Jay About Mendon!

That's right, Mendon! The Puma clan was visiting family in southern VT this weekend and through a somewhat fortuitous set of circumstance, we were able to meet them in Mendon VT, between Rut-Vegas and Killington. Pickings are pretty slim down there but we decided to check out a decidedly kitchy breakfast place called VT Sugar and Spice. I gather that it was an old sugar house turned tourist trap and restaurant. Well, it was pretty good I don't mind telling you! It was the Sunday after a Thanksgiving weekend so we were all still pretty full on triptophan and a little logey all the way around but no reason not to press on and continue to fill our faces! We rolled up to the place and it was a nice looking wood planked building w/ an open and very un-pretentious floor plan. We waited a bit with the other tourists browsing through coonskin caps, various Vermont magnets, t-shirts w/ moose on them, and keychains w/ your name... oh yeah, and pillow pets. It's a pillow, it's a pet... it's a pillow pet!!! OK, time to head up to the dining area. We a nice spot in a corner w/ plenty of room and got to ordering. Lot's of pancake options including sausage wrapped in pancakes! My buddy got that (w/ pumpkin pancakes), he said it was pretty good. I decided to go w/ the stack of 4 large blueberry pancakes and an egg on the side (money call). The pancakes were good and they were slathered in creamy melted butter which was nice. The star of the show was the syrup which was real and tasted pretty good as well. My special lady went with the Mendon Miler meal which was about as good for your heart as running 105 miles! Poached egg, on Canadian bacon, on a shit ton of cheddar cheese, on an English muffin. Oh yeah, and a side of delicious crispy home fries. Very good, very filling. Overall the company was great, the food was good, the service was friendly and professional, and the prices were more than reasonable. If you find yourself out Mendon way and want an all day breakfast treat... check it out!

I'm Mo Greene!!!

As a Red Sox fan am I enjoying the Yankees and Derek Jeter contract negotiations? You bet I am!!! I know a guy, that knows a guy, that makes shit up... who recently sent me a recent transcript of the action!

Brian Cashman (Yankees GM): Hey D-Money! Another great season chief, I know there were some ups and downs but let's get you some money buddy!

Jeter: Thanks Brian, appreciate the support, you know I love the Yankees. This should be pretty easy.

Cashman: Definitely. We know you had a bit of a tough season but as the captain we want to overpay as usual w/ our bags of money... how does $60 million over 3 years sound big guy?

Jeter: Uh, well, as an "icon", I was thinking I was worth a little more than that? We were thinking $180 million over 5 years?

Cashman (choking and spitting out coffee): $180MM? Not for nothing D-money but last season was not a humdinger for you and you are getting a little older, no?

Jeter: Well, yeah but you guys are rich... and I am a big party of the brand...

Cashman: Well, yeah, but we are already offering well over what anyone else would pay for your production...

Jeter: You overpay shitty guys all the time... Pavano, Javier Vasquez, Granderson...

Cashman: Not 180mm!!! You sucked last year and you are going to be, what, 50 years old next year?

Jeter: Hey, cool down, you are going to pay that douche A-Rod 40MM when he is my age and people hate him. Shit, you told me yesterday you took a dump in his locker?!

Cashman: Lesson learned, we f**ked up w/ that jerk. At least he can take HGH and hit. You hit like my 8 year old kid last year and we could have had a stump get to more balls in the hole last year?

Jeter: Whoa! Who do you think will play shortstop for you next year, or bring chicks to the stadium?!

Cashman: For $20 and a bus pass we can have Ozzie Smith un-retire and play better than you. Plus you are getting married, chump!

Jeter: Screw you, I am signing w/ the Red Sox!

Theo Epstein: HAHAHAHAHAHAH... You Suck!!! We will stick w/ Mark "error" Scutaro. At least that guy can hit a fast ball. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Cashman: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Jeter: You guys are dicks. I am going to have sex w/ my hot actress girlfriend.

Minka Kelly: Oh, sorry, Derek, did I not mention it? I am now going w/ Kevin Youkilis, he has a really cool goatee?

Seriously... Don't mess w/ pandas!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWywHqHCrSA

Jay About NYC, yeah you know me!

Had a bit of a work trip this past week that took me to the bright lights of New York City. Being a country mouse I can barely manage you know! It was a pretty fun time though and we did get some pretty solid business done. My highlight was walking into the ladies room at JFK, that was kind of weird. The great thing about NYC is the culinary options that we just do not have in VT. Sure we have great produce and some interesting things going on here but there are just some things you need to travel to the city for. Night one we hit up the Striphouse in midtown. It is a pretty cool steak joint w/ old school (60's) naked ladies on the walls. The service is spot on. Spot on. They are friendly, knowledgeable, and take care of every detail. We had a bunch of appetizers high lighted by the beef jerky which had a ton of flavor and was actually quite tender and the duck fat roasted potatoes which were... well, shit... they were roasted in duck fat! For the main course I went a little pedestrian w/ the 12oz. fillet but I really was not in the mood for meat sweats. As is the wine (which was very good) gave me a pretty serious hang over. 1 3/4 thumbs up. Fun place, and very good food.

I feel a little bad because my hang over kept me from really enjoying Nobu Nextdoor the next day. It was pretty good but I was a little iffy. The black cod was great and the yellowtail tuna with jalapenos was off the hook. There was a beef carpaccio that was also very good. The sushi itself was good, actually not great? I mean, don't get me wrong, it was better than the crap we get in Burlington, but nothing mind blowing. I have an incomplete rating, user error!

Dinner Thursday night was at a hip joint L'Esquina downtown. You go into a tiny dirty diner and give your name to the weird guy at a back door w/ a walkie talkie. If you are on the list, you get to go into the basement! I was not sure what our reservation was under so it took me 3 names to pass muster. The guy held the list closer than Obama's nuclear codes. Once inside you go downstairs and through the kitchen (where you are warmly greeted by the kitchen staff) and into a dark vault looking dining area and bar. It is a really cool space. One concern is that there are "fire" bucket of water hanging from the ceiling. It has "incident" written all over it. We got there and sat at the bar which has about 250 tequilas on hand. Only one way to get rid of my hangover... drink it to death! I had a tequila and coke drink which was a bit odd. One funny thing is that the the bar quickly filled w/ over dressed model wanna-be's and ultra New York cool guys, aka douche-bags. After a little wait we sat down at a pretty cramped table. Our waitress was pretty butch and was definitely in charge. She got us sorted out quickly. Drinks flowed and the food came out in a great progression. It was pretty good, again not great. I thought the ribs were solid and I really liked the chile releno which featured the biggest pepper I have ever seen. It looked like one of those frogs in the amazon smothered in cheese and rice! The different empanadas were also pretty good and the pulled chicken taco was solid. Great vibe, great service, good drinks, good food. It was fun, 1 1/2 thumbs up... 2+ if it were in VT. I grade on a sliding scale, when she is made my wife says that about me too.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!!!

Jay About Wizards

Yeah, I will admit it... I took my special lady to see the new Harry Potter movie this weekend. She loves the books and movies and compared to alot of the garbage out there, I can say I think they are ok too. This one is the first piece of the last book, which is a 1000000 page epic. Like the book, this movie gets a little slow but overall the 2.5 hours went by pretty fast. I think they did an ok job w/ the story considering how intricate the book gets. Overall I'd give it 1 1/2 thumbs up and say it is worthwhile checking out on the big screen on a cold November afternoon.

I was also in NYC this past week and will have a couple longer reviews coming post haste!

So abara cadabara... I am out!

Jay About... Uh Oh... I don't like the look of this!!

http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2010/11/superchef-flies-to-bluebird.html

If you have read this blog before, and I assume since I know all 5 of you and I know you have read my posts before, you know that I am a pretty big fan of the Bluebird Tavern. Or at least... was!!! As you can see from the above link, the chef is leaving for potentially greener pastures. The fear I have is that this is like so many band breakups, these are often simply lightning in a bottle and while the 2 parties may be ok in solo projects, they are never as good as they were in the original band. Phil Collins and Genesis, Paul or John and the Beatles, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 (oh, uh, maybe not so much on that last one). What are the odds that both places are as good as they were when working together? Not great. Aaron Josinsky will open some place in a crappy location like Milton and will have a gross space that is filled w/ "flare" and terrible service headed by an asshole bartender who can't make a decent Manhattan. The Bluebird meanwhile gets a chef who somehow managed to get serious consideration for one of the world's top food competitions yet could not make a decent meal w/ wonderful local ingredients at the Daily Planet. Seriously, his stuff at the Planet was just not very good... or imaginative. I think his sous chef must have been amazing for the run up to the Bocuse d'Or.

I hope it all works out, I really do. I want there to be a thriving food scene here in Burlington. I like the Bluebird Tavern. But I am pretty nervous as to how the whole thing might turn out. Like the Monkees sans Michael Nesmith!

Jay About the House

I just completed a 4 day weekend that I crafted around Veteran's Day and it was pretty ok. I slept in every day (think 10am), I watched a couple movies, read a book, did some stuff around the house, drank a couple beers. I did not actually know what day of the week it was on Saturday I was so blissfully ignorant! A couple quick notes... we had dinner at L'Amante Friday night and they really fell down. Our waitress was young and a bit of a train wreck. She brought me the wrong meal (after a very long wait) and then brought the correct one which apparently was salted pasta. No comp ted drink let alone meal. I think when you f*** up you need to make amends, especially to a good and regular customer such as myself. Booo L'Amante. We also had lunch at 2 Brothers in Middlebury which was about as gross as you might expect. It is cheap and not too awesome pub food. I would avoid it. On the plus side they town built a new bridge to ease traffic in and out of the downtown/college area. One of the old watering holes Mr. Ups, is now directly under the bridge... like a troll. Do you ever really want to eat in a restaurant under a bridge? In Vermont? Me neither. Trolls.

I read a Stephen King short story the other day Morality. It is as expected, pretty f*** up. It is not a horror story and it is not gory, just pretty odd. Give it a read some time, it is pretty short.

Jay About the HJ House

Boy... getting a little long between posts these days (long... hahaha). But here we are and I have a new review! A Japanese restaurant opened up here in Burlington and the boys and I decided to give it an early run for lunch, we are hip like that. It is in a bit of an odd spot. It is across from a regular spot of ours the Green Room so it is solid for take out after a beer or two but... it is in an old AG Edwards retail shop on a side street w/ no way to really tell where it is if you are not looking for it (not a recipe for success in Burlington). The space inside looks like a regular cheap Chinese restaurant. Hey, what do you know... that is what the menu looked like too! So ok, it is a Chinese restaurant masquerading as a Japanese restaurant... I don't have a major problem w/ that, I am a progressive kind of guy. What about the food? Well, I suggest calling ahead, there are only one or two people working so any order takes forever. We were there 30+ minutes waiting for Chinese take-out. At least it would be fresh and hot though. Not so fast tough guy! It was kind of cold. I had cucumber rolls, they were ok at best. Next up, the lunch special #8, tender ribs and rice. One thing I will mention is that my buddy's comment was "what kind of animal's ribs do you think these are?". Good question T-Pain, and one for which I do not have an answer. The rice was pretty good, and the random chicken wing it came w/ was actually very crispy and pretty tasty. I'd give the place 1/2 a thumb up, they have some work to do.

Jay About Umphrey's Mcgee

Been a big week for ol' Jaybird... between work outings and my oh so busy social calendar I have been out pretty consistently this week. Last night my special lady and I went over to Higher Ground to check out Umphrey's McGee. We knew them as a jam band often featured on the jam station or somehow connected to Phish/The Dead. Well, I will tell you one thing, this was the heaviest jam band I have heard. They were definitely more Allman Brothers but more Chicago blues than dirty south. The band went into all sorts of musical space but they managed to consistently rock. We really enjoyed a techno jam that was really out there. I don't know the tunes by name so I won't even pretend to tell you what they were. It was a fun show and even though we were both wiped we had a good time. They played from 9-12 so it was a full evening. One downside was that the concert was full of stinky teenagers and college kids. Nothing is worse than some punk high school kid w/ BO bumping into you repeatedly because they cannot handle those 2 Keystone Lights they took down before the show. Unlike a cool guy like me that can handle almost 4 Switchbacks before I start to repeatedly bump into you. Yeah, how you like me now?! One bit of controversy was the mash up of Journey (Don't Stop) and Rush (i forget the name of the tune). I liked it... my wife not so much. She thought it was cheesy but I liked the cheese. I'd give it a thumb up w/ upside potential as it only cost $20 and I was tired.

Whine and Cheese Pairings

"my child says that they want to go back to that 5000 square foot 8 bedroom place we had no right to ever live in. They miss the indoor lap pool! What should I tell my son Bank of America, what should I tell them when they are crying?!"

"We recently had to move to a 3 bedroom condo after being evicted from the mcmansion we had been living in but not paying our mortgage on for the last year. Where should I store my Harley that I stopped making my payments on? Answer me that Wall Street Fat Cat!"

"Sure, I don't pay my mortgage because I feel like I don't have to... but it is really because the bank tricked me. How? Uh, because they didn't tell me that I need to save money or only buy things I can afford. Their fault."

"I never even questioned my ability to afford a $1million home on a $40K/year salary. Why should I think about my personal finances... that is the bank's job!"

-pretty sure these are "actual" stories from the New York Times. Or, something very close!!!

Jay About the Kitchen Table

The Birds don't do Halloween so let's just get that out of the way. Well, sometimes we do but I could not find any cool Power Ranger outfits... I like the green one. So, on Saturday my special lady and I worked around the house and then headed for a romantic dinner at the Kitchen Table in Richmond. We had not been there for awhile and thought... hey, what the f***?! It was great. Seriously, it was really good. The service was courteous, friendly, and pretty polished. The drinks were solid, the wine list pretty good, and the food was well executed comfort fare. We started w/ a cocktail, I had a nice Manhattan and A-bird went with a champagne/ elderflower thingy she really liked. We shared a salad of mixed greens that had tasty poached pear with tangy chevre and very nice candied nuts (hahaha... nuts!). For our entrees, My lady had a steel head trout that was excellent portion size and cooked just right. It tasted great and was not at all fishy in an unpleasant way. I had a braised short rib Shepard's pie that was off the hook. It came in a piping got cast iron bowl. The ribs were just a little fatty and fell apart on the fork. The mashed potato was delicious and the roasted veggies were exceptional. I crushed it and then sopped up the remaining broth w/ some bread. Desert was creme brulee. My only complaint w/ the dinner was that the top of the brulee was a little sticky and not as crackly and brittle as I might like. The custard itself was fantastic w/ a really nice and fresh vanilla flavor. The bill was a little steep but fair. Overall I would give it 1 7/8th thumbs up, we really had a nice time.