Over the weekend, we decided to go to ‘The Windmill’, a multi-building complex-based farm and crafts market in Upstate New York that also happens to be smack dab in the middle of the Eastern wine country. The place is well known for its wealth of vendors, activities and of course, loads yummy food vendors. We went to quite a few places to try out little bibs and bobs of food and do some shopping you can’t find mostly anywhere else up there, though most were not photographed, my apologies.
After soaking in the atmosphere of the first few buildings, we first went with the tried and true all-around good sweet that is cotton-candy; maple flavored cotton-candy to be precise. It seems rather self explanatory that it was good as anything is with maple in it. It was from then on, we noticed something: people were walking around with this large bowl of what looked to be potato chips covered in cheese and bacon bits; the the absolute perfect marriage of foods. We were a bit too shy to simply walk up and ask them where they had gotten it, so we instead went on a search of our own, not finding the potatoes, but we instead found a place that does different types of cheese curd, which were also exceptional. From this point we had been walking around, but never tucked into a proper lunch. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that many people around us were carrying their own food around, mocking us with their perfectly crisp potato chips and icy snow cones. We found the outside area where the bulk of food vendors were and searched desperately for the potato chip creation, but at first could not find it.
The boys settled for hot dogs coming from a simple stand called ‘Phinn’s’ while another chose chicken and fries from a separate place; they did not complain. The rest of us instead chose something called a ‘Spud Boat’, a half of a potato which has been hollowed out to make space for pulled pork and melt-y cheese. We were in love with it, although it still did not live up to our speculated majesty of the butterflied potato invention we had kept seeing. Just as we were finishing up and preparing to head out to finish shopping, another group of market-goers sat down at the table next to us with the exact meal we had been yearning for! We employed one of the boys to go and ask about the whereabouts of such a wonderful creation would be acquired from and we were directed to a vendor literally called “Gramma’s Butterflyed Potatoes” centered right to the left of the dining pavilion; right under our noses the entire time…
Without even considering we had eaten enough potatoes today to feed Ireland and then some, we raced to the building, where we ordered out very own butterflied potatoes and killed any small chance of being able to keep our caloric dignities intact. I don’t think I have to tell you this but, it was every bit as good as we had expected, it was after all homemade, thick-cut potato chips drowned in cheese and bacon, how much better do you expect it to be?
After this, we finished up our shopping, grabbed some Snow Cones on the way out and called it a productive, and dietary detrimental day.
It’s also worth noting that the Windmill very dog-friendly and most of the food venues have little trays for the fluffy ones to try out. We were enthralled with every single one.
