Fall Cocktails

As the weather cools off, it's easier to go inside and have a drink, rather than frequent places I'd rather not be, but go to just because there's an outdoor deck. Fall sliding into winter provides an excuse to slow down, cozy up, and catch up with friends over cocktails, rather than shouting over live music.

Here's four places with great cocktails that I'm looking forward to revisiting now that the mercury is falling. Look to Appetite Portland for Dawn's recommendations of comfort food dishes to pair with your cocktails.

50 Local in Kennebunk recently served me The Remedy: Bourbon, lemon, cayenne simple syrup, and a ginger sugared rim. This drink complements the atmosphere of the bar, being both warming and elegant.

Also try the mushroom tagliatelle while you're there. Fresh, fat noodles with a creamy sauce, studded with a variety of mushrooms foraged by the chef is not to be missed.  Reminiscent of a mushroom stroganoff.

The Holier than Thou at Grace: St. Germaine, grapefruit juice, sparkling wine. I die every time I taste St. Germaine.  Its floral, slightly herbal notes always are paired with tart juices, sparkling wines, and infused simple syrups or vodka. And it always works so well.

Local 188's the Beekeeper: Cold River vodka & Honeymaker dry mead, splash of St. Germain is another fantastic combination (although beware the beekeeper- it's drunk making!).

Zapoteca offers tequila in many forms, from straight up to mixed well with fruit juices and liquors to make tart and sweet margaritas. Also not to be missed: the warming tequila caramel bread pudding.

So if you haven't seen much of me lately or finally want to connect, let's grab a cocktail around town sometime soon.  It's our consolation prize for not being able to sail, bike, wear bikinis, swim, and grill out.

Shuck Truck at El Rayo

That's a $5 spread you see right there (including the happy hour beer).

El Rayo Taqueria has $1 oysters on Mondays, and today they had the Shuck Truck serving Cabin Cove Oysters from the Damariscotta River.

Oysters were briny, served with a salt-cutting red wine migonette.  Sold out fast, but the Shuck Truck will be back.  And hopefully we'll be seeing all manner of food trucks all over Portland soon anyway.

Italian Cold Cuts in Maine?!

Look what I found! An Italian cold cut sub! I stopped in Brunswick for lunch after teaching a canning class in Bowdoinham on Thursday and ate at the Big Top Deli. A strange little place, with super friendly service, and weird toasted sub rolls, but a big long line nonetheless.

I needed to look no further than the second cold sandwich to find what I wanted for lunch: a Classic Italian sub with Capacola, pepper ham, Genoa salami, bologna, provolone, pepperoncini, lettuce, tomato, onion, oil and vinegar. 
 
In Maine?!?  An Italian that doesn't mean ham and cheese on a split top hot dog bun??  I about fell over.  It's one food item I miss from the mid-Atlantic the most.

Other than the aforementioned weirdly toasted bun, it was pretty good!  But it was probably nostalgia and hunger that carried me more than anything else.

Anyone else eaten here?  It's kind of strange, right??

Slow Cooked Salsa Verde Pork Tacos

This recipe has an unlikely source: GQ.  But between the tantalizing pictures of piles of corn tortillas and a mess of slow cooked pork with tomatillo salsa and loads of jalepenos, I was drawn in.  And surprisingly, the recipe was so easy to make.

The best part about this recipe is that it's apparently impossible to screw up.  I know, I tried.

Did I mention I have a penchant for not thoroughly reading recipes?  I frequently reference a college boyfriend that made me cry after some harsh words delivered during a botched dinner prep.  What can I say?  Details like how long something takes usually escape me.

I often get all the ingredients (uh, mostly) and then stumble over some detail like, "braise for an hour or until the meat can be easily pulled apart" when I start to prep the recipe.  Minor details that then cause dinner to be served at 9pm or that recipe to be totally shelved until the weekend.  Not a good time to be 'hangry.'

And while that happened with this recipe, I felt like I could shorten some steps and still get the desired results (maybe I'm missing something out of this world by skipping the hour-long "slow fry" step, but oh well).

So this recipe is adapted from a GQ recipe and meshed with one from Joy the Baker for a weeknight dinner.  Adapted because I think the original is more of a weekend project, when it can have lots of time to slow cook.  But I skipped the "slow fry" step (WTF is that anyway?) and just braised.   The meat still fell apart tender and was friggin' delicious.  And sinus-clearningly spicy.  Yahoo.

