Late to the game: The Great British Baking Show

Who else knows about this show?  And why wasn't I told sooner? 

The outside world is just awful - and getting awfuller - and to escape, I retreat into my Netflix account.  Usually I tend towards genre stuff but even Supernatural and Ash Vs. Evil Dead have been too grim for me lately.  I churned through The Good Place and the Queer Eye reboot, both of which worked at being both entertaining, warm and light enough to keep the dismals away.  But there aren't very many episodes of either show and once done, I needed something else.

Enter The Great British Baking Show.  There are only three seasons/series on Netflix, I believe, and I have already gotten through S1.  But I just love it.  All the home baker contestants are supportive of each other (as soon as they work through their initial nerves), the judges manage to find something positive to say about almost every bake and although the hosts are silly, they too are very supportive when a contestant starts to freak out.  It is lovely, civilized (everyone has cups of tea during down-time), inconsequential but engaging enough to keep me entertained and distracted.  I understand that there has been a bit of a recent shake-up with the original show's cast but I don't care.  I have nearly two seasons left to watch and I plan to enjoy every moment.

Better living through chocolate

It's been AGES since I put a food post up so, in an attempt to assuage the prevailing mood with chocolate, here's a new brownie recipe.  Mr. Mouse and I are attempting to eat a plant-based diet these days which, to us, means not only no animal products but also no oils.  A lot of vegan recipes add fats via oils so I have adapted a "Chewy Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe from www.food.com as follows:

CHEWY VEGAN CHOCOLATE CHIP BROWNIES

¾ cup unsweetened applesauce*

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp ground flax seed**

½ cup almond milk (or soymilk)

2 cups flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 ½ cups semisweet vegan chocolate chips***

Preheat oven to 350◦F.  Add ground flax seeds to almond milk and stir for about 30 seconds, set aside.  In a large bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt.  Cream sugar and applesauce in another large bowl.  Add the flax seed/almond milk mixture and mix well.  Stir in vanilla.  Slowly mix in dry ingredients.  Mix in chocolate chips. Pour brownie mixture into lightly greased**** 9x13 baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Note:  the original recipe was for cookies but I found the dough too wet to roll into balls and went the brownie route instead.  They came out very moist and fudgy.

* This is a substitution for ¾ cup canola oil.  The applesauce worked GREAT.

**  I found pre-ground flax seed in the health food section of my regular grocery store; you can also find whole flax seeds and grind them yourself.  Flax seed is somehow an egg substitution in vegan baking.

*** I found non-dairy/non-gluten dark chocolate chips in the health food section and just used a whole bag.  They were actually tasty on their own – not like yucky carob.

**** I used just a tiny bit of coconut oil

This is quite possibly the best thing ever. Ever.

We pause in our interminable Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles coverage to spread the word about this delectable-ness:

BACON S'MORES

I just read about this, which falls squarely in the "why the hell didn't I think of this years ago?" category, on NPR this morning.  It is just one more example of how bacon makes everything better: you take your regular ol' s'mores* - toasted marshmallow on slab of chocolate on graham crackers - and add some crispy bacon in there, probably between the marshmallow and the chocolate.  That is completely brilliant and I am totally doing this on our next camping trip.

*  NPR linked to this site here, which got all fancy-pants with homemade pig-shaped graham crackers.  That might be a little too Martha Stewart for yours truly but the little pig-shaped s'mores are about the cutest things you've ever seen.

Photo credit: NPR.  Oh gawd those look fabulous, even for indoor s'mores.

Deep-fried chocolate-covered bacon on a stick: FAIL

Mr. Mouse and I went to the Utah State Fair recently, and while I'm not going to repeat the blog post about the fair that I did over there at my other blog, I will say that I was SORELY DISAPPOINTED with the deep-fried chocolate-covered bacon on a stick.  Which, as you all well know, is in theory the Friend Mouse Holy Grail of bacon-centric foods. 

