Howl'n Good Specialty Popcorn

It is time.

Finally.

Time for me to introduce you to my all time favorite munchie.  You know how much I love my snacks,  and in particular, popcorn.  And this ... this is the best of all.

Let me introduce you to the glory of Howl'n Good Speciality Popcorn.  A popcorn maker, based in Lebanon, NH, my hometown.  In the summer, you can find them at farmer's markets in the area, making hot and fresh kettle corn on site, selling massive bags, with fresh squeezed lemonade to go alongside.  The aroma as they make it fresh permeates the surrounding area.  You cannot NOT go buy a bag.

Or, in my case, but many bags, vacuum seal them, and stash them in your freezer.  Because, as much as I love the smell of the hot, fresh kettle corn, it turns out, I like it much, much better frozen.  It gets crispier, the flavors pop more ... I just adore it.  And, you can store it this way basically forever.

All. The. Popcorn.

At the farmer's markets, Howl'n Good sells only on variety, classic kettle corn, but they also produce a wide range of flavors, from simple to spicy to plenty of sweet offerings.  Some are available in a handful of stores around town (like the Marsh Brothers Deli at the Little Store, which I've reviewed before) and at the holidays, you can order direct.

Update Review, December 2022

When I visited my family for the holidays this year, my mother stocked up on Howl'n popcorn for me.  She wasn't able to get it from them directly, as they didn't do a holiday popup this year, but they do stock it in three places places around town, rather odd assortment: the hospital gift shop, a random hardware store, and a sandwich shop (that is actually incredible Marsh Brothers Deli, which I've reviewed before).  So she went to them to see what flavors she could find.  

They didn't have any sweet flavors besides the kettle corn, and she vaguely remembered me not loving the others, but still got them anyway.  I was still happy to try them again, to see if my opinions had changed at all (they didn't really).  But the kettle corn was glorious as ever.

Garlic Parmesan.

I remembered not really caring for this one before, but I still tried it again.

I again wasn't a fan.  The garlic was quite strong, and although I use garlic in all my cooking and certainly like garlic, I just didn't care for it on my popcorn.  It just had a bit of a harsh, raw taste to me.  *+.  But my mom still enjoyed it, and she's a garlic lover.

Sour Cream & Chive.

Another flavor I had previously not really loved, but still tried again.

I liked it more this time, mainly due to the fact that it seemed much better coated.  Lots of sour cream powder, decent herby nature from chives.  It reminded me a bit of the powdered sour cream and onion powdery coating on Auntie Anne's pretzels.  I still would pick other flavors over this one, but it was pleasant enough.  ***.

Original Review, 2020 - 2021 Tastings

The Christmas of 2020, I was at my parent's house for a prolonged escape from Covid city life, and let's just say ... we went a little crazy ordering all the flavors available.

Classics

For those who prefer the simple classics, Howl'n has a few options for you, such as the "Simply Popcorn", which is just lightly salted, the aforementioned kettle corn, and a Movie Theater (aka buttered) version.

Of these, I've only ever had the kettle, but I've been devouring it for ... years at this point.  The business has even changed hands during my years of fandom, but I remain loyal.  I always stock up on kettle corn when I visit in both the summer and winter, and really, truly, fly back to San Francisco with an extra suitcase full of it, just to throw into my chest freezer.  I know this sounds crazy, but ... I just have never found any kettle corn that even rivals it.

Kettle.

Kettle corn.  The classic.  This is what they sell at the farmer's market, this is what I first fell in love it.  This may look like a very large bag, but, um, if I'm not careful, I can take down one of these in a night.  No question.

There is something magical about this kettle corn.  It strikes that perfect balance of sweet and salty.  Ok, really, it is probably *horrible* for me, as the salt level is over the top, as is the sweetness from the lightly candied pieces, but they play off each other in a way that just makes it downright addicting.  As my mouth gets overwhelmed by salt, I hunt for more sugar coated pieces to balance it out, and then, once I feel it getting too sweet, it is back to the salty ones. On repeat.  Until the bag is gone. 

The kernels are always perfectly popped, the candied pieces are super crispy, and it just adds up to being pure glory.  And addiction.  Total and complete addition.  I am powerless against this.

The best kettle corn, I've ever had.  No question.

*****.

Savory

If sweet and salty kettle corn is not your thing, Howl'n Good makes a number of savory options, ranging from mild to cheesy to fairly spicy.  These you must order specially around the holidays, or find around town.

Chip/Dip Flavored

I made up this category name, but, Howl'n makes an assortment of flavors that are the flavors of, well, usually potato chips and/or dips.  Savory, salty bases, with some kinds of spices. 

We tried a few from this category, but I choose to skip the ranch - always my sister's thing, and one I'm still ... skittish of, because of her extreme love (and over-usage) of ranch, that has just left me, uh, ranch averse?  We tried all the others though, perfect to munch on when you somehow don't want the sweet component, or want to serve alongside your lunch.

Salt and Vinegar.

First up, a very classic potato chip: salt and vinegar.

This one just messed with my head.  Yes, um, it was salt and vinegar.  Common flavor in chips, but, sooo different to have as popcorn, I'm not sure why.  The salt level was high.  The acid level was high.  It was not crazy intense, but certainly not mild.  

I couldn't ever figure out if I liked this one or not.  Mostly it just fascinated me.

***, glad to try it, but I probably wouldn't get it again.

Sour Cream and Chive.

Next up, Sour Cream and Chive, or, you know, slightly grown up sour cream and onion, which, at one point in my life, was a variety of chip I liked.  This popcorn was a ... very, very, very mild flavor.

I could tell it was a savory popcorn, as it did not have the kettle corn underlying it, but the sour cream and chive flavors were very muted.  The little bits of parsley and chives visible made me at least *think* chive, and herbs, but I can't say I tasted it at all.  Same with the sour cream, I could tell there was a powder coating, but, I didn't taste much if any.

The popcorn was well popped, fresh, but, just not much going on here.

**.  I wouldn't get again.

Spicy

While kettle corn is still my goto, sometimes I love a spicy popcorn just to mix it up, and Howl'n has a few in this category.  I tried both.

Sriracha.

First up, the most popular spicy condiment these days: sriracha.

The sriracha one took me by surprise.  No, not because it was crazy hot, but because the base is ... kettle corn.  Yes, sugar (and salt) coated kettle corn.  I was not expecting the sweet element. At all.  I thought this would be just spicy!

Once I realized it was a kettle corn base, I did like it - lightly spicy from the hot sauce, a savory element from garlic powder, and, well, sweet kettle corn.

The savory elements were very lightly applied, so this was a lighter style overall - a hint of everything, not a glazed/heavily coated flavor.

I liked it, found it quite munchable, but it did take an expectation re-set.

***.

Buffalo Bleu Cheese.

Next up, not a light offering.  The buffalo bleu cheese.

This one my mom picked.  I adore buffalo things (not wings, but, well, everything else, as in, the sauce and veggies and dippers!), but am pretty fickle when it comes to bleu cheese, so I was apprehensive about this one.  Still, it looked awesome, incredibly well coated.

The buffalo flavor was good.  I liked that.  But ... yeah, the bleu cheese, for me, just not a winner.  I think the popcorn undernearth it all was classic kettle corn too, and I'm not opposed to sweet and savory, but the sweet + buffalo + bleu cheese was very muddled for me, and I just really wasn't a fan.

Mom polished off the bag with no problem though!

*+, overall not for me.

Cheesy

And then there are days where you want cheesy fingers.  You know what I mean.  Like when you eat a bag of cheese puffs, and then gloriously suck all that powdered remains from your fingers like a child?

For these days, Howl'n has several options, two of which are cheddar: White Cheddar or Windy City Cheddar.  What is the difference?  I wanted to know too, so I e-mailed the owner to ask.  He told me, "The Windy City is an orange cheddar that is made with an extra cup of the cheese."  So, white cheddar is, uh, white cheddar, and Windy City is orange cheddar, and cheesier.  They also make a garlic parmesan, if you prefer a more "grown up" cheese.

Windy City Cheddar.

I opted for the Windy City Cheddar over the white cheddar.

This is classic cheddar popcorn.  The kind that gets your fingers totally coated in orange powder, and you love it.  The kind that you scarf, and then realize how gross you feel.  And the kind that the bag, the tub, whatever vessel it came in, gets depleted way, way, way too fast.  And you may have regrets.  But you love it at the time.

Wait, this doesn't happen to you?  Heh.

I really liked this one, and was glad I picked the Windy City Cheddar instead of the White Cheddar.

Really well coated in cheese, extremely cheesy, and just, well, good.  Very cheesy, very savory. Interestingly, in addition to the cheddar coating, there is some blue cheese in there, which luckily I didn't detect.  And buttermilk and whey, which I'm sure added to the lovely creamy coating.  (And, of course, yellow #x, y, and z!).

****, very good, but, best in moderation.  You've been warned.

Update Review (2021): I read my previous review of this popcorn with a bit of disbelief.  Um, I don't really care for cheddar popcorn/puffs in general.  Why did I like this so much?  I had to try it again.

And ... I again, LOVED it.  Soooooo cheesy, but, I like it.   But warning, this is a heavy popcorn, and it sits that way.  ****.  Again, you've been warned!

White Cheddar.

The next year, in addition to the Windy City Cheddar, I also got the white cheddar, to compare side by side.

It was definitely a more mild option, but still quite cheesy.  It didn't feel quite as heavy, and clearly didn't leave my fingers covered in orange.  The flavor was much like Smartfood, but the kernels were much better popped and fluffier.

I find this one better in terms of not making me feel sick if I eat too much, but also not quite as addicting.  

***+.

Garlic Parmesan.

My mother picked this one.

She's a bit of a garlic lover.  By which I mean, she loves garlic, so of course she picked this one.  I like garlic, but wasn't as excited by it as she was.

For me, it was ... ok.  The garlic flavor wasn't really there at first, but it came through on the finish.  There was some light cheesiness, but parmesan isn't really the type of cheesy I like.  

Fine, but kinda boring for me.

I only enjoyed this when I was really in the mood for 1) mildly savory and 2) cheesy, which, just isn't often.

***, but my mom was glad to finish it off.

Sweet

And then, the sweet popcorns.  Chocolate lovers can pick from chocolate glazed on its own, to mixed with strawberry or caramel.  Caramel lovers can go for caramel glazed, the aforementioned caramel and chocolate mix, or, mixed with apple, aka, Caramel Apple.  During certain times of year they also ofer a red hot cinnamon, but I have yet to get my hands on that.

Many of the sweet varieties use kettle corn as the base, so they are not simply sweet, but sweet and salty.

Chocolate Glazed.

I started with the basic chocolate glazed, not wanting to mix flavors, to really evaluate the chocolate flavor on its own.

It was, well, standard kettle corn, sweet and salty, with a chocolate glaze, with cocoa powder in the mix with the sugar coating.  Somehow in my mind I was picturing a more decadent popcorn, *drizzled* not glazed, but I'm not sure where I got that idea from.

It was fine, but not very chocolately.  When I want chocolate popcorn, I tend to want very, very coated/covered popcorn, like the pieces in Harry & David's signature Moose Munch popcorn.  Or perhaps a mild one like the Dark Chocolate and Himalayan Sea Salt from Lesser Evil, if I'm in the mood for a healthier version.

So this was fine, and it was as advertised, glazed, not coated.

***.

Chocolate Strawberry.

I wanted to try a fruity flavor, and since it wasn't available individually, I had to go for the mix of chocolate and strawberry, always a great pairing.

The chocolate was the same as the unmixed, except that it was not kettle corn base, no salty element.

The strawberry was really, really interesting.  One of the most flavorful and intense varieties of popcorn I tried, incredibly fruity, and it too was not kettle corn, no salt.  Artificial flavor, and red #40, nothing more, but it was intensely fruity (although not necessary "strawberry").   Very candied.  It reminded me of a candied apple, bright red, and overkill on the sugar.  I liked it.  But you really had to be in the mood for candied popcorn.

