rlibkind

The original research paper reported using Cinnamomum cassia. Here are links to the original article, published by Diabetes Care Journal, on which the New Scientist report was based: HTML version PDF version

Great report! Next trip, do the Roast Pork comparison: Tony Luke's (the orignal), John's and Tommy DiNic's. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I dined at Martini Beach about a year ago, and they do an interesting job. Quite a few restaurants use this approach. In Ithaca NY, Just A Taste's tapas inspired menu handles this approach quite successfully. It's a wonderful restaurant year-round, but particularly nice in warmer weather when the backyard patio is open. Other restaurants, while not basing their entire menu around smaller plates, offer them. Some, like George's in Bar Harbor, price appetizers in price groups and offer packages to encourage you to make a meal of them. (I used to do that at George's way before they formalized it.)

Marcus rocks! His meatballs are NOT to be confused with Ikea's. If you don't know who he is, you might find this ad from a Vita-Mix series revealing: http://www.vitamix.com/foodservice/news/ads_detail.asp?ad=3 (Cary Neff of Sansom Street Oyster House also participated in this ad series.) I try to get to Aquavit at least annually, though they will have to move sometime in the next year from their gorgeous space, complete with two-story waterfall, in the former Nelson Rockefeller townhouse off 5th Avenue (lost their lease, I think). The Sunday brunch is outta sight, if you like herring, shrimp, salmon (cold smoked and baked), cheese, salads, lamb, etc. Couple that with a flight of aquavits chased with a Carlsberg and you're in heaven. A few years back I attended a tasting menu Samuelsson created as "guest chef" at a Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Management School function. Had a celery sorbet intermezzo; kinda like a sophisticated Dr. Browns which, for me, triggers sustained Proustian memories. Menu featured some of the standards from Aquavit, including foie gras ganache. The new Aquavit cookbook that came out last fall has some tasty-looking goodies; so far I've only done the meatballs with quick pickled cucumbers. Beautiful photos, definitely food porn. He signed it for me when he was at the Swedish American museum in South Philly last fall. His most recent restaurant in NYC (I forget the name) is more of a world/Asian fusion place; haven't tried it yet. From what little info is available, based on Katie's post, sounds like the Washington Square outpost will be well worth a visit. I certainly hope it fares better than Aquavit's Minneapolis restaurant, a which closed with the falloff in business expense account dining in the Twin Cities.

Chesterfield Ale (by Yuengling) And, simply because of the name, Aass ('Aass good Aass it gets").

Thanks for the heads up, Andrew. Hafta give it a try.

The only future stores Wegman's acknowledges on its website are: Wegmans Ocean Route 35 & Sunset Avenue, Ocean Township, NJ 07712 Fall 2004 Wegmans Fairfax 11620 Monument Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030 Spring 2005 Of course, other stores are in the works and publicly known where they have gone for permits, such as Cherry Hill. Mehmeh, who has posted previously and said he/she was an employee, may have seen it on an intranet. What's the source, Mehmeh?

...but I'll be surprised if anything offered can exceed the phenomenal Macoun. The Macouns will be there, in their short season. And I agree, they are an exceptional apple. But please withhold judgement until you try Cox Orange Pippin(my favorite). Since variety is the spice of live, I consume whatever antiques I can find. At the Ithaca Farmer's Market, in addition to Macouns and Cox Orange Pippins (the favorite eating apple in the UK) you can obtain, in their season: Arkansas Black, Caville Blanc d'Hiver, Banana, Fameuse, various Russets, and Margil, among others, as well as some modern but relatively rare crosses. Taste them all! You might also want to stop by the Cornell Orchard retail store, which frequently has some interesting modern crosses.

"Smørrebrød" are Danish open-faced sandwiches, which come in a seemingly endless variety. To give you some idea, here is a list of some of those available at Ida Davidsen, the classic Smørrebrød restaurant in Copehnhagen. Smørrebrød is not to be confused with Smøgasbørd, which would be a buffet table laden with many of the same ingredients that make up the sandwiches. For the latter, you could visit Lundum's in Old Brompton Road in London on a Sunday afternoon.

No Bergere Bleu? For three years when my wife ran a small company in Ithaca while I worked in Philadelphia, I looked forward to our weekend visits for many reasons. Among the reasons relevant to discussion here: Northland's cheeses, particularly the Bergere Bleu. I miss it, since they don't distribute their cheese other than directly by the farm to the consumer. Impossible to find in Philadelphia, though they will do mail order. Try their cheese with some of the antique apples Ithaca Farmers Market vendors will sell in the fall, or the local table grapes.

