Discoveries

Covid Cacophony: Singing the Take-Out Blues Instead of Cooking at Home or Dining Out For Real But Try Farm Stores and Small Supermarkets for Daily Stress-Free Shopping

May 24, 2020 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

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.

Pine Ridge Acres Farm with cases filled with fresh and frozen meat, dairy and eggs; canned good made at the farm as well

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Comfort Food: The Essential Larder Now for Cooking at Home More than You Ever Have

March 20, 2020 / / Discoveries, Recipes, Restaurants

Since almost all restaurants in Maine have stopped offering dine-in options with table service, a great many of us are supporting local restaurant by ordering out to take in.  From Eventide, Chaval, Central Provisions to even Applebee’s that now has, like all the rest, curbside pickup.

Take out has its usefulness, just think pickup from an Asian restaurant.  But whatever it is you’re having from a restaurant by the time you get it home it’s lost some of its luster. A friend of mine admitted that the dinner  prepared for pick up at one of the city’s finest restaurants was merely OK.

To the extreme I read an article in the New York Post the other day describing a New York  socialite who’s moved her family to the Hamptons where she spends thousands a day at specialty stores to feed her family.  In fact, the food stores in the Hamptons are doing booming business as many New Yorkers have retreated to their zillion dollar vacation mansions on Eastern Long Island to flee from NYC’s dire coronavirus outbreak.  They don’t buy one or two of food items but rather a whole meat tray worth of $29.99 per pound steaks.

For most of us cooking and eating in and shopping accordingly is more the norm.  I had about 7 days of meals at home and now I must go out to replenish. My stash for the week included a whole chicken made into chicken and dumplings; pork chops (stuffed and baked), chicken breast, pan seared, chopped meat for meat sauce over pasta, all of which presented leftovers for lunch the next day.  I still have a chuck roast in the freezer for pot roast, some more pork chops (see recipe here) and a lone bag of PF Chang’s orange chicken for potluck.

REMEMBER WHEN: SHOULDER TO SHOULDER? WE’LL BE BACK

Clockwise from top: Eventide, North 43 Bistro, Isa and 555

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Where to Shop Now Selectively to Maintain Safe Social-Distancing

March 18, 2020 / / Discoveries

More than ever where to shop now for basic food and groceries is a vital choice in keeping safe social distancing.  Places like Hannaford, Shaw’s, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, et al, are too crowded to shop to maintain social distancing.  But I’m not suggesting that  you stop going altogether but shop early or late in the day when these stores are not as crowded.   Though the other day, I needed cultured butter to make these great cookies based on that butter. It’s a NYT Cooking recipe called Cultured Butter Cookies.  There are only a few places in town to get cultured butter.  The most easily found is from Vermont Creamery.  Now get a load of price differences.  Whole Foods sells it for $5.99 per half pound.  Walmart has it for $2.99 and Shaw’s sells it for $3.99.  Hannaford does not carry it.  If you’re in Market Basket neighborhood in Biddeford, all their butters—and they have a great selection—are cheaper across the board including Vermont Creamery.

The big retailers, Whole Foods and Hannaford

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First Look: At Long Last, Monte’s Fine Foods Is Open to Serve Its Emblematic Roman-Style Pizza and Specialty Fare

July 13, 2019 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

Monte’s Fine Foods is open for business.  The preview on Thursday brought out an anticipatory  crowd for the soft opening.  Friday made the opening official, a welcome event for the owners who spent  the past year turning the old Angelone’s Pizza building in East Deering on Washington Avenue into a sparking citadel of true Roman-style pizza and  specialty Italian- and Mediterranean-fare.

The pizza ovens and kitchen at Monte’s

Chef Steve Quatrucci, co-owner  (with Neil Rouda) and pizza maven,  is the force behind Monte’s with a curriculum vitae in Portland’s food world that spans decades.  For instance, he founded The Back Bay Grill  in 1988; several years later he opened the inimitable West End Deli; he also revitalized the kitchen at Miss Portland Diner as its lead chef who established the menu as it is today (those southern biscuits were all his after I introduced Steve to the fineness of using soft-wheat southern flour for biscuits). He has also worked at food retailers and even for the City of Portland where he tried to revitalize the Riverside Golf Club and Grill owned by the city.  He created a remarkable menu for a clientele who preferred, however,  hot dogs, fries and beer.

