Category: Reviews

The Press Herald has published a review of The Works Bakery Cafe.

Thanks, Works, for having consistently good food and drinks, for having staff who make me laugh, and more often than not, for playing decent music. Should you need to show you really, truly care about me, you’d bring back the banana walnut bagel. I’ll be waiting.

Also in today’s paper, the latest installment of What Ales You is an article about Bunker Brewing.

Jay Villani, owner of Local 188 and Sonny’s restaurants in Portland, and his baker, Chresten Sorenson, started Bunker Brewing with the idea of creating great beers with only the traditional ingredients: “malt, water, yeast, time, temperature and passion,” to quote Villani when I talked to him at the Bear.

The Portland Phoenix has published a review of El Rayo Cantina.

The menu offers a mix of smallish snacks, good for a tapas-like approach to dining, intriguing salads, and more substantial entrées. The crab-coconut salad — with the crabmeat stacked over a layer of diced avocado — was fresh and light. It was seasoned with restraint so you could appreciate the natural sweetness of the ingredients. Delicate crisps made from masa corn added some welcome crunch and saltiness. A portobello taco managed to extract the earthiness from this mild mushroom. It was topped with an unusual and very pleasant version of rajas, made (it seemed) from yellow pepper. Fresh corn added some sweetness and crunch. The tamale is a bit unusual — the corn meal shell is relatively thin and light, while the plantain inside overwhelms some bites with sweet — somewhat obscuring the chorizo and goat cheese.

For this months collaborative food blogging project the group is once again collaborating with our good friends at Rabelais Books to do a Summer series of book reviews. Having read the groups reviews I think the book that most appeals to my reading interests in Texas Eats although that might just because it makes reference to The Federal Writers Project in the Introduction.

Edible Obsessions – Texas Eats by Robb Walsh

He starts in East Texas and the Gulf with delicious seafood recipes and traipses across the state and ends with a nod to the diverse contributions from Thai, Vietnamese and Indian cultures to the Texas food scene. He contributes even more space to the influence of Czech and German immigrants of Central Texas. Every chapter is dotted with anecdotes and first hand stories about the dishes, some by the people who created them.… read the full article

From Away – Street Food by Susan Feniger

Susan Feniger is joie de vive personified. She’s a cook who seeks to introduce her audience to new worlds through food. She’s been doing this with her West Coast restaurants for decades, and with this title, cements her place in the cookbook author pantheon. It’s infectious, her love of food and life and humanity. These “irresistably crispy, creamy, crunch, spicy, sticky, sweet recipes” are bound to become part of my repertoire. I can’t wait to make my way through Street Food one page at a time.… read the full article

The Blueberry Files – Apron Anxiety by Alyssa Shelasky

Apron Anxiety features the slightly troubled times in a young, upper-middle class, white woman’s life, the most challenging being her existential strife over love and work. OK, so not every memoir has to be about war, famine, or poverty, but after a while, the author’s complaints become a little grating. … read the full article

Vrai-lean-uh – People’s Pops by Jordi, Carrell and Horowitz

There’s a fair argument to be made that popsicles don’t require a cookbook so much as a popsicle mold, a working freezer, and a low-to-moderate spirit of experimentation. It also has to be said that I am much less likely to give a cookbook the benefit of the doubt when they have the phrase “brooklyn’s coolest pop shop” on the cover. But I do love popsicles, and summer is approaching.… read the full article

Bresca has received 4½ stars from the Taste & Tell in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.

Bresca’s small menu and frequently changing wine list seem carefully curated to take advantage of seasonal ingredients and make the dining experience harmonious. The intimate atmosphere and service match the outstanding food not only in quality but also in mood and tone. To my mind, Bresca belongs at or near the top among Greater Portland’s fine-dining restaurants.

The Bollard has published a bar review of Amigo’s.

Though Amigos is not my first choice for cocktails, it’s consistently been my choice for getting a drink. No bar has seen me pass its threshold more often without paying me to be there. Amigos is all about atmosphere and familiarity. Regulars are the rule, not the exception. That speaks volumes and recommends the place more than any particular mixed drink.

From Away has published a review of the El Rayo Cantina.

Almost across the board, traditional Mexican dishes are completely reconsidered and reinvented from the ground up at Cantina El Rayo, requiring you to set aside your expectations for the way a dish “should” be. Sometimes, as with the “ERC Burger” or, to a lesser extent, the pozole, this works exceptionally well, combining flavors and unexpected presentations in a way that delights the senses. Even if a few dishes are less successful, the sheer creativity on display in their preparation makes you happy to have sampled them…

Down East has published a review of Zapoteca.

And while there are plenty of low-heat options on the menu, Zapoteca’s chili-powered flavor combinations are the main attraction. Ceviche veracruzano, for instance, comes in a tall martini glass surrounded by a tangle of fresh tortilla chips. Fresh white fish is “cooked” in lime juice and served with a spicy salsa of tomatoes, jalapeños, and green olives. Among the entrees, which include a local beef filet with garlic chipotle mashed potatoes and an ancho chipotle sauce, the pork carnitas should not be missed. Pork shoulder is braised until it falls apart, then pressed, cut, and crisped in the wood oven and served with pickled red onions, black beans, and homemade tortillas. It’s comfort food, Mexican-style.

From Away has published a review of Amato’s in the form of an open letter to the Meatball Parmigiana Sandwich.

Can you believe it’s been almost three years since we met? I have to confess that it wasn’t exactly love at first sight, if I can even find it within myself to believe in such a thing anymore. When we first met, I was going through kind of a weird time in my life, and there you were, ready to fill the emptiness inside of me…