubbles bobbing around the glass. It's barely aromatic, with just the subtlest whiffs of green apples and maybe lemon.
The taste: Light, crisp, a touch tart, drying. The label calls this "floral," but I tasted lemon and quince, with hints of lemon curd around the edges. The finish is puckery and the texture is akin to that of an effervescent white wine such as vinho verde.
Drink it with: I thought this would go well with an aged goat cheese, but I was wrong — the heft and character of aged cheddar (in this case, Grafton Cave-Aged Clothbound Cheddar) makes this cider seem lusher and rounder. I'd also drink it with sole meunière or shrimp scampi. (Now I'm hungry).
Backstory: For this "bourgeois" quaff, the guys at Citizen Cider culled heirloom apples from New Haven's Kent Ridge Orchards. It's a limited release, and lower in alcohol than the rest of their ciders.
Verdict: This is much drier than the company's flagship drink, Unified Press. With its brightness and faint effervescence, it's very food friendly. It's a shame Cidre Bourgeois might run out soon, though, as it would be perfect to sip on a warm, late-spring day. I'm socking a few bottles away until May.
Midweek Swig tackles a new liquid release each week. If you have suggestions for something to sample, send them to Corin at corin@sevendaysvt.com.
When Sandor Katz, author of the James Beard Foundation Award-winning The Art of Fermentation, spoke at Sterling College last spring, he attracted a standing-room-only crowd. Now he's returning to the institution, this time as a teacher.
Katz, also known as Sandorkraut, will be at Sterling from July 7 through 18 to teach "Fermentation with Sandor Katz."
According to Christian Feuerstein, Sterling's director of communications, "He is going to be available to [help students] learn fermentation one on one." Topics covered will include vegetable fermentation; making tonic beverages; culturing molds; and fermenting oils, legumes, grains and nuts. Of course, the New York Times-bestselling author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved will include his namesake sauerkraut among the foods in which he shares his expertise.
For those more interested in curds than kraut, Sterling will also offer another session of the popular cheese course that debuted this month. French cheese expert Ivan Larcher will once again work with Sterling and the Cellars at Jasper Hill to offer an artisan cheesemaking intensive. This one will run from May 27 to June 6.
An instructor has not yet been named for Sterling's meat course, titled "Charcuterie Program: Butchering, Processing, Fermentation, and Curing."
It used to be that January was the Vermont dining nadir. Everyone was light on both product and motivation to do much besides try to lose weight gained over the holidays.
Clearly, times have changed. I spent the weekend going to a different culinary event each night. If you missed out, keep these breaks from the winter doldrums in mind when they next appear.
Friday: In Good Taste, St. Albans
I could never have anticipated the crowd that clogged the St. Albans City Hall on Friday night. Clearly, Franklin County was starving for a good food event. The evening began at 5 p.m. By the time I got there after 6:30, 20 tasting tickets for $10 had been discounted to $5. According to the folks selling tickets, so many vendors had already sold out that it was only fair.
But there was still lots to learn.
I started with a sip of cucumber-flavored TreTap. The supplemented water is made from the byproducts of maple sugaring at Branon's West View Maples. Basically, it's SmartWater with a Vermont edge. It didn't taste like cucumber, but the ultra-pure liquid was a nice palate cleanser before feasting.
Nearby, students from Northwest Technical Center's culinary arts program were preparing a piquant steak tartare using meat donated by Highgate Center's Choiniere Family Farm.
I ended the evening with a flight of five different ice ciders from from Hall Home Place of Isle La Motte.
Surprisingly for this nondrinker, my favorite was the Sweet Six, which its makers describe as having a "brandy-like finish." What I liked more than the burn was the ideal blend of sweet and tart. The acid of some apples cut through the sticky sweetness of others. Too bad the six apples change each season. I may never taste a blend quite like that one again.
Saturday: Ramen Cook-Off, Shelburne
The following evening, my buddy Jack Thurston and I judged the first of three annual cooking contests held at Chef Contos Kitchen & Store, owned by another pal, Courtney Contos.
Since the store is small, entries were capped at seven. To keep things fair, we tasted each bowl anonymously labeled with a number. Three were Thai curry soups, not ramens, so, while tasty, they simply couldn't win.
