Eat First

Pumpkin Hill Bistro: Country comforts on Cayuga Lake

I can drive by the Mackenzie-Childs store and Vintage Lighting in Aurora (sometimes), but I can’t be anywhere near the lovely village on the east side of Cayuga Lake without feeling the pull of Pumpkin Hill Bistro.

It hasn’t happened yet, at any rate. A business and pleasure trip brought me to Aurora last week, and I was seduced, once again, into having lunch on the back porch at Pumpkin Hill, overlooking the fields and rolling hills leading to the lake.

It was a perfect day for it, too: Sunny and breezy with temperatures in the mid-‘70s. What a nice way to celebrate the first official day of summer and the longest day of the year.

THE VIBE:  The restaurant is in a rehabbed 1820s farmhouse, the Sellen House, which was moved to Pumpkin Hill and parked in the middle of more than 20 acres. The dining areas are very country. Owners Terry Dewis and Andy Casas have described Pumpkin Hill as “a little like ‘Little House on the Prairie’ crossed with an English pub.’’

LIQUID ASSETS: Fresh-brewed iced tea and freshly-squeezed lemonade served in mason jars, plus beer, wine and other adult beverages to wet your whistle.

THE MENU: That’s the realm of Susanne “Cookie” Wheeler, Pumpkin Hill’s executive chef, and country-comfort food with gourmet touches sums it up. You’ll find old favorites like Cookie’s chicken pot pie and shepherd’s pie and new favorites like tapas, the chef’s twist on small plates, designed for sharing.

The restaurant sources much of its produce locally, and shines the light on center-of-the-plate items, too, like Finger Lakes Maple Farm duck breast.

DECISION TIME: I took a pass on soups, hot and cold sandwiches and lunch-sized entrees in favor of the Aurora Salad ($8.99). It features fresh spinach leaves packed into a small colander, along with sliced apples, candied walnuts, crumbled bacon and cubes of sharp New York State cheddar cheese, tossed with just the right amount of house-made maple vinaigrette dressing. It was served with a warm roll and was delicious down to the last bit of bacon.

Eat cute: The Aurora Salad.

WHAT IS SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T EAT MEAT GOING TO FIND? Multiple choices, including a black bean burger on grilled ciabatta bread, topped with greens, tomato relish and cilantro dressing. And the day’s harvest, a selection of fruit, vegetable and grains that changes according to the season.

WHAT’S FOR DESSERT? I opted out, but a chef named Cookie does not disappoint in this department. You’ll find cakes, cookies, cobblers, crisps, pies, puddings and more. The check was delivered with two tiny Snickerdoodle cookies, each about the size of a quarter.

THE DAMAGES: $14.81, including tax, tip and a glass of iced tea.

VITALS: Pumpkin Hill is at 2051 state Route 90, on its namesake, Pumpkin Hill, about four miles south of Aurora. During the summer, the restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner. Reservations are accepted by phone only: 315-364-7091.

NEXT WEEK: Read about a charming food and wine store in the village of Aurora. 

The view from the back porch at Pumpkin Hill Bistro

Cuba Cheese, please! It's a Western New York favorite

Some people come home from Cuba with cigars and rum. We come home from Cuba with cheese.

I’m talking cheese from Cuba, NY, a village in southwestern New York State, about 15 miles east of Olean (my mother’s hometown and my college town) and 75 miles southeast of Buffalo.

The Cuba Cheese Shoppe is best known for its own award-winning white cheddar cheese and cheese products. For more than a century, Cuba cheese was available only to wholesale and select mail order customers.

The retail shop in downtown Cuba opened in 1976 and has expanded over the years to welcome hundreds of domestic and imported cheeses, like Manchego from Spain, Ricotta Salata from Italy and Stilton from England. We’ve been going there for years and always pack a cooler when our travels take us to that corner of New York.

In addition to a world of cheeses, you’ll find cheese boards, slicers and spreaders and shelves-full of crackers to complement selections. The shop also stocks oodles of gourmet foodstuff: jams, jellies, mustards, barbecue sauces, spice rubs and more. There’s also syrup and other maple products from local favorite Sprague’s Maple Farms (and restaurant) in Portville.

On a recent visit, we came home with a brick of Cuba reserve cheddar (aged two years), a slab of Palatine Valley Dairy tomato, basil and garlic cheddar (from the Mohawk Valley), a container of Cuba cheese curds (a form of cheddar; slightly chewy and squeaky and a great snack) and a tub of Old York sharp cheddar spread – a souvenir for my sister. 2023 update: Cheese spreads labeled Old York no longer appear to be available, but there are several Cuba Cheese spreads on the website. 

Cuba Cheese has gone through several ownership changes over the years. It's currently owned by Ohio-based Great Lakes Cheese, which operates the Empire Cheese plant in Cuba (and is supposed to expand to a larger facility in Franklinville, according to news reports). The Cuba Cheese Shoppe is indepenently owned and operated.

The Cuba Cheese Shoppe is at 53 Genesee St., Cuba. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.  The online shoppe is open 24/7.

The Cuba Cheese Museum chronicles Cuba’s (and the region’s) rich cheese-making heritage. Click here to find out more.

(From a postcard image)

 

Central New York strawberries: Get ‘em while you can!

The season for strawberries in Central New York is short, but sweet – over in four weeks or less, usually. So grab life by the basket-full and eat as many as you can.

Here are 5 ideas:

1. Pick your own strawberries. Your back might be a little sore, in the end, but do the work yourself and could end up with the cream of the crop.

Click here for a detailed list of U-pick farms in Central New York, sorted by county. A word of warning: Call ahead to verify produce availability, days and hours of operation, etc.

