Review of Homegrown Herb & Tea

Appetite Portland has published a review of Homegrown Herb & Tea.

Drawn back to Homegrown again on Saturday, I tried one of the limited-time seasonal tisanes that had caught my eye the day before. Dense with coconut milk and the scent of lavender, the Coco-Kava was a revelation. Creamy and lightly spiced with cocoa and sedating kava-kava, the milky liquid was slightly sweet and soothing to both body and mind.

This Week's Events

Monday — Stephen Lanzalotta is teaching a Piatto per Tutti cooking class, and chef Jennifer Flock from Browne Trading will be teaching a Sicilian cooking class sponsored by the Institute for Italian Studies; the Old Port Sea Grill is holding a showing of art work by restaurant workers.
Wednesday — Five Fifty-Five, Local 188 and David’s are teaming up on a multi-restaurant dinner for The Telling Room; The Salt Exchange is holding a beer and bacon themed dinner.
Thursday — there are wine tastings at Browne Trading, Leavitt & Sons and Black Cherry Provisions, as well as a pair of Unibroue VIP tasting sessions at Novare Res.
Friday — Cinque Terre is holding a Tuscan wine dinner.
Saturday — the indoor Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place, and Lou Ekus will be speaking at the Museum of Art on his working teaching media skills to celebrity chefs.
Sunday — the 2010 CSA Fair is taking place at many locations across the state including Woodfords Church in Portland; Sam Hayward from Fore Street will host a showing of the movie Mostly Martha at the Museum of Art.
For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.
If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

This Week’s Events

Monday — Stephen Lanzalotta is teaching a Piatto per Tutti cooking class, and chef Jennifer Flock from Browne Trading will be teaching a Sicilian cooking class sponsored by the Institute for Italian Studies; the Old Port Sea Grill is holding a showing of art work by restaurant workers.

Wednesday — Five Fifty-Five, Local 188 and David’s are teaming up on a multi-restaurant dinner for The Telling Room; The Salt Exchange is holding a beer and bacon themed dinner.

Thursday — there are wine tastings at Browne Trading, Leavitt & Sons and Black Cherry Provisions, as well as a pair of Unibroue VIP tasting sessions at Novare Res.

Friday — Cinque Terre is holding a Tuscan wine dinner.

Saturday — the indoor Winter Farmers’ Market is taking place, and Lou Ekus will be speaking at the Museum of Art on his working teaching media skills to celebrity chefs.

Sunday — the 2010 CSA Fair is taking place at many locations across the state including Woodfords Church in Portland; Sam Hayward from Fore Street will host a showing of the movie Mostly Martha at the Museum of Art.

For more information on these and other upcoming food happenings in the area, visit the event calendar.

If you are holding a food event this week that’s not listed above, publicize it by adding it as a comment to this post.

Winter Market Off to a Good Start

The new indoor Winter market got off to a good start yesterday. Attendance was strong and as you can see from the links below, Portland bloggers were also out in force:

  • Commune Tested, City Approved – reportage on the last minute licensing snafus and photos of the event
  • Portland Daily Photo – photos of the market
  • Food for Thought – “Despite the best efforts of the City of Portland to thwart the Winter Market from happening, stronger forces prevailed and the Portland market began with great gusto.”
  • LocalRootZ Project 2010 – an overview of the market and vendors as well as photos of the event and items purchased.

Reviews of Nosh Kitchen Bar

The Blueberry Files has published a review of Nosh Kitchen Bar,

While I really love the transformation of the space from the old, kinda cold and dark White Heart to a cozy, warm, well-lit space that meshes kitchen, bar, and restaurant well, I don’t see myself frequenting the place unless I hear that my next $10 won’t yield me disappointing results again.

and Cornucopasetic has published a microreview and had this to say about the pork belly reuben.

From those ingredients it should have been a legendary sandwich to tell my grand children about, but it somehow ended up being just okay.

Review of Veranda Noodle Bar

Veranda Noodle Bar received 3½ stars from the Taste & Tell review in today’s Maine Sunday Telegram.

Customers bow over the steam rising from huge china bowls of noodle soup at Veranda Noodle Bar. With patient pleasure, they start swooping up ribbons of thin noodles with chopsticks. Since slurping is entirely essential, dining takes on an aura of play as they poke and prod, diving after wontons and fishing out slivers of duck.

Fictional Food

“What’s this one?” Mummel asked, holding up a brown bottle with a ship on the label.

“That’s a new beer that’s so hip it doesn’t even have a name,” Ethan said. “It’s made privately by a friend of mine in South Portland who’s seceded from the United States so he doesn’t have to pay taxes.”

From this week’s segment of Port City Chronicle, a serialized novel that appears weekly in the Portland Daily Sun.

Donut Review of Frech Press Eatery

Appetite Portland has published a review of the donuts at The French Press Eatery in Westbrook.

Two of my three choices – the Bacon-Maple and Cinnamon Sugar –  even sported mini “hole” versions of themselves tucked into their middle voids. The third, Double Chocolate, was more of a donut sandwich — extra puffy, sliced in half, and coated with a thick chocolate glaze that trickled down the sides and oozed out the middle.

Completely ridiculous. And, deadly, decadently good.