The Bollard has published an op-ed against bottled water.
This water is systematically and relentlessly pumped from land that belongs to Maine communities. Poland Spring, which began bottling water generations ago in the town of that name, is now an arm of the global conglomerate Nestlé. Poland Spring is trying to strong-arm Maine so Nestlé can continue to extract our water, for free, and sell it back to us.
There are numerous proposed changes/additions to Maine food law being considered by the Maine Legislature. Here’s some highlights:
Wine & Liquor Tastings—as Chow Maine‘s Bob Rossi recently explained there are two bills before the Legislature regarding wine tastings. The first would “repeal the provision in the wine tasting statute which limits wine shops to one tasting per calendar month.” The second is more far reaching and would allow tastings for liquor as well as change rules regarding wine tastings. There are also proposals regarding Maine wineries, hotel minibars, agency liquor stores, etc.
Force Feeding—LD 9 “makes force-feeding birds in order to produce the food product known as foie gras a civil
violation”. Hugo’s Chef Rob Evans was on site in Augusta back in February and spoke up in defense of the agricultural practices of his supplier Hudson Valley Foie Gras in this story on MPBN radio.
Nutrition—lawmakers are discussing a requirement for restaurants with more than 15 locations to post calorie counts on their menus. There’s also a bill that seeks to “defines ‘food containing artificial trans fat’ and prohibits the storage, distribution or use of these foods in an eating establishment”
Both the Portland Daily Sun and Portland Press Herald have run stories about RestaurantWeekME.
Also in today’s Press Herald is a news short on a pair of robberies at The Stadium and Five Fifty-Five.
Portland police are investigating the theft of $1,500 in fine wine from a downtown restaurant this week.
The owners of the 555 restaurant at 555 Congress St. reported Thursday that someone forced their way into the restaurant during the previous night and stole 30 bottles of wine, police said.
Details about the type of wine and vintage were not available.
Blog About Beer was mentioned in Mutineer Magazine‘s short list of brew blog must reads.
There’s a round-up of several food community news items in the Food & Health section of today’s newspaper. The article reports on the Portland Food Co-op, the Maine Senior FarmShare program, spring CSA shares, Eco Appetito and Tango & Tapas on Peaks.
USM Free Press has a report on the competition at Cajun Cookin’ Challenge that took place last week. According to the article, Silly’s won best Cajun dish with a vegan entry.
According to a report from the Portland Daily Sun, “A Portland man is charged with burglarizing one Coffee by Design store and attempting to break into another one early Wednesday”.
Portland in a Snap has a report on the Fortune Cookie Museum at Wok Inn.
According to the info in this mini-exhibition, the earliest Chinese fortunes were discovered in 1899 on fossilized ox and tortoise bones. Markings on these bones were made during the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC). It’s pretty common knowledge that fortune cookies are a Western invention, but according to this display they claim a colorful place in history.
The Portland Phoenix has published the list of nominees for the ’09 Best of Portland award for you to vote on. The food categories range from Best Bagel to Best Wine List and everything in between.
This year there’s even a category for Best Food Blog. Portland Food Map is a nominee as are Accidental Vegetables, Commune Tested City Approved, Portland Psst! and Type A Diversions.
This week’s meeting of the Portland City Council resulted in the passage of an ordinance to permit Portlanders to raise chickens, denial of a liquor license for Cactus Club (which will stay open pending an appeal), and passage of liquor licenses for two new establishments, Pearl and The Farmer’s Table.