Epic Diamond Road Trip - Day 1, Part 2: Waterbury, VT

After our adventure at the ice cream factory, James and I drove into downtown Waterbury and sat ourselves down at the bar at the Prohibition Pig.  Now, before this summer, I had never heard of this place.  But my first trip to Vermont (for UVM's Breakthrough Leaders in Sustainable Food Systems Program) this summer introduced me to a bunch of people more familiar with all that the great state of Vermont has to offer, including the lovely town of Waterbury, its 100 pt. award winning beer Heady Topper, and the meats available at the Prohibition Pig.

Any town that advertises music festivals right next to the town sign is pretty great in my book!

Downtown Waterbury

The train station

I mean, is this picturesque, or what??

The restaurant prides itself on its "craft beer, classic cocktails, and the finest barbecue north of the Carolinas."  Now, as a former resident of one of those Carolinas, I consider that some big talk.  If there was one thing in Boone that I embraced fully and wholeheartedly, it was giving in to all the food that the area had to offer.  (Seriously, if there was one thing that I miss about NC...well, that and how friendly everyone was, but I digress...)  I ate a LOT of barbecue in North Carolina.  I ate expensive barbecue, and I ate cheap barbecue - at outdoor festivals, from fast food restaurants, at potlucks, from the cafe at the grocery store where I worked, and a few times, from really classy places.  I consider myself an aficionado of the pulled pork sandwich with a side of coleslaw.  You give it to me, I'll eat it.  And chances are, I'll like it.  See, now this is a problem - I'm making my own mouth water with all this talk of smoked meats and such.  Perhaps, I'll write a post about food in North Carolina for another day...when I'm munching on something delicious.

the Prohibition Pig

So, the Prohibition Pig.  It was a smaller restaurant than I imagined, perhaps room for 75 people or so at the tables and bar combined.  James and I sat, and I was all ready to introduce him to what became one of my favorite beers of the summer, Heady Topper.

Heady Topper is a double IPA, loaded with hoppy flavor.  It is brewed by the Alchemist Brewery, a small family run brewery located in Waterbury.  Unfortunately, James and I were in Waterbury on a Sunday, and the brewery isn't open that day, so we couldn't tour the place.  However, I was excited for James to taste this beer, that just won 100 points from Beer Advocate.  I have had the pleasure a few times this summer already, but will always say an enthusiastic "yes!" to a delicious beer.

We sat, we ordered, and NOOO!!  They were sold out of Heady Topper.  Sad, but not necessarily unexpected, as The Alchemist has kept their production very small, and you can't buy the stuff outside of specified areas in Vermont.  The company has a great explanation for this here, where they tell exactly why they're not expanding rapidly, even though the demand is certainly there.  (Three cheers for keeping your values intact!)

James and I did not allow this to deter us from enjoying a beer, and though we weren't super hungry, we took a look at the menu anyway.  We decided to split a plate of food, choosing the Sliced Beef Brisket (if you're hungry right now, you're not going to want to read the next sentence), mouthwateringly described as a "12 hour smoked brisket with Texas dry rub, bacon barbecue sauce, choice of two sides (we got the coleslaw and the blackened green beans), and a hush puppy garnish."  Um, outrageous.

Boom.  Holy Moley.

Don't be alarmed.  As soon as I was done taking this picture,
James and I licked the plate clean.  There was absolutely
nothing left on that platter when we were done with it.

Meat, slaw, and green beans down, we took a gander at the drink menu again.  James surveyed the beers on tap, and as I reached for the menu, I realized that the cocktails were on the side that was face down.  It's a good thing too, because the side that was face up caught my eye, and I took a moment to read it.  There was a passage on vermouth.

Now, the grand total that I knew about vermouth before reading this paragraph was that it was a booze that made an appearance in martinis - that is to say, I knew almost nothing.  Turns out, vermouth is a fortified wine, flavored with herbs, roots, and barks.  These days, vermouth is normally mixed with other alcohols, but the Pig stated that vermouth is coming into its own, and "it's kind of like a pre-made cocktail all in one."  They had three flights of vermouth listed, along with place of origin, and a few flavor descriptors of each drink in each flight.

The list of flights.  We were super fans of the first and
third, but decided to pass on the second.

I was so very intrigued.

Now, I'm not very adventurous when it comes to alcohol.  (Beer is different, less risky?  I don't know...)  Normally though, I don't drink boozes that I don't know.  They are expensive, and if I don't like them, I don't want to drink them.  Perhaps it was in the glow of the amazing day, the smoked meats, or just because it seemed like a delicious risk to take, but James and I agreed that the first and third flights sounded great.  So we ordered those.

What we received was a total of six glasses with 1 oz. pours of six different vermouths.  We read the name, place, and flavor profiles aloud before both tasting them, and then moved through both flights.