Small world, indeed. The sweet Italian sausage at IJM makes a perfect addition to a red pasta sauce when removed from casing, crumbled into tinned tomatoes, scented with lightly sauteed garlic and tempered with some milk. Hardly a slowly simmered Bolognese, but tasty nonetheless. A neighborhood haunt we were tempted to try but did not was The Canning Man. After reading a review in The Scotsman a few days after we left Edinburgh, I'm glad we did not, even though we like Danish-style sandwiches. Much too stuffy sounding. Anyone been there?

Our flat was in Millar Crescent. Tres convenient.

As promised (or threatened) here's a full report on dining and eating during my recent holiday in Scotland. Being of a parsimonious disposition, we spent our first week in Scotland in an Edinburgh self-catering flat, obtained a mere week before our departure from Philadelphia at a “late break” price because our previously-arranged Gayfield Street flat became unavailable due to the landlady’s incompetence. Instead, our Morningside flat, with a decently outfitted kitchen, was marvelously situated around the corner from a branch of cheesemonger I.J. Mellis (thank you, Spanky), and we took full advantage of the stinky offerings. I particularly enjoyed a raw milk cheddar from Mull. I also journeyed via bus to Stockbridge to visit, at Adam Baltic’s recommendation, George Bowers for meat (house smoked bacon) and Armstrong’s for fish. (It is strictly coincidental that fire destroyed Armstrongs a mere five hours after my purchase of a kipper; the fire certainly had nothing to do the fact that when I unwrapped the fish two days later I found not a kippered herring but a rather odoriferous “fresh” herring. Must have been my unintelligible Philly accent that caused the fish switch.) One of our objectives in leasing a flat is to cope with the high price of eating out in the U.K. The old saw holds true: If you would pay $30 for a meal in the U.S., expect to pay £30 in the U.K. for a similar meal. At today’s exchange rate, that means dinner in the U.K. is nearly twice the price of what it would be in the U.S. One more reason why we ate spaghetti in the flat twice during our week in Edinburgh. Our most enjoyable meal in an Edinburgh restaurant was at Fishers Bistro in Leith. I opted for the cold seafood platter, overflowing with prawns, smoked salmon, crabmeat, herring, anchovies and many other good things to eat (including a Loch Fyne oyster), while She Who Must Be Obeyed enjoyed a nicely prepared piece of halibut with a fruit accented sauce. With two starters, two glasses of wine and two puddings, the tab came to £48 before gratuity. (All prices cited below are without tip.) Another worthwhile stop was Plaisir du Chocolate. Forgettable pre-made sandwiches, memorable chocolate cakes. I thought the chestnut accented one was a nice change from what we see in the States. While touring we stopped at a few pubs for less expensive meals, some passable, others best passed by. The surer bets appear to be cafes at cultural institutions. We thought highly of the sandwiches and soups at the National Portrait Gallery. Good eats also could be had at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. After our week in Edinburgh we took a leisurely and highly indirect route to Royal Deeside by-way-of the Fife coast, stopping for lunch at The Waterfront Café in Anstruther. For £14 we enjoyed very decent haddock and chips along with non-alcoholic beverages. In Ballater that evening we dined at the Rowan Tree. I went for a starter (chopped salad) and the lamb cutlets, a nice portion and suitably lamb-y. She Who Must Be Obeyed did the gammon steak with egg. Certainly no great culinary event, but a decent meal for weary travelers, fairly priced (£27 with one cocktail, one wine, and two puddings). The next day, tired from our exertions, I dined at our hotel’s restaurant while SWMBO dined on her portable chocolate supply. The restaurant at the Monaltrie Hotel offered a Thai menu, so I tried it. It was filling. Enough said. After two nights in Ballater, it was onward to Kenmore on the Applecross peninsula. But first, lunch in Fortrose, a short detour from the direct route, but well worth it. Let me explain. Prior to our departure from Philadelphia I visited my local pharmacist (chemist) to stock up on needed supplies, including prescription medicines. When I told Walter I needed more than a two weeks’ supply because we would be traveling in Scotland, he abruptly went into his back office and returned with a business card for a restaurant called The Anderson in Fortrose. It seems the town’s hotel was acquired a little more than a year ago by a fellow Philadelphian, indeed, a fellow who lived in my immediate neighborhood, Jim Anderson, although I did not know him. I did know of him, however, because he had published a newsletter, Beer Philadelphia, all about (can you guess?) beer in Philadelphia. So, I e-mailed Jim and made reservations for lunch on the day of our Ballater-to-Kenmore journey. (His restaurant only opens for lunch upon advance request.) We arrived with Jim’s favorite brand of razor blade (Gem single-edge, unavailable in the U.K., supplied by Walter) and he