etherfarm

Food Bender 2009: Portland, Maine

Later

08:53 on Thursday, May 07, 2009 • 5 responses

Earlier

Anyone who knows me knows that I love food. I enjoy cooking food, I enjoy reading about food, I enjoy discussing food with others, and I of course enjoy eating food. I subscribe to a rag called ”The Art of Eating” and at one point seriously considered becoming a chef.

Hi. My name is Narayan, and I’m a foodie.

I just got back from my first official “Food Bender”; a ritual I will repeat annually from now until circumstances dictate otherwise. Contrary to what you might believe, Food Bender 2009 was not, in fact, a convention for vegetable origami. It was a weekend in which friends and I traveled to a destination simply to eat. Some guys go to Vegas to gamble and whore. Some guys go to L.A. or N.Y.C. to party all night. We went to Portland, Maine—my old stomping grounds and in my opinion, one of the best foodie meccas in the country—to shove some particularly tasty food down our gullets.

A phenomenally successful weekend all around—the food was absurdly delicious, no one injured themselves (much) while eating, and it perhaps goes without saying that the company was beyond compare. Due to some scheduling oversights, some restaurants I really wanted to try were closed on Sunday and Monday evenings (details in the notes). As a result, there are some repeat venues in the list, but I’m a firm believer that if you find something good, stick with it, so that wasn’t a bad thing. Also, I stayed in Portland a little before and a little after my friends “from away” left so I could spend time with local friends; some meals here were part of that extended stay. And I’m leaving names out to protect the guilty.

You’ll find the roster of vanquished delectables below. Note: I’m only listing dishes from which I partook significantly; the best way to order is for the table, of course. Every once in a while someone would order a rogue salad, side dish or gasp entree; these are not listed here. So believe it or not, more food was consumed than evinced in this list.

Lunch, 01 May

Duckfat

• Belgian Fries, fried in duckfat & served in a cone with Thai Chili Mayo
• cucumber gazpacho
• wild green salad with goat cheese, pecan, and cranberry
• Cinnamon sugar Beignets

Dinner, 01 May

Five Fifty-Five

• chipotle-spiked sweet potato soup with “fire house” pork and lime-sour cream drizzle
• Butter lettuce and Goat Cheese Salad
• 555 Hangar Steak with wild mushroom foccacia bread pudding
• artisinal cheese tasting plate
• housemade glazed donuts with some kind of wonderful gelato

Brunch, 02 May

Bintliff’s American Cafe

• Maine Lobster Benedict: Hand picked fresh Maine lobster on an English muffin with two poached eggs & homemade hollandaise
• Bistro Steak Benedict: Petite beef filets on an English muffin, topped with two poached eggs & asparagus pesto cream sauce. Garnished with Parmesan cheese
• Side of North Country Smokehouse Apple wood Smoked Bacon

Lunch, 02 May

Gilbert’s

• Fried Oysters
• Corn Chowdah
• Cookies & Cream Ice Cream @ Beal’s Ice Cream

Dinner, 02 May

Fore Street

• Wood oven roasted wild Maine mussels in garlic almond butter.
• Wood grilled mulard foie gras with endive citrus marmalade and toasted brioche.
• Maine farm Russian boar chop, boar crépinette and confit shoulder, shiitakes, and turnip greens.
• Fore Street’s Dry rubbed pork loin with Morse’s sauerkraut and pickling spices
• Three cuts of Maine island lamb: Grilled chop, turnspit roasted leg and smoked shoulder with Carolina gold rice and rapini.
• Table sides: roasted cauliflower with herb aïoli; fiddleheads with heritage hog cracklings
• Three artisan cheeses: York Hill farm soft ripened chèvre roll with ash, Hahn’s End City of Ships; Cobb Hill Ascutney Mountain
• Lemon pound cake in rhubarb soup with sweetened whipped cultured cream and pistachio praline
• Shoofly pie with chocolate drizzle, caramelized bananas, and cream cheese ice cream
• Handmade chocolates: spicy smoked paprika dark chocolate truffles, toffee candy dark chocolate bark, spiced espresso ganache dark chocolate bon-bons, candied peanut dark chocolate bark.

Brunch, 03 May

Five Fifty-Five

• “Toad in a Hole”: Fresh baked brioche, exotic mushroom ragu, fontina cheese, truffle oil.

Lunch, 03 May

Red’s Eats, Wiscasset

• Lobster Roll
• Fresh Crabmeat Roll

Dinner, 03 May

Street and Co.

• Frisee salad with house cured duck bacon, gruyere, and Dijon vinaigrette
• Mussels Provencal with garlic, white wine and butter
• Prosciutto Americano with fava beans
• grilled halibut with smoked, mashed potatoes; broiled sole topped with crabmeat
• Maine blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream
• panna cotta with blueberry compote

Dinner, 04 May

Fore Street

• Kale and roasted shiitake salad: Pakchoi, Hokurei Turnips, apple bacon, dijon cider vinaigrette
• Wood oven roasted sardines with shaved fennel and harissa aïoli
• Whole farmed european sea bass with cornbread stuffing and sweet pepper fish broth

Lunch, 05 May

Walter’s Cafe

• Clam chowder with sweet peppers
• Blackened Salmon BLT : Cajun spiced salmon fillets on Tonys focaccia roll with apple wood bacon, butter lettuce and tomato with a blood orange chive remoulade and French fries
• Tres Leches cake

Notes

• Fore Street is my favorite restaurant in the country bar none —and I’ve eaten at a lot of restaurants. There are fancier restaurants, sure, and there are undoubtedly restaurants that serve more creative or even more delicious food. But I haven’t yet found a better mix of decor, ambiance, and gastronomy than Fore Street. I’ve been there maybe eight, nine times, and only once have I not had the pork loin (either for myself or via coaxing someone else to order it so I could snag a few bites). They were out on that occasion. It could be said that this whole trip was really just a fancy ploy to have a meal (or two) at Fore Street. And there would be a little truth in that statement.
• Favorite: this is a toss up between the foie gras and the boar from the 02 May dinner. The lamb from that same dinner is a close runner up; I’ve never had lamb which tasted that clean (for lack of a better word)—not gamey at all. Honorable mentions: the 555 hangar steak, the chipotle-spiked sweet potato soup, and the grilled halibut.
• Least favorite: the butter lettuce salad at Five Fifty-Five was definitely a palate cleanser, but it was bland enough that water might have been a better choice. And the tres leches cake at Walters: I’ve had better tres leches cake from Safeway. And the Beal’s ice cream: ten years after I’ve left Maine, I still don’t get it. I love that it’s locally made, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to import a little flavor “from away”.
• Do-overs: If I had to do it again, I’d probably come a little earlier in the week so I could go to Bresca and Hugo’s,which both seem exquisite. I probably wouldn’t have gone to Walter’s, but that lunch wasn’t about the food and Walter’s was convenient.
• sick fact that will make some of you hate me: I actually lost 2 pounds on the whole trip. WTF?
• Next up: Food bender 2010 will take place a bit more westward. Potential venues: Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, British Columbia; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Las Vegas, Nevada.