!!!Foodie Feature!!!

It's that time again!!! Another !!!Foodie Feature!!! from our very own Jolly Green Giant...

Tailgate Wars

With the Super Bowl taking place this weekend I wanted to touch on one of the great joys of my life, tailgating. Tailgating has come to mean so much to me. It is an art, it is a sport and for many it is the stuff legends are made of.

I truly discovered what tailgating was about at a Dave Matthews Concert in the summer of 2001, but our story beings in the 80s. My first ever professional sports event was probably a soccer match in Colombia, but in the States it was for a baseball contest that pitted the Mets of New York versus the Expos of Montreal. I’m pretty sure my mom’s coworker offered me the ticket since she was taking her young son. I was very excited. We were going to take the bus to Main Street and then taking the 7 train to Shea Stadium. My mother being the kind lady she is, packed me a whole arepa and off I was to the game. I point to this event as my first experience in tailgating.

Now many tailgating- orthodox members will say that this does not qualify as “tailgating”. They believe that tailgating can only occur outside of said event. Well I’m here to offer my perspective on this rule. Yes, I came to love tailgating based on the events at that DMB concert at Giants Stadium. We drove in my dad’s Honda Odyssey Mini-van and set up shop in the parking lot. We were minors with a case of beer and I’d say roughly 300 cups. The beer quickly started disappearing and our friend that was bringing a few more cases was still far away. We quickly found that many other minors were drinking but had failed to bring cups. Or some others needed them to play beer pong. Well, guess who had lots of cups to barter away. In exchange we received alcohol and several other questionable items. I was in love. Tailgating would forever be my mistress.

Since then food has become an important process (not as important as alcohol). Hamburgers and hot dogs have evolved to chili and chicken wings. We’ve done the breakfast tailgate, pancakes, scrambled eggs and a Miller Lite. Chips and pretzels you say, well how about some pepperoni, cheese and crackers (check the bottom center). And once we even had a fruit platter (yes that was from Giants vs Cowboys last year). Games can be played, whether drinking ones, tossing the football or using your friend’s golf clubs to practice your putting game (yes that also happened).

So what do I consider tailgating? Any social gathering prior to going to an event, including stadium parking lots, hotel parking lots (took a cab to the concert), hotel rooms, bars (“Take the train to the game”) (and also outside of MSG), apartments (pre-gaming is a form of tailgating) and yes even little innocent me taking the bus with arepa in hand was tailgating. I have tons of respect for the guys with an RV that has satellite television and cook a turkey for the game, but us city folk cannot be discounted just because we prefer to drink at a bar that has happy hour specials (and the best buffalo chicken wrap) and then hop on the train. No, we should all be treated equally.

As we all prepare our Super Bowl dishes, please remember there are a couple of guys that will be shot-gunning some beers in their hotel rooms and then walking over to the game. And at this time of the year, they should not be forgotten.

what's with the white spots?

so in the rare event that people (other than my family, friends, and foodies that i have met along the way) read this blog, i am trying to remain anonymous, along with anyone else that comes along for my food adventures. or maybe it's because i thought it was really funny putting those white dots over my face (and james')...when the odds are really low that people i don't know will follow this blog.

i can't believe it's maple butter!!!

james and i are not fans of the hype of new year, and wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of the boroughs. we decided to spend the long weekend manchester, vermont. now when you think of vermont, some of you might associate it with skiing, maple syrup, tree huggers, crunchy granola, and sub zero temperatures in the winter. but what you might not know is that this green mountain state (and specifically the town of manchester) is quite the diamond in the rough for us foodies!

we were there for 3 nights and 4 days...aka 3 breakfasts, 3 dinners, and 2 in betweens (not a full blown lunch, but just a little something). but here are my top picks of the trip...

getting back on the steak bandwagon

we got to manchester pretty late on thursday night, so we decided to eat at one of the restaurants at the place we were staying at, The Equinox Resort and Spa. now if this was a travel blog, i would tell you how AWESOME this place was, but i can spend hours rambling about that, so i will just stick to the foodie stuff. just know that not only the places we ate at will be repeats, but so will the equinox. many times over. you get the picture, and i hope you'll experience it for yourself.

