The Bangor Daily News has a report on Portland food trucks that are continuing to operate during the winter.
When winter descends, most food trucks go into hiding. Some hibernate in garages until spring, but increasingly, they are braving the ice-slicked streets. And business for these trendy, traveling canteens, despite the weather, is heating up.
Today’s Press Herald Food & Dining section includes an article about how home cooks and restaurants are dealing with the lack of Maine shrimp,
With so many people pining for the tiny crustaceans, I thought it would be interesting to see if there are still any frozen shrimp out there from the 2013 season for consumers to snap up before they’re gone for good. I also checked in with some Maine restaurants to see what they will be offering on their menus as an alternative to Maine shrimp.
an article about the mayor’s local food initiative,
A task force convened by Mayor Michael Brennan in 2012 is moving forward with a number of initiatives aimed at giving the city’s residents more opportunities to eat local and nutritious food. While the urban farm and flock of sheep are only in the discussion phase, work is underway to make school lunch more popular by cooking with local foods and to increase the number of community garden plots.
and a collection of reader responses to Meredith Goad’s January 1 article about her hopes for the food scene in 2014.
Hunt & Alpine is on the Find Eat Drink list of the top 50 places to drink at in 2014.
This Old Port craft cocktail bar is new to the Portland nightlife scene. Bartender and owner Andrew Volk worked at Clyde Common in Portland, OR. Volk says his cocktails are “seasonally changing and spanning from pre-prohibition drinks to recipes sourced from some of our favorite bars.” They also have a Scandinavian-influenced food menu with oysters, deviled smoked trout, open-faced peekytoe crab sandwiches and cured meats from Olympic Provisions.
Vena’s Fizz House (facebook, twitter) has launched a line of infusion kits. They come in three flavors: Spiced Apple, Fruit Cake and Pirate Punch.
Wednesday — Portland Taste Tours is running a Maine Beer Company progressive dinner.
Thursday — Piccolo is holding 4-course black truffle wine dinner, there will be a wine and cheese tasting at the Public Market House, and it’s Industrial Way vs Yeast Bayside at the Great Lost Bear.
Friday — there will be a wine dinner at BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe.
Saturday — Browne Trading is holding a wine tasting, and the Winter Farmers Market is taking place at the Urban Farm Fermentory on Anderson Street.
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.
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Twenty Milk Street.
For solid steak-house, American bistro-style fare, the kitchen excels with simple yet well-prepared dishes. Their unique stone-heated bread basket holds a delicious house-made cranberry wheat bread. The lobster stew is classic, and steaks and chops are simply prepared in the Continental style. Fillet of beef from heritage Piedmontese beef is highly prized, as are grilled local lamb chops and Kurobuta heritage pork chops. Desserts are house-made, and the wine list is well represented with bottlings from the major wine-producing regions.
The Golden Dish has reviewed Pai Men.
The next dish was revelatory. Listed under ramen, “mazeman” was a breathtaking bowl filled with scallops, aka miso dashi — a luxurious soup broth enriched with spicy porchetta, yam croquettes, miso cured egg, uni cream, wakame and menma (seaweed and simmered bamboo shoots). This was certainly the evening’s highlight…
If My Coaster Could Talk has written a piece about Industrial Way and the role it plays as an incubator for new Portland breweries.
There is a special neighborhood in Portland, Maine, one that’s developing a pretty solid brewing history, a place that has seen a brewery start up and become one of Maine’s most successful, a place that has seen small startup breweries find their place in the Maine beer scene, pack up and move on to bigger and better things and has also been a place that has seen a brewery close its doors and now is witnessing a new batch of young breweries entering the market.
D.L. Geary, Allagash and New England Distilling are all in that neighborhood. Rising Tide, Maine Beer Co. and Bull Jager started out there, and now Bissell, Austin Street and Foundation Brewing are continuing the tradition.
The new episode of Joe Ricchio’s show Off the Wagon is now online. In this episode Joe visits Oxbow for their fall festival, Goods from the Woods.
Map & Menu has published a list of their favorite meals from 2013.
The food scene in Portland outdid itself once again last year with plenty of new openings and the continued excellence of many of the city’s existing establishments. And while we tried our best to continue eating our way through town, keeping up proved to be a very tough undertaking. It’d be almost impossible to list all of our favorites, but from our meals of the past year, here are a few of the memorable ones that stood out to the two of us.
Photo Credit: Map & Menu