I wasn't necessarily into the mix, but I liked picking through it, when in the mood for chocolate going for the most intensely chocolate pieces hiding in there, and when in the mood for sweet, the strawberry, and balancing it all out with the lesser coated pieces in-between.

Really a unique flavor, and, when in the mood for a well-coated, sweet and fruity treat, this certainly delivered.

And yes, best frozen!

****, but only when in the mood.

Caramel Glazed.

And finally, the caramel glazed.

Again, *glazed*, not coated, but there were some pieces in here that were very, very glazed.  I adored them.  They were balanced out by the rest, also sweet, but just regular sweet and salty kettle corn.

This certainly isn't stick-your-teeth-together style caramel corn, but rather, just a nice light coating of deep, lovely caramel flavor from both brown sugar and molasses.  

I appreciated this flavor quite a bit, still sweet, sweet decadent, but didn't leave me feeling awful after I inhaled the bag.

****.

Read More...

The Sarap Shop

This is the story of a food truck, not my normal dining destination, but one I have been Instagram stalking pretty much since it opened.  Why?  Well, besides having a menu that is full of things I adore (pork belly! ube!), and a slew of raving Yelp reviews, it was started by a chef I know from his time when he worked at the cafe at my office.  I loved his story, and wanted to support it ... and, of course, eat delicious things.

"The heart of Filipino culture is rooted in our bold hospitality — the ability to quickly turn strangers to friends to chosen family members. This is the magic we've been able to experience ourselves as first-gen Fil-Am Bay Area kids."

The food truck is called The Sarap Shop, and their cuisine is Filipino-American comfort food.  Oh yes.  Hence, the pork belly and ube, and menu that calls out to me.  The menu is also extremely dietary constraints friendly - many items are actually vegan, most can be made gluten-free, and everything is very clearly marked with allergens.  They were early on board with working with Impossible meat, found in a curry version of lumpia and in loco moco from their regular specials menu, and one of the most lauded dishes is actually their tofu sisig.  This is a place that those who want to devour pork belly wrapped in carby pita with fries can dine side-by-side with a vegan gluten-free friend eating the signature tofu sisig salad.  

The Sarap Shop has certainly had an interesting past few years, as have all businesses in the food service industry amongst a pandemic.  Their original location was inside Chase Arena ... and, uh, people weren't exactly going to games in the first phases of the pandemic.  They pivoted to meal kits for home delivery, introduced a retail line of sauces, and, opened the food truck in Parklab Gardens, an outdoor, covid-friendly environment.  They thrived, Yelpers loved it, and thus, I had to visit, bringing along a group of co-workers, as we did a lunch and mini golf outing.  I soon returned on my own when the craving hit.

The food truck closed down recently, but they are pivoting their operations (they have a commercial kitchen and interesting stuff in the works), and I can't wait to see what comes next.

Part of our Feast!

My first visit, I visited with a group of 15 people, so I was able to see, and taste, nearly all of the menu.  Everything was good, everyone was pleased with their food, and there were some clear standouts, at least to me: the pork belly (both sisig and adobo, because, duh, well cooked pork belly is a thing of beauty) and ... the ube fries.  ZOMG, the ube fries.

Setting

The Sarap Shop has two main locations, and a commissary offsite where much of the prep is done.  In addition, they offer catering delivered to you.  Our visit was to the food truck, in Parklab Gardens.   I haven't seen the location inside Chase Arena, so I can't comment on that, but I think it is just a concession stand.

The Truck.

The "truck" is really a tailer, located in Parklab Gardens alongside a few others, which is its permanent home. 

The menu is available in pictorial form right in front where the order window is.  Once ready, food comes out the side window.

Specials.

The main menu at Sarap Shop is based around 3 main concepts: rice bowls (with golden, seasoned jasmine rice and a small side salad), pita sandwiches (which include fries, slaw, and aioli inside), and salads.  You can get your choice of protein prepared in most of the styles, where proteins range from pork belly (two ways, as adobo or sisig), tofu (in their signature sisig prep), or crispy boneless chicken strips.  The menu usually has a few specials as well, like their play on loco moco made with Impossible Beef and a crowd pleasing carbonara.

Besides the main entrees, the "snacks" portion of the menu is a cross between what I consider appetizers and side dishes, and all are deep fried.  Calamari, fries, and lumpia (both regular pork or an interesting vegan impossible burger curry version).  Sometimes specials like onion rings show up here.  Portions of these are quite large, and are great for sharing.

The menu is rounded out by two signature milk teas, both soy based and vegan, one a play on halo halo and the other coffee based with flan.  These are available in individual bottles, or, jugs.  There are no desserts on the menu.

Savory Food

Our group ordered, well, nearly everything.  I got to try rice bowls, salads, snacks, and all the specials.  Pork belly adobo, pork belly sisig, tofu sisig, fried chicken, carbonara, calamari ... yup, we got it all.  The only thing no one ordered was the lumpia or pita wraps, which I didn't notice until I went to write this up.  Next time ...

Side Salad. $3.

"Cabbage mix, carrots, corn, and tomatoes tossed in a house-made calamansi poppy seed dressing."

I started with something a bit boring - a side salad.  This is also used as part of the rice bowls (they come with a scoop of rice and a scoop of this), and is the base for all of the salad dishes.   But why did I get a boring side salad?  Let me explain.

Rather than order a main dish myself, I opted to order this, along with two fried "Snacks" for myself, and had alliances formed with 5 people to try portions of *their* main dishes in exchange for trying the snacks.  Basically, I'd get to sample most of the menu, and have a slew of fried goodness, several carb laden pastas, and fatty fatty pork belly headed my way.  I wanted the side salad to combat all the heavy food.  Balance, you know.

It turned out to be a refreshing pairing, which is what I was looking for.  Crispy shredded cabbage and carrots, juicy tomatoes, and ... cooked corn.  I'll admit, the corn didn't really do it for me - I like corn, but cold cooked corn was not my favorite.  I like hot corn on the cob, cold roasted corn in salads, or fresh raw corn, or corn nuts, but cold cooked corn ... kinda eh for me.  I also wished for something acidic, like some harsh red onion.  It just felt a bit incomplete, which maybe is ok, as it is usually considered the base of the meal, not a standalone salad.

The dressing was vinaigrette style, with a bit of crunch from poppy seeds, and acid from the calamansi.

Overall this was fine, but not something I'd get again.  I also found it odd that they have no salad base option with leafy greens, which I think would make a better eating experience, both as a side here, but also for the salad dishes.

**+, but a great value for just $3.

Calamari Bistek. $10.75. ("Snack")
+ Extra Yay-ioli Garlic Sauce ($0.50) + Extra Ahy! Sauce I'm Spicy ($0.50)

"Crispy, crunchy calamari tossed in a citrusy, savory bistek sauce. Topped with caramelized onions, aioli, and lemons for an extra fresh slap of flavor to the face."

Next came one of the "snacks", and perhaps the item I was actually most looking forward to.  Calamari.  Fried calamari.  I know you can get fried calamari many places, in many styles, ranging from Italian style breaded and fried and served with marinara, to tempura battered and served with aioli, to fish and chips style beer bettered, etc, but it had been ages since I had good fried calamari, and I was really craving it.  I couldn't wait to see what they did with the bistek sauce, and I'm definitely all over caramelized onions and aioli!

The calamari portion was generous, and included individual rings and larger pieces.  All were thickly breaded in a crispy coating, truly crispy and crunchy.  The coating seemed quite flavorful, I thought it was in the batter, but perhaps that was the bistek sauce it was tossed with after frying?  Either way, super savory and delicious.

The execution of the calamari was done properly, not a chewy bit to be found, and the coating covered the pieces well and didn't crumble or break off, as so often happens.  Great job with the breading and frying of these!

So, calamari, well prepared, flavorful.  Definitely a heavier fried item, this batter wasn't for wimps.  And then the toppings, which ... were eh.  The onions weren't caramelized as described, but rather, seemed pickled?  Certainly not what I think of as caramelized onions, but they did add a nice punch of acid.  They would have been great with the side salad.  There were two bits of lemon that I wanted to use to squeeze over the calamari, but they were too small to really be effective.

Finally, the dipping sauce, aioli (the larger container shown above).  It was good, a vegan garlic aioli.  I wanted something more flavorful, so I am glad I added on a side of their spicy dipping sauce too ($0.50), and that was actually the perfect pairing for me, creamy and spicy.  In the future, I'd ask for that instead of the regular aioli.

Overall, this was a well prepared dish, had good flavor, and a unique coating.  I wished it was served hotter though, as it was rather lukewarm when I got  it(they were crazy busy with a slew of orders though, so, I get it), and the toppings weren't really what I was looking for.  It also was a heavier breading than I was craving, but I did love the crunchy factor it added.

I'm not sure I'd get it again, but I was glad to try it.  I did have a little left over, and crisped it back up in my toaster oven at home, and it was actually much better, as it was then piping hot.

*** originally, but ***+ leftover.

Dirty Style Onion Rings $9. (Toppings on the side)

"Crispy and crunchy golden brown onion rings with a drizzle of our Ahy! I’m Spicy Sauce, Yay-ioli Garlic Sauce, and house slaw."

My next visit to Sarap Shop I was hoping to get the calamari again, as I was craving fried food, but, alas, they were out of it.  I wasn't too upset though, as they had the onion rings back in stock (those were out of stock when I visited the first time), and I had been eying them too.  Available regular, with ketchup, or, as I got them, "Dirty Style".  Normally the toppings come on top, but I asked for them on the side, knowing I wouldn't finish them, and would want to be able to nicely reheat at home.

The onion rings were quite good.  And, served piping hot, right out of the fryer.  Crispy, all assorted size rings, nicely drained, greasy in just the good ways.  They totally and completely hit the spot on a hot (and hungover, sssh!) day.   

I quite liked all the "toppings" too.  The slaw was actually just great to eat on its own, I think they tossed it fresh to order with the dressing so it was really crisp, and it was not over dressed.  I think it was the same calamansi poppy dressing that came with my side salad?  Very good slaw, regardless, and nice to have the light contrast with the onion rings.

Both sauces I had before, and was happy to have again.  They worked great with the onion rings, and while I'm sure the regular onion rings with just ketchup would be good too, even if you don't go full on dirty style, I recommend getting at least one of these sauces on the side to dip.

Overall, just a nicely executed dish, and if I was craving fried food, and there was no calamari, I'd get them again, no hesitation.  ****.

Lechon Sisig Carbonara Pasta. $15.
(Special Entree)

"Spaghetti noodles tossed in our housemade creamy and dreamy carbonara sauce. Topped with roasted pork belly sisig, longanisa bacon bits, and shaved parmesan."

Ok, now we were getting to the main dishes.

Sisig carbonara is a regular special on the menu, available both in lechon and tofu versions.  I knew this would be a very filling dish, so I opted to just steal a portion of each from dining companions, knowing I could always order more if I wanted it.

The base of both versions is spaghetti carbonara.  The pasta was well coated, creamy, and rich.  This is comfort food, through and through.  But really, although the heavy pasta is comforting enough, the real appeal here is the toppings.  Here we had bits of pork belly sisig, which was everything I wanted it to be - juicy, fatty, flavorful.  Who knew sisig sauce and carbonara would pair so well together?    

But this dish kept giving.  Longanisa bacon bits, large shards of parmesan, fresh chopped green onion, diced red onion.  Soo much going on here.  Textures, textures, textures, and I appreciated the acidic onions to slightly balance things out.

Overall, a very unique dish, very rich, and perfect if you have a big appetite and want a gut filler.  For a lunchtime outing, when trying all the other things, it was definitely not an ideal choice, but I think it would make a great dinner on a winter day.

***+ as an overall dish, **** for the pork belly sisig alone.

[ No Photo ]

Lechon Sisig Rice Bowl. $14.25.

"Roasted pork belly, onions, garlic, and serrano peppers sautéed in our savory and citrusy Super Sisig Sauce. Served with golden java rice and a side of our house cabbage salad with calamansi poppy seed dressing."

