4309 Shelburne Road, Shelburne 985-3568

I've lived in Vermont for 12 years. For 12 years, I passed the Dutch Mill and fantasized about it. Was it as old-timey as it looks on the outside? Did the interior have a mini golf theme to go with the windmill? Maybe it was falling apart around the diners, with cobwebs at every table! My hunger for knowledge finally drove me to Shelburne on Sunday.

I was encouraged by a barbecue smoker in the parking lot. It turns out they smoke their own meat for pulled pork sandwiches. But I was there with breakfast in mind. The crowd was as I hoped – I was at least 30, if not 40 years younger than every other patron. No wonder there is more than one sign in the place advertising catering for birthdays, rehearsal dinners and funerals. The room was bright and cheerful, more family restaurant than diner.

The menu was chock full of appealing takes on basic breakfast, with an old-fashioned flair. Eggs Fred (pictured) stood out immediately. Poached eggs, corned beef hash, home fries and homemade toast? No way could that go wrong. The tangy corned beef had less body than I'm used to – almost as if it had been ground rather than chopped, but as it fell apart with the tiny flecks of potatoes in the surprisingly light hollandaise, I couldn't complain.

1710 Shelburne Road, South Burlington 865-3900

Years ago, I tried to have lunch at the Lake-View. I waited at the bar forever for someone to come seat me. They never did, and I never went back  – until last night. Working on their Vermont Restaurant Week menu, I was so tantalized, I just had to give the place another try. I was not disappointed.

The table I chose in the bar section of the greenhouse-like space was extraordinarily comfy. The seats were stuffed as soft and cuddly as grandma's sofa. A neon sign blaring "The Beef" hung jauntily over the bar, a tribute to the room's long-ago existence as What's the Beef II.

The meal started with a basket on teensy honey wheat rolls, hot from the oven. I tried the blood orange salad. The whole assemblage worked together wonderfully –  the richly sweet citrus paired with anise-redolent fennel, tangy chèvre, field greens and sunflower seeds in white balsamic vinaigrette. The creamy garlic soup tasted of just that and was eminently satisfying.

The Chicken Pot Pie also had a pleasantly garlicky taste, along with perfectly cooked chunks of root vegetables, spinach and Misty Knoll chicken, all housed under a dense umbrella of puff pastry. Pork Schnitzel (pictured) was coated unconventionally in cornmeal as well as bread crumbs. The dish, served over sharp dijon spaetzle and spinach, brought to mind the chicken schnitzel that for years was my favorite lunch dish at Butler's in Essex.

135 East Allen Street, Winooski 861-9453

There are things I have to check off my list at the  Champlain Valley Fair each year. I always have to bring home at least one caramel apple (no nuts, please), hit the Elk's Club for a fried chicken dinner and grab some Pork Boners at Fat Daddy's.

These tiny pieces of pork shank previously seemed to be something that existed only within the whimsical confines of a place where carnies run free. No longer. Just down the road from me in Winooski, I can now get fried chunks of pork shank whenever I want, at Val's Wild Tomato.

At Val's, in the former gas station once occupied by New England Wings, they call the meaty bites Pork Wings. I find this disappointingly tasteful. I'm not disappointed at all with how darn tasty the things are, though. Whereas Pork Boners are slathered beyond recognition with barbecue sauce, Pig Wings are rubbed with garlic and lightly spiced before being tenderized in a deep fryer bath. Get the Buffalo sauce on the side for dipping. Like all of Val's sauces and dressings, it's homemade and has all the zip of the usual hot sauce, without the weird chemical taste.

The specialty sandwich menu is filled with unlikely-sounding sandwich combinations, most of which include homemade sriracha or wasabi mayo. I chose one of the stranger ones, The Norse Dwarf.

Shelburne Bay Plaza, 2989 Shelburne Road, Shelburne 985-3303

I wasn't sure what to expect of Flatbread Factory and Taproom. Tales of inconsistent food and service gave me pause, but ultimately, I wanted a Pear & Prosciutto pie.

