First Time Diner

While visiting Stratton, Vermont and my friend’s barn I was able to test taste some of the food that will be featured at the Fire Tower Restaurant& Tavern in the Stratton Mountain Ski Resort Village.  Her father is the owner of the restaurant so she was able to have some of the food sent over to the barn for us to try.  This wonderful buffet of food included stuffed pork & cabbage wontons, jerk seasoned chicken wings, garlic bread topped with goat cheese, and a pasta and beef dish tossed in a blue cheese sauce.  It was all so delicious that I can’t wait to try the other items that will be seen on the menu once they open which will be around Thanksgiving.

         Photo taken from Google

Now onto the pork & cabbage stuffed wontons.  I have never been a wonton lover, but this certainly changed my mind.  The way they were cooked was to perfection.  Rather them being fried they were lightly seared in a way that made the shell stay together, but also stay fluffy and not too hard.  The filling of pork and cabbage certainly complimented each other.  The spicy bits of pork mixed in with the highly flavored cabbage made for the dish to be refreshing and pallet cleansing.  With the flavors being not too over powering and the wontons themselves being almost bite size allowed them to be seen as a playful appetizer as well as a great initiation into the other dishes.

            The jerk seasoned chicken wings certainly packed a punch.  After eating different styles of jerk chicken before, I was surprised as to the amount of flavor that was given when I bit into these chicken wings.  In every bite there was a spicy, yet tangy note and it made my taste buds go wild.  “After eating the wings the seasoning lingers on your tongue and carries over onto the other dishes,” one of my friends commented.  Mixing the chicken wings with the blue cheese sauce from the pasta dish brought the intensity down a bit and that worked well for me, while my fellow diners loved the hotness that they were receiving from the dish.

            With that being said, the pasta and beef dish mixed in a blue cheese sauce, which is going to be called the “beef and blue” on the restaurant menu was at the top of my list out of all the food that we tasted and many agreed.  “The steak was tender and the blue cheese sauce held the dish together well” a fellow diner commented.  For those who are huge blue cheese fans they would love this dish especially with the mixing of the pasta and the little pieces of tender beef!  The ratio of sauce to pasta and beef was perfect and it made for a great dipping sauce for not only the wings as mentioned above, but also for the garlic bread.  The way the goat cheese almost sunk into the blue cheese was a shock to me and the others.  The pasta that was used in this dish was spiral pasta and that made the dish whimsical and fun for everyone.  By having the pasta and pieces of beef be almost the same size allowed for them to harmonize well with each other and the sauce.      

            When eating pasta bread is always necessary so the garlic bread topped with little crumbles of goat cheese was icing on the cake.  The bread was lightly toasted giving the top and outside exterior a golden brown coloring.  With the bread being slightly toasted it allowed for each piece to have a nice crunch, but the actual fluffiness when you bit into the bread was not compromised.  The garlic spread that was placed on the top acted as a seasoning making for each bite to be packed with garlicky goodness.  The semi-melted goat cheese crumbles added a sweet taste to the dish. 

            When first walking into my friend’s barn I was certainly not expecting this gourmet meal, but too my surprise there it was!  Four tin pans holding four great dishes.  So great that I would drive to Stratton, Vermont just to see and more importantly try all of the other food items on their menu.