I also got a chance to try the Lechon Sisig Rice Bowl, but sadly didn't get a photo.  

It featured the same lechon sisig, bits of chopped up pork belly in flavorful sauce that was totally addicting, and even though I'm not a rice girl, the rice served alongside was really well seasoned, and the side salad added a fresh component.  Just a really well rounded dish, and, swoon, that pork belly sisig. 

It was my favorite of the savory foods, and I'd get it again in a heartbeat.  ****.

Tofu Sisig Carbonara Pasta. $14.
(Special Entree)

"Spaghetti noodles tossed in our house creamy and dreamy carbonara sauce. Topped with shaved parmesan and our best selling tofu sisig, a garlicky, citrusy, spicy stir-fry."

Another companion got the tofu version of the Carbonara, and I'm quite glad he did, as the tofu sisig is a signature item at Sarap Shop.  Vegans and omnivores alike praise it, in the rice bowl, the salad, or, as we had it, on the carbonara.

The base pasta was the same, but this time, instead of bits of pork belly sisig and longanisa bacon bits, we had bits of tofu sisig and ... corn nuts!  Yup, they mimic the crispy bacon bits and pork belly crackling with corn nuts here.  Vegans do not lose out on texture, and in fact, I think they even win.  I really liked the extra crunch from the corn nuts.

The tofu sisig was quite good ... for tofu.  Honestly, probably more enjoyable than most any other firm tofu dish I've had.  The pieces were all just under bite sized, which worked well, and they were crisp yet bouncy, and the sisig sauce added the flavor punch.  It also had plenty of garlic, which went very well with the creamy carbonara.  I certainly preferred the pork belly sisig though.

I appreciate the thought and care that went into crafting the vegetarian version of the sisig, and I see why it gets such praise.  But for me ... pork belly all the way.

***+.

I Love My Ado(bro) Salad. $14.25.

"Pork belly slow braised in our house adobo sauce, a tamari and vinegar-based marinade. Topped with crispy fried okra. Served as a salad over cabbage mix, carrots, corn, and tomatoes with a side of house calamansi poppy seed dressing."

And finally, one final entree, which I ordered at the end when I realized no one had gotten the full on pork belly experience.  The ado(bro) features pork belly prepared a more classic way, served as full slices of pork belly.  This is available as a rice bowl, wrap, or salad, and I opted for salad knowing the pork belly would be quite heavy.

The salad base was the same as my side salad, just a bigger portion.  Fresh, crisp, shredded cabbage, juicy colorful tomatoes, and that same cooked cold corn and dressing.  Eh, but, it also soaked up all the juices from the pork belly, which infused it with plenty of flavor, and definitely took it up a notch compared to the side salad.  When I brought some leftovers home, I decided to stir fry them rather than eat it cold (since it was a bit soggy), and it stir fried beautifully, the fats and oils from the pork belly really infused it, and the corn was much better stir fried too!

But back to the salad.  I got this for the pork belly.  And it delivered.  The portion was quite sizable, 6-7 full slices, of well cooked pork belly.  Juicy, fatty, slightly crispy.   Fat rendered well, nothing chewy, just, melt in your mouth.  The adobo sauce was flavorful, although I think I slightly preferred the sisig sauce, as it had the heat from the serrano peppers too.  

This is topped with fried okra pieces, which certainly was a unique element.  I'm not sure I liked it though - the fried bits with the fatty pork belly was just rather heavy, and the okra was well ... okra.  Although fried and crispy, it was kinda gooey and slimy inside.  I'm not sure what would have worked better - the crunch was a good touch, but ... yeah, I dunno.

While I appreciated the freshness the salad base provided, I think the rice bowl may be a better pick with the generous amount of pork belly, as the salad alone didn't quite balance it out in the way a more mellow carb like the rice would, or the pita from the wrap version.  I took the leftovers home and served it on top of mashed potatoes, which worked surprisingly well!

**** for very well prepared pork belly.  I kinda wish they offered just the pork belly adobo as a "snack" option ...

All the Sauces! $15 each.
Yay-ioli Garlic Sauce, Super Sarap Sauce, Ahy! Sauce I'm Spicy.

Sarap Shop uses some signature sauces in their dishes, and all are available to purchase by the bottle as well, both online for shipping, or at the truck.  Since I'm a sauce girl, I got one of each to bring home to my own kitchen use.

Yay-ioli Garlic Sauce

"The creamy, dreamy, and garlicky partner-in-crime to carbs, a glass of wine, a cozy blanket, and your bestie."

The Yay-ioli I was familiar with, as it was the dipping sauce for my calamari, and comes as a drizzle over several of the other dishes.  I appreciated it as a creamy component, but didn't find the garlic to be as strong as I'd hoped.

This sauce is vegan, made with soy-based mayo as the base, with garlic (duh) and tamarind.  A unique spin on aioli, the tamarind in particular is not a flavor I have often. ***.

Super Sarap Sauce

"Supercharge everything — from takeout to kitchen staples to pantry finds — with our savory & citrus-y all-purpose sauce. Dip it. Sizzle it. Marinate it. Use it in endlessly sarap (it means tasty 😋) ways."

The Super Sarap Sauce is a cooking sauce, I'm not sure which of their dishes it is used in, but I wanted to try it as a drizzle sauce, a cooking sauce for stir fries, and more.  They call it general purpose, so it seems pretty flexible.  It is tamari based (so gluten-free), with depth of flavor from garlic, mushroom (umami!), calamansi, and sugar (to make it addicting?).

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Ahy! Sauce I'm Spicy.

"A one of a kind blend of malinamnam (that means umami), tangy, sweet, & spicy Filipino flavors you’ll want to put on everything. Guaranteed to make any saucey auntie yelp, “Ahy Sauce!” 😉"

Spicy sauce had my name all over it.  I'm definitely one to spice up most anything these days.  This sauce, like the Yay-ioli, uses soy based mayo as the base so it is vegan, and has a lovely mix of serrano and habanero peppers along with chili paste, to get some real kick to it.  It is rounded out by tomato, garlic, tamarind, lemon, and sugar, which creates a quite complex flavor profile.  Heat, sweetness, acid, its got them all.

Definitely my favorite of the sauces, and I'd recommend getting a side (always available for $0.50) to add to any dishes at the truck.  ****.

Sweet Treats

I said that Sarap Shop doesn't offer desserts, which is true, but that doesn't mean they don't have any sweet things.  On our visit, they had a special that was not quite a dessert, but certainly not savory.  They also offte the sweet signature milk teas, and we ordered a custom snack mix from their catering lineup.

Kapwa Baking Co Ube Fries.

"Our house stealth fries, tossed in ube sugar, and served with a side of Kapwa Baking Co's famous ube milk jam.  Make funnel cake jealous with this sweet and savory treat."

I mean really.  The moment I saw this special was still available (originally just a thing in October as a partnership with Kapwa Baking Co), I knew I had to get it.  Fries are just fries, and I was planning on skipping ordering the "Stealth Fries" from the snacks menu since we had other fried things, but ... fries with ube sugar?  Sweet and savory?  And ube jam?  YES!!!

To say I loved these is a bit of an understatement.  

First, the base, the fries, were actually really quite good.  These seemed almost battered, super crispy outside, but fluffy inside.  As far as fries go, these were pretty top notch.  Our group also ordered the regular "stealth" fries, and folks devoured those too, but those just came salted and served with ketchup, where these came ... tossed in ube sugar (!) with a little pot of ube jam on the side.

The ube sugar, along with being quite pretty, added, well, sweetness to the fries.  Why have I never thought of putting sugar on fries before?  The description compares it to funnel cake or fried dough, and, hmm, yeah, it makes sense.  Fried carbs coated with sugar ... why not?  Why don't we see things like churro fries?  And the ube jam?  Sweet and so very strong in ube flavor.

Eating these was addicting.  By the handful addicting.  I found I didn't want just one, didn't want to slowly just munch on these, no, I wanted several, as a handful, all dunked generously in the ube jam, all at once.  The combination of sweet and salty and fried and starchy ... zomg.  Danger, danger.  I'm fairly certain I could devour an entire portion of these in about 3 minutes flat if I wasn't trying to act polite in my group.   And while I could tell others were interested to try them, um, let's just say, I didn't really offer, which is horrible of me, since everyone else was so generous with their sharing.  But damn, these were just crazy good.

While I really enjoyed the pork belly in the savory dishes, these were, hands down, the dish of the day for me.  Unique and just totally completely addictingly delicious.  I hope they stay on the menu, and I've been inspired to sugar coat (literally!) more fried savory foods in the future ...

****+.

Halo Halo Milk Tea. 10 ounce. $4.25.

"Inspired by cereal milk, we infused this drink with our favorite nostalgic flavors from the popular Filipino dessert, Halo-Halo. Enjoy hints of ube, flan, tropical fruits, red bean, and more."

This is a pretty fun drink.  Sure, milk tea has kinda had its moment, and this isn't made to order, you can't customize sweetness or mix-ins, yadda yadda, but, they perfected their recipe, and created a nice beverage, that really does capture the essence of halo halo.  The base is soymilk (thus, vegan) and jasmine tea (medium caffeine), plus the obvious ube, along with bits of jackfruit, red bean, and coconut jellies.  You do need to give it a vigorous shake if you want to get the bits.

It is obviously a beautiful color, and the ube flavor is quite pronounced from the extract they use (not powder).  It doesn't have the taste or texture of something made with real ube, but also doesn't taste fake like powders often can.  It is sweet, definitely sweet, and I thought the soy milk base was an excellent choice even for those who like cow dairy, as the soy and vanilla-like ube flavor are always a winning pair for me.

Everyone enjoyed trying this drink, but also admitted it was basically a dessert, and not really what you'd want to just sip on with your meal.  Most preferred a small glass, not even a full bottle like this.  But for a girl like me who "requires" dessert with every meal, it was a perfect finishing touch. ***+.

They also make a Sea Salt Leche Flan Coffee, but alas, were sold out on our visit.

Halo Halo Milk Tea. 32 ounce. $12.

If you, like many, find the halo halo milk tea addicting, you can get it in jug form to take home as well.  It keeps about a week in the fridge, and that way, you can portion it, or thin it down, as you please.  The jugs are also great for sharing at Parklab Gardens if you go with a group, as we did.

Ube Cookies & Cream Snack Mix. $7.75.
(Catering Only).

"Sweet. Salty. Purple. Ube snickerdoodles crumbles, Oreo bits, pretzels, popcorn, and Kix cereal drizzled with ube white chocolate."

I couldn't resist ordering one item from the Sarap Shop catering menu in advance for my group: Ube Cookies & Cream Snack Mix.  I mean, really.  You know how much I love snacks, and obviously anything ube, and ... it had popcorn too?  Yeah, we clearly needed to get this.  You can order this in advance, minimum order is 10 bags.  10 bags seems about right for, uh, one person.  I'm not joking.

Um, yeah.  ZOMG.

This snack mix was basically everything I wanted it to be.  But warning, it is super sweet.  Super, super sweet.  And if you were in it for the cookies & cream aspect, you may be disappointed.  I however don't really care for Oreos, so I was thrilled that they weren't really as dominant of an ingredient as the product name implied. 

But let me start from the top.  Ok, this snack mix is sorta like a Chex mix, but, replace the Chex with Kix.  I actually don't really like Kix, and certainly would have preferred a Chex base, but, the round little bits did give it a different eating experience than the more standard Chex, in a kibbles n bits sort of sense.  The smaller sized Kix also meant more surface area and less cereal, and thus, definitely a sweeter product than had Chex been used, as each Kix bit was covered in ube white chocolate and powdered sugar.  Super sweet, crunchy base.  Kix was the dominant ingredient (well, really, powdered sugar and ube white chocolate probably were).

Next we had pretzels - I found at least 3 kinds of pretzels in my mix - a few round balls nearly the same size as the Kix, twisty rods, and waffle shaped ones.  The pretzels were some of my favorite bites, as they provided a kinda respite from the sweet, and brought in a salty element too.  The waffle shaped ones were particularly fun as they captured coatings in between the waffles.  There weren't tons of pretzels, and I might have preferred more, just to make the overall mix a tad less overwhelming sweet.