This looked awesome, but, truth be told, was a little intimidating at first.

James wasn't a super huge fan of most of them, but oh boy I was!  (Worked out great for me!  J tasted them all, and I got to drink them all.)

We made a joke that one of the descriptions could have been used to describe me - the Vergano Americano from Italy - "earthy/tannic/super complex."  Turns out, that was my favorite one of them all!  Not surprisingly, my least favorites were the lightest ones (they were too sweet for me, though one of them James and I agreed tasted like apple pie).  The two darker ones were quite flavorful, and I'll admit, there was a LOT going on in my mouth.  I think that if I were to drink a vermouth on its own again (which I totally would!), I'd add an ice cube or two to see if cooling the drink changed the flavor at all.

I was thrilled that my discovery at the bar resulted in such a lovely new experience, and I am so excited that now I have something fun to order if I want to sip on a drink that's just a bit different from what I usually get.  The Prohibition Pig exceeded even my very high expectations with stunning results, and the next time I'm in Waterbury, wild horses couldn't stop me from dining there again.

After "dinner" at Ben and Jerry's, and "dessert" at the Pig, James and I, stuffed full with deliciousness, and oh so happy drove just a bit out of town to a rest stop where we stopped for the night.  Our things got moved to the front two seats, and we set up the sleeping bags in the folded down back.

Bedtime.

It began to drizzle as we said goodnight, and the children of the Pacific Northwest fell asleep, bellies and hearts full, listening to the rain on the roof of the car.

Next up - adventures in Burlington, and the drive into our cousin country to the North!

-Bethy

Epic Diamond Road Trip - Day 1: Boston, Concord, Montpelier, Waterbury

Hello from Waterbury, Vermont!!

I’m just going to say first that this place is GORGEOUS.  Surrounded by mountains, breathing the fresh air, trees everywhere I turn, this feels like heaven, and I absolutely can’t believe it’s only a few hours from Boston.  It feels like another planet. 

James and I picked up the rental car this morning – a trusty “mid-size SUV” that we promptly drove back to the house, and folded down the back seats to see if we would actually fit into.  Turns out, we do, though James is pretty tall, so I definitely have more stretch-out space than he does.  We loaded it up with our clothes, toiletries, sleeping bags, and the cooler that I packed with some food and water for the first few days.  It’s not going to stay cold for the whole trip, but we figured we’d buy ingredients for sandwiches for the first few days, and save some bucks on breakfasts and lunches.

Then – off!  We got onto I-93 North, and started the adventure. 

The two adventurers and our trusty steed/home for the next 5 days.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge.
I LOVE taking pictures of this bridge, it's so easy for them to be gorgeous.

Our first stop was Concord, New Hampshire, where we stopped at an Eastern Mountain Supply for iodine tablets for the mountain climbing adventure that will take place on Wednesday.  I mean, we’re planning on carrying plenty of water, but I can get mighty thirsty when I’m NOT trying to scale a mountain, so I’m just not taking any chances with that one.  Better safe than sorry, and I’m also pretty stoked to feel majorly outdoorsy when I’m treating my stream water, haha. 

We followed that with a quick trip to Market Basket.  Now, that whole experience is worthy of another blog entry entirely.  I’d never been to one before, and all I have to say about it is CHEAP FOOD and tons of it.  Crazy cheap.  So we got a few things that we wanted for lunches, and blasted towards the state house.  (Now, just a point of clarification for my West coast friends: over here, people call their state capitols “state houses”.  Yeah, I know.  I don’t get it either.)  Concord’s had a gold dome, same as Boston’s, and we ate our picnic lunch outside, right next to it.  

James and the delicious spread

Sammiches!

Glory shot.  The rolls were from Clear Flour Bread - a bakery near my house
that I've blogged about before.  Incredible baked goods of all kinds. 

J and I at the capitol in Concord.

It was sunny, a perfect temperature, and I was in sandwich and chocolate cake heaven.  We packed up, took some pictures, had a short but polite conversation with a man who approached us on the street and tried to save our souls for Jesus, and blasted towards Montpelier, Vermont, and the third state capitol on our list for that day.

An Irish CAT?  ...only in New England, ladies and gents...

Montpelier, VT: small, beautiful, also has a state house with a gold dome.  We came, we saw, we took a few pictures (one that turned out to be an epic fail, trying to get a jumping picture, and having some user error issues with knowing when the timer was actually going off), and we moved on.  We had an appointment with a few men about some ice cream in Waterbury.

User error in the timing function of my camera.
This was going to be a cute leapfrog jumping picture.
Instead it is a little bit weird and a little bit awkward, and
so representative of James and me that I'm posting it on
here anyway.  

