This Week’s Events: Austrian Wine, Falmouth Kitchen Tour, Brewer for a Day, Mother’s Day

Tuesday — Bresca is holding a 5-course Austrian Wine Dinner.

Wednesday — the Farmers Market is taking place in Monument. Grace is holding their monthly wine club event.

Thursdayauthors T. Colin Campbell and Meg Wolff will be at Whole Foods for a book signing.

Friday — the first day of the Falmouth Kitchen Tour. There will be wine tastings at Rosemont and the West End Deli, and Rosemont is running a Austrian Wine Showcase ($45/person) in the evening. Friday is also First Friday Art Walk and restaurants will be very busy so make your reservations early.

Saturday — the Farmers Market is taking place in Deering Oaks Park, the second day of the Falmouth Kitchen Tour, LeRoux is holding a wine tasting, Sebago Brewing is offering a chance for you to work with their brewers on a special batch that will raise funds for their Trek Across Maine cycling team.

SundayMother’s Day, one of the busiest restaurant days of the year, so be prepared to wait a little longer to get in at your favorite Sunday brunch spot. Wine Wise is teaching a special Mother’s Day wine class.

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.

This week’s Events: Shindig Hootenanny, Bourbon Tasting, Sandy Oliver, Deering Oaks Farmers Market

Monday — Deux Cochon is hosting an all-day Grand Opening Shindig Hootenanny Party.

TuesdayBlue is holding their monthly wine and cheese event.

WednesdayBlack Tie is teaching a cooking class and there will be a Bourbon Tasting at The Salt Exchange.

Thursday — Bard Coffee is hosting their monthly Latte Art Throwdown. Food Historian Sandy Oliver will be speaking at the Inventing Tradition: Good Maine Food wine dinner. The Great Lost Bear will feature beer from Marshall Wharf Brewery for their weekly Thursday night showcase. There will be a hard cider and cheese tasting at the Public Market House. LeRoux holding a baking demonstration.

Friday — Both BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe and SMCC are holding wine dinners.

Saturday — the first Deering Oaks Farmers Market of the season is taking place.

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.

This Week’s Events: Passover, Beer & Bacon, Best of Portland Awards, Easter

Monday — Abigail Carroll owner of Nonesuch Oysters will be at El Rayo for a “Shuck & Greet”. Passover begins at sunset tonight. Aurora Provisions is selling a special menu of prepared foods for Passover.

Tuesday — The 2nd Annual Beer & Bacon Dinner is taking place at The Salt Exchange.

Wednesday — there will be a wine tasting at Old Port Wine Merchants, a wine event at Havana South, and the Portland Phoenix will announce the winners of the 2011 Best of Portland Readership Poll.

Thursday — The Great Lost Bear will feature beer from Run of the Mill Brewery for their weekly Thursday night showcase.

Saturday — the last Winter Farmers Market of the season is taking place at the Irish Heritage Center. Wine Wise is teaching a Bordeaux class at The Wine Bar.

Sunday — a few Portland restaurants are serving special menus/buffets for Easter: DiMillo’s, the Eastland Park Hotel, Season’s Grille, and Twenty Milk Street. Aurora Provisions is offering a special menu of prepared foods for Easter.

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.

Food+Farm

The Natural Foodie column in today’s Press Herald interviewed film director Severine von Tscharner Fleming and author Anne Lappe both of whom are scheduled to speak at this week’s Food+Farm program. The article includes a full calendar of Food+Farm events.

“The Greenhorns officially started as a film project,” Fleming said. “Being a young farmer myself, I wanted to meet other young farmers.”

So she traveled around the country, and with the help of 14 cinematographers and countless others, produced a film that explores the motivations, challenges and triumphs of young farmers.

This Week’s Events: OF Farms and Fables, Anne Lappe, The Greenhorns

TuesdayBar Lola is holding a wine dinner featuring West Coast wines.

Wednesday — there will be a wine tasting at RSVP and a cooking class at Black Tie.

Thursday — There will be a dramatic reading of the play Of Farms and Fables at SPACE Gallery for the opening night of Food+Farm 2011. The Great Lost Bear will feature Sebago Brewing for their weekly Thursday night showcase, and LeRoux Kitchen will have a baking demonstration.

