Good old fashioned ice cream parlor right on route 9 in Red Hook. Soft serve and hard flavors! This blueberry pie has swirls of blueberry and chunks of cookie crust.
Right on the way to my house after swim lessons… dessert before lunch!
Category Archives: Hudson Valley
Camembert Redux
Camemberts are possibly everyone’s first “fancy” cheese. It’s French, it has a moldy rind, and it’s so accessible — it’s everywhere and in its supermarket variety made often by no less than President (ok, my favorite poor man’s butter, demi-sel, so what?), it’s mild and sort of bland. Still, Camembert, and its cousin germain Brie, give all beginning cheese lovers something to talk about.
I’d given up on Camemberts right after college, gravitating toward harder, sharper cheese, but these two have me back in love with Camembert. There is Camembert, and then there is Camembert, and these are the best ones I’ve tasted in a long time. They are as good, if not better, most Camemberts I’ve had in France — the mellowness of the cream and the bite of the rind enveloping vibrant, intense flavors. Continue reading
Gigi Hudson Valley | Hudson Valley, NY Mediterranean – Gigi Market & Cafe
Another reason to love Gigi Market and Cafe in Red Hook: they offer a free, delicious, and organic kids’ meal for each adult meal purchased, now until mid-September. Really. No kidding. Organic salmon, Northwind Farm slider, Skizza Margherita, etc. They’ll be seeing a lot of us in the next few weeks.
Gigi Hudson Valley | Hudson Valley, NY Mediterranean – Gigi Market & Cafe.
Mercato
I always approach a restaurant that I love with trepidation. The memory of a great meal past might be entirely replaced by the reality of a subsequent bad meal, and the nostalgia, the lingering memory of the first experience, the one that made your mouth water, is forever gone.
Well, that was a bit dramatic. But it’s a real disappointment to go to a place that you thought was wonderful and get a meal that was just ok.
I became a fan of Mercato in Red Hook, up the Hudson River in Dutchess County in August last year. We went there after an ill-conceived visit to the Dutchess County Fair, where we had spaghetti and meatballs on a stick and fried ravioli, among other “specialties”. Nowhere to be seen were the prize-winning pies and jams. It was just, well. Hot and ugly. There. I said it. So our dinner at Mercato that night was beautiful. I can’t remember what we ate, but it was beautiful, and the impression stayed with me and made me excited.
We revisited Mercato last weekend — it was the one restaurant I had to go to during a short trip to the area. I was going to just enjoy my meal, but then I read in the special’s board that chef Francesco Buitoni was a semi-finalist for a James Beard award this year (under Best Chef: Northeast category), so I decided to take pictures as well.
And to report. I am not giving up on Mercato. Yet. Our meal was not bad, just not great. I will go back soon enough as we’ll be summering (and springing) in the area.