Imagine, if you will, as I did: crisp bacon, dunked in chocolate, battered and deep-fried to golden goodness.  Or even crisp bacon, battered and deep-fried to golden goodness and then drizzled in chocolate.  It could have been SO fabulous, glistening alongside the deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried Snickers bars, deep-fried Oreos and deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

 But no.  Sadly, this is what I got for my $4.50:  a strip of bacon, threaded onto a wooden skewer and deep-fried, then plopped in a cardboard basket and spritzed with thin chocolate sauce.  That was it.  Fer chrissakes, I could do that myself at home.  Should have gone with the deep-fried Snickers - and next time I will.

Don't believe the hype

Recipe: Ropa vieja (sort of)

One consequence of having 90% of your worldly belongings in a storage unit far from your apartment is that you tend to have the same things for dinner over and over and over and over and over because all your cookbooks are tidily packed up in Box #114 at the back of the unit and damned if you're going to dig them out just because you're tired of chicken, broccoli and rice.  Luckily, there's the internet which provided me with a recipe for a variation on the Cuban dish, ropa vieja.  Of course, I didn't have several of the necessary ingredients so we ended up with a variation on the variation, but it was still tasty and wicked easy, so I thought I'd share it with you.  Pluswhich it's a crockpot recipe so you can just throw it together in the morning, go skiing all day, and come home to hot and tasty food.  Which is just excellent apres-ski, by the way.

28 oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained
2 red bell peppers, sliced in 1/2 inch sticks (I used green because they're cheaper)
1 onion, cut into 8 wedges
2 tsp. oregano (didn't have any; used a little marjoram and a little basil instead)
1 tsp. cumin (didn't have any; used hot chili powder instead, which gave it a nice kick)
1 1/2 lb. flank steak, cut crosswise into thirds (the flank steak was $$ so I got something less $$ instead)
1 cup rice     (1 avocado and 1/3 cup fresh cilantro for garnish)

Combine everything except rice, avocado and cilantro in crockpot, nestling the beef down into the vegetables.  Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8 hours.  Before you're ready to eat, prepare the rice according to package directions.  Shred the beef in the ropa viejo; serve over rice.  Slice avocado, add it and cilantro as garnish.

I was worried that it would be too thick but the juices from the (drained) tomatoes and the other veggies are more than enough to make this into a sort of beef and vegetable soup.  You could add a bay leaf for more traditional flavoring, or add potatoes instead of serving over rice - any number of variations.  This recipe is easily adaptable and will now make its way into our regular rotation.

On a totally other subject: Heroes returns tomorrow in a two hour "event" - God help me with the recap.  And help us all if Nathan Petrelli doesn't stay dead.

The Maine thing, part I

Prior to my impending departure from the Great State o' Maine, I thought perhaps I should pass along some insider information in the event some of you gentle readers ever found yourself vacationing in Vacationland. You can go here, here, here and here for some previous tidbits too.

This will be the greater Portland edition. Portland is the largest city in Maine - which under no circumstances means actually "large" - and has a bunch of fun stuff to do and see and eat and drink. (Next installment: eating and drinking beyond Portland!)

Breakfast means Becky's Diner - just get there well before 9:00 a.m. on the weekends to avoid a half hour (minimum) wait. If you're just looking for coffee and a pastry, try Arabica or Coffee By Design for the former, and Standard Baking Co. for the latter. And stop by Two Fat Cats Bakery (practically next door to CBD on India Street) for cookies, cupcakes or fabulous pies to go.

Non-breakfast meal options abound in Portland. Some of my favorites are: Yosaku (sushi), the Front Room (no reservations and BUSY - but worth it), Shays on Monument Square ($5 pineapple martinis), Flatbread Company (hippie pizza), the Foreside Tavern, Dogfish Cafe, Katahdin and Vignola (the last two are spendy but really good, the two just ahead of them are way more reasonable and still good). If it's nice weather and you absolutely must have a lobster roll (or steamers or fried clams or etc.), head out to the Lobster Shack at Two Lights. You won't believe the piece of real estate this little place sits on.