Plenty of parking at Monte’s (Photo courtesy of Monte’s Fine Foods)

And most importantly the Quatrucci family has long held sway in Portland food circles among the Italian-American community.  Or as Quattrucci relates, “Memories from my childhood are filled with smells and scenes from busy kitchens and tables full of the most delicious food you can imagine.” To wit: Nana Q’s red sauce made by his grandmother is the sauce that will adorn all the pizzas and many prepared  dishes. It’s the same sauce that was served at the family’s Balboa Cafe circa 1930s on India Street.

A sample slice of anchovy pizza served on preview night

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Wednesday Food Features in Newspapers Are Still Strong Across the Country Except At Our Own Daily

July 3, 2019 / / Discoveries

Across the country Wednesday is food day at newspapers everywhere from small-town dailies to big-city publications. But in Portland, which is renowned as a foodie mecca in a state that is locavore heaven, the Portland Press Herald gives its hometown short shrift.  There is no Wednesday food anymore.  Instead, there’s’ this anemic section on Sundays.  That in itself was not a bad idea to reserve Sunday for a food section if it were a blockbuster instead of a thin section mostly devoted to wire copy.

Last week’s front page food features in four Northeastern dailies. Clockwise Left, Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald (The Wrap buried in the Business section), Boston Globe and the New York Times

Wednesday at the PPH gives one nod to food day: Veteran food pro Meredith Goad’s weekly column called “The Wrap,” which tells us about all the new goings on in the food world of Greater Portland.  It’s a great column. Word has it, though, that the paper’s staffers have voiced concern that the higher ups killed Wednesday Food.

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Where to Shop Now–At Supermarkets and Other Local Food Stores Amidst an Inventory of Errors and Omissions

May 23, 2019 / / Discoveries

My favorite potato, available during the winter at farmers’ market, has been the pinto potato–red-skinned with blushes of beige and golden flesh within.  It bakes, boils, sautés well yielding an ultra-creamy texture.  Alas they’ve disappeared as a storage potato early last month at farmers’ markets.  Locally Goranson and Dandelion farms sold the potatoes until their winter stash was depleted.  They’ll be back in the markets by mid-summer.

By the end of May winter storage crops like potatoes, onions and carrots are truly getting long in the tooth.  The famous spring dug parsnip moreover is still not available at farmers’ markets. Farmers say that the ground is still too tough to dig them up.

“New” (?) potatoes from Hannaford

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The Verdict Is In: IHOP’s Pancakes are Classically Mediocre–Where to Go Instead

April 13, 2019 / / Discoveries, Restaurants

Is there a town in America whose pancakes are world-famous?  The short answer is no.  Yet the national chain, International House of Pancakes (aka IHOP), has institutionalized this breakfast and brunch staple nationwide, and in my local report on pancakes I thought I should experience how flapjacks from a chain pancake house stack up against local hot spots.

I ordered the buttermilk blueberry pancakes.  I asked the waitress if the blueberries used were Maine berries.  She said yes. I should have asked whether they were wild Maine blueberries.  They were not.  They were as large as mini-mothballs, with a striking resemblance in taste.

The conclusion is these pancakes were classically mediocre–doughy, floury and rough tasting.  What’s more, a knife and fork was needed to cut them apart.  The two big blobs of butter that topped the pancakes tasted like butter facsimiles as was the array of pancake syrup on the table: classic, strawberry, pecan and blueberry.  Real maple syrup is available for a $1.99 surcharge.  The classic syrup was nothing more that high fructose corn syrup with traces of maple flavoring and coloring.  I tried the blueberry syrup, too, which had a medicinal taste.

