Vermont I

First stop, Burlington's pretty university neighborhood, bordering the unoffensive, but bland, outdoor shopping district of Church Street. Our destination was Penny Cluse Cafe, a restaurant I had sussed out online, and which turned out to be a going concern among students, bohos, bobos, locals, and other uncommonly relaxed people. PCC serves healthy, interesting breakfasts and lunches until 3 pm daily. But what massive, American-sized portions! Less than nine dollars, for instance, netted a platter of pollock tacos with nuggets of tender pan-fried fish, a big scoop of soft turtle beans, cubes of ripe mango, generous spoonfuls of guacamole and pico de gallo, fresh corn nibblets, delicate red cabbage saurkraut, micro-matchsticks of radish, and shredded lettuce all atop three crunchy homebaked tortillas. Was I ever full!

Next we booted on to Putney, where we're staying for the next two nights. We relaxed on the bed for, oh, about twenty minutes before we were back in the car looking for our dinner spot. We'd booked a table at T.J. Buckley's, Brattleboro's hottest dining...car. The resto is made up of about six tables, tucked into into an old train car with a bricked-on piece built for a kitchen, and a shed stuck onto that for storage. It's all fine dining, with a verbal menu, and a hand-written bill. We ate too much (at least, I did; my stomach's not cut out for multi-course affairs). But too much of what we ate can never be a bad thing. Manchego and local feta tart with tiny snippets of thyme and dots of wildflower honey. Slow-roasted onion bread with butter and black pepper. Warm smoked trout with a spoonful of creme fraiche. Braised turnip, buttermilk mashed potatoes, fried, frizzled onions, sesame lentils with red cabbage coleslaw, paper-thin cucumbers sliced into a little pile. All very reasonable and low-key. Very laid-back and very Vermont.