Slow Cooked Salsa Verde Pork Tacos
Adapted from GQ and Joy the Baker

3 lbs. pork butt, trimed of any excess fat and cut into 1-1/2" cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
3 lbs. tomatillos, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, diced
1 large spicy jalepeno, diced
1 large sweet potato, cubed
cumin
salt and pepper
corn tortillas
cilantro (optional)
lime

Heat a large dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add olive oil and meat.  Brown for about 10 minutes, until you've got some nice char on the meat.

Reduce heat to medium, add more olive oil (a few turns around the pan) and then add in onion, garlic, and pepper.  Sautee for a few minutes and then dump in tomatillos.  Add 1/2 cup water.  The meat should be fully submerged; add more water if it's not.  If you have salsa verde on hand (like I did), add one pint (16 oz) of salsa.

Cover the pot and simmer stew for about an hour, maybe more.  While the meat is cooking, toss the cubed sweet potato with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper.  Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast at 400*F.  Mine took about 20 minutes; not very long, so keep an eye on them.

Test the meat after about an hour; when it pulls apart easily, it's done!  Shred with two forks until it's a nice mush of tasty, spicy, Tex Mexi goodness.  Serve in heated corn tortillas with cubed sweet potatoes, garnished with cilantro, and a squeeze of lime.

Easily makes 12-15 small tacos.

Happy Hour at the Thirsty Pig

I was really excited when I saw the Thirsty Pig come into town. Not to dwell on the negative, but Joe's review of the previous business (and some unflattering newspaper profiles) made me cringe and snarl when I walked by the storefront.

And apparently locals felt the same way, since after only a year, we were freed from corporate branding at 37 Exchange Street and instead welcomed into a great bar that focuses on two of my favorite things: beer and tube meat.

So Friday happy hour at the Pig has become a pretty standard way for my friend K. and I to start the evening.  $2.50 Shipyard draughts (they're probably out of the Summer by now, sad) and a good layer of meat to lay down before your night of drinking.

I am a sucker for a hot dog, especially one for $3.50 on a grilled bun with a side.  The Pig's other sausage offerings include Sweet and Hot Italian, Keilbasa, and chicken.  Each one comes with enticing toppings and condiments, although I customize my hot dog with a local combo: mayonnaise and relish.

The grilled bun and the hot hot dog warm the mayonnaise a little bit (stay with me) and the relish provides a nice, tangy crunch.  The grilled hot dog is meaty, juicy, and snappy, but not so as to be an impediment to easy eating.  (An aside: someone just told me that a foods' ease of eating carries as much weight for him as how it tastes.  Mind boggling, but I'm starting to appreciate that.)

The baked beans that came with my dog were a little dry, but that pickle is one of the best I've had around.  It's a la Po'boys and Pickles, a half-sour maybe?  Very tart.

A very critical part of any grilled tube meat is the bun, and the Pig pulls it off well- a buttered and toasted split top bun.  The salty crunch of the bun adds a nice textural element, whereas most soft white rolls simply serve as a vehicle, rather than a player in the overall taste.

On this particular Friday, our Old Port happy hour crawl was cut short by an invite for a sunset sail.  Not a bad way to end a week, I'd say.  And I'll see you tomorrow, Thirsty Pig!

Zucchini Pasta Ribbons

A simple recipe to help you use up all the great produce we're experiencing this time of year...

Zucchini ribbon pasta.  Use a peeler or a mandolin slicer to get long, thin strips of zucchini and combine with as many or as few fresh vegetables as you have on hand.  Here, I used fresh corn off the cob, cherry tomatoes, sliced in half, sauteed sweet Italian sausage, crumbled goat cheese, and chopped basil.

If you saute the zucchini ribbons gently, until they are softened and starting to become translucent, they transform into something more than I expected from squash.  Be careful not to overcook them, and you won't even miss the pasta in the final dish.  Plus, you can eat twice as much!

O-Rama: Breakfast on the Go

Breakfast on the go is kind of my specialty this summer.  Without boring you with too much detail, there were a lot of changes in my life that led to me losing my appetite and generally being uninterested in food (great for a food blogger, I know!).

So I was happy when I was able to eat anything, regardless of how healthy or socially acceptable it was.  My biggest hit was corn tortillas and Quesa Chihuahua quesadillas, introduced to me by my roommate.

