Thanksgiving Wine Advice

Looking for advice on selecting the perfect wine(s) for your Thanks giving dinner?

Then you’re in luck. Four different websites have posted their thoughts on makes for a good wine for next week’s holiday:

For more advice on preparing your Thanksgiving dinner or escaping the kitchen and eating at out on the turkey day check out the PFM 2011 Thanksgiving Resource Guide.

Reviews of Ohno Cafe and Plush West End

Today’s Press Herald includes a review of the Ohno Cafe (4 stars),

It may have taken me a while to find my way to Cafe Ohno, but they had me at hello and at first bite.

and a bar review of Plush West End.

At the suggestion of Sean Steinmark, our bartender for the evening, I tried one of Plush West End’s most popular drinks, the Stargazer cocktail ($9). The drink blends citron and mandarin vodkas with white cranberry juice and something called luster dust, topped with a beautiful purple orchid. Not usually a fruity-drink imbiber myself, I could easily have drunk two or three of these. They were that delicious.

Immigrant Kitchens: Vietnamese Beef Stew

In the latest entry on Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Vietnamese Beef Stew from Quang and Minh Nguyen (read the recipe and see the photos).

I learned this stew from two brothers from Cam Ranh, Vietnam. Their names are Quang and Minh Nguyen. The soup’s name is Bo Kho, but they pronounce it Ba Kah. Their mother used to stay up until midnight making it so she could sell in the morning in front of their house. People in Vietnam eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, at parties and everyday. After a couple months of eating Kix, Grape Nuts, and Special K, the brothers called their mom in desperation and had her tell them over the phone how to make the soup.

Best Culinary Bookstore

Bon Appetit has recognized Rabelais as one of the 7 Best Culinary Bookstores in America.

Husband-and-wife owners Don and Samantha Lindgren preside over this bookstore-cum-foodie hub, where the shelves are stocked with cookbooks old and new, rare and commonplace. Here, you’ll find The Kitchen Directory and American Housewife (c. 1841) alongside the just-published Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook.

The Honey Exchange

This week’s Food & Dining section in the Press Herald features an interview with Phil and Meghan Gaven, owners of The Honey Exchange on Stevens Ave.

“This is a spring honey from a hive in Ferry Village, and this is the fall honey from that same hive,” Meghan Gaven said. “So the same bees in the same place, just different times of year, made these two different colors and flavors of honey.”

A recent selection at the tasting bar included a honey made by a police officer/beekeeper in Wells and a basswood honey from Pennsylvania that is “everything I like about honey but with the volume turned way up,” Phil Gaven said. “It’s real crystalline and brilliant.”

Farmers Market: Raw Milk & Hard Cider Sales

According to reports from the Press Herald and Portland Daily Sun, the Recreation and Health Subcommittee has endorsed a change that allow the sale of raw milk and hard cider at the Portland Farmers Market. The issue now must be approved by the City Council to take effect.

Raw milk and certain locally-sourced alcoholic beverages could soon be found at the Portland Farmer’s Market alongside local beets, honey and other produce.

The city council’s Health and Recreation Committee yesterday endorsed a proposal to allow fermented beverages such as beer, mead and hard cider to be sold at the twice-weekly farmer’s markets as long as they meet existing standards.

The committee also endorsed a separate measure allowing unpasteurized milk to be sold there.