October 2015

Abilene: neighborhood dining where it’s simply delicious

October 30, 2015 / / Restaurants

Neighborhood restaurants orbit in their own world.  Warm, cozy and familiar they tend to eschew trendiness and other social hysterias.  They’re everywhere around Greater Portland, for better or worse.  But the most revered remain Caiola’s in the West End; Hot Suppa, Local 188 and others around Longfellow Square; Lolita, the Front Room and Blue Spoon on Munjoy Hill.  These are some of the city’s standard bearers of dining in the hood.  Now you can add Abilene to the group.  Opened since June, it holds sway in the Woodford’s area.  The difference is that this part of Portland doesn’t attract foodie preeners or make way for the next Central Provisions. 

Caesar salad; the dining room at Abilene

Caesar salad; the dining room at Abilene

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The shop on Maine Street: Bleecker and Flamm, a delicious display of local eats, Rockport

October 28, 2015 / / Discoveries, Mains, Recipes, Travel

When Maine Street Meats, Bleecker and Flamm (the names of the co-owners) made some news recently on a local food site–their desultory mention was buried in a story about sandwiches.  Maine Street Meats has an exemplary one, a Vietnamese bahn mi offered on Tuesdays.  But this exquisite delicacy shop also has steamed pork buns on Thursdays as well as thin-crust pizzas daily and stuffed savory breads and double chocolate chip cookies that are popular with the lunch crowd every day.

Maine Street Meats offers gourmet packaged goods, local meats, cheese, breads and house-made charcuterie

Maine Street Meats offers gourmet packaged goods, local meats, cheese, house-baked breads and house-made charcuterie

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Harvest on the Harbor: a stunning crowd pleaser at Merrill Auditorium

October 26, 2015 / / Discoveries, Restaurants, Travel

The week that was Harvest on the Harbor showcased Maine food and dining in stunning display.  But of all the events the one that cast the widest net was the Stage Dinner at Merrill Auditorium.  It’s where some of the region’s best chefs cooked a six-course dinner for a seated crowd–but this time we were not there sitting in the audience but rather participating at tables set up on stage. It virtually allowed everyone to experience the cooking from six restaurants all in one fell swoop.

Top: participating chefs, left to right--Guy Hernandez, Shannon Bard, Josh Berry, Isaul Perez

Top: some of the participating chefs, left to right–Guy Hernandez; Shannon Bard with sous chef;  Isaul Perez with Mike St. Pierre and Chris Basset

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Loving LFK: Lunch, Dinner and Sunday Brunch are well served at Portland’s most original watering hole

October 23, 2015 / / Restaurants

Portland leads the pack for chefs and restaurateurs to strut like superstars, waving their tickets to birth and background in frothy good will. That leaves a place like LFK  in precarious limelight, its firmament aflicker in irreverent ways. Like the naughty boy acting out, it defies convention in so doing what it does so well: hosting a nightly asylum of imbibing foodies in nocturnal repose–a smattering of bohemians in the midst of high gastronomy all around it.

It's blessed with a bird's eye view across Longfellow Square; diners at the bar

It’s blessed with a bird’s eye view across Longfellow Square; diners at the bar

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A tribute to Hollis farmer Keith Boyle who for over 10 years shared with me his family’s old farm recipes

October 21, 2015 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

Featured here is one of the pie recipes that I would get from Keith Boyle, a longtime fixture at the Portland farmer’s market at Uncle’s Farm Stand. He passed on October 8th unexpectedly from a fatal heart attack.

Keith Boyle-- recent photo offered by Uncle's Farm owner Mike Farwell; inset; his Grandmother Gilbert's crabapple pie

Keith Boyle– recent photo offered by Uncle’s Farm owner Mike Farwell; inset; his Grandmother Gilbert’s crabapple pie

Over the years he would share his family’s recipes with me–both from his mother, Patty Boyle, who passed some years ago and his grandmother, Gladys Gilbert, 90. These are all old-fashioned farm recipes, some dating back many decades. This crabapple pie is typical of the great recipes Keith offered.

As American as crabapple pie?  Well, hardly, since this fruit doesn’t’ enjoy the same popularity as its larger cousin, the apple.  That’s a shame because crabapples are a sturdy little fruit with a distinctive taste that work beautifully in pies, jams (very high in pectin), chutneys and sauces.

Crabapples are a little difficult to work with because they’re so small.  They generally don’t need peeling; if you did, using the standard peeler might result in some nicked fingers. Actually it’s preferable to leave the skins on because they’re pectin rich and act as a natural thickener.

