The Portland Phoenix has published the results of their 2012 readership poll. The Food & Drink section alone has 47 categories, everything from Brunch (Hot Suppa) to Wine List (Vignola).
For the second year in a row Mister Meatball has won the award for best Food Blog.
Today’s Portland Daily Sun reports on this season’s menu at Hadlock Field.
No ballpark favorites are being cut, but a few new options are available.
“We’re introducing a Healthy Food Line in our new Shipyard Grill, located down the third base side,” said Portland Sea Dogs General Manager Geoff Iacuessa. “We’ll be offering two different kinds of Italians, chicken and veggie wraps, and two different salads. Shane’s of Maine frozen yogurt will be at all concession stands, and as far as the healthy line goes, we’re happy to try it again.”
4 Portland restaurants (Miyake, Hugo’s, Fore Street, Bresca) and 7 from Maine overall have made it on to the Opinionated About Dining list of the top 25 restaurants in New England.
Additionally, Paciarino is included in the Opinionated list of the top 25 bistros in the nation and Emilitsa made it on to the list of the top 25 Mediterranean restaurants.
Today’s Press Herald includes a bar review of El Rayo Cantina,
If you’re interested in testing your tequila taste buds, El Rayo also offers “Tequila Flites” for $15 to $19. The tasting allows you to compare tequilas from their three favorite producers to help you determine which you prefer.
and a Eat & Run review of Big Sky Bread.
The sandwich shop operates in the Market House at 28 Monument Square, and I frequent it most often mid-afternoon for an oatmeal raisin cookie ($1.55). The cookies, which are about the size of large saucers, strike a balance between being crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey in the middle.
And the paper continues its fascination with what meals will be served by who and when for President Obama’s visit.
The Portland Phoenix has published an update on the effort to bring food trucks to Portland.
It’s nearly summer, and eating outdoors is one of the prime luxuries Maine can offer its residents and visitors. Portland’s considering making that easier, with its Food Truck Task Force determining how to organize the debut of the latest nationwide foodie-fad.
Today’s Press Herald contains a bumper crop of articles about the meal being served at President Obama’s dinner in Portland this Friday,
The White House has thrown up a strict no-talk zone over the dinner menu for the president’s whirlwind Friday fundraising mission to Maine. But here’s what we know.
an interview with Rob Evans on what he plans on doing next now that he’s sold Hugo’s,
Evans said the sale of the restaurant where he built his culinary reputation will give the couple the time and money they need to establish a small farm on 82 acres they bought in Limington. “And then we’re going to be looking at doing more businesses in Portland,” Evans said. “So we’re not retiring. We’re not opening up restaurants in New York like a lot of people think we’re doing. Actually, quite the opposite. We’re looking to get more connected to the state.”
an article about the success of the Public Market House,
The company that Horton formed with the owners of two other stores in the building in Monument Square announced this week that four more businesses are moving in, making 11 in all and essentially filling the place.
The Maine Squeeze Juice Cafe, Y-Limes Gourmet Desserts, Union Bagel Co. and La Cocina Dominicana are either moving in or have already opened in the market.
Joe Appel’s list of “Ten [wine-related] things that will never happen”
The Maine Legislature will summon the courage necessary to override restaurant-industry protectionism and enact a law allowing diners to bring their own bottles of wine to dinner if they pay a “corkage” fee. Restaurants, despite their legitimate concerns regarding waitstaff gratuities and customers’ abuse of the leeway offered, will permit BYO and set parameters that curtail the risks.
and a reprint of the Maine a la Carte blog post about The Holy Donut.
The Holy Donut opened a week ago last Friday at the former site of Terroni’s Market on Park Avenue, near Hadlock Field. Leigh Kellis, the owner, had been using the kitchen at the East Ender and selling her products wholesale at Coffee By Design, Whole Foods and Bard Coffee.
The Press Herald has published an article about local butchers,
A growing number of consumers like Graf are buying their meat from neighborhood butchers who work with locally raised animals, rejecting the idea of pre-cut, pre-packaged meats shipped from large, anonymous farms hundreds or thousands of miles away.
The Hannaford ground beef recall, and federal investigators’ failure to find the source of the salmonella contamination, has prompted some local butchers to change their meat grinding practices and encouraged a “buy local” attitude among shoppers like Graf.
and a report on yesterday’s Maine Maple Sunday.
Steam billowed out of the Nash Valley Farm sugarhouse, sending out the usual welcome to Maine Maple Sunday visitors.
But not much else was usual at the farm. The buckets hanging on the maple trees stood empty, the maple trees were bursting with flowers and there was a green carpet of grass instead of the usual mix of snow and mud underfoot. And it was water, not sap, boiling away in the evaporator.
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes articles on the potential health benefits (and good taste) of maple syrup,
And now there’s even more reason to stick with the real thing and attend Maine Maple Sunday events at participating sugarhouses this weekend: Recent research has uncovered a hidden benefit to eating maple syrup — it’s swimming with antioxidants that may help keep you healthy.
and an interview with vegan chef Christy Morgan.
A book signing and recipe demonstration will take place at Whole Foods Market on Thursday. On Friday night, she will offer a full-blown cooking class at the Five Seasons Cooking School, where she’ll take attendees on a culinary world tour and show how to prepare Indian-spiced sweet potato cakes with mint coconut chutney, Moroccan vegetable tagine, tofu larb (a spicy Thai appetizer) and fruit-kissed ceviche.
This week’s Forecaster includes articles about Union Bagel,
On the 18th day, the Kickstarter crowd spoke, and the word was “bagels.”
Paul Farrell, a burly boat-builder turned labor organizer turned bagel baker and the driving force behind the upstart Union Bagel Co., couldn’t be happier.
an effort by farmers to gain more direct control over the management of the Farmers Market,
Market coordinator Dan Price asked the city to give the Farmers Market Association the power to determine membership, enforce association rules, and collect fees from participating farmers, according to a memo from the city’s associate corporation counsel, Anne Freeman.
and the 2012 maple syrup season.
“It won’t be a banner year,” Gorham resident Lyle Merrifield said. “This may be a about half to three-quarters crop.”
The James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for this year’s JBF awards.
Sadly, none of the 8 semi-finalists from Maine made it through to the final list this year.