Author: PFM

Mark Sprague, Organizer of the Portland Brew Festival

| Posted in Beer

Brews and Books blogger Josh Christie has posted an interview on Hop Press with Mark Sprague, the organizer of the Portland Brew Festival.

Nationally and locally, beer festivals are becoming more popular every year. How is the Portland Brew Festival different than the other Maine beer fests?
Maine has some awesome beers and nearly every festival in the state focuses on just these great in-state brewers, but I made the conscious decision to invite brewers from across the region–there are so many up-and-coming brewers and unknowns who should be known… I want the people who come to this festival to leave with an “aha” moment about a brewer or beer or cider they discovered here.  I’m also coming at this from a homebrewer background.  I’ve been to a number of festivals, but never one where they are brewing live at the event.

Immigrant Kitchens: Cambodian Curry Soup

| Posted in Cooking

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Cambodian Curry Soup from Makara Meng (read the recipe and see the photos).

It was there that Makara told me this story, in — as a very strange God would have it – the rice aisle. Because it’s what I do, I asked her if she would teach me a dish from her homeland. This Cambodian curry is a dish she and her mother made in her childhood before all that hell broke loose. Today the two of them make it, still together, in South Portland for family birthday parties. It’s bone-in chicken pieces, eggplant, yam, green beans and onion wedges all covered and wading in a thick red sauce.

Monday Market, Tequila & Macrobiotics

| Posted in Cooking, Distilling & Cocktails, Farming

Today’s Press Herald reports on efforts to bring the Monday Farmers Market back to life,

Farmers on the wait list said they won’t come on Mondays because no customers attend. They can’t afford to take time from planting and harvesting to travel downtown and not sell anything. Likewise, customers won’t come on Mondays because no farmers attend.

It’s a self-defeating cycle, but a group of immigrant farmers will soon try to revive the Monday market. Dawud Ummah, president of the Center for African-American Heritage, is coordinating the effort.

an article about tequila featuring staff from Zapoteca,

For a lot of people, sitting in front of a line of three shots of tequila might conjure some flashbacks involving a pinch of salt, a lemon wedge and a pounding headache. But the shots that come in a flight of tequila at Zapoteca, a new Mexican restaurant and tequileria in Portland, are meant to be sipped and savored like a fine single malt Scotch, not downed in one gulp by a drunken college student.

and an article about the macrobiotic diet and the macrobiotic cooking classes at Five Season Cooking School,

The school is run by Lisa Silverman, and it hosts frequent visits from well-known macrobiotic teachers.

Next week, Jessica Porter, a former Portland resident and author of “The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics,” will teach a class at the school. At the end of September, internationally acclaimed macrobiotic educator Warren Kramer will come to the school to offer a lecture and teach a class.

NY Times: A Gilded Lobster Trap?

| Posted in Fisheries

An article in today’s New York Times explores the idea that Maine’s reliance on the lobster fishery creates a “gilded trap” for Maine fisherman.

Maine lobsters, prized for their succulence and briny sweetness, are so abundant, and so lucrative, that they support fishing communities up and down the coast.

And that is just the problem, says Robert S. Steneck, a marine biologist at the University of Maine.

In a paper in the current issue of Conservation Biology, he and a team of researchers say the lobstermen, their communities and the state economy are caught in “a gilded trap,” in which short-term profit outweighs long-term social and environmental risks.

Review of Zapoteca

| Posted in Reviews

Flavor & Zest has published a review of Zapoteca.

For an appetizer, three drinks, three entrees and a dessert, the bill came just under $100. For the portion sizes, the abundance of the ingredients, and the flavors (not to mention the atmosphere and service), it was well worth it. Overall, we had a very pleasant outing to Portland’s newest Mexican restaurant, and it definitely won’t be my last (if for no other reason than to have that tequila caramel).

South Portland Yard Becomes Garden for Soup Kitchen

| Posted in Farming

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about a South Portland resident who replaced her lawn with a large vegetable garden. Produce from the garden is “distributed among four soup kitchen sites and 42 agencies in Cumberland County.”

[Liberty] Bryer teamed up with Wayside Soup Kitchen to plant a 2,000-square-foot community garden in her yard on Edwards Street, in the Meetinghouse Hill neighborhood.

“That has been part of my hope and intent, that people would realize, yes, they can grow for themselves and for other people,” she said.

Maine at Work: Raking Blueberries

| Posted in Farming

For the latest installment of the Press Herald Maine at Work series, reporter Ray Routhier learns how to rake wild blueberries at Hart’s Clary Hill Farm near Union.

Powers runs a blueberry farm that his wife’s family started in the 1930s. The land had originally been a sheep farm, but is now turning out one of Maine’s most iconic crops — wild blueberries.

The challenges to growing blueberries begin with the fact that they are wild, Powers tells me. You don’t plant them, you can’t decide where they’ll grow. This makes weeding or treating them with herbicides tricky. And it makes picking them — on rocky hillsides for instance — tricky as well.

This Week’s Events: Fermentation Class, Twilight Dinner, Latte Art Throwdown, Bibo’s Wine Dinner

| Posted in Events

Wednesday — Urban Farm Fermentory is teaching a vegetable fermentation workshop, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Guy Hernandez from Bar Lola is the guest chef at this week’s Twilight Dinner, Bard Coffee is hosting the monthly latte art throwdown, Browne Trading is holding a wine tasting, the Great Lost Bear is featuring beer from Moat Mountain Smoke House at this week’s brewery showcase, and the South Portland Farmers Market is taking place in the afternoon.

Friday — BiBo’s Mad Apple Cafe is holding a wine dinner and there will be a wine tasting at Rosemont on Brighton Ave.

Saturday — the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.

Sunday — Ed Foley, baker and co-owner of Foley’s Bakery will be on Channel 8’s morning cooking show Keithley in the Kitchen.

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.