AYEE!!!! WTF, Advocate? I Thought We Were Friends!

Seriously. This is the stuff of nightmares.

I appreciate the Hartford Advocate. I love it, in fact. But note to Advocate, PLEASE in the future do not add to all the Nightmare Fuel I already have running around in my head. You are not helping. It's on the cover for Chrissakes.

Damn, I still have not purged this from my memory the effin rabbit from the Twilight Zone Movie. Jesus.

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


(9 minutes and 40 seconds in is where the devil bunny appears.)

Game Dinner Part II!

Here are the rest of the pictures from the awesome Game Dinner at the Half Door! For some weird reason, I lost the photo of our beer host, and I am really sorry about that. He did an AMAZING job pairing the beer, and I want to give credit where it is due.

He's promoting a new restaurant, Fraiche, in Fairfield, that promises to be excellent. We will see, right?!?

So the top photo is the famed fried pumpkin, which was astonishing. And they gave us THREE of them!!! The beer for the dessert round was champaign without bubbles, but in a good way. A superb beer. The ice cream you see in the middle was sage-flavored, which may sound weird but I just love the combination of sweet+savory.

Then the other photo is all the beer we had, courtesy of our next door table neighbors, who kindly collected all the bottles for us to take pictures, and also kindly weren't phased in the least that I was taking photos of all the dishes.

And there's your author and Dr. Pete, full of happy food and beer.

So...next up....Halloween! Standby!

Game Dinner!!!

So last night was the Half Door Beer & Game Dinner, which I've been talking about for ages and was, as hoped and expected, amazing. The above photos, in order, are:

1. Hard Cooked Quail Eggs w/ Montana White Fish Caviar on Crostini, paired with Weihenstephan 1809 Berliner Style Weisse

OK, these little suckers were delectable. I only had, oh I dunno, 6 or 7 of them. I mean, how often do you get a chance to have quail eggs? I mean, really! The beer was nicely paired with the egg. Apparently, as per our host & emcee, Brendan, this was the style of Berliner Weisse before Napoleon's troops ruined it. That's Napoleon for you, always ruining stuff.

This dish was the second-best in my opinion. I could totally go for a quail egg right now. I could make the world's tiniest omelette.

2. Fried Frogs Legs with Tarragon Sauce, paired with La Brasserie des Franches Montagnes La Meule

I wish I could say I totally remember what I wanted to say about this beer. It, as all the others, went very well, some better. The frog's legs were awesome, like an unholy union of a fish stick and a chicken finger, like think if the Gorton's Fisherman ran off with Colonel Sanders, only better.

3. Turtle Soup au Sherry, paired with Birreria Baladin Sour Nora 2005.

This pairing was inspired, absolutely. Brendan outdid himself picking out the beer. I tried this incredibly complex, ancient-style beer and thought, "No way is this going with a rich, hearty and complex soup," but I was completely wrong. While the soup was not my favorite dish (probably my least favorite, but I hate saying that because I liked everything), with the beer it just sang. The beer, with its unusual mead-y like character and hints of savory, was a gorgeous mid-dinner addition.

4. Grilled Ostrich Rounds w/Leek Risotto, paired with Brouweij de Glazen Toren-Cuvee Angelique

The ostrich was my hands-down favorite, and the beer was a great pairing. The strength and nuttiness of the beer complimented the red-meatiness of the ostrich. So good, so pink!

(side note: I'm starting to feel like Homer Simpson when he became a food critic and liked everything. The he became a jerk and that dude tried to kill him with a deadly eclair. No deadly eclair for me.)

5. Almond Crusted Antelope w. Porcini Cream & Blue Cheese, paired with Biurrifico Montegioco Demon Hunter

Well, I'm not much of a mammal eater, so I only had the tiniest bite of the Antelope. Dr. Pete was a fan, as he consumed BOTH portions! I have to say, I loved this beer, and not only because of the kick ass name and kick ass label.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.birrificiomontegioco.com/Immagini/Demonhnter%2520big.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.birrificiomontegioco.com/demonhunter.htm&h=440&w=400&sz=34&hl=en&start=8&um=1&tbnid=Vb_SrUeEP4r8HM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbirrificio%2Bmontegioco%2Bdemon%2Bhunter%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN


The spiciness of the beer, however, held up nicely against the antelope without overpowering it.


Dessert and other pictures are going to be coming up in a later post, as Blogger only lets me upload so many images.

You'll have to just wait for that friend pumpkin pie....as well as photos of the beer, our beer host, and yours truly + Dr. Pete!

The Humps, the Humps, the Lovely Tavern Lumps

So this weekend was the Nook Farm Harvest Festival. As many of you all know, Nook Farm used to be the name of this immediate neighborhood. Anyway, we started out the day by, of course, going down to the Half Door to watch a game (Peter) and struggle with the massively difficult Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle (me).

