First Review of Timber

The Golden Dish has reviewed Timber.

The double-thick (huge) pork chop had a wonderful glaze of Maine blueberry sauce, more pungent than sweet.  It’s local pork, too, though not pastured but corn fed.  It had great flavor and was exceedingly tender for such a thick cut.  It’s flash-grilled at very high heat, the secret to making cuts like this buttery soft.

This Week’s Events: Lobster Roll Rumble, CN Shawarma, Flea Bites, Old Port Festival

Wednesday — the Monument Square Farmers Market is taking place.

Thursday — several Maine restaurants will be in NYC competing in the Lobster Roll Rumble, and the Great Lost Bear is showcasing beer from Smuttynose.

Friday — CN Shawarma (facebook, twitter, instagram) is launching their new food truck, the movie Craft is being screened at Allagash, and the first Flea Bites food truck street festival in is taking place at the Portland Flea for All.

Saturday — the 10th Annual Vegetarian Food Festival is taking place as is the Deering Oaks Farmers Market, it’s the 3rd Annual Maine Open Winery Day and Leroux will be having a wine tasting.

Sunday — the 41st Annual Parking Old Port Festival is taking place.

Negroni Week — the Hunt & Alpine club is participating in Imbibe magazine’s Negroni Week charity event. As part of the program Hunt & Alpine will be donating $2 to Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Southern Maine for every Classic Negroni, Barrel-Aged Negroni, and Sbagliato (bubbly negroni) sold June 2-8.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Uni is the New Bacon & WF’s Local Forager

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes an interview with Kristen Bartlett, the Whole Foods staffer who tracks down locally made foods for the store’s shelves,

Is this a problem for her at parties? Is she swarmed by local farmers, waving organic broccoli and apple butters? Not yet, she says, though she wonders what will happen after her photo is published in Source.

and an article about Uni being declared the “new bacon” by Food & Wine magazine.

High-end restaurants in major cities have been experimenting with uni for a while, Branchina said. What’s more interesting to him is the big jump Browne Trading has seen in retail sales online: a 54 percent increase between 2012 and 2013, and so far in 2014, up 93 percent from the previous January to May.