The Corry’s on Vacation

| Posted in General News

Portland Phoenix reporter Leischen Stelter has published a piece on her recent vacation in Puerto Rico with the Corry family. Steve & Michelle Corry own and manage Five Fifty-Five.

During our adventures in Puerto Rico, meals were certainly milestones in the day, but I was surprised how unpretentious the Corrys were about dining out. Sure, there was discussion of acidity, steak temperatures, and atmosphere, but for the most part, it was really an opportunity to relax, take in the culture, and let someone serve them. And just so you know, they bribe their kids with french fries and chocolate cake, too.

Under Construction Local Sprouts/Bomb Diggity

| Posted in Under Construction

The Portland Daily Sun has published a report on the upcoming openings of Local Sprouts CSK and Bomb Diggity at 645 Congress Street, the old USM Portland Hall.

Local Sprouts Cafe will be Portland’s first “community-supported cafe”, according to the its website (www.localsproutscooperative.com), and will be operated by a worker-owned business — Local Sprouts Cooperative — which acquires its food from urban gardens in Portland and local farms in Maine.

Fiddlehead Season

| Posted in Cooking

Today’s Food & Dining section in the Press Herald includes a trio of articles about fiddleheads, fiddlehead recipes from Maine chefs and recommendations from food safety experts how to prepare them.

“Mainers mostly have theirs with butter and a little vinegar,” said Angelo D’Ambrosio of Elliottsville Township, a fiddlehead fan who started a Facebook page where people are sharing recipes and tips on where to find the plants. “They’ll have them with some brook trout.”

At Evangeline last week, Chef Erik Desjarlais created a soupe de printemps that featured fiddleheads, carrots, fennel, celery branch and La Quercia ham swimming in a crystal-clear vegetable consomme. It tasted like spring in a bowl.

Maine Kosher Vaad

| Posted in General News

Today’s Press Herald has an article about Maine Kosher Vaad, the kosher certification organization run by the rabbis from 3 Maine synagogues.

That’s when he placed a call to Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld of Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh in Portland.

“Long story short, I talked to him and he was at my place the next morning at 6 a.m.,” Gladstone said. “He went out of his way to try and help me.”

The result is that the Caviar of Maine blueberries now have the stamp of approval from the state’s only kosher-certifying organization, known as the Maine Kosher Vaad.

Review of Paciarino

| Posted in Reviews

Down East has published a review of Paciarino.

If after visiting Paciarino you’re hooked by Barbiero and de Savino’s cooking — and it would be hard not to be — you can pick up some of their products to take home. (Soon, you’ll even be able to order them online.) They sell their own fresh and frozen pastas and sauces, as well as specialty items imported from Italy. “Pasta and sauce, the stuff with which we grew up, is our big love,” de Savino says. “It feels good to share it.”

Alan Pugsley, the Johnny Appleseed of Brewing

| Posted in People

Down East has published a profile of Alan Pugsley, co-owner and master brewer of Shipyard Brewing Co.

Among the beer cognoscenti, however, Pugsley’s reputation verges on the legendary. “My former partner called him the Johnny Appleseed of craft beer,” says Bob Johnson. Now an owner of South Portland’s Scratch Baking Co., Johnson co-founded Magic Hat Brewing in Burlington, Vermont, in 1993. “Brewing is an almost magical mix of hands-on physical labor, art, and science. When they all come together, at the end of the day, you’ve got this beautiful glass of beer — and Alan Pugsley is the one who brought that aesthetic to New England.”

Casa Novello & Munjoy Hill Mimosa

| Posted in General News, Reviews

Today’s Portland Daily Sun includes a look at Portland Dine Around’s 2-1 deal in the context of a review of Casa Novello in Westbrook,

Price: $16.99 is the high end of the spectrum for the most popular 2-4-1 entrée of Casa Chicken Marsala. Casa’s version is an enormous portion of fresh chicken breast, onions, mushrooms, and marsala wine, sautéed with cream and oil.  It is rich, and perhaps artery hardening, and well worth the extra 15 minutes on the tread mill (order it over penne so the sauce can get in the little ridges).

and a report on the Munjoy Hill Mimosa,

Beware, ye lovers of drink: The “Munjoy Hill Mimosa” gave me the smack-down. It’s a deceptive concoction, a vague mixture of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, and orange juice, mixed to taste.

Casa Novello & Munjoy Hill Mimosa

| Posted in General News, Reviews

Today’s Portland Daily Sun includes a look at Portland Dine Around’s 2-1 deal in the context of a review of Casa Novello in Westbrook,

Price: $16.99 is the high end of the spectrum for the most popular 2-4-1 entrée of Casa Chicken Marsala. Casa’s version is an enormous portion of fresh chicken breast, onions, mushrooms, and marsala wine, sautéed with cream and oil.  It is rich, and perhaps artery hardening, and well worth the extra 15 minutes on the tread mill (order it over penne so the sauce can get in the little ridges).

and a report on the Munjoy Hill Mimosa,

Beware, ye lovers of drink: The “Munjoy Hill Mimosa” gave me the smack-down. It’s a deceptive concoction, a vague mixture of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, and orange juice, mixed to taste.