It’s been several weeks since I’ve cooked at home. The reason is that I had to deal with packing up my kitchen for my move to a new apartment. That fateful, monumental event took place about a week ago. My new apartment is still filled with unpacked cartons (there were originally 80 cartons of books, dishes and bric a brac of every type such as piles of placemats and napkins that I forgot I had). In my new kitchen I have lots of drawers and cabinets and am slowly filling them. One notable mishap was that I couldn’t find the carton that contained all my spices. From peppercorns to exotic blends, even vanilla extract and my homemade baking powder were all missing. And then yesterday I finally found them in a carton marked “Fragile Glassware.” Indeed.
So like so many in Portland I’ve resorted to take out before and during Covid quarantine.
In general, my biggest gripe is the navigability of the restaurant websites. Many are hosted by Upserve, which can be finicky. And heaven help us if you want to feed yourself on Mondays to Wednesdays since most of the kitchens limit take out to Thursday through Sunday. There are some exceptions, of course. And I fully understand that restaurants are operating on lean budgets and staff. I think Damian Sansonetti and Illma Lopez of Chaval are virtually solo in their kitchen, and keeping up with diner-out demand is difficult. Monte’s, too, for his great Roman style pizza works from a skelton kitchen staff but plans to be open 6 days a week in June.
But one thing I’ve noticed is that the food from some of our best restaurants is not quite as fine as it was during traditional dining in. By the time you get it hot off the stove, take it home and unless you open it up right away, lots gets lost in transportation back home. That and some of the restaurants pack the food in heavy duty plastic containers, which can’t be put in an oven to reheat. That leaves the microwave as the re-heater and you know what that can do to the texture of certain foods. A few pack the food in disposable foil containers that easily reheat in the oven.
Some of the best food I’ve had has been from Chaval, Isa, Union, Schulte & Herr and most recently from Blue Spoon, which is doing a great job, especially their burger and lobster bisque. I’ve also ordered from Maria’s, disappointing still. I wish Bruno’s had remained open to satisfy a veal parm fixation. But the sauerbraten with braised red cabbage and dumplings from Schulte & Herr is comfort food personified as is the pork or veal schnitzel, with its breaded crust gossamer light, like a breading made in heaven. And a big surprise was the delicious dinner of chicken marsala over gnocchi from Sea Glass at Inn by the Sea.
Chaval’s chicken dinner for two is very good as is the spatchcocked chicken I ordered from Union with a barbecue glaze. That dinner came with a split of champagne, salad and green vegetable and 4 cupcakes inclusive in the $38 price for two. Isa’s eggplant lasagne is still such a pleasant dish whether you’ve had it old-style (dining in) or take out. Szechuan Kitchen does some admirable fare for take out. The dumplings are terrific but the food can be spicy hot if you don’t tell them to ease up on the heat quotient. Even Panda Garden can be OK–no different from what it’s always been, and sometimes all you want is decently prepared American-Chinese.
Bao Bao is still great for dumplings and hot entree dishes. I wish Empire had gone the take-out route instead of closing down entirely.
Mostly I avoid supermarkets. I hate waiting on line to get in. Though it’s not a pr0blem at Shaw’s since hardly anyone goes there. Still, Hannaford has become a very pleasant place to shop since there are customer limits. And if you hit it right there’s no waiting on line. Whole Foods always has a line and is filled with shoppers full of attitude donning designer face masks. Smaller markets like Pond Cove in Cape Elizabeth and Smaha’s Legion Square market in South Portland are manageable stores. Smaha’s is easy to shop, even with a limitation of shoppers that creates a short line at times. And the butcher is very good. The Solo Market in SoPo is another find, an offshoot of Solo Italiano’s restaurant.
I’ve taken to frequenting farm stores. Cumberland Center has a treasure trove of these. The Pine Ridge Acres on Winn Road, Springbrook Farm, on Greeley Rd. and Cumberland Food Company on Tuttle Rd. are filled with local fare sourced on their farms or nearby.
The new layouts of Portland’s farmers markets is off-putting. It seems like you have to walk the entire Deering Oaks park to get from one vendor to another. It’s no longer (for now) a place to stroll, chat or feel like you’re shopping for fun. But the purpose is to support local farmers, and I’m all for that even with the inconvenience.
I was incredulous, however, of the new venue for the Crystal Springs Farmer’s Market in Brunswick, which has been one of our best markets. It has moved to the Brunswick High School whose vast parking lot is filled with vendors. It seems that the grounds of Crystal Springs Farm could not easily accommodate parking and vendors at the same time or keep the crowds in a safe social distancing pattern. But the Brunswick school campus is quite lovely, and the market turned out much better than I thought it would. The parking lot is huge.
Other farm stores I go to include Jordan’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth. It’s a great little farm shop and they have local asparagus as does Alewive Brook Farm down the road.
Take out restaurants that I’ve yet to try include Lio, Ada’s Kitchen, Eventide, Evo et al. But I probably won’t get around to these because I’ve started to cook at home. I prepared one of my favorite recipes from Jamie Oliver, his Juiciest Pork Chops found in his book “Jamie at Home.” Another quickly prepared dish is the sauteed chicken breast recipe from Pierre Franey found on the NYT’s cooking site. It’s in a classic butter and lemon sauce.
On that night I made my standard chocolate chip cookies. They were some of the best I’ve made. The secret is to use the best butter you can get. I like Vermont Creamery unsalted butter, which at Walmart is $2.99 for a half pound compared to $5.99 at Whole Foods or $3.99 at Shaw’s. What makes these cookies so good is to heavily grease the baking sheet with butter. It a very buttery, crisp-edged cookie.
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 tablespoons white sugar
- 6 tablespoons light-brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 heaping teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 heaping teaspoon brewed coffee
- 1 cup or more chocolate chips, preferably Guittard semi-sweet or bittersweet
- 1/2 cup or more walnut pieces
- Butter for greasing the pan for each batch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heavily grease sheet pans with butter for each batch.
- In a stand mixer cream the butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla.
- Gradually add the flour and baking soda, beating gently on low speed until thoroughly blended.
- Stir or beat in gently the chips and walnuts.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until cookies are crisp around the edges and center is baked. Let rest in pan and then remove to cooling racks. Store in an air-tight container when completely cooled.