The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes an article about the overuse/misuse of the word artisanal,

Even real artisans need to lay off the word artisanal for a while. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you are trying to do the right thing, and we do appreciate your craftsmanship. But do we really need to know that the bread you just made came from wheat sown by your great-great-grandmother Clara and was made with a recipe passed down from generation to generation in a Mason jar stored under the floorboards of your Uncle Ned’s log cabin? (Was that an artisanal log cabin?)

an article about Roger Doiron and Kitchen Gardens International, and a piece about a new locally produced cookbook.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd offers some observations from working on New Year’s Eve.

1) People Get Engaged. Next to the hotel near that little chapel run by the flying Elvises in Vegas, restaurants are a popular place for this rite of passage. Unlike Valentine’s Day, most of the dolled up women seem surprised. There is usually applause from surrounding tables and tears flow freely. Mine included.

It’s once again been a very busy year for the food and dining industry in Portland. I’ve scanned through the news and events for the past year and here’s my summary of the 2012 Portland Year in Food:

• Eventide – Eventide was the best new restaurant of 2012. The extensive selection of oysters, an inspired menu of small plate options and casual atmosphere have made a real hit that’s earned this Hugo’s spin-off rave reviews and a packed house. Visitors to our city have also discovered Eventide. The Wall Street Journal called it one of the nation’s most outstanding oyster bars, the James Bear Foundation named the Arctic Char at Eventide to their shortlist of favorite dishes for the year, and Food & Wine Executive Editor Dana Cowin included it on her list of the best restaurants of 2012.
• Food Trucks – after months of subcommittee meetings, debate and review the City finally approved an ordinance making food trucks legal in Portland. We were treated to a foretaste of food truck culture when the Great American Food Truck Race routed through Maine. By the end of the year 2 food trucks, Love Cupcakes and Esposito’s Food on the Go, were in operation. Deux Cochon is working on bringing their “southern food hooliganism” back to life in a food truck format, and a few other entrepreneurs are planning to launch food trucks in 2013. In October, several mobile food vendors banded together to kick-off Flea Bites which takes place in the Flea-for-All parking lot.
• Pop-ups – pop-up dinners and supper clubs came to life in 2012. David Levi ran Vinland, and Erika Joyce launched Cloak & Dagger. Damian Sansonetti moved to Maine and started running his series of Sonnet pop-ups, and visitors like CRUX and Outstanding in a Field  ran pop-ups in Maine. In 2013, we can look forward to the launch of Chinese Laundry which “will be popping up all over town, 3-5 times a week.  Find us at galleries, coffee shops, residences, First Fridays, and street corners.  We’ll be equipped with warm buns and steamy dumplings.” Last but certainly not least there’s Pocket Brunch, a full immersion monthly eating experience that collaborating with guest chefs to offer 5-course Sunday brunches. Pocket Brunch has quickly become the hottest event in the city—tickets for the December edition sold out in less than 2 hours.
• Coffee – 2012 was a great year for the Portland coffee scene. Speckled Ax launched in May and Tandem Coffee Roasters launched in July. Both bring new perspectives on coffee and coffee service to our city. Speckled Ax, Tandem, and Bard have raised the bar for what we should expect from a great coffee shop. This year also saw the opening of Arabica’s new venue, Crema, the closure of Udder Place, a visit by the owners of Blue Bottle Coffee, and several collaborations between the city’s roasters and brewers: Tandem and Bunker, Bard and Rising Tide, Speckled Ax and Allagash. In December, Down East magazine published a survey of the Maine coffee industry.
• Craft Distilling –  the micro-distilling industry got its start in Portland this year when New England Distilling’s first batch of Ingenium Gin appeared on store shelves. Novare Res is soon to launch In’Finiti, a distillery/brewpub, on Commercial Street and Maine Craft Distilling in East Bayside is just a few months away from selling their first batch of carrot gin. Three Sheets Mfg. is working on launching a locally made bitters. Hopefully, 2013 will see the continued expansion of this new segment of the Portland food scene.
• Under Construction – by the end of 2011 the Under Construction list had shrunk down to a handful of business, but during the year there was a renewed confidence and not only did we see the launch of 34 new eateries/bars/coffee houses/etc but the UC List has grown to include nearly 20 new ventures under development. Some notables for 2013 are the aforementioned In’Finiti and Maine Craft Distilling as well as Portland Hunt & Alpine Club, the Little Tap House, Salvage, Sonnet, the new old Miyake, and Harding Smith’s new Room on Custom House Wharf.