Ah, beer. Maine has about a kajillion micro- and craft brewers; in Portland alone there's Gritty's (Portland's original brewpub), Sebago, Seadog, Shipyard, Geary's ... Your best bet, however, is to go to the amazing beer bar, The Great Lost Bear. They have 65 taps: order a sampler - they let you pick your own - and figure out which Maine breweries you want to roadtrip to that way. I do recommend that you eat beforehand, however, as the Bear's cuisine is not that, um, good.

Portland-area readers, what are your favorites? What have I missed that people need to know about?

Recipe: Grilled Pork and Peaches

Hmm ... seems that not too long ago I was trying to post recipes on Thursday so that they'd be out there for the weekend. How'd that turn out?

So here's one from Men's Health magazine that combines grilling out and stone fruits in a lovely, late-summery, healthy sort of way.

2 pork chops
2 firm peaches or nectarines, halved and pitted
2 Tbsp. pine nuts (or not - they're expensive)
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup crumbled blue (bleu) cheese
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat grill. Brush pork chops with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for 4 to 5 minutes per side; chops should be lightly charred but not burned. While chops cook, brush peach halves with oil and put on grill facedown. Grill for 5 minutes or until soft. Remove, slice and toss with pine nuts, onion, blue cheese and vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top each pork chop with half the mixture before serving.

Serve with a light salad of fresh arugula tossed with olive oil and lemon.

Restaurant review: Street & Co.

Street & Co., a fine dining seafood restaurant on Wharf Street in Portland, Maine, certainly doesn’t need my help in advertising: it is a Portland institution, serving fine, fresh fish and shellfish in the same lovely space for twenty years now. But, since Mr. Mouse and I went there twice in four days, and since I need a blog post, here’s a review of our recent experiences.

Last Saturday we went with two other couples for a 7:45 p.m. seating. The restaurant was hopping, as it always is. There were several tables outside on the Wharf Street cobblestones; the air-conditioned bar and the two non-air-conditioned dining rooms were packed and turning over quickly. The dining rooms have tables at very close quarters: the staff certainly does not rush you out, but the set up is not conducive to lingering, particularly in the summer in the center dining room which also contains the open kitchen. It’s a super-cozy place to sit in February, however.

Mr. Mouse had beer (bottles only, and only a few local brews); the rest shared a bottle of white (Guy Bossard muscadet, $25.00 – rather sour to my taste) and a red (which was quite nice, but unfortunately I don’t recall what it was). Each couple shared their own appetizer: the Mouses had the ubiquitous mussels Provencal, a very generous panful served in a garlicky, buttery wine sauce ($9.95), with lots of fabulous Standard Baking bread for sopping. Another couple split an order of the mahogany clams: $1.00 more than the mussels but with many fewer shellfish.

For entrees, Mr. Mouse had what he always has, blackened swordfish ($26.95) while I had the bluefish ($24.95): both were off the menu and served with broccoli and smashed potatoes. Another diner had my perennial favorite – scallops in Pernod and cream ($26.95) and their spouse had grilled lobster - a whole lobster, split and served in the shell over linguini ($29.95) The best deal on the menu went to the third couple: they had the lobster fra diavolo ($42.95 and intended for two to share). Loaded with lobster and shellfish, and served over linguini in a spicy tomato-based sauce, they took home as much as they managed to eat.

On Tuesday, Mr. Mouse and I returned to Street & Co. to polish off a $50.00 gift certificate. We took the last two spots at the bar where we had a great view of the shucker serving up succulent oysters on the half shell. We shared a bottle of chardonnay (Sonoma-Cutrer, $34.00; very drinkable) and split a baby spinach salad with hard-boiled egg, Dijon vinaigrette and plenty of house-cured bacon, and an order of the mussels. These Tuesday mussels were tasty enough, but served with rather less broth than the weekend edition.

