Surprisingly, I'm Very Busy...

I was posting daily for a while there, but haven't done so this week...between putting out two issues of the paper and trying to prepare for xmas, it's been pretty hectic. I'll be posting my holiday menu as soon as I've figured out what it's going to be, and should have some recipes for you after the holidays (maybe they'll be useful next year)!

In other news, I joined Facebook, and it's much more fun (read: addictive) than I'd expected. After all, I'm now part of groups like "New Englanders Against Fake Maple Syrup" and "The Great State of Vermont Will Not Apologize For It's Cheese." So if you're on Facebook, come say hi!

Hope you're all baking cookies and drinking eggnog!

Happy Birthday to Kismet (It's a Party!)

The lovely ladies at Kismet are throwing a party tomorrow, beginning at 5 p.m., to celebrate their 1 year anniversary. In addition to Alanna and Crystal's tapas-style treats and yummy drinks, there will be a bunch of cool food producers handing out samples of their products.

The full text  of their press release is below...

"After one full year and nearly 8000 meals served, Kismet of 207 Barre street, Montpelier, Vermont, will roll out the red carpet and throw their very own Birthday Bash. Kismet Owners, Alanna Dorf and Crystal Maderia, plan to transform the tiny breakfast/brunch space, for one evening, to mark the first anniversary of their new restaurant and successful catering business.

“ This party gives us an opportunity to connect with our restaurant customers, neighbors, and catering clients alike. Many people still don’t know we’re here and many have tried either our restaurant menu or have experienced our catering, but few have sampled both”, Says Crystal Maderia. “We have a great thing happening here,” says Alanna Dorf, in regards to their local foods menu and personal relationships with their customers and employees, “and it’s exciting every time a person comes in and says ’wow!, I’ve never been here before.’ We made it through our first year, and it’s time to celebrate with our regulars while opening our doors to people who have been wanting to check out what we’re all about.”

Restaurant regulars and catering clients will enjoy samplings of Kismet favorites, like their dandelion lattes, hot chocolate, and even a variety of their house made butters to take home, as well as an eclectic assortment of creative tapas that Kismet will feature on their catering menu. In addition, guests will be able to meet with and sample products from other local food producers featured on the kismet menu. Nutty Stef’s Granola, La Strada Bakery, Red Hen Bakery, Awake Coffee, Jasper Hill cheese company, Butterworks Farm, Winding Brook Farm, Vermont Foods Distributors, Patchwork Farm and Bakery, and local farmers will be joining the kismet staff in celebrating the business’s first year.

“We never really had a ‘Grand Opening’,” say’s Crystal, “maybe because our opening has been more gradual- like a slow unfolding…As we get more comfortable, more used to this whole endeavor, we open up more and more while at the same time learning how to maintain our own personal bounderies and the well-being of the business. The mark of our first year is really big for us. We both have given so much to this business, and the business has given to us both in such an intimate way. We are ready to celebrate that, and can do so with a confidence we didn’t have a year ago.”

“December 21 marks the shortest and darkest day of the year” remarks Alanna in regards to their one year anniversary and the date of their open house celebration, “and is a perfect example of what we do here. We are constantly trying to make more out of less, make things brighter, to find balance and to stay connected to what is happening in the world around us”. The red carpet will be rolled out on December 21, and doors will open at 5:00 pm.

Recipe: Jack Woods' Enhanced Eggnog

This is not really a recipe for eggnog: It's a recipe for something you can do with eggnog, provided that you want to get as drunk as possible without consuming more than your share of the creamy stuff. I haven't tried this (I prefer the eggnog to the booze, myself), but for those of you who like to walk on the wild side, here it is, courtesy of my co-worker, Rick Woods, and his father.

Dad's Eggnog

1 quart eggnog
6 1/2 oz. light or dark rum
3 1/4 oz. Myers dark rum
6 1/2 oz. brandy
1/2 pint vanilla ice cream
freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Mix.

-- OR --

1 gallon eggnog
1 fifth of light or dark rum
1/2 fifth of Myers dark rum
1 fifth of brandy
1 qt. vanilla ice cream
Freshly grated nutmeg

Mix.

Hunting and the Localvore (Locavore) Movement

This morning I came across an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times about whether or not hunting and fishing fit into the localvore lifestyle. It's something I've been thinking about a bunch since our hunting issue. Here's the NYT piece, and a few related links.