Notable Events of 2012

• January – Sabor Latino and El Rayo Cantina opened for business. The Portland Pie Council held the 3rd Annual Pie and Art Gala to celebrate National Pie Day, Novare Res and The Great Lost Bear were included in Draft magazine’s list of the nation’s best beer bars. Havana South, Bathras Market and Udder Place went out of business.
• February – Blackbird Baking acquired Two Fat Cats and Bayside Bowl won the WMPG Cajun Cookin’ Challenge.
• March – The Holy Donut, Catbird Creamery and Crema opened and the Cloak & Dagger supper club launched. The 3rd Annual Maine Restaurant Week took place, Miyake and Hugo’s made it on to the Opinionated About Dining list of the top 100 restaurants in the United States, Rob Evans sold Hugo’s to three of his staff: Arlin Smith, Andrew Taylor and Michael Wiley. Aurora Provisions catered a dinner for President Obama at the Art Museum.
• April – New England Distilling launched. Duckfat cook Melissa Corey won $10k on Chopped, the Portland Phoenix released the results of the Best of Portland readership poll. Gogi went out of business.
• May – Union Bagel, Speckled Ax, Captain Sam’s Ice Cream, LFK, Carmen at the Danforth and Spread opened. Maine Squeeze opened a 2nd location in the Public Market House. Bon Appetit included Miyake in their list of the 10 Best New Sushi restaurants in the country, and Y-Lime’s closed their retail shop in the Public Market House.
• June – Eventide, Portland Pottery Cafe, Sebastian’s and the Bier Cellar opened. Peter Weygandt was the special guest for a wine dinner at Caiola’s, a pair of finalists in the Great American Food Truck Race arrived in Portland, the 2012 Taste of the Nation took place. Three Sons was evicted from the Maine State Pier and District went out of business.
• July – The Loft and Flores opened. The City Council finally approved an ordinance to make food trucks legal in Portland, the Epicuranoid published a great article about Portland restaurants in the 70s and 80s,  the first edition of Pocket Brunch took place, Urban Farm Fermentory announced a 5,000 sq ft expansion plan. Mr. Sandwich & Mrs. Muffin went out of business and Food Coma TV came to an end.
• August – Zen Chinese Bistro, Tandem Coffee, Roost, Kushiya Benkay opened and Maine Beer Tours launched. Portland Food Map celebrated it’s 5th anniversary. Food & Wine Executive Editor Dana Cowin was in town, Margaret Hathaway and Kark Schatz published Portland Maine Chef’s Table, and a group of prominent food bloggers visited Maine.
• September – Love Cupcakes, Teresa Esposito’s on the Go and Gather opened. From Away published a comprehensive primer on how to start a food blog, and Maine Home Cooking by Sandy Oliver and Pastries by Standard Baking were published. The Press Herald restaurant health inspection coverage began; the cost of repairs and the negative publicity eventually resulted in The Porthole going out of business.
• October – the Salt Cellar opened and Frosty’s opened a new branch in South Portland. Taste, Memory by David Buchanan was published, the inaugural Flea Bites took place, the owners of Blue Bottle were in town for a book signing, the Washington Post published an article about Portland dining, the 2012 Harvest on the Harbor took place. The Porthole closed as did G&R Dimillo’s.
• November – Buck’s Naked BBQ, Opus Ten, Otto expanded their location in the Arts District, Maine Brew Bus launched, Katie Made announced plans to move to Congress Street and the Food Coma Show premiered. Portland Beer Week and the Maine Brewers Festival took place, Joe Appel had an article published in Art of Eating, Erika Joyce announced plans for Chinese Laundry, Cantillon Zwanze Day took place at Novare Res. ILPM assembled an interesting list of Portland restaurants and the TV shows they’ve appeared on. Sebastian’s and Plush West End went out of business.
• December – Three Buoys, Taqueria Tequila and Veranda Asian Market opened and Vino Portland started up. Joe Ricchio announced he’s moving to Boston, Maine Craft Distilling secured their federal license, Holy Donut was featured on Anderson Cooper Live. Food & Wine Executive Editor Dana Cowin  included Petite Jacqueline and Eventide in her list of the best restaurants of 2012, and the James Beard Foundation included the arctic char at Eventide in their list of the best dishes of 2012. Figa and the South Portland Wok Inn closed.

