November 2016

A Native New Yorker Living in Maine and Cooking Southern Food

November 2, 2016 / / Mains

I don’t know how I developed my passion for the cooking of the south.  In fact I haven’t traveled to the south much at all.  I went to Savannah once and recall a wonderful meal at The Olde Pink House.  I’ve been to Williamsburg and dined at the Williamsburg Inn that evokes the old south with black waiters in livery.  I’ve been to Atlanta and Florida but didn’t seek out regional cooking. I wish I had also spent more time in Charleston, South Carolina where it has the biggest concentration of southern chefs doing great things.  I subscribe to the southern lifestyle magazine Garden and Gun and import soft wheat southern flour milled in small granaries in the South.  What more can I do from my perch up north?

Clockwise: fried chicken at the old Caiola's; a generic portrayal of fried chicken ; fried chicken at BJ's

Clockwise: fried chicken at the old Caiola’s; a generic portrayal of fried chicken ; fried chicken at BJ’s

Read more…

Maple’s Gelato and Bakery Is a Boon to Yarmouth’s Growing Food Scene

November 1, 2016 / / Discoveries

I would be exaggerating if I said that Maple’s Bakery and Gelato on Route 1 in Yarmouth is a bagel body-double for South Portland’s bagel superstar, Scratch Baking.  What’s true is this: Essentially the Maple’s bagel is to Yarmouth what the bagel is to South Portland’s Scratch Baking.  Both make great bagels. Go to Maple’s on a Saturday or Sunday morning and you’ll walk into its small shop packed to the rafters with morning-bagel enthusiasts. Like Scratch, Maple’s runs out early.  They make about 300 to 400 bagels per day on weekends and 200 to 300 daily during the week.

Maple's Bakery and Gelato; toasted Maple's bagel enjoyed at home

Maple’s Bakery and Gelato; toasted Maple’s bagel enjoyed at home

I’ve driven past the Maple’s shop on Route 1 many times and have wondered if this was the same Maple’s who scooped up the organic ice cream market way back when Maple’s founder Kristi Green opened her ice cream shop on Forest Avenue about 10 years ago. There she produced small-batch ice cream using local and organic ingredients.

Maple's is the place to be on weekend mornings; Maple's chicken pot pie

Maple’s is the place to be on weekend mornings; Maple’s chicken pot pie

Read more…

Newer Posts