Miyake (#54) and Hugo’s (#60) are included on the Opinionated About Dining 2012 list of the top 100 restaurants in the United States.

The Munjoy Hill News has published a report on the first meeting of Portland’s Food Truck Task Force.

Proximity to restaurants and other businesses in the city was the focus of the discussion . . . Experienced food cart operator Ron Gan tried to assure Dick A. Grotton, President & CEO of Maine Restaurant Association and Steve DiMillo, DiMillo’s Floating Restaurant, that they won’t be overun by food trucks. “There is not enough business for all of them out there. It’s too expensive. I understand the concern of the ‘bricks & mortar’ people, but people prefer them. Don’t get too worried that several food trucks will hurt restaurants,” he cautioned them.

Cinque Terre and Vignola have been featured in a National Geographic Traveler article on farm to table restaurants.

 Co-owner and chef Lee Skawinski selects varietals for the farm discovered on trips to Italy, and the kitchen crew helps harvest everything from tomatoes to 3,000 heads of garlic per season. Cinque Terre crafts traditional, multicourse meals inspired by the cuisine of Liguria in northwest Italy. Expect comforting dishes such as zuppa di pesce (fish soup) with potato and fennel, and ravioli with kale and braised lamb. Vignola is its breezy little sister, serving tavern fare: Terrines of Maine rabbit are a specialty. To catch a breeze yourself, take a stroll by the ocean across the street from the restaurants.

The annual food issues of Maine and Down East magazines came out this week.

The March issue of Maine magazine includes:

• Joe Ricchio’s take on the state’s 6 best cookies (personally I’d add the sea salt chocolate chip at Aurora Provisions)
• An article on healthy eating
• A profile of forager Evan Strusinski
• A “cross-section of Maine’s most interesting chefs [and] the foods they really care about”
• Interviews with restaurant managers at 555, Francine Bistro and Zapoteca
• An article about Maine Maple Sunday
• A profile of Jarrod Spangler who works as a butcher at Rosemont
• A great cover photo of Steffi and Brian Davin, owners of Schulte & Herr

and in Down East you’ll find:

• An extensive guide to cheap eats across the state
• An article about Maine Maple Sunday with tasting notes from a dozen sugar houses
• An article about Moxie
• An article about the Maine eel fishery

Neither magazine has published their articles online yet (hint hint!) but the magazines should be available at your favorite local bookstore.

The Bring Food Trucks to Portland Facebook page is making the case for broadening the membership of the Food Truck Task Force.

This Task Force may be highly problematic; the members are almost all representative of interest groups who gain by maintaining the status quo. Contacting Councilor Ed Suslovic (edsuslovic@portlandmaine.gov) and suggesting other stakeholders (food bloggers, Buy Local, et al) be included would be helpful. Otherwise, the task force is likely to implement only a very limited vision of what food trucks might be in Portland and make it very difficult for a viable food truck operation to survive…

Today’s Press Herald reports on the opportunity for food carts to operate in city parks this Summer,

The city will accept bids through Tuesday. Dumais said there’s no minimum bid, although a $100 deposit is required. A license for a push cart costs $295 and the application fee is $35.

“We’re hopeful that someone will find a good spot and make a go of it,” Dumais said.

The openings are in Deering Oaks, Lincoln Park, Harbor View Park, Back Cove Trail, the Western Promenade and the Kiwanis Pool.

and an article on school kids learning about food preservation.

Children learned how pickling developed as a method of food preservation long before modern refrigeration, and how it still plays a role in keeping foods edible and tasty.

Kate McCarty, one of the master food preservers, explained how ship captains often served pickled foods, which are high in vitamin C, in part to keep passengers and crews from getting scurvy and dying on long trips across the Atlantic.

Today’s Press Herald includes a profile of Jake Castonia,

Castonia decided to say good-bye to the standard American diet and instead fill his dinner plate with plants. At the same time he made the switch to vegan foods, he began exercising regularly.

