This Week’s Events: Roussillon, Tiarna, Piccolo Craft Fair, New Year’s Eve

| Posted in Events

Monday — Rosemont and Tandem are collaborating on a tasting event featuring wine from Roussillon.

Tuesday — the monthly local foods networking breakfast is taking place at Local Sprouts.

Thursday — a wine and cheese tasting is taking place at the Public Market House.

Friday — Maine Craft Distilling is hosting a tasting party, and Allagash will be releasing their latest beer, Tiarna.

Saturday — Piccolo and Dandelion Spring Farms are collaborating on a Farm to City craft fair; Piccolo will be serving pastries and hot chocolate. There will be a wine tasting at Rosemont on Brighton, and the Winter Farmers Market is taking place at the Urban Farm Fermenntory on Anderson Street.

New Year’s Eve List
Restaurants are beginning to announce their plans for New Year’s Eve. Here’s a list of ones I have details for so far. I’ll be expanding the list as more information becomes public. (Restaurant owners: please send details to anestes@portlandfoodmap.com or post a comment below.)

  • Back Bay Grill, 4-course dinner for $96 per person
  • BiBo’s Madd Apple Cafe, 3-course dinner, $50 per person
  • Boone’s is throwing a party with a band, cocktail luges, ice sculptures and balloon drop. 5-course prixe fixe dinner is $85 per person with optional pairings available. More info.
  • David’s Opus Ten, 9-course dinner with wine pairings is $150 per person.
  • East Ender, 4-course dinner for $65 per person.
  • El Rayo, 4-course dinner for $38 per person.
  • Empire Chinese Kitchen, serving the standard menu.
  • Eventide, will be throwing a party, a $25 ticket will get you “$1 oysters and a steady supply of your favorite menu items for snacking (lobster rolls and oyster buns included)”
  • Five Fifty-Five, 5-course dinner in the restaurant for $100 per person
  • Gather, serving a special NYE’s menu
  • Grace will be serving their regular dinner menu. A cover charge of $10 (which funds the Good Shepherd Food Bank) will get you into the late night party which comes with complementary champagne toast at midnight.
  • Hugo’s, 5-course dinner, $120 with optional wine pairings for $75
  • Hunt & Alpine Club, will be serving “special food and cocktail menus. Included will be options for multiple punches, bottled cocktails and Champagne”. They’ll be taking reservation up to 10pm and staying open until 2am.
  • Miyake, will be serving a special 5-course omakase in addition to their usual menu
  • Oscar’s New American, 4-course dinner for $75 per person with optional wine pairings for $45
  • Outliers Eatery, 7-course dinner
  • Pai Men Miyake will be “tapping a couple of special kegs and have an extensive specials selection in addition to the regular menu”
  • Petite Jacqueline, 3-course dinner for $65 per person, there are also optional wine and champagne pairings
  • Piccolo, 5-course dinner with a glass of sparkling wine, $85 per person
  • Schulte & Herr, will be open 5-9pm
  • Sea Glass at Inn by the Sea, 4-course menu, $85 per person with optional wine pairing for $30
  • Spread, will be open, details still TBD
  • The Frog & Turtle, 2 seatings (4:30-7:30, 8-12:30) at $40 and $65 per person
  • The Good Table, will be serving a special New Year’s Eve menu
  • The Salt Exchange, 4-course dinner, $65 per person
  • Twenty Milk Street
  • Vignola will be serving a speecial NYE menu, $55 per person
  • Vinland, “tasting menu with a glass of bubbly for $75, plus four paired wines for another $25”. Email dlevi@vinland.me for reservations.
  • Zackery’s, room and dinner package starting at $119 plus tax
  • Zapoteca, 5-course preview of dinner the chef will serve at the James Beard House, $50 per person with optional wine/tequila pairings for $25.

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.

Review of Local 188

| Posted in Reviews

The Golden Dish has reviewed Local 188.

It’s always true that when the boss is in the restaurant it runs better and everyone is happier for it.  In this case, with Villani back at the stove you’re apt to get a very good meal.

 I’m glad to reacquaint myself with Local 188. With so many new restaurants springing up in Portland all the time, it’s nice to go back to an old favorite, especially when it’s fresh and good.

Food Trucks: Annapurna’s Thali

| Posted in Under Construction

Today’s shaping up to be a great day for Portland food truck news.

Gloria Pearse is raising $4,000 on Kickstarter for Anapurna’s Thali, a vegetarian/vegan Indian food, according to a report from Eater Maine.

The menu will be all vegetarian and vegan, with gluten free options. There will be two choices for the Thali: choose from 2 vegetables plus rice and chapati (flat bread,) or an Unlimited Thali where you can mix and match and keep going! Also, there will be traditional snacks such as Samosas, and Bhelpuri a puffed rice cereal snack with fresh onion, tomato, and chili.

Food Trucks: Fishin’ Ships

| Posted in Under Construction

Friends Sam Gorelick and Arvid Brown plan on launching Fishin’ Ships a new food truck in Portland this April, according to a report from Maine a la Carte.

In addition to serving a classic fried haddock with wedge-cut chips, lemon and homemade tartar sauce, “our menu will introduce you to things like chipotle, lime-battered cod, fried in an Allagash White beer batter and paired with maple coated sweet potato fries.”

“Or a bacon, scallion monkfish fried in Geary’s HSA batter and served with mashed potato fritters. We will be rotating these combos and many more like them, all using local beers and all in accordance to what is fresh and what flavors we feel like playing with.”

Reichl Reccomends Browne Trading

| Posted in Reviews

Former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl has recommended Browne Trading as part of her multi-day holiday gift guide.

Even if your friends live near a coast, if they don’t live in a large urban city they very likely lack access to first-rate seafood. That’s where Browne Trading Company comes in. Rod Mitchell has been supplying sustainably-sourced seafood to big deal chefs like Eric Ripert and Daniel Boulud for many years. But he also mail-orders his wonderful products to ordinary people.

Immigrant Kitchens: Syrian Kibbeh

| Posted in Cooking

In the latest entry from Immigrant Kitchens, Lindsay Sterling learns how to make Syrian Kibbeh from Asraa Ghazal (read the story, get the recipe and see the photos).

An Iraqi mother who lives with her husband and three kids in a Portland recently taught me how to make a Syrian food called kibbeh. Kibbeh are made of bulgur wheat, onions, spices, and ground beef or lamb, formed into the shape of lemons and deep-fried. Asraa, my teacher, learned how to make them from a Syrian friend when she was living in Syria after she fled Iraq.