Maine Trip #1

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!  This is my favorite time of year, despite my recently acquired aversion to cold, because I absolutely love Christmas.  I am, without a doubt, the worst Jew ever, but since I grew up celebrating Christmas in Portland, ME with my step-family, I came to love it not as a religious holiday, but instead as a time to get together with family and friends, exchange gifts, tell stories, and of course, eat lots and lots of great food.  This year, in addition to the great food we had at family dinners, I went out and tried a few new places in Portland and the surrounding area.  I also hit up an old favorite, Pai Men Miyake, which has become a requirement for my Portland trips over the last year.

*****

First up was Local 188, a fairly high end restaurant that specializes in fresh, local ingredients.  Now, before I go any further, in the interest of full disclosure my sister and her boyfriend are both managers there, front and back of the house respectively, and this meal was essentially comped.  That said, I did greatly enjoy it, as I had a classic favorite of mine (steak tartare), a classic Maine dish (mussels), and an innovative take on a true Italian classic (gnocchi with lobster).

I started off with a cocktail, the "Bergeron Sidecar," made with house infused vanilla and fig bourbon, Cointreau, and lemon juice.  Ordinarily I am not a big cocktail person, preferring either to drink beer or straight spirits, but at my sister's suggestion I went with this, and it was really tasty.  The bourbon did not overpower me, nor did it entirely mask the other ingredients, though it was definitely the dominant flavor.  I do not know what kind of bourbon they used, but it was at least decent, though I doubt it was tremendously high end.  The lemon juice added a nice citrus note to it, but since I have no clue what Cointreau tastes like on its own, I could not tell you whether it added anything.  It would probably have been a better option as a pre-dinner drink, but it was fine during the meal as well.

Since I had never been to Local 188 before, despite my sister having worked there for quite some time now, I decided to sample a few different dishes, and they were all successful, though one clearly stood out above the rest.  The mussels in red sauce were incredible, perfectly cooked (and cleaned, which even in a restaurant is no small measure of success) and delicious.  They are plump, juicy, slightly briny delights that on their own would have been delicious, but when served in the incredible red sauce were legitimately delectable, one of the best dishes I have ever had in a restaurant.  I have no clue what they put in the sauce other than that it is tomato based, and according to my sister Moroccan inspired, but my lord, it is delicious.  I ended up using the endless supply of bread my sister kept grabbing for us (also really good) to sop up all the sauce, because there was no way I was letting any of it go to waste.  Everything else could have been terrible, and this dish would have made going there worth it.

Next up were the gnocchi, which threw me for a bit of a loop.  I am used to, and partial to, light, pillow-y, but deceptively dense gnocchi, which soak up sauces and provide just a little bit of a bite, that perfect al dente.  These were definitely not that; they were absurdly light on the inside, but because they are pan seared, they have a little bit of crispness to the outside.  They were extremely flavorful, and the lobster cream sauce they are served in is great, with a pretty significant amount of lobster piled on top of the gnocchi.  All in all, I liked this, but it definitely was unlike any gnocchi dish I've ever had, and I think I would have liked it even more if they were not seared.  That said, it is nice to see a restaurant do something a little different, and the sear was perfect on each of them.

The final dish, the steak tartare, was both awesome and disappointing.  The steak itself was perfect, uniformly diced and formed beautifully into a classic disc, with capers and truffle oil mixed in that gave it the perfect saltiness and umami flavor to go with the clearly high quality steak.  My issue, however, was the quail egg on top; rather than serve it traditionally, with a raw egg yolk on top, they fried the whole egg sunny side up; this created a textural and process issue for me, as I neither enjoyed the texture of the fried white or having to cut through it while trying to get a bit of the egg with the steak.  Soft egg on top of malleable steak does not cut easily or cleanly.  Additionally, who is eating steak tartare, but has an issue with raw egg?  I would rather have just had the steak itself and no egg on top, because the steak itself was amazing, but that egg was incredibly disappointing.

Overall, I had a great experience, I really enjoyed my food, and I look forward to going back in the future to try some more things.  The paella gets raves from the variety of people I know who have tried it.

Local 188 is relatively vegetarian and gluten-intolerant friendly, with several items on the menu that are one or both already, and the ability to retrofit some others to meet dietary restrictions.

*****

The heart of the brewery; those tanks are filled with delicious, delicious beer

Saturday, after a delicious lunch at Pai Men, my sister and I took a quick trip up to Freeport, a town best known for the Maine staple L.L. Bean, but also now the home to Maine Beer Company.  While they do not offer a brewery tour, they do have a small tap room that overlooks the heart of the brewery.  They offer eight beers on tap at a time, and sometimes (including when I was there) have beers that are "Pilot" brews, not offered for sale anywhere else.  Offering 5oz and 10oz glasses, or four and eight beer samplers of 5oz pours, you can try an old favorite or some new specialties.  I went for the four beer sampler, trying three new-to-me beers, and of course, my all time favorite, the Lunch.