So like I think I've said, tomorrow is the Beer and Game paired dinner. (Squee!!!!) Dr. Pete and I noticed that not only was the bar closed tomorrow for the event, but for several days thereafter. For the ever frightening description of "renovations."

Come to find out, they are getting rid of their lovely barroom lump (pictured above, with glasses on it). Sigh. Legend has it that the lump started as the tiniest crack, and proceeded to grow, imperceptibly, into the small hill pictured. You actually can rest a glass on it, but it is not recommended that anyone over a certain amount of alcohol consumption do so.

[Legend Type Singing]
Many a good drink has gone down that way
O'er the lump in the bar when the drunken men sway
[/LTS]

Hey, and there's one of our bartenders! Isn't he attractive?

So then it was off to the Nook Farm thing, which was mostly over by that time (we missed the roving Mark Twain impersonator, damn), but caught these lovely ponies on tape. So, as a reward, PONIES! And yes, apparently all I can say is "ponies."

One of Hartford's Hidden Gems May Close

I had been planning a blog entry on some of the hidden gems I have found in the Hartford area, but I've had to modify it to note how upset I am over the possible closing of my favorite one. I've been trying in vain to email myself the cameraphoto I took of the storefront, but technology seems to be my enemy today.

Right after Dr. Pete and I moved here, and despite the delectable stores all around us, we found ourselves bemoaning the lack of Boars Head products. Yep, leave it to us to always find something to bitch and moan about. So one day, on the way to Whole Paycheck, we passed by a little shop in a called Kingswood Market, and it was advertising Boars Head. A few days later, Dr. Pete stopped in and came home with one of those Flintstone's Steaks. Now, I am not a steak eater myself, but even I have to be impressed by a steak the size of a toddler.

So we started going to the market regularly. Not only were we impressed by the hominess and impressive selection of goods, but the absolute highlight is the butcher/bakery section. Aside from the Brontosaurus Steaks, there are these fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that make your head swim and your blood sugar sing. But, for me, the holy grail of all holies - the perfect macaroni and cheese. Not too fancy, not too plain, just honest mac-n-cheese unadorned by nouveau ideals of soul food, but fresh and modern enough to make even the most cynical hipster swoon.

In short, perfect. Go for the edge piece where the cheese is brownish and seals in the macaroni.

And excuse me while I drool on myself just thinking about it.

But, as they say in that Eagles song I like to quote all the time, call something paradise and kiss it goodbye. The landlord of Kingswood Market, who is like the Once-ler guy to Kingswood's Lorax, is looking to make it impossible for Kingswood to remain in business. He says that Kingswood, which has been in business for decades and still delivers food to its elderly clients, should "get with the times." Nuts to that. In this day and age, if I go to a market and the guy at the counter slips in a chocolate chip cookie, just because they are piping hot from the oven, into my grocery bag, they have my heart.


Someone else can take the sit-ups!

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctwhdkingswood1019.artoct19,0,6593031.story

WEST HARTFORD - Kingswood Market, an old-fashioned grocery store that still makes deliveries to neighborhood customers, is facing closure at the end of next month after some 70 years in business on Farmington Avenue.

Market owner Dave Bornstein, whose father bought the business in 1958, says he couldn't negotiate an affordable rent with the building's owner and probably will close at the end of next month when his current multiyear lease expires.

The building's owner, Al Nweeia, says he isn't kicking Bornstein out. Bornstein just wouldn't agree to a fair rent that the market would bear, Nweeia said. And Bornstein, he said, hasn't changed his business to keep up with the times.

If you are a local or even a friend who'd like to contact Kingswood to give them a nod of support, here is their Citysearch profile:

http://hartford.citysearch.com/profile/2008162/west_hartford_ct/kingswood_market.html

More Cows!!!

For extra cows from the parade, see below.

Coming next post, my outrage over one of our Hidden Gems being closed due to landlord greediness. This is the best place in Hartford for Mac and Cheese. It is going to suck if it closes.

Enjoy the pretty cows!

Cows on Parade

So the Cow Parade has come to West Hartford.

http://westhartford.cowparade.com/


I remember the cows back many years ago in NYC, and I was obsessed with them, then. I know a lot of communities have variations on the cows - ears of corn, ponies...but there is something about the cow which is beautiful, unassuming, and a bit of an open palate. PLUS, SOOOOO many opportunities for puns.

Dad was visiting and we went to W. H'ford to check out the cow parade, and we took photos of our favorites.

Apparently, I can only publish so many photos on one post, so I'll publish the rest in the next one!

Cows ARE awesome.