returned the favor with a most delicious lunch. SWMBO ordered a perfectly done Highland beef sirloin. After a starter of Arbroath Smokie I selected boneless French chicken stuffed with skirlie (an oat and onion concoction and quite savory). Since I had a few more hours of driving ahead of me, much of it on single-track lanes, I limited myself to a half-pint of Celis White, while SWMBO indulged in a soft drink. We shared an excellent and dense chocolate cake. Tab: £60. Jim sent us off with two bottles of Grimbergen Blonde, a nicely rounded abbey brew that made a refreshing accompaniment for dinner that evening at our B&B, Tigh a' Chracaich, in Kenmore: a cold seafood plate filled with five or six langoustine prawns, both cold and hot smoked salmon, crabmeat and prawns in marie rose sauce, accompanied by salad, hard cooked eggs and hot potatoes. Mrs. MacIver (whose husband’s creel caught the langoustines) added less than £30 to our tariff for the meal. Our next night on the beautiful Applecross peninsula we dined at the highly recommended Tigh an Eilean Hotel in Sheildaig on Loch Torridon. At a prix fixe of £35 for three courses we expected an exquisite meal. We were mildly disappointed. The ingredients were top flight, the food well prepared, but lacking the extra dimension needed to make a memorable meal. Certainly the surroundings were enjoyable: a pleasantly blue accented dining room looking out on the loch. And the amuse bouche duo of venison salami and herring seemed to be a good omen. My starter of mushroom almond soup hinted of Spain and also promised better things. We both ordered the filet steak, which came in huge portions, though SWMBO thought it inferior to The Anderson’s. Predictably, SWMBO ordered the profiterole with chocolate sauce (declaring it a success) while I went for the refreshing rhubarb fool. Two glasses of syrah increased our tab to £77 (my Tokaj pudding wine arrived gratis because it was not delivered with the pudding). A good meal, but not, IMHO, worth the price. The next evening, at The Potting Shed Café in the Walled Garden in Applecross, was more to our liking and budget. SWMBO skipped the starter, but I devoured my confit duck leg: duck butter! SWMBO had a hankering for venison and was highly satisfied by the chef’s casserole mounted upon a colcannon utilizing red cabbage, mustard and apples, the plate topped with deep fried threads of celeriac. My pork filet rested upon a more traditional colcannon (savoy cabbage rather than red); an apple and blue cheese sauce topped the meat. For pudding, SWMBO once again decided to try the profiterole with chocolate sauce (strictly for the advancement of science) and pronounced it perfect; had she not been so full she would have replicated the experiment, as any true scientist would. My butterscotched banana chunks baked in a phyllo-like pastry and adorned with honeyed, herbed nuts was a quintessential adult pudding. With a bottle of Tempranillo our tab came to £52. We considered it the best value meal of our Scottish holiday. The chef at The Potting Shed made his mark at the Applecross Inn and is now out on his own. The restaurant's setting, in a glassed-in potting shed in a historic walled garden, was delightful. Only eight tables, and it is only open for dinner Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so booking is essential. Light lunches are served most days. We finished our trip with a couple of days in Glasgow. Other than the obligatory tourist stop at the Willow Tea Rooms, our only meal of note was a visit to The Ubiquitous Chip, where (keeping in mind my parsimonious nature) we dined downstairs on the upstairs menu. SWMBO loved the butternut squash soup with red bell pepper; sweet vegetables are her thing. I equally enjoyed the razor clam farcis; although we have razor clams in the States, I have never seen them on a menu, at least on the East Coast. Mains were a smallish chicken breast in turnip cream sauce with veggie haggis for her, and Perthshire pork belly (very yummy, incredibly rich and piggy) over clapshot (mashed tatties and swedes, a.k.a. rutabaga) and greens for me. I found the greens added a welcome tactile snap to the potato and turnip mash. The potent Addlestone's cloudy cider was a perfect quaff for the pork. She skipped pudding but I went for a piece of cheddar and followed that up by introducing myself to the wonders of whisky. Never having had it before I dove straight in, forsaking the softer stuff for an Islay malt: Caol Ila. I could get used to this stuff! Our tab for the evening (after I asked for a correction to the addition, in which we were charged erroneously for four starters and four mains) was £40, and our venture into the Upstairs menu provided good value. In retrospect, it appears our money would have been better spent on the downstairs menu here than at the similarly-priced hotel dining room in Sheildaig. I’ve limited my discussion here, naturally, to some of the vittles encountered during our 16 days in Scotland. What I have not done justice to is the beauty of the countryside and the friendliness of nearly everyone we met (few dour Scots crossed our paths). My only regret is that I did not eat more lamb!

