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.
Julia in Maine
Portland Magazine has published an article on Julia Child’s 50 year history with Maine.
For a chef like Julia, who insisted on the freshest possible ingredients, Maine was a delight. The family caught pollock for her Bouillabaisse à la mode de Blue Hill Bay (which she made with the fish, potatoes, fennel, and saffron). At low tide they gathered fat purple mussels for her to make Moulles Marinères. Local lobsters became her Lobster Archduke and Butter-Poached Maine Lobster.
New Maine Magazine
Maine magazine is set to debut this week with the official launch party taking place on Thursday. According to the their site the party will source food from “The Corner Room, Figa Restaurant, El Rayo Taqueria, and The Salt Exchange with signature drinks by mixologist, John Myers”.
A new article from MaineBiz reports that the 112-page premiere issue will include “a tour of six new Portland restaurants called ‘Eatland.'”
Lobster & Wine on the Radio
Public radio is on a roll when it comes to food reporting. In addition to the piece mentioned in the prior post there’s also a pair of audio articles that were aired today on disputes among lobstermen and on the confusing new wine tasting law.