The International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association recently recognized Maine magazine and chef David Turin in the quarterly Culinary Excellence Awards.
Food & Wine Editor in Portland
Dana Cowin, Editor of Food & Wine, was is in town today for a one day visit. She stopped in at Petite Jacqueline, had a coffee at Speckled Axe, then went on to Browne Trading, tried to get a slab at Micucci’s, had an oyster bun at Eventide, snacked on nigiri at Miyake before heading to the Inn by the Sea for dessert. Check her Twitter feed for comments and links to photos.
Lobster Bakes
The Food & Wine section in today’s Press Herald includes an article on lobster bakes, traditional and otherwise.
Sandy Oliver, a food historian who lives on Isleboro, says she’s willing to bet that in every Maine coastal town there’s still two or three people who are known for throwing a lobster bake the old-fashioned way, but most people just don’t want to go to the trouble anymore.
“It’s very labor-intensive,” she said. “You’re hauling rocks, you’re hauling wood, and you have to go out and harvest seaweed and haul that to wherever it is you’re going to have this bake. You could have it in somebody’s field. It doesn’t have to be at the beach.”
July 2012 Monthly Stats
The 10 eateries looked up most often in July on Portland Food Map were:
- Eventide Oyster Co. (19)
- Spread (1)
- LFK (2)
- Caiola’s (6)
- Sebastian’s (4)
- Carmen at the Danforth (3)
- Emilitsa (37)
- Bar Lola (7)
- Boda (13)
- Petite Jacqueline (9)
The numbers in parentheses indicates their rank last month.
Under Construction: Roost House of Juice
Aided by a successful Kickstarter campaign that netted $8,740 in financing, Roost House of Juice is making progress towards an opening day sometime in August at 11 Free Street.
In the meantime you can wet your appetite by checking out the menu on their website. The menu is broken down into categories for cups, plates and wines. The site also has a list of the farms and distributors they’ll be working with.
A Halifax Perspective on Maine Dining
Nadine Fownes, food writer for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, visited Portland and has written about her dining experiences around the city. J’s Oyster Bar, Crema, East End Cupcakes, Two Fat Cats, Standard, Gritty’s, Shipyard, Sebago, Duckfat, Gorgeous Gelato, Five Fifty-Five, Fore Street and Emilitsa are all mentioned.
The list that follows is just a small taste of places to see and eat around Portland, and it is by no means complete. The Old Port is easily walkable, so leave your car at the hotel and slip on a comfortable pair of deck shoes. Oh, and — how to put this delicately? — shorts, skirts or trousers with loose-fitting waistbands are advisable.
Grace’s Whole Beast Feast
A number of food writers, myself included, were at Grace on Friday night at the invitation of restaurant owner Anne Verrill to experience the restaurant’s new Whole Beast Feast tasting menu prepared by chef Pete Sultenfuss. Also participating in the lambcentric meal were Phillip and Lisa Webster from North Star Sheep Farm where the lamb for our meal was raised.
Edible Obsession and Meredith Goad from the Press Herald have now published their reports on the meal. For me the most memorable parts of the meal were the lamb tartare in the first course, and later on the fresh corn polenta and tempura-fried milkweed pods.
The amuse brought over by the Chef to start the evening was a lamb tartare, The raw lamb was blended with a smokey and spicy harissa paste, sesame seeds and cucumber. The flavor was much more assertive, both because of the harissa and inherent flavor of protein, than your average tartare and I appreciated the spice the harissa lent to the dish. The flatbread, served to the side, added salt to the main component purposefully and the combination made for a delightful start to the evening.
Next came smoked lamb shoulder served in an individual cast iron pan with the house rigatoni, Castelventrano olives, sungold tomatoes and a touch of ouzo. The dish was topped with a creamy goat’s milk ricotta. This course was paired with a Teira zinfandel.
Pocket Brunch #1
Along with 29 others lucky enough to buy a ticket before they sold out, I went yesterday to the kick-off of Pocket Brunch. The excellent 5-course meal by Josh Potocki and Joel Beauchamp and guest chef Rocco Salvatore Talarico consisted of:
- Chilled corn soup/melon dots/basil ice/crispy serano
- Broadturn tomato/sheep’s milk ricotta salata/basil/mint/fried lemon panko
- Pork belly/black pepper custard/quail yolk/potato/turnip radish salw/toast
- Buttermilk fried frogs legs/lavendar lemon jelly/parsley shooter/garlic chips
- long pepper rosettes/walnut panna cotta/black and sweet caramel jellies/Korean chili sauce
Coffee was from a new Portland-based nano-roastery, Temperance Coffee Roasters which has the tagline “Coffee Roasted with Fear and Conviction”.
The next Pocket Brunch on the calendar is scheduled for September 2 when the guest chefs will be Aki and Alex from the highly regarded blog Ideas in Food. Tickets are available online.
This Week’s Events: Growler Nite, French Whites, Twilight Dinner, Bourbon Tasting, CRUX Pop-up
Tuesday — stop by Bunker Brewing on Anderson Street for Growler Nite to sample some of their beers and pick-up a growler to go.
Wednesday — French whites are the focus of a Wine Wise walk in the Old Port, and the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.
Thursday — Cultivating Community’s fifth Twilight Dinner of the summer is taking place at their farm in Cape Elizabeth (tickets available online).
Friday — there will be a wine tasting at the West End Deli and a bourbon tasting at The Salt Exchange. Restaurants will be especially busy due to First Friday Art Walk so the smart move is to make your reservations now.
Saturday — there will be a wine tasting at LeRoux Kitchen, CRUX is scheduled to hold a pop-up dinner, and the Deering Oaks Farmers Market is taking place.
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.
MSN Re:discovered
Hot Suppa, Micucci’s, Novare Res, The Lobster Shack, Silly’s, Homegrown Herb & Tea, Saltwater Grille, Two Fat Cats and Miyake were all on the agenda when the the Re:Discover series visited Portland. Sarah Richards from Homegrown and Tolef Olson from Ocean Approved were two of the four local hosts for the show.