Worthy Kitchen
Address: 442 East Woodstock Road, Woodstock, VT 05091, USA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/WorthyKitchen
Tagged: bar, beer, breakfast, brunch, Upper Valley, Woodstock
Worthy Kitchen: Brunch Edition (Woodstock, VT)
Reviews United States Vermont
Worthy Bloody Mary
(Update: At least as of 2017, Worthy Kitchen opens at 11:30 on weekends, and still has an awesome Bloody Mary, but they don't really do "Brunch" any more.)
Well, it was just a few weeks ago that I did my review of Worthy Kitchen, but already I've got a good reason to do a re-review. In short, Worthy Kitchen does brunch on weekends, and I thought a quick re-review was in order.
Last weekend, Carol and I were feeling a bit too lazy to make breakfast, and wanted to head over in the vague direction of Norwich, and we decided that a minor detour to check out Worthy Kitchen's brunch menu was in order. On weekends, they open at 10am, and in addition to their normal bar, they also serve up Bloody Marys, Mimosas, and all sorts of other breakfast cocktails, and have a pretty decent brunch menu ranging from the basics (eggs), to the inventive (house-made hash), to the lunch-end of the spectrum (they still offer up their fried chicken, although with a biscuit and cream gravy). Looking over the menu, we decided to order up Bloody Marys and their hash.
Worthy Hash
The Bloody Mary was a thing of beauty. I'm normally not the greatest fan of tomato juice, but that's where Worthy Kitchen shined: instead of a simple dressed-up tomato juice, this Bloody Mary was a nice house-made vegetable blend, particularly strong in horseradish, which delighted me (to me, a proper Bloody Mary is almost a more liquid and alcoholic version of a good shrimp cocktail sauce). It had all the notes: a nice tomato base, some fiery heat from peppers, and more than a little bit of bite from the horseradish. Add in a good helping of their house-pickled vegetables as garnish, and this was the best Bloody Mary I've had in a long time.
Moving on to the actual food, the beef hash with poached eggs and hollandaise was very good as well. First, it was a good hash, made of some rich and savory shredded beef that was almost pot-roasty in goodness, mixed up with some potatoes and fried up to a nice crisp. Add on some perfectly poached eggs, and that took it up another notch. Then putting a perfectly-done Hollandaise with just the amount of creaminess and tanginess I like, and the result was splendid. This was, at time I'm writing this, my best breakfast of 2013, which is quite the accomplishment. That said, there's actually room for improvement here: the dish was much like a Benedict, but lacked the muffin component: this already near-perfect dish would have been that much more splendid served up on a good quality toasted English muffin. Something to think about, folks.
Worthy Donuts
Finally, we decided to try their donuts. These were a trio of fried dough packets served up in custard sauce. The combination worked well, dipping the fresh donuts in the custard. The donuts themselves were nicely crispy while fluffy inside, but were a slight bit on the greasy side. That said, these were quite enjoyable (almost as good as the churros over at Candela).
In short, Worthy Kitchen is bringing their A game to brunch. If you thought they were good for dinner, consider trying them again on a weekend for brunch. You won't be disappointed.
Worthy Kitchen (Woodstock, VT)
Worthy Burger (South Royalton, VT)
Craigie on Main (Cambridge, MA)
« Corndance Tavern (Mishawaka, IN)
The People's Pint (Greenfield, MA) »
Schwartz's Charcuterie Hebraique de Montreal (Montreal, Quebec)
Quebec isn't just another province in Canada: it has it's own language (Quebecois French, which, as my French colleagues like to point out, resembles Continental French, but has a distinct vocabulary and accent), it's own culture, and, particularly, it's own cuisine. In particular, it's rather hard to drive through Quebec without noticing all the businesses advertising poutine (I'll get back to the topic of poutine in my next article), Montreal-style bagels, and Montreal-style Smoked Meat (aka "viande fumée", or even, if being a string Quebecois French constructions, "boeuf mariné"). Which brings up the question of "What is Smoked Meat?" It's really a specific style of prepare beef. Several references claim it's basically "pastrami", which is closer, but isn't quite right, either. However, it shares the basic preparation style with pastrami: the meat is spiced, cured in a brine, "smoked" (which is really more of a roasting step than a proper smoking) and, finally, steamed it until the connecting tissues within the meat break down into gelatin. Where it differs from pastrami is in the spicing and smoke, the result being something approximately halfway between corned beef and pastrami, leaving a bit more of the natural beef flavor. The best description I've heard is "the flavor of pastrami but the mouthfeel of corned beef". If you like a good pastrami, you'll like smoked meat, although it'll be a matter of taste which one you really prefer. As far as getting smoked meat, Montreal is full of delis that specialize in it. And one of the classic places to get it Schwartz's Deli…