25 Restaurants Looked-up Most Often on PFM

1. Schulte & Herr (4)
2. Spread (-)
3. Petite Jacqueline (1)
4. Bar Lola (6)
5. Blue Spoon (24)
6. Bresca (5)
7. Five Fifty-Five (10)
8. Caiola’s (9)
9. Eventide Oyster Company (-)
10. Back Bay Grill (28)
11. Zapoteca (2)
12. Emilitsa (19)
13. Local 188 (11)
14. Grace (13)
15. LFK (-)
16. The Salt Exchange (17)
17. Fore Street (25)
18. Pai Men Miyake (23)
19. El Rayo Cantina (-)
20. Hot Suppa (31)
21. Figa (8)
22. Paciarino (18)
23. Hugo’s (15)
24. Zen Chinese Bistro (-)
25. David’s (33)

The numbers in parentheses indicate their rank last year.

Passings

• Theresa Ciampi – her family owned Commercial Fruit and she was featured in Amato’s signature advertisement from the 1970s.
• Tyler Curtis Cole – a Portland chef who had worked at The Front Room and other restaurants.
• Joseph L. Discatio – the founder of Joe’s Smoke Shop.
• Dorothy Larsen – ran Moran’s Market with her husband Bernard.
• Ruth G. Leadbetter – the founded the Lobster Shack with her husband Jim.
• Russell Libby – the longtime Executive Director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
• Stavros Elias Shamos – owner of the Quality Shop on Stevens Ave.

For some other perspectives on the past year see Edible Obsessions, the Portland Phoenix, Maine Eater, The Golden Dish and the Portland Daily Sun.

For more information on Portland’s food past see the 2011 Year in Review and 2010 Year in Review, as well as PFM blog posts from 2009, 2008 and 2007, and the Portland Food Timeline.

Portland Daily Sun columnist Natalie Ladd has assembled a list of her Top Ten Most Ridiculous Tips of 2012.

1) $10 Gift Card to Pizza Hut. Um, I’d rather have been left a crispy Hamilton IF the tab had been $50, but it was $87 and in addition to the competitors’ gift card, I got a little love note about how great the service was. Call me ungrateful here (and in the following gratuities), but these people peeled out of the parking lot in a new Audi convertible.

John Golden has published a listof his favorite dishes of 2012.

At this time of year, dining critics often proclaim their picks for best restaurants of the year. Instead I’m offering my picks for the best dishes I’ve had at area restaurants.  From the archetypal hamburger to more exalted choices, herewith are the dishes that made the grade.

Portland Phoenix food columnist Brian Duff has published his look forward to what we can expect to be eating in 2013.

It also might finally be the year you can find some dim sum in this town, or at least something dim-summy. Encouraging developments include new brunch service at two restaurants adept at Asian flavors and techniques: Pai Men Miyake and Eventide Oyster Company. The terrific Tao in Brunswick is rumored to have been offering dim-sum dishes as bar snacks and appetizers. The new year will bring a dim sum pop-up restaurant called CHINESE LAUNDRY which promises to show up in “galleries, coffee shops, residences, First Fridays, and street corners.”

