In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Costa Rican Chicken and Rice from her new neighbor Susana Contreras (read the recipe and see the photos).
Month: November 2012
David’s Opus 10 Now Open
David’s Opus 10, David Turin’s restaurant within a restaurant on monument square, opened for business this evening. The restaurant serves a fixed-price multi-course dinner.
Maine a la Carte has published a sneak peak from Opus 10.
2012 Thanksgiving Resource Guide
As usual a number of Portland area restaurants plan on serving a Thanksgiving dinner. Here are the ones I know about so far. I’ll update the list as more info comes in:
- Eves at the Garden, $42 for adults, $21 for children
- Five Fifty-Five, 2 – 8, 4-course dinner, $75; wine pairings and children’s menus available
- Harraseeket Inn, noon – 4:30, $60 for adults, $30 for children
- Holiday Inn by the Bay, noon – 5, buffet, $26 for adults and $13.50 for children
- Inn on Peaks Island, 12-4, buffet, $18 for adults and $9 for children
- Old Port Tavern is serving dinner on Thanksgiving
- Rosie’s is serving a Thanksgiving dinner
- Sable Oaks Marriott, $30 for adults, $14 for children
- Saltwater Grille, buffet, noon – 4, $36.99 for adults, $12.99 for children
- Sea Glass Restaurant at the Inn by the Sea, 3-course, noon – 9, $62 per person
- Season’s Grille, 11 – 4, $23 for adults, $18 for seniors, $11.50 for children
- Twenty Milk Street, noon – 7
- Zackery’s, noon – 4, buffet, $24 for adults, $18 for children
- And if you just want to slip away from the family and go out for a drink, Maine Today reports that Gritty’s, Brian Boru and Ruski’s will be open
For those of you hosting your own meal at home:
- You can pre-order your free-range turkeys from Aurora Provisions or Rosemont Market. Between the two of them you can source also the pies, rolls, quick breads, side dishes and just about other item you might need for your Thanksgiving dinner.
- Standard Baking, Scratch Baking, and many of the other bakeries in the area are good sources for pies, breads, etc. Cranberry Island Kitchen is selling turkey-shaped whoopie pies.
- The Blueberry Files has once again assembled a turkey buying guide, and the Maine Sunday Telegram has published an article about local turkey prices.
- From Away has published recipes for 8 Thanksgiving dishes.
- Mister Meatball has published advice on how to have a very meatbally Thanksgiving.
- Checkout these dessert recipes from the pastry chefs at Grace and the Sea Glass restaurant.
- Learn how to put together a holiday cheese plate from cheese expert Shannon Tallman.
Community Dinners:
- The Wayside Food Programs is serving a free Thanksgiving community dinner to an estimated 400+ people. They have enough volunteer for Thanksgiving day but are still in need of help to prep on the day before, and with donations of food. Call (207) 775-4939 for more information.
Wine and Beer Buying Advice:
- Wine Wise is teaching a class on Thanksgiving wine pairings on November 14.
- Wines; Tasted! has posted his suggestions for Thanksgiving.
- Dispatch has published their guidance on Thanksgiving beer pairing.
Inspiration:
- Listen to this interview with authors David Buchanan, Sandy Oliver and Michael Sanders about the traditions of Thanksgiving Dinner.
Is there a local restaurant, market, bakery, or Thanksgiving event that’s missing? Post a comment with the info and I’ll add them to the list.
Brunch Review of Petite Jacqueline
Following up on their lunch review from earlier this Fall, Map & Menu has published a brunch review of Petite Jacqueline.
…Meredith ordered a Croque Madam (a gourmet ham and cheese, with ham, gruyere, mornay, and fried egg) to follow – it was fantastic, as I think I stole at least half of it right off her plate. I decided to try the Hachage Agneau (braise lamb hash with two poached eggs, homefries, hollandaise, and toast), and couldn’t have been happier than my selection.
Photo Credit: Map & Menu
This Week’s Events: González Byass, Merriam & Beaujolais Nouveau Wine Dinners
Tuesday — the González Byass wine dinner is taking place at Bar Lola.
Wednesday — Wine Wise is teaching a class on Thanksgiving wine pairing, The Salt Exchange is holding a Merriam Vineyards wine dinner, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.