One soup stood out clearly from the pack. It had the lip-glossing slick of collagen I was looking for in a well-salted broth. Just as the truck drivers in Tampopo insist, the balance of broth, noodles and meat was spot-on, too. And it turned out the winner had a familiar face.
Suzanne Podhaizer of Salt in Montpelier, former Seven Days food editor, turned out to be the ramen's creator. I hadn't realized at first taste that the soup was made not from pork but from goose, including braised meat and cracklings from the animals she helped raise (and slaughter) herself at a farm called Gozzard City in Cabot.
Podhaizer made the noodles by hand that morning, as well as the nori. It was actually fried kale flavored to approximate seaweed, a cool trick that kept the dish, complete with local eggs and squash, utterly locavore.
Sunday: Souper Bowl, Waitsfield
A week before the big game, the Inn at the Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield hosted its liquid equivalent. This was my first time at the Souper Bowl, an event created by Round Barn chef Charlie Menard.
I arrived on the late side (hey, I had to get to the gym before I binged!), so I missed the stellar butternut squash soup that I'd tried at the Common Man Restaurant the week before. Obviously, people were as blown away by the kaffir lime marshmallow melting with green-curry croutons and reduced coconut milk as I was.
But I was still able to try most of the eight remaining soups — after a slice of fennel-and-bacon pie from American Flatbread, of course.
There were too many highlights to give full attention to all, but my partner and I agreed on our top two — we even got second bowls of each as the chefs cleaned up to leave.
Bacon-andouille corn chowder from Localfolk Smokehouse was an inspired combination of rich, creamy soup sweetened by corn and rocked by spicy, smoky sausage whose flavors permeated the whole potage.
Sausage, this time homemade using pork from nearby Gaylord Farm, was also the centerpiece of the entry from the Hyde Away Inn & Restaurant. The lightly spiced meat imparted a sense of mischief to what looked like a simple, healthy kale soup filled with orzo.
Those second helpings left my ribs sore from overstuffing, but, hey, there's only one Souper Bowl a year.
Alice Eats is a weekly blog feature devoted to reviewing restaurants where diners can get a meal for two for less than $35. Got a restaurant you'd love to see featured? Send it to alice@sevendaysvt.com.
On November 5, 2013, the owners of Vermont cult brewery the Alchemist announced they were closing their tasting room to the public. Now, Jen Kimmich, who runs the company with brewer husband John, has announced the plan to add a new property that will hold a second brewery, a tasting room and a retail shop.
Jen Kimmich says she has been looking at properties in the Waterbury area, and down the Route 100 corridor into Stowe. "We've had tons of people contact us who want us to go to Rutland or Barre or Colchester, but we don't want to drive that far," she says.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Kimmich described finding what she and her husband thought would be the perfect addition, before learning it wasn't zoned for retail. After a busy day hunting on Wednesday, she tells Seven Days she still hasn't found the perfect complement to their small brewery, which turns out 9,000 barrels of Heady Topper each year. "We have a few options," Kimmich says.
Whatever real estate the couple decides on, it will serve several purposes. John Kimmich will soon announce a second beer that the company will can. The additional brewery will allow him to create different varieties and experiment with smaller batches. These will be served in the tasting room, but will primarily be for retail. Kimmich also envisions an outdoor as well as an indoor space.
Kimmich says the tasting room will likely serve snacks, such as cheese plates, along with a rotating lineup of beers. However, don't look for another brew pub. "We don't ever want to have a full restaurant again," she says.
Beyond that, Kimmich says to expect the unexpected. "Our creativity has been stifled [by lack of space]. But soon we'll have a lot of space that will allow us to do all the fun things we want to do."
Nika, the Mediterranean restaurant that opened at 83 Church Street last March, closed suddenly earlier this month. On Tuesday, Seven Days learned that the company behind Farmhouse Tap & Grill, El Cortijo Taqueria Y Cantina, Guild Tavern and Guild Fine Meats is planning to open a new restaurant in the former nika space.
"We're planning a new, casual Italian restaurant," says Kristina Bond, director of marketing for the Farmhouse Group. "We don't have anything else to report at this moment other than we're super excited!"