Then ... the popcorn.  ZOMG.  You know I have a popcorn obsession, and this popcorn was no different.  Why oh why have I never have ube white chocolate powdered sugar popcorn before?!  It was magical.  Large well popped pieces, sweet coating, zomg.  Like the pretzels, there wasn't tons of popcorn, and I'd love more, or really, I would 100% support Sarap Shop selling just the coated popcorn.  I'd buy it by the gallon, no question. 

Next we had the cookies: Oreo cookie bits and Ube snickerdoodle crumbles.  The Oreos were few and far between, and very small bits, but, as I said, I'm pretty "meh" on Oreo, so this didn't bother me.  The chocolate and ube combination was fairly new to me, and I can kinda see how it works.  And then, the other cookie, the ube snickerdoodles, which I found very little of, and was kinda lost amongst all the other ingredients.

So overall - totally and completely addicting, totally and completely way too sweet but in a way you can't help but devour knowing it will make you feel poorly if you finish it all (which you obviously do), and a bit too Kix heavy for me, but 100%, I'd get it again.  I also wonder what it would be like to use on top of an ice cream sundae, or actually with milk added, like a sweet dessert cereal?

****+, #addiction.

Read More...

California Fish Market

California Fish Market is a seafood restaurant in San Francisco.  It is not, however, a market, as in, a place to purchase raw seafood (unless you are counting the crudos I suppose) as the name somewhat implies.  It is a full service restaurant, located in North Beach, right next to another well known seafood restaurant, Sotto Mare (which I've reviewed before).  Both have indoor and outdoor seating, and feature seafood heavy menus.  I think they tend to get a fair number of guests who spill over from one to the other, depending on how long the waits are.

"Eating seafood is a great way to boost your immune system while supporting many of fishermen and seafood farmers during this challenging time. We only use sustainable seafood that is either caught or farmed in a way that has less impact on the environment."

I don't know much about the restaurant itself, as they don't proclaim any real history, no well known chef, etc.  They do ensure sustainable seafood practices.

The menu at California Fish Market is entirely seafood focused, with a dominant focus on pastas, all served family style.  After all, it is a seafood restaurant right in the heart of North Beach.  Whenever I've walked by, tables are always covered in pastas.  The other crowd favorites are the calabrese style crudo, available with several kinds of seafood, classic shrimp or crab cocktail or louie salad, and of course, oysters.  They also feature a crab, not clam, chowder, and a few grilled, roasted, or seared seafoods.  The only sides available are french fries, pasta (with your choice of sauce: tomato, cream, or pesto), and, broccolini.  No other vegetables, no seasonal items.  For those who don't eat seafood, there are no token options for them either.  A non-seafood eater could have simple pasta and sauce, and that is it.  There isn't even a salad without seafood, as the ceasar (rightly!) has anchovies.

Although I've walked by many times, I've never actually dined at California Fish Market.  I did however, order takeout, on DoorDash, for delivery.  My ordering experience was ... ok.  They didn't allow any custom notes, e.g. "dressing on the side", and my order took considerably longer than expected, arriving 45 minutes after my already lengthy delivery slot.  And, as you could guess, the food was not warm when it arrived.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Bread & Butter (Complimentary).

My order came with a box of bread, which was a nice touch, even if I'm not much of a bread eater with meals.  In the days of being charged for bread even when dining in, this was appreciated.

The bread was fairly average, but fresh, sourdough.  Nice crust to it, good chew.  I believe it was served at room temperature, as the butter (generic brand) packaged in with it wasn't melted at all (usually a tell tail sign that bread was packaged hot).  Likely nice if you ordered pasta or something with sauce to lap it all up.

**+.

Housemade Crab Cakes. $19.

I was really craving crab.  Crab cakes, in particular.

The menu does not give any indication of what the crab cakes are served with, not a mention of aioli or remoulade or other dipping sauce, nor details on if it is a pair or single jumbo crab cake, nor details if it is local Dungeness, nor details on if its lumb crab or shredded ... and yet, I still ordered it.  The menu just said "housemade crab cakes", and I took a gamble.  I was just really craving a good crab cake, after being fairly let down by the expensive ones from Ocean Prime in Orlando.  I also couldn't really find many mentions of the crab cakes on Yelp, despite the ridiculous number of reviews.  They just don't seem to be what most people order (which probably should have made me question ordering them myself ...).

The answers?  A pair of average size crab cakes, all shredded crab, no lump meat, fair amount of filler.  Served on top of a very over-dressed, soggy, greasy, wilted arugula salad with a few grape tomatoes and a wedge of not particularly ripe lemon.  Topped with some kind of aioli. 

I think you can tell how I felt about the salad component, which perhaps would be good if fresh in the restaurant, but was really pretty bad when it arrived at my house.  Just so soggy, and so oily.  I ended up tossing it, and making my own salad to go along with the cakes.  It doesn't even get a single star.

The crab cakes actually were fine, even if I made them sound otherwise.  I don't mind the shredded crab style, and I actually do like having the filler.  They were nicely seared, were moist, good texture.  That said, they were cold when they arrived at my house, so I had to heat them up, which wasn't made easy as the aioli was already on top.  They were rather oily too, which was very obvious when I set about reheating them and the oil came pouring out. ***.

The aioli was creamy, and nice to have with the crab cakes.  I would have asked for the aioli on the side if I could, but they don't accept any custom requests on DoorDash, and they don't have an option for dressing/sauce on the side.  It was mildly zesty, but didn't have any particular flavor I could pick out (not mustard nor cocktail sauce based). ***.

Overall, this was fine, once I tossed the salad, heated up the crab cake, and dabbed away all the extra oil.  I probably wouldn't order it again for delivery, but if I was dining in, and in the mood for crab cakes, I'd consider it.

The restaurant does a fair amount of takeout and delivery, so I was surprised to see the misses that really could have been prevented by more care for takeout - specifically, not dressing the salad so it wouldn't be a soggy mess when it arrived, having the aioli on the side too, and not placing hot crab cakes on the salad.

Read More...

Hartland Diner, Hartland, Vermont

Update Review, 2020 Visit

Near 10 years ago, I discovered The Hartland Diner.  I fell in love with the pancakes.  Epic.  My first visit there was one of the more memorable dining experiences I had that year, and that was a year with *a lot* of eating out.  The only problem?  Well, it is in Hartland, Vermont, and I live in San Francisco.  I discovered it when visiting my parents in New Hampshire, after doing way too much random research on great breakfast/brunch places.

And thus a tradition was born, every time I went to visit, usually once in the summer, once at Christmas, my mom and I had a date to go out to breakfast there, 30+ minutes away.  We did it without fail for several years in a row, until I had a couple experiences that weren't *quite* as good as the original, and I decided to start checking out other places.  We continued our tradition of going out to breakfast somewhere when I was in town, and hit up the places closer to home (Lou's - best sausage but mixed otherwise, and definitely not good pancakes, and 4 Aces Diner - great pancakes, mixed otherwise). 

But I never forgot about the Hartland Diner.  For some reason, I started following the diner on Instagram.  I regularly drooled over the creations.  But moreover, I could see just how much love and care went into the place.  I knew this already, yes, sure, everything is local and organic, extremely homemade (no mixes, etc, etc), etc, but I could see the true passion and love that went into it.  It made me love it myself even more.  

And then COVID happened.  I watched a small business owner reeling.  I watched that passion and love turn into an extreme struggle.  A tiny diner?  Yeah, not set up in any way for this.  There is no space for outdoor dining.  The inside is a few booths, and, counter seating.  So even when outside dining opened back up, no option for the diner.  And inside seating? Sure, she could sit at most 3 parties.  That hardly pays for waitstaff.  And how do you have a place serving quality, ridiculously homemade items, with such low volume? It simply shouldn't work.  I really thought the days were limited, and lamented that I was on the other side of the country, and hadn't returned in a few years.  And yet,  I watched the chef owner rally, over and over again.  Still making everything from scratch.  Doing takeout for regulars, working entirely solo.  Adding frozen take home soups, chilis, and pot pies to the lineup.  And when she could, opening on weekends only, reservation only, for a few tables.

After months of sheltering in place in San Francisco, I decided to take the risk to journey to New Hampshire, to work remotely, and live with my parents for a while.  I really wanted to at least be able to breath fresh air, and enjoy the bounty from my sister's garden.  I quarantined for a full 2 weeks, I adjusted to living in my parent's downsized home and working full time from there, and, well, made pretty fast plans to visit the Hartland Diner with my mom as soon as I could.

I'm so glad I did.

Breakfast Feast!

My return to the Hartland Diner was a triumphant success.

We had a fabulous meal, and all the previous highlights still shined - excellent coffee, top tier pancakes, and a savory lineup that made my mom happy too.

This time I added even more items to our order, yes, we ordered way too much for two people, and got frozen items to take home as well, but I was not upset to leave with leftovers to freeze (seriously, don't knock freezing pancakes - they reheat beautifully if you put some effort into it.  Freeze well wrapped up, double layers.  Cook direct from frozen - wrap in foil, put in toaster oven (with a few drops of water inside the foil), about 350* or so, go ahead and make your coffee, get out some butter, warm up some syrup (I put it in a little bowl on top of the toaster oven and it warms beautifully).  Open up the foil at the end if you like a crisp top, get out your plate and fork and knife, and, you'll have perfection.  Moist (from the drop of water inside), not freezer tasting (double wrapped), and crispy (if you want it, from last minute or two outside foil).

I will definitely return for pancakes, anytime I am in the area, and the craving hits.  Until then, I'll be looking forward to my freezer stash.

Diner Rules: "How Things Work Here".

The diner still had the "How Things Work Here" literature on the tables, explaining that, well, you are in an opinionated place, let's just say.  But I adore that they care so much about the quality, and in particular "When food is ready to be served it is served. No one's food sits sadly, slowly dying, in a corner of our kitchen, waiting.  This isn't that kind of place. You all will not get your food simultaneously."

So much love for this, even though yes, it meant that I had all my food before my mom had a single thing, and. yes, that is a bit awkward, but, it also meant we both got our food in top form, which, for me, um matters? (more than it should I know).

Vermont Coffee Company's Tres Mariposas Coffee. 

To get the meal started, I opted for coffee, having foregone my regular cup the moment I got up at home.  It was rough to do, but I knew the Hartland Diner had great coffee, and I only drink a small cup of regular per day.

I really loved the mug in the way it felt in my hand, a heafty mug, and great size, but, perhaps the coffee wasn't very hot to begin with, but it was lukewarm within a moment, and the inside of the diner was pretty chilly, and it was stone cold before we had even really settled in.

That said, it really is a nice coffee.  Not too harsh, but strong, good aroma.  ****.

I moved on to decaf after, as I wanted coffee throughout my meal, and, well, wanted hot coffee.  It was brewed fresh, which I didn't mind waiting for.  I asked for it in a paper cup, so it would stay warmer (and would have a lid to hold in some heat).  The decaf was even great, which, I knew was true before, but surprised me as I assumed they were doing essentially no volume, and thus it would be stale.

I was quite pleased with my hot decaf. ****.

Special: Blueberry Muffin.
Grilled and Buttered

"HUGE Blueberry Muffins. 100% from scratch. No pre-made batters. No box mixes. Just real, fresh ingredients. FULL of wild Maine blueberries!"

I don't know if the Hartland Diner had muffins as specials before and I just never noticed, or if they were new, but, after seeing these on Instagram a few days in a row, I had no choice but to order one, even though I was there to get a ridiculous amount of pancake.  And literally had blueberry muffins from Danbury Country Store (so good!) the day before, and the day before that, and had a freezer full of great muffins.  The glamor shots online just make these look too insane - uniquely loaded muffins.

So I added one to our order, intending to try a bite and bring it home for later, perhaps freezing half for later.  But ... I forgot that it came split, grilled, and already buttered.  Doh.  Which, to be fair, would be great if I was intending to eat it right then.  In fact, I give major KUDOS for serving that way, as I love a grilled muffin (not just warmed up).  And, their butter is so delicious.

