The New Rosemont

| Posted in Openings

Today’s Press Herald includes an article about the new Rosemont Market at 580 Brighton Ave that’s scheduled to open on Friday.

The new store will be twice the size of the old one, with red pine floors milled in New Hampshire and a color scheme along the lines of salmon, mustard and key lime pie. There’s more room for produce in the new space, and a new 8-foot meat case will serve Maine- and New Hampshire-raised meats cut on site.

And Rosemont’s blog has a post about the recent Twilight Dinner that their staff cooked at the Cultivating Community farm in Cape Elizabeth.

Apple Class at the Ferm

| Posted in Events

Delicious Musings has published some thoughts on the Urban Farm Fermentory and the apple cidering class taught there this week.

In Portland, Maine’s East Bayside neighborhood an all but abandoned single-story warehouse bay has been transformed into the Urban Farm Fermentory (or “Ferm” as we locals call it), which is a fermentation, education and engagement center for beverage (cider, and wine) and food (sauerkraut, pickles…) fermentations. Last night I attended a class there led by horticulturalist David Buchanan and Ferm founder Eli Cayer on planting a backyard orchard and making sweet and hard cider.

Review of Sonny's

| Posted in Reviews

Vin et Grub has published a review of Sonny’s.

I took Annie to dinner where we both indulged in the Chili Poblano Cheesburgers, with house fries, and pickled veggies for our entree.  I love the inclusion of pickled anything, but especially pickled radishes which were just what I needed.  They were sour and tart, but still retained a bit of the spiciness from the original radish.

Review of Sonny’s

| Posted in Reviews

Vin et Grub has published a review of Sonny’s.

I took Annie to dinner where we both indulged in the Chili Poblano Cheesburgers, with house fries, and pickled veggies for our entree.  I love the inclusion of pickled anything, but especially pickled radishes which were just what I needed.  They were sour and tart, but still retained a bit of the spiciness from the original radish.

First Review of Pai Men Miyake

| Posted in Reviews

Appetite Portland has published a 7-point review of Pai Men Miyake.

2. Ramen like it should be. All three ramen bowls (pork, miso, soy) are tasty with nicely cooked noodles, but my favorite is the heady Soy. The salt in the soy kicks the fat and marrow in the broth into high gear and keeps the rich oil front and center as you slurp. Shake in a dash of white pepper and the complexity intensifies – releasing a burst of scallion and spices. Lean over the steaming bowl and just inhale for awhile. I swear this soup could cure anything that ails ya – cold, hangover, bad temper. . .

Immigrant Kitchens: A Congolese Feast

| Posted in Cooking

Immigrant Kitchens collaborated with Constance Kabaziga from the Congo, to teach a class how to make a Congolese feast (intro, photos, recipe).

As we drive to markets for ingredients, strings of English, Swahili, Rwandan, French, and Congolese zip like the flight paths of insects inside the car for a moment and then out the window. When a native Rwandan language is spoken, only two can speak and surprisingly, the daughter doesn’t understand her own mother. When Swahili is spoken, two of us have no idea what’s being said. When French is spoken, three can’t speak. The daughter is crucial. She is the only one who can tell me where to drive the car to get what we need.

Farmers Market & Commom Ground Fair

| Posted in General News, Events

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a pair of articles on the large number of people who go to the Saturday market in Deering Oaks Park,

So have you been to the farmers’ market lately?

I’m talking about the Saturday market at Deering Oaks, the one that has become so successful (yay!) it’s now become a little stressful (boo!) to squeeze through the throngs of humanity, dodging the long lines and the illegal bakers and the lookie-loos – the people who are there only to socialize and excessively fondle the produce without spending a dime.

and the prices of the produce,

This year, I’ll have to find something else to do with the pecorino romano. Why? Because $2 is over my limit.

This year, those tiny bunches of basil at the farmers’ market jumped to $2 a bunch. In case you hadn’t been keeping track, that’s a 100 percent price increase from just a couple of years ago.

as we as an advance report on the food at the Common GroundFair which is taking place this weekend.

“The food vendors, more than any other vendors, really earn their place at the fair,” said Jim Ahearne, fair director for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which hosts the event. “We don’t make it easy for them.”

Common Ground organizers require that all the food served at the fair, which is now in its 34th year, be Maine-grown and organic whenever possible.

Farmers Market & Commom Ground Fair

| Posted in General News, Events

The Food & Dining section in today’s Press Herald includes a pair of articles on the large number of people who go to the Saturday market in Deering Oaks Park,

So have you been to the farmers’ market lately?

I’m talking about the Saturday market at Deering Oaks, the one that has become so successful (yay!) it’s now become a little stressful (boo!) to squeeze through the throngs of humanity, dodging the long lines and the illegal bakers and the lookie-loos – the people who are there only to socialize and excessively fondle the produce without spending a dime.

and the prices of the produce,

This year, I’ll have to find something else to do with the pecorino romano. Why? Because $2 is over my limit.

This year, those tiny bunches of basil at the farmers’ market jumped to $2 a bunch. In case you hadn’t been keeping track, that’s a 100 percent price increase from just a couple of years ago.

as we as an advance report on the food at the Common GroundFair which is taking place this weekend.

“The food vendors, more than any other vendors, really earn their place at the fair,” said Jim Ahearne, fair director for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which hosts the event. “We don’t make it easy for them.”

Common Ground organizers require that all the food served at the fair, which is now in its 34th year, be Maine-grown and organic whenever possible.

Fortune Cookie Museum

| Posted in General News

The Tuesday Portland Daily Sun includes an article about “offbeat tourist attractions” including the Fortune Cookie Museum located in the Wok Inn on Forest Avenue.

The Museum is housed in glass cabinets with shelves of photographs, explanations and fortune cookie knick-knacks in the lobby of the Wok Inn on outer Forest Avenue. A plaque indicates that the museum was dedicated in 2004 to the “Beautiful People of Maine” by Ricky Yue.

Ricky Yue is one of the partners that opened the Wok Inn in 1981.