johnnyd

Went to Bar Lola Saturday afternoon as I hadn't heard of it prior to the above post, but they were closed. No menu on the window so that list is helpful. Looks nice and organized inside. Went down to Front Room and had a great reuben with slaw, but I wanted tapas!

There is plenty of harvesting east of Rockland that will take up the slack from closures in southern New England. They may be slightly more expensive to reflect the additional gas used to get them south, but who cares? As Jason says, folks will go beserk without 'em!

Tuttle Farm in Berwick was on the AM News today. Their fields are covered in mud and tractors are unable to work them owing to high saturation. The piece concluded that even though their spinach and other seeds are gone or rotting, theirs and other local farm produce will hit the markets later than usual and will not rise in price.

Whoa. Abra, that looks so good I ran out and spent 10 bucks on more pork butt to make it again today! I have this feeling that the price of butt is rising... ...I'll have to PM from now on since we are obviously the trendsetting carnita crowd. Dang it's hard being so cool! I'm thinking of tweaking it a smidge. Maybe I'll crack open that little can of chipotle in adobo for a little smoky-smoky flavor? Stay tuned.

If you get this far northeast, you must get to the A1 Diner in Gardiner Maine. Real diner food with better than usual respect. Here is a review from Splendid Table on Minnesota Public Radio

This is DMR Maine-only news for now - the run-off is still significant at this time. I don't see updates for MASS and NH, mostly cuz I'm getting lost in the warren of state-run websites... I dunno about that lobster news - seems a little much, but they are stuck in pounds in-shore here in Maine. It's just that they are not affected like shellfish are. No one I know s harvesting Lobsters yet anyway. The season usually starts a few miles out. Margo - good luck w/your asparagus - I hear they are awfully difficult to establish

Well, then... Anybody else?! I thought so! Bravo Shalmanese! So beautifully wrought!! (Please collect your winnings at the FOH while the rest of us finish cleaning up...)

Shellfish Harvesting is officially prohibited from Cape Cod to the New Hampshire border until further notice.

Enzo! I always think of Jean Reno in the Big Blue when I hear that name. Suspecting a pet-less environment this week, I propose a pic of your new Vespa, Enzo! The Trout Lake Market includes Iron Maiden Seafood, a true boat-to-market outfit. Are you a patron and how do they rate?

Great job everybody - you guys really got things rolling for the summer grilling season ahead! Thank you!

I thought of you on this elrap. Seeing some of the footage off the streets and in the woods, I wondered if rushing/standing water of greater depth than usual would ruin, or enhance the normal mushroom development this year- and for that matter, perhaps call an end to fiddlehead season?

Enough information about the disastrous flooding in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts has come in from officials and the citizen media to call it the worst ever. The impact on small farms, local specialties and seafood could be immense. So far, I've learned the following: - Record rainfall, averaging a foot or more between Boston and Kennebunk, has fallen over a period of about seven days. The normal average for the whole month of May is just less than four inches. - New England Cable News received a figure of 65 billion gallons of water as already flowed down the Merrimack River to the Atlantic Ocean, from disaster officials. The impact on nearby shellfish areas could be grim - especially since Haverhill, MA sewage main has been breached and is emptying 8 or 9 million gallons of sewage a day into the river. - Gleason Farms of Litchfield NH eMailed a pic of their field of half-submerged, tomato hot-houses and added that they saw 100s of their tomatos float down the Merrimack on Monday morning. The river's flood stage is 15 feet - it's crested at 22 feet according to NH/MA officials. I know many people who are sand-bagging their properties where threat of flooding has never existed before. - Have just-planted gardens been washed away? - Have your local farms lost the coming summers produce? - Has the road and bridge failures caused restaurant and delivery inventories to spoil? - Will New England see produce and shellfish prices double this summer? Please post disaster updates, predictions and opinion here.

Sounds like a typical fisherman! Like Gifted, I've always heard PRAWN when the menu is associated with the British Empire in some way - either of origin or as a destination. If a place is frequented by UK tourists, the english menu will almost always say "prawns". Here's a re-post of the North Atlantic Shrimp, harvested off the Gulf of Maine, waiting to be auctioned at the Portland Fish Exchange that I took last year: These are only about two to three inches long. The females have roe tucked between the legs.

Gee, I didn't read it that way, Sonja. Maybe I'm not down with the lingo but my reaction was more about the fact that they were just plain there at all and the neighborhood was much richer for it! Fresh eggs are fresh eggs: delicious and better for you - I'll pay whatever you charge!

These were delicious! Not the orderly cubes I see above but they wrapped well in a flour tortilla as a mass of bite-sized nuggets. I did crave a sweet twist so I sliced a long, thin sliver off a ripe banana and added within. Good stuff - highly recomended!

I have to chime in with my choice of cinco de mayo meal today: Pork Butt, bone-in sliced rib style on sale y'day so I got 5lbs and prepped a braising liquid as per Jaymes suggestion: 1 pint chix stock 1 cup Cruzan Rum 1 cup OJ 1 med onion, wedged 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 teasp coriander seed, crushed 1 teasp seasalt 1 teasp oregano 1/4 teasp allspice (a wink to jamaica) several grinds of black pepper/cardamom blend (8:1) Set my Creuset in a 280 oven at two pm y'day and found it gently bubbling when I got back at 6p. Lots of liquid - awesome smell. Set it on stove top, uncovered at low and evaporated half the liquid. Set it on an ice pack and cooled it down enough to chill overnight in the fridge. My plan tonight is to finish it off on the stove top untill only porkfat remains then transfer to a pan for broiling until crispy. The pieces are already falling off the bone in convenient yet disorderly sizes which I think is fine as is. I can't wait! Tips or suggestions on handling/serving and sides are welcome.

Absolute, dead-on, requirement, my driving-fool friend. These are the sweetest, most delicious creatures in that part of the world, and some of my most memorable meals. On Miami Beach there is the venerable Joe's Stone Crab which ain't really a shack and not cheap anymore but if you don't find any Stone Crabs in Key West, do yourself a favor and drop in here.

Went to GoGo in South Portland yesterday and met Lynn, the owner, who I must say has energy to spare. There were lots of things I wanted to try but spotted a turkey stew special that hit the spot on a rainy day. It was a homemade classic with rice, carrot and celery, served with a great biscuit. It's great to see something in that place again - even though it's residentially zoned, the restaurant license was grandfathered in the deed. Lynn will try dinners when she gets more staff. Check it out. edit to add: GoGo will be featured in this weeks "Go" section of the Portland Press Herald

That must be the place that has a large octagonal window. Been renovating for years. I see it's a half-moon window now. I love having good places open up around that part of SoPo. I'll have to check it out!

Finally had a few Damariscottas over the weekend. DEFINITELY brinier than West Coast oysters. They weren't as firm either - grey in color vs the paler cousins. I have to say I really enjoyed my Oregon Oysters, more than the Maine ones - but the Dams have a specialty of their own that I can't abandon. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Where is Gogo?

I think they are the same family, but as R.W. Apple writes in that NYT article, oysters harvested from a neighboring bay might taste different if they catch the prevailing tides or some other marine effect. Mook Sea Farm, from whom I bought my oysters for my oyster bar a few years ago had his flats in the Damariscotta river, about eight miles up-river from the ocean but there is still a pronounced tidal activity there. The salinity factor is essential. Pemaquid Oyster Company, in neighboring Walpole, might also sell their oysters with the Damariscotta tag. Pemaquid Point is at the end of the same peninsula and features an oft-photographed lighthouse. I once pried a couple belons from the rocks off Kennebunkport. They weren't very good, but they were the remains of an experiment by local residents in the forties. I'd say not enough fresh water coming out of the river made them kind of funky.

Beautiful Blog, Chufi. I love your photographic style.

Last Wednesday's NYTimes DINING section featured the venerable Mr. Rowley of Totten Inlet WA who makes it his business to bring the world a good oyster. A picture at left features oysters that looked pretty damned close to the ones I had at Newport Bay. These are Virginicas by the by. I had this panic attack that my beautiful Damariscotta Oyster obsession might finally crack and fall apart... but I don't think so! So true. I wish I'd had the option of my favorite condiment in Oregon: A squeeze of fresh lemon and a quick grind of good black pepper. Instead I had to fish them out of a shotglass swimming in cocktail sauce. C'est la vie.

I had several hours to kill in Portland OR before traveling back here to Portland ME on the red-eye, so I wandered around River Place on a beautiful Sunday. The Newport Bay Restaurant sits out on the river by a marina. They had oyster shooters on the happy hour menu which I had to try. In spite of the inelegant presentation, these oysters were extraordinary - plump and delicious - they had a very faint coppery aftertaste that lingered for hours. I'm not a fan of Belons as they strike me as too metallic - but these were gentler in that regard. More robust than the Maine oysters, which have a sweeter flavor, and paler in color - almost pearly white. I have to buy a couple here for comparison before my taste-memory fades. The staff said they were from Washington. Doesn't Oregon harvest oysters?