Gladys Gilbert's crabapple pie

Gladys Gilbert’s crabapple pie

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LFK: At Sunday brunch it’s all about a very winning heap of homemade hash

October 19, 2015 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

There’s a lot of good corned beef hash served at Portland restaurants–especially those with brunch menus.  In fact, you can get hash on any day where breakfast is served—from hotel dining rooms to dives and everything else in between.

LFK's delicious curried corned beef hash

LFK’s delicious curried corned beef hash

Hot Suppa, Marcy’s, Becky’s, Local 188, Front Room, to name a few have admirable dishes of corned beef hash.

But the winner for the most unusual is cooked up at LFK.  The bar/restaurant follows an interesting concept of offering two plate sizes for many of its dishes.  Whatever size you choose you get a heaping helping of hash in the small ($9) or large ($16) portion size. Unless you’re feeling voracious the small  portion is  plenty big filling an 8-inch round dinner plate to the rim.

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Little Tap House: Portland’s reigning gastro pub at the corner of High and Spring streets

October 16, 2015 / / Restaurants

Little Tap House has grown into a full-fledged neighborhood meeting place that serves not only craft cocktails and local brews but a decently satisfying menu of creative pub grub.  The night we were there earlier this week the place was literally packed to the rafters.  It had great vibes and atmosphere as a thriving popular pub.

From the young and restless to savvy Westenders, the crowd is always congenial

From the young and restless to savvy Westenders, the crowd is always congenial

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Glorious Cast-iron: the most useful pan to have in your kitchen

October 14, 2015 / / Discoveries, Recipes

Cast-iron has always been in my arsenal of cookware with a few sizes at the ready in pots and pans.  But over the years my collection has grown from two cast-iron pans to a large collection in all sizes for many different uses.

Classics in cast-iron cookery: roast chicken, cornbread, chops and potatoes

Classics in cast-iron cookery: roast chicken, cornbread, chops and potatoes

I’ve learned that what makes cast-iron skillets so integral is the sturdiness of the pan and the heat that it conducts so evenly for such dishes as cornbread, producing the inimitable outer crust, or for skillet pies.  Drape pastry dough into a skillet and fill with apples, sugar and a few knobs of butter and it’s all you need for a great pie baked in cast-iron.

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24 Hours in the Mid-Coast for great dining and foraging

October 12, 2015 / / Discoveries, Restaurants, Travel

Since opening in 2013, Salt Warm Farm Restaurant has offered the magic of dining in the heart of picture-perfect-Rockport Harbor to savor the wonderfully creative cooking from the restaurant’s head chef, Sam Richman.  However, the establishment closed abruptly a few weeks ago on the heels of Richman’s departure from the kitchen. One can’t help but to read between the lines for the real story.  According to a recent Eater Maine post, owner Annemarie Ahearn is quoted as saying “We are in discussions with a very exciting and accomplished chef…for next season.” Why when there already was one?

Almost immediately Richman started a series of popups called Salty Soup Kitchen (see various Facebook posts); the first was held two Saturdays ago and the second this past weekend.  When I heard about it I went up to Rockport for one of the events, which featured  Mexican Night held in a stunning red barn on Mill Street in the West Rockport neighborhood where sprawling country estates grace the landscape.

Mexican Night menu and chef Sam Richman

Mexican Night menu and chef Sam Richman

I trekked up on Saturday afternoon, slogging through a 45 minute crawl through Wiscasset during the Columbus Day weekend rush that typified the town’s classic summertime  bottleneck.  Why they voted down the opportunity to create a bypass several years ago remains a big mistake.

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Fleeting pleasures–and a few minor misses–at Pai Men Miyake

October 9, 2015 / / Restaurants

Portland may not be a city of financial titans or internet billionaires (at least not by New York, LA or London standards) who covet trophy dining with star chefs.  But it can be proud of its chefs like Masa  Miyake who is as much of a force in Portland’s dining scene as his compatriots Chris Gould of Central Provisions, Larry Matthews of Back Bay Grill, Sam Hayward of Fore Street, Damian Sansonetti of Piccolo and other gadabouts from the culinary girth of fine dining here.

Moreover, in my last few visits to his venerable noodle house and pub, Pai Men Miyake, the food is still admirably done.

The kitchen and dining room at Miyake

The kitchen and dining room at Miyake

Though, pardon this round of nitpicking, there is, I’ve noticed, a slight curve ball of discombobulation in how the restaurant is run and the scope of the menu, which seems more stagnant than vital.

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