Street & Co. has been Mr. Mouse’s favorite Portland restaurant for years and has long served as our special occasion go-to place. The portions seem to be shrinking somewhat while the prices remain the same; whether this is in response to the economy, the dwindling fisheries or the fact that the longtime chef Abby Harmon left four years ago to start her own high-end eatery, Caiola’s. No matter. It’s still an excellent restaurant and a more sophisticated Maine seafood option when you’re tired of fried clams and lobster rolls.

Recipes for the weekend: Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella Soup

Granted, this one's a little early here in the northeast since we won't have good, local tomatoes until about August, but today we actually had sunshine and warm temperatures (after ten days of rain) and I thought something summery would be good. It's vegetarian and comes from The Daily Soup Cookbook - which is just full of awesome soups.

6 beefsteak tomatoes (about 4 lbs.), halved and seeded, seeds reserved
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into very fine strips
1/2 lb. fresh mozzarella, about 20 of the 1-inch "boconccini" balls, thinly sliced, OR regular mozzarella cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped scallions

In a blender or food processor, combine half the tomatoes and all of the tomato seeds, olive oil and garlic. Puree 'til smooth. Add vinegar, salt, pepper and process 'til blended. Transfer pureed mixture into large bowl. Chop remaining tomatoes into small dice. Add diced tomatoes, tomato juice, basil and mozzarella to pureed mixture. Refrigerate 'til ready to serve.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with the chopped scallions.

Recipes for the weekend: Bee's Potato Salad

My old h.s. buddy (we used to ride around in the winter in her bright yellow original VW Bug with no heat and an aerosol can of de-icer for the windshield) and now new Friend of the Blog Kristin has requested More Recipes!!! here at the little blog.

Since I live to please, I offer you this easy one from my Grandma's recipe collection, in honor of my midwestern aunt and uncle who are here visiting the foggy, gloomy, cold, rainy state of Maine. It's an excellent summer-timey dish - too friggin' bad summertime is taking its own sweet friggin' time to get here.

Bee's Potato Salad

4-6 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled and cubed
2-3 hard-boiled eggs, shelled and chopped
1 white onion, diced
celery, diced
mayonnaise to bind it all together
small amount of whipping cream (unwhipped) or half & half
salt and pepper to taste

It's the little bit of half & half that makes this so rich and delectable. Srsly, I can consume this by the BUSHEL, it's so good.

Another indication that Mr. Mouse and I are going straight to hell ...

because we prefer to watch The Biggest Loser while eating homemade pizza* and drinking red wine out of a box**. And ice cream*** if we've got it.

* usually pepperoni and black olive; and pesto, onion and black olive
** this week: Free Range 2005 merlot
*** Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip

Holy mackerel, that's tasty

Today for lunch I had Fried Mackerels in Chilli Sauce (on crackers) from the good folks at Smiling Fish. This was a pretty self-explanatory food item: chunks of fried mackerel in a chunky sweet-sour-spicy chili sauce. But it was quite nummy and, once the 5.5 oz. can was consumed, I reserved the leftover sauce to add to this evening's soup (Mr. Mouse is working late and I do NOT cook for one). The Smiling Fish site lists tons of different products, only a few of which could be found at the Back Cove Hannaford, but I have managed to obtain a can of their Fried Fish with Chilli (fried "grinner fish," whatever those are) and expect tastiness there too.

Movie review: Ratatouille

In keeping with my lifelong tendency towards discovering cool stuff long after the rest of the pack, I finally watched Ratatouille - the previously "best animated film of, like, ever" right when WALL-E is poised to become the "BEST animated film of, like, EVER!" Timing be damned: Ratatouille is a fantastic Pixar film and I had a lot of fun watching it.

