The Pelletier family, nationally known for their Friday night show “American Loggers" on the Discovery Channel (except to me, who had no idea that this show existed before today, but will now surely become obsessed with it), has purchased two shuttered, adjacent businesses in Millinocket and started to merge the spaces into a "large eatery." With logging work slow, the family and a contracting team have thrown themselves into extensive remodeling work in hopes of opening the restaurant later this year.
Continue reading ““Logger” family to dish up eats in Millinocket” »
Since the death of his father Andrew in January, artist Jamie Wyeth has continued with his life and his life’s work: painting. His first show since his father’s death — “‘Seven Deadly Sins,” which opened at Rockland’s Farnsworth’s Wyeth Center on May 16 — marks the Maine debut of his series of gull paintings, and its first showing since they were originally put on display in New York in 2007.
Continue reading “Wyeth’s Gulls: Representations of the Sea” »
The first time I ever tasted Vietnamese spring rolls was on the town Mall on Maine Street in Brunswick. I was 12 and my mother and step-father were building a house nearby. Most afternoons I would ride my bike down to Bowdoin College and go to the Peary Arctic Museum or hang out in the library. I know that it's shocking that with such a rockin' daily itinerary that I wasn't rolling in friends as a preteen, but I was the kind of kid who saved her baby sitting money to buy jars of pickled baby corn at this tiny gourmet store on Center Street in Auburn — the city we were moving from. After several weeks of repeated exposure to historic exploration data, I ventured out into Brunswick's downtown area where I discovered "the cart."
Continue reading “Tunes, a Unique Race & Tons of Tastes in Brunswick” »
Animal activists be damned, I'm adding the lobster races in Aiken, Ga., to the list of things I want to see before I'm 35.
Continue reading “Lobster Racing: Welcome to Lobster Downs” »
We already know that Maine Lobster Chef of the Year, Margaret Salt McLellan, was named Executive Chef of Linda Bean's product brand. Details are now out on exactly where people will be able to sample some of the LBPM edibles — starting with eight kiosk locations expected to be open by this summer, including two in Freeport, and ones in Rockland, Searsport, Camden, Port Clyde and possibly Portland, as well as Del Ray Beach, Fla.
What's next? Possibly selling franchises across the U.S. and into international airports. Will I see a Linda Bean's Perfect Maine Lobster Roll — with its quarter-pound of lightly-herbed lobster meat and a hint of mayo on a Kate's
Maine Butter-toasted "hot-dog style bun" at DCA soon? One can only hope.
Jessica Strelitz is a contributing writer to Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
The Maine staple is in the midst of quite a celeb moment. In the last two weeks alone, I have come across mentions ranging from whoopie pie party evites to news of a native Mainer who has found success selling them at her candy store in a Florida RV park (3,000 sold in five months). They are being called "cupcake's evil cousin" and the "Snuggie of food" by writers across the country. So, during a recent trip to visit my parents and do some research, I was interested to see if the pastry had taken on airs, gone on Oprah, been given its own festival or, God forbid, increased in price, in its native land.
Continue reading “Whoopie Pie Mania” »
Congrats to Sandy Oliver for getting lots of ink in Wednesday's NYT Food Section. The topic d'jour — Whoopie Pies, which apparently are the new cupcakes of the food-craze world. I have a hard time believing that bakers across the U.S. will find success building entire empires around them, ala Hello Cupcake down in my area and Clara's up in York Beach, but I would become an avid customer if they tried.
Continue reading “Whoopie Pies: The Maine state dessert comforts the nation” »
The Hyundai and I are hitting the highway Wednesday and heading to Maine from Virginia. I’ll make an overnight stop in NYC to try one of the city’s great new(ish) Italian spots Convivio — I wrote about meeting the restaurant’s sommelier here — as well as Momofuku ssam bar, of David Chang and steamed pork bun fame, with perhaps a stop at Milk bar thrown in for good measure.
Continue reading “Gluttony is not a road, it’s a destination” »
In my other life, I work with trade associations. Marketers in the professional organization world are always looking for members who will become evangelists for the brand. If you're the Big Deal Restaurant Society, you want to cultivate restaurateurs who carry their affiliation with your .org into their daily work lives and recruit others for you. You give them special ribbons to wear at trade shows. You invite them to speak at conferences. You treat them to private dinners at meetings. You introduce them to other brand ambassadors and create micro-communities for them. And they will love you for as long as they are in the field – and often, beyond it.
Continue reading “Maine Food Ambassadors — Activate!” »
Melanie's January blog post about ice fishing with her dad reminded me of my winters growing up in central Maine. And the debate this month over whether the state should stock smelts — a small fish that looks a bit like a salmon smolt — to help bolster Maine's landlocked-salmon population, got me to thinking about noshing on the tiny poissons.
Continue reading “Bones and All” »
It's not Christmas. Or my birthday. Or even St. Patrick's Day.
It's Restaurant Week. And for the first time ever, Maine is hosting its very own RW, featuring three-course meals priced at $20.09, $30.09 or $40.09, at several participating eateries throughout the state. And as much as it makes me sad to see Maine described as a "foodie" destination (I'm starting to loathe the term foodie), I think it's great that the state is promoting its culinary treasures and helping to make some of Maine's finest dining more accessible for all curious mouths.
