Year: 2009

Public Market House Expansion

| Posted in General News

The Public Market House on Monument Square is moving ahead with plans to expand to the second floor with space for 4-5 new shops and an eating area, according to an article in today’s Press Herald.

[Kris] Horton said the expansion will include a second floor and four or five new shops – averaging 380 square feet of space each – as well as new public restrooms and eating areas looking out over the square.

Horton and her partners are meeting with potential businesses.

Horton said they hope to fill the space with businesses that sell locally grown and produced products.

A butcher, a flower shop, a home-made clothing shop and a soup restaurant have shown interest, she said, and the space will be available by midsummer.

Hill[y]to[wn]p Cookie Review

| Posted in Reviews

Hilly Town has published another installment in it’s weekly cookie review series. This week Hilltop Coffee Shop‘s peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie was the focus.

Hilltop’s PBCCC contained a goodly amount of salt, which suits my personal taste, and despite its age the insides were wonderfully soft and chewy. However, the bottom was greasy and the edges ever so slightly sandy, two minor design flaws that I will blame on the peanut butter. And peanut butter, as you know, is delicious, as long as you are not one of those poor people who is allergic.

The Food Switch

| Posted in General News, People, Cooking

The latest edition of The Maine Switch includes articles about Cultivating Community “a Portland-based nonprofit that connects people to the earth, their food and one another through agriculture” and about Grown@Home which provides “weekly maintenance and new plantings throughout the growing season” for your home garden. There’s also an article by Harding Smith about barbecuing and additional piece about local barbecue sauce manufacturers. Especially interesting in this edition is a piece by Avery Yale Kamila as she tries to establish which watering hole is truly Portland’s oldest bar.

Locavore Canola Oil?

| Posted in Cooking

The Boston Globe has an article about the canola crop being grown in Maine and pressed into cooking oil by Maine Natural Oils.

Rodney Chamberland has been working straight out plowing and planting over 100 acres of seed potatoes. The farm’s potatoes come first.

Then, Chamberland plants rotation crops. One he’s seeding this spring will turn into 30 acres of flowering yellow canola. The crop not only improves the potatoes he’ll grow on the same land next year, says Chamberland, but its seeds will also be pressed into one of the Northeast’s only regional cooking oils: Maine Natural Oils.

The article also quotes Leslie Oster from Aurora Provisions,

“I am more than all for it,” says Leslie Oster, the general manager of Aurora Provisions and a Slow Food Portland organizer. “Now, if we could just get someone to invest in a full-scale wheat production mill.”

This Week's Events

| Posted in Events

The weekly Food and Drink Trivia Contest is at Bull Feeney’s tonight. The Wine Flight 5k Training Series kicks-off tomorrow. Black Tie Bistro is teaching a cooking class on Wednesday. On Thursday there will be a wine tasting at Browne Trading and a Marshall Wharf Brewing showcase at Great Lost Bear. Farmers’ Markets are being held in Monument Square on Wednesday and at Deering Oaks Park on Saturday.  For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

Evans & Hasty

| Posted in People

Rob Evans and Ben Hasty’s cooking class earlier this week at Stonewall Kitchen was written up in both the Portsmouth Herald

Evans explained just how much American cuisine has changed since his days at the legendary French Laundry Restaurant in Napa Valley. “Everyone’s awareness of food is elevated. We have local farmers and artisan food producers bringing us ingredients. The American chefs coming up, they don’t want to wear a suit or tie. And even American service has changed, it’s casual, fun.”

and by the blog Soooo.. You Really Like Cats, Don’t You

When asked his favorite late-night snack, Evans explained, “By the time I remember to eat after service, the kitchen’s already been cleaned up and it’s 2AM. And I keep in mind that I don’t like cooking at home. So, sometimes I’ll just head down to Cumberland Farms, get a Red Baron Pizza to pop into the microwave – sprinkle some Malden salt and give me a glass of wine and I’d be set.”