The story is that of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a young rat with a sophisticated palate who, slightly estranged from his overbearing father (Brian Dennehy), finds himself in Paris and dreams of becoming a chef. The problem with this is quite clear: even in cartoons, rats aren't welcomed in the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants and Remy must lurk in the shadows of the declining restaurant of his chef hero, Gusteau. When young (human) Alfredo Linguini inadvertently ruins a pot of soup in the kitchen, Remy saves the day and the soup. Alfredo strikes up an unlikely alliance with the rat: under Remy's guidance, Alfredo is able to keep his job as a cook; using Alfredo as his surrogate, Remy is able to create culinary masterpieces. There are villians, of course - the head chef Skinner (Ian Holm) who is sure Alfredo is up to something; and the scary, sneering food critic Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) - and a love interest for Alfredo, tough-talking, motorcycle-riding, chef-on-the-rise Colette (Janeane Garofalo).

Because it is a Disney film, there are fairly obvious themes at work: going after your dreams whoever you are and whatever those dreams might be; accepting and appreciating those who are different from you; tapping into hidden potential. In addition, critic Anton Ego has a meta-speech towards the end of the movie that I particularly liked where (and I paraphrase) he admits that even the greatest of critics is still less than the person whose work he is criticizing (it's only slightly less blatant than Lady in the Water where the critic gets eaten by a toothy porcupine-wolf-beast).

The animation is, as expected, outstanding. The humans' hair and skin is much more realistic than in previous Pixar films; effects like rainwater on rat fur and the light reflecting on sewer tunnel ceilings are fantastic. The animators also obviously spent a ton of time observing rats as their movements and mannerisms are incredibly realistic.

DVD extras: the hilarious film short, Lifted, about the most inept alien abduction ever (the facial expressions on the big alien are priceless); an informative look at rats throughout history entitled Your Friend the Rat and hosted by Remy and Emily; a featurette called "Fine Food and Film: Conversations with Brad Bird and Thomas Keller" - Thomas Keller being the chef/owner of The French Laundry; and Deleted Scenes which are extremely interesting from a film-making point of view: crude B&W animated drawings that were cut before time and money was spent adding the fancy-schmancy animation that is the hallmark of Pixar films.

There is something for everyone in Ratatouille: talking rats, haute cuisine, hope, passion, creativity, gorgeous views of nighttime Paris, snooty French accents, brotherhood and friendship and a little bit of smooching. And Mr. Mouse, who pronounced it a "silly cartoon movie," still stayed awake all the way through the end of the credits - which tells me he liked it despite himself.

Chocolate + Bacon = Mmmmmmmmm

A Secret Non-Sectarian Gift-Giver (you know who you are) recently gave me the greatest gift of all: a Flying Chocolate Pig - "applewood smoked bacon + Alder wood-smoked salt + deep milk chocolate" - from Vosges Haut Chocolate. Finally, two great tastes that taste great together!

Ensconced in an adorable little pig-with-wings shape, this carnivorous candy was devoured in about five bites. The chocolate itself was quite mild, bland almost, with very little mouth feel to it, but studded with tiny chunks of salty, crispy bacon. Since the chocolate was so mellow, the stronger initial flavor is of the bacon; the aftertaste was chocolate, however.

You should have seen me trying to get Mr. Mouse to try a bite. He sniffed it, brought it close a couple of times before licking the chocolate and then nibbling off the teensiest of nibbles, and finally announcing that chocolate and bacon do not go together. He's ridiculous and I think he's wrong. I quite enjoyed my flying chocolate pig and can state definitively that chocolate and bacon do, in fact go together. I think the experience would only be improved with a slightly richer chocolate is all.

If I'm not mistaken, here's another post about bacon

My Cuzzin Hannah is my favorite cousin* because she just sent us Mouses a care package, all the way from Seattle, with Bacon Salt! (That was an impressive taping job, by the way.) I knew what it was as soon as I opened my P.O. box and I'm fair certain I ran a few red lights to get home that much faster.

Somehow the geniuses behind this product have managed to get Original Bacon flavor, low-sodium Hickory Bacon flavor and Peppered Bacon flavor out of a complicated amalgamation of sea salt, paprika, dehydrated garlic, onion, smoke flavor, soy sauce and various and sundry other ingredients, many of which I cannot pronounce. Amazingly, it is no-calorie, no-fat, vegetarian and certified kosher, and it really does make everything taste like bacon.