Friday — Food+Farm continues with a talk by Anna Lappé from the Small Planet Institute. A beer tasting is taking place at West End Deli.

Saturday — the Winter Farmers Market is taking place at the Irish Heritage Center. Food+Farm moves out to Cape Elizabeth in the morning to “wake up” the Cultivating Community farm and in the evening back at SPACE there will be a screening of The Greenhorns followed by a discussion with the director. Sweet Marguerites will be offering tastes of their excellent chocolate at whole Foods.

SundayFood+Farm wraps up on Sunday with a pair of workshops on urban farming at the Urban Farm Fermentory.

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.

2 More Weekend Events: Wine & Soup

Here’s a couple more events for you to consider for your weekend calendar:

Saturday, 4-6 pm at Freeport Cheese & Wine – Ned Swain from Devenish Wines will be pouring a set of wines from Oregon and Washington state. The wines were imported by Wayne Clark, a former resident of Southern Maine who started Orwa Wines to bring wines from the Northwest to his former home state.

Sunday 7-10 pmSPACE Galley is hosting Soup which is billed as a “collaborative public dinner event and democratic experiment in micro-funding for creative projects in Portland.” If you go, don’t forget to bring a bowl, a spoon, $5 and your 5 minute presentation. 10 people will get selected at random to present their idea and everyone present gets to vote on which proposal wins all the entrance proceeds for the night. The food “donated by Scratch Bakery, 50 Local, home, Aurora Provisions and Local Sprouts”.

Chocolate Lovers Awards List

Monday’s Press Herald reports on the 25th Annual Chocolate Lovers Fling. The article includes a full list of award winners.

Then again, Kyle Pouliot, 26, of Scarborough confessed a hankering for the messy chocolate burrito from Federal Jack’s brew pub. High marks also went to “the raspberry thing” from Southern Maine Community College and the Oreo truffle from York County Community College.

Taco Smackdown

    3 of the judges conferring before making the final announcement.

A boisterous standing-room only crowd assembled at Nosh on Sunday for a Taco Smackdown between 12 Maine restaurants: 158 Pickett St Cafe, East Ender, El Camino, El Rayo, Havana South, Hugo’s, Novare Res, Rosemont Market, Taco Esco Bar, The Cheese Iron, Verbena, and Vignola.

158 Pickett St Cafe took home the trophy and bragging rights, with The Cheese Iron in 2nd place and Hugo’s in 3rd. As the winner, 158’s owner Josh Potocki got to select the the theme for May’s smackdown. Next month the crew will get together to see who can make the best fried chicken.

Starting in May, a limited number of tickets to the event will be available to the general public with proceeds donated to the Good Shepherd Food Bank.

This Week’s Events: Vrienden, 5-course Brunch, Food+Farm Preview

Tuesday — release day for Vrienden a collaboration between Allagash and New Belgium Brewing. Vrienden is brewed with dandelions and elderberry and described by Allagash as “tart, fruity, earthy”.

WednesdayGrace will be comparing wines from the Rhone Valley and Paso Robles for the April edition of their wine club.

ThursdayBoston Beer Company will be featured at this week at The Great Lost Bear.

Saturday — the Winter Farmers Market is taking place at the Irish Heritage Center.

Sunday — Wine Wise the Chadwick Bed & Breakfast are collaborating to offer a 5-course cooking class, brunch with wine education event.

Food+Farm — the 2011 Food+Farm is taking place April 14-17. It starts on Thursday with a dramatic reading of the the play Of Farms and Fables, continues on Friday with an appearance by Anna Lappé from the Small Planet Institute. On Saturday morning F+F moves out to Cape Elizabeth to “wake up” the Cultivating Community farm and that evening they’ll be a screening of The Greenhorns followed by a discussion with the director. Food+Farm wraps up on Sunday with a pair of workshops on urban farming at the Urban Farm Fermentory. Visit the SPACE Gallery website for more information and to buy tickets.

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.

Make sure you come by and watch the debacle as Doug from SoPO learns that like his ponytai his Ettouffe is old and long gone and while talk is cheap it takes money to buy land and he’s broke.