Thursday — Petite Jacqueline is holding a Beaujolais Nouveau wine dinner, The Great Lost Bear is featuring a set of Sam Adams Rarities, and a wine and cheese tasting is taking place at the Public Market House.
Friday — there will be a wine tasting at Rosemont Market on Brighton.
Saturday — there will be wine tastings at Browne Trading and at Rosemont, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.
Sunday — Big Night is the featured film at Petite Jacqueline’s movie night.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.
Pocket Brunch: Bienvenue
The November edition of Pocket Brunch took place this afternoon at a industrial building in South Portland near the oil tank yards.
The theme was French Canadian cuisine:
- Soup – yellow split pea, heritage pork, and spiced hog cracklin
- Salad – a poutine of country fries, goose gravy, cheese curds and cranberry ketchup
- Egg – cretons, hen egg, juniper matsutake salt, super sexe bagel and sausage full of secrets
- Meat – arctic char pie with puff pastry and a seaweed salad
- Dessert – maple/black velvet sugar pie and Allen’s coffee brandy ployes cake
- Entertainment – the backside of the drink menus were bingo cards and the crowd joined in rounds of bingo between courses
Josh Potocki and Joel Beauchamp were joined in the kitchen by Rocco Salvatore Talarico and guest chef Nate Nadeau. Tandem served the coffee and Nan’l Meikeljohn created a set of custom cocktails for the event.
For more photos check out the extensive set of image posted by David Zwickerhill.
Planning is already underway for the December Pocket Brunch. Sign-up on the PB site for their mailing list to be alerted when tickets go on sale.
All About Cheese
Delicious Musings has published an interview with cheese expert Shannon Tallman about planning a cheese plate, storing, cheese, cheese equipment and cheese books, and her current favorite cheeses.
Cheeses for an intimate holiday dinner cheese plate? **And, would you serve before or after dinner?
You could go either way with whether to serve before or after. I like to have something to snack on if I’m going to spend the afternoon in the kitchen cooking, so putting out a cheese plate for yourself and guests to nosh is never a bad idea. It’s also something that you don’t really have to worry about–like has it gotten cold or too warm.? do you have to refill it?–while you’re off doing other things. One of the loose rules of cheese plating is to work in odd numbers (but no more than 7) as it stands out to the eye on a plate. I tend to work in 3′s to keep the plate focused and to make it easy on myself, but I will occasionally plate up 5 if there are cheeses that I’m really excited about and can’t wait to share.
Shannon is one of the guest speakers from Portland participating in the Winter Food Series at the Captain Fairfield Inn in Kennebunkport.
Under Construction: Hella Good Tacos
Hella Good Tacos is planning to scale up their successful food cart operation into a brick and mortar restaurant. Owner Josh Bankhead is raising $25,000 online to start up this new venture. If you’re a fan of Hella Good, then head on over to Peerbackers.com to learn more about his plans and make a pledge to help him out.
Online crowd-funding has been an increasing popular model for local food businesses to raise funds. Food Coma TV, Union Bagel, Roost are a few of the ones that have successfully used this approach to get the financial backing they needed to start-up.
Plush West End Closed
Plush West End has gone out of business. The bar and small plate restaurant had opened a little more than a year ago in the old Katahdin space on High Street.
Breakfast FAQ & Silly’s with a Twist
This month’s edition of The Bollard includes a Portland breakfast FAQ,
“I just want a regular breakfast at a regular diner. Is that OK with you, Mr. Fancy Brunch Guy?”
Go to Steve and Renee’s (500 Washington Ave., Portland). You won’t find a better basic breakfast. The prices are low, and there is no friendlier service anywhere, period. And that’s a fact.
a bar review of Silly’s with a Twist,
In keeping with the more-is-more philosophy at Silly’s, the drink menu is four pages long. A fair amount of real estate is devoted to shakes, which can be made with ice cream and milk from cows, rice or soy. They also serve shakes with booze, like the Ragin’ Ruby (made with ruby port), Twist & Stout (contains Guinness) and the more traditional Mudslide. I tried the Sherry Baby ($7.50), which is made with Sandeman Amontillado. The fruits of the medium-dry Spanish sherry came through nicely and complemented the ice cream well.