Clockwise from front righ:  Pilot 5, Lil One, Lunch, Weez

The new beers I tried were Weez (7.2%, American Black Ale), Lil One (9.1%, American Strong Ale), and Pilot 5 (5%, American Lager).  The Weez was dark, heavy and very hoppy, but like all of MBC's beers, that hoppiness did not manifest in much bitterness.  The Lil One was anything but, an absurdly strong, vibrant ale that even in a 5oz glass nearly knocked me on my ass.  I would not want to have more than one of these at a time, but it is very, very good.  The Pilot 5 was a nice, light, hoppy lager, and I hope they end up producing it, because I think it would be a great session beer, in a craft world sometimes too crowded by higher ABV offerings.  Lastly (and I did save it for last, so I could savor it), the Lunch, that perfect, delightful, hoppily bright and effervescent IPA; as much as I love Ballast Point's Sculpin, Dogfish Head's 90 Minute, or any of the other truly great IPAs I have had in my life, none of them quite match up to Lunch.  I keep saying it deserves its own review, and it does, but its so hard to find, and when I do, I end up just drinking it without taking the time to sit down and write a review because it is just so freaking good.

FYI, just down the street a short ways is Maine Distilleries Inc, the producer of Cold River Vodka.

*****

I always try to grab lunch or dinner with one or more of my dad's old friends when I make it up to Maine, people who have been very, very good to me in my life and were dear to him in his, and this trip I was able to make it to brunch with his old friend Doug and his wife Ann, who are some of my favorite people in the world.  We tried initially to go to Flatbread, a small chain restaurant that Doug swears by, but they had actually had a small fire that morning and were not opening up until after I needed to leave town, so we ended up at Ri Ra Irish Pub, another small chain that has ten locations throughout the east, plus a new Las Vegas restaurant.  Somehow I had never been there, despite their proximity to the Casco Bay Lines terminal, but since they are right next to Flatbread as well, we decided to pop in.

They are definitely a bar heavy restaurant, and with a pretty decent drink selection at that.  We were there right around noon, so we ended up, at the suggestion of our waiter, ordering brunch.  I had the Irish Benedict, an interesting play on the traditional dish wherein the English muffin is replaced by potato cakes (essentially home fries mashed together and then pan seared) and the Canadian bacon with a large rasher of regular bacon, with house-made Hollandaise on top.  It was served with very unremarkable home fries and a thick slice of grilled tomato (a concept from the British Isles that really needs to catch on more here).  The food took a long time to come out, but our waiter did come over and apologize for that and offered us some soup, on the house, to make up for it; as it turned out, the food arrived almost immediately after the soup came out, but it was nice of the restaurant (or just him?) to do that, and the soup, a tomato bisque, was pretty decent, though I make it better.  The Benedict was quite tasty, albeit kind of difficult to get all the components into one cohesive bite, but that was not a big deal.  The potato cakes were tasty, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, just like good home fries would be, and the bacon was cooked just right, as were the poached eggs.  I would definitely have it again, or the Lobster Benedict that Doug ordered.

I firmly believe that the average restaurant customer goes in thinking they care primarily about the food, but in reality, people return for the service.  With that in mind, and having had some great waiters, waitresses and bartenders in my life, I have to say that the waiter at Ri Ra was one of the best.  I initially ordered the Irish Benedict, then immediately changed my mind to the Crab Cakes Benedict, a special for the day, and instead of just letting me get the (slightly) more expensive meal, he informed me that the crab cakes were not something that the restaurant does well, and encouraged me to stick with the Irish version.  Not many waiters would do that, and he saved me (and Doug, who was also going to have them) from a poor experience.  Combined with his general friendliness and professionalism, I was very, very impressed by him; even if the food had been only mediocre, rather than actually pretty tasty, I probably would still have written a positive review just because of his service.

******

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Pai Men Miyake (Portland, ME)

After starting my holiday trip to Portland with a long awaited stop at Duckfat, on the 24th I had lunch at Pai Men Miyake, the casual accompaniment to Masa Miyake's celebrated Miyake restaurant.  Situated at the top of the "Old Port" section of Portland, Pai Men Miyake focuses on ramen (Pai Men meaning "100 Noodles" according to the website) blending traditional Japanese flavors with the use of local, fresh ingredients to create a truly remarkable meal.  Yakitori is available after 5:30pm, but since I was there during lunch and obviously could not have that, I went with the "Tei-Shoku" lunch special, choosing one option each from two of four "groups" of dishes, including dumplings, vegetables, ramen, and sushi; prices depend on what you pick.