~ NYT: Locavore, Get Your Gun by Steve Rinella
~ Maine Hunting Today: Is Hunting and Consuming Game Now Being Considered Eco-Friendly? by Tom Remington
~ National Geographic: Hunters: For Love of the Land by Robert M. Poole
~ Times Argus: Posted Land, Development, Hamper Vermont Hunters by Andrew Nemethy

I'm sure there are many others...I'll keep an eye out.

The Oddest FDA Warning I've Seen...

It's 2:30 a.m. and I can't sleep, so I'm trolling my Google Reader for interesting stuff with which to amuse myself. What have I found so far? An unusual FDA warning:

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use 3.5   oz. packages of Swad brand sindoor, an orange   or red powder used in some traditional South Asian Pacific ceremonies that   is applied to the face or scalp...Although the   product was not intended to be sold for food use, its labeling is confusing   and implies that it may be used as food.  The Illinois Department of Public   Health has confirmed two cases of lead poisoning in consumers who used the   product as an ingredient in home cooked meals.  Other uses of the product, including as a cosmetic, can also be dangerous due to the high lead levels."

What did the misleading label say? "SWAD BEST TASTE IN TOWN SINDOOR",  "FOR RECIPE IDEAS VISIT OUR WEBSITE." I wonder if the consumers who came down with lead poisoning were Indians who assumed the product was food-safe because of its traditional uses, or Americans who assumed that the pretty red powder was a food dye because of the "recipe ideas" wording on the package?

I couldn't find sindoor on Swad's website, but I did find a bunch of instant Indian meals, and evidence that someone who works at the company is able to clearly communicate about their products in descriptive English. One bit of copy reads: "It’s the age-old dilemma. The pressures of the day and the commitments of job and family leave precious little time for the delicate preparations of the traditional Indian meal...It’s for this exact predicament that Raja Foods presents the “Easy Entertain” solution. With the robust line of sumptuous offerings from the SWAD production line, you can virtually eliminate the prep time for a stirringly wholesome meal from start to finish. Guests are satisfied, palates are fulfilled, and the day is saved."

Holiday Gifts on Etsy

Ever wanted a crocheted fondue set or or a button featuring a dancing rasher of bacon? You can find these wacky items and a whole lot more on Etsy.com, an e-store for crafters (and buyers of crafts, of course).

I think I heard of Etsy once upon a time from a friend whose mother makes jewelry, but I didn't realize until yesterday how much stuff there is for a foodies. Once I did, and started searching in earnest, I realized how user friendly Etsy is. There are numerous ways to find items you'll be interested in  -- even a really unusual "search by color" option.

I was going to look through everything tagged "food" and list my favorites, but who am I kidding...I don't have time to go through all 341 pages!

Have fun shopping!

"Christmas Cocoa" on The Gilded Fork

Have a favorite holiday foodie tradition? Unsurprisingly, I've got a bunch. One is planning a really dramatic Christmas dinner for my family, starting to cook at dawn and realizing at 7 p.m. that the food won't be ready until 11. And everyone's really hungry. That's a fun one. Despite that, though, Christmas is definitely my favorite day of the year, followed closely (in both senses) by my birthday two days later.

Before I got the job at Seven Days, I wrote a handful of sensual little "Gastronomic Meditations" and book reviews for a website called The Gilded Fork, now part of the Culinary Media Network. One of them, called "Christmas Cocoa," was about just such a tradition.

Thanks to my RSS reader, I noticed yesterday that they've re-posted the article. It was fun to read something I wrote before I worked as a journalist, and nice that they remembered it.

Even if you don't feel like delving into my relationship with chocolate, if you're a fan of sexy food photography, creative recipes and gastronomically themed podcasts, you should definitely give their website a look. 

Skinny Pancake DOES Have Vegan Crêpe Batter!

After reading my Skinny Pancake "Taste Test," crêperie owner Benjy Adler got in touch to let me know that the SP has a vegan crêpe batter that isn't currently listed on the menu, but is available nonetheless.

How do they make something that is typically based on eggs, butter and milk vegan? By substituting chickpea flour and olive oil for the animal products. You can order the ethical option without an increase in price. Although there's no design-your-own-crêpe option on the menu, folks with dietary restrictions can swap fillings to meet their needs.  "We try to be very accommodating," Benjy explains.

