This Week’s Events: Workshops, Mayoral Food Forum, Cider Dinner, Diva Dinner, Halloween Cupcake Decorating

| Posted in Events

Tuesday – Kate McCarty and Sean Turley are teaching an apple preservation workshop at Fork Food Lab, and a whiskey blending workshop is being held at Stroudwater Distillery.

Wednesday – the Portland Food Council is holding a Mayoral Food Forum, there will be a wine tasting at Maine & Loire, and the Monument Square Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Thursday – Evo is serving 5-course Slovenian/Northern Italian wine dinner, and the local barista community is holding their monthly Latte Art Competition at Coffee by Design on Diamond Street.

Friday – Little Giant and Shacksbury  and teaming up to hold a 6-course Cider Dinner, and the Other Side Diner is holding a Prime Rib Dinner night as part of their monthly dinner series.

Saturday – the Deering Oaks Farmers’ Market is taking place.

Sunday – Primo is hosting a Diva Dinner with an all female chef line-up that includes: Melissa Kelly, Ilma Lopez, Nancy Silverton, Jody Adams, Kathleen Blake, Emily Luchetti, and Two Fat Cats is teaching a Halloween Cupcake Decorating Class For Kids.

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 Luke’s Lobster

| Posted in Reviews

The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Luke’s Lobster.

It’s especially true of the terse menu, a greatest-hits collection of seafood shack classics, some of which (like the lobster roll) are decent. The best of the bunch is probably the crab roll ($16/$20), filled to overflowing with Maine-caught Jonah crab that is steamed, then air-jet “picked” in the company’s bespoke seafood processing facility in Saco. Before it is mounded into a mayo-painted Country Kitchen roll, it gets drizzled with lemon butter and dusted with the restaurant’s perky, celery-seed-forward “secret seasoning” mixture.

Boston Globe: The Purple House

| Posted in People

The Boston Globe has published an article about The Purple House and its chef/owner Krista Kern Desjarlais.

That wood-fired oven is at the heart of Desjarlais’s multifarious approach to food — an intermingling of meticulous French pastry, rustic Maine farm cooking, and gutsy ingredients that to date has made her a James Beard Award semifinalist six times and a finalist once. But it’s also at the heart of another sort of transition she currently finds herself in. “Without getting too academic about what I’ve been thinking all this past summer, I’m really at a crossroads,” she says, leaning forward at the lone table in The Purple House and pushing back a blonde curl. “I’ve always cooked the things I love, but I’m rethinking the way to be in touch globally and also reflect right where you are. We here in the Great North know how much French-Canadian cuisine is a big part of Maine, whether it’s green herb sauces, sausage creton [a rustic Quebecois pork meatloaf], or pâtés and terrines. And how do I fit all of that into my background in French and Italian cooking, as both a cook and a baker?”

Ishi Ishi to Collaborate With Local Breweries

| Posted in Under Construction

Ishi Ishi Ramen (instagram) the 9-seat BYOB ramen shop is under development on Washington Ave has applied for their liquor license. In the cover letter they share that they’ll  be setting up a collaboration with local breweries. Customers who buy beer from partnering breweries will get a discount on their meal at Ishi Ishi.

Here’s a look at their draft menu,

 

CBD Wins 2020 Roast Magazine Award

| Posted in Reviews

Coffee by Design has been recognized by Roast Magazine as their 2020 Macro Roaster of the Year, reports the Press Herald.

The popular Maine coffee company, which has three locations in Portland (including the roastery and coffee house on Diamond Street) and one in Freeport, won in the macro roaster category. Companies in that category roast more than 100,000 pounds of coffee annually. Coffee By Design produces 650,000 pounds a year.

A ‘Cultural Home’ at Maiz

| Posted in People

The Press Herald has published a Maine Voices letter from Brittany Cronin about her appreciation for Maiz, a Colombian restaurant in Woodfords Corner.

I know I’m not the only one who’s found a cultural home in Maiz. Every Portland Colombian I know, I’ve met at Maiz. I’ve even met Colombians who drive in from more than an hour outside of Portland just to go to a Friday night dance party at Maiz. We like to stay awhile, to talk with the owners and staff, to talk with each other. We’ll also drop in just to say hi, or leave a box of chocolates with Martha for her birthday. It’s our space: familiar, comfortable and Colombian.