I started with the pork gyoza, simple potstickers that did not outwardly look any different from any others, but are made with fresh, local pork and cabbage, with a nice, subtle flavor of each, a perfectly thin wrapper, and served with a light sesame oil and soy dipping sauce.  They were seared in such a way as to have a little bit of browning, and thus the accompanying flavor of a light pan fry, but without being really crispy; this is actually a good thing, as pot sticker type dumplings tend to fall apart if they get too hard a sear.  These were some of the better dumplings I have had, but the second I tried my sister's brussel's sprouts, I regretted my choice; more on that later.

For my primary dish I had the paitan ramen, with the traditional Japanese ramen noodles surrounded by a strong pork and chicken broth, topped with a little pork belly, half a soy marinated soft boiled egg, scallion, and a piece of nori (seaweed typically used to make maki rolls).  This is very, very different from the Korean style ramen of Manna House, but I wouldn't say it's better or worse; simply different.  I had them add the spicy garlic paste, but even with that there wasn't much spice, and the broth was lighter in color, though flavor-wise it was still intense.  The pork belly was good, though there was little of it, and the nori did not really add much, but the egg was remarkable; I'm not a big fan of soft boiled eggs, but this was so perfectly cooked, with such a delicate soy flavor enhancing the natural flavor of a really fresh egg, that I found myself wishing there were several of them. 

My little sister ordered the tokyo abura-soba ramen, which is simply the noodles, chili oil, egg yolk, nori and sambal (a spicy chili paste with a flavor similar to that of sriracha, though it is significantly thicker), without any broth.  Spicy and simple, this was really tasty, and not something I would have really given much thought to ordering, as it has neither broth nor meat, but this was just one of a couple dishes outside my normal realm of interest that surprised me that day.

My older sister started with the brussel's sprouts, as I said, and they were...my god, they were good.  I can't even describe it.  A huge serving of halved sprouts, drenched in tamari (a soy sauce variety) and fish sauce, they are tangy and slightly sweet, roasted just to where the outside leaves are a little crispy, just inside are softer leaves, and then the core is just slightly crunchy, with a great bite to them that I have not been able to achieve when I've made roasted sprouts, and that I haven't really had elsewhere either.  These were by far the best sprouts I have ever had, and I'm really hoping to learn to make them the way that Pai Men does.

Her second dish was a pair of steamed buns, sandwiched around thin pieces of fried tofu.  I normally don't really like steamed buns that much, simply because they're rarely well made, and I almost never like tofu, for textural and flavor reasons.  Both were incredible.  The buns were light, porous, and slightly chewy, and the tofu had a slight crunch to the exterior that kept it from feeling like the spongy mess that I associate with tofu normally.  I have no clue what the tofu was marinated in, and I can't even describe its flavor, but it was really, really delicious, and went perfectly with the aioli-like mayonnaise that was lightly applied to the inside of the bun.  Since I liked it, I suspect anyone else trying it will too, even those who typically object to tofu; it really surprised me, and changed my mind a little bit regarding pressed bean curd.

With the exception of the gyoza, all the portions were pretty good; the brussel's sprouts came piled in a large bowl, and it took all three of us picking at them to finish without having my sister be full prior to the buns' arrival, while the bowls of ramen were plenty of food.  The gyoza had just four dumplings, which were not filling, but after mooching some of the sprouts and eating my ramen, I left quite satisfied.  For drinks, a number of local craft beers were available, both on tap and in bottles, with Smuttynose Brewing Company being the best represented.  I went with their Scotch Ale, a strong, heavy, and well made beer that may have been a little too much for this particular meal, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  My older sister had the same, and my little sister went with the Oxbow Saison Noel, a very dark representation of this traditional farmhouse beer, though it maintained the lightness and flavor of a normal saison.  All in all this is a fantastic restaurant, and I look forward to not only going back but also exploring its sister restaurant.  It's also very vegetarian friendly if that's your thing.

On a side note, both restaurants and the Miyake Catering business are served by Miyake Farm, where they raise fowl, pigs, and produce; this is true farm to table, in the purest sense of the term.  

©Miyake Farm

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MRKT Restaurant (S. Deerfield, MA)

MRKT Restaurant, located at 6 Elm St in South Deerfield, MA, is the new creation of Josean Jimenez, formerly of Del Raye Restaurant in Northampton.  Del Raye, which was the fanciest of the Spoleto Restaurant Group's stable of restaurants until it closed a few years ago, served some pretty fantastic food, but the one time I went there I was struck by the fact that the food seemed to take a back seat to the experience and ambience of the place.  MRKT does not suffer from that issue, and I don't mean that negatively at all; the decor is fantastic, very simple, and the atmosphere is perfect for a date (which is why I was there, and also why there will be no pictures today), a group of friends, or even a business lunch/dinner.  The restaurant is one of a growing number of "farm to table" types, specializing in, according to their Facebook page, "local, organic, ethical and natural ingredients."

