March 2017

First Look: Baharat in East Bayside is a Harbinger of a Vital Mixed Residential Neighborhood on the rise with fine dining

March 24, 2017 / / Restaurants

“Build it and they will come” is the loose credo of real estate development, which panned out to be so with Portland developer Jonathan Culley’s opening several months ago of the new multi-family high rise (a whopping 4 stories), at the far-flung residences at 89 Anderson St.  in East Bayside. At the base of the building, now nearly fully rented, is another part of the formula, Baharat, an axiomatically hip, cool, trendy restaurant serving Middle Eastern food, which the city’s millennials are already lapping up after only 5 days in operation.

The Baharat main event at the bar

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The Simple Pleasures of Carolina Gold Rice Grits (served with Chicken Marbella), a Grain that Is an Essential Food to enjoy Regularly

March 22, 2017 / / Mains, Recipes

As a child at the family table, rice was anathema to my foodpreferences.  Yet my mother served it often as the side dish to a main course.  That box of Uncle Ben’s held a prominent place in the cupboard.  But the best I could do was grit my teeth and roll it around my fork soaking up its starchy blandness.  In fact, the only way I would eat it was with a good pour of maple syrup over it, presaging my sweet-tooth proclivities.

Rice grits (photos courtesy of Anson Mills)

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According to Saveur Magazine “The wood-fired sourdough specimens at Forage Market are good enough to melt the heart of the most hardened New York bagel snob.”

March 20, 2017 / / Uncategorized

Not exactly a hop-skip-and-a jump from Portland, we were Lewiston bound in search of the comfort zone of the Forage Market bagel, as highlighted in the October 2016 issue of Saveur Magazine with the headline: “Is one of  America’s best bagels in. . . Lewiston, Maine?”

A convivial morning crowd at Forage market there to scoop up the bakeries fine bagels and other delights

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Style and Substance at the Cumberland Food Company where the art of breakfast and lunch are fine indeed

March 18, 2017 / / Restaurants

Good food has no boundaries in Maine,  and it seems that wherever you go, a good meal can be had even in the most out of the way places.  Now the charming little strip of Route 9 that is Cumberland Center has a new dining option at the corner of Tuttle Road and Main Street where down-home fare is served with such plain goodness.

Cumberland Food Company’s open kitchen and service area; Bryan Dame in background

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Bisson’s Salmon Pie

March 1, 2017 / / Mains, Recipes

At the  fabled Bisson’s butcher shop on Meadow Road in Topsham, where the beef or dairy you  buy there comes from the cows grazing across the road, the least likely treat from their freezer case is Bisson’s  salmon pie. It’s an old family recipe that’s highly regarded by regulars and staff.   As with the other pies that the shop makes–beef and chicken–salmon seems an unlikely choice where meat otherwise reigns.

Bisson’s salmon pie

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