Portland Psst!

Traitor Joe's

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:49:00 +0000

It's open. Before you go, read this:

Trader Joe's business tactics are often very much at odds with its image as the funky shop around the corner that sources its wares from local farms and food artisans, via Fortune.

Chanterelle

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:06:00 +0000

Photo: David Needleman

This is Nutz

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:35:00 +0000

The owner of Living Nutz raw food was arrested on charges of intent to distribute marijuana after federal agents allegedly saw him unload two duffels weighing 64 pounds.

Seth Leaf Pruzansky, who goes by the name Seth Leaf, has been a champion of the raw food movement in Maine. He also has been an advocate for the legalization of hemp production. The Pruzansky family owns Maine IntelliHemp, a company that makes lip balm and skin salve from hemp seed oil, via PPH.

Kiwi

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:02:00 +0000

What does the world's best chef and his buddy David Chang want you to know about?

His team prepared 300 goodie bags — the brown ones they use at Milk Bar and other Momo establishments — filled with carrots, radishes, herbs, and a wild kiwi from Maine that was absolutely bonkers, via Eater.

And by bonkers, he means bonkers.

The Baumer

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 06:25:00 +0000

Mark Baumer walked across the country and blogged about it. Now, he's eating pizza every day and blogging about it. He was on TV and he blogged about it:

Rob Caldwell came into the studio. He was wearing pants. I asked him what kind of burrito he ate at Wild Burrito.

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 21:07:00 +0000

Ice cream

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 10:05:00 +0000

Of all the ice cream nonsense published this summer, only one story was really worth reading. John Thorne's ode to eating with his mother in Maine:

You have to exercise special care when you tear open the wrapping to keep the loose peanut bits from spilling all over the rug. Once you catch these in your hand and eat them, you carefully bite into the hard chocolate coating, the curve of which keeps you from taking a large bite, via Bittman.

Where the evil pixie kings roam

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 23:53:00 +0000

The Common Ground Fair is a source of inspiration. At least according to the author Carrie Jones:

As we were walking in, there was this guy wearing corduroy: corduroy pants, shirt and blazer, all in earth tones. That’s kind of freaky in itself, but he also had this huge fabric tail scrounging out from the back of his coat. I kept staring at it and staring at it. He smelled really bad too, like clothes that hadn’t been washed in ages and ages and ages, via PW.

Alien Land…

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:32:00 +0000

Photo: Kris Larson,
via The Maine Blog

Now Open: Little Seoul

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:27:00 +0000

Little Seoul restaurant, at 90 Exchange St., ~~plans to~~ opened in the space that was once The Greek Corner. Let's hope they ~~skip an attempt at~~ stop with the sushi and stick with the bibimbap and kimchi.

Now Open: Pai Men Miyake

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:24:00 +0000

Masa Miyake's noodle shop at 188 State Street is now open. Cash only until Friday. [Update] Photos here.

Turkey Legs

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:07:00 +0000

Photograph: Anna Low

Coffee Bar Lola

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 11:57:00 +0000

Bar Lola's Guy and Stella Hernandez have reportedly purchased Hilltop Coffee, via PFM. Let's hope there's Bard Coffee and breakfast sandwiches at Coffee Bar Lola. [Updated 4/21] More on the move here.

One Fifty Ate

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:29:00 +0000

Serious Eats visits 158 in South Portland and finds some bagel-shaped baguettes. And concludes:

Bagels plus Maine plus tattoos equals delicious.

Phoebe's thumb

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:46:00 +0000

Photo: Lewis Hine/LOC

Plywood: Ramen edition

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:28:00 +0000

Masa Miyake has signed a lease on 188 State St., the old Local 188, for what will probably be a noodle bar sometime this fall. [Updated 4/21] More on Pai Mei Miyake.

Eric and Nancy Zhou, of Bubble Maineia are also reportedly opening a noodle bar at 15 Temple Street, the old Morrison's Chowder House.

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:24:00 +0000

Image: Rachel Sperry/MECA

What's missing in Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:07:00 +0000

In case you missed what's missing in Portland (and even if you didn't, the Portland Daily Sun didn't exactly highlight these choice bits):

1) Josh Peck and Sue Taylor, Sous Chef Training, Bar Lola: "We could also use a good raw bar that showcases the 15 to 20 types of oysters that you can get here in Maine."

2) Pete Sueltenfuss, line cook at Fore Street: "Late-night dining. This town rolls up its sidewalks at 11."

3) Nicholas Nappi, Chef de Cuisine at Local 188: "Chinese food that hasn't been Americanized. We joke that Portland ought to put a moratorium on Thai restaurants until we got one good dim sum place."

4) Declan McGough, Sous Chef at The Blue Spoon: "My dad works on the waterfront and I know how much seafood comes across so I'm surprised that there aren't more exclusively seafood restaurants, like cevicherias."

5) Karl Okerholm, kitchen manager at El Rayo Taqueria: "We need more affordable places and fewer high-end restaurants."

The Maine Restaurant Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:59:00 +0000

No, not Restaurant Week. It starts with a phone call:

The caller claims to be a bail bondsman and says the employee got in a fight with her boyfriend, drove drunk, got in an accident and was arrested for OUI. The caller says the employee is too drunk to come to the phone. The caller then tells the person at the restaurant to wire money to a special account through Walmart to bail the employee out, via WCSH.

Blueberry Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:15:00 +0000

Photo: David Brook Stess

Does Moxie taste like tar?

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:12:00 +0000

Robert Dickinson, a Southern guy, gets his hands on one of the country's oldest continuously produced sodas, the polarizing bitter tonic invented by some druggist in Maine and now made in New Hampshire.

At first sip, Moxie is reminiscent of a weak root beer. Not bad, but not memorable either. Then the bitterness takes hold. Like medicine. Like the tar on a telephone pole. Like the sludge at the bottom of the barrel that you’re supposed to just throw away. But Moxie is a complex beast and once the initial shock wears away, the bitterness mellows, and one is left with a bittersweet taste that isn’t so bad and may even quality as, dare I say it…pleasant, via Gastronomica (PDF).

The Court Room

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:19:00 +0000

If the Emergency Room and the Quiet Room weren't enough:

Inspired by these events, Harding Smith is rumored to be planning a fourth Portland restaurant: The Courtroom, via The Bollard.

Jordan's Meat

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:09:00 +0000

Photograph: Rob Hyde

Winter market

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 09:12:00 +0000

There's a winter market today at 85 Free Street, from 10-1. The market got a late start because of additional permitting required in Portland, where the market is exclusively designed for farmers:

Larry Bruns of Hanson Field Flower Farm, who coordinates the Portland Farmers Market, said, "I don't know if at the time this was established there was a lobby from the fish markets on Commercial Street that didn't want competition, or if the city didn't want to regulate temperatures. As far as baked goods are concerned, there's always been an emphasis on keeping it farmers, via Press Herald [not live].

State legislators are also moving in the same direction with LD 1586, which would require 75 percent of vendors to grow 75 percent or more of what they're selling.

What the Presidents ate

noreply@blogger.com (Psst!) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:47:00 +0000

Sandy Oliver talked to the Boston Globe:

Q. Thomas Jefferson had a great interest in food. He was a real gourmet?

A. That’s his reputation. He really liked good food. I don’t think that Washington has quite that same reputation.

Q. Maybe the wooden teeth hurt.

A. I know. Poor guy!