Yesterday, a pithy post appeared on Jezebel.com pointing out that Vermonters have more cats per capita than any other U.S. state. But as the post wends its way around social media, it's not comments about felines, but rather cheese, that is riling the 802 rank and file. Specifically, this line:

"Vermont's previous accomplishments include the production of not-as-good-as-Wisconsin cheese and Brigham Young."

The writer, Madeleine Davies, might as well have fired a cannon over Cabot's bow. In the fiery comments section, Vermonters of all stripes have sprung to their state's defense. Some highlights:

Chef Michel Mahe has found a novel way to make the grey winter months pass quickly: He's working on two new eateries, one each for Vergennes and Middlebury, that will open in coming months.

In Vergennes, Mahe — who already owns three restaurants, in Shelburne, Bristol and Vergennes — is busy transforming the former Park Squeeze on Main Street into a 60-seat burger, flatbread and local-beer joint that he expects will be open by April under the same name.

The place will be similar in feel to his Bobcat Café & Brewery in Bristol, sans an on-site brewery. "I think what the Bobcat has shown me is if you create a local place that is affordable, accessible and casual enough, people will show up in droves," he says. "This will be a sort of 'let's go out and not make a big deal about it' kind of place." He'll leave up the Park Squeeze's iconic neon sign, with its yellow arrow guiding people in.

Though a menu is still a few weeks off, Mahe emphasizes that the fare will be limited to local-beef burgers and "flatbreads with flair." The upstairs bar — which will share the same antique Irish feel of the Bobcat — will offer local brews on tap and be a replacement of sorts for Vergennes' Up Top Tavern, which Mahe closed two months ago.

It's been a while since I've shared cheap-eats picks from Montréal. Following a weekend in the city, I'm ready to reveal a double dose of deliciousness from a very full Sunday of eating. And, of course, both of my recommendations have no equivalent in the Green Mountains.

Soeul Chako, 1824 rue St-Catherine Ouest, Montréal, QC, 514-989-8886

Seoul Chako is downtown's latest addition to the world of all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue.

Sunday at noon, the restaurant, sister to all-you-can-eat Crescent Sushi, was packed with large parties grilling up meats, downing sushi and slurping soup for a single price of $14.99. On weekdays, lunch is a dollar less. Dinner brings more choices and a higher price — $21.99 on weekdays and $23.99 during the weekend.

Guests are presented with a numbered menu and a pile of sheets on which to scribble their choices. Getting a server to take the filled sheets was a struggle, however. And waiting for the food to come was even more difficult. I ordered hardly any cooked food, but items still dribbled in after 20 to 30 minutes.

The spicy gam ja tang soup was delicious, one of the tastiest versions I've had in Montréal, if sorely lacking in meat. Typically this soup comes with a pork neck bone floating in it, but this one didn't; it was far too tiny. However, the single strand of sesame-flavored pork in this potato-filled potage was a crown jewel.

Having the same weekday breakfast over and over again can be a drag. How many egg-and-cheese wraps or bowls of oatmeal can one person eat in his or her lifetime?

Yet when it comes to breakfast, Americans seem caught in their own particular egg-cheese-bacon box. Which is why Stowe's Café Latina is so refreshing. Yes, they serve breakfast sandwiches and burritos, but those can be dished up with chorizo or pork carnitas. There's also yogurt parfait, but it comes layered with coconut and mango coulis.

Here, guests might be surprised to encounter gallo pinto —  traditional Costa Rican rice and beans — which appears as a hulking plate of rice, black beans, red peppers and onions, seasoned with hearty amounts of cumin and red pepper, showered with minced cilantro and topped with two poached eggs. Anything topped with a poached egg is scrum-worthy, but gallo pinto, with its spicy-earthy appeal, was especially cosseting; a dose of Vermont Pepper Works hot sauce spiked it up nicely.

Cafe Latina's owner, Karen Nielsen, lived in Costa Rica for many years before moving to Stowe to open this place, and warmth infuses everything, from the colorful interior  — complete with gas fire and comfy red chairs — to the Latin-inflected food.

As filling as gallo pinto was, I didn't stop there; I also opted for some jalapeño-sesame beef tenderloin tacos, and they were delicious — the beef succulent, a subtle sweetness (from honey, apparently) infusing the entire thing.

Nielsen is committed to importing and selling coffee beans sourced directly from Costa Rican farmers, and while I couldn't quite enjoy one of her lattes — it was too late in the day for caffeine, at least for me — Café Latina's Aztec hot chocolate was creamy, dark, spicy and complex. Nielsen is also committed to gluten-free baked treats, and the peanut butter cookie with which she sent me packing was rich and sinful, and left tiny oil spots on the bag in which I transported it.

Café Latina is at 407 Mountain Road and serves the breakfast-and-lunch menu until 2 p.m. every day. 

Sarah Moran and Luke Stone, owner and chef, respectively, of Cloud 9 Catering, have formed a sister company.

It's called Vermont Feed Company and is the parent organization for the pair's mobile eateries.

Late last year, I reported that their Noble Pig hot dog cart might have to change its name. Indeed, a cease-and-desist letter from Noble Pig Winery in Oregon has forced the cart to adopt a new moniker, the Local Grind, making a collector's item of the snazzy shirt Stone is sporting above.

On Pistou's Facebook page, the Main Street restaurant says that it's "closed for winter vacation." Nuh-uh — don't believe it.

Pistou may be closed for a week, yes, but it's hardly a vacation. On the other side of those enormous windows, a lot is going on — namely, changes that may make the corner eatery more of a mecca for wine geeks.

That's because the restaurant has two new partners, Jason Zuliani (of the nearby Dedalus wine shop) and his wife, Emilie Paquette. (Former partner Maji Chien has left to pursue other interests.) As Zuliani and chef Max Mackinnon got to know each other over the past year or so, they had ongoing conversations about how a menu might respond to wine, and vice-versa.

"We've talked about what we want to do with food and wine, and this is an opportunity to do that," says Zuliani, who was the wine director for the New England Culinary Institute prior to co-owning Dedalus, where he'll continue to work. "It's really going to come into focus."

While Zuliani is finessing a list that will render grapes even more front-and-center than they are now, Mackinnon is reimagining the menu to render it more flexible for pairing with the "99 percent French" wines that Zuliani is curating. "We don't want people to necessarily think about appetizers and entreés," says Mackinnon, whose French-inflected, James Beard-nominated approach (thankfully) won't change. "This will be a place you can come to share a bunch of plates. It will be a little more freeform," and will likely include some bar snacks, too.

Orienting a wine list toward a menu is nothing new, of course. But a glimpse at the wines — with a section devoted to the elusive bottles of the Rhône's Domaine Gramenon, for instance — suggests that it will encourage diners to do more than absently order whatever to wash down their seared scallops.

Pistou will also have a "killer" beer program, says Zuliani, while its cocktails — contrary to current bar trends — will fade to the background.

Paquette will manage the front of the house, where, also this week, the seating is getting rearranged, the colors refreshed, and the on-site market phased out. (Sadly, though, lunch is not part of the new equation, much to the chagrin of this South Champlain Street neighbor. Just wanted to put that out there.)

Pistou reopens on January 16. We'll be interested to see what's pouring.

221 Main Street, Vergennes, 877-2772

Perhaps you miss Burlington's Waiting Room. Or you just want to gobble up breakfast prepared by a NECI-trained chef who also happens to have worked in the kitchens of New York's Rainbow Room and Boston's Aquitaine.

3 Squares, an unassuming little café in Vergennes, is the place. Though I'd been blown away by his Mexican and French bistro-themed dinners during Vermont Restaurant Week, I'd never had the pleasure of trying chef Matt Birong's regular fare — until last Sunday.

Birong and co. are excellent at updating their specials each day on the 3 Squares website, so I already suspected I was in for a treat.

But first, some regular menu items.

Birong recently replaced his longtime standard of huevos rancheros with a breakfast tostada.

I asked our server to let the chef choose the style of egg, usually prepared however the customer wants them.

The over-easy yolks I was served lent a decadent touch to the otherwise relatively virtuous breakfast choice. Of course, when breakfast is served until 3 p.m., there's always a slight feeling of indulgence.

Chorizo that was eminently flavorful but not spicy dominated the taste of the combination of black beans, lettuce and pico de gallo, topped with tangy green-chile-tomatillo salsa and Mexican sour cream. I loved the crunch of the crispy corn tortilla that divided the contents of the plate.

With electric-blue walls, shelves filled with skin products and the buzz of a juicer mixing with house music, Eco Bean and Juice defies categorization — other than its focus on healthy (and sometimes caffeinated) insides.

Justin Cruz, who used to run Salon Cruz on Saint Paul Street, opened the salon-slash-juice bar in December in a cavernous space that was most recently a Meineke Car Care Center.

On one side of the space, Cruz and his staff run a salon and sell organic and natural beauty products; on the other is a kitted-out juice and coffee bar with an exhaustive menu featuring wheatgrass shots, fresh vegetables juices, and even house-made almond milk for lattes and mochas, all dreamt up by Cruz and barista Angela Talbert.

"There was no place in Burlington to get wheatgrass shots," says Cruz, though I reminded him of the Juice Bar in Burlington Mall that offers them on Wednesdays. "All week long," he clarified. Cruz also wanted to offer organic milk from Kimball Brook Farm for his coffees, which are brewed with organic beans from Ozo Coffee Roasters in Colorado.

 Among the imaginative coffee drinks are a Zebra Mocha with both white and dark chocolates, an Americano Florentine coffee with raw cacao, and a frothy, tropical-tasting, totally delicious Coconut Latte (pictured).

Juices range from $6.50 up to $11 and are filled with various blends of greens, herbs and veggies; a Minty Green combines celery, mint, spinach and apples, while a Hot Rocket pairs those same apples with cilantro, coconut water and jalapeño.

I walked out with a bright-red Careberry smoothie — a blend of orange and apple juices, frozen raspberries and carrot juice, which lent the whole thing a sweet earthiness. I took my first sip while standing in the slushy parking lot outside, and it made the afternoon seem a few degrees warmer.

Eco Bean and Juice, 688 Pine St., Burlington, 861-2789. Open seven days.

First Chick-fil-A, now ConAgra Foods. In the advertisement above, a fad dieter finds her salvation in Healthy Choice's new Greek Frozen Yogurt. "I used to hide a secret stash of kale in there," says a tearful actress, indicating her yoga mat. "Now I use it to do yoga."

But what is played merely for laughs isn't so funny to Bo Muller-Moore. The artist behind the "Eat More Kale" logo is none too pleased about the kale cleanser's T-shirt, which sports the very words that made him famous. Muller-Moore had nothing to do with the shirt, which uses a different font from his iconic bubble letters.

In revealing my picks for best new restaurant of 2012, I already expounded on my unholy affection for the salsa-verde-drenched tocino taco at El Cortijo Taqueria Y Cantina and, well, pretty much everything at Bluebird Barbecue.

Clearly, those are a couple of the best things I ate this year. But in an exceptionally good 12 months of restaurant openings, plenty of other dishes are worthy of mention. Here are 10 of my favorites.

Next Door Bakery & Café

A muffin? Huh?

No, seriously, a muffin was one of the best things I ate all year. The very first day that Next Door Bakery  Café opened its doors in Shelburne, I was smitten.

The honeysuckle-blueberry muffin has a silky texture unlike anything I've ever experienced in a muffin before, and I'll never be satisfied with most versions again. But among the wonderful firsts of the streusel-topped pastry, my first (and second and third...) honeysuckle aftertaste was definitely the coolest.

Grünhaus Nordic Street Eats

If the muffins at Next Door Bakery made me rethink the breakfast pastry, the hot chocolate at Montpelier's newest food cart did the same for hot drinks.

More like thick, rich European drinking chocolates than Swiss Miss, texture was just one thing that separated Grünhaus' chocolate from the pack. A dark, complex flavor, courtesy of a mix of Swedish and Belgian chocolates, is another. But best of all is the opportunity to pair it with a lefse, a sandwich wrapped in ultra-thin potato bread. I recommend the Elvis, composed of chocolate-almond butter, cinnamon, blueberries and bananas.

Stacks Sandwiches

My colleague Corin Hirsch pines for an Italian market in Burlington. We might not have that yet, but those of us craving a great Italian sub have finally found one at Stacks. Sharp Genoa salami, intense soppressata and mild, sweet ham combine with Provolone to create New Jersey in sandwich form. Ask for extra vinegar, and a trip south is rendered (mostly) unnecessary. Best of all, the sturdy, sesame-crusted rolls stand up to refrigeration, so get a large sandwich and have lunch the next day, too.