So yes, there are "blueberry muffins", and then there is ... this.  Not only is a monster of a muffin, but it truly was insanely loaded with fruit.  The base was a sweeter, cake style muffin, slightly less breakfast appropriate than your average muffin, and full of pops of juicy fruit.  Grilling it and buttering it just added to the awesomeness, no question.

It was a good muffin, particularly for the sweeter style.  It made me want to eat it how I used to eat corn muffins - warmed/grilled, slathered with butter, and, um, dunked in sugar (like, I'd get a plate of sugar, ideally pearl sugar, and dunk chunks in as I went).  Good for a sweet breakfast, and I think it would work great as a dessert style item too, as it was so sweet and cake-like, perhaps with some ice cream or whipped cream.

I gladly took home the rest, and, although my dad loves blueberry muffins, did not share.  Gulp.  Sorry dad.  ****.

When I got home, I saw the chef was making chocolate chip muffins next, with just as much chocolate, warm and melty, and nearly turned right back around to get one.  Heh.  If it wasn't 30+ min away ...

Pancake Armageddon. Single. Single. $14.
Maple Walnut White Chocolate Chip.

"Made 100% from scratch. No mixes. No boxes.  Just blood. Sweet and GLUTEN.  Served with BOTTOMLESS Richardsons' REAL Vermont Maple Syrup & Cabot Butter."

I was there for the pancakes.  No question.  I wanted so very badly to have good pancakes (I had some mediocre ones other places / home, and was craving a good pancake sooo badly).  But I also had fairly mixed experiences with the pancakes at The Hartland Diner before, ranging from literally the best pancake of my life, to kinda just ok.  I think there was a different cook that time.  So I was excited, eager, and worried my hopes were too high.

As before, pancakes were available plain, or with my choice of mix-ins (one mix-in for $2 extra, or the "Armageddon" with as many things in it as I want for $4 extra).  Available as singles, doubles, or, three, as always with the note to not even try to get three.  I knew that one was the same as a full stack elsewhere, so I only got a single, and got an extra plate, so I could properly cut off a chunk and butter/syrup it as I pleased.

Of course, deciding which kind to get was agonizing.  I knew that maple walnut was great for crunch, and had always liked it before.  I had mixed success with the white chocolate chips, and kept really wanting to try butterscotch, both of which would go well with the maple walnut.  But I also had been on a serious chocolate kick, and chocolate chip pancakes sounded great.  And ... so did blueberry pancakes (which, at least I was able to rule out due to the blueberry muffin, knowing I'd get some blueberry satisfaction that way).  I tried to order maple walnut, with white chocolate chips on one side, butterscotch on the other, hedging my bets, but, alas, was turned down from the half and half suggestion. So I went basic, just two mix ins, and hoped for the best.

The result?  Yup, a very good pancake. 

Maple Walnut White Chocolate Chip Pancake (half): Underside.

The pancake base had a nice tang, was oh-so-fluffy inside, and crispy outside.  The maple walnuts were just the crunch I wanted, and the little white chocolate chips did melt decently.  I did wish for more of both though, the fillings felt a bit lacking, and, as you can see from the underside, were just sprinkled on and cooked onto that one side (which really does seem like doing half white chocolate, half butterscotch would work fine ...).

I really liked it this time with syrup (nice quality real syrup of course), rather than butter, which, was a departure from previous times when I loved it with butter.  Regardless, it was a very good pancake.

I'll definitely get this again. ****.

Sauteed Spinach (off menu side). 

To go along with my pile of sweet carbs, I wanted a small savory something.  I almost got a sausage patty, but I knew they were still Farmland brand, rather than Vermont Country Farms as they used to carry, that I adored.

I also knew my mom would be having hollandaise, and I planned to steal some of it, so, I just asked for a side of spinach.  Steamed, sauteed, whatever.  I was met with some resistance from the server, but he checked with the cook, and she agreed to do it.

It was a decent portion.  It was ... fine?  I mean, it was just spinach, sauteed, which, after all, is what I asked for.  More oily than I wanted since I was adding hollandaise, but I appreciated having it for savory bites that I alternated before having more and more sweet carbs.  **+.

Bene Florentine. $15.

This was my mom's order, as she is a savory breakfast person, and hence, was interested in an entirely different part of the menu from me.

She selected from "Benedict Central", her favorite part of the menu, a huge line up of benedicts, with 2 eggs, hollandaise, grilled english muffin, and your choice of toppings, ranging from the standards to some fun ones like a buffalo chicken version, served with a choice of sides.  She's had many before in the past, as you've read about in all my earlier reviews (below).

This time she went pretty simple: florentine (sauteed spinach), with hash browns as her side of choice.

Of course I tried a bite ... or two.  The hollandaise was a bit too eggy for me, and it sadly was not very warm.  That was sad, but it was perfectly creamy.  She seemed happy enough with the entire thing.

The hash browns were super crispy, and a huge portion (she brought home ... 70% of it?).

All florentines are $15, but a smaller 1/2 portion is available for $9, or you can get a flight of multiple benedicts (3-10!), if you really want to customize.

Frozen Items

To further support the diner, and hopefully feed ourselves something delicious later, we also picked up some of everything had available frozen to take home: pot pies, chili, and soup.

Chicken Pot Pie/ Vegan Shiitake & Vegetable Pot Pie.  Deep Dish. $10 each.

Two kinds of pot pie were available, and we got both, a classic chicken version, and a vegan one, which I wouldn't normally go for, except that it features shiitake, and I love mushrooms.  That said, I didn't think about the fact that it meant it would be vegan in the crust and cream too ... and, um, I'm all about butter and cream ...

Both pies were *seriously* deep dish and stuffed high, and looked pretty awesome.  The fillings are cooked, but the crust is not.  I was instructed to cook both in oven for 45 min at 350*.

Chicken Pot Pie: Frozen.

I started with the chicken pot pie, even though I dislike chicken, because, well, I adore pie crust, and pie crust needs ... butter.  And I adore creamy rich pot pie fillings, and, well, that takes cream.

So, chicken-hater I am, I went for the chicken one first.  Here it was in frozen form, quite attractive looking, and as I said, *very* stuffed!

Chicken Pot Pie: after 50 minutes.

The 45 minute estimate didn't quite seem correct, at least for my oven.  Here it is at 50 minutes - it was smelling *wonderful*, but, the crust was most certainly not cooked yet.

Chicken Pot Pie: Fresh and ready!

Ok, after an hour and 15 minutes, I had this beauty.

The crust seemed to only be on top, I didn't find a side or bottom crust.

Crust was ... ok. Kinda floury-doughy.  Not quite as flaky nor buttery as I remembered from the sweet pie I had from Hartland diner before.

Chicken Pot Pie: Filling.

When I broke into it, at first I was confused, thinking it was mislabeled perhaps, and this was the vegan veggie one?  Because all I saw was veggies, not chicken, and the filling looked strangely ... curdled?

Undeterred, I dug in.

Chicken Pot Pie: So many veggies!

It really was loaded with veggies, sure the standard potatoes and carrot as you'd expect, but also little chunks of broccoli, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow summer squash ... the more I looked, the more veggies I found.  Kinda blown away by the veggie assortment.  I didn't find peas or corn or celery, which are more common in pot pie, or even onion actually, but, the summer veggie lineup was a nice change.

The veggies were all good, nicely cooked.  The only ones I didn't care for were the carrots - some large chunks, like you'd find in stew. They tasted like stew too!

The chicken was small pieces, which made it harder to avoid, and made it more infused with chicken flavor throughout, which, sadly for me made it less desirable.

It was decently creamy, decently well seasoned, just overall, decent, if you like chicken that is.  Almost like a really good chicken veggie chowder, I could see it working well as a soup.

I didn't want more than a slice, since, well, chicken forward, but it was a decent pie.

Chicken & Veg Soup / Beef & Bean Chili. Quarts. $8 each.

Next up, soup and chili.

The chicken & vegetable soup was not for me, but, I did snag a couple quarts of the chili, picking the beef & bean version over the vegan one, for myself and my father (if I shared, heh).  He loves chili, and sometimes I really do too.  And I had been seriously craving ground beef!

My mom had the chicken & veg soup, said it was "ok", but she really wished it had rice or pasta in it.

Beef & Bean Chili.

"Made with fresh ground beef, FIVE kinds of beans, sweet corn, local BEER, fresh squeezed lemon juice, plum tomatoes, fresh garlic, onions, bell peppers, cilantro, dill, HYPER LOCAL maple syrup and ALL the seasonings. This chili is meant to be served with rice or pasta."

I hadn't seen the details of the chili when I picked it up, but I was very excited once I did.   Although I was confused by the "with rice or pasta" bit, not the traditional way to serve chili, at least for me.

But once it defrosted, I understood.  This was a seriously loaded, hearty, thick chili.  There *were* 5 types of beans (larger white beans, smaller white beans, red kidney beans, little black beans, etc), large chunks of ground beef, corn, chunks of bell pepper, etc, etc.  Every bean was cooked perfectly, not too mushy, not too al dente.  The flavor was fantastic all around, a very, very developed chili.  A chili lover's chili, but, you have to like beans.  I don't like beans all that much, but I really appreciated the huge chunks of beef too.

That said, this wasn't the kind of chili you'd just heat up and eat as a bowl like this.  I could imagine it working great on top of fries with cheese, the ultimate chili cheese fries.  Or on top of a baked potato?  Or a split open faced biscuit?  And loaded with sour cream and cheese.  The pasta suggestion, perhaps with a elbow mac, as a tex-mex macaroni I can sorta imagine.  Not sure what other pasta would make sense.  And, as a non-rice person, I really dunno about that.  My father enjoyed it over tortilla chips, nacho style.

Overall, a very high quality chili, quality ingredients, and recipe crafted with care.  Definitely worth the $8 per quart. ***+.

Original Review, 2016

Like every good San Franciscan, I adore brunch.  Actually, no, I just love breakfast foods, but my normal life isn't one where I get to go out for breakfast.  I actually kinda dislike brunch, because I do always want something to eat sooner, but don't want to eat too much breakfast before going to brunch, and never know how long we'll need to wait ... 

Uh, oops, sorry, this isn't a rant about brunch.  This is about my love of breakfast foods, and in particular, breakfast from diners.  While I may eat at a lot of nice restaurants for other meals, for breakfast, a classic diner can do just as well as any fancy restaurant (and, frankly, often better).  Maybe my breakfast standards are just different?  Heck, I even love pancakes from IHOP.

While I don't go out to breakfast in "regular life", I certainly do when traveling, and when visiting my family on the east coast.  After a couple mediocre breakfasts at our regular breakfast place, Lou's, I decided it was time to do some research and find a new breakfast place.  And the Hartland Diner quickly rose to the top of the list, even though it was further away (nearly a 30 minute drive from my parent's house).

Hartland Diner FACTS.

The Hartland Diner is located in Vermont, in, you guessed it, Hartland.

It is a small diner, but, they really care about things like freshness and sourcing.  On the tables, on bright pink laminated paper, is a stand with a list of FACTS.

The first set of facts is about all of their local producers, listing out all the suppliers they use for items like their eggs, cheese, chicken, sausage, dairy, and coffee.  The next set of facts is all about how they make many things from scratch, aka, "properly".  This ranges from roasting their own turkey, to making their own veggie burgers and granola, to making their own salad dressings, spicy mayo, and gravy, to pancakes/waffles/biscuits and their famous pies.

Hyper local and even the mayo housemade?  If it weren't for the tacky pink sign, it would fit right in in San Francisco.

What We Are About.

The other side of the pink sign goes into more detail, with a little essay about local, fresh food, community, and how they are the best.

I found this signage all a bit odd, but, I appreciated that they cared so much about their ingredients and quality, and wanted you as the guest to understand it.

