sIDEdishes by cOri n hi rsch & a l i ce l e v i t t
Rolling In
burritOs anD sushi cOme tO stOwe
cOurtesy OF benDer’s burritOs
It’s long been a conundrum for Stowe locals and tourists alike — where to get a quick, fresh and inexpensive lunch in the resort town. HEnry BEnDEr was one of many townies to complain about the void, so he did something about it. Two weeks ago, he opened BEnDEr’s BurrItos at 1880 Mountain Road, just across the street from PIEcasso PIzzErIa & LoungE. “There wasn’t a place quick enough
pork or beef slow smoked by Stowe’s Backcountry BarBEcuE catering company. Other options include grilled, marinated chicken or steak, or grilled or fried fish of the day. Vegetarians have several choices, including a sweet potato and black bean combo with Sriracha mayo and shredded ginger. Many of the same proteins appear in corn tortillas for tacos. The menu also includes quesadillas and snacks such as nachos, onion rings and carrots and celery sticks with hummus — plus a
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and it’s something different,” explains Freund. Sushi Yoshi already has locations in Killington and Lake George, N.Y., but Freund says that Zheng’s new menu will differ from the other two spots. The chef started his career in his native China before working under master sushi chefs in New York City; he joined Sushi Yoshi nearly two decades ago. Now, says Freund, he’s putting less emphasis on Chinese food in favor of healthier options such as bento boxes, lettuce wraps and sushi appetizers. Stowe’s aPPLE constructIon is currently remaking the dining room and kitchen, complete with a brand-new sushi bar. The walls will be covered in murals painted by Burlington artist maLgosIa urBanowIcz. The end result of the renovation, says Freund, will be “a rock-and-roll sushi bar with a comfortable design and feel.” — A. l.
Mind Your Raspberries
berry grOwers prepare tO Fight an insect invaDer
thinking
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rotating daily cupcake. Another healthy option — from a different part of the world — will soon open in Stowe. Creative Japanese fusion is coming to 1128 Mountain Road in the form of susHI yosHI. natE FrEunD’s target opening date is August 26. In recent months, he and his co-owners, HowarD smItH and chef kEvIn zHEng, got locals talking by setting up a sign covered in question marks in front of the spacious restaurant. “I felt like this location had had some bad connotations from people who have tried to do restaurants here in the past. If I put up my Sushi Yoshi sign immediately, people would expect the same old mediocre food, and I wanted to make people realize something is happening here
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for your lunch break unless you wanted a reheated piece of pizza,” recalls Bender. “Otherwise, you’d go to Subway at the gas station.” Bender moved to Stowe in 2008 after being laid off from his job in Boston as a financial analyst. “I decided I didn’t want to stare at a computer screen for the rest of my life,” he says. Instead, he headed to the mountains, where he joined the local ski patrol for three years. He still volunteers his time, but we also wanted a full-time gig that would allow him to “pay the bills but also have fun.” Bender’s first foray into the realm of food and beverage seems to be hitting the spot. Each of his burritos is filled with rice, black beans, cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream and a choice of salsa. Diners can also add
It’s a tiny pest that swept into the country four years ago from its home in northern Japan. Not much larger than the tip of a pen, it uses its sharp, serrated ovipositor to slice a microscopic hole into a berry, where it lays eggs that grow into hungry larvae. Oh, and that hole is so microscopic, you wouldn’t really know it’s there until the ripe berry rots from the inside. Meet Drosophila suzukii, otherwise known as spottedwing drosophila, a tiny, invasive and cold-hardy fruit fly that has the potential to devastate late-season berry crops for both farmers and home gardeners if left unchecked. “Soft fall crops are at risk,” notes vErn gruBIngEr, a vegetable and berry specialist at unIvErsIty oF vErmont ExtEnsIon who has been tracking the fly’s spread across Vermont. Once the
female fly punctures the fruit, her eggs will hatch into larvae within 10 to 14 days and begin eating the fruit — what Grubinger drily calls “making jam.” Unlike the fruit fly most of us know and loathe from our kitchens (the vinegar fly, which prefers rotting fruit), the spotted-wing drosophila just needs a ripe berry to do its thing. The hole it makes is so tiny, says Grubinger, that an infestation won’t become apparent until late in the season, usually mid-August on. Yet rotting fruit is not the only tip-off. “When you’re really in the thick of it, you can go out at dusk and there are swarms of these things around,” he says. Spotted-wing drosophila swept into Vermont with Tropical Storm Irene, and southern Vermont berry growers first noticed it last year. Both farmers and researchers have been busy w w w . e s s e x o u t l e t s . c o m devising ways to fight the 21 ESSEX WAY, ESSEX JUNCTION, VT | 802.878.2851 pest, including with homemade traps and insecticides. 8/5/13 8:52 PM Grubinger has seen some 8v-essesshoppes080713.indd 1 success with netting trials, he says, but the nets that growers need to use must have holes smaller than 1 millimeter and be secured fully so that the fly can’t get in. In other words, it’s expensive. “For anyone with larger acreage, it will be challenging,” he says. An informal survey of a few northern Vermont berry growers indicated that the pest hasn’t showed its face much so far this year. But it’s late-season raspberries and blueberries — and Vermont’s limited crops of cherries, peaches and grapes — that will be most affected, warns Grubinger. aDam Hausmann of aDam’s BErry Farm in Burlington’s Intervale first saw signs of the pest last August, “at [and, yup, still free.] which point it was present for the rest of the season,” he reports in an email. Identifying the scourge wasn’t hard. “When you harvest, the inside of the berry is wet, somewhat liquified. The