The 10 eateries looked up most often in April on Portland Food Map were:
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
Never Ending Hunger has published a belated review of Hugo’s.
I strongly recommend to anyone to take a trip up/or down to Portland, Maine to partake in the unmistakably brilliant food that is Hugo’s. The other wonderful thing about this place is that if you ate this food in New York City, it would be 20-30% more expensive. To me that translates into 2-3 more dishes I can order… so to me it’s well worth the drive.
Additionally, both Serious Eats and Easy Food & Wine have paid recent visits to Portland.
In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Burundian Beans, Greens and Goat from a East African immigrant living in Gorham (read the recipe and see the photos).
Wannawaf (website, facebook, twitter) is under construction at 15 Monument Square in the space formerly occupied by Cobblestones.
Owner Anya Arsenault (aka Waffle Girl) opened the original Wannawaf in Boothbay in 2003 and is planning to launch Wannawaf Portland in June where, as you might have guessed from the name, waffles will be the signature dish.
The menu will include options like the Sweet Jams waffle, “peanut butter, aged cheddar, and bacon waffle with a tart fruit jam for dipping”, and the Cheeky Monkey waffle, “vanilla ice cream, fresh banana, Nutella, whipped cream and coconut”.
Wannawaf will be open late night and plans on doing takeout.
The Portland & Rochester Public House is under development at 120 Preble Street, the former location of G&R DiMillo’s. Renovations of the building, including a new deck, are underway and owner Garrett Fitzgerald is hoping to open sometime in mid-June with a menu of bistro and pub style dishes.
The Eatery is named for the Portland & Rochester Railroad which ran through Bayside on its way to the Grand Trunk Terminal.
Fitzgerald moved to Portland from Bar Harbor where he still runs the Bar Harbor Lobster Pound. He had also been a co-owner of the Dog & Pony Tavern.
The Urtuzuastegui family moved to Portland last year from California. Chef Joseph Urtuzuastegui plans on serving a menu of “traditional Mexican dishes such as baja style fish tacos, Sonoran hot dogs and many more regional specialties.”
They hope to set-up on Commercial Street near the Ocean Gateway Terminal. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter to keep informed of where the truck is located.
Tuesday — the African Center for the Sacred Arts will be performing a Coffee Ceremony, and there will be two screenings of A Place at the Table, a movie about hunger in America, at the Nickelodeon (tickets).
Wednesday — it’s the first day of the 5th Annual Belgian Bier Fest at Novare Res, and the Monument Square Farmers Market of 2013 is taking place.
Thursday — the Great Lost Bear is showcasing a select of beers from Baxter Brewing.
Friday — a collection of mobile food vendors will be at Portland Flea for All for the first Flea Bites of 2013, and there will be a wine tasting at the West End Deli.
Saturday — the Pizza Pie on the Fly food truck will be at Rising Tide as part of a weekly food truck series being run by the brewery. Wine Wise is teaching a class on Pinot Noir at Caiola’s, there will be wine tastings at LeRoux Kitchen and Browne Trading, the Deering Oaks Farmers Market of 2013 is taking place.
Sunday — El Rayo is celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a day’s worth of live music, food, drink and mechanical bull riding, a Cinco de Mayo themed Pocket Brunch is taking place, and Petite Jacqueline is screening the movie Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame for movie night.
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.
Today’s Press Herald includes a front page story on the Maine elvers fishery.
Elvers — by Maine law, American eels less than 6 inches long — have waxed and waned in value among the state’s fisheries, ranging from the low wholesale price of about $25 a pound just 10 years ago to last year’s all-time high of $2,000. Last week they were commanding a wholesale price of between $1,500 and $1,800 from Portland-area dealers.
The Golden Dish has published some initial impressions from his first visit to Outliers Eatery,
It was served on an attractive earthenware plate, not commonly used in restaurants. [The fried pigs ears] were deep fried and had a delicious sweet and spicy coating, probably chili powder and sugar. The rich hoisin-based dipping sauce was a good touch.
and a report from this past weekend’s Deering Oaks Farmer’s Market.
This week’s Portland Phoenix reports on the burgeoning Maine seaweed industry.
Maine is at the forefront, in the US, of seaweed foraged wild and now cultivated. Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, headed by macrobiotic entrepreneur Shep Erhart, was the first American company to harvest and sell whole indigenous seaweeds, more than 40 years ago.
We even have a dedicated seaweed extension agent, Sarah Redmond, encouraging rope-cultured mussel farmers and lobsterman to try this counter-season winter crop. Redmond touts “integrated multi-trophic aquaculture,” where farmed shellfish feed on the waste generated by salmon farms, and cultivated kelp then filters out remaining phosphorous and nitrogen, similar to land-based polyculture farms. Maine seafood promoter Monique Coombs thinks “seaweed will get really hot” here in the next few years.