Category: Profiles

The Maine Foodie Tours blog has posted a article about Vervacious.

I was most intrigued by her Basque Piri-Piri Table sauce and Harissa spice blends.  Piri-Piri and Harissa are both blends of spices that can vary widely depending on the region of the world.  Vervacious’ Piri-Piri is spicy, but light, a well-balanced blend of vinegar and chilies.

The new issue of Maine Ahead magazine includes a profile of Oakhurst Dairy,

“It’s a competitive market, and we’re very fortunate to be in our 90th year and still own the business,” he says. “My grandfather started it back in 1921, with the help of the Cushman family, who ran Cushman’s Bakery.  They helped put up the money so that he could buy a small dairy down the street. Back then there were probably 50 dairies in Portland. If you had a farm, you had a dairy.”

and a profile of Gelato Fiasco,

Top-quality gelato, the Italian cousin of ice cream made with milk rather than cream, was, of course, the first step. Some gelaterias simply use powdered flavors and bases, add milk, and freeze. At The Gelato Fiasco, Tropeano, a 28-year-old raised in Brookfield, Connecticut, oversees a truly-from-scratch process in the tiny kitchen, cooking the base ingredients in a “hot” process that makes a smoother, more stable base than powdered mixes. The crew then adds flavor—nearly 700 since 2007, with 30 available every day—using real fruits, nuts, liquor, candy, and so on.

Today’s Portland Daily Sun includes a profile of Coastal Maine Popcorn on Exchange Street.

Offering off-beat flavors from root beer and toffee to wasabi soy and buffalo wing, Coastal Maine Popcorn Co. offers over 60 varieties of flavored popcorn both sweet and savory.

“It’s a cross between an ice cream and Jelly Belly jelly beans,” said Paul Roberts, who along with his wife, Julie, owns Coastal Maine Popcorn Co.

Vincent Maniaci and Jill Dutton, owners of The Cheese Iron, were interviewed for a Boston Globe article that profiled the top cheese shops in New England.

“We like to talk cheese and geek out about cheese,’’ says Vincent Maniaci, who with his wife, Jill Dutton, opened this pine-paneled gourmet food, wine, and cheese emporium in 2007, just an olive’s throw from downtown Portland. “We have about 130 cheeses at any given time, about 50 percent from New England and 50 percent international,’’ says Maniaci, who learned cheesemongering at Formaggio in Cambridge.

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a profile of Dobra Tea. Dobra is located on Middle Street in the same building as Bull Moose and Videoport.

Walking into Dobra Tea feels like stumbling upon an eastern European cafe.

The arched windows, the warm mustard and burnt-orange walls, and the curvy woodworking details that look like something out of the genie’s bottle all shift your mood from rat-race mode to a lower-gear humming with old-world Bohemian tranquility.

Today’s paper also includes an update on the Urban Farm Fermentory. Among the many projects underway now is an experiment with Tilapia farming.

Under the glow of special lights, tomato plants and basil grow fast and lush. This unusual indoor garden sits atop two fish tanks where six freshwater tilapia swim, and the nutrient-rich water from the tanks is circulated through the hydroponic system feeding the plants’ roots.

Josh Christie profiles Novare Res and Ebeneezer’s in part 8 of his series on The Beer of Maine.

Maine is lucky enough to have two beer geek meccas known ’round the land. When beer websites, magazines, and periodicals list the best beer bars in the country, you can rest assured that Ebenezer’s, Novare Res, or both will pop up. Both combine the best of British pubs, German beer gardens and Belgian cafes. Good food? Heck yes. Great atmosphere? You bet.

And the beer? The beer?! Out of this world.