Gorgeous Gelato, Angela Landsbury and Going Vegan

| Posted in Cooking, People

Read the Soup to Nuts article in today’s Press Herald and learn about the connection between the TV show Murder, She Wrote and the opening of Gorgeous Gelato here in Portland.

Opening a gelato shop in Maine in December seems a little like opening a hot chocolate stand in Phoenix in July, when the average high is 105 degrees.

You really want to ask: “What were you thinking?”

Donato Giovine and Mariagrazia Zanardi, owners of the new Gorgeous Gelato shop at 434 Fore St., are happy to explain.

Today’s Food & Dining section also includes an article on an online service that helps people convert to a vegan diet.

Student Food Writing Competition

| Posted in General News

Slow Food Portland have announced the First Annual Young Food Writer’s Contest. The competition is open to “any student enrolled in public or private school, or being home schooled, in Cumberland County.”

To enter the competition students need to “write a short essay about food, which can be fiction or non-fiction, and written on the chosen theme.” For 2011 Slow Food has chosen “The Taste of Maine” for the theme. The winners will receive share in the CSA of their choice.

Deadline for entry is February 11, 2011. For all the details on the competition visit the Slow Food Portland website.

Sandwich Review of Brea Lu

| Posted in Cooking, Reviews

From Away has published another in their series of sandwich reviews, this time around they visited Brea Lu Cafe for a grilled cheese,

This was, overall, a solid diner-style grilled cheese sandwich, with a few flavorful extras, and somewhat higher-quality ingredients than you would expect from a typical diner. While I can’t see going out of my way to return for takeout, it seems like a perfectly pleasant place to kill an hour for a quick lunch out…particularly if we have other errands that take us to Forrest Avenue.

While they’re on the site, fans of Pai Men’s might want to check out From Away’s post on reverse engineering the famous Pai Men pork buns.

Tony’s Donuts & Lobster Certification Controversy

| Posted in People, Fisheries, Profiles

For this week’s Maine at Work article reporter Ray Routhier makes donuts at Tony’s.

My first question was: When do I flip them? I was hoping for a specific answer, such as “in three minutes.” But I soon learned that Proulx, a 10-year veteran doughnut maker at Tony’s Donuts in Portland, didn’t have a lot of specific answers.

“When they’re done on one side,” was Proulx’s reply to my flipping question.

…and for a good laugh watch this 3-Minute Maine video produced by Down East about making donuts at Tony’s.

Also in today’s Press Herald is a report on the controversy surrounding efforts to get Maine’s lobster fishery certified as a sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

“To have somebody in England evaluating our product and our conservation and how we do things doesn’t really cut it,” said Sheila Dassatt, executive director of the Downeast Lobstermen’s Association, which represents about 300 lobstermen along the Maine coast.

This Week’s Events: Ag Trade Show, Bray’s, Ice Cream Theory

| Posted in Events

Tuesday — opening day of the 70th Annual Maine Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta.

Wednesday — Black Tie Provisions is teaching a cooking class.

Thursday — The Great Lost Bear will be showcasing beer from Bray’s Brew Pub in Naples and a mead and cheese tasting is taking place at the Public Market House.

Friday — Rosemont Market is holding a wine tasting at their Brighton Ave location.

Saturday — the Winter Farmers Market in the morning, Black Cherry Provisions is holding a wine tasting starting at noon and Steff Deschenes, author of The Ice Cream Theory will be at Bull Moose in Scarborough for a book signing.

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.

Oakhurst Dairy, Who Owns Organic, Ending the Currant Ban, Overfishing Ends

| Posted in Fisheries, Farming, Profiles, People

Also in today’s paper were articles about Oakhurst Dairy and the Bennett family who have run the business since it started in 1921,

“We have been able to stave off being bought by maintaining a strong brand identity. People know what we do and what we stand for,” Oakhurst President and Chief Operating Officer William Bennett said during a tour this week of the Oakhurst production plant on Forest Avenue.

reports on the effort to repeal the ban on growing currants in Maine, and on organic programming at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show,

Lisa Fernandes of Cape Elizabeth, who leads the Portland Permaculture Meetup, is coordinating the effort to get an old Maine law banning Ribes plants repealed. The law was enacted decades ago in an effort to control white pine blister rust, a plant disease that requires both pines and Ribes plants to persist.

and on statements made by the former chief scientist of NOAA’s Fisheries Service that overfishing will end this year,

The projected end of overfishing comes during a turbulent fishing year that has seen New England fishermen switch to a radically new management system. But scientist Steve Murawski said that for the first time in written fishing history, which goes back to 1900, “As far as we know, we’ve hit the right levels, which is a milestone.”

Lettuce Ladies

| Posted in General News

According to a report from the Portland Daily Sun, two lettuce bikini-clad PETA supporters were in the Old Port yesterday to promote veganism,

For the noon hour yesterday, the “Lettuce Ladies” — Tracy Patton and Hayden Hamilton, dressed in green bikinis with flaps that resembled pieces of lettuce — handed out vegetarian/vegan starter kits.