There were pluses and minuses when I entered the main dining room. It was brightly lit and had antique signs for Orange Crush and a diner whose name had long since faded away. Behind the bar, a wall-sized blackboard was decorated with photorealistic illustrations by UVM student Callie Richardson, of cows, Percherons and spilling beer. The chalkboard also listed the beers currently on tap. The day of my visit, those included Brooklyn Brewery Chocolate Stout, Dogfish Head 60 Minute and Penny Wize Ale, along with seven others. These were all pluses. A single minus: It was swarming with kids. Noisy ones.

Fortunately, the family-friendly restaurant had a playroom with a blackboard wall and TV of its own with plenty of toys. I wish families with fussy babies didn't take that as a cue to just let them cry while others tried to eat. The catering to kids made me kind of jealous. Every dish from the kids' menu came in a brightly-colored metal lunchbox with Teddy Grahams on the side. My kind of meal.

Sadly, my flatbread would not have fit. The menu says that each pizza serves two and they mean it. I was able to make two meals of my Pear & Prosciutto ($16.99 — pictured).

4807 Route 15, Jeffersonville 644-8920

Upscale comfort food is trendy. Jeffersonville is not. Most new restaurants which promise to deliver carefully crafted classics fail in execution. The Family Table does not.

Chef-owner John Raphael admits he's a picky eater, and it shows. His penne with wild mushroom pesto and spinach is al dente enough to satisfy Lidia Bastianich. Meats are brined for optimal flavor and moisture.

An open-faced hot turkey sandwich (pictured) doesn't ordinarily vary much from incarnation to incarnation, but the one at The Family Table is in its own class. The thick, succulent slabs of poultry are piled in layers of two or three over grilled bread — the tallest hot open sandwich I've ever seen. Though flavorful enough on its own, the meat is bathed in sage gravy and served with silken garlic mashed potatoes. The haricots verts on the side are cooked to perfection.

1076 Williston Road, South Burlington 862-6585

When dining out at a pricier venue, sometimes it's worth checking out the bar. It was this wisdom that lead me to compare the menu at The Upper Deck Pub to its South Burlington Best Western big brother, The Windjammer. When I have dined at the Windjammer, I have always ordered the $21.99 six-ounce filet mignon. Imagine my pleasure at seeing the same steak is only $16.99 upstairs (pictured).

Once I arrived, I was further encouraged when I recognized most of the staff of Leunig's gathered at a long group of tables. When that gang is choosing bar food, it better be good. In one corner of the nautical-themed room, filled with TVs playing women's college basketball, lay one of my favorite sites at a casual restaurant — a self-service popcorn machine. This one contained kernels salted and buttered to the brink of a heart attack. Yum.

Route 302 & I-91 - (exit 17 off I-91), Wells River 429-2141

After hours spent on the open road, a trucker needs some great grub to break up the day. It's the same for me, except my open road is the 7 Nights guide. Our sedentary lifestyles should preclude us from eating big, fat, rich meals, but when faced with a place like P&H, resistance is futile.

Mine is one of the only cars in the lot at P&H – every other vehicle is an 18-wheeler. There's a small store out front selling all the basics. Upstairs, there are showers for drivers grubby after a long haul. Clearly many trucks have come a good distance – the menu is in French as well as English.

And what a menu it is.

Breakfast is served all day and many options include home-baked pastry. The french toast I tried as part of The Truckers Special ($9.99) was Texas-thick and incredibly airy. The toasted maple nut bread seemed redundant on the plate, until I tried it. Spread with apple-cinnamon jelly, it was a fabulous meal in itself. A pair of eggs arrived perfectly over-medium, hash browns crisp on the outside and tender inside, and sausages juicy and tangy.

There's an array of burgers on the menu, all named after trucks, but I went for a frequent special instead. My patty of Blue Mountain elk ($7.59, pictured) was so magnificently seasoned it required no ketchup. I requested it medium rare. It came to me medium well, but sufficiently juicy that I forgave the busy line cooks.

My favorite dish at the P&H was their kitchen's take on chicken-fried chicken ($8.59). The meat was juicy on the inside and the thick crust remained crispy even under a layer of yellow gravy. The side of mashed potatoes had to have been 60% butter. I usually don't especially care for non-garlic, non-smashed potatoes, but these blew my mind.

