BRANDYWINE VALLEY DAY 3

Enter a European style market at 145 S. Walnut Street to view a huge butcher counter of fresh cut USDA local meats as well as a small variety of ice displayed fish. 

Continue around to the left to meet the cheese monger, where you will find over 100 artisan-made cheeses from sweet to stinky.

Turn the corner for “the kitchen”, for in-house preparation foods.  Enter into the bakery where the café is located, the perfect place for breakfast.

As we sat down, a man came over with a plastic container of orange juice.  “I saw you last night at Flickerwood.  My family just squeezed the juice. Would you like a glass of it?”  I loved both the juice and the willingness to share with a stranger. 

I ordered what I imagined would be the signature breakfast dish; the Butcher’s omelet with ham, bacon, sausage and cheese along with rye toast.  I skipped the home fries as I had a feeling that I would be tasting some items at this glorious market owned by high school sweethearts Dan and Dorothy Boxler.

With the breakfast orders going in, I decided to walk about the store to take photos.  I stopped at the cheese area to chat with their new cheese monger, Daniel Marcantuno, who has a long career in the restaurant and food business. After asking about my personal taste for cheese, he offered me one of his favorites, a P’Tit Basque; a French sheep milk cheese from the Pyrenees that he describes as being “creamy, sweet and delicate but having a depth to it”. As I sample a few other morsels, Daniel realized that we had the same taste for cheese, which certainly didn’t mean that he couldn’t recommend other ones to the customers.

There were some breads and baked good available in this area as well.  Daniel highly recommended a chocolate croissant.  I did get one and saved it for after dinner.  OMG!  Not only was it not skimpy on the excellent chocolate but had a cream cheese in it to boot!   

Carolyn Kreibel, the woman behind the “kitchen” gave me some ideas of what they serve.

She told me that Saturday was the day they roast a pig and only available during the lunch hour.  We later stopped by to sample some of the pulled pork prior to the 4 pm closing. If you are bringing in food to Flickerwood, I highly recommend that you stop at this market. www.countrybutchermarket.com   

Brandywine Conservancy and Art Museum, in Chadds Ford, is the third big attraction that we needed to explore. There are two areas. One is the Andrew Wyeth Studio; the other is the art museum.  Three floors of galleries are available for viewing.  The Heritage Collection, paintings and drawings by artists such as Jasper Cropsey, Thomas Doughty, Horace Pippin and Frank Schoonover, are located on the first floor.

The second floor housed a special exhibit called, A Date with Art: The Business of Illustrated Calendars, which examined works of Howard Pyle Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth. 

Wyeth galleries were located on the third floor.  There was N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth and the Bayard and Mary Sharp Wyeth as well as Carolyn Wyeth, Henriette Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth.  Although the paintings were appreciative, I was quite disappointed to notice that there were few female artists.  www.brandywinemuseum.org

Back to Kennett Square to check out some of the specialty shops with the first being Mrs. Robinson’s Tea Shop, just around the corner from State Street.  Although there was someone giving out tea samples to taste, it is not a place that serves tea.  I looked for Rooibos tea to find over 20 varieties. The “in” thing these days is to combine the rooibos with other flavors but not “flavorings”.  For instance I bought one called Carrot Cake. 

www.mrsrobinsonstea.com

There are two more shops to visit on State Street and I love how the local stores point them out to me.  I was looking for a chocolate shop in town.  Although there wasn’t a listing for one, I did see something called a Chocolate Trail on one tourism website.  It listed Eco Boutique as one of the places to buy a brand called TCHO that is coming out from the San Francisco area.  More on that at another time.

This cute store, at 103 W. State Street, is owned by Doug Harris whose aim is in sharing a portion of your purchase with the proper charity, such as with a shoe company called Toms with a program called, “buy a shoe, give a shoe”.  If you purchase a product from United By Blue, for every product sold, United By Blue removes 1 pound of trash from oceans and waterways. 

The boutique also sells a Bella Ryan line of bracelets that you can easily place on your wrist with the other hand as you can push it apart to open, slip on your wrist and close.  Large variety of charms to choose from.  www.ecoboutiqueksq.com    

Philter Coffee is just a few doors down at 111 W. State Street. A philter, from the Old French philtre is a “potion, charm or drug which is supposed to make a person fall in love.” I don’t know about coffee making you fall in love unless it’s one of those first dates of “meet me for coffee”. What makes this place different is their “poured over coffee” manual brewing process involving a funnel system that allows water to drip or pour over coffee slowly to extract more flavor. Kind of a cross between a drip and French press.

 

Not all of the coffees are done this way. They offer four of these coffees each day as well as a line of espresso drinks.  

Philter has partnered with Ceremony Coffee Roasters from Maryland as the provider for the beans.  You can also get sandwiches and pastries as well. www.philtercoffee.com


In case you are interested in products to brew your own coffee, Philter has a small line that includes one from a company called Aerobie that produces AeroPress.  The portable AeroPress measuring level gives the option of espresso or regular coffee. Stir the water and coffee, wait 30 seconds and then press it slowly. The result is a coffee with a “crème” that tastes great even without milk or sugar. www.aerobie.com.  Go to www.aeropress.com where you can also get their JavaJug and coffee grinder. 