Located in the building vacated by Alina's, a reasonably well known local restaurant that moved to Hadley, MRKT looks like a simple storefront that could be easily mistaken for an antique shop.  Once you step inside, you enter a dimly lit (but not dark) dining room, with tables for about 60; the tables are set far enough apart that you wouldn't ever feel crowded even if it were packed, and if they were simply trying to maximize profit I think they could fit another 20 to 30 people.  It's a white tablecloth kind of place (literally and figuratively), but it doesn't feel stuffy at all, and I didn't feel under-dressed in a pair of nice jeans and a half-zip sweater.

The food is even more impressive than the atmosphere, though it's expensive.  Even without drinks (the restaurant is BYOB at the moment, though they are working on getting their liquor license) the bill was just over $100 for two appetizers, two entrees, and two desserts; add in tip and  the $12 bottle of Chimay Blue Cap Grande Reserve I brought (see my review of the same here) and I went over the $140 mark.  Thank heaven for overtime, huh?  I didn't mind the cost though, as the meal was delicious and I had a great time.  It's also to their credit that MRKT does not charge a corkage fee, at least not for a wine bottle sized beer, and they have wine and pint glasses available.

We started with a special appetizer, roasted bone marrow, which was served with a small salad on the side and some toasted bread, and a cheese platter, which consisted of a brie like smooth cow's milk, a chevre, and a bleu.  The cheeses were fine, but at $15 I would have expected more than three small wedges of cheese, a small pile of local honey comb (which was pretty awesome), and a small pile of fruit mostarda.  They were not stingy with the bread, at least, offering to bring more at request without extra charge.  We didn't end up finishing all the cheese, but only because they brought our entrees out before we did; this was one of a series of small issues with service that I will talk about later.  The bone marrow was quite good, worth whatever it cost (I have no clue), and it was my date's first time having it, so that was a win in my book.  Hint to the women out there; not only being willing to try something a little out of the norm like bone marrow, but in fact suggesting it...that kind of adventurousness is really sexy.  At least to me.  And that's what matters, clearly.

The entrees were a huge success, for a couple reasons.  First off, my companion ordered the Casco Bay Cod, served with quinoa, radish, arugula and a red wine butter sauce, which was perfectly cooked, flaky but not falling apart, and not remotely tough.  This was great for both the fact that it tasted good, and because Casco Bay is among my favorite places on this planet, and I have spent a significant portion of my life on Peaks Island, the most populous island in that bay.  My dry aged ribeye was perfectly cooked, a lovely deep purple rare, exceptionally tender and with the strong beef flavor associated with dry aging.  My only complaint was that the fat wasn't well trimmed from the edges, creating some slightly tough cutting and bites when I didn't realize that right away.  Even with that, it was a completely reasonable $29, for a pretty decent sized hunk of meat.  The heirloom potato and rainbow carrots were delicious, and the soubise (repetitively labeled "onion soubise") was nice. 

For dessert I had a panna cotta, which was vastly better than the one I had at d.Vino in Las Vegas.  Richer, with a serious lemony flavor and much denser, this was what I was expecting from a panna cotta after seeing it on tv before.  I was a huge fan, and would highly recommend it.  My date had the chocolate budino, a chocolate shell with caramel, chocolate ganache, sea salt and a drizzling of olive oil.  She really enjoyed it, though it was apparently extremely rich and she wasn't entirely sure that the EVOO was really necessary.  It was so rich that she commented that it was hard to finish, but she wasn't willing to leave any on the plate either, so that's a pretty good endorsement, especially after a rather large meal.

So, on to the service.  This is a brand new restaurant, only a month or two old, and it showed.  The waitress we got was very nice, but clearly had never worked at a nicer restaurant before, as she asked another waiter "can we do rare?" when I ordered my steak.  There was a pretty clear lack of familiarity with the menu on the part of all of the wait staff members, but not so much so that it was an annoyance; simply something I noted.  Bringing out the entrees while the appetizers were still unfinished was a bigger problem, one that demonstrates a lack of communication between the front of the house and the kitchen, or possibly simply a lack of understanding of how to time such things by the wait staff.  It's a pretty simple fix, but one that is important.  That said, I'm a firm believer in tipping well based on the attitude of the wait staff, not their performance, and they were very friendly, not annoyingly attentive (something that bothers me greatly when you're very clearly on a date), but never too distant if needed.  Overall, this is a restaurant that has huge potential, and I'm sure they will only get better.  I highly recommend it, as you will be supporting not just a fine local restaurant, but also numerous farms and other purveyors throughout the region.

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