Cupping Coffee and Crazy Dick’s

In today’s Press Herald, food writer Meredith Goad reports on the process of cupping coffee. In celebration of Specialty Coffee Month CbD will be holding a pair of public cuppings in February.

“Then you roll it around on your tongue,” Spear said, somehow managing to maintain his dignity while talking like the kid in “A Christmas Story” whose tongue got stuck to a frozen flagpole.

Spear was demonstrating his coffee-cupping prowess for employees at Coffee By Design on a cold, rainy October afternoon. I was invited to participate, eager to perfect my schlurping technique and learn how the professionals use “cupping” to evaluate the aroma, flavor, acidity and balance of coffees from around the world.

And today’s Natural Foodie column is about Crazy Dick’s, a line or organic cajun spices made here in Maine. Crazy Dick’s products are on sale at Harbor Fish Market.

“A large part of what we’re trying to do is create Cajun food in a way that’s healthy,” Curole said.

He acknowledges that people don’t often use “Cajun” and “healthful” in the same sentence – and with good reason. A traditional family-sized pot of shrimp creole can contain up to a dozen sticks of butter, according to Curole.

Phone/Pad Food Apps

The Press Herald polled “local chefs, restaurateurs, food writers, food bloggers [including yours truly] and all sorts of people obsessed with food and dining” on their favorite food related apps and have published the results in today’s paper. As the author Meredith Goad points out, the responses “ranged from popular apps such as Urbanspoon and OpenTable to some that you’ve probably never heard of before.”

 

Rules for Customers

Today’s Portland Daily Sun proposes a set of resolutions for restaurant customer behavior in 2012.

5) Do not bring your own food into a restaurant. Please do not ask for hot water and lemon because you brought your own Lipton tea bag, or single serving VIA coffee from Starbucks. Your server works on commission, and the restaurant owner earns a living off what is sold, not what is unintentionally given away. Even restaurants with BYOB policies charge a wine corking fee.This one tied with: Do not ask for extra bread you clearly intend to take home.

Maine Shrimp & Chef Pay

Today’s Press Herald includes a report on the abbreviated 2012 Maine Shrimp season.

Shrimp fishermen have been given a catch limit of 4.4 million pounds for the upcoming season, down from the 13 million pounds they caught last season. The new season will begin Monday and end when the catch limit is reached.

Also in today’s paper is letter to the editor in favor of better pay for chefs.

Christmas Day Eats?

I’ve fielded questions from a few people who are trying to identify their options for eating out on Christmas Day. This year it’s an especially tough challenge with the major holiday falling on Sunday, a day when many restaurants wouldn’t have been open anyways.

So I’m passing the question on to all of you hoping your collective knowledge can help these folks out. Where would you recommend someone eat out in Portland on Christmas Day?

10 Coolest

Coffee by Design made Zagat’s list of the 10 Coolest Independent Coffee Shops Across the US.

Sixteen years ago Mary Allen Lindemann and Alan Spear opened this tiny coffee shop in Portland, Maine with the idea of building a place for the community. Over the years, the shop has grown from their original Congress Street location to three other shops and a micro roaster where they process all their beans. But despite their mini-expansion, the independent store remains homey and popular for Mainers as they continue to serve the community one cup of Fore Street coffee at a time.

Seasonal Food & Wine Gifts

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes gift ideas for the food, and

Even people who are classically “hard to buy for” because of their age (think elderly relatives), or they already have everything they need, will appreciate finding something really delicious that they’ve never tried before under the tree or in their stocking. It puts the surprise back in Christmas, and gives them that joyful little rush they had when they were kids.

and wine lovers in your life.

Gift-giving for wine lovers is usually difficult. The wine lover, like the anything lover, almost always knows more about the object of adoration than the giver, so the risk of an underappreciated gift is high.