Filled with high-bush blueberries, choice of syrups

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Food Find: Slab Pizza Is Now Available In Select Retail Stores in Portland–And It’s Fabulous Just Like the Restaurant

March 12, 2019 / / Discoveries

I first saw it in the freezer at Pat’s Meat Market where stacks of boxes were piled high with the brand Slab clearly showing.  It turned out to be Slab’s very popular pizza now available in stores. It’s not in Hannaford or Shaw’s (certainly not there) but is available at Pat’s, A&C Grocery and Micucci’s. At $12 for a 12-inch pie, it’s less expensive than ordering in from any of our pizza emporiums for takeout.

This is a plain pie: no toppings, just tomato sauce and mozzarella, with chef Stephen Lanzalotta’s signature pie in good stead: the sweet tomato sauce and gratings of mozzarella, just enough to make the pie glisten and gooey good.

Slab’s pie

After  first bite I thought, finally a plain pizza without all those egregious toppings, just the purely unadulterated Sicilian stretch of pizza dough and topping.

The crust is sensational: crispy, toothsome goodness.  Oddly the pie is not in slab form but rather a 12-inch round.  I assumed it would be in slab form as it is at the restaurant, though round pies are available there too. When you slice it the piece holds firm, no sagging in the middle.

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Weekend Home Cooking: It’s Easy To Dine Out But Dining In Can be a Joy

January 27, 2019 / / Discoveries, Recipes, Restaurants

Weekend cooking should begin with a classic bagel sandwich for morning.  Pictured here is an everything bagel from the Purple House Bakery whose Montreal style bagels are superb.  With a schmear of cream cheese topped with a fried egg , local tomato slices and smoked Nova from Acme Smoke House in Brooklyn (Harbor Fish carries it), the weekend food spree  at home  has begun.

Purple House Bakery bagel with Acme Nova, cream cheese, tomatoes and fried egg

But fine-dining eating-out fatigue can inflict pain occasionally.  It’s one reason why I’m cooking more at home than going out to eat.  But there was an exception a while back when we finally got a table at Union at the haute-hipster Press Hotel.  Union is one of those under-hyped restaurants when it shouldn’t be because chef Joshua Berry is a terrific cook.  His larder is chock full of locally sourced ingredients that he utilizes in creative takes on American bistro cooking.

Consider a starter course like the charcuterie board of house-cured meats such as jambon de maison, house smoked beef brisket and braised pork rillettes; or tempeh bathed in a glistening sweet-salty hoisin glaze; or an ingenious dish of sprouting cauliflower with house made lamb bacon and cloth bound cheddar or his take on southern fried buttermilk chicken with pickled cauliflower and spoonbread timbale.

I would have done a formal review of the restaurant, but on the night we were there I  didn’t intend to.

My photos were haphazard and couldn’t’ report faithfully on the many dishes we tried since I wasn’t taking notes. Suffice it to say, you should go before summer arrives and becomes packed with visitors.  Even now advance planning is advised to get a reservation.

Top, clockwise: Union dining room, charcuterie board,fried chicken, sprouting cauliflower and tempeh-hoisin

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Say Cheese! And You’ll Get the Best at Washington Avenue’s newest shop.

November 12, 2018 / / Discoveries

The Cheese Shop of Portland is a boon to the city’s nascent specialty shop inventory compared to the nonstop lineup of new restaurants recently opened or in the works.  What the city lacks is a substantial roster of fine-food purveyors.    Other than Micucci’s, and to a lesser extent, Rosemont  or the various Asian markets, it’s still slim pickings to find ingredients called for in sophisticated recipes of world cuisines.

Otherwise Micucci’s remains a standout Italian specialty market  for olive oils, authentic canned San Marzano tomatoes and double-rich tomato paste; their selection of dried pastas is terrific, too.

The focus of the Cheese Shop is, of course, cheese curated from top European and local creameries as well as a fine selection of vinegars, olive oils, charcuterie, coffees, pastas and preserves.

Owners Will and Mary Sissle hail from the extraordinary food purveyor Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge and Boston’s South End, where Will was the international cheese buyer and Mary directed the vast online shopping business.

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