The website for The Anderson is http://www.theanderson.co.uk. I just returned home to Philadelphia this afternoon from a 16-day jaunt through various portions of Scotland, including Edinburgh, Ayrshire, Royal Deeside, the Applecross peninsula and Glasgow. Full report to follow once I recover, but I enthusiastically endorse the recommendation for The Anderson in Fortrose, where we stopped en route from Ballater to Loch Torridon. Jim Anderson is the American (as it turns out a formerly Philadelphian who lived in my neighborhood, though I did not know him then) whose passions include beer. That said, The Anderson has a selective collection of whisky worth investigating. More later.

That's what makes the world go round.

There's more than Bar Harbor to the area, so keep in mind other towns on Mount Desert Island)(MDI) as well as the nearby mainland, especially Ellsworth. Also, almost all restaurants on MDI are casual, some some less so than others. Of those listed below, the Bar Harbor Inn, Thrumbcap and George's are "casual smart", in other words, while you might be able to push it to wear shorts, cutoffs would be frowned upon. Here are some ideas: LOBSTER POUNDS I’ve yet to visit a lobster pound restaurant in Mount Desert or anywhere in Hancock or Washington counties that didn’t do a great job cooking crustaceans. Just steam them so many minutes per pound and you’ve got a perfect seaside meal. Same goes for the clams (soft belly clams, the true clam, not the quahog pretender). So, as for the debate of who does a better job, Beal’s in Southwest Harbor or Thurston’s in Bernard (on Bass Harbor), the quality of the food is not an issue. Both use fresh-hauled, minimally impounded lobsters. Both know how to cook them. Both charge about the same price. What does make the difference is ambiance, and here Thurston’s is the clear winner. Beal’s seems hemmed in and does not offer a wide view of its harbor. Thurston’s dining area is at the end of the wharf with an expansive view of the harbor. Another edge for Thurston’s is that you can order the steamed seafood and all other offerings (dessert, burgers and hot dogs, etc.) at the same window. At Beal’s you have to walk halfway up the wharf. Last time I was on MDI I was going to try Head of the Harbor in Southwest, but when I saw the prices for clams (I eat more pounds of clams during a week on MDI than lobster by a 4:1 ratio) my penurious personality got the best of me and I drove to Beal’s instead. Nice view, though. Keep in mind that the prices are less expensive at the pounds in Trenton just before you cross the bridge onto MDI. I've found that Lunt's in particular is quite reliable. SEAFOOD KETCH, BASS HARBOR This staple seafooder on the southernmost part of MDI (Probably a 35-45 minute drive from Bar Harbor) offers reliable, tasty and fairly priced fare. When you want basic fried or broiled fish or seafood, come here. WEST STREET CAFE, BAR HARBOR I haven't been here in a few years, but similar to Seafood Ketch, though I think they also do a lot of pasta, here. EPI'S, BAR HARBOR Freshly made Italian-style sandwiches. Maybe not like a South Philly hoagie or a Ninth Avenue sub, but filling and good. Great to take along on hikes (hold the mayo). LITTLE NOTCH BAKERY & PIZZERIA, SOUTHWEST HARBOR Great Italian style breads (of the rustic variety) and very, very, very good pizza and hot sandwiches. The retail restaurant is on the main drag, the actual bakery out near the wharf, though you can buy the bread at a number of stores in the area. RIVERSIDE CAFÉ, ELLSWORTH Last August, before we even hit MDI, we stopped in Ellsworth for lunch at the Riverside Café. You may have known it as “Dick’s” when it was located at State & Main; for at least a few years, it’s been up Main Street closer to the Grand and across the street from Maidee’s. It’s a great place for breakfast or lunch, but be prepared to wait during the peak summer season, unless there is room at the counter. She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) highly recommends the excellent bacon to accompany your eggs in the morning (or at lunch). Homemade onion rings were generous, sweet and took up just the right amount of grease. I thought the clam chowder was too thick and had a higher potato/clam ratio than necessary. The fried haddock (I had it as a sandwich, but it’s also available as a platter) was excellent: very lightly battered, perfectly deep-fried with no trace of residual oil. JORDON POND HOUSE Operated by the company which holds the franchise for food and shops within Acadia National Park, the Jordon Pond House, while offering okay but overpriced food for lunch and dinner, is essential for afternoon "tea and popovers". The setting, with a view of The Bubbles up the pond, is delicious, the popovers hot and eggy. Reservations are a must for tea (and even then you'll probably wait 10 or 15 minutes). BAