Holly Moore

It could be that my favorite Maine Lobster Pound is the last lobster pound that I ate at, but... My new favorite is Waterman's Beach Lobster in South Thomaston ME. I may have been influenced by their having received a James Beard Regional Classic award, but I think it was the setting, the 2 pound lobster that had to weigh in closer to 3 pounds and the home made rhubarb pie.

My favorite, both for coffee and espresso is La Colombe, sold out of Philadelphia. I believe some NYC restaurants use La Colombe. Here's the link to their site: La Colombe Coffee They ship, but it may be available in local gourmet stores.

You can always hire an apprentice. My first job in a restaurant kitchen was a drive-in run by a Cornell alumni, before my freshman year at the hotel school (Any New Jerseyites remember Sip And Sup, the old Alderny Dairy, at Rte 10 and Rte 202 in Whippany?). Every day I had to peel, devein and bread 50 lbs of shrimp and peel, slice and bread a large bag of onions.

Breathes there a "real gourmet" with soul so dead that never to himself has said, "Give me a heapin' (real gourmets probably don't say heapin') bowl of chili..." Back in my restaurateuring days, we received a coveted "Best of Philly" for our chili. It was an adaptation of Chasen's recipe. We added a heavy, cheap red wine and fired it up a bit more. Covered it with a crust of melted cheddar and served it with a jar of sweet hot Indonesian Sambal Curry Paste which we relabeled "secret hot stuff." Here's the Chasen's recipe: Chasen's Chili Another of my favorite recipes came from Nieman Marcus, I think. Back in the 70's there was an article in Gourmet or one of the daily's about four great chilis. Chasen's was one. Another was a chocolate flavored, sort of a molé based chili credited to Nieman Marcus. Did a search and found something that looks similar: Chocolate Based Chili Either one can probably be made without salt, and supplimented with your crop of hot peppers. Enjoy!

Oops, just checked my site. Had forgotten all about the Crossroads Restaurant in Pembroke, ME That is where I had my favorite Maine Fried Clams. But you have to go just as far North as you can go Down East. It's way up there on Coastal Route 1. These clams were shucked an hour before I ate them.

OK, it's not really a lobster pound, but... My first lobster in Maine is almost always Red's in Wiscasset. Their lobster roll is warm lobster, more than one lobster to a lobster roll, with melted butter on the side. All out of the shell for easy, speedy consumption. I've found Shaw's to be a good, reliable, Maine name. Back a couple of scores or so, during my first 20 summers which I spent at Sebago Lake, we bought what we could from Shaw's General Store in South Casco. Great selection of comic books, ice cold Nehi, and Old Settler's bread. Since then, I've happened accross the Shaw name all along the coast, selling this and that. Never been disappointed. Beale is another one of those Maine names. There are a bunch of them selling lobster along the coast. Last year when I rented a cottage in Jonesport, I was right next door to a lobstering branch of the Beale family tree. Didn't even have to drive into Jamesport, just leave a note on their door. As to Lobster in the Rough, agree on Noonans - also enjoy the Cape Porpoise Lobster Company in the Cape Porpoise area and the Lobsterman's Coop in Boothbay Harbor. Harraseeket Lobster in Freeport is fine, if you manage to avoid what can be a multi hour wait. Had one of my best lobsters in Round Pond, though I think from was at the place closest to the parking lot. Carman, Buddha and I, a few sea gulls, a setting sun and a couple of two and a half pounders. While it's no challenge finding a mediocre Lobster Roll in Maine, I think it is much more difficult to find a mediocre lobster from a Maine Lobster Pound or other in-the-rough establishment. The only exception, and that has to do with ambinece not lobster, is where the tourists outnumber the sea gulls. But lobster pound for pound, the lobsters in Maine seem to be consistently good. I'm also a fan of the Bush family's favorite haunt, Mable's, in Kennebunkport. But that's a restaurant and up there in price. Ambience can be a problem there too. My last time at Mable's I had to share the dinning room with Ken Starr. You mentioned clams. So far my favorite Maine clams come from Allison's, a restaurant in Kennebunkport. The Clam Shack, on the River in Kennebunkport is great too (horrible lobster roll though). Also quite good is the NY Times favorite clam shack, the Sea Basket in Wiscasset. Wiscasset is a tough town to hit on an empty stomach. Chowder and Clams from the Sea Basket and a Lobster Roll and Hot Dog from Red's.

A somewhat related question. From talking to some from DC and a visit to the International Safeway a while back, I arrived at the conclusion that the DC area, because of all the embassys and all the military and government types who served aborad, probably would have the best assortment of ethnic restaurants in the country. Not baiting here but am curious if anyone who actually lives in DC and therefore knows about what he/she is talking, feels the same. I do know that Philadelphia's Ethiopian and Pho restaurants emigrated from the DC area.

Yo Mark The picture of the heirlooms - where was it taken?

It's not all Wonderbread and Sunbeam here in provincial Philadelphia. We have access to some great bread. My regular haunt is Metropolitan Bakery. All sorts of whole grain and sour dough based breads. You'll be glad to know that they ship to New York. Their website: Metropolitan Bakery There's also Le Bus which has been around for decades. Pretty much on a par with Metropolitan but no website. Both sell their breads, rolls and sweets to many highend restaurants and gourmet food shops. For Italian bread as good as anywhere in the country: Sarcones in the Italian Market. Yeah, New York is big. I have no problem granting that New York City has more great resaurants and more lousy restaurants, more great bakeries and more lousy bakeries than other US cities. It's no big deal. Just a math thing.

Egads Bux. Is there no end to a New Yorker's gastronomic myopia? Do New Yorkers believe that, along with being the New World's pinacle of culinary and all other civilization, they and perhaps San Francisco are the only refuges from supermarket white bread? I'll put some of the local Philadelphia breads against New York's breads any day o' the week, except perhaps Sunday when our bakeries close.

Carman of Carman's Country Kitchen in Philadelphia usually coats her French Toast with Corn Flakes. On occasion she's done the same with shaved almonds or crushed pecans. Works rather well. French Toast is also a great medium to stuff. Cut extra thick, slice a pocket. One of my favorite combinations is orange marmalade and cream cheese

Got me. DC's street layout and all the compass reckonings that are incorporated into its addresses are a mystery worthy of Rand AND McNally. Unfortunately Ben Franklin limited his logical approach for city planning to Philadelphia, our great nation's first capital. The same guy who laid out Boston must have done DC's streets. Either that or the street layout logic was overseen by a joint congressional committee.

From the Hardee's Corporate Site: Locations in Washington WASHINGTON 1005 First St, Ne Washington , DC 20002

A few thoughts: Are there no Hardee's in greater Washington DC? They actually prepare a very good, very authentic ham biscuit and most likely with a lot less hassle than an uptown restaurant with nouvelle southern airs. Be it Nouvelle Southern (is that a restaurant where Dixie has indeed risen again as in the New South?) or plain ol' down home Southern, any restaurant claiming Southern heritage and not having a biscuit on their premises deserves a trip behind the woodshed and a good ol' fashioned whalloping from Pa or Pere as they say in in the Nouvelle South. While I like the idea of a corn bread and country ham sandwich, I have never come across one in my Southern treks. Mr. Balic probably got a tasty sandwich, but not the classic savory he desired. I'd say mission semi-accomplished.

I am not a regular reader of the Philadelphia Weekly. I relied on someone else's posting elsewhere, concerning Robin Rinaldi's position and tenure, and as a result miswrote in the initial posting on this topic for which I apologize. To set the record straight, 1.) Ms. Rinaldi is writing a general food column and is not a restaurant critic, and 2.) This was not her first, introductory column. Here is her complete reply to my email inviting her to check out this discussion: Hi Holly, Couple of things. That wasn't my first column; I've been writing the column since February. Also I'm NOT a restaurant reviewer at all; it's a general column on food/drink/local Philly restaurant scene/food trends/profiles/personalities. You can see the archives on www.philadelphiaweekly.com if you're interested. Also the discussion sounds interesting--I've often asked myself if I need to like all the new food trends in order to be a food writer! I'd like to check out the postings and weigh in for a fun discussion, but it might not be for several days as I'm on two magazine deadlines right now. So maybe I'll "see" you sometime soon on the board--if I get a break today or tomorrow I'll log on and post. Thanks for letting me know about it. :) Robin Again, my apologies to Robin for misrepresenting her and to eGullet for the eroneous string. Though it has led to an interesting discussion.

Good suggestion. I've sent Robin a link to this discussion.

As I wrote elsewhere, my main problem with Ms. Rinaldi is that she likes her steak cooked to a dreary medium. How can I consider culinary guidence from someone who ruins a steak by overcooking it. While I do think, in her first column, she (I assume Robin is a she) is partially poking fun at the trendy food crowd, I am bothered that someone with such vast food prejudices would be reviewing restaurants as a general critic. Seems unfair to restaurants, along with the reader. Perhaps though it is just a cry for attention, an announcement that she has arrived. If that is the case, I prefer it to another tactic I have observed among new critics looking to create a name for themselves - deliberately panning a great restaurant just for the controversy.

This popped up on the Philadelphia Restaurant usenet group. It's the introductory column by the new critic for the Philadelphia Weekly. The Weekly and the City Paper are Cemter City Philadelphia's two weekly alternative papers Philadelphia Weekly - New Critic's First Column

Sounds like a plan to me. You know a good lawyer?

You're right about Hopkins Boarding House. It sounds a lot like the Hotel Winnemuca in Winnemuca NV. I'm heading South tomorrow for a three day round trip trek to the World Grits Festival in St. George SC. Wish I had another day, could just about make it to Hopkins. And to a few of the other places you mentioned too. One of these days I've got to figure out how you manage to grab two plus months of driving and eating. My kind of existence.

Back when I had my restaurant I came up with a dish we called Flautas Monterey - a flour tortilla, filled with guacamole, topped with red sauce and montery jack, and heated under a cheese melter. About a month later a restaurant 3 doors away from mine put "Flautas Monterey" on their menu. Pissed me off until I figured out what to do about it. I typed out the recipe and mailed it to the chef-owner at the other restaurant along with a note saying, "just to be sure you're preparing it properly." Alas, I also sent a copy of my note to the "around town" columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He wrote it up for one of his daily columns, though he didn't name the restaurant that had received the recipe. Didn't have to. It was off the other restaurant's menu the day the column was published. Then again, whenever I adapted an item from another's menu - though I was never so overt about it - I would quote folk musician Pete Seeger. When a reporter asked him if he was upset when another musician used his song, Seeger replied, "hell, he just stole from me, I steal from everbody." I like the comparison of the evolution of folk music to the evolution of recipes.

One of the advantages to being a moderator is that I could invisibly edit my original post and subsequent readers will have no idea of what you speak. But I will save such power for an even more embarrassing moment which I am surely capable of achieving.

Eastport Maine is about as far North as one can go along the Downeast Maine Coast. At one point in time, Eastport was a major port for the Maine sardine industry. That's pretty much faded nowadays. Still around is Ray's Mustard Mill, which was founded to supply the mustard used in canning sardines. The last local sardine factory stopped using real mustard a couple of years ago, but Ray's is still going strong, both as a retail and mail order provider of classic and yup-scale mustard and offering tours (don't try during lunch time) of their mustard factory (a large couple of rooms behind the retail store). I'm a fan of Ray's Factory Mustard (also sold as Downeast Mustard). It's the same mustard provided to the sardine factories - thinner than most, a nice kick, and great for hot dogs. Rays also produces a bunch of flavored muscles. Their website: Ray's Mustard Also: Ray's Mustard Mill at HollyEats.Com

Neat write-up. Great pics. Looks like Bowen's Island has remodeled some. The hole for shells in the center of the table is new. Every time I've been there, we each got our own small garbage can positioned to either one's left or right. I'm curious Steve, considering the ambience at Bowen's, when did you go from thinking, "What the hell did Holly get us into?" to "WOW!" How about ending each post with an anticipated itinerary for the next few days?

In the oyster room it is oysters, along with cocktail sauce and crackers. You can order beer and such. Plus I think you can order off the rest of Bowen's menu, mostly fried fish, that is served in the other rooms, as long as everyone at the table also orders oysters. The late Mrs Bowen was famous for once kicking out the mayor of Charleston because he wouldn't order oysters. I rate Bowen's as one of the most unique restaurants in America. It would be a shame to miss it when you're in Charleston. Not sure when they open in the late afternoon / evening. Give them a call. Now as to lunch, I've got a spot for you there, too. Carman found it. Backman's Seafood. It's a fish market, which owns their own fleet of shrimp boats. They moor out back. Only customer seating is a picnic table outside, next to the fish market. Mr Backman has a stove, a kettle and a frying pan in the market. He'll boil up a mound of white shrimp (a Charleston area specialty and as fresh as you'll find em), keep them coming, and then cook up anything else he's got on hand. Backman's Seafood at HollyEats.Com Both Backman's Seafood and Bowen's Island are on James Island south of Charleston.