My current favorite is the Peppered Bacon version (because that's two condiments in one!) - it's got a little extra bite due to the cayenne pepper. Mr. Mouse prefers the Original Bacon Salt because he thinks Hickory tastes like BBQ potato chips which he can't stand ... which is weird because he loves actual BBQ sauce. Mr. Mouse is a complicated man.

This stuff is way better than it has any right to be and I fear for our sodium levels in the days to come. So far I have tried Bacon Salt on hard-boiled eggs, rice, lima beans and pork chops. You heard that right: we put Bacon Salt on pork chops. That just makes the pig exponential and there's nothing wrong with that. Tomorrow I'm envisioning a sprinkle on my bagel with cream cheese in the morning; a shake or two with my grilled cheese for lunch ... at this rate we'll have worked our way through all three bottles in no time (I'm going to have to find a closer supplier than Washington State).

I encourage you to seek this brilliant stuff out: their website lists retailers or you can order directly from them online. Give it a try and tell me what you think. In other bacon-related topics, Reel Whore sent me this link to a fellow movie blogger who found bacon-flavored toothpicks (!!), and you can go here for daily bacon updates. And you all thought I had an obsession.

* If any of you other cousins want to try out for this prestigious position, I also like chocolate and single malt scotch.

Hallowe'en Treats (no tricks)

Since Fringe is a rerun tonight (c'mon, I totally call bullshit on reruns after only six episodes), I've found some seasonal treats just in time for All Hallow's Eve. I don't recommend handing them out at the door, however.

Three-Pepper Spiced Pepitas, Uovo, NYC (Food & Wine, Jan. 2006)

1/2 lb. raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 tsp. EVO
1 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1/2 tsp. hot paprika
lg. pinch cayenne pepper
kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Spread pumpkin seeds in single layer on rimmed baking sheet. Bake in oven for about 12 minutes, stirring once, until lightly toasted. Transfer seeds to large, shallow bowl. Add olive oil, toss to coat. Add the paprikas, cayenne and salt, and toss again. Let cool completely.

Peanut Butter Cups from Hell (recipe from my college roomie Sarah)

1 c. peanut butter
1 c. powdered sugar
1 1/2 c. fine graham cracker crumbs
2 sticks butter, melted
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Grease 9x13 pan. Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips in large bowl, mixing well. Press into pan. Refrigerate 5-10 minutes. Melt the chips (stovetop or microwave), and spread over mixture in pan. Return to fridge 'til solid enough to eat.

Vampire (www.webtender.com)

1 oz. Chambord
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. cranberry juice

Combine ingredients in shaker over ice. Strain and serve as shots.

Pass the bacon and pepper, please

I just found out about this last night and I am desperate, desperate I tell you, to find this stuff: bacon-flavored salt. In three different flavors - original, hickory smoked and peppered - this seasoned salt will take you as close to Nirvana (the state of being, not the grunge band) as possible. Everything is better with bacon, I believe, and having this zero fat, zero calorie, vegetarian and kosher (kosher! Bacon Salt is kosher! the mind boggles) salt to sprinkle on, well, everything, would be bliss. Instead of having bacon and eggs, you can just have eggs that taste like bacon. My baked potato could taste like bacon. Heck, my margaritas could taste like bacon. Wait, that's just silly. But you see my point. I believe that the pig is the perfect edible animal, and that bacon is the perfect part of the pig. With Bacon Salt, I can have bacon all the time, guilt free.

Don't poo-poo the pawpaw!

The parental units just returned from a trip to the midwest where they spent some time with my mom's cousins in Columbia, Missouri. My dad, who never met any kind of food he didn't like, brought me back a pawpaw which are apparently in season out there right now. I'd heard of pawpaws - that song, "pickin' up pawpaws and put'em in your pocket" - but I'd never eaten one. Until tonight.