The biggest problem with breakfast on the go though, is usually you have to buy it.  And at $4-$5 a day, adds up over the week.  But a treat for me is the everything (or "super" as they call it) bagel, toasted with lite or veggie cream cheese from Mr. Bagel.

I hit up the one on Forest Ave. which requires careful navigation through the tight, crowded parking lot.  But once inside, you're met with a bevy of beautiful bagels, coupled with friendly and efficient service.  The only stumble I had on my first time in is navigating the iced coffee station.

I ordered an iced coffee and was cheerfully handed a cup.  With no explanation.   And iced coffee setups vary widely around town.  Some make your iced coffee for you, while others hand you a cup of ice and let you pick from different flavors of chilled coffees.

But Mr. Bagel hands you a cup and leaves you to fend for yourself.  There's an ice machine that looks like a home appliance (a bread machine, maybe?) and pitchers of coffee, different flavors and roasts.  Uhhh...  I actually had to ask for help the first time (excuse me, where's the ice?), but now I'm an old pro.

There's a lot of talk about bagels in Portland.  Alls I know is I like the ones that come out of Mr. Bagel: chewy, salty, and very dense without being too bready.  For an on the go breakfast, this is a good stop, but I don't recommend eating a bagel while driving to work- it makes a royal mess!

You can read more O-rama: Breakfast on the go reviews from other local bloggers by visiting Portland Food Map.

BBF Giveaway: Hood New England Dairy Cook-Off Tickets & Hotel Stay

Update: Congrats to Paula, the winner of two tickets to the New England Dairy Cook-off and a night's stay at the Portland Regency Hotel & Spa. Not surprisingly, her favorite dairy product is butter. And thank you all for participating!

The 3rd Annual New England Dairy Cook-off is coming up!  Held at Ocean Gateway Terminal in Portland on November 6th, 2011, one home cook stands to win $10,000 in the contest.  If you have an original recipe that uses a dairy product, make it a Hood one, and submit your recipe here.  Recipes entries are due September 12th; visit www.HoodCookOff.com for more details on how to enter.

Past winners include Katherine Stetson of Bath, NH with her Apple Butter Aebleskivers with Maple Chantilly (Um, Google Image search Aebleskivers and you'll see why she won, yum) and Laurie Lufkin of Essex, MA with New England Buttermilk Pumpkin Cakes with Sour Cream Apple Caramel and Dried Cranberries.  This year is Maine's year!

If you aren't the type to make up your own recipes, you can still attend the event by entering to win two tickets to the event.  The kind folks at Hood Dairy are giving away two tickets to the event and a one night stay at the Portland Regency Hotel & Spa on November 5th, 2011.

Simply comment on this post with your favorite dairy product (mine: cheese, duh), and I will randomly select one winner on Saturday, September 10th.  Entries close on Friday, September 9th at 12am EST.  This sweepstakes is open only to those over 18 and legal residents of the United States.

158 Salmon Bagel

Salmon bagel at 158 Pickett St. Cafe changed my life.  I am obsessed!

Boda "very thai" kitchen + bar Review

When bloggers reviewed all 13 Thai restaurants last year, I missed out on what I heard was the best one of the bunch, Boda.  I waited until the last minute (like I do with all my homework assignments) and found myself staring down the 'Closed' sign on Boda's door.

But I've been to Boda several times since the Thai-o-rama, and just never written about it here.  So here's to me finishing what I started.

Boda is located at 671 Congress Street, which puts it at Longfellow Square in the ever expanding foodie corner there.  It's hip and modern inside, with an open front and seasonal sidewalk tables.   Their approach is street-vendor and tapas inspired skewer bar.  

And while I can't vouch for the authenticity of the place, I enjoy the small plates approach.  Boda's skewers, however, I've never been impressed with.  Especially the tofu skewers ($4) ; they just tasted like grill to me.

The Miang Kum Som-oh is not to be missed though.  The "bite-sized pummelo fruit salad [is served] on betel leaves w/ toasted coconut, peanut, lime, ginger, shrimp & shallots in a palm sugar dressing ($5)."  As you can see, these fruit salad bites include a lot of great Thai flavors, and it comes together nicely in a mix of bitter, crunchy, sweet, and herby.

