Shrimp share: Portland

Shrimp season starts December 1. What would it take to get a shrimp CSF in Portland?

“In order to make it feasible, we’d have to have 40 or more people sign up in any location,” Kim Libby told the BDN.

And apparently, there's already a pick-up location in the works.

Veggie monstrosities

Three Scarborough girls protest Sesame Street's transformation of a cookie-eater into a veggie-eating monster, via PPH.

See also, an NPR interview with the Cookie Monster.

Figa, Bangkok Thai and other random plywood

Figa plans to open the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27.
Bangkok Thai has been closed for temporary renovations. Reopen date?
Central Maine Popcorn opened on Exchange St.
Binga's Wingas owner is in some hot saucy, um, redevelopment debate.

Blue Spoon burgers

A Hamburger Today hits the $10 grass-fed burgers at the Blue Spoon:

At first I was concerned about a lack of salt, but the more I ate the more I realized beef this good is fine without much sodium. In fact, it's better than fine. Clearly, the Blue Spoon knows it's best to let the meat speak for itself, via MPS.

Uno Mas

Havana's in Bar Harbor plans to open a Latin-esque restaurant, Uno Mas at 52 Wharf Street, next year, via HN.

Foraged apple share

Wolfing season

As Sam Hayward expressed in a brief, informal study of predation in the Portland restaurant ecology, an unprecedented wave of new restaurants and a short summer means one thing: It’s like adding wolves to caribou habitat.

The latest casualty: Una. Rumored to be going under in December.

Four Seasons Farm

What's wrong with Eliot Coleman? James McWilliams, a critic of farmers markets and local foods, has a few words in his latest book, Just Food:

Because the Colemans of the organic world offer such a sharp contrast to industrial-organic and conventional operations, many influential food writers have swooned over them and told us that the main task is to protect the founding ideals of organic agriculture from the ever-hovering talons of agribusiness and its taste for chemically driven growth.... Despite my genuine respect for the agroecological ideas promoted by Coleman and others, I do not think that organic is the answer to our broken food system.

Forage fruit share: Quince

Foodiotic trends

One of the 10 worst dining trends of the last decade:

"You can't judge a restaurant from its opening night. It may be exciting to be there early. But to review it based on that first day is crazy and wrong," via Chicago Tribune.

David Chang told New York Magazine about another notable trends that he hates:

Type A's who take pictures and notes on the food at Ko, via Grub Street.

Luke's Lobster

After a summer's worth of New Yorkers flooding Commercial St., one Mainer hits Luke's on E. 7th in Manhattan:

Searching for a “real Maine lobster roll experience” in New York City is as fruitless a quest as searching for a “real New York bagel experience” in Winter Harbor, via Hillytown.

RIP: Monday Market

The Monday Farmers' Market in Monument Square wasn't a riveting success, and it's unclear if it will continue. Next year:

There are no plans to expand the market in different locations.... [but] there's talk of there being fish vendors in what would likely be a separate market, via Portland Daily Sun.

Fish!

Plywood

Plywood all over the place:

The White Heart, has reportedly been sold to Lance Meader & Jeffrey Li Jason Loring and Matt Moran of Rivalries.

Bangkok Thai, 671 Congress Street, will now be named Boda.

Thanh Thanh Bida, at 250 Read Street, has a new owner.

Po’Boys & Pickles plans to move into the D'Angelo's at 1124 Forest Avenue.

Awful Annie’s also has a new owner and will henceforth be known as Momma’s Crow Bar, 189 Congress Street.

Luna Rossa: still not open.

G'Vanni's Italian Bistro

G’Vanni’s Bistro plans to open at 15 Exchange Street, the old Walter’s, via Portland City Council. The building's owner has some unresolved code issues that may have contributed to Shima opening elsewhere.

Mixed media: Amy Franceschini and Free Soil, Oct. 21 at MeCA

Perfect Maine Lobster

The New York Times gets a couple letters about Linda Bean:

She calls her company Perfect Maine, but her plans should make Mainers ask, “Perfect for whom?”

