Last night, A Taste of Wilton returned, sponsored by the Wilton Chamber of Commerce, with restaurants and vendors displaying their foods for tasting in the lobby of the very new Riverside apartment building at 141 Danbury Rd. (We swear it wasn’t there yesterday!)

We took quite a passel of pictures of most of the exhibits, and you can see all of them here. There was no printed program or guide and since the exhibits stretched around the outdoor pool area, it would have been easy to miss some of them if you didn’t see people carrying foods you hadn’t seen yet.

We found that there were a number of out of town vendors with really interesting offerings. The one that impressed us the most was Tucker’s Pie Company, a Bridgeport company that makes savory pies (quiches, chicken pot pie, and so forth) for pick up or delivery. They are located just off the Black Rock turnpike at 2931 Fairfield Ave.

The pie that impressed us the most was their Steak and Guinness Pie, and their Caramelized Apple and Fennel Pork Sausage Roll. You need to order a couple of days in advance, but they are worth it. If you are having a larger event, they will ship you boxed frozen pies as well.

 Two Roads brewery (from Stratford) was there with several of their beers. We tried their Summer Heaven IPA and found it delicious. Not to be outdone, the Little Pub was also offering their own branded beers.

 One big surprise was Mama Hu’s Baked sushi. It is basically packaged sushi you can heat and eat. We tried their spicy salmon and were quite impressed. They have commercial kitchens in Norwalk and Brooklyn, and their products are available at Village Market, Walter Stewarts and Nature’s Temptation (Ridgefield).

 Jacob’s Pickles (from the Sono Collection) was offering build your own chicken biscuit sliders, with some tasty looking fried chicken.

 But the culminating surprise entry was the appearance of the new Sly Bandit Brew Pub at 14 Danbury Rd. Their display was just a menu and the opportunity for them to prepare a plate for you. But imagine! A Brew pub in South Wilton and we didn’t know it had opened!

Desserts were cookies from The Painted Cookie, Banana pudding from Pressburger (who were offering full single burgers as well) and carrot cake from Marly’s.

You will quickly note that there were far more vendors from outside Wilton that within. Where were our favorite restaurants like Bianco Rosso, Craft 14 and Aranci 67? Not to mention Athithi, Ren Noodle and Dumpling, Cactus Rose and the Red Rooster? Well, it was a great night for those who attended, and while the Chamber said it was sold out, we think they could have sold more tickets as it was never crowded. See you there next year and at the brew pub much sooner!

The Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Pirates! The Penzance Musical opened April 4th. We saw it last night, April 16, and it will run until July 27. Rather than producing Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, the producers elected to create a “re-imagining” of Pirates, setting it in New Orleans in 1880. The new dialog and libretto and musical adaptations are by Rupert Holmes, who has extensive Broadway experience, and the orchestrations by conductor Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters.

The central conceit of this production is described in a curtain speech by two actors portraying Gilbert (David Hyde Pierce) and Sullivan (Preston Truman Boyd). They note that they decided to open Pirates in New York to attempt to obtain a copyright and forestall knock-off productions as happened to Pinafore. (This is true, but it didn’t work out.) They then describe taking Pirates to several cities, ending up in New Orleans which so entranced them they decided to make that Pirates a New Orleans inflected piece. (This never happened, of course.)

Without describing the show at all, you can learn a lot by looking at the orchestra. Sullivan’s orchestra was 2/1/2/1/2/2/2 and strings, or more specifically: 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 1 oboe, 2 clarinets, 1 bassoon, 2 French horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, percussion and strings (usually at least 3 first violins, 3 second violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos and one bass viol. That’s 24 and that’s the size of the D’Oyly Carte’s touring orchestra. At the Savoy Theatre, they added more strings for up to 31 players.

The Roundabout’s orchestra is 1 violin, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 bass,1 guitar/banjo, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 French Horn, Reed 1 (clarinet, flute, piccolo, saxophone) Reed 2 (Clarinet, flute, oboe, piccolo) 2 keyboards and percussion. That’s 14, but with quite a different profile.

Holmes and his orchestrators has transformed nearly all of Sullivan’s score into a loud, thumping pop-rock up tempo score. While several numbers have blues inflections and one a gospel inflection, the overall effect is much the same throughout. Loud. Most of Sullivan’s witty orchestrations are completely missing.