Benjy also let me know that the SP recently introduced a buckwheat batter, which is not only traditional, but is also safe for folks with celiac (also spelled coeliac) disease.

Recipe: Pumpkin and Fennel Frittata

On many mornings I get up bright 'n' early and work from home for a few hours before heading to the office. There's something nice about blogging and answering e-mails while wearing my pajamas and eating breakfast.

My sweetie didn't have to work yesterday, so while I typed away he made me a really creative omelet using stuff from our Pete's Greens localvore share (I adore the Pete's Greens localvore share, by the way). Because D. works in the restaurant industry, he's great at flipping omelets in the air and catching them. I'm deathly afraid of missing and making a mess, so I prefer to prepare frittata instead. Here's my take on his creation.

Pumpkin and Fennel Frittata

Pumpkin or other squash
Fennel bulbs
Butter
Eggs
Milk, Cream or Soymilk
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to broil.

Peel the squash. Use a vegetable peeler if the skin is thin and a paring knife if it is thick. Wash the fennel. Make thin slices of fennel and pumpkin -- around the same number of slices each -- stopping when you have enough to cover an omelet of the size you plan to make.

Melt butter, and when it sizzles, lay the slices of pumpkin and fennel in the butter. Cook, turning once, until tender. The temperature should be high enough to caramelize the pumpkin a bit. Remove from heat.

If you're using the same pan (it's gotta be broiler-safe for the next step), wash it out...cooking eggs in a pan that has already been used makes them more likely to stick. If not, melt butter in a new pan. Whisk eggs and milk together. When the butter sizzles, pour in the eggs. After the bottom layer has set, lift it up with a rubber spatula and allow the  remaining egg to run underneath. Continue doing this, moving around the edge of the pan, until the top moves sluggishly.

Place the pumpkin and fennel slices atop the egg. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Run the pan under the broiler until the top of the frittata is cooked and puffy, which doesn't take very long.  Serve.

Variations that we haven't tried, but which sound as if they'd be good:

Top the eggs with goat cheese before broiling
Add a small amount of nutmeg to the eggs before cooking
Cook onions, shallots or garlic alongside the vegetables
Brown some pancetta, cook the pumpkin and fennel in said fat, crumble pancetta on top before serving
Top with slivers of prosciutto before serving
Vegan: Cook the pumpkin and fennel in olive oil, put on top of a tofu scram

Garrett Oliver at The Daily Planet

If there is anybody who deserves the title "American  Beer God," it's probably Garrett Oliver. He's the brewmaster and Vice President of New York's Brooklyn Brewery, sits on beer-judging panels and authored The Brewmaster's Table, an authoritative tome on pairing beer and food. Last Sunday, I was lucky enough to hear him speak at the Daily Planet's third beer and food pairing (they're doing them regularly, these days).

I first heard Oliver give a talk during a beer 'n' cheese pairing at
the American Cheese Society conference in Burlington last summer. There, I was introduced to the argument that beer is actually a better accompaniment to food than wine is. Why? Beer-o-philes say that that caramelized, roast-y flavors that come from malt and the bitter, bright notes courtesy of hops, match up well with the flavors in foods that we eat (and that the yeasty, fruity qualities of wine don't do so quite as well). Plus, the "scrubbing bubbles," as Oliver jokingly referred to them, help to refresh the palate.

Last Sunday, after attendees milled around sipping Brooklyn Local 1 -- an ale that is re-fermented in the bottle (like Champagne) -- and sampling a trio of Vermont cheeses -- Vermont Ayr from Crawford Family Farm, Constant Bliss from Jasper Hill Farm and Bonne Bouche from Vermont Butter & Cheese , we settled at our tables to listen to Oliver talk a bit about beer, with the wit of a culinary comedian. His first point: That the "beer" produced in the United States before the craft brewing movement doesn't even qualify as beer. "It's not made of the stuff that beer is made of. It's not made how beer is made," he opined. Same thing goes for the real bread vs. the supermarket stuff, and American "cheese" that is only 80% milk. "Cheese is 100% milk," said Oliver, "Kraft Singles are plastic."

And then it was time for the meal. Here's the menu:

~ Tuna tartare with sesame lemongrass dressing; Lager   

~ Spicy gazpacho, guacamole and a baked-chicken taquito; East India Pale Ale

~ Moroccan Lamb Tagine; Brown Ale

~ Ancho Chile Dusted Molten Chocolate Cake; Black Chocolate Stout

The tagine was my favorite dish that evening -- it was complex, meaty and sweet -- and I'm a huge fan of the Local 1 and the Brown Ale, but my favorite pairing was the spicy gazpacho with the I.P.A. The "hot" soup and the citrus-y bitterness of the beer worked really well together.