Moo milk

Coming soon: MOO Milk, pasteurized organic milk from Maine dairy farms, the possible upside to falling prices. [Updated] More on the milk from the Bangor Daily News.

Another local milk source.

Portland's Eater

Eater's founder, Lockhart Steele, tells The Moment blog:

I do most of my cooking in Maine during the summer, and the Portland farmers’ markets are a huge source of joy for me, via The New York Times.

Found: Lost Coin

A year after it opened, Professor Duff finds the Lost Coin—and finds it, well, kind of funny:

The head waiter, James, is 11 years old. He handled formal service deftly even as he sporadically entertained a rambunctious five-year-old. He explains the prix fixe, takes your drink order (Pepsi, diet, root beer, or orange), and gives you a choice of soup, via tP.

Wary Meyers

Photo: Wary Meyers
Oct. 9, 7 p.m. at Longfellow Books

Raw cider

Raw cider has been made safely without pasteurization for centuries. Until now. Bob Sewall, a postpasteurian and apple farmer in Lincolnville, talks with MPBN about the FDA's ban on retail sales of unpasteurized cider.

Shoot Magazine

Shoot Magazine is was looking for food-themed photos.

[Updated] View it here.

Photo: Mikael Kennedy,
Oct. 2, 41 Wharf St.

RIP report: White Heart Bar

The White Heart, at 551 Congress St., has closed, but owner Anthony Hodge, of New Hampshire, tells the Portland Daily Sun he'd like to sell.

"I have two or three people that are really interested in it, one happens to be an existing employee."

Common Ground

This is the first year for coffee at the CGCF.

For most of the history of the Common Ground Country Fair, coffee sales were prohibited [inside the fence] for a variety of reasons, including the fact that in 1977 no reliable sources of organically grown and processed coffee existed. Another strong consideration was the Fair's focus on Maine food, via MOFGA.

Well, it's not 1977 any more. Next year, the committee on micromanaging fair fare plans to ban donuts made without whole wheat flour, at least that's the hope. [Update: OrganicNation.tv covers the fair.]

Foraged apple share

Community Supported Cafe

Local Sprouts was part of a CSK roundup on Serious Eats.

Local Sprouts is opening a Community Supported Cafe in 2010, which will feature a local foods menu, community events and workshops, local food retail, and art.

[Updated 9/25] The PPH covers the story.

Maine oysters

A guide to 12 kinds of Maine oysters from Rowan Jacobsen: Glidden Points, Gay Islands, Dodge Coves, Wiley Points, Spinney Creeks, Wawenauks, Flying Points, North Havens, Norumbegas, Taunton Bays, Pemaquids, Winter Points, via Down East. [Updated: Barb Scully of Glidden Point was featured in The New York Times.]

Foraged apple share

A market for farmers

Should the Portland Farmers' Market remain a farmers market? Or should it expand to allow prepared foods and booksellers and a complete organo-Disney-playland?

"We have a waiting list for farmers at both markets," said market coordinator Larry Bruns of Hanson Field Flower Farm. "That's why I'm not pushing for farmers to do prepared foods. I'd like to save room for more farmers," via Portland Press Herald.

Anarchic times

The New York Times's Julia Moskin thinks Portland's cruise ships are long gone for the year (they're not), but Moskin also says (quite accurately) that the "combination of culinary idealism and anarchy" is here to stay:

In the last decade, Portland has undergone a controlled fermentation for culinary ideas — combining young chefs in a hard climate with few rules, no European tradition to answer to, and relatively low economic pressure — and has become one of the best places to eat in the Northeast, via NYT.

There's also a slideshow of Stacey Cramp's photos and outtakes. See also, the PPH's coverage of the news and the discussion on Chowhound.

Foraged apple share

Bowl Portland

Bowl Portland, a big-ball, 10-pin lane is reportedly in the works for 8 Alder St. in Bayside. It may even have live music and:

The restaurant will serve pub-style food, via The Forecaster.