Bangor Daily News food columnist Emily Burnham has included Otto, Sonny’s and The Holy Donut in  her list of the “ten favorite things I’ve eaten this year”.

The Press Herald has launched a new food blog called The Root.It’s written by Sharon Kitchens, a columnist for the Huffington Post, author of Delicious Musings and self-described neo-homesteader.

In The Root Sharon plans to write “profiles farm families, reports on farm-based education and internships, conducts Q&A’s with master beekeepers, offers tips on picking a CSA, and much more.”

So far she’s published a pair of posts about the Maine Poultry Coop Contest and about giving CSA shares for Christmas.

We’ve reached that point in the year when it feels natural to look back and see the big picture of what’s happened over the last 12 months.

The first of the 2012 crop of  year-in-food wrap-up articles comes courtesy of Brian Duff and the Portland Phoenix.

For four years those Maine restaurants that flourished have done so against a relentless tug of economic gloom, and some good ones perished because of it. But in 2012, we could feel the forces shifting. Those restaurants that established themselves this year might be fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to benefit from an improved economy and mood for food.

The January issue of Down East magazine includes an article on the specialty coffee industry in Maine, a directory of 19 Maine roasters, advice on brewing at home, and tasting notes on coffees from Tandem, Bard, Speckled Ax and 44 North.

Bob Garver talks nonstop about coffee. At first you attribute it to the enormous intake of caffeine the man must absorb as the proprietor of wholesale coffee roaster Wicked Joe, the co-owner of Portland’s Bard Coffee and a certified head judge at the World Barista Championships. But no, he just loves the stuff that much.

According to an article in Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun, the Exchange Street Cafe plans to start serving breakfast.

Manager Cynthia Tubbs-Maier, 56, is a proven fixture on the Portland food scene having started Black Tie Catering in 1987 with then business partner, Chris Webber. Selling her ownership in 1995, and parting amicably. Tubbs-Maier went on to the Whip ‘N Spoon as the General Manager and Directer of the cooking school, a concept just ahead of its time. Moving on to other ventures such as being the general manager of The Portland Club and overseeing things at The Danforth Inn, Tubbs-Maier has brought her skill set to spearhead breakfast at Exchange Street Cafe. Located at 7 Exchange, Tubbs-Maier has also brought along Patrice Keating, her right hand from past ventures.

The Bangor Daily News published the results of a Portland donut tour,

I believe it was the venerable philosopher Homer Simpson who waxed so eloquently on the subject of this week’s Foodie Files: “Mmm. Doughnuts.”

His sentiments are exactly mine, especially when it comes to freshly made doughnuts from a locally-owned bakery. Two weeks ago, I decided to take a doughnut tour of the Portland area, with the help of BDN Portland bureau chief Seth Koenig, and my husband and self-taught doughnut connoisseur Zachary Robbins…

And word spread yesterday that The Holy Donut will be featured on an upcoming edition of the Anderson Cooper Show.

Chef David Levi was mentioned in the 2013 food trends article in the new issue of Food & Wine.

Sea Foraging
In their quest for wild sea ingredients, chefs are sourcing more than just seafood from the ocean—for instance, Portland Maine’s David Levi cooks with sea buckthorn while Joshua Skenes at Saison in San Francisco uses seaweed to bundle fish fillets.

Earlier this year Levi, along with Gather chef Chad Conley, were hosting. Levi’s now seeking a location for a new restaurant he’s calling Vinland.

The city is training a second person to perform restaurant inspections.

City Hall Spokeswoman Nicole Clegg said Michael Russell, who works as the environmental health and safety manager for the city’s Public Health Division, is in the process of being certified as a second health inspector.

According to a report in the Press Herald, Maine’s congressional representatives are asking Five Guys to use Maine potatoes.

Sen. Olympia Snowe and and Maine Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud have written to the owners of Five Guys Burgers and Fries franchises in New England, asking them to use Maine potatoes in their Maine restaurants.