Discoveries

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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Short Take: The Art of the Onion Bagel

March 11, 2018 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

The onions are chopped and then put through a grinder extracting the onion juice, the liquid of which is used in making the bagel instead of water and the remaining onion shreds are dehydrated, and the bagel gets coated with their pungency.  The onion extraction gives these bagels intense onion flavor.

Onion bagels at Rose Foods

That’s the art of the onion bagel as explained to me by Kevin Gravito, the bagel baker  at Rose Foods. He also said they’re more labor intensive to make than other bagels.

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Sunday Bagels: New York-Style Onion Bagels Have Made it to Maine

February 18, 2018 / / Discoveries

By special request my need for a true New York style onion bagel arrived at Rose Foods  this past Sunday.  Studded with onions and salt these were the true bagels of my youth growing up in New York.

A basket of onion bagels fresh out of the oven at Rose Foods

To me the onion bagel is iconic beyond all others.  Though the most universally popular is still the everything bagel, which I find too overwhelming, an ersatz plotz of disparate spices coating the most common bagel.

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Bagels: The Mania Continues in the Evolution of Bagels in Maine

February 4, 2018 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

Onion bagels  epitomize the New York bagel more than any other variety in the city known for its water-bath wonders.  Indeed growing up in New York Sunday mornings meant bagels for breakfast, with lox and cream cheese and sometimes white-fish salad or a whole fish of smoked sable.  We had the proverbial baker’s dozen, which included plain, sesame seed and onion.  Occasionally an egg bagel (with onions) was included in the mix and a few bialies, too.

Union’s basket of onion bagels

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Turkey Day Post Mortem: Always Local, Fresh and Made from Scratch. And Don’t Forget the Pumpkin Pie

November 24, 2017 / / Discoveries, Recipes

My small soiree for Thanksgiving dinner  turned out to be one of the best I’ve made (modesty aside) because the menu was simple, the ingredients the best available from local sources.  And I didn’t have the stress of serving a  crowd.

The turkey was from Alewive’s Brook Farm. It’s not organic but as close as one can get without the labeling. These are birds that flock and peck in the open, eating whatever is on the ground.    And they’re so fresh: slaughtered on Tuesday, they’re available at the farm or at Wednesday’s Monumemnt Square farmers’ market.

When I picked up the bird at the farm I asked Jodie Jordan, the patriarch of the farm, how long does it need to cook.  Fifteen minutes per pound? I asked.  He shook his head, answering, ” I cook it until it’s done, no hard and fast rule.” Figure on 15  minutes per pound, more or less; just use an instant read thermometer to register about 165 degrees; remove, tent with foil to rest.

Local turkey

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Take Notice: the Portland Indoor Winter Farmers’ Market Has Moved–But No One Knows Excactly Where Yet!

November 12, 2017 / / Discoveries

If you’re planning to visit the East Bayside Portland indoor winter farmer’s market, which has been held at 84 Cove St. for several years, remove it from your GPS.  The building, which resembled a dude cave more so than a farmer’s marketplace, is no more as we know it. The location has indeed changed–but no one knows for sure where it will be held.

It’s still scheduled to open on Saturday, December 2, for the 2017-2018 season.  But an entry on the Maine Farmers’ Market website lists the site as TBD.

It’s not clear why the market organizers left their Cove Street space, except that the lease held by Swallowtail Café and the farmers’ market is being taken over by Taproot Magazine.

The tables at the year-round Swallowtail cafe at Cove Street

One reason might be pure economics regarding the tenancy on a 12-month basis.  The market operated there for 5 months along with Swallowtail’s Café and Market Place, which might not have been viable   economically to keep as a year-round space. Read more…

First Look: Now See Who’s Making the Best Bagels In Maine–World Class at Rose Foods

August 5, 2017 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

This is a brief note on one of most intriguing, finely tuned food establishments that’s just begun its orbit around Portland’s daring-do dining circles.  Rose Foods at the site of the former BreaLu Café space on Forest Avenue strives to be both a bagel shop and Jewish deli, a surprising creation from the white- bread hands of noted chef Chad Conley who’s cooked in some of the top restaurants in New York and Portland and has created the inimitable Palace Diner where his tuna melts and flapjacks are legendary.

The ordering line at Rose Foods

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The Cumberland Farmer’s Market Is a Nice Change from Portland’s Crowded Scene

July 31, 2017 / / Discoveries

To many Portlanders, the Saturday summer Farmer’s Market held at Deering Oaks is sacrosanct.  That’s why I can’t understand why the market gets upstaged—at the same time and place–by the yearly Festival of Nations.  Couldn’t that event be held on a Sunday and not interrupt the coveted farmer’s market?

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The Line-Up: Bagel Mania Goes National, Even in Maine–But I Say Bring on the Flagel

June 4, 2017 / / Discoveries, Restaurants, Travel

Enterprising bagel mavens in Maine should flock to flagels, a flattened version of a bagel that some connoisseurs consider the best in class. In fact, the New York Daily News proclaimed in an article last year that these were the best and tastiest of the bagel world.  I wonder why they’re not more popular here?  The name doesn’t roll off tongue and could be mistaken for a social faux pas that invariably happens in a packed room.

Montague Street (Brooklyn) flagels

The point is there’s a bit of bagel mania across the nation with major cities trying to earn top honors in comparison to the standard bearer of the greatness of New York bagels.  I’m from New York and indeed I miss those specimens , which are as easily available as a pack of chewing gum. What’ makes them so good?  The common conception is that it’s because of New York’s pure water (not so pure anymore) and boiled in so-called artesian pools.  I think they’re good because they’re made with chutzpah, the kind dredged from the old  Red Hook.

Excellent bagels sandwich at Cafe 158

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Springtime means the opening of outdoor farmers’ market statewide and Portland’s Deering Oaks Market Opened on Saturday

May 1, 2017 / / Discoveries

A sure sign of spring, with summer to come, is the opening of Portland’s Deering Oaks outdoor farmers market.  It’s a sigh of relief that the glories of Maine summer weather are in the wings.  Still,  at this time of year the park is barely greening up, with the trees struggling to leaf out and the grass panting to become a rich green.

The sign “No” refers to more parking restrictions at the park;  the remains of a big oak; the lineup of vendors on one side of the road and cut flowers like daffs trickle in for now

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