At first, he could barely make it through 10 minutes on an elliptical machine. But he stuck with it, and by the time he could exercise for a full hour straight, he had shed 50 pounds.

an article about this year’s crop of Maine semi-finalists in the JBF awards competition,

Maine had an especially strong showing in the Best Chef: Northeast category. Maine chefs, remarkably, make up a third of that category, which bodes well for at least one of them making the list of finalists next month.

and an overview of Maine Restaurant Week.

The Forecaster has published a report on Portland’s new Food Truck Task Force.

“You’ll see it happen,” said Steve DiMillo Sr., a restaurateur who is concerned about the way the city regulates food trucks on two fronts:

Loosely regulated food trucks could set up near his DiMillo’s restaurant on the waterfront, bringing direct competition.

And DiMillo is also considering moving into the new market. “We’re talking about … a Dimillo’s mobile operation,” he said.

“It makes sense for a lot of us operators to diversify and open up other arms of our operations, especially because we could do a lot of the prep work in our kitchens,” DiMillo said.

The James Beard Foundation announced the semi-finalists for this year’s JBF awards. Maine scored 8 semi-final nominations:

• Petite Jacqueline for Best New Restaurant
• Melissa Kelly at Primo in Rockland for Outstanding Chef
• Fore Street for Outstanding Restaurant
• and for Best Chef Northeast:
• Krista Kern Desjarlais at Bresca
• Demos Regas at Emilitsa
• Danai Sriprasert and Nattasak Wongsaichua at Boda
• Penelle, Megan, and Phoebe Chase and Ted LaFage at Chase’s Daily in Belfast
• Brian Hill at Francine Bistro in Camden

The final list of nominees is due out on March 19 and the awards ceremony takes place May 7.

For reference take a look at the semi-finalist lists in 2011 and 2010.

Lady Bar Fly is authored by “a woman of a certain age who likes few things better after a long and complex day than walking in to a restaurant or pub  and seeing a vacant welcoming seat at the bar.”

So far the Lady has published observations on a quiet Monday night  at The Salt Exchange and movie night at Petite Jacqueline.

Today’s Portland Daily Sun reports on the formation of a Food Truck Task Force in Portland.

Food trucks could be rolling into Portland as soon as this summer, if a rulemaking process goes as envisioned, officials say.

A city council subcommittee on Thursday unanimously approved the formation of a task force charged with discussing the pros and cons of allowing food trucks to operate in the city. The task force will lay the groundwork for a food truck discussion before the council, a discussion that officials want to have sometime this spring.

Natalie Ladd offers up some post-holiday observations on Valentine’s Day in today’s Portland Daily Sun.

By the time this column is rubbing newsprint onto your finger tips, the complete pomp, circumstance and exhaustion that is Valentine’s Day in the restaurant business will be over for another year.

Today’s Press Herald includes a survey of local vendors who sell pot pies,

The convenience of picking up a pot pie on the way home from work and popping it into the oven has become so irresistible that many places are selling them year round. For parents, chicken and vegetables in a light gravy beats bringing home Big Macs any day.

and an article about the relaunch of The New Maine Cooking by Jean Ann Pollard.

Almost an exact copy of the original, the re-released “The New Maine Cooking” lacks the flashiness of today’s cookbooks but is filled with wholesome recipes made from real ingredients that are as relevant today as they were in 1987.

The nominations process is complete and it’s now time to cast your ballot in the Portland Phoenix Best of Portland Readership Poll. There are a plethora of Food and Drink categories (Bagels, Bars, Barbecue, Beer Selection, Brewpubs, Brunch, etc) to vote on as well as sections for City Life, Arts and Entertainment, and Shopping.

Edible Obsessions, From Away, Mister Meatball, Portland Food Map and the Spiced Plate are all contenders in the Food Blog category.

If the 2012 polls follows the same schedule as past years then the final results will be made public in April at the Port City Music Hall.

Maine Mead Works appeared in a New York Times article on the mead industry.

While traditional meads can have more than 10 percent residual sugar, Mr. Alexander’s come in under 2 percent. Combined with a rock-bottom acidity, the result in nose and palate can be remarkably like drinking dry white wine, with a delicate overlay of fruit and floral aromas, depending on the mead.