Pawpaws are potato-sized and -shaped, with thin green skins the texture of mango skin. Although related to the papaya, pawpaws are actually a fruit known as a "custard apple" like a cherimoya, with large flat seeds and a soft, pale, creamy, tangy vanilla-scented flesh. I sliced the little pawpaw in half and scooped it out with a spoon, and truly, the flesh has the consistency of custard (which is a little weird in a fruit). Quite tasty (the flavor is described as a "mix between pineapple, mango and banana") although I'm not sure how you could eat a pawpaw other than raw - it doesn't seem to lend itself to cooking, but I'm just hazarding a guess.

At any rate, if you get the opportunity to partake of a pawpaw, please do, as a nice plump pawpaw is perfectly palatable and pleasantly perfumed. (Photo by K. Pomper, Kentucky State Univ.)

555 - restaurant review

Mr. Mouse and I had an anniversary and a gift certificate recently, so we decided to try one of Portland’s swankiest kitchens, 555 (located at 555 Congress Street). We made a reservation a week in advance which turned out to be smart; despite the late seating on a Monday night, the restaurant’s dining room and bar were both bustling. The restaurant space is gorgeous - open kitchen (of course - it's Portland after all), copper detailing, an upper seating area around the balcony looking down at the main dining floor.

Since it was a school night, we opted out of pre-dinner cocktails and simply ordered a bottle of wine. We Mouses like reds from Chile, Australia and New Zealand (because we are not pretentious oenophiles, plus we’re cheap and these countries have a good quality/value ratio) and were pleased to discover plenty of these on the list, finally going with a Villa Maria Pinot Noir from New Zealand. I didn’t care for it that much at first, but as the bottle breathed and the wine warmed slightly, it was quite quaffable.

We split an order of the Blue Hill mussels as an appetizer which were just incredible. The mussels were tender and the creamy broth contained house pickled cherry peppers, chive butter and roasted garlic had a great kick to it. Thick slices of toasted bread came with for dipping and I caught Mr. Mouse sneaking a spoonful of just broth because it was just that good.

For dinner, I selected the pan grilled pork tenderloin served with a teeny, tender cornmeal biscuit, local green and yellow beans, chanterelles and some nutty grains. Mr. Mouse (who picks his entrees based on what they don’t have - no mushrooms, chunky or whole tomatoes or avocado) went with the cod, which I believe was served with some sort of roasted pepper remoulade and grains as well … although I didn’t get to sneak a bite for myself and thus am a little unclear on exactly what he had.

The portion sizes could have been slightly bigger: they certainly weren’t Hugo’s-tiny, thank goodness, and while it was good to depart without feeling overstuffed, I’m sure Mr. Mouse could have used a little more protein on his plate. The food was all fine, but nothing spectacular and not certainly not any better than what you’ll find in other higher-end Portland restaurants (like Bay Bay Grill, Vignola or Street & Co., etc.).

Here’s the thing about our dinner at 555: the service was terrible on the night we were there. Now, perhaps it’s because we were there on a Monday and the A-staff wasn’t on the floor, and maybe if we were to go back it would be better. But this is what we got. We arrived right on time for our reservation but were kept waiting while an older couple, who walked in behind us with a reservation for the same time, were seated first. The busgirl spilled water all over the table when she filled Mr. Mouse’s glass. It took at least ten minutes for our waiter to even stop by menus/wine list, and then he didn’t come back to take the drink order for another 5-10 minutes.

We finally ordered the appetizer and entrees all at once and then, after waiting with an empty table for 20ish minutes, the mussels came out at the same time as our meals. Our waiter apologized and whisked the entrees away; Mr. Mouse watched as they disappeared into the kitchen but couldn’t tell if they were simply being kept warm or if we were going to get fresh new meals (the pork tenderloin was not at all overdone, although the cod was crispy-outside/mushy-inside, so who knows). Then, we had to twiddle our thumbs with a bowl of empty mussel shells before being cleared and served our meals...

