Food historian Sandy Oliver, author Nancy Harmon Jenkins, culinary antiquarian bookseller Don Lindgren, and Tilly Laskey, curator of the “Maine Eats” exhibit at the Maine Historical Society were interviewed earlier this week on Maine Calling about Maine’s food heritage.
In conjunction with a new exhibit at the Maine Historical Society, we examine Maine’s food heritage, including what ingredients and dishes have come from the different cultures that have shaped our state.
The Maine Sunday Telegram has reviewed Bite into Maine and Highroller Lobster, and
Call Sutton’s approach cautious if you must, but it results in a roll that has been widely celebrated as one of the best in the nation. Bite’s classic Maine-style roll ($17.95) is almost architectural in its attention to balance among its few ingredients. First sweet lobster meat – claw and knuckle only, as long as supply from local lobstermen allows – which has to be mixed with cooling mayonnaise in precisely the right quantity and piled generously into the yielding center of a butter-toasted bun. With a million ways to get it wrong, Sarah Sutton and her husband, co-owner Karl Sutton, get it exactly right, every time.
the Portland Phoenix has reviewed Evo,
Evo’s menu separates proteins as “Fish” and “Meat” respectively, and this is where the bulk of the fun is to be had. A shallow monkfish stew with mussels, chickpeas and green garlic is as rich and satisfying in taste as it is beautiful to look at. Seared tuna with ginger, cilantro and avocado toum (an eggless Lebanese garlic emulsion) remains wholly faithful to the rest of the menu while clearly taking inspiration from Asian cooking. A dish of buttery cod, lobster and cauliflower—framed by tahini and celery root—steals the show in its barrage of opulent textures and flavors.