The group required some convincing to order the quail eggs ($7), but once the little darlings arrived, my friends were quickly won over by the yolks' creamy taste and texture.  "Tastes like butter!" someone happily exclaimed.

The Wolf's Neck Beef Salad ($13) is great too; thinly shaved red onion and cucumbers accompany strips of beef with a lime-chili dressing, and plenty of mint and lemongrass to keep it interesting.

I never would have ordered the Kee Mao Noodles ($11 Vegetarian), but my friend K. did and I was impressed with the appeal of the dish.  She asked for extra vegetables, and our server offered to ask the kitchen to add different vegetables, rather than just more peppers and onions.  So it came with a nice assortment of perfectly stir fried veggies, and the noodles were cooked just right too.

While we didn't have dessert Friday night, but opted to finish our beers (great assortment of beers on tap),  I know the coconut cream black rice pudding is delicious.   I crave it.

So about Boda, someone said to me, you can get the same things at any Thai restaurant, but for a few dollars cheaper.  I'm inclined to disagree, since Boda has consistency that so many other places lack.  You can be happy with their curries, their unique appetizers, or a salad.  At so many other Thai places, you can only order one or two solid dishes and be disappointed with the rest of your food.  

Boda may not be your go-to for your Friday night take-out Pad Thai, but it is a nice place to spend an evening with friends, sharing small plates, catching up, and drinking amongst the hip downtown crowd.  So for that, I like it.

Do Not Poke the Pies

The original PSA

Summer-O-Rama: Lobster Rolls

Ed. Note: The original Porthole closed in October of 2012 and has since reopened. This review is of the now closed Porthole.

This month, local bloggers team up to bring you reviews of lobster rolls around town (see the Portland Food Map for the round up).  As usual, I waited until the last minute, so my plans to check out the new food truck at Fort Williams, Bite Into Maine, were thwarted.

But that's OK, because in the end, the Porthole is a better place to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon than Portland Head Light.  I was excited to go, as I've always had a good time and good food at the Porthole.  (I've raved about their brunch before.)  Plus, I had my good friend A. in tow yesterday, so all signs pointed to yes.

But 3pm is a weird time to go to a restaurant, so there were some service hiccups (no, it's cool, I love going to the bar for refills and extra napkins, thanks).

And when you're excited about a lobster roll- the cool lobster salad mixing with the buttery, salty, crunchy bun- getting a sandwich with two pieces of crumbling, dry brioche is disappointing. With a squeeze of lemon, the lobster salad was nice (nothing but chopped lobster and mayo).  But the sandwich bread didn't add anything and didn't even hold up for very long.

But as another friend pointed out later, a lobster roll needs to have a container to be successful.  Sandwich style doesn't cut it.  All the lobster ends up on your plate instead of in your mouth.  The split top bun is necessary, so a departure from it (and a poorly executed one at that) doesn't do anything to improve the classic roll.

I didn't find the best lobster roll in town, but I really enjoyed talking to people about their lobster roll preferences.  I've yet to met a person who doesn't have an opinion, and usually they suggest the best rolls are from places up and down the coast.  This makes me think that eating a good lobster roll is less about the lobster and the bun and more about the scenery.

While the Porthole is scenic, my longing for a buttered, toasted split top bun overcame the quality of the lobster salad and the view.  I'll let the Porthole stick to what it's good at: Sunday Funday and beers on the deck.  But my quest for the best (I'll even take good!) lobster roll in Southern Maine continues.

The Best Cupcakes in Portland, Maine, Round II

Late last year, I met Dawn of Appetite Portland and Shannon of Edible Obsessions quickly to scarf down several samples of local cupcakes.  We went for the easy to procure ones, sold out of a retail shop.  After we published our reviews, other bakeries, most run by just one baker, asked to be included in the roundup.

Since our options of cupcakes expanded, we expanded the tasters as well, to include Vrylena, Jillian of From Away, and Rebecca of Maine Foodie Finds.



We tasted various flavors from seven different bakeries.  Some were dry, some chocolate bitter, others left a greasy, buttery film coating my tongue.  The worst tasted artificially fruity; Shannon hit the nail on the head when she said, Fruit Loops.

But despite the sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, there were still reminders that it's a beautiful world out there in the Portland cupcake scene.



My favorite was the first one I tried (which I'm sure affected my palate. I couldn't even get excited about the admittedly great GF Peanut Butter Chocolate cupcake from Bam Bam Bakery that I had last).

This carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from the European Bakery in Falmouth was a revelation. I fell in love with the carrot cake/cream cheese combo all over again. The cake was very moist and the frosting wasn't too sweet, a common ailment for cream cheese frosting.

Another of my favorites was the chocolate with chocolate ganache from Sugar Hill Bakery. I'm not a huge chocolate dessert fan, and this one really wowed me. It was a light chocolate ganache, not a thick, heavy fondant-like layer.

I'd say it even beat out our reigning champion, Scratch Bakery in the chocolate cupcake match-up, although Scratch's did win over any other filled cupcake we had. We tried the chocolate pistachio, which was filled with their amazing vanilla pastry cream.

And sadly, YLime Gourmet's cupcakes were improperly handled before our tasting, leaving us with a poor representative. I carried them across town on a hot afternoon, watching sadly as the buttercream frosting melted and streamed off the cupcakes. 

However, I did sample one of YLime's chocolate, coconut with caramel icing from Coffee by Design.  It was amazing. I'm sure if we'd had a fresh sample at the tasting, it would have ranked very against the competitors. 

Cupcakes; tasted! Verdict: seek out Y-Lime's, Scratch Baking Co's, Sugar Hill's, and European Bakery. 

BBF Travels: Duck Donuts, Outer Banks

Mmm... donuts on vacation, what more could you want?  I'm down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my family for a week.  (Much more successful than last year's trip, in which we had to evacuate for a hurricane.)

So we of course have to sample all the local fried dough.  My sister was virtuous and ran to the donut shop; I sat on the porch and drank coffee until it was time to go meet her with the car.

While Duck Donuts has several locations throughout the Outer Banks, we're staying in Duck, so we visited the original shop- a tiny little storefront tucked into a soundside row of shops. 

And you gotta love a place that displays their process proudly (like taffy pulling or popcorn shops).  I particularly enjoyed watching the exuder drop dough into the river of hot oil, as the donuts floated along like rubber ducks in a Blue Danube carnival game.

Duck Donuts has lots of options for flavoring your donuts, which they do to order.  Glazes, sprinkles, coconuts, etc.  But we went with chocolate glaze and cinnamon sugar.  I feel the cinnamon sugar is the true test of a good donut.

These donuts are almost like a potato donut (seems like something they would make in Maine).  They're cake donuts, but they are so moist.  Usually cake donuts are dry and unappealing, but these were pretty awesome.

And, of course, it helps that they were fresh out of the fryer and enjoyed on a porch overlooking the ocean.  Tough life.

Taco Trio in South Portland

I'd been hearing so much about Taco Trio that I became a little obsessed with it (also, it's really easy to find yourself chanting, tacos! tacos! tacos!, a phenomenon I feel will not stop with all the new taco joints opening).  

Last weekend, A. and I biked into South Portland and were really excited to find Taco Trio. However, they were closed (on Sundays). This further contributed to the obsession.

So last week, we called all our girlfriends and piled into my roomie's car (chanting, no doubt). Taco Trio was to be had.

I ordered a trio of tacos ($9): carne asada, chorizo, and pescado. The best part about the tacos is the salsa bar. I sampled a few and found the hot ones to actually be hot. I settled on a medium roasted tomato salsa (the one in front of the sour cream in the photo below).

Unfortunately, none of my tacos stood out as my favorite. The steak was tasty, but a little dry (the salsa and fresh lime helped), the chorizo and potato was good, but again a little dry, and too sweet. I guess I'd have to go with the fish taco, but felt it was overwhelmed by the amount of lime sour cream-mayo it was topped with. 

A. loved her carnitas taco (seen in the middle with pico de gallo and mango salsas), and I snuck a bite. The seared pork was crunchy and tasted great. I'll go with that one next time.

Overall, I'm sure I'll return to Taco Trio. It's very bikable from Portland (although I don't know if eating three tacos and biking around would be very wise), and if you head out there on Thursdays, you can check out the new South Portland Farmers' Market nearby between 3pm and 7pm.

I enjoyed my tacos, but wasn't necessarily blown away by any of the flavors I experienced. Everything was good, not great. For Mexican food in Maine though, as long as we're not approaching Margarita's or On the Border territory, I'm happy.

Oh, and I fell in love with Horchata, so I will definitely be returning for some of that.