Continue reading “The most wonderful time of the year” »
Maine Distilleries continues to get love from the national drinking press for its Cold River vodka, the most recent accolade coming from Wine Enthusiast which gave the Freeport distillery the "highest rating given to any American vodka."
Since my first piece for MF&L was a profile of the four-year-old, ground-to-glass operation, the boys at Cold River have become near and dear to my heart. And they have sparked a trend. Maine is becoming a hot spot for micro-distilleries using the best local products, distillers and, of course — clean, fresh Maine water.
In March, I'm planning a mini road trip around the state to sample some of the newcomers' wares, from gin to brandy. Any volunteers to be my designated driver?
Jessica Strelitz is a contributing writer to Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
I have loved two artists named Andy.
One is Andy Warhol, genius of soup cans and silkscreen prints, who also spent time at my alma mater in Pittsburgh. My support of his enduring fame even led to me being dubbed a Warholista by one of D.C.'s famed gossip columnists years ago — a badge I still proudly wear.
Continue reading “Andrew Wyeth: A Light Goes Dim at the Farnsworth” »
When it opened last fall, Founding Farmers immediately went to the top of my restaurants-to-visit list and received plenty of national press for its unique "green" focus. The farm/farmer-to-table concept is not a new one anymore, but this eatery was the first in D.C. designed to meet LEED Gold Standard design criteria (right down to the funky hand dryers in the bathroom), is owned by a collective of farmers and "exists to promote the products and services of family farms, ranches, and fisheries."
Continue reading “Maine Meat in the Capital City” »
Pizzania, the result of a Maine Mom trying to feed hordes of hungry teenagers, is the genius fusion of two of America's beloved foods: pizza and lasagna. Nancy Beaule, who lives in Rockwood, brought her idea to to food service behemoth Sysco in 2007 and soon after, Pizzanias were being served in restaurants, school cafeterias and other eating spots all over the state. Thin crust, tomatoes, beef, sausage, garlic, onions and a lot of cheese were layered into 5 1/2-pound half-sheet pans designed to feed a dozen people — though I have the feeling if I served one at a party, it would just feed three of us. Single-serving sizes, veggie and lower-fat versions are also in the works, but what's the fun in that?
Continue reading “From the “cooking to express my feelings” files” »
My best friend has devised a mathematical model that she uses in weighing success during shopping: if you buy something and you save more than you spend, you win. This week in the New York Times, Melissa Clark applies a similar formula to lobster and how excited she is to buy it, cook it and eat it while it's still relatively cheap in the Big City. And by cheap, I mean anywhere from around $8 to $17 per pound. Compared with what I was saw in Portland 2 months ago, not much of a deal compared with $4 per pound retail. But she's happy and she's buying Maine lobsters, so I'm happy for her. And I'm particularly excited to try her recipe for "Sautéed Lobster With Oyster Mushrooms and Ginger."
Jessica Strelitz is a contributing writer to Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
I have only been home to Maine for Thanksgiving once in the last 15 years.
This in no way means I don't adore my family. I love the din of everyone running around and slamming doors to keep out the chill and sharing baby duties, serving lobster with turkey, walks in the woods after supper and my mother cooking nearly everything the day before and leaving it out on the porch, which was colder than any fridge and had the added benefit of limitless space. When I was growing up, my grandmother would serve fresh cranberry relish, made with a hand crank, on china and by candlelight. When we ate at my step-father's mother's house, there was football in the snow with the uncles as well as limitless deviled eggs and tourtière — traditional French Canadian meat pies to bring home for later.
Continue reading “Thanksgiving from Away” »
In a state with a growing middle class, as well as an abundance of backyard and commercial farms, rivers and oceans ripe with fish and crustaceans, fiddleheads and mushrooms in the woods and all kinds of wild game and birds, we often forget that hunger affects a large number of people in Maine. As shoppers crowd stores picking up the final ingredients they'll need for Thanksgiving dinner this week, I hope some consider the drastic hit that food banks in the state have taken in the last year – both from losing government support and an increase in need — at the same time that the state's "food security" ranking has reached the "very low" level.
Continue reading “Bare cupboards in a season of plenty” »
When I tell people I am from Maine, the experiences they share almost always involve lobster, L.L. Bean, summer camp or visiting a relative in a place that they can never remember the name of, leading me to say things like "Berunswickland? Can't say I have heard of that one. Is it near Bangor?"
Continue reading “The power of the Maine brand” »
I know that cold weather is upon us, but I think I need to see a man in Blue Hill about some frozen treats. I drink a lot of tea, so Jim Picariello's idea of taking his leftover tea with honey and freezing it instead of wasting it, is indeed an "awesome" one. He creates the Frosteas and Frostbites, which are not-Popsicles — he is quick to remind you on his Web site that the term is a trademarked one, in a new manufacturing facility he opened this year along the coast. And despite minimal advertising, he has managed to develop a distribution network from New England to Florida and the Midwest, peddling the gluten-free, low-calorie, no-fat products, which are made in Maine with native honey and maple syrup.
But it isn't the pops themselves, with their clever names like Cool Your Jets and Honey Love, that excite me. It's his promise that they taste good mixed with gin and vodka. In Picariello's words, "What better way to forget about the economic crisis than to
calm your nerves with a Maine Maple Lemon Frostbite tossed in a glass
of vodka?"
I'll drink to that.
Jessica Strelitz is a contributing writer to Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine.