My first visit was absolutely incredible.  I was pretty upset that I discovered it on my last day in town, and quickly deemed it a new reason to visit the east coast (well, besides my family of course).   I made a point to go every time I visited the area for two years after that, and refused to try anywhere else for breakfast.  Sadly, no visit measured up to that first one (although none were bad, the food was always fresh, and the coffee always excellent).  Portions are huge, and prices are rather high for the area.  After four visits, I'll definitely still return, and hope for a repeat of that first visit, but I do plan to keep trying more places.

The Space

The diner is not large.  It has a counter, and 5 booths.  That is it.  Not a total hole in the wall, but, close.

Counter Seating.

The counter seating usually has a few solo diners at it, enjoying their meals, and chatting with the staff.  They have all seemed to be regulars, quite at home at the counter.

The staff are always reasonably friendly, although more so with their regulars.

Booths.

The rest of the space is made up of booths, only 5.  The padding of the booths matches the colorful, cheery, turquoise of the stools at the counter.

Specials Chalkboard.

Every single time I have visited, the chalkboard has featured amazing sounding specials (including their famous pies!), plus both breakfast and lunch specialities.  I've still yet to order any though, as I generally arrive with a set plan ...

Clouds.

It was hard to get a photo to really capture the ambiance inside due to the really fascinating lights.  It isn't nearly as dark as it looks here, but I couldn't focus on the cloud-lights and keep the rest of the room brightly lit.  Anyway, the ceiling panels have some of these cloud-lights, which totally amp up the already cheery atmosphere.

Condiments.

Every table has a slew of condiments to choose from, all the classics: French's mustard, Heinz ketchup, Frank's hot sauce, Tabasco, and not one, but two types of sriracha.  I didn't need any of these, but I appreciated that they were all there, easily accessible, no need to ask for them.  Still curious why they needed two different types of sriracha though!

More Condiments.

The other side of the table are sweeteners for drinks, toothpicks, jam, and huge salt and pepper shakers.  This theme of oversized items was going to be a recurring one, we just didn't know it yet.

I thought it was really interesting that the jam was small packages of Smuckers.  The Hartland Diner is all about making everything from scratch, so having very generic jam seemed strange to me.  In this one area, and this one area only, Lou's wins, as the homemade strawberry jam they have on the tables is absolutely amazing.

Visit #1: July 2014

My first visit was in the summer of 2014.  I had been really craving pancakes, did my research, and finally convinced my mom to go out to breakfast with me.

Fresh Brewed Iced Tea.

My mom ordered iced tea, as it was crazy hot out, and she wanted something refreshing.  We were both stunned when it arrived at the table.

It came served in a canning jar, which wasn't exactly the notable thing.  Many places in San Francisco serve drinks in jars, so that fact was barely something I noticed.  What was impossible to miss was the size: quart size!  It was absolutely massive.  It made the salt and pepper shakers look normal sized.

My mom made a comment about how she'd never be able to finish it, yet, somehow, she did.  I didn't try it, but she obviously liked it.  Fresh brewed, unsweet tea.  The massive size of this drink was just an indicator of what was to come ...

My water was also served in a jar, but it was a more reasonable pint size.  Both jar drinks came with colorful bendy straws.  I always use straws, so I appreciated this quite a bit.

Bottomless Decaf Coffee.

Since I was getting a breakfast item, I wanted coffee, decaf as usual.

Behind the counter were standard diner style pots of coffee, regular and decaf.  Pre-brewed, sitting there on burners to keep warm.  I didn't expect anything from the coffee, but I always like to have it with my pancakes.

I was blown away by the coffee.  Like all of the products used at the diner, it is locally sourced, organic, made by Vermont Coffee Company, a small roaster in Middlebury, VT.

The coffee had a really deep flavor, almost chocolately, mocha-like.  It was rich, but not too dark, as I don't tend to like dark coffee.  It came with a little pitcher of cream (from Thomas Dairy, in nearby Rutland, VT), and there were plenty of sweeteners available on the table, but I didn't want to add a thing to it.  Absolutely perfect as was, and some of the best decaf coffee I've ever encountered.  (Side note: for the zero calorie sweetener, they don't have generic Stevia or Truvia, but instead a product from Chef Mark.  I don't know a thing about this, but I was surprised to see that even the basics like sweeteners were non-standard).

Coffee came with unlimited refills, in which I gladly partook.  I think I had 4 while I was there.  It was just so good.  The waitress kept a good eye on my coffee mug once she realized how much I was drinking, and made sure I never went without.

Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict, Homefries. $12.95.

After ordering sweet french toast at Lou's a few days earlier, my mom decided that she wanted to get a savory item, as she felt crappy after having such a decadent breakfast.  The Maple Walnut French Toast at the Hartland Diner sounded incredible, and she *almost* caved and ordered it: "covered on one side with a delicious layer of crushed walnuts, caramelized brown sugar, and organic cinnamon."  If I didn't have my heart set on pancakes, I definitely would have gone for it.

But instead, she opted for one of the many benedict preparations, smoked salmon.

I apologize for the bad photo.  I was too distracted by my amazing pancake experience to properly take a photo of her dish.  I paused just long enough to snap a pic, and take a quick look.  As I watched her cut into the poached eggs, I have to admit, they looked to be poached absolutely perfectly, a fact which she confirmed, and repeated several times.  The english muffins on the bottom were nicely toasted, the smoked salmon was a generous portion, and the hollandaise also garnered a couple mentions from my mom.  In particular, she said it was creamy, balanced, and didn't separate or break at all.  Her only criticism is that she would have preferred a dill hollandaise to compliment the smoked salmon.'

My mother was quite happy with her dish, fairly textbook benedict, a lesson in exactly how this dish is supposed to come out.  I tried a tiny taste of the hollandaise, but, the fact that I didn't demand any other bites of hers is a strong indication of how amazing my own meal was.  I always want to try a bit of everything, and she even offered several times, but I was in my own land of pancake bliss.

I did try the hashbrowns.  The Hartland Diner offers up both home fries OR hashbrowns.  I loved them for this.  I prefer hashbrowns, and I always get sad when places offer home fries.  I can't recall ever having the choice before.  Along with plain hashbrowns, you also have the option to have them covered in cheese, or have onions, peppers, mushrooms, ham, sausage, and/or bacon added.  She stuck with plain.  The hashbrowns were good, nice and crispy, but, just shredded potato, and not particularly seasoned.  I liked them with a bit of my maple syrup on them, but I'd skip them in the future and just focus on the amazing pancakes.

Of all the dishes we had at the diner, this is the only one that was even remotely normal sized.  Two poached eggs, a full english muffin, and a big pile of hash browns is a very *small* dish here.

Single Pancake: Maple Walnut Raspberry White Chocolate Chip! $7.95. 

After all that foreshadowing, I guess it is time to tell you about the pancakes.

First, let me describe the options for the pancakes.  Pancakes are listed as "Vermont Sized" with the tag line, "if something's worth doing, it's worth doing big".  They are sold as singles, or doubles.  It is mentioned on the menu several times that you shouldn't order three: "3 Pancakes - Don't do it!", or "Yes, you can have three if you INSIST", or "Yeah, yeah, we can make you three..." It turns out, this playful discouragement really is in your best interests.  But more on that later.

The pancake menu is divided into three sections: regular buttermilk pancakes ($5.95 for  a single, $10.95 for two), "Fun Flavors" ($6.95 single/$12.95 double), and "Super Special" ($7.95/$14/95).  The "Fun Flavors" are single flavor pancakes, and the "Super Specials" are a list of their recommended combinations.  And of course, you can create your own.

The options for mix-ins are extensive.  For chips, you can add chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips.  Prefer fruit?  They have strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, peaches, and bananas.  There was also maple walnut, coconut, and a few other options.  As I said, you could get any single flavor, or go for one of their "Super Special" flavors, like banana peanut butter or blueberry white chocolate chip.

I of course had to design my own.  I thought long and hard about my combination.  Finally, I decided that I wanted one sweet component, so I went with white chocolate chips.  I thought the butterscotch might be a bit too sweet, and I didn't want chocolate, even though the waitress told me the chocolate chip were her favorites.

I also decided that I wanted a fruit component.  I'm not sure why I picked raspberries, I thought either strawberries or raspberries would combine best with the white chocolate, and I knew I'd be having strawberry shortcake the next day, so I went with raspberry.

And finally, I wanted something for crunch, so I added the maple walnut.

This turned out to be a killer mix, and it was exactly what I wanted: a bit sweet, a bit moist and fruity, and a bit crunchy.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I ordered a single pancake.  After all, it was only 11:45am, and I'd had a fairly sizable breakfast at 9:30 at home.  I wasn't starving.  And I knew the pancake would be large.

Even with this knowledge, nothing prepared me for what was to come.  When the waitress set down the pancake in front of me, I'm pretty sure I gasped out loud.  I've seen large pancakes in my life, and in fact, I commented on how large the pancake at Lou's was just a few days earlier, but no other pancake compares to this.  I couldn't even see the plate, but somewhere under that massive pancake there was a full size dinner plate.  Yes, my pancake was larger than a plate.  It wasn't a thin, wimpy pancake either.  This was a thick, fluffy monster.

A few days earlier, I had a cookie dough pancake at North Street Grille, and it didn't come with any butter.  After that, I had the blueberry peach pancake at Lou's , which also didn't come with any butter, although it did have a bit of whipped cream.  This one didn't just have butter, it had a massive scoop of butter (Cabot, of course).  It was melting in very quickly.  I usually don't add any butter to my pancakes, or if I do, it is a minimal amount, so this made my eyes bug out a bit.  At first I tried to push it aside to prevent further melting into my pancakes, but, as my entire plate was a pancake, there wasn't anywhere for it to go, and, as I dragged it across my pancake it all just melted in even more.  Oh well, go big or go home, right?  

A bit overwhelmed, I took my first bite.  I hadn't even gotten to the syrup yet.  My mom claims that my eyes rolled back in my head as I did so.  Um, wow.  This was an absolutely incredible pancake.

It was light and fluffy, everything that the Lou's pancake was not.  Yet the outside was a bit crispy, although certainly not burnt.  The North Street Grill pancake was crispier, which I did like more, but it was no where near as fluffy.  The Hartland Diner pancake wins on texture and consistency.

The flavor in the pancake base was incredible, with a lovely tang from the buttermilk (also Thomas Dairy, like my cream for the coffee).  My mix-ins turned out to be an even better combination than I expected.  The white chocolate chips were slightly melted and added a perfect hint of sweetness.  The walnuts gave texture and crunch.  The raspberries were flavorful little pops of moisture.  A wining trio, although next time, I'd choose a fruit other than raspberries, because I didn't care for the seeds.  That is just me and my quirky dislike of berry seeds though.

I was many bites in before I realized that I hadn't even tried the syrup, 100% real Vermont maple syrup of course.  My flavor combinations in the pancake were so good that it honestly didn't need the syrup, although real syrup is always appreciated.  They don't even have the fake stuff, only real, unlimited, and from a farm down the street.  You know me, I'm a sweet tooth and love adding syrup to things, but honestly, the sweetness from the white chocolate chips, the maple from the maple walnut, and the fruit was really totally sufficiently sweet as it was.  I ended up using syrup on some bites, but mostly because I felt like I was supposed to, not because I needed it.

Oh, and that mound of butter that concerned me originally?  I wouldn't say it was necessary exactly, but, I ended up easily using it all.  The butter itself was insanely good ... I guess I'll be on the lookout for Cabot butter in the future!  And not that the pancake was dry or needed it, but the melty butter just made the whole thing even more moist.

So overall?  Amazing.  It was impressive, visually, from the moment it was set down in front of me, and my sense of wonder continued as I stuffed myself full of it.  The largest pancake I've ever seen, by far, and also, I'm going to say it, the best pancake I've ever had.

I'll clearly be going back for another, although I'll force myself to try out more flavor combinations.  I want to try something with peanut butter (peanut butter, bacon, and banana perhaps?), and I think I'd like to try a butterscotch one.  And something with fresh fruit on top and whipped cream.  So many choices.  Must return.