Long story short, we were kept waiting a LOT - before, after and in between courses – while we noticed other diners, seated after us, being well attended to. I didn’t take it personally but it was disappointing, especially given the excellent level of service we have received from the above-mentioned other higher-end Portland restaurants. 555 is one of the few Maine restaurants that seems to always get a mention in the big glossy food and wine magazines. I’m sure its reputation is well-deserved but for the money we paid, the experience we got was lacking.

Restaurant review: Fresh

My friend Brownie and I have been trying to connect for dinner together for months and months now, and finally managed to coordinate schedules for an early dinner at Fresh in South Portland, Maine. What’s more, we managed to eat some darn good food in between all the catching up.

Fresh is located in a tiny storefront on Ocean Street in the Millcreek area, tucked in between a greasy-spoon diner and a very local bar. At first glance it almost looks like a deli, with a refrigerated case and row of stools in the front, but there are a number of small tables in addition to the seats at the bar. There wasn’t any A/C and the kitchen is right in the room so it was definitely warm in there, but Brownie snagged a table by a fan and once I had a drink of water everything cooled down to a comfortable temperature. We were there early at 5:45 p.m. and there were just three other parties eating then; by the time we left the tables at the front of the house had gotten busy too – not bad for a Tuesday night (dinner hours are Tues-Sun 5-close; lunch Mon-Fri 11-3).

There are a number of wines available, both red and white, by the glass for $6 or by the bottle for $24. There are also three or four bottled beers but nothing on tap. It was warm enough to be a white wine night and since the restaurant was out of the pinot grigio, I had a decent chardonnay and Brownie had a Riesling. $6 isn’t cheap for a glass of wine but the glasses were big and well-filled so no complaints.

The menu is not overwhelmingly long (often a problem in Portland restaurants) and focuses on local ingredients. The starters included steamers (the appetizer special), mussels, Caesar salad ($9 or more if you add chicken or shrimp), a mixed greens salad and a caprese-version salad ($11). We split the caprese which was enormous: a huge bed of tasty local mixed greens, plenty of juicy slices of red and yellow tomatoes and lots of feta cheese (it comes with goat cheese but they readily substituted for us). I was initially skeptical about the tomatoes – it’s still awfully early for local tomatoes up here – but these were fantastic, flavorful and tender.

The main courses are described as “large bowls and plates,” and large they are: Fresh serves a ton of food and we saw at least two tables taking doggie-bags with them (but not us – we’re good eaters). There’s an emphasis on pasta – a spring vegetable sauté (asparagus, sugarsnap peas and green beans in an herbed aglia olio over angel hair pasta), the specials seafood sauté (shellfish and salmon over rigatoni), a ravioli of the day - but also plenty else, like a rib-eye steak, homemade macaroni and cheese, roast chicken, grilled salmon and the ubiquitous burger. Brownie had one of the specials: grilled swordfish served with a fantastic mango/tomato/onion/cilantro salsa and fat wedges of potato while I went with the spring veggie sauté, adding some shrimp as well. Both of our entrees were quite good but they could probably get away with serving less pasta under my sauté – I didn’t come close to finishing it although I did snarf down all the veggies and shrimp.

We dithered over dessert (all pies from a local bakery) and finally split a strawberry rhubarb slice. It was a big piece of pie with an excellent crust – buttery and flaky – although the filling could have been a little less sweet/more tangy for my taste. I neglected to ask what bakery Fresh uses but my money is on Two Fat Cats on India Street in Portland.

Fresh has been around for just over a year. It’s in a tough location with not much foot traffic but it’s a good alternative to Beale Street if you’re in the area and not in the mood for Memphis style BBQ (blasphemy, I know!). I hear that the quality had gone down a bit after a strong start, but now they seem to have regained their composure. We had a very nice meal with good service and it was fun to find a little hidden gem that still feels undiscovered in the vast restaurantland that is greater Portland.