Flores Restaurant is now operating out of the space adjacent to La Bodega Latina on Congress Street. They serve Salvadoran food. I first noticed them this week but I’m not sure exactly when they opened.
Delicious Musings Visits Eventide
Maine-based blog Delicious Musings has posted some details from her recent visit to Eventide.
Farms Adapting to Changing Weather Patterns
The Forecaster contains a report on how farms in Cape Elizabeth are responding to changes in Maine weather patterns.
On one end, the spring is lasting longer, [farmer Penny Jordan] said, and on the other, the snow is coming early, in October and November. This has forced her farm to learn how to adapt quickly to the changing climate.
“I know what the normal used to be, but that no longer seems to apply. You have to respond in the moment,” Jordan said. “It becomes even more important to respond to that moment because you don’t know if you’re going to have another moment.”
The Holy Donut & Ms. Wheelchair Maine
An article in today’s Portland Daily Sun reports on Ms. Wheelchair America contestant, Sarah Rosenblatt, and the work The Holy Donut is doing to help Rosenblatt raise the funds she needs to participate in the competition.
First Review of Portland Pottery Cafe & Beer News
The Portland Pottery Cafe received 3½ stars from the Eat & Run review in today’s Press Herald.
The egg sandwich comes with a fried egg, cheese and a choice of bacon, ham or sausage. It’s served on an English muffin or bagel. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the egg wasn’t overcooked. The yolk still retained a little runniness, which is the way I like it. (It actually could have been a little runnier, and I would have been happy.)
The sandwich plus a medium coffee cost me $5 and change.
Also in today’s paper is the latest What Ales You column which includes a report on some recent press for Maine brewers and details on a collaboration between Maine Beer Company and Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Vermont to produce Collaboration Time I.
The beer had a large, long-lasting tan head and a caramel aroma. The rye adds a bit of spiciness, but I didn’t taste a lot of wheat. The malt is the dominant flavor, with the hops in the background, making it to my mind a wonderfully complex brown ale.
Immigrant Kitchens: Mexican Chilaquiles
In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Mexican Chilaquiles from Azminda Cansino (read the recipe, see the photos and watch the video).
For days I looked forward to this. “Life is good” shirts and spare tire covers didn’t look sarcastic anymore. We’re going to get to learn chilaquiles, whatever they are, and I know they are going to be out-of-this-world amazing because real immigrant food always is. On Wednesday an hour before we were to cook, I was in downtown Portland when I got a foreboding email from Azminda. “I have two drawbacks,” she wrote. Her blender broke, and she couldn’t find green tomatoes at Hannaford, Shaw’s, or Walmart. Of course she couldn’t, poor thing! I had to save our cooking session
Tipping Advice
Today’s Portland Daily Sun includes some advice for servers on getting better tips and the history of tipping.
Interestingly, “the how-to-get-better-tips-tips” do not apply to men. Unless at Mardi Gras or a special event or occasion, I wouldn’t expect to see red lipstick on my friends Jacques or Greg (well, maybe Greg), and the same industry research mentioned above says male servers actually receive nine percent less than their female counterparts if they draw smiley faces on guest checks.
Blueberry Season
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a report on this year’s blueberry harvest and some recipes for putting the blue fruit to use,
Allen Crabtree of Crabtree’s Blueberries in Sebago has a bumper crop of highbush blueberries this year as well.
“I have never seen so many blueberries,” Crabtree said. “We’ve had a pick-your-own operation since 2001, and this is by far the best crop we have had, the most berries on the bushes.”
The Food & Dining section also has a list of blueberry festivals across the state and a directory of pick-your-own blueberry farms.
There’s also a very interesting article on how farmers are trying to attract wild pollinators to to assist with the blueberry crop.
“It looks like a bee, but it’s the size of a housefly,” he said.
But size doesn’t matter when it comes to this hard-working, native pollinator, he said. “They’re about four to five times more effective as spring-season pollinators than honey bees,” said Van Horn, who has tended the organic blueberry fields for more than 35 years.
The Loft Burger House is Now Open
The Loft Burger House had their Grand Opening on Sunday at 865 Forest Ave. There menu has 30+ different burger options including #16 the Donut Burger which is made with a Tony’s glazed donut instead of a traditional bun.
Portland’s Restaurant History
For anyone interested in the history of Portland’s restaurant scene (that’s all of us, right?), Epicuranoid has published a very interesting history of Portland’s restaurants in the 70’s and 80’s.
Long before The Old Port renaissance, Portland had a hopping restaurant scene. There was a famous French restaurant named Marcel’s. Several good steak houses like John Martin’s Art Gallery (where Asylum is now) and many restaurants that did all kinds of seafood baked, broiled & fried. However, In the time before The Old Port boomed, the last great features of Portland’s restaurant landscape were Italian. I refer to it as the old Italian guard because much like Boston’s North End today, the Italian restaurants dominated. Only DiMillo’s was actually in the area we call The Old Port, but the city was littered with the likes of Verillo’s, The Sportsman’s Grill, The Roma, The Village Cafe, Maria’s and my old favorite, Giobbi’s.
If that’s wet your appetite for Portland food history, take a look at the restaurant timeline here on PFM.