Coconut Cream Pie.  $5.50.

"We’ll put our pie up against ANYONE’S pie out there. REAL, from scratch pastry creams so delicious you could just eat bowls of the filling without ever putting it in the flaky, of course, 100% from scratch crusts. Not to mention every kind of fruit, with a traditional double crust or yummy crumb topping."

Online reviews I read all raved about the pie.  People talked about visiting just to get pie ... for breakfast.  It seemed impossible NOT to try the pie, particularly as I'm such a dessert girl, but, we were stuffed.  I suggested getting pie, and my mom laughed at me.

Undeterred, I said we should get a slice to go, even though we'd already been given our check.  She agreed, I think mostly just to humor me.

The chalkboard boasted 6 varieties of pie, 3 cream pies (coconut, banana, chocolate) and 3 fruit pies (strawberry, triple berry crumb, and key lime).  It was the cream pies in particular that everyone raved about, so that narrowed down our choices easily.  Since I don't eat chocolate late in the day I ruled that out, and I didn't think banana cream would hold up well, otherwise I'd totally go for banana cream.  Thus, coconut cream pie it was.  (Side note: in the winter, they make a maple cream pie that people go crazy about.  I'll have to try that when I visit at Christmas!)

Since we got our slice to go, and mentioned that we'd be traveling back with it, the waitress asked for it to be packaged without whipped cream.  Of course, a cream pie needs whipped cream on top, but given that it was 90 degrees out, there is absolutely no way the whipped cream would have lasted.  We added our own later that evening when we got home.

It was a good slice of pie.  The crust was light and buttery.  The pie itself was pastry cream, loaded up with shredded coconut.  Very creamy, tons of coconut flavor, not too sweet.  Whipped cream on top helped complete it, and I think it would be strange without.

Overall a good slice, but, not something I need to go running back for.  If I was in the area and wanting pie, I'd certainly try another slice from them.  I really do have my eyes on the fruit pie.

I think the price was around $5.50, since it was a bit over $6 once tax was added, and my mom was shocked by the price.  A bit high, even for good pie.

Visit #2: December 2014

When I visited my family for the Christmas holidays, there was exactly one place on my list that I wanted to make sure to visit: The Hartland Diner.  I wanted another epic pancake.  I wanted to try the French Toast.  But ... my mother, the amazing woman that she is, had a house full of sweets waiting for me.  Literally.  There were Christmas cookies waiting for me on my pillow.  A whole pumpkin pie for dinner my first night.  And an entire tray of the most amazing pumpkin bread pudding just for nibbling on (it quickly became my breakfast of choice!).  And this was all my first day.  All my other favorites quickly showed up in subsequent days.

Thus, I didn't wake up craving pancakes at any point.  A rare thing for me, indeed.  But I really wanted to go to the Hartland Diner!  So, on my last day, we headed there, to try out the savory options (gasp!).

Service was friendly, and I really appreciated the waitress keeping my coffee cup full at all times.  The Hartland Diner again went on the top of my list of places to return to.

Fresh Fruit Cup. $4.95.

My mother wanted something healthy to start, so she ordered a fresh fruit cup.

When I saw the $4.95 price listed, I thought it was a bit high for the area.  And then I saw the fruit bowl.  For a winter offering, this was incredible.  The fruit was all clearly fresh cut to order.  The mix contained several types of citrus (grapefruit, oranges) with the pith completely removed.  There was kiwi, perfectly peeled.  Pomegranate seeds scattered throughout.  And bananas and grapes.

My mom loved her fruit, and it was clear that whomever prepared it put love into even something so simple, just a fruit bowl.  The price totally made sense once I saw the quality of the product.

Mason Dixon Bene.  $10.95.

"Grilled biscuit with bacon, sausage gravy, 2 poached eggs, and potatoes."

For the main attraction, we went for the Mason Dixon Bene.  This was a compromise between my mother and I, as we were planning to share a meal, having learned our lesson on portion sizes last time.

I had my eye on the sausage biscuits and gravy.  I knew they made their own housemade biscuits.  And sausage gravy.   I also love a good breakfast sausage patty.  But my mother wanted an egg dish, as that is her idea of breakfast.  I don't really care about eggs.  And the idea of gravy for breakfast was foreign to her.  Thus, the Mason Dixon Bene was perfect - she could get her eggs, I'd get the biscuit and sausage gravy.  And since I wanted even more sausage, we subbed out the regularly included bacon with a sausage patty.  When we ordered, I didn't realize quite how perfect of a compromise this would turn out to be - we both loved exactly opposite components of the meal.

The eggs, sourced from Maple Meadow, were again perfectly poached, but to me, they are just eggs.  I tried a few bites, and then gladly passed my egg over to my mom.

I adored the maple breakfast sausage patty, from Vermont Country Farms.  A bit crispy on the outside, perfectly cooked, incredibly well seasoned and flavorful.  My mother didn't want her whole portion, so I quite gladly snatched it up, in exchange for the egg.  I'll certainly seek out VT Country Farms products in the future.

The biscuit was also fantastic.  Super fluffy and moist.  Good buttermilk tang.  HUGE.  And I liked how it was grilled.  The other benedicts on the menu are served with english muffins, but to me, the biscuit is the clear winner.  So good.  My mother wasn't into this, and I again gladly took her portion.  As I staggered out of the diner after our meal, I somewhat regretted it.  It was a LOT of biscuit, but I really enjoyed it.

And, the gravy: there was tons of it.  When I saw the plate, I thought we'd never use it all.  Halfway through the meal, I found myself stealing the remaining gravy from my mom, since she was still a bit weirder out by the whole gravy-for-breakfast thing and wasn't using much.  Just like the sausage patty, it was super flavorful and well seasoned.  It was thick in all the right ways and incredibly generously loaded up with sausage chunks.

For the included side, we had the choice of hash browns or home fries.  Since we got the hash browns last time and weren't all that impressed, we picked the home fries this time.  The potatoes were again the only disappointing part of the meal.  They didn't seem quite fully cooked, a bit hard.  Not very seasoned.  Served skin on.  But, potatoes aren't generally something I'm super excited about anyway, and my mom enjoyed them, and ate my discarded portion in exchange for the biscuit and gravy.

This dish was huge. 2 poached eggs, an absolutely gigantic biscuit, a full sausage patty, a ton of gravy loaded up with more sausage, plus the home fries.  We both left stuffed - my mom had the eggs and home fries, I had the sausage, biscuit, and gravy that I wanted in the first place.  Two people can easily split a meal, although our waitress told us that she once had one person order this AND a giant pancake.  I can't imagine it.  The price was completely reasonable for a full breakfast for two.

If I was ever in the mood for a savory meal again, I'd gladly split this with my mom, or, I'd just get the biscuit and sausage gravy as I wanted in the first place.

Visit #3: July 2015

The next summer, it was time to return again, and, go back to the pancakes.

Crystal's Bene. $12.95. 

"3 poached eggs on Veggie Hash Browns with our own Hollandaise Sauce and an English Muffin."

I'm usually the one suffering from indecision, but at the Hartland Diner, my mom goes through it too.  The menu is overwhelming.  She went back and forth between getting a omelet special of the day, making her own omelet, or selecting from the massive list of benedicts.  In the end she went for a hybrid, "Crystal's Bene".

It wasn't a traditional bene, even though it was called a bene.  It came from a totally different section of the menu from the other benedicts, those were all part of the "Benedict Central Command" section of the menu, which included traditional bene with ham, the smoked salmon she had before, or options with corned beef hash, bacon, steak, buffalo chicken, black bean burgers, spinach, or tomato, all served traditionally over English muffins, with two poached eggs and hollandaise.

Hers came with the English muffin on the side, and was a bit more crispy than we'd desire.  Not burnt exactly, but certainly well done.

The eggs were nicely poached, fairly textbook, with yolks that oozed out just right.  It came with 3 eggs though, which just seems crazy to me.  I know big omelets are 3 egg omelets, but the normal benedicts are all only two eggs, which seems far more reasonable.  My mom couldn't finish it all in one sitting, and I'm really not sure who could.  3 eggs, plus tons of hash browns, plus a full english muffin?  Portion control!

The hollandaise wasn't as good as before.  It seemed too eggy, like it hadn't been cooked properly, or perhaps had separated a bit?  It also was too tangy and acidic.

Underneath this all was the hash browns, veggie hash browns.  I wasn't really into the plain hash browns before, but I tried them anyway.  They were loaded with peppers, onions, and mushrooms, and my mom was quite pleased, but I still wasn't into them.  She loved all the additional flavor.

My mom seemed to like her meal, but she didn't rave about it in the same was as our previous trips.

Create your own pancake: bacon, maple walnut, white chocolate chip. $9.95.

On this visit, I had my mind made up before I arrived.  I was ready for another epic pancake.

I did love the biscuit, gravy, and sausage for a savory option, but my memories of that first pancake were just too strong to resist.  And, on this visit, I went the very first morning I was in town, so I hadn't yet had a week straight of my mom's sweets, so I was ready for a decadent, sweet breakfast.

Deciding I wanted a pancake was easy (although that maple walnut french toast still sounds fantastic!).  Choosing what to put in my pancake was the hard part.  Did I try to just improve my last one slightly, keeping the maple walnut and white chocolate, and just change out the fruit?  Did I go for the butterscotch that I wanted to try last time?  Or ... what if I got totally crazy, and put in bacon?

Yes, bacon.  Sure, it wasn't listed as an option for a pancake ingredient.  But I follow the Hartland Diner on social media, and I know they put crumbled up bacon inside their pancakes from time to time.  I love combining a little sweet and savory.  Plus, a few days prior, I had an epic waffle dessert containing bacon (a S'mores Waffle Sandwich Wrapped in Bacon A La Mode to be exact, with double layers of waffle, stuffed with s'mores ingredients - fluff, chocolate, graham crackers, the entire thing wrapped in crispy bacon, and topped with huge scoops of ice cream.  Don't ask.), and I wanted to relive that insanity slightly.

So, I ordered a pancake.  I started listing my ingredients, "with bacon ..." I said, and the waitress confirmed, "Ok, a pancake with a side of bacon", and I corrected, "no, bacon bits inside."  Then I added maple walnuts because I loved them last time and the white chocolate chips to give a bit more sweetness.  I originally planned to do bacon, peanut butter, chocolate, and banana, a la Elvis, but I just wasn't feeling the banana, for some reason I didn't want chocolate, and peanut butter seemed too dry.  I knew my creation sounded a bit weird, but, I really wanted sweet and savory.  My other thought was to use butterscotch chips, but butterscotch bacon somehow sounded too strange to me.

Anyway.  The waitress confirmed my order, "Ok, a maple walnut - white chocolate chip - and bacon - pancake".  I laughed and said yes, and commented that it might be awful, and she was pretty polite about it.

The wait for our food was longer than expected, during which time I emptied my coffee cup many times.  The coffee (decaf) wasn't actually very good this time, but I added plenty of sugar and cream, and made it drinkable.  I was sad, since I had liked their coffee so much on the prior visits.  I also had to keep asking for refills, as the single waitress was busy and didn't notice my cup constantly running empty.

Finally, the waitress showed up, two plates in hand.  One was a small plate, with bacon. One was a large plate, with a pancake.  You can guess what wasn't in the pancake.  Yup, the bacon.  And she knew it.

She told me that the cook hadn't understood, and made me a maple walnut white chocolate chip pancake, with a side of bacon.  She asked if I wanted it anyway.

My heart sank.  I was there for my epic bacon pancake!  And, I don't actually really like just eating strips of bacon.  I didn't want a side of bacon.  And a pancake with just nuts and white chocolate wasn't exciting.  But we had waited longer than expected already, and were on a tight schedule (I was in town for my little sister's wedding, and getting my mom to take time for breakfast was pushing it as it was ...).  But I really didn't want it.  She could tell.  She said they would re-fire immediately.

