Month: January 2013

Phoenix Does Pork

| Posted in Cooking, Farming

This week’s Portland Phoenix has published a pair of articles about pork, both by Laura McCandlish:

The nomination process for the Phoenix Readership Survey is still ongoing. Go to make your recommendations for the top restaurants, bakeries, bartenders, food blogs, etc.

Maine Shrimp Season

| Posted in Fisheries

Working Waterfront has published an article about the short Maine Shrimp season.

The move to cut the shrimping season wasn’t a surprise. The previous shrimping season was cut short after just a few weeks, and summer surveys showed that the Northern shrimp population is in trouble. The survey found that shrimp were small in size in general and that two year-classes were absent, said Michael Waine, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator with the commission. The results were surprising, even for a fishery known for boom and bust cycles.

“We’ve had similar situations, but we haven’t had two absent year-classes in a row,” Waine said.

Under Construction: Blue Rooster & Taco Escobarr

| Posted in Under Construction

Eater Maine and Maine a la Carte posted reports today about two Damian Sansonetti projects:

  • Taco Escobarr – Sansonneti is working with owner Tom Barr to revamp the menu “trying to bring in more bold flavor to (Taco Escobarr), almost a little more street food…We’re trying to give it a little bit more of a deeper soul”.
  • Blue Rooster Food Co. is the official name (or not depending which article you read) of the restaurant Sansonetti and partners (including Barr) have under construction at 5 Dana Street.

Local Food Authors: Jessica Porter & Susan Lebel Young

| Posted in People

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about two local food authors and their books.

In “The MILF Diet,” former full-time Portlander and current summer resident Jessica Porter presents a beautiful cookbook that shows women how to use the techniques of macrobiotic cooking to bring their bodies and lives back into balance.

In “Food Fix,” Falmouth resident Susan Lebel Young provides an accessible self-help guide based on personal experience and the principles of mindfulness to lead readers out of the junk food abyss and into a real food oasis.

Interview with Don Lindgren

| Posted in People

The Root has published an interview with Don Lindgren, co-owner of Rabelais.

What is the root of your selection criteria for books?
Well, we have many different types of cookbooks and other food and drink books, so the selection criteria vary. There are tens of thousands of cookbooks in print, and hundreds of thousands of titles printed throughout history, so even the largest store can’t handle it all, but the bottom line for us is that a book needs to treat its subject with respect, and be written by someone who brings knowledge and some skill to the task. In terms of rare books, it’s all about what we find, whether it’s an individual item or a whole collection. I love buying collections formed by chefs and food historians because they often contain obscure books on really specific subjects, like Papaya Culture in Hawaii, or a 19th century Goan cookbook, published in Bombay.