I had hoped to write my own trip report, but that looks increasingly unlikely. So I'll piggyback on
buffetbuster's excellent report.
Friday:
We avoided the interstates for our drive up. The weather and scenery were great; it was a very nice drive.
As we passed through New Bethlehem, we discovered that the annual
Peanut Butter Festival was getting underway.
Uzi's, one of the best bakeries in Brookville, had a presence there, and so we felt it necessary to buy treats.
Lori got a heavenly peanut butter chocolate pie:
I got a walnut tart. It was much like a pecan pie, but without nearly as much of the non-nut filling:
We also bought a packages of cookies to share with Roadfooders, not realizing how utterly redundant they would be. If we ever go to Newcastle, we'll bring some coal.
As we were leaving, we saw that the Knights of Columbus were selling a Peanut Butter Hot Dog. We tried one. I asked what condiments they recommended, and they said that they recommended no condiments in order to taste the peanut butter flavor.
They were right--we could barely taste the peanut butter at all. I don't regret eating it, but I wouldn't seek it out again.
We stopped for ice cream at the Shannon Dell, in Shannondale, PA. Unfortunately, the food, while perfectly decent, is not nearly as Roadfoody as the sign:
We stopped for dinner at a place called Eddie's in Salamanca, NY. The fish fry was good, and big enough to feed both of us--but the salad bar was pretty dismal.
We did not go with the group to Eckl's, unfortunately.
Saturday:
After we got back to the hotel after the fabulous Cornell chicken, Lori and I went along with the group going to
Antoinette's. (We did not go to Steve's Pig and Ox Roast.) Lori ordered a sundae with French chocolate pudding and whipped cream (judgment: good, but not much different from hot fudge). I ordered the bananas foster ice cream with the butter-rum sauce (judgment: unfamiliar but tasty, with a lot more butter flavor than rum).
Note how pretty the whipped cream is. It was applied with a pastry bag.
Sunday:
After the return from the Anchor Bar, we went back to
Antoinette's. I'd noticed that both Antoinette's and Parkside Candy listed an unfamiliar "mint-pineapple" sundae topping, so we got a vanilla sundae with mint-pineapple topping. This turned out to be a layer of pineapple and a layer of mint syrup. It's not a combination I would have come up with myself, but it really worked quite well. (Apologies for the blurry photo)
My special private discovery came when I asked to use the bathroom at Antoinette's.
I got escorted through a room for packaging candies...
... down into a dimly-lit basement lined with shelves of boxes...
... past a hand-lettered sign saying "This Way Out" (implying that former passers-by had felt such a sign desirable)
... into a really pretty bathroom with lovely silk flower arrangements.
I vacillated about whether to tell other Roadfooders about the bathroom, but I decided that it would be too much of an imposition on the staff to escort us all through the candy room. But if you go back to Antoinette's alone, I recommend you check it out.
<message edited by ralphmelton on Tue, 09/29/09 8:05 PM>
