Category: General News

East End Cupcakes appeared in tonight’s episode of Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. According to a press release,

Tasked to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of “I Love Lucy” through confection, Zoidis along with childhood best friend, Shana Treger, started Round 1 with a“Vitameatavegemin” cupcake, that captured the judges attention. Squeezing through to the finals despite running out of time in Round 2, they were tasked with baking and decorating 1,000 cupcakes with flavors from the previous rounds in under 2 hours. Even though viewers agree that their display and decorations were the sweetest, East End Cupcakes finished as the runner up. “We were so honored to be chosen for the show and really put our heart and soul into it. When the final judgement was made, I felt like screaming ‘Waaaahhhhh’ in homage of the fabulous Lucille Ball.” Said Zoidis jokingly.

The Portland Phoenix has kicked-off their 2012 Best of Portland readership poll.  The Phoenix readership poll is a 2 step process:

• Step 1 which just started, nominate candidates you think are an especially good fit in any or all of the categories
• Step 2, next month the Phoenix will publish a ballot summarizing the top nominees from each category for us to vote on

There are a plethora of food and drink categories (Bagels, Bars, Barbecue, Beer Selection, Brewpubs, Brunch, etc) to make nominations in there’s even one for food blogs. A list of the 2011 winners is available online as a reference.

If the 2012 polls follows the same schedule as past years then the final results will be made public in April at a live event at the Port City Music Hall.

MPBN aired a piece earlier this week on a report from the Muskie School about food insecurity in Maine.

One of the findings from the research that stands out is about food insecurity, which refers to households that don’t always know where their next meal is coming from. The report found that Maine is the most food-insecure state in New England, and the ninth most food insecure state in the nation.

In today’s Press Herald, food writer Meredith Goad reports on the process of cupping coffee. In celebration of Specialty Coffee Month CbD will be holding a pair of public cuppings in February.

“Then you roll it around on your tongue,” Spear said, somehow managing to maintain his dignity while talking like the kid in “A Christmas Story” whose tongue got stuck to a frozen flagpole.

Spear was demonstrating his coffee-cupping prowess for employees at Coffee By Design on a cold, rainy October afternoon. I was invited to participate, eager to perfect my schlurping technique and learn how the professionals use “cupping” to evaluate the aroma, flavor, acidity and balance of coffees from around the world.

And today’s Natural Foodie column is about Crazy Dick’s, a line or organic cajun spices made here in Maine. Crazy Dick’s products are on sale at Harbor Fish Market.

“A large part of what we’re trying to do is create Cajun food in a way that’s healthy,” Curole said.

He acknowledges that people don’t often use “Cajun” and “healthful” in the same sentence – and with good reason. A traditional family-sized pot of shrimp creole can contain up to a dozen sticks of butter, according to Curole.

The Maine Restaurant Association has named David Turin their Chef of the Year.

The Press Herald polled “local chefs, restaurateurs, food writers, food bloggers [including yours truly] and all sorts of people obsessed with food and dining” on their favorite food related apps and have published the results in today’s paper. As the author Meredith Goad points out, the responses “ranged from popular apps such as Urbanspoon and OpenTable to some that you’ve probably never heard of before.”

 

Today’s Portland Daily Sun proposes a set of resolutions for restaurant customer behavior in 2012.

5) Do not bring your own food into a restaurant. Please do not ask for hot water and lemon because you brought your own Lipton tea bag, or single serving VIA coffee from Starbucks. Your server works on commission, and the restaurant owner earns a living off what is sold, not what is unintentionally given away. Even restaurants with BYOB policies charge a wine corking fee.This one tied with: Do not ask for extra bread you clearly intend to take home.

The Phantom Gourmet included Grace in their list of the Top 4 Restaurants of 2011.

Grace in Portland, Maine also topped the list, serving new American comfort food in a renovated gothic revival church. Some of the standouts here include the bone-in tenderloin and the pan-roasted cod.

I’ve fielded questions from a few people who are trying to identify their options for eating out on Christmas Day. This year it’s an especially tough challenge with the major holiday falling on Sunday, a day when many restaurants wouldn’t have been open anyways.

So I’m passing the question on to all of you hoping your collective knowledge can help these folks out. Where would you recommend someone eat out in Portland on Christmas Day?