ANYWAY, so we were lucky that there were spots left for dinner at The Chop House since it was new year's eve . after our experience at steak frites (see last entry), i was trying to renew my faith in steak restaurants and all i can say is i have returned!

the meal started with a "compliments of the chef" amuse bouche. not gonna lie, the only reason why i know what an amuse bouche is, is because i started watching top chef last season (not going to write an entry about top chef because i am sure there are a ton of blogs about the show as it is). so amuse bouch is (a la wikipedia) is "a single, bite-sized hors d’œuvre. Amuse-bouche are different from appetizers in that they are not ordered from a menu by patrons, but, when served, are according to the chef's selection alone", and we got an oyster shooter (very new englandy i might add). okay, so i am SO NOT a shell fish person, but i felt ungrateful if i didn't take it, so i did (for the record, james did not). and that was that. the rest of the meal was FANTASTIC...

• 1/2 and 1/2ed apps: The “Wedge”: Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes /Nueski Applewood Smoked Bacon /Vermont Blue Cheese & French Onion Soup / Vermont Gruyere Cheese


• main course (both of us): 8 0z. filet mignon (medium, even me!)


• steak sauces: bernaise, bordelaise, and chop house steak sauce (we splurged for a third)


• 1/2 and 1/2ed sides: mac and cheese, grilled asparagus, whipped garlic potato puree
  

the verdict: restored faith in steak, a little too expensive for it to be a repeat, but a memorable experience nonetheless (enough for it to be written about in the food blog...)

classic new england-y fare

what better way to toast vermont cuisine than going to a classic new england-y restaurant, Ye Old Tavern. the restaurant looked like someone's home, probably was someone's home at some point, and the food was, you guessed it, like delicious home cooking (i have martha washington as the cook in my head for some reason).

• the life changing part: MAPLE BUTTER. it sounds like such a simple concept ("why didn't i think of that??"), i probably couldn't replicate it, and could have eaten just the maple butter by the spoonful as my meal. bold statement, sounds gross, but it's soooooo good!
  
• problem with posting something a month later: we got one of the appetizer's that was a "special". all i remember is artichokes, bacon, and some awesome creamy cheese baked into it. and i can't remember what type it cheese it was, but the app was damn good!
  
• home cookin is good lookin: james got pork chops and i got new england scrod. good to the last drop.


• the final stretch: 1/2 and 1/2ed berry brulee and cranberry & apple crisp

the verdict: a winner from start to finish! a repeat? most definitely, and one of the many motivational factors to come back to manchester.

the breakfast showdown

vermont had a lot to live up to, since my palate is partial to breakfast cuisine. we kept on reading and hearing about this place, Up for Breakfast. note that there is no clickable link, as this place doesn't need a website to promote itself. the place is TINY and there is almost always a wait (as we did), but it's well worth the wait. there are more items on the menu then their are seats, and of course i had mental angst about what to order. the equinox resort driver that gave us a ride to the restaurant suggested a to get the "wild turkey hash": dark turkey meat hash with two poached eggs on top, doused in a lemon Hollandaise sauce. i was thinking that because i am obsessed with corned beef hash (which was also on the menu), i should like this. it was good, a little unexpectedly spicy, but it made the dish unique. even though james or i can't remember what james ordered, the place was overall good enough to say that i wanted to come back the next day to try something else.

THAT IS...until we met some other foodies at the resort jacuzzi, who recommended going to a place called the rooster cafe.

i heavily rely on people's recommendations (even if we don't know them), so we had to take the opportunity to try this place. i was pleasantly surprised that they had maple butter as well (YES!). actually, it was specifically for that day's special: maple swirl french toast. so of course we got an order of that strictly for the maple butter part of it (as a "side dish"- total glutton style). i got a daily special for my main meal, called the rt-11: 3 eggs with spicy sausage, "herbal" (very vermont-y) mushrooms, scallion, swiss (but i substituted for cheddar). james got the "all american": 2 eggs, bacon, and cheddar potatoes. note that the only reason why i remember this is because i wrote notes in my cell phone, knowing how bad my memory is. the place was excellente and we will definitely return their for breakfast, and even try out their lunch menu next visit.

the wrap up

• who knew that vermont had such kick a$$ food???


• we are definitely returning to manchester this summer (and future winters), both for the fun and the food


• no more posting to the food blog too far after the fact (it's what i like to call CRS = can't remember .... )