2. Get out a fancy dish and make a strawberry-yogurt parfait (above) for breakfast. Wash, hull and slice as many strawberries as you care to eat. Layer berries in parfait dish. Top with a half-cup of your favorite yogurt. Top with more strawberries, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of granola if you like.

3. Shortcake is heavenly, but for something more healthy, how about a salad of mixed greens topped with almonds, goat cheese and strawberries?

The salad (above) is from Cafe Kubal, on James Street, in Syracuse (Eastwood). Make your own at home using local field greens, goat cheese and CNY strawberries. Mix up some vinaigrette dressing with strawberry vinegar or strawberry-balsamic vinegar from Tassleberry Farm, Westmoreland. We’ve purchased these vinegars at Lombardi’s on Butternut Street in Syracuse, or you can order them online.

4. Strawberries and rhubarb: So different, but such excellent partners! Make some strawberry-rhubarb jam, or for something less time-consuming, try my recipe for Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble Top Muffins (above; from the archives; June 2010).

5. Horde CNY strawberries and freeze them now for enjoyment later. Wash, dry and remove the green tops from firm, plump strawberries (avoid soft-mushy ones). If possible, let berries air dry in a colander. Carefully transfer berries to a 13-by-9-inch pan and freeze them in a single layer, several hours to overnight. When frozen, transfer berries to freezer bags.

Use in cobblers, muffins and salads – or surprise dinner guests with a dessert of strawberry shortcake in the middle of the winter.

 

 

Market day at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center

If you work at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, you’re in reach of the Downtown Farmers Market at Clinton Square on Tuesdays and the Thursday edition of the Regional Market on Park Street.

Kristen O'Hara (left) and Laura Wattles at the St. Joseph's mobile market.

But if you work at St. Joe’s, chances are you don't have time to leave the campus and shop for fresh produce. To encourage healthy choices and eating, St. Joseph’s and the Central New York Regional Market Authority offer a mobile market once a week outside the College of Nursing on Prospect Avenue. The mini market is open for business from 1 to 4:30 p.m. each Wednesday through fall. Neighborhood residents and the general public are invited, as well.

The selection was small on opening day, but will grow with the growing season. On a couple tables under a tent, mobile market staff members Laura Wattles and Kristen O’Hara arranged baskets holding onions, apples, potatoes, peppers, hothouse tomatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes and – drumroll, please! -- the first local strawberries of the season, fresh from Baldwinsville.

Business was a bit slow, they said, with hospital employees making up the majority of their customers. Ninety-plus degree temperatures might have kept some visitors away, but there was a nice breeze on the Prospect Avenue hill.

Wattles and O’Hara said the Regional Market’s mobile market is intended to serve under-served locations and communities.

It set up shop recently at Loretto and PACE CNY and may visit other locations around Syracuse this summer.

A complete list of farmers markets in Central New York can be found on Syracuse.com. Click here to find a market near you. 

 

 

Taste of Syracuse: All in good taste!

Asti Caffe's elegant $1 calamari sample.

The great thing about Taste of Syracuse: The annual food-a-rama brings more than 40 restaurants and vendors, most of them local, to Clinton Square in Syracuse.

The downside, if there is one: Unless you’re a “competitive eater,’’ there’s no way you can sample EVERYTHING on the smorgasbord.

I went to the Taste June 3 with a pocket-full of 10 $1 bills and an adventurous appetite and food ‘tude. Samples that wowed my taste buds:

Good eats

• Sakana Ya’s thin, crispy and perfectly browned eggrolls, filled with crisp-tender veggies and a bit of pork, delivered delicious taste and good bang-for-the-buck (at full size or nearly that).

• The $1 sample of pulled pork from Hammi’s BBQ delivered three bites of nicely seasoned and cooked pulled pork that didn’t need the dab of sauce that came with it. The staff at the Hammi’s stand said they plan to open a full-service restaurant in Central New York by fall.

• Asti Caffe’s calamari Christiana had to be the Taste’s most elegantly presented sample: A small mound of deep-fried calamari on a bed of lettuce, topped with a drizzle of sauce that was both slightly sweet and spicy.

• Poutine (poo-TEN), a Canadian indulgence of French fries, gravy and cheese curds, was imported to the Taste by Friar Tuck’s. Their very savory version was built on fries they described as twice-cooked, rendering them deep-brown and crispy.

• Michael Angelo’s riggies with vodka sauce were an excellent find: riggies (rigatoni) bathed in a creamy tomato sauce with a hint of vodka. We’re looking forward to visiting the restaurant in Eastwood for a taste of other things Italia.

•  The crispy-crunchy falafel patties served by Clinton Street’s Byblos Mediterranean Cafe brought a taste of the Middle East – and a nice change of pace – to the Taste.

Decadent sweets

• A cheesecake calzone? Sounds strange, but Zonies  makes it work. Imagine a crispy calzone crust filled with a lightly sweetened cream cheese mixture, topped with a drizzle of icing and you have the picture.

Anything larger than the sample serving (left) might be overkill.

• A two-inch square of white chocolate-raspberry cheesecake was a just-the-right-size introduction to Big Mama’s Cheesecakes, Northern Lights Plaza. In a word: sublime. We’ll no doubt be seeing more of Big Mama.

 

• The Chocolate Bomb Cake sample at Yum Yum’s Gluten-Free Bakery was, well, the bomb! Erin Gridley’s choco-licious treat is a winner, whether you’re gluten intolerant or not (she also specializes in gluten-free pasta dishes).

Chocolate Bomb Cake, Yum-Yum's Gluten Free Bakery.