Category: General News

About Town paid a visit to the new 2nd floor of the Public Market House and posted a report on the newly expanded market.

Chairs and tables look out over Monument Square, making it a prime people-watching location (and the yet-to-be-completed glass elevator, also overlooking the square, will only heighten the experience).

“All of a sudden I’m beginning to feel this is really what I hoped it would be,” Horton says of the endeavor, which she sees not just as a public market for fresh foods and produce, but also as an “incubator for businesses.”

BA Foodist blogger Andrew Knowlton included Tu Casa’s enchilada salvadoreña with tongue on his budget list of best restaurant dishes of 2009.

The premier issue of Maine Ahead magazine includes interviews with Alan Cook, Executive Chef at Twenty Milk Street, and Ron Hodge, CEO of Hannaford, as well as articles on Laughing Stock Farm’s use of recycled cooking oil to heat their greenhouse and on Shipyard Brewing. Be aware that you’ll need to register for a free account to access the articles online.

The January issue of Down East heralds 31 “people, places & dishes not to miss in 2010”. Here’s the list of Portland listings from the article:

• Seafood in the pan from Street & Co (1-4)
• Hot Suppa! (8)
• The BLT at Blue Spoon (9)
• Bob Garver, co-owner of Bard Coffee (11)
• The Corner Room (12)
• The cheese puffs from Hugo’s (14)
• The buttermilk panna cotta from Bresca (17)
• The mac & cheese from Five Fifty-Five (18)
• The Touchable, a cocktail invented by bartender John Myers (19)
• The mashed potato pizza from Otto Pizza (20)
• The mussels at Fore Street (24)
• The farm to table menu at The Farmer’s Table (26)
• Portland’s Dining Scene (31) – a brief look back prior to the current culinary boom at the contributing factors that got Portland restaurant culture to where it is now.

The January issue also includes a Maine Wedding Guide. Leslie Oster from Aurora Provisions and Craig Williams from Churchill Catered Events created the winter and fall wedding menus that appear in the article on wedding eats.

An article in today’s Press Herald surveys local caterers that specialize in vegan, vegetarian and other alternative dietary preferences.

Gone are the days when health-conscious party planners had to worry about whether the event’s caterer knew how to maintain a gluten-free kitchen or spot the myriad foods in which non-vegetarian ingredients lurk. Now local hosts and hostesses have the luxury of hiring an expert.

Chow Maine reports on some planned changes at Duckfat including a kitchen renovation this winter and an expansion in 2011.

But in 2011 Portlanders can expect another Duck Fat. It will be a slightly different model. “A bar version, gastropub style version, with a bar, fries and more bar-type food. The new one should be able to make production fries that can be shipped to other locations.”

The December issue of The Bollard provides a survey of the city’s African markets,

Customers like Ali are the reason many African markets have long consisted of little more than a freezer, a band saw, sacks of grain piled on the floor and a few large cans of baby formula. But that is changing. The newly opened Peace Food Market on Cumberland Avenue is bringing camel meat back to town (it tastes like beef), and several other markets have recently been renovated and now offer expanded food sections.

and a new installment of John Myers Land of the Forgotten Cocktails series where you will learn about ‘nognoscenti, ‘nog-heads and all things eggnog.

A tradition of my own making — one I’ve actually stuck to these last few years — is to treat the onset of Thanksgiving as Eggnog Season. From Thanksgiving Eve through New Year’s Day there’s usually a batch in the refrigerator or the fixin’s to whip one up.

The USM Free Press has a report on a protest that took place outside The Front Room last Friday.

Today’s Maine Sunday Telegram includes a feature article on Pineland Farm’s cheese making and beef operations.

The farm’s beef cattle operation and its cheese-making business are poised to turn a profit this year, the foundation says. Demand for locally produced food is contributing to the farm’s success, along with economies of scale, luck and good timing.

The two businesses – Pineland Farms Cheese and Pineland Farms Natural Meats Inc. – are both putting Maine on the map as a major producer of natural food products.