Nick Malgieri, author of The Modern Baker will be at Rabelais for a book signing this afternoon. Also on Monday, Portland Schooner is running a wine and chocolate sail and the weekly Food and Drink Trivia Contest is taking place at Bull Feeney’s. Felipe Gonzales-Gordon will be at Bar Lola on Tuesday for a dinner featuring wine from his family’s winery. The next Wine Flight 5k Training Run is scheduled for Tuesday. There’s a wine event at The Salt Exchange on Wednesday and on Thursday Cultivating Community is holding the last Twilight Dinner of the year. Rabelais is having an art opening Friday for a show by Rob Sullivan entitled Minumentals: Gastronomique. There are wine tastings at West End Grocery on Friday and Leroux Kitchen on Saturday. Farmers’ Markets are being held in Monument Square on Wednesday and at Deering Oaks Park on Saturday. For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
Kon Asian Bistro Review
Kon Asian Bistro has received 3½ stars from this weeks Taste & Tell review in the Maine Sunday Telegram.
The spectacle of Buddha lost in meditation at the head of a pool makes Kon Asian Bistro intriguing from the moment you walk in. Choose well from the menu and your enjoyment will be sustained, but avoid the shrimp and escolar sashimi.
Breakfast Club Review of The Farmer’s Table
The Farmer’s Table received an overall grade of C+ from The Breakfast Club.
overall, my experience at the farmer’s table was highly disappointing. people who come to portland for the first time may be blinded by the great scenery on the picturesque commercial street and be more accepting of a barely mediocre brunch, but if this restaurant wants to make it through the winter with us mainers, they really need to step it up…a lot.
Maine Magazine
The premiere issue of Maine magazine is now out. It includes an article on a set of six recently launched or up and coming restaurants in Portland as well as Three Tides beer/cocktail/oyster bar in Belfast, Old Vines wine bar in Kennebunk, and a profile of winemaker Brian Smith. There is an online version of the magazine but you’ll find it easier to read the articles if you nab a print copy. I picked up my copy at Bard Coffee.
North Star Bar Review
Portland Bar Guide has reviewed the North Star Music Cafe.
If you want to meet with your fellow humans in a spot that celebrates the primal, the raw, and the unadorned, come to the purist’s paradise at the North Star Café.
Student Survival Guide
This week’s edition of the Portland Phoenix includes a Student Survival Guide for returning college students with recommendations on non-alcoholic beverages for the under 21 set, late night eats and a look at where to find pizza in Portland. The guide also has some advice on stoveless dorm cooking that details a recipe from Five-Fifty-Five co-owners Steve and Michelle Corry on making mac n’ cheese.
Video Interview of North Star Owner
Portland Food Heads has published a video interview with North Star co-owner Anna Maria Tocci. The interview is the first of a new series from Portland Food Heads called Vidappetit.
Paciarino Review
Type A Diversions has published a brief review of Paciarino.
Paciarino is my absolute favorite Portland “cheap eat.” Whether dining in for lunch or dinner – or grabbing pasta from the cooler to cook at home, time and again, the pasta does not disappoint.
Maine Fare, etc
The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a pair of articles about Maine Fare which is taking place in Camden next month. Meredith Goad authored an overview of the food festival
If you’d like to learn how to pair Maine-made spirits with smoked seafood, if you want to experience an old-fashioned beanhole supper – even if you’re curious about how to properly butcher a whole hog – Maine Fare is the place to be, whether you feel comfortable calling yourself a foodie or not.
“People need to know that it’s OK to care about what you eat, that it’s not being a snob to care about what you eat,” Jenkins said.
and Avery Yale Kamila tackles the topic of the keynote address “Can Maine Feed Itself?”
The panel brings together a number of movers and shakers from Maine’s food scene for a conversation centered on how the state can become more self-reliant when stocking our grocery stores and filling our dinner plates.
Also is today’s paper is an article about a Maine Cooperative Extension seminar designed to help farmers cope with this year’s poor growing season, and a short piece on Chef Hayward’s shaved head.
IIK: Chancho Frito and Vigoron
Lindsey Sterling has published another ethnic cooking adventures on her blog Inside Immigrant Kitchens. This time she’s cooking with Jenny Sanchez from Nicaragua to make Chancho Frito and Vigoron.
She calls it chancho frito and vigoron. It’s Nicaraguan party food. “Vigoron eat with your fingers,” Jenny Sanchez, my Nicaraguan-American neighbor coaches me. We’re in her kitchen three blocks from L.L. Bean. “No fork o no espoon.” Okay, I think, you eat it with your fingers. I get it. “If you a scared,” she looks at me seriously, “I get you a fork.”
The rewards are big for fearlessness.