Chicken Scarpariello is one of very likable classic Italian-American dishes that is totally delicious, easy to make and presents the convenience of being a one-pot preparation.
It’s prepared like a fricassee, and the flavor profile is based on vinegar, wine, chicken stock, onions, garlic, green pepper and pickled and roasted sweet peppers.
Chicken scarpariello
With so many choices for a fine brunch all over Greater Portland sometimes all you want is a classic American—no frills, no pretense—breakfast without the hype and hoopla of curating a meal of high gastronomy. That puts a place like Becky’s Diner front and center, especially now that the famed waterfront joint is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month.
Beckyi’s has classic diner appeal
It may turn out to be the most important restaurant to have entered Portland’s dining universe because it’s cooking up such comfortably delicious food, fare that we all want and love. And Portland diners have taken notice. When I arrived last night at 6:30, there wasn’t a spare space in the house at Scales. That it was also filled with some of the cheffy-star-owners of other Portland dining rooms was no coincidence. Everyone wants to be there. Yes, I’ve heard some rumblings from those perennial malcontents who sort of shrug their shoulders, smirking, what’s all the fuss about? Especially one local restaurateur sitting at a booth for four looking sour-faced and unimpressed.
Hogwash!
The scene at Scales.
Scales is killing it, to be sure. There’s a lot of dishes on the menu that I want to try. As in my earlier review I cited the deliciousness of the clam chowder, the fish and chips, the pan seared cod, the lobster roll, the fried clams and the desserts served in such comely fashion as to be irresistible. Just about every food item on the menu is locally sourced and utterly fresh.
But last night I wanted to try the other side of the Scales menu. There are meat dishes like stews and burgers. So I set my sights to begin my dinner with a half dozen oysters, followed by the lobster bisque, with a main course of Scales’ monumental hamburger platter.
If you’re looking for a big, bold cake to serve at holiday dinners or just to keep on the counter in a domed cake stand, swiping a slice every time you see it because it’s so good, then this majestic rave of sweetness is for you.
Chocolate pound cake right out of the oven
Basically it’s a chocolate pound cake baked in a Bundt or tube pan. But what sets this cake apart is its texture, the epitome of silken-downy goodness. It’s achieved by this great baking method: When creaming the butter and sugar, and after blending in the eggs, once combined you then set your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to beat on medium-high speed for 6 to 10 minutes until the texture is like the thickest mayonnaise or very stiffly beaten whipped cream. The flour and milk are then blended in gently so as not to overwork the flour, which would toughen the cake.
Theory has it not to shop for food at the supermarket or other food venues when we’re hungry because we’ll just buy items that we don’t really need. A bag of chips in your cart or some other easy eatable? But when I go to a farmers market I like to nibble on local food as I visit various vendors. The thing is you need to have hand food at farmers’ markets to accomplish this–in au natural fashion, of course.
Baklava at Mulberry Delicacies and cheese at Spring Day Creamery, Brunswick Winter Market
At the Portland Winter Farmers’ Market, there’s scant opportunity to nibble while shopping, though maintaining your locavore status is essentially a given. For a snack-and-shop experience, the one exception is at Swallowtail Farm where farmer Lauren Pignatello features her baked goods at her stand. This past Sunday she brought giant scones studded with local berries. But elsewhere that’s about it unless you like eating raw eggs, chickens, potatoes, beets, and more at the market.
There’s no secret formula to preparing corned beef except this one caveat: buy the best. Unless you’re going to cure your own slab of brisket into a “corned” beef, buy from the expert butchers who do it up every year.
I could have gone to any one of the purveyors who brine their own beef like Pat’s Meat Market, Rosemont, The Farm Stand and Bisson’s ( 116 Meadow Rd., Topsham, 207-725-7215). Whole Foods also has several brands of commercial grade corned beef, and if you’re bent on paying up for it you might as well get it there at a few dollars more per pound. The cured brisket from Bisson’s was $6.99 per pound.
Since this is a work in progress, here is the uncooked corned beef (from Bisson’s) that I will make tomorrow
Since I was at Bisson’s last Saturday I picked up my cured beef there, which comes straight from their brining barrels. It’s available throughout the year well wrapped and ready in their meat case next to the bacon, hams and other smoked cuts of meat.
The birds are barely chirping and there’s nary a sound anywhere around Willard Square in South Portland this Sunday morning. Absent are the usual flock of early risers who descend on Scratch Baking like busy bees to gobble up some of the most uniquely textured bagels in the Northeast.
Scratch Baking on Willard Square, South Portland
As I walked in to the nearly empty store, the one sole shopper, standing in front of uncharacteristically full bins of bagels, said, “We should have the start of Daylight Savings Time all the time.”
As we walked down the newly paved sidewalk to the front door of Scales, which recently opened on Maine Wharf, a diner—unknown to us–came out of the restaurant and said, “You have to have the butterscotch pudding.”
The stroll down Maine Wharf to the restaurant is charmingly romantic
Well, it’s hardly surprising that the long-awaited Scales is living up to expectations as the quintessential seafood restaurant on Portland Harbor. But, really, it’s much more than that. For one, seafood is not it’s only calling card as you discover that Scales is pretty much a New England brasserie with a lot of prized possessions on its menu. Indeed, it could turn out to be that glistening star beyond all others in Portland’s rather glittering galaxy of dining options.
By day the room is dazzlingly bright overlooking the harbor outside
This is the best tasting dish of pot roast—aka braised beef—from a repertoire of various methods in which to cook tougher cuts of meat. Here a brisket is dredged lightly in seasoned flour, browned in a Dutch oven, onions are then sautéed in the pot with a few cloves of crushed garlic and braised in liquid such as beef or chicken stock. It’s cooked slowly either on top of the stove or the oven. This is the basic method for braised beef.
Brisket with sweet and sour raisin sauce
Few surprises populate the Maine Restaurant Week list of participants in the Portland area. Absent were members of the so-called hot list of new haunts such as Terlingua, Roustabout and Woodford Food and Beverage. But do try the East Ender for one of the best meals around from their $25 MRW prix fixe menu. Or go to Tempo Dulu for its $45 prix fixe, a relative bargain for this divine restaurant.
These restaurant weeks—as most are intended around the country in food-focused cities—are a way to invigorate the slower late winter-early spring months to draw diners in. That means, if you cater to reverse logic, those perennially busy restaurants—not on the list–might be easier to get into without reservations since the bulk of local diners are flocking to MRW members.