A is for Apple

Apples abbreviated:

A guide to apple seasons and taste.
A guide to apple planting and use.
A guide to Out-on-a-Limb CSA.
A list of orchards.
A directory of organic apple growers.

O is for Otto

The Bollard lists good deals for students and the destitute, including this one for Otto:

The delicious, New York–style slices at this new Portland pizzeria are cheap and served until 2 a.m. on weekends, but that’s not why they’re in this directory. Let’s not kid ourselves: these kind of features are just a crass attempt to stroke advertisers and lure new ones. How’s that for cheap? At least we admit it. (576 Congress St., Portland; 773-7099, ottoportland.com).

This month's issue also includes a must-read on where to find "Java for Nada."

Allagash

Imbibe Magazine has named Allagash White in its list of dessert beers and its Tripel was picked as one of the “beers to serve to your friend who claims to be a beer snob” (via Media Mutt). The brewery was also featured in a recent BoGlo piece on wit beers.

Photo: Tanja Hollander/
Sanctuary, via The Bollard

Colucci's Hilltop Market

Now, why doesn't someone just tell us where to get the best Italian?

Bon Appetit

Andrew Knowlton of Bon Appetit covers Portland and repeats that oft-uttered, little-fact checked piece of information with a fresh twist:

The local visitors bureau reports that per capita, more money is spent in Portland restaurants than in any other U.S. city except San Francisco and New York, via BA.

And lists the breweries, seafood restaurants, bakeries, and best places to eat. A short video here.

Minumentals: gastronomique

Painting: Rob Sullivan
Rabelais, Sept. 4, 6-8 p.m. [On EMD!]

Haddock cakes and Marifax beans

Sam Hayward talks about cutting costs, not corners:

In his kitchen at Fore Street Restaurant, amid the sounds of ovens and fans, and the murmurings and gurglings of pots and pans, Hayward makes a meal that harks back to the traditions of Maine—cod cakes and beans, via NPR.

Month in Review, August

The New York Times' Julia Moskin planned to write about Portland restaurants in September (1) and preindustrialists from Brooklyn invaded Maine to butcher pigs (2). Attendees at a cod race got drunk and out of hand (3), a Matinicus man who reportedly shot another lobsterman did so to defend his daughter (4), and creating a Matinicus-only fishing grounds might solve any future tensions (5).

Because of fall harvests breaks, kids in The County started school in August (4). The potato was called an inexpensive food option (5). A surge in scallops on Georges Bank did not bode well for Maine's stocks (6). Livestock farmers were called an endangered species (7), the state's apple research facility turned 100 (8), and an 87-year old clam digger died (9). Food was better without meat (11).

12 Seats

Photo: Jon Levitt

Restaurants per capita

Whit Richardson looks at the numbers behind the oft-repeated, PR-infused accolade: Portland has more restaurants per capita than San Francisco.

The Portland City Clerk's office has 536 registered food service establishments with food preparation, according to Alexandra Murphy, assistant city clerk. Assuming a Portland population of 63,000, we come up with one restaurant for every 118 people. Pretty good! With that kind of figure, Portland even tops San Francisco, via Mainebiz.

The Farmers' Cart

The Farmers' Cart, a 30-Acre Farm side project, opened today in Monument Square with breakfast sausage and pulled pork wraps.

Sonny's

Jay Villani, of Local 188, has rented the ground floor space at 83 Exchange St., the space formerly occupied by O'Naturals, for a new restaurant focused on the lunch crowds. According to The Forecaster, it will be called Sonny's.

RIP report: Huong

Huong Vietnamese Food, the hole-in-the-wall pho shop at 349 Cumberland Avenue, has closed.

Green is gold

Photo: E. Atterbury

Two takes

Two tastes of new restaurants:

Restaurant Grace: I am sure I am destined for hell for saying this but my first thought upon walking in was not one of divinity but debauchery. It felt like it could be the ultimate dance club.

The Corner Room Kitchen & Bar: The Caesar was just as good as the one at the Front Room. There could have been a lot more truffle action in my macs for my taste, but I understand why they went for subtlety, via Tips from a Dweller.