Holmes also reworked a great deal of the dialog from Gilbert’s witty subtleties to common vernacular. Gilbert took a great deal of care in constructing his dialog, where every word counted. Here is a description of Gilbert rehearsing Pirates in Philadelphia in 1881.

One of the strongest features of this production are the sets. The first act set features two New Orleans style two- story houses with balconies (Ruth enters on one of them) and the houses pull back when the Pirate King arrives on an enormous pirate ship. Beautifully executed.

The show begins with Frederic (Nicholas Barash) singing “Good morrow, good mother” from Iolanthe switching it to “good brothers” and it is in this song we learn of his forthcoming 21st birthday when he will be out of his indentures to the pirates. This is normally given to Samuel, but that character has been cut. This segues to part of “Pour oh pour” that usually opens the show.

Soon after that Ruth (Jinx Monsoon) enters on one of the balconies (to great applause) and eventually comes down to sing an up-tempo version of “When Frederic was a little lad” that explains why she apprenticed him to a pirate instead of a pilot.

Then and only then does the Pirate King (Ramin Karimloo) appear on the pirate ship to make his grand athletic entrance sliding down a rope from the ship, to sing “I am a pirate king.” Somewhere in the rewritten and barely audible dialog that follows, they establish that Frederic will leave the pirates when his birthday arrives at midnight and that the pirates usually let their prey go, because they all claim to be orphans.

Just as the pirates exit, the women’s chorus (all the Major General’s daughters) arrive wearing Victorian puffy dresses from the back, but open in the front to show that they are all wearing blue pedal pushers and high heeled leather boots. The lovely costumes are by Linda Cho, but I am not sure what she was up to here.

“Climbing over rocky mountain” has been revised to “We’re sashayin’ though the old French Quarter” and sung in the same pop-rock style.

Following “Is there not one maiden breast” by Frederic, Mabel (Samantha Williams) finally appears, and rather than a high (coloratura) soprano, she’s a belt mezzo. This puts her at a disadvantage in “Poor Wandering One,” because she obviously can’t sing all those high flourishes Sullivan wrote. It also makes later duets harder because her voice is much the same in register as Frederic’s.
“How beautifully blue the sky” was sadly cut. The pirates appear because they want to “marry” the Major General’s daughters.

Finally, the Major General (David Hyde Pierce) appears, the man with the best diction onstage and the singer whose songs have been least tampered with. His “I am the very model…” is excellent.

The rest of the act carries on much as expected, but where the intermission should have occurred, they add a new song “The ‘Sail the Ocean’ Blues,” based on “We sail the ocean blue” from Pinafore. This ends with the entire cast playing rhythms on washboards, each fitted with a store clerk call bell. Sorry, that is just silly.

The second act opens with the Major General singing the Nightmare Song from Iolanthe, here with the men’s chorus dressed in white carrying out all the actions he dreams. There are musical interludes between the “verses” to get them and their props on and off stage. I could have done without that.

Ruth has been given an extra song: ”Alone and yet alive” from The Mikado. Here I think the intro is beyond Ms. Monsoon, but the main verse has been turned into a blues number that works quite well for her.

We learn that since Frederic was born in leap year, he is not 21 but 5 1/4 . Since the show is set in 1880, that can’t possibly be true. That year was a leap year, so he would be 5 or 6, but not 5 ¼.

“A policeman’s lot” was sung just by the Sergeant of Police (Preston Truman Boyd) and the women’s chorus. They turned this one into a gospel number and this was really delightful.

“With cat-like tread” is very well performed and traditional, but without the missing Samuel solos. “Hail Poetry” becomes “Hail Liberty” but is also well-sung. “Sighing softly to the river” was cut, and the ending was changed. The pirates are not noblemen gone wrong, but are forgiven because “We are all from someplace else,” a version of “He is an Englishman,” performed here with the chorus each waving two blue and white semaphore flags. I felt like an attack of blue and white bats were in the offing.

So, overall, I think they have subtracted a lot more than they added, and the loud thumping rock numbers are rather repetitive. I don’t see any reason to have created this show. If you come to it not knowing Pirates you might enjoy some if it, but the music is pretty much the same throughout and Gilbert’s wit and Sullivan’s artistry are sorely missed.

“Pirates! the Penzance Musical” runs at the Todd Haimes theater through July 27.

I recently received Lady Bird Johnson’s recipe for Buttermilk Pie from History by Mail and had to try it out. This pie was made regularly by their private chef Zephyr Wright in the White House, but the recipe is from Lady Bird’s family.

If you look around the internet for buttermilk pie recipes, you will find quite a number of them, but none of them are at all like Mrs. Johnson’s. The single major difference is that her recipe has you separate the eggs and beat the whites into stiff peaks, and then fold that into the batter. This gives a much lighter pie. I also note that most of these modern recipes incorporate vanilla and/or lemon juice and butter to give the pie a different flavor, while the original Lady Bird recipe has none of them: the flavor is a mild custard with the tang of buttermilk.

This simple recipe comes together in about 5 minutes (plus the piecrust) and bakes for 35 more. Our simple piecrust recipe is here.

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
• 2 eggs separated
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 2 cups buttermilk
• ¼ tsp salt
• Cinnamon for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.
2. Beat egg whites until very stiff.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and add the sugar and mix.
4. Stir flour into part of the buttermilk and mix until free of lumps
5. Add the flour mixture to the eggs and sugar, and add the remainder of the buttermilk.

6. Fold in the egg whites. This works best if you mix in part of the egg whites and then fold in the rest using a rubber spatula.
7. Pour into the pie shell and sprinkle with cinnamon.
8. Bake for 35 minutes.
9. Let the pie cool and refrigerate it. Serve cold, with whipped cream.

This recipe was the winner of a contest for the best peanut butter cookies. The main ingredient is “all-natural” peanut butter, which is chosen not for any imagined health benefit, but because it is more liquid than conventional peanut butters because the oils are not hydrogenated. Thus, the batter comes together quite smoothly.

• 4 Tb unsalted butter at room temperature
• ¾ cup creamy all-natural peanut butter
• ¼ cup granulated sugar (plus more for rolling)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 Tb all-purpose flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• Maldon salt for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the whole egg and then the egg yolk and vanilla.
5. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, soda and sea salt, and then add to the wet ingredients and mix until evenly combined.
6. Put a scoop of granulated sugar into a mixing bowl. Using a cookie scoop, roll the batter into 1-inch balls and then roll them in the sugar. Arrange a dozen of these balls on the baking sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake until they have puffed up and are set on the edges but still somewhat soft in the middle, about 12 minutes.
8. Remove the cookies from the oven and sprinkle each with a pinch of Maldon salt. Then slide the whole parchment sheet and cookies over to a wire cooling rack and cook the remaining cookies on new parchment sheet.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Crumpets are a sort of cousin to English muffins, but a lot easier to make. They are sort of a spongy bread that is best served hot with butter, jam or even Marmite. They are pretty simple to make and the only thing you’ll need to buy are crumpet rings (also called muffin rings). You cook them on a hot griddle or a cast iron pan on the stove.

This recipe follows from one given by Lidey Heuck in the New York Times. You can stir up the batter in a few minutes, but you need to let it rise for around an hour before using it.

• ½ cup whole milk
• 2 ½ tsp active dry yeast
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ cups warm water
• Unsalted butter for greasing the rings and griddle

1. Heat the milk in a glass pitcher or bowl for about 30 seconds at half power until it is warm to the touch. Stir in the yeast and sugar and set aside until it is bubbly.
2. Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. Gradually add the milk and warm water, stirring with a whisk. Mix until you have a runny, sticky batter.
3. Cover with a damp towel and let rise for an hour until you have a bubbly dough that has doubled in volume.

1. Heat a griddle to 375˚F and melt a Tb of butter on the griddle.
2. Butter the muffin rings and set on the griddle to heat up.
3. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter into each ring. Scrape all of the batter in the cup into each ring, but if there is a lot clinging to the outside of the cup, don’t include it: it makes the crumpets too thick. Turn the griddle down a bit if the butter begins to smoke.

1. Cook for 4-6 minutes until bubbles rise. Then lift the rings away and turn the crumpets and cook for 2 minutes or so, until browned.
2. Serve hot with butter and jam or marmalade.

You can keep left-over crumpets in a bag in the breadbox, or in the refrigerator. You can even freeze them.

You can split cold crumpets in two much like an English muffin, and heat them in the toaster and butter them.
In fact, you can serve them with poached eggs, or make them into Eggs Benedict by adding ham under the eggs and topping with Hollandaise. They actually work better for this than English muffins do, because they aren’t as tough as English muffins, and are easier to eat with a knife and fork.