Jay About Montreal...

What crazy weather we are having this winter... it is seventy odd degrees here in Burlington, VT.  It is f*ing March!  We went to Stowe Friday and skid in 45 degree rain.  My special lady and I were able to meet up w/ our friends LB squared and head up for a lovely weekend in Montreal.  We stayed at the Palace de Armes in the old town and it was quite nice.  There were some snafus for us w/ the room type and the room charges but we were able to get sorted out into a large king room w/ huge windows overlooking the city to the north west.  It was comfortable and clean.  There were some typical stops that included ill advised late night Absinthe and a hockey game that ended w/ a fantastic and dramatic extended shoot out.  We had sushi at Kaizen that was referred to as the best sushi in Montreal.  It has a ridiculously priced sake and wine list.  On the high side!  The sushi itself was good but we all agreed we liked Sho-dan better.  It was a little more inventive and I thought the Sho-dan fish was slightly better. It was still quite good. 

Another high light was the Dieu du Ciel brewpub.  They had about 18 different brews on tap and the couple I tried were quite good.  The light ales were really nice and the India Cream Ale was like a cross between Heady Topper and Guinness.  A creamy slap in the face if you will.  But good.  You know what I mean. The pizza we had was alo pretty good. http://dieuduciel.com/en/home.php

Um, there were other good things like Molson and pool but I am slightly pressed for time so I will have to be back.  Bienvenue!

Jay About the Dirty Water!

So my buddy T-Pain and I ventured last night to our newest local hot spot... The Whiskey Room!  I don't know if it is really a "hot spot" but it is new.  Housed in the old AnyThing's Pastable space and an outgrowth of Ri Ra's it is fair to go into the Whiskey Room w/ some small amount of, shall I say, trepidation?  Well, I will tell you, it is a really nice space.  Old school cigar and whiskey with dark wood, glass, metal, and sumptuous leather.  Sure it is the same bartender and food as Ri Ra's, I don't care.  When the waitress handed me the "whiskey bible" I knew I was in the right place.  The bourbon and Canadian whiskey selections are uninspiring but the Scotch and Irish whiskeys are very interesting.  I wnet w/ a 10 yr. old Irish and it was smooth w/ just a hint of peat and excellent vanilla and tobacco flavors.  The beer selection is also nice though if you don't drink Guiness you f*d up.  Overall, I enjoyed it... kind of fear it... and will be back, maybe tonight!!!

Jay About Pistou

Before you all (both of you) accuse me of Middlebury favoritism... f*** you!  Ok, back to the issue at hand... Pistou!  We had the in laws in town so we decided to head into Burlington for a drink and dinner.  We quickly stopped for a drink at the new bar space on the second floor at Leunigs.  They are shooting for a French Brasserie feel as far as I can tell.  Whether or not that is successful I am not sure but it is a nice scene. There is a small but ok bar and several tables for 2 6 people.  They have a really nice and reasonably priced drink menu and plenty of excellent small plate options.  The place was very crowded at 7:30pm which is always a good sign.  We got prompt service, a nice drink (I went for the French 75 stand bye) and I would certainly go back assuming they did not get dooshy like the downstairs bar.

Next stop, Pistou.  It is a little off the run location wise and I am a little afraid it will hurt them.  They have already faded on the breakfast and lunch options they once had. It was busy but not packed and the bar needs to be bigger to make real moo-lah.  Our service started a little slow.  It took a long time to get a drink order in and when we finally got our wine the waitress poured it all over the table.  Away from that the menu looked solid but we went w/ the chef's choice tasting menu.  They ask you if you have any dietary requirements and then you get what comes out over 4 courses.  We started w/ a creamy chicken croquette.  It was a very nice amuse bouche.  A tasty little bite.  I wish we had the wine poured to go w/ it.  Next up, pork belly and smoked mmackerel w/ a rice vinegar pickled shitake mushroom in a little asian broth.  Shit, it was great.  The portion was perfect and the pork was crispy and not too fatty.  The fish was delicious and a great bite w/ the mushroom.  Hell yeah I mopped up the broth w/ the table bread!  Next, sea scallop on squid ink risotto.  Squid ink seems to be the fancy food accompaniment du jour.  Well, in this instance it worked.  The scallop was perfectly cooked and was very fresh tasting.  The risotto was slightly al dente and the squid ink gave it a slightly salty briny flavor.  That was a big winner.  Onto the meat course, slow cooked lamb w/ savory oats.  My lamb was a little fatty but the portion was manageable and the flavor of the lamb and the oats were outstanding.  Lastly we shared a couple deserts which were out of this world.  The sweet creamy polenta w/ blackberry compote and peanut butter ice cream sounded off putting but was really quite nice and came together well.  The show stopper?  Toffee bread pudding w/ cream cheese semifredo and candied walnuts.  I could have eaten just that.  The flavor, the texture, everything worked and was a great finish to an excellent meal.  An added bonus, often after a meal like that I wake up feeling it or have terrible heartburn.  This time I had none of that, possibly in part due to the nice smallish portions?  This was a winner and I really hope they get traction. You can't go there every night but it should be on the short list w/ Kitchen Table and Hen of the Wood for special dinners out.

Go Midd!!!!

Jay About to Pass the F*** Out!

I spent the week in NYC in a series of meetings, I am exhausted.  Of course, rather than coming home and taking it easy... I went out for a super rich dinner and late night beers.  Sure, why not.  Needless to say I feel like poop.  We ate last night at the newish Bluebird Tavern in Burlington.  It was good but very heavy.  There was a bacon filled sausage that was mushy but had nice flavor. The baked Mac&Cheese was nice.  I made my big mistake by going w/ the meat pie in a butter crust for dinner.  Sure, it tasted delicious but I am paying for it today, who knew Montezuma cast his terrible revenge in a meat pie?

In New York my culinary highlight was the sushi joint Soto at I think 357 6th ave, down in the 20s or so.  When you get there it looks very sparse and sterile but I will tell you what, it was delicious!  Very fresh tasting fish and some inventive ideas.  You have to like sea urchin that is the only thing.  I like it but don't love it.  They do a nice job w/ the uni but it is still a challenging dish.  The lobster salad w/ uni is off the charts.  The seared scottish salmon w/ black truffle salt and miso mustard was very nice.  The sweet shrimp was good.  The fluke w/ ponzu was great.  Everything was really very good.  If you are looking for sushi in the city... go ahead and give it a run.

I guess that is about it.  I might have some more smarmy comments next week.  For now I have to go bid goodbye to more meat pie.

Surprising

Thought I would get more hits for the free I-Pad title?  Apparently the internet is more heavily weighted towards sexual pervert nerds vs. technology nerds... Who knew?  So I had a small piece of tissue in the back of my throat that I had removed yesterday.  It only took about 15 minutes but was a very odd experience.  The shot of local anethesia sucks.  Then there is the numb sensation and when the surgeon cuts you it fells like a weird tugging almost like he is sawing your mouth minus the expected pain.  I almost lost it when he was stitching me up though.  It did not hurt but the pulling sensation made me very queesy.  They totally downplayed the pain but it hurts today.  Of course I ignored the advice by eating spicy Mexican and drinking citrusy fruit juice.  Guess, I am the asshole.

So too bad about Davy Jones.  No joke there.  I used to really enjoy the Monkees reruns and I still listen to their music, some of which is really quite good.  So here is a little clip to say farewell...

Free IPads!!!!

Nah, not really... unless you steal them from nerds and I cannot condone that **wink wink.  Anyway, strike 2 against the Fiddlehead Brewery in Shelburne.  My lady and I rolled over there Sunday afternoon looking to possibly taste a beer and grab a growler.  Nope.  First off it looks like a dump.  There is crap all over the parking lot and the pizza place which is still not open needs a big clean up effort.  Did I mention the brewery was closed?  Mid day?  On the weekend?  When do they expect to make any money, the prime drinking hours of Mon.-Fri. 9AM-5PM?!?!  Seriously, what the f***?  There was not anyone inside brewing either.  It had snowed on Saturday in the mountains up here but you cannot really take a snow day when you have not really even gotten going can you?  Could I possibly have more rhetorical questions?  So nice work Fiddlehead, you are bringing local incompetence to heights not seen since the antique lamp store on Pine Street that is also not open on the weekends or after 5PM on the weekdays.

After a write up in Seven Days we also stopped by Natalia's Market to try some of the amazing pastries and or Pirogi which I really enjoy.  Yeah, that was also a bust.  There was another like minded couple in there and we were all surprised (well, actually I wasn't) to find there was only one busted looking chocolate roll in the pastry case and an over sized fake looking brownie type thing.  Certainly not the "authentic" Ukrainian we were led to believe would be there.  A familiar sight was that of the crusty not very friendly old man behind the counter.  Seven Days got a picture of him smiling somehow.  I have a couple of inappropriate theories.  Here was an excerpt for a conversation he had as we were leaving sans pastries...

Patron: I finally won something on a scratch ticket from your store!
Cranky Old Man w/ Ukrainian accent: What you win!?!
Patron:28 dollars, I am so...
Old Man: Give ticket!  Take Money!

That is exuberance my friends!  By the way, any idea how stoked I am to watch the academy award winning The Artist?!?!  About as excited as cranky old man.  I will never see that stupid movie, it looks boring.  I did happen to see the JLo nip slip and I thought the wardrobe seemed a little malfunctiony.  There must have been some kind of wardrobe malfunction on Cameron Diaz's face as well?  HAHA I kid, I will be here all week!!!!!

1 Guy Who Likes 5 Guys... Wait, That Sounds Weird?!?!

So a new 5 Guys burger joint came to Burlington recently and my buddy JB and I ventured out at lunch to try it out.  We got there around 11:40 and the place was a mob scene.  It has been open a few weeks... this was not opening day or nuthin'!  The place is pretty sparse, it looks like a barely renovated 50's burger shack but whatever.  I got in line behind JB who is a veteran and prepared myself as if I were ordering mulagatani from the soup nazi.  I ordered the regular cheeseburger "all in" or something like that.  It meant w/ everything. We shared some Cajun fries which was fine, they pack a shit ton in the bag.  It was a crazy process ordering and then watching the kitchen go crazy making the food.  A bunch of people all crowd around like fools who crowd the airport line even though their row has not been called.  We waited around 15 minutes which was a little uncomfortable but then grabbed our chow and cruised.  I had my cheeseburger, the shared fries, and an orange Fanta which was the right call barely edging out Cherry Coke and root beer. 

Well, the burger is pretty damn big.  2 patties that are freshly grilled and of solid quality.  On top of that mine had mustard, mayo, ketchup, sauteed onions and mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles.  Am I a fat f***?  Yes.  Yes I am.  Anyway, it was delicious!  The bun was great, the burger was great, and the condiments were great.  The fries were a little mushy but tasted ok.  I cannot eat this kind of food often and would never sit down there but I am giving it 1 1/1 thumbs up and will be back!  Even better, they are opening another one closer to me on Church Street.  i am just putting on my Spring weight, don't worry about it.