Montpelier, VT

That’s right.  We had to make the Ben and Jerry’s factory tour before it closed for the night.  We zoomed up to Waterbury, got immediately in to the 4:50pm tour, and were learning about the history of some pretty amazing ice cream within minutes.  

Deliciousness lies ahead!

In the bathrooms - Vermont granite.
Yes, I'm into food, but I think that it would be great to source
a lot of things more locally - food and otherwise.

Shameless selfie in the bathroom...or I guess I could just say
that I was trying to showcase the Vermont granite, hahaha...
we all know the truth.  :)

James is super stoked on this tour about to start...

...as was I.

Our tour guide.  He was enthusiastic as all get out.  It was great for  us,
but I simply couldn't imagine having that much energy every single day.

cows

cows

MORE COWS!  ALL COWS ALL DAY!

Production wasn’t happening when we got there, but we got to see a bird’s eye view of the floor anyway.  Then we moved on to the tasting room, where the first thing that caught my eye was the sign that said we’d be tasting Stephen Colbert’s signature flavor, AmeriCone Dream, which is already one of my favorites.  The second thing I noticed was the framed and prominently displayed kosher certification for the tasting room of the factory – not the scoop shop that was in the next room, not any of the ice cream anywhere else, just the scooped samples in that tasting room only. 

Basically, I freaked out when I saw this.  So cool.
(Enter this under things you just don't see very often on the West Coast.)

The tasting room is certified by KOF-K, one of the United States’ foremost kosher certifiers, located in Teaneck, NJ, and the certification expires in March of 2014, meaning that even if no processes change at the factory, a rabbi will have to come up to Waterbury to re-certify the tasting room in about 8 months.  There’s so much more to know about kosher certifications, but as soon as I was getting ramped up to tell James everything I knew, the tour was over, and we left the building to get some real sized ice cream scoops.

Then there was this - information about the Fair Trade USA fair trade
certified ingredients in the ice cream we were tasting.  In AmeriCone
Dream, the vanilla used in the recipe is Fair Trade Certified.

This look from James says several things:
1. Stop taking pictures of me.
2.  No, I don't care to hear about the particulars of kosher certification right now.
3.  There are screaming children and babies EVERYWHERE and I just want some ice cream.

I got Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz (apparently because I never wanted to sleep again) and James selected the Salted Caramel.  I got a small, and it was two massive scoops – more ice cream than I thought I wanted, needed, or could possibly handle.  Well...yeah.  Took it down.  No problem.  J 

Post ice cream, so good.

This was behind the factory, pretty cool to have the labels on.

Then we climbed a little hill in back of the factory to their Flavor Cemetery – a little plot where retired/expired flavors have placards and rhyming couplets written about them.  It was cute – and there were lots of flavors there that I would have loved to taste that are no longer being made.

Believe me, after all that ice cream, the short walk wasn't unwelcome.

James thought he'd race me up the steps.

I couldn't even begin to imagine the Ben and Jerry's factory in a place as beautiful as this before I saw it with my own eyes - it was so peaceful.  

One thing Ben and Jerry’s is known for is their resistance to and advocacy against using milk from cows treated with rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone.  (Also known as rBST or recombinant bovine somatotropin.)  Basically, it’s a hormone given to cows in order to increase their output of milk.  Now, I know that sounds wonderful – more milk, right?  Well, there are some serious issues.  Now without getting too graphic, let’s just make sure everyone is on the same page here.  Cows give milk through their udders.  Udders are, well, overworked and underpaid to begin with (just ask any new mother – all my friends are having babies, and I read enough baby blogs to know this even without firsthand experience.) 

So there’s the cow, already hooked up to milking machines or getting milked by hand a few times a day, which I’m sure isn’t barrels of fun, and you’re injecting hormones into the cow that will make her produce even more.  Suffice to say, there are plenty of gross things that can be introduced into milk from cows given this hormone besides the hormone itself (which is plenty controversial, as many hormones and antibiotics are).  Use of this hormones have been proven to correlate to more instances of mastitis in the cattle, and when your cow has mastitis, you have to give her antibiotics to clear the infection. 

There is a lot of controversy about rBGH, but it’s worth it to take a look at the labels on the dairy products in your fridge.  I’ll try to post about rBGH more in detail a little later, it’s pretty fascinating.  Ben and Jerry’s had a bunch of information about rBGH posted up all over the property, and it was awesome to see people stopping, looking, and educating themselves.

TEACH ALL THE WORLD ABOUT FOOD THINGS!!

After we left the factory, we drove into downtown Waterbury, and stopped in at the Prohibition Pig, an incredible place that deserves its own post for the crazy/amazing experience.  I came expecting pulled pork and beer, and left full of so many other things…that were so much better.

Day 1: Part Two coming up soon!

Until then, happy eating!

-Bethy