After 3.5 meals, I didn't have room for dessert, so I stocked up at the bakery counter. The coconut cream pie was wonderfully airy, as was the maple and chocolate glazed doughnut. I found my blueberry corn muffin too moist. I felt like Mr. Ed trying to remove it from the walls of my mouth. The cream puff overflowed the burger-sized container in which it came. Although I ate it three days after buying it, that too was light and luscious. That said, my favorite dessert at the P&H was still the mashed potatoes.

359 Lake Road, St. Albans 524-0999

Yes, there's a Thai restaurant in St. Albans. It's called Thai House. It's been there for almost three years. I was surprised, too. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can get to the lovely dinner I enjoyed there Sunday night.

The chef-owner, Athai Oikweha, used to cook at Tiny Thai. The similarities are apparent in some dishes, but it's the divergences that define his somewhat more refined style. The bright-yellow satay is clearly  a marinade very close to those at countless Thai eateries. What separates this one is the addition of a bowl of tangy cucumber sauce alongside the creamy peanut dip. Another appetizer, cucumber salad, features strips of the veggie sliced noodle-thin, then drenched in lime and just enough fish sauce to add a slightly musky, smoky foil to the citrus.

Dutch Pancake Café

990 Mountain Road, Stowe, 802-253-5330

I am not a breakfast person. The very idea of a.m. eating nauseates me. But there are a few stomach-soothing items that entice me out of bed before noon to stuff my gullet. The pannekoeken at the Dutch Pancake Café are one such wonder.

What are pannekoeken? When I first had them, I anticipated little stuffed doughnut-y things like Danish aebleskivers, but pannekoeken are quite the opposite. Imagine a giant crepe, but with the filling mixed right into the batter.

Dutch Pancake has over 80 varieties of sweet and savory griddle cakes. But for me, one stands head and shoulders above the rest: One taste of the "apple bacon," and I was hooked. Thick and crispy bacon mingles perfectly with cinnamon-y apple slices in a chewy, robust crust. Imagine the breakfast equivalent of a chocolate tart with fleur de sel: It's one of the greatest combinations of salty and sweet imaginable. 

If you want a more conventional morning meal, I would suggest getting some sausage, eggs and cheese, all seared into a 12-inch pie of heart-attack-inducing goodness. The center houses a huge pile of scrambled ova, and chunks of sausage are peppered throughout the cheese-filled dough. That’s a breakfast worth waking up — and driving to Stowe — for.

Editor's Note:

This is a review of the Vietnamese restaurant Café Window. A new restaurant, called the Café Window opened in the same space in 2011. It serves American comfort food.

97 Blakely Road, Suite 5, Colchester 598-5348

Café Window’s location, right on the edge of Malletts Bay, has housed several different coffee shop/creemee stands, serving frozen treats from the lake-facing window out back. Tom Nguyen, also owner of M-Saigon, expands on the concept with American bagel sandwiches, Vietnamese favorites and unique ice cream treats.

I started with a Vietnamese Lemonade Soda ($2.95) – freshly squeezed, carbonated lemonade with a touch of salt to temper the blinding sweetness. There are also Vietnamese coffee drinks and bubble teas ($3.95) in flavors such as taro and litchi. Tapioca balls aren’t the only mix-in choice – tiny cubes of rainbow jelly are an even more exciting bet.

All the food came to the table blisteringly hot. The basil, sprouts and lime that came with my pho bo vien (meatball soup, $6.95) were out-of-the-garden fresh, as were the cucumbers and lettuce in my noodle dish. The vermicelli with pork meatballs and egg roll was every bit as good, if not better than my M-Saigon favorite. A counter with utensils and a range of sauces sits next to a couple of comfy couches and a coffee table stocked with magazines.

There are homemade cinnamon rolls, coconut jello and sticky rice for dessert, but I recommend screaming for ice cream. I got a Snowman ($4.95), three scoops of a choice of ice creams (mine was green tea) dressed to look like the name suggests with chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry. The Love Taste, three scoops in the shape of a heart — drenched in chocolate sauce — was swell, too.

My favorite Vietnamese sandwiches, banh mi – baguettes with marinated meat, pickled carrots and daikons – will be available in the next few weeks, with bread from M-Saigon’s new bakery. I can hardly wait to indulge. Not that I won’t return before that.