[Onni]

There is no good food in New England outside calm chowder, if NE had good tasty food than it wouldn't be so healthy.

However Spam and pork seems to be the key to living longer, don't believe me ask an Hawaiian.

[harpoonalt]

Originally Posted by RememberMee

With all due respect. A few years ago, geez it was exactly 8 years ago, I stuck in northern Vermont for a couple of days, those faces I saw, those mouths full of rotten teeth (if any), still haunt me. Neither happy nor healthy. It's temping to crack a jock about inbreeding, but something seriously was amiss there. Good setup for a horror movie though, those narrow, curvy shoulder-less roads hiding under tree canopy, clouds, misty rain, fog and those faces just clicked together to create feeling I will not forget for long, long time.

Mom always told me never judge a book by it's cover. Those people you saw would probably give you the shirt off their back, tow you out of a ditch, or at least give you a friendly wave. Ok, so you may not want the shirt, but it'd probably be offered. Mean and rotten comes in all shapes and sizes, sometimes even dresed in a 3 piece suit and sporting a toothy smile.

[Steel*Faith]

Originally Posted by Onni

There is no good food in New England outside calm chowder, if NE had good tasty food than it wouldn't be so healthy.

However Spam and pork seems to be the key to living longer, don't believe me ask an Hawaiian.

Apparently you haven't had any good Italian, Portuguese food because that's the best tasting food in the world. They both can be very healthy, or very unhealthy depending on the dish itself or the quality of ingredients you use to cook with. Fried greasy food is nice once in awhile, but I couldn't eat that stuff very often.

So is there no good Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or any other ethnic foods to be found in Vermont?

[NorthernPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Steel*Faith

Apparently you haven't had any good Italian, Portuguese food because that's the best tasting food in the world. They both can be very healthy, or very unhealthy depending on the dish itself or the quality of ingredients you use to cook with. Fried greasy food is nice once in awhile, but I couldn't eat that stuff very often.

So is there no good Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or any other ethnic foods to be found in Vermont?

Good points made here.

As an outsider who fairly recently moved to VT, I have actually found the variety of quality, authentic ethnic food available to be on par with such large cities as NYC and Dallas. Farmers' markets being the hidden gems of the summer season, places to fine nearly any dish your heart desires if you look hard enough.

[68vette]

Originally Posted by Steel*Faith

Apparently you haven't had any good Italian, Portuguese food because that's the best tasting food in the world. They both can be very healthy, or very unhealthy depending on the dish itself or the quality of ingredients you use to cook with. Fried greasy food is nice once in awhile, but I couldn't eat that stuff very often.

So is there no good Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or any other ethnic foods to be found in Vermont?

When it comes to ethnic foods, Vermont and New England are two separate entities. Many or a good portion of the immigrants (specifically the Italians) moved to Southern New England. Obviously excluding NY and NJ, the areas of New England most immigrants moved to were CT, RI and Eastern/Southern Mass. I think the reason for this was the close proximity to NYC. This was definitely the case with my family.
I think any Italian descendant thinks their 'Nonna' was the best cook on the face of the planet. I'm from the same boat on this opinion. My Nonna was a cook when she and my mother immigrated to the US prior to the Second World War. Granted there are very few restaurants that could match what she or my Aunts could put on a table. The closest would be what you could find on Arthur Ave in the Bronx. In my opinion, the real little Italy.
Vermont unfortunately is one of if not the least ethnic states in the country. The ethnic foods served here are often times interpretations of what people think authentic Italian, Mexican, etc. is supposed to taste like. Everyone thinks Italian food is pasta and Mexican food is tacos and enchiladas. Real ethnic foods are cooked with the freshest local ingredients one can get a hold of, not crap that comes from a can. This is why restaurant cooking is so different than home cooking. It's cost prohibitive to make everything fresh. A tomato sauce has to be made with can tomato's. If you tasted a sauce made with can tomato's vs a sauce made with tomato's just picked from the garden made with grandmas love (), the difference is remarkable. There are very few 'ethnic' restaurants I have found since living here that I would consider outstanding. There are many other restaurants that are outstanding. I'm sure there are many restaurants that serve food I think is exceptional, but others more knowledgeable than me would think is just OK. We just ate at the Prohibition Pig in Waterbury this past weekend. I thought the food was very good. My wife puts it in her top 5 restaurants in the state, but we have friends that moved up from Tennessee a year ago and though it was mediocre compared to home.

[in_newengland]

Food doesn't have to be ethnic to be good. We all have fond memories of grandmother's cooking. My family came from northern Vermont and the food those Vermont farm women cooked was out of this world.

Is blueberry pie ethnic? Apple pie? Yankee pot roast? Corn fritters with real maple syrup? Blueberry muffins? Mashed potatoes with gravy? Home made soup? Apple cider and apple cider donuts? Apple crisp? Cheddar Cheese? Corn chowder? Boston brown bread? Popovers?

We had perfectly good food to begin with. Anyway, I've heard that if you go outside of New England they split the hotdog bun on the side instead of on the top. Now that is dumb.

[68vette]

Originally Posted by in_newengland

Food doesn't have to be ethnic to be good. We all have fond memories of grandmother's cooking. My family came from northern Vermont and the food those Vermont farm women cooked was out of this world.

Is blueberry pie ethnic? Apple pie? Yankee pot roast? Corn fritters with real maple syrup? Blueberry muffins? Mashed potatoes with gravy? Home made soup? Apple cider and apple cider donuts? Apple crisp? Cheddar Cheese? Corn chowder? Boston brown bread? Popovers?

We had perfectly good food to begin with. Anyway, I've heard that if you go outside of New England they split the hotdog bun on the side instead of on the top. Now that is dumb.

This is true, but this is regional cooking, specifically New England. I wouldn't expect to go south or out west and have the same. I am specifically talking about interpretations of ethnic foods and how they compare to what is authentic. You could make the same comparison with a Yankee pot roast. You could go to California and get a pot roast and instead of carrots, onions and celery, they put in potatoes, apples and ginger. Would it taste good? Probably, but would it be as good as the real thing? No way. This is why we always have disagreements about ethnic cooking on this forum. It has usually been around Mexican food in particular. What you get in a Vermont Mexican restaurant doesn't taste horrible or even bad all the time, but the food tastes nothing like what is authentic or what you would get in Mexico or the Southwest. This has to do with the culture or ethnicity of an area (not just the state of Vermont). Just because a restaurant has a very good chef, does not mean he/she can cook ethnic food good or well. There are usually techniques and skills that have to be picked up in the training of each type of ethnic cooking.
I think what is being misinterpreted is great food and great ethnic food. These are two different things.