May 2022

Rhubarb Adds Great Moistness and Richness To This Seasonal Bundt Cake

May 28, 2022 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

This is one of the best uses of rhubarb in a cake.  When I took  the first slice I was amazed at how good this cake tasted: moist, rich, almost creamy with the tang of rhubarb in the filling and its overall sweetness tempered by the lemon glaze that coats the cake.

I found the recipe in  “Rustic Fruit Desserts” by Cory Schreiber. I use it more often than not for seasonal fruit desserts and other sweets depending on the time of year.  Cory Schreiber  owns a very popular bakery, Baker and Spice in Portland, Oregon.  If only we had such a bakery in our neck of the woods.  The closest is Scratch Baking, whose baked goods have similar characteristics as the other Portland bakery.

Rhubarb Bundt with lemon glaze

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At the Helm: Unremarkable and Bland

May 17, 2022 / / Restaurants

Dare I disagree with the latest (and one of the few) reviews of this forward-looking restaurant?  After all,  the Helm Oyster Bar and Bistro  appeared in the city’s newspaper of record  with a four-star review, a rarity, barking unbridled raves. When I visited the restaurant shortly after the write-up appeared we ordered several of the menu items gushed over.   In our tastings it was as though we were at a different restaurant entirely.

The room is different from most other dining establishments in Portland.  For one, it’s glass-walled overlooking glimpses of the water on Thames Street, a byway that will one day connect to the rest of the Eastern Waterfront development, where the audacious and highly anticipated 12 is set to open in the old Portland Company Building  known collectively as 58 Fore Street or Portland Foreside. The renown of 12 is its pedigree: The chef, Colin Wyatt,   is from such New York stars as Daniel and Eleven Madison Park.  He joins the team of EVO (one day chef Matt Ginn should be nominated for a JBA), Chebeague Island Inn and  58 Culinary.

The chef at Helm, Billy Hagar,   hails from the San Francisco area, and his Portland resume reads Flood’s and Drifters Wife (both closed, both unremarkable , the latter less so).

The entry, the raw bar and dining bar

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