This Week’s Events: Latte Art Competition, Portland Brew Festival, Twilight Dinner

| Posted in Events

Tuesday — it’s Growler Nite at Bunker Brewing.

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — Bard Coffee is hosting the monthly barista Latte Art Competition, Cultivating Community’s ninth Twilight Dinner of the summer is taking place (tickets available online), and The Great Lost Bear is showcasing beer from Cisco Brewing, Browne Trading and Aurora Provisions are holding a wine tastings, and the Maine Food Producers Alliance offering a class on food testing.

Friday — it’s the first day of the 2nd Annual Portland Brew Festival.

Saturday — LeRoux Kitchen is holding a wine tasting, the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place, and it’s the last day of the 2nd Annual Portland Brew Festival.

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.

Review of White Cap Grille

| Posted in Reviews

The Maine Sunday Telegram has published a review of the White Cap Grille.

Dining reviews practically write themselves when the experience is outstanding, and although less fun (since restaurants do represent a person’s livelihood), they are equally easy to compose when the experience involves a spectacular failure. The creative stumbling happens in the middle, when a meal is “meh.”

Since “meh” does not translate as a technical term in any culinary dictionary, let me explain.

Another Review of Eventide

| Posted in Reviews

Portland magazine has published a review of Eventide.

We learn that Winter Point Selects from West Bath are the most popular and order three, along with three Gliddens from Damariscotta, two Shallow Bays from Newcastle, two Ayock Salts from Washington State, and two Blackberry Points from Prince Edward Island. Hands down, these are the best oysters we’ve had. Accoutrements (red wine mignonette, kimchee, and angelica ice) are fanciful and fine, but we find the oysters need no enhancement.

Book Review of Chef’s Table

| Posted in Reviews

From Away has published a book review of Portland Maine Chef’s Table.

Finally there’s a book that compiles favorite recipes from some of the most prominent, popular, accomplished cooks on the Peninsula. Portland, Maine Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from Casco Bayis perfectly packaged with glossy photos of the food, profiles of each restaurant, and insight from the chefs themselves. It is the cookbook that Portland deserves.

Review of Eventide

| Posted in Reviews

The latest issue of Maine magazine includes a review of Eventide Oyster Company.

According to [co-owner Arlin] Smith, the restaurant’s crudo dishes are almost as popular as the oysters, and standouts include a lightly cured arctic char served resting in a pool of raw egg yolk, and topped with creme fraiche, piquant capers, and sweet briny salmon roe. The dish is the garnished with “fried bagel”. Equally impressive is the buttery Tuna Nicoise, a raw piece of flesh crowned with a garnish of chopped hard-boiled egg and red onion most commonly found on caviar, and further complimented with a wonderfully salty and sweet taste imparted by dehydrated black-olive powder.

Unfortunately, the article is not available online, but you should be able to find a copy of Maine on local newsstands.

Tandem Coffee Roasters

| Posted in Profiles

LiveWork Portland has published a profile of Tandem Coffee Roasters,

While Portland already has a wealth of high-quality local coffee shops, the trio noted that there weren’t many roasters focused on high-end wholesale coffee for the city’s restaurants, and they moved here early this spring with plans to establish their own roasting company in a year or two. But when a real estate broker showed them the mid-century brick industrial building on Anderson Street — a former office for a scrap metal recycling business — they decided to go for it, and open up a small retail coffee shop of their own in the light-filled corner room at the front of the building.

Check the LiveWork Portland blog later today for a profile of Tandem’s East Bayside neighbor Bunker Brewing.

Immigrant Kitchens: French Ratatouille

| Posted in Cooking

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make French Ratatouille from Stephanie Looten-Caceres (read the recipe and see the photos).

My houseguest, a sixteen-year-old French brunette, pointed at the French toast we were serving for breakfast. “What is it?” She asked.
“It’s French toast!” I cried, baffled. “What – it’s not French?”
“Non.” She said, as confused as I was.

Thirsty Pig, Gritty’s, 2nd Annual Portland Brew Fest

| Posted in Reviews

Today’s Press Herald includes a review of Gritty’s,

Wow. I just ate the best chicken sandwich of my life.

 Just had to say that right out of the gate while my taste buds are still high-fiving each other in the post-lunch afterglow. Now, where was I? Ah yes, lunch. Since I never seem to remember my carrot and celery sticks to snack on, come lunchtime, I’m typically ravenous and will knock you down should you try and block my access to food.

as well as a bar review of The Thirsty Pig and an article about the upcoming 2nd Annual Portland Brew Festival.

The event includes more than 30 brewers — some of whom will offer mead or cider instead of beer — and more than 75 different drinks, up by about 50 percent in both categories from last year. And while Sprague is offering 24 tickets for 2-ounce pours of beer, attendees are still going to have to make some choices as they wander through the building.