Feast your eyes on this. It doesn't look like anything available anywhere in Burlington, that's because it won't be until next week.

That's when Mayllet Paz of La Fondita Latina (formerly known as Peace & Love Catering) will have all the Latin ingredients she needs to begin cooking a varied menu of her native cuisine at Cool Runnings at 78 North Street in Burlington.

Paz will cook dishes from her native Panama, as well as specialties from surrounding Latin American countries, seven days a week. They join the jerk chicken and stewed goat already prepared at the Jamaican eatery by owner Leroy Hedley.

A selection of South and Central American groceries will also soon fill the shelves. The store currently has 12 seats, not including a summer-only picnic table, but Paz says another table is also expected to arrive next week.

Paz says that her Panamian stewed chicken won so many fans at this summer's Burlington Farmers Market that it will make the menu every day. Otherwise, items will change daily, including lime-marinated steak cooked on the grill outside.

But Paz is perhaps most excited about the fare she'll begin serving next Sunday. That's when she'll kick off a weekly tradition of sharing Panamanian breakfasts with the Queen City.

At right is a plate typical of what she expects to prepare. Fried beef is accompanied by an hojaldre, a sweet fried-dough pancake. The Twinkie-like pastry at the bottom of the plate is a carimañola, a meat pie with a crust of ground yucca. A cross-section can be seen at the top of this post.

Of course, no breakfast menu would be complete without both savory and sweet items. So we leave you with an image of the sugary ecstasy to come, in the form of brown-sugar-bathed plantains.

30 Main Street, Burlington, 489-5935

Spoiler alert: Logan's of Vermont was one of our team's favorites in this week's taste test of Burlington soups. Since it opened last autumn, the spot has also become an office favorite for panini, salads and boxes full of tiny, mixed cookies.

However, I still hadn't tried the eatery's bread and butter — gourmet take-home meals. Yesterday, I ate two meals from Logan's in order to share my non-soup experience.

For lunch, I had one of the menu's quirkier panini. Far from your average turkey sandwich, the medium-thick slices of fowl at Logan's are complemented by crumbly, cranberry-flecked Wensleydale cheese. The sharp, cheddar-like fromage is balanced by fine slices of Asian pear.

Stowe diners may still miss Santos Cocina Latina, but yucca, plantains and spice will reappear in town next week when Café Latina opens in the space where Thompson's Flour Shop used to be.

The breakfast-and-lunch spot is the brainchild of Karen Nielsen, who lived in Costa Rica for close to 20 years before returning to the States to raise her teenage daughter. There, Nielsen worked as a tropical biologist before seguing into the culinary life  — she ran three eateries in the Monteverde Cloud Forest area, a mountainous center she likens to a tropical version of the Green Mountains.

Nielsen calls the fare she served there Nuevo Latino, or modernized Latin-American food, and it's resurrected on Café Latina's menu. The breakfast lineup includes huevos rancheros, tortilla espanola, eggs Benedict layered with pork carnitas, omelettes with local goat cheese and chorizo, and breakfast burritos; a baked-goods case will offer a North-South mélange of savory muffins, coconut macaroons, croissants, fig-almond bread and gluten-free chocolate muffins — plus hearts of palm beignets. At lunchtime, the kitchen will churn out fish tacos, rice and beans, mojito shrimp, chimichangas, and smoked chicken quesadillas.

951 Main Street, Fairfax, 849-0599

When I first visited the Burlington area in 1996, the first place I ate was Alfredo's on Church Street. My second Vermont meal was lunch at the Country Pantry.

Since then, I've always had a special place in my heart for the rural diner.

I've stuck with it through multiple owners, the latest of whom, Ermin Jukic and Nihad Basic, took over the restaurant at the end of September.

Alert: It's the waning hours for McAllister Irish Red Ale. If you're near Williston and are curious about very local beer, you might want to track down a pint.

Williston resident Marty Bonneau, a member of the Green Mountain Mashers home-brewing club, first brewed McAllister in his basement for one of the group's periodic contests, this one to turn out a red ale style.

Bonneau's malty, balanced brew won. As part of the reward, Fiddlehead Brewing's Matt Cohen offered to brew a batch to be tapped both at his own establishment and a local pub —  fittingly, McGillicuddy's Irish Ale House in Williston.

205 St. Paul St., Burlington, 865-2888

With just the Adriatic Sea separating Italy and Bosnia, it's actually surprising that Omer Alicic is the first Bosnian to open a pizzeria in Vermont.

Sofia's Pizzeria has only a few tables and a long counter for seating, but warm orange walls and a flatscreen TV showing the Cartoon Network made it a comforting, homey destination after a long day of work last night.

The bread and, er, mozzarella of the the eatery is 99-cent slices of cheese pizza, but last night there were none. We settled for a pair of more ambitious pieces of pie that cost $1.79 and $2.29.

As a dedicated wine drinker, I can be reluctant to admit that beer pairs stunningly well with food. Yet it can be the naked truth, and one encountered in the unlikeliest of places — such as at my little cupcake in Burlington.

For the past few weeks, the bakers at my little cupcake have been hosting a Friday night fête called 3 Sweet Treats, offering guests the chance to pair three petite desserts with wines chosen by Brad Kelley of the Burlington Wine Shop — for a 10-spot.

You can also drop in at the College Street bakery whenever it's open (till 8 p.m. during the week, 10 p.m. on weekends) to approximate the experience; on the counter is a standing beer and wine menu, including a "free mini cupcake or cake pop" with each drink.

The alcohol menu is static — the choices include Prosecco, red wine, local beer and even ChocoVine — but the paired treats rotate based on what's been baked that day. On the dreary afternoon I visited, I sampled three pairings that sounded promising: Prosecco with a sesame-ginger cupcake; Cabernet Sauvignon with a red-velvet cupcake; and a bottle of Harpoon Octoberfest with a salted-caramel cupcake. 

28 Walnut Street, Williston, 857-5909

It happens sometimes in my line of work: I go to a place with every expectation that I'm going to hate it. The greatest reward is when I'm wrong.

Such was the case with McGillicuddy's Irish Ale House. A pair of damning 7 Nights comments warned me of cold, out-of-the-freezer food. But this was far from what I found last night.

And, honestly, the place could be forgiven for less-than-stellar fare. In some ways, it's trying to be something closer to a miniature, slightly higher-end Buffalo Wild Wings than a fine-dining establishment.

If people tend to call me quirky, or wacky, I think I can blame my mom. I have clear memories of the Thanksgiving when she insisted on making blue mashed potatoes. And she's famous at the Seven Days offices for her brownie pops, made to look like whatever cute animal captures her fancy — or the season.

If everyone has a rabbit-shaped dessert, with pastel pink candy corn for ears, at their desks, it means Mom made a treat for Easter... or Monday. She was also the seamstress responsible for my Cookie Monster skirt at last spring's Sweet Start Smackdown.

Last week, she presented me with what may be her greatest creation yet: Hippo bread.

Turkey hash, turkey chili, turkey sandwiches. When it comes to Thanksgiving leftovers, the bird dominates.

While I definitely have plenty of turkey left, more challenging to repurpose is the surfeit of uneaten mashed potatoes. Reheated mashed potatoes are no fun; potato pancakes, however, are. Rolling mashed potatoes into sticky balls with your hands, then smashing them into discs and frying them to a crispy nut- brown, is a tactile way to spend a post-Thanksgiving brunch.

Potato pancakes — or latkes, if you prefer — are also harbingers of Hanukkah, when they're eaten as part of the celebration. Topping them with smoked salmon (or trout), sour cream, pickled red onions and dill sprigs makes for a fresh, briny, filling lunch. And with a glass of 'leftover' Prosecco, they pave the way for yet another food-induced nap.

Note: If you're an experienced latke maker, know that mashed-potato pancakes take longer to cook. They'll also shrink more during frying and become misshapen. If you used copious amounts of butter and cream in your mashed potatoes (as I did), you won't need any extra moisture. If it seems like they want to fall apart, though, add a beaten egg as a binder. And since this is a very feel-your-way-through-it kind of snack, ingredient amounts are loose and approximate.

Mashed Potato Pancakes with Pickled Red Onions, Smoked Salmon & Dill

ingredients
1 red onion
Rice vinegar
Dash of salt
Sugar
A bowl of leftover mashed potatoes
More salt & pepper
Cooking oil
Sour cream
Smoked salmon or trout
A few sprigs of dill

First, quick-pickle some red onion: Peel, halve and then slice a red onion into very thin slivers; pile the onion into a bowl, cover with red wine (or cider or rice vinegar) and throw a dash of salt and half a handful of sugar in and stir until sugar dissolves. Let sit for an hour.

Put a sauté pan on medium heat and pour in enough oil to cover the bottom (I used canola). While the oil heats, shape mashed potatoes into golf-ball-size orbs, then flatten between your palms and drop into the hot oil. While they cook, sprinkle the tops liberally with salt and pepper.

Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Keep cooked pancakes in a warm oven while you finish the rest.

When finished, smear each cake with sour cream, then layer on a few curls of pickled onion, a flap of salmon and a sprig of dill. Finish with coarse sea salt and pepper, if desired, and serve.