Tuckered out and checking into the Hilton Garden Inn Kennett Square at 815 E. Baltimore Pike.  This time we each had a room with a bathroom.  I requested a room for people with disabilities.  It was furthest down the hall from the elevator, which meant a long walk.  Why was it located there? I was told that it has to be near a stairway door.  In case of a fire, the person would need assistance getting down the stairs.  This is good for someone who requires a wheelchair.  I had to limp to the room with my cane. The room itself seemed to be suited for not only physical impairment but hearing as well. 

I loved the layout of the lobby, open and airy, that housed the Great American Grille and Bar which appeared to be used for breakfast and dinner.  Business center located on same floor. 
Having experienced quite a busy itinerary, we decided to simply “hang” for the evening and eat leftovers since there was a refrigerator in the room to store them and a microwave to reheat.  After a good night’s sleep (the bed had one of the sleep number gadgets), we were on the road and back to Queens. 

JAZZ OVERGROUND

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

This past Sunday was the perfect day to shop at Fairway due to it being Palm Sunday and the day before the first Passover seder. I got there at about 10:30 a.m. and headed for the deli counter, thinking that there would be rows of people. Aside from the regular ready-made products, they had a line of ones that were Kosher for Passover. 

I had decided not to do all of the cooking.   There was the gefilte fish, matzo balls, matzo ball soup, and roasted vegetables.   I never know what people like to eat.   I bought a piece of poached salmon, and a pre-cooked kosher Cornish hen.

There was a KFP aisle that had chopped liver as well as a chicken broth.   I wanted to try Fairway’s soup as well as making sure I had enough broth for the matzo balls. 

Demo’s were going on all over the store.   Most of them were not Fairway samples, but from companies introducing their products.   Fairway was sampling their chocolate covered coconut macaroons (not kosher for Passover) and picked up a package.   They do not make their own almond macaroons but did have a KFP boxed ilk.  I personally prefer almond to coconut.  Stephen Fosdick, the GM of the Douglaston store, checked all of the demos to make sure that everything was good.  Annie creates these samplings. 

The bakery was advertising for Easter.   My idea of Easter and food is candy.  I had recently received a sampling of Ghirardelli’s Spring line…Easter looking.  Fairway carries a variety of Ghirardelli chocolates.  I will have to compare them with their own brand as well as Neuhaus.  One food holiday is enough in a week.  I will wait a bit.  

Having returned from a trip to the Brandywine Valley area, I wanted to check on some cheeses that I had.  Not that they were necessarily “local”.  One was called P’tit Basque and the other was a mango, ginger stilton.  They had both!

Seafood.  They weren’t quite ready to demo their marinated shrimp, so I just bought a pound to try it out.  Can’t freeze it, though…unless I cook it first.   One surprise was their having skate fillets.   In case you’ve never had skate, it is a cross between crab meat and scallops.  Most places sell it skate wings on the “bone”, which is actually cartilage. 

Over at the sushi area, a sampling of their tempura shrimp was being indulged in.   I tried that as well as getting something called a sushi sandwich.   

Another sampling nearby of cooked Korean marinated chicken as the butcher counter had the raw marinated thighs for sale.   Rack of lamb was another item being featured in their flier.   A mint jelly was available nearby.   

One main course that I’m preparing myself is Fairway’s anti-bio free chicken, with Red Mill’s country mix rice, and Portobello mushrooms.
I marinated the chicken in white wine, pieces of mango and ground up a star anise, piece of fresh ginger, Bird of Paradise (a pepper) and thyme.  In fact the Afikoman (middle matzo that you hide) was found under this dish, soaking up the sauce.

Over to the dairy aisle for eggs (traditional hardboiled egg in salt water) and milk.  I see a new product near the yogurt.  Quark with pineapples.   I’m game for trying one…Didn’t like it at all.  Not sure whether it was the quark or if the pineapples clashed with it. 

Fairway branded whipped cream in a can.   They advertised it with boxes of fresh strawberries.  I think I’ll use it with a Fairytale Brownie instead. 

There was a display over at the front area regarding another Fairway brand.  This was of liquid Castile Soaps (not soups).  Varieties included a baby soft, a black soap with shea butter for acne, and a peppermint.  

Need I say that I bought a box of matzo…egg matzo. 

MEAT ME AT THE BUTCHER BAR

Astoria or Long Island City, whichever you prefer to call it, has a not so average butcher shop.   Here the meats are organic, the beef grass fed.  It looks delicious enough to eat right there. In fact, you can as the Butcher Bar is a restaurant as well.

I sampled their most popular items such as the "Meat Candy" Beef burnt ends that come from the double smoking of their brisket of beef.  To taste the difference, slices of the brisket were sampled as well.  Both tasted delish.  Smoked Pulled Pork was oh so tender. 

For a meat based restaurant, they certainly know how to cook up a mean Mac and Cheese that doesn't taste as if it were soaked in Velveeta.   Choose the right cheeses and make it creamy. 

Hey, if you are eating smoked meat, you gotta have freshly made baked beans.  Don't ask for the family recipe.

One of the side dish popular items is the sauteed string beans with bacon and onions which I could understand its popularity. 

You may want to check out their website for further information and more about the chicken, lamb and pork products.  www.butcherbar.com