August 2018

Dining In And Out: Choices in Portland Abound, from Plain and Simple to the Sublime

August 31, 2018 / / Restaurants

From the venerable Empire Chinese to Forage, Chaval, Pai Men Miyake, Little Giant, Evergreen Chinese, The Shop and dinner at home under the auspices of Martha Marley Spoon home delivery, it was a pretty good several weeks of dining in and out.

Martha-Marley Spoon. I started subscribing to Martha’s home delivery a few months ago, and once a week for $48 for 4 servings I receive dishes of my choice from a long menu list.  For the most part the food is good: very fresh, either natural or organic ingredients, and most of the preparations are very similar: main dishes of meat, chicken or things like tacos or flatbreads along with various vegetable dishes.  The prep list is somewhat complicated, though nothing takes more than 30 minutes to prepare and cook.  The delivery, however, is erratic, coming a day late and the freezer packs are perilously close to thawing out.  Still it’s an A- service and I’ve enjoyed most of the meal plans.  ***1/2

Seared steak with ginger butter and oven-baked fries and green beans

Empire Chinese. It’s still the best of our Chinese cuisine dining options.  Authentic Cantonese dishes, including dim sum, are beautifully prepared.  It’s one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. ****1/2

Kung pao chicken

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Bagel City, Bagel Nation: Forage Market Makes a Fantastic Bagel–Now Available in Portland

August 20, 2018 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

“Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?”  won’t easily remain on the tips of old-movie mavens’ tongues, but I’ve always remembered the film title because it was unusual.  The cast had starring roles from Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall, a duo that never made it like Rock Hudson and Doris Day did.  It might, however, have been Ms. Mansfield’s shining moment in film.

It was a 1957 cinematic satire on the advertising industry, TV and Hollywood.  And the only reason why I bring it up is it makes me think of Portland’s growing sway as a power-house bagel community. Will Success Spoil our Fine Madness for Bagels?  Now with the arrival—long awaited (thanks to Byzantine Portland permitting process) — Forage  Market bagels are about the best  to hit our pint-size city.

Forage Market’s new shop on Washington Avenue

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Sunday Breakfast: Bagel Mania VS an Old Favorite in a 30-Mile Round-trip Odyssey

August 12, 2018 / / Uncategorized

Fifteen miles later driving from Portland to North Yarmouth, I arrived at the Purple House for my weekly stash of their wonderful Montreal style bagels.  Instead I found this note:

Note pinned to the door at the Purple House

I stood in the parking feeling rather foolish, best laid plans gone asunder to do early morning Sunday chores quick and easy.

To salvage this wasted trip and assuage my hunger, I went a quarter mile down the road to Stone’s Café.  When the Purple House opened the folks at Stone’s were not happy, thinking that they’d lose their breakfast and lunch business to the upscale bagel maker and chef.

Ridiculous. Talk about apples and oranges, Stones is to Purple House as instant mashed potatoes is to potato gnocchi.  The twain doesn’t compete.

Stones, 424 Walnut Hill Rd. (Route 115), North Yarmouth; 207-829-4000

I’m an old fan of Stone’s Café discovering it over 15 years ago when it was run by the same family (whose name escapes me) that kept that place humming for decades.  Here was home-cooking bar none, big bulging plates of old-fashioned country fare served with downright gusto to an adoring local patronage. The weekly Saturday night dinners were legendary as big platters of prime rib were wheeled around like prized oxen.

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Drifters Wife Part Two: Comparing the Old and the New in the Realm of Living Large in the Restaurant City of the Year

August 11, 2018 / / Uncategorized

Some restaurants get all the attention while others—just as good or even better—miss the boat as if slurping on the sidelines. Do these winners have great PR/marketing teams or are there substantive reasons why a star shines more brightly than others in the same galaxy?

Now that Portland has been named the best restaurant city of the year by Bon Appetit’s roving critic Andrew Knowlton, their coveted picks leave me scratching my head with Drifters Wife–so highly regarded–leading the pack.  In fact, the day before it was announced of Portland’s new status as urban dining royalty, I went to Drifters for dinner for the first time since it moved from their old space into the former Roustabout digs.

I had a lovely meal.  But was it rave-worthy?  Yes and no or maybe too subtle to count as blockbuster fare.  Perhaps it’s how a friend of mine summed it up on Drifter’s goodness.  He said, “My first meal there in the new space was a big disappointment; the next two were superb.  But it just might be it’s hit or miss when you expect the best. Or at least the next level!”

 

The big-windowed painted black bar room  works when the lighting is right

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