Otto Pizza received 4½ stars from the weekly Eat & Run column in today’s Press Herald.
If I had thought about it very long, I might have decided that a pizza with mashed potatoes and bacon was not really my idea of pizza.
Thankfully, as with most food-related queries, I did not think. I just ate.
So for $3, I bought one of the best slices of pizza I’ve ever had – from the new Otto Pizza on Congress Street, about a block from Congress Square. The place opened in June.
Food for Thought has published a review of Grace. While the author acknowledges, “Perhaps it’s too early in its 3-week history to assess such a place”, he does write about the issues he feels “that just don’t pass muster at the moment.”
The Portland Daily Sun has published enthusiastic praise for portlandtaps.com, “Brilliant. Folks, portlandtaps.com is Einstein-level brilliance.”
Portland Food Heads has reviewed Hot Suppa!.
Regardless, I did decide to walk through the door at Hot Suppa one day and haven’t turned back since. Sunday brunch is a prized commodity to me, and I don’t think I’ve ever turned it down when mentioned or offered. I’ve eaten at just about every spot in town that does Sunday brunch (or just breakfast in general) and I have to say that Hot Suppa is up near the top of my list.
Portland Bar Guide has published a review of Siano’s.
Entering Siano’s Pizzeria for the first time, I didn’t really know what to expect. The dark tables compliment the cobblestone floor and the red ceiling with yellow trim screams Italian eatery, welcoming large groups that my Nana would love to serve. Located in the heart of Deering, Siano’s was buzzing with energy, even though it was Monday night. Old friends were meeting at the bar, families were seated sporadically and later a kickball team met in the back room.
Down East‘s Tips from a Dweller column has posted some observations on the double opening night at Grace and The Corner Room earlier this month. (via Psst!)
There’s in an article in today’s Food & Dining section on a grant to support wheat farming in Maine and Vermont.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will fund a four-year project that brings together scientists, farmers, bakers and millers from both states to expand organic wheat production in New England, once a bread basket of the nation.
Ellen Mallory, a sustainable agriculture specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Service who is leading the project, estimates that Maine produces 200 to 500 acres of organic wheat. Vermont produces about the same.
“It’s hard to get a handle on what the demand really is, but we know that we’re well below supplying that demand,” Mallory said.
In the new installment of Inside Immigrant Kitchens Lindsay Sterling learns how to cook Estonian Roast Beef and Root Vegetable Salad from Maili Kern.
Maili Kern learned this from her mother in a village on the Baltic Sea in Estonia. It’s a popular dish served on buffet tables at celebrations. The color, bright pink from beets next to bright yellow and white hardboiled eggs, is a stunning example of how powerful simple things can be in the right hands.
The Breakfast Club has made an “epic comeback reunion” to review the Miss Portland Diner. They praised the “quite exceptional for a diner” coffee as well as the “friendly and attentive” service, and recommend “waiting (if necessary) for a table in the train car” because it has “way more atmosphere than the addition that was built”
Portland Food Heads has reviewed a recent meal at Evangeline where he had the clabber-fed whole roast chicken.
The family-style, Sunday dinner feel of this meal was exactly what I had been hoping for, and, at this point, I wasn’t sure things could get much better.
That is, until I took a bite of the chicken. I’ll spare everyone the wasted time and say that this was flat out the best chicken I’ve ever had in my entire life. I probably roast about 20-30 birds a year, and never have I tasted a chicken with such buttery, “chickeny” flesh.
The clabber-fed roast chicken is now available at Evangeline provided you call ahead and give them 24 hour advance notice.