Luckily, they knew better than to let my mom's beautiful poached eggs die in the window while mine was re-fired, and brought hers out momentarily.  My mom ate slowly, politely.  She finished one egg.  And another.  I was still waiting.  We both thought it took an unusually long time to cook my pancake the second time.  Maybe I was just starving, anxious about the time, and really anticipating it though?

When it finally returned, it came sans butter or syrup.  They normally put the butter on top, and I asked for it on the side.  The first time it arrive, my pancake was brought with both syrup and butter in little containers on the side.  This time, it had neither.  Sigh.  I still couldn't dig in!

And the pancake?  Well ... it wasn't great.  Some of it was certainly my fault, my combination didn't work quite as well as I hoped.

But some of it was execution.  The exterior wasn't crispy like on my first visit.  It wasn't nearly as fluffy.  Those were two elements that I really adored last time.  It was more just like any old pancake, far, far thinner.

It was however, still just as large in diameter.  Larger than the plate it was served on, which was a very large plate as it was.  This single pancake was again as large as at least 4 regular pancakes.  My mom estimated 5.  So daunting!

I quickly cut it into quarters, and stacked up 3 pieces, so I could just focus on one, and have some space on my plate for dipping.

The bacon bits were crunchy and a bit salty.  That part was about what I expected.  The maple walnuts were sweet, crunchy, and my absolute favorite component, but didn't really go well with the bacon.  The white chocolate chips were the real letdown.  In my previous pancake, they were melted, yielding little bursts of creamy sweetness.  This time, they were entirely unmelted.

So some of my dislike was that my flavor combination just wasn't ideal.  Yes, I had sweet and salty, and I had crunch, but, it wasn't a winning trio.  But really, I wanted a crispy exterior, fluffy interior, melty chip pancake like I had before.  I wonder if it was just cooked at a higher temperature trying to speed it up for me?  Or, a different cook?

Once I got over my initial sadness, it did grow on me, particularly when dunked in plentiful maple syrup.  But unlike my previous pancake, it really needed the syrup, and didn't stand alone.  I also was perfectly able to save part to bring home, whereas last time, even though I was beyond stuffed, I couldn't stop.  (It actually reheated quite nicely - I wrapped it in foil and threw it in the toaster oven.  Foil wrapping kept it moist and prevented it from getting dry, and then I removed the foil at the very end, which crisped up the outside, just how I wanted it in the first place).

I obviously wouldn't get this again.  If I really wanted bacon, I'd go back to the Elvis idea with at least the chocolate and peanut butter, and probably the banana.  But I think it is time to move on from the bacon, and just go for another sweet combination.  I loved the maple walnuts though, so I'd like to keep them.  Too bad they don't really go with the other things I wanted inside, like butterscotch and peanut butter.

Stay tuned, who knows what I'll come up with next ...

Coleslaw, side.  $3.95.

I wanted to take something home with me for later in the day.  I was originally thinking of pie, but sadly they were out of the pies I wanted.

Since most of the food didn't seem like what I'd actually want hours later, I went for the only thing that seemed like it would stand up: coleslaw.  Also, um, I love coleslaw.

The slaw however wasn't great.  It was only cabbage, and only one kind of cabbage.  No carrots, no red cabbage, nothing for a pop of color.  The cabbage was fairly crisp and fresh, nicely sized pieces.

It was more dressed than I'd like, not drowning in the dressing exactly, but, far more than I wanted.  If I had liked the dressing this would be ok, but, alas, I didn't.  I'm not sure why.  It wasn't creamy, although it looked like it should be.  It had a lot of tang to it that I didn't quite like.  The flavor just wasn't what I wanted.

Ojan ate it instead, and seemed to like it.  I still can't pinpoint what it was about it that I didn't care for.

The $3.95 price seemed high for a small side dish of just some cabbage in dressing, even if it was house made dressing.

Visit #4: December 2015

I was back in New Hampshire to see my family for the holidays, and of course, order of business #1 was going to the Hartland Diner with my mom, before the holiday festivities turned us into stress balls.  It was our chance to catch up and decompress, and then get to work cooking and baking ourselves.

As before, service was pleasant, the place had a homey, comfortable feel, and most diners seemed like regulars.

Grilled Biscuit ($2.50), Side of Sausage Gravy ($2.50), Side of Sausage Patty ($2.00).

As always, I had the hard choice between sweet (swoon, those pancakes! Seriously, best ever!) or savory.  But, also as always, I knew I'd be eating nothing but sweets for the entire upcoming week (my mom is a baking machine when I'm in town!).  So, savory it was.

I loved the biscuits, sausage, and gravy from my modified Mason Dixon Bene on my Christmas visit last year, but, as I noted then, I didn't care for the eggs or hash browns.  The menu also has a "sausage and biscuits" dish, which I assumed was just, well, sausage and biscuits, but, it also came with eggs and potatoes, and my mom had no interest in sharing with me this time around, to take the eggs and potatoes off my hands.

So ... I asked if I could order a la carte, and literally order just exactly what I wanted.  It was no problem.  So, I ordered a grilled biscuit, with a side of sausage, and a side of sausage gravy.  Perfect!

The biscuit was huge, and perfectly grilled.  I really love how they grill it, giving it a crust, but keeping it moist, light, and fluffy.  It didn't quite live up to my memory though, it was tasty, but, didn't quite have the buttermilk tang I remembered.

Of course, I wanted the biscuit as a vehicle for the insanely good sausage gravy.  And that is where things fell apart this time.  It didn't just not live up, instead, I really, really did not like it. At all.  It was thick and gloopy, which isn't necessarily bad.  It had tons of crumbled sausage, but, the flavor was just not good.  I'm not sure what went wrong.  I keep trying it, but, alas, I just didn't like it.  I couldn't force myself to eat much more.  This also meant I had an entirely plain biscuit on my hands, so I asked for butter.  The butter helped, but plain butter and plain biscuit isn't nearly as magically as tangy buttermilk biscuit and delicious gravy.  I only ate half the biscuit, and brought the other half home to enjoy with my mom's homemade strawberry jam.  That was much better (at the diner, they have only Smucker's packaged jams, which always seems strange, given how much pride they take in making everything else themselves.  The best jam at a breakfast joint in the area is definitely Lou's, where I don't necessarily love the food, but adore their jam!).

Anyway, the sausage patty was the highlight for me, although it too had changed.  Before it was a maple breakfast sausage patty, from Vermont Country Farms, and now it was just a basic breakfast sausage patty from Farmland.  It was a fairly thin style, but was still juicy.  It was well spiced, and quite tasty.  I really enjoyed it.  Lou's however wins in the sausage department as well, their breakfast sausage remains my favorite ever.

The prices for my cobbled together a la carte meal were great though, with the biscuit and gravy being charged at $2.50 each, and the sausage patty only $2.  I was a cheap date!

Benedict Florentine (plus Avocado & Tomatoes), Hash Browns.

"2 poached eggs over sautéed baby spinach on a toasted english muffin, topped with our FOR REAL Hollandaise Sauce. Served with your choice of hash browns or home fries."

My mom wanted to order the Crystal's Bene again, since she liked it last time.  I told her she wasn't allowed a repeat, and needed to try something else.  She voiced that she wanted perfectly poached eggs, hollandaise, and veggies, so I encouraged her to get one of the veggie benedict options instead (yes, they have multiple vegetarian benedict options).  But she said she wanted all the veggies: the avocado, tomatoes, and spinach.  I told her to just ask for that.  So she did, and got exactly what she wanted.

I didn't try her dish, besides a little bite of hollandaise, since I don't like eggs, but she again raved about how perfect the eggs were, which I could see as well.  They really know how to perfectly poach an egg!

Visit #5: October 2016

Another visit to the east coast, another opportunity to go out to breakfast with my mother.  I really adore breakfast and diners, and going together has become a tradition.  Over the years, we started close to home at Lou's, but eventually ventured to new places.  The Hartland diner was an instant hit the first time we visited, as you read about already.  My very first visit I had one of the best pancakes of my entire life.  We quickly returned, and I had amazing biscuits and gravy.  Sadly, over the next two visits, it didn't quite live up, so it was time to try somewhere else.  So we branched out again, and went to The 4 Aces Diner, where we again had mixed results over several visits.  Unsatisfied with any of our options, it was time to give The Hartland Diner another try.  I'm glad we did.

Very little had changed since our last visit, so, I suggest you start with my previous reviews, since I'll be skipping general details this time around.

We arrived at 10:20 am, midweek, which was excellent timing.  The breakfast crowd was clearing out, the lunch crowd hadn't yet arrived.  Two parties walked out as we walked in, leaving only one other table occupied.  Service was ok.  I did need to ask for refills of coffee, it was never offered, same with more tea for my mom.  But our server accommodated all our requests easily (I wanted a straw to drink my water, I wanted a second plate, my mom wanted only two eggs not three, etc), food was prepared quickly, and we were offered boxes once she saw us slowing down.

I'll return to The Hartland Diner again, as I have still yet to try their maple cream pie or cornbread, but I am always on the lookout for other excellent breakfast options in the area.

Water.

The first thing I noticed ... the water glasses changed!  No more cute mason jars, instead plastic pink cups with colorful bendy straws.

Crystal's Bene. $12.95.

"3 poached eggs on Veggie Hash Browns with our own Hollandaise Sauce and an English Muffin."

My mom went back to the Crystal's Bene, but she had found the portion to be far too large in the past, normally served with 3 poached eggs, so she asked to have it reduced down to only 2.  They happily gave her just 2 eggs, but still charged full price.

I tried a bite of the veggie hash, specifically a mushrooms, just because I figured I should have something savory.  As always, I didn't really like it.  My mom said it was too oily this time, really greasy, and made her stomach feel bad later.

She said the same about the english muffin, it was just too buttery.  Good, but, too much.  I suggest that in the future she ask for it to be lightly buttered?  I'm sure they could accommodate this.

The eggs looked nicely poached, but I didn't try any.  I had bigger things, literally, to get to.

Maple Walnut White Chocolate Chip Blueberry Pancake. $12.95.

This time, I decided to go with the same idea as the first pancake I tried and loved, only to make a slight refinement: blueberries instead of raspberries.

As always, the pancake was massive. Crazy massive. My mom and I both agreed it was equal to about 5-6 regular pancakes. It hung over the edges of the full size dinner plate on all sides.  I asked my server for a second plate so I could cut off a chunk and have a surface on which to eat … I literally didn’t know how to get started otherwise.

The blueberries were an improvement over raspberries because I don’t really like seeds in fruit. They were medium sized berries, likely frozen since it was mid-October.  Generous amount but not overwhelming.  Fine, but, not remarkable.  Maybe strawberries next time?

The white chocolate chips were mini chips, but didn’t melt at all. I love melty chips in my pancakes, so this was disappointing.

As for the maple walnuts, they were basically non-existent. I found only a couple little bits. The white chocolate chips and berries both came in good quantity, so, I’m not sure why these were so under-represented.

The pancake was nicely cooked, lightly browned, certainly not overcooked, not under.  I really wished the white chocolate chips had been able to melt some though, I wanted that gooey-ness.

I was provided with a small pitcher of real maple syrup on the side, but I didn’t use much of it.  The sweetness of the white chocolate was basically enough on its own, but really, I just wanted butter. More and more butter.

Oooh the butter. I’m pretty sure the butter is just Cabot.  But it is very good butter.  And, my pancake came with a huge chunk of it in the middle, already melting in.  I scooped it off as fast as I could, but, the center portion of the pancake was saturated.  In a very, very good way.  It was soooo much more butter than I’d ever put on anything, but wow it was good.

As always I wasn’t remotely capable of finishing my pancake, so I saved half for the next day. I know from past experience that these reheat fine in a toaster oven, and I imagine they freeze nicely too (as I always do with IHOP pancakes).  I did however finish the butter in that first serving.  Every last drop of it.  On just the portion of the pancake I ate.  Horrible, I know, but oh so good.

I enjoyed my pancake, but, it wasn’t life changing in any way.  I’d get another, swapping out the blueberries for strawberries perhaps, or finally going for butterscotch, peanut butter, or chocolate chips.

Read More...