Nika opened on March 25, 2013, replacing Three Tomatoes Trattoria, which had turned out wood-fired pizzas and pasta dishes for 21 years in the Church Street basement restaurant space. The restaurant was originally called Sweet Tomatoes.
By opening nika, Three Tomatoes owners Robert Myers and Jim Reiman hoped to appeal to a broader clientele. Though that culinary experiment is over, the two still own Three Tomatoes restaurants in Williston, Rutland and Lebanon, N.H.
Bond says that more details will emerge as work progresses on the Farmhouse Group's latest restaurant. But Farmhouse Group co-owner Jed Davis is no stranger to the space. He was once director of operations for Three Tomatoes.
Wednesdays at ArtsRiot Kitchen Collective, 400 Pine Street, Burlington, 540-0406
Just as it should, the ArtsRiot Kitchen Collective has continued to morph since I visited every pop-up dinner for a week in November. Last week, I made it to the Hawker Stall, which debuted its Wednesday night dinners last month.
But the man behind the Hawker Stall isn't new to ArtsRiot. Jeremy Bernozzi was Richard Witting's sous-chef at the space's short-lived Chinese café.
Now Bernozzi is bringing his vast knowledge of Asian cuisine to Wednesdays, with a new stop each week. He works with Misery Loves Co. vet Andrew Burke, who adds fine dining experience to Bernozzi's street food. Every other week, Burke's menus prevail with more upscale offerings, such as "inauthentic Japanese" tasting menus.
Last week, I made it to one of Bernozzi's nights. He was focused on the neighborhoods of Kuala Lumpur, a destination that I've long had on my wish list. And I hadn't experienced Malaysian food since I was a kid in New York City.
Clearly, I wasn't alone in my excitement. By the time I arrived, about 7 p.m., the kitchen had already sold out of daal fritters and beef stew. I ordered coconut ice cream, but the counter help forgot to include it in my order and that, too, was gone by the time I realized it.
This isn't the Hawker Stall's fault, but careless counter service seems to be part of the deal at ArtsRiot, and the one thing that keeps me from being a regular.
But Bernozzi and Burke's food was worth it. I had never had anything quite like their rojak before. The salad featured cubes of pineapple, sour mango and apple sweetened with tamarind and palm sugar. A touch of shrimp paste added salt, while bird's-eye chiles gave it heat. Cilantro cooled it, and tofu skin, peanuts and sesame gave the dish varied texture. The deceptively complex flavors were as bright and beautiful as the salad looked.
Cabbage thoran brought me back to the Malaysian flavors I remember eating as a child. Glowing with turmeric, the texture was ever so slightly powdery, but I still couldn't help tearing into the shredded cabbage and toasted coconut dish. Chiles contributed just a hint of burn, but jaggery (hardened sugar that was likely responsible for the dry texture) sweetly calmed it. Those black specks in the photo at right aren't poppy seeds. They're mustard seeds, which added a nice pop of flavor and texture.
The clear star of the evening was the nasi lemak, a traditional dish of assorted small bites usually served for breakfast in Malaysia.
The centerpiece was a mound of coconut rice scented with pandan. The sweet grains provided a delicious base for a pile of crispy, salty little fried anchovies.
Nonya cuisine is known for combining Chinese flavors with more traditional Malaysian ones, and the inche kabin chicken wings ably displayed the fusion. The spice blend coating the crisp chicken reminded me of five spice, but with greater subtlety.
A coconut milk marinade kept the interior super moist and slightly sweet. I loved the dipping sauce on the side, a tangy combination of Worcestershire sauce, lime and mustard.
I was particularly fond of a blob of coconut chutney that sat just behind the rice, but every little taste on the plate, from a hard-boiled egg to fresh cucumber to fried peanuts, played an important role.
Bernozzi says that next week he and Burke will be taking diners to China, from which he'll serve regional specialties to celebrate the dawning of the Year of the Horse. If I can, I'll be there.
Alice Eats is a weekly blog feature devoted to reviewing restaurants where diners can get a meal for two for less than $35. Got a restaurant you'd love to see featured? Send it to alice@sevendaysvt.com.