My Miami Beach based brother wanted to see some foliage and insisted on meeting us at our place a bit south of Hanover. We converged from separate directions just before sunset and sought out comfort food at Forbes Tavern in Grantham (at Eastman Golf Links). Although we’ve had mixed sucess there in the past, they delivered with passable burgers, and really good sweet potato fries. The vistas from the dining room were stunning, despite the foliage being a bit past prime.
Saturday morning we made it to the Norwich (VT) Farmer’s market just before 10am, too late to score eggs but in time to score some excellent salt/herb levain and foccocia from Straw Brook Bakery, and our usual haul of veggies - even the last glimmer of tomatoes - from Hurricane Flats. Discovered a new cheese vendor, Parish Hill Creamery, and scored three promising cheeses, a sheep, cheddar, and somehting that described as Robiola-like. Could find a description of the latter on their web site, and I’m unsure whether it is goat or a blend. But the three are all superb and enough to help me get over my lament that Woodcock Farm ceased production.
It was a bit too chilly to linger over pastries at the picnic tables at the farmers market, so we relocated to King Arthur. I’m pleased to report that they gave up on serving their breakfast sandwiches on English muffins, switching to a milk bread bun. Huge improvement.
We had a late lunch at Simon Pearce (Quechee, VT). Sadly the lamb burger is gone, but some old favortites are still there. They seem to have given up on separate lunch/dinner menus: you can get the horseradish-crusted cod with crispy leeks for lunch now. A salmon tartare starter served with salmon-skin crackers was a nice presentation. My SO enjoyed the shephards pie, which seems to have graduated from ground beef to shredded lamb. The beverage program continues to shine, with not-overly sweet cocktails and excellent by the glass wine selections. They usually have at least one Hill Farmstead beer on tap.
We stopped in Hanover to walk off lunch. The unusual number of vacant storefronts was inescapable. A bit concerned for the local economy.
I thought we were done eating for the day after a big late lunch, but we all got a bit peckish in the evening and dipped into the Parrish Hill cheeses and Straw Brook levain.
My brother and his SO are off in the morning to visit the other side of the family in Rhode Island – a too-short visit but we were able to expose them to some VT food culture.