I'm definitely sold on this beer pairing thing.

The Tercenturian Hamper

What can you buy for $40,577.90? A new car or two. A trip around the world with stops at luxury hotels and the finest restaurants. One-third of a small home. OR, a Tercenturian Hamper from Fortnum & Mason. Mind you, this isn't an American hamper in which you'd place dirty clothes. This is more along the lines of what we'd call a picnic basket. The hamper, which the company is selling to commemorate its 300th year in business (truly amazing), is crafted from English willow and stuffed with the most luxurious foods on earth.

The folks at F&M say: "This is no useless hymn to opulence, no gormless glut of gilded lilies. Everything here is on depth of merit."

What's inside? Here's a smattering: Baron de Lustrac, Armagnac 1900; Beluga Caviar, 200g tin; Cropwell Bishop Whole Baby Stilton, min. wt. 2.2kg; 25 Person Foie Gras en Croûte, 1.09kg; Side of Smoked Scottish Wild Salmon, min. wt. 1.6kg...

There's also a 1955 port, 5 liters of Chateau D'Yquem and a few non-food luxury items such as pink and gray cashmere socks and hand-engraved stationary.

As much as I'm disturbed by the excess and have no need for a men's leather jewelry case nor a wood and steel cigar cutter, I'm also enthralled by the idea of trying things like 107-year-old liqueur and a 52-year-old port. Would I buy it if I were filthy rich and had already given huge quantities of money to charity? Possibly.

I view this ridiculous hamper in a different way than I do the wacky bagels that sell for $1000 each or gold-flecked chocolate desserts that cost $25,000 a pop (made at Serendipity 3, which was temporarily shut down in November after failing its second health inspection in a month due to an infestation of cockroaches and other beasties). Those items are ephemeral and, in my opinion, can't possibly be worth the money. I can eat bagels and ice cream whenever I want. But getting to partake of artisan foods and limited-edition aged spirits seems to be a different kind of thing, somehow. Plus, you can save the finest items for really special occasions...maybe bust out the now-150-year-old Armagnac at your 50th wedding anniversary, or something.

But whether or not I would actually buy one doesn't really matter, since they are delivered by horse and carriage inside the UK only. I wonder if J.K. Rowling will pick up a couple?

Sausage Making

Last Wednesday I braved snowy dirt roads to visit my friend Adam
in Westford. There, we transformed meat from his very own cow into sausages, which are currently curing in his closet. Hopefully, by Christmas, they will qualify as salami. We used a recipe that Adam learned during his travels in Germany. Here's what we did...

1) Mixed beef chunks and pork fat in a large container.

2) Added salt, sugar and grated nutmeg.

3) Emptied a peppermill and dumped in a blend of white
peppercorns, black peppercorns, coriander, fennel seed and
caraway seed.

4) Ground the spices into the meat. Mixed the beef by hand to distribute the spices evenly.

5) Put the meat and three cloves of garlic through a grinder.

6) Mixed in a live culture to help inhibit scary bacteria and
allow the sausage to safely turn into salami.

7) Put the meat mixture through the grinder again.

8) Kneaded the meat to ensure an even texture throughout.

9) Slid a length of casing onto the spout of an extruder.

10) Squeezed the meat into the casing.

11) Twisted the casing between the links to form sausages.

12) Pricked air bubbles in the sausage with a pin.

13) Hung the sausages to dry.

I cooked some of the seasoned meat that didn't make it into the casing, and it was amazingly good. I have high hopes for the salami...In a few weeks, I'll let you know how it turned out.   

Spanish Cheese Tasting at UVM

Last night, I attended a really interesting Spanish cheese tasting and wine pairing event at UVM, hosted by the University's Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese (VIAC). What made it so interesting? Two things: 1) There were several experts from Spain present. 2) I'd never tasted a single one of the selections we tried. 

One expert from Spain was Dr. Montserrat Almena-Aliste, who is also on the VIAC staff -- I took her course in "Sensory Evaluation of Food" when I was doing my self-designed B.A. in interdisciplinary food studies back in the day. The others were Dr. Francisco Pérez Elortondo and Alfonso Zamora. There were a few local cheese whizzes there as well: Dr. Paul Kindstedt, author of American Farmstead Cheese, Jeff Roberts, author of the Atlas of American Artisan Cheese, and Willow Smart from Willow Hill Farm.

After we mingled and snacked on treats such as piquillo peppers, marinated mushrooms, Serrano ham and poached pears, servers delivered each attendee a plate with generous portions of the seven chosen cheeses. Each cheese was introduced by one of the experts, who made sure to relay where the variety of cheese is made and how it's produced. Then, everybody in the room cut, chewed and sipped in unison.

This is what we tried:

~ Nevat, a snowy white, soft-ripened cheese goat cheese from Catalunya. Paired with a white wine called Don Olagario Albarino.
~ Pata Cabra, a washed rind goat cheese from Zaragosa. Same wine pairing as above.
~ Idiazbal, a lightly smoked sheep cheese made in the Basque Country. Paired with a red wine called Scala Dei Negre.
~ Garrotza, a semi-hard goat cheese with a distinctive, silvery-purple rind from Catalan.
Same wine pairing as above.
~San Simon, a very soft and smooth smoked cow's-milk cheese from Galicia. Professor Almena pointed out that there is so little artisanally produced San Simon that the entire stash is consumed in Spain. This version is commercially produced. Same wine pairing as above.
~Zamorano, a tangy sheep cheese with a zig-zag pattern on the rind (similar to Manchego), from Castile-Leon. Paired with a very nice red called Bodegas Roda Roda.
~Valdeon, a strong cow's-milk blue cheese that is wrapped in Sycamore and Maple, from Cabrales. Same wine pairing as above.

I can't say which cheese is my favorite, as they were all new to me and were completely different from each other. I definitely enjoyed the Pata Cabra and funky Zamorano quite a bit, as well as the Valdeon. And it was fun to share my impressions with those at my table and to hear what some serious cheese-heads had to say about each one. Another neat aspect: seeing how the different wines "played" with each cheese. Very cool.

It's Fun to Write Limericks! (Culinary Poetry Contest Details)

Have an amusing thought about a restaurant you've visited? Love reading cookbooks and gastronomic magazines? Pick up a farm share every week? If any of these conditions apply, you should enter our food-themed limerick and haiku writing contest.

The jingles can be about anything you want, as long as some form of nourishment is mentioned.

Email your creations to food@sevendaysvt.com. Entries must be received by December 12. The cream of the crop will be printed on December 19.

Forgotten how the poems go? Here’s a sample:

(Limerick)
In Vermont we can’t grow citrus fruits
Cold weather slays all tender shoots
We live on potatoes
And dream of tomatoes
Thank goodness for edible roots.

(Haiku)
Runny golden yolks
Creamy hollandaise, croissant
Breakfast perfection

The prize for the Seven Days’ staff fave? Breakfast for two at Chef’s Corner!

Food in the Movie Theater

It's not the point of this particular post, but I have some unusually strong feelings about the consumption of food in movie theaters. For example, I think that  whomever chose crisp popcorn in crinkly paper bags and candies packaged in cellophane as appropriate for consumption during heady dramas should inhabit a special place in Hades. There he should remain, encircled by Furies who nosh on loud, crunchy foods without sharing, for eternity. 

What would be better? Chocolate truffles or fudge served on quiet little plates, or maybe some Vermont cheddar cheese and baguette slices? Anything soft and chewy. I wonder how the candy/popcorn paradigm came about.

But like I said, that's not what this post, which is only tangentially food related, is about. Last night, D. and I went to see No Country for Old Men at the Roxy in Burlington. The Sunday-night audience was mostly made up of the 30-60 set. A quiet bunch; no teenagers to be seen.

When the movie ended, we stayed for the credits and everybody else streamed out of the theater. Eventually the lights came up and a youngish employee entered pulling a large trash can behind him. And it's a good thing he did, 'cause there was a big old mess for him to deal with: crumpled popcorn bags, empty water bottles, candy boxes and random bits of non-theater-related trash. Some was tucked into the cupholders between the seats, much was on the floor.

How is it that over and over each day, bunches of adults collectively decide that leaving their trash lying around a movie theater for someone else to pick up is acceptable? This particular crowd probably wouldn't drop their detritus on Church Street, nor would they do so in a restaurant. What makes a movie theater different?

In my mind, nothing. Movie theater employees deserve as much respect as anybody else. It barely takes any effort to collect ones own soda bottles and wrapped up bits of leftover chewing gum, so why don't people do it? This is beyond my comprehension.

Favorite Restaurant Dishes (thanks BFP)

Last week, the Burlington Free Press ran an article about their food writers' favorite restaurant dishes. Not "I love chicken pot pie" but "I love the chicken pot pie at Restaurant X."

I thought the piece was pretty interesting, although I disagree with Candace Page's claim regarding the primacy of restaurants' veggie dishes over those made with meat: "While a chef can certainly ruin a good pork chop, there's not much he or she can do take make it the Ultimate Memorable Pork Chop," Page suggests.

I have access to vegetables just as luscious and fresh as those used in restaurants (I buy 'em from the exact same farmers). Same goes for butter, cream, artisan cheese, etc. I even have a French mandoline for slicing potatoes and root veggies paper thin. Unless a vegetable dish is made with demi-glace, truffles or some other premium ingredient that I can't get my hands on, I usually feel that I could turn out something similar, given the time and the inclination.

But the best pieces of meat and seafood generally go to restaurants, and aren't always available to consumers. Thus, in a restaurant, those are the things I lust after, to the dismay of my vegetarian readers. Of course, this only applies at restaurants that bother to source the best ingredients...most places serve fairly run-of-the-mill meat. At The French Laundry, I ate several such dishes, one which included meat that had been braising for days. At Barbara Lynch's restaurants in Boston; B&G Oysters,  the Butcher Shop and No. 9 Park, I ate (respectively) baby scallops with miniature Brussels sprouts and pancetta in pear butter, house-cured salami and escolar sashimi that I'll never forget.

Despite this difference in opinion, though, I found that several of my favorite local restaurant dishes were the same as those listed by the BFP folks. Here's my list, in no particular order.

I've starred dishes that were also mentioned in the Free Press article. With the exception of a couple recent discoveries, I've eaten all of these dishes numerous times. I've included links to the restaurants' listings in our 7 Nights Guide to Restaurants and Bars so you can see what other people think.

~ Pho Dang: Beef Pho with brisket and rare beef (*)
~ American Flatbread: the signature salad and the Belgian-style beers (*)
~ Ground Round: Wood Creek Farm burger on Red Hen brioche with Shelburne Farms Cheddar (*)
~ Junior's Italian: pasta Bolognese and pasticciotti (my favorite Italian pastry)
~ Red Onion: the Red Onion sandwich. I can't seem to order anything else when I go there.
~ New World Tortilla: Thai chicken burrito, unwrapped.
~ L'Amante: Gnocchi with braised pork and cherries. I've only seen it on the menu once. It was sublime.
~ Green Room: Smoked trout quesadillas, anything Chef Pratt does with smoked duck or foie gras
~ Penny Cluse: chorizo and egg tacos, the tofu scram with peanut-ginger sauce, and the salad with lime-cilantro dressing.
~ Chef's Corner: smoked salmon eggs Benedict
~ Big Fatty's: smoked chicken (no bbq sauce required), brisket, collards and the unique baked beans
~ Dobra Tea: pita Dahab (with feta, olives, tomatoes and a sprinkle of cardamom), all of the tea
~ Asiana House: O'toro sashimi,  Kiss the Dragon roll, lots of other maki.
~ Sonoma Station: Blue Seal steak frites
~ Cheese Outlet/Fresh Market: chicken, pasta and olive salad; potato, bacon and leek salad; spicy green beans with cashews; angel kisses. And there was a dish they had years ago (in 1999 or 2000) that they no longer have, made with grilled chicken, mango and red onion, that was just fantastic.
~ Smokejacks: seared tuna with cucumber noodles, ginger or lychee soda, cheese plate, and a lemon ginger bread pudding they once had.
~ FolkFoods (at Farmers' Market): the Ruby (with one of their awesome veggie patties, apples, cheese, sauerkraut and a yummy sauce)
~ Tamale Girl (at Farmers' Market): any tamale, I'm a sucker for dishes made with corn
~ Rookie's Root Beer (at Farmers' Market): root beer
~ Krin's Bakery (at Farmers' Market): coconut cupcakes, macaroons

I could keep going (or expound further on these delightful dishes), but I won't...

What are your favorites?