Looks like the work of our local farmers is getting attention from far away:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/travel/escapes/22nyfood.html August 22, 2008 Finger (Lakes) Food By KIM SEVERSON THE woman at the ice cream stand in Seneca Falls, N.Y., was such a pro. She loaded my cone with drifts of frozen custard, made change and gave me directions to a barbecued chicken stand all without a blink. “You go over the bridge, take a right and head out of town. It’s by the Mennonite market,” she said, handing over a chocolate swirl. “The lady with the chicken is right there on your left.” In a hunt for the iconic foods of central New York, I learned that a lot of the directions are like that. “Stop at the first gas station or market and ask if Bob’s Barbecue is still around,” advised a contributor to the Chowhound Web site. A hotel clerk was even more vague when I needed help finding a fish fry restaurant. “Just drive until you see the lake,” she said. For someone like me, nothing could have been more freeing. Although people who need a precise travel plan might go hungry using my approach, I discovered that winding through central New York armed with a few strong culinary guideposts and a willingness to risk lunch on vague directions was a great way to spend a weekend. My focus was an area roughly bounded by the Ithaca-Syracuse-Rochester triangle, with the Finger Lakes making up the juicy center. In addition to securing a couple of motel reservations and finding a good map, I had to find out what to call the region. “It depends on who you talk to,” said Michael Welch, a chef and publisher of the new Edible Finger Lakes magazine, one of about four dozen regional Edible magazines around the country. “A lot of people consider Syracuse an anchor of the Finger Lakes, but Syracuse people will call it central New York. If you live in Ithaca, you probably call it the Finger Lakes.” Zoe Becker, a Finger Lakes native and Mr. Welch’s wife, edits Edible Finger Lakes, which put out its first issue this spring. They both think central New York is having a golden culinary moment, with an abundance of home cooks and restaurant chefs who know how to coax the best from the local cheese, produce and fish. “It’s just a really great place to eat right now,” Mr. Welch said Some culinary enthusiasts might decide to treat a visit here like a trip to a mini-Napa Valley, searching for a good bottle among the 100 or so wineries and sampling the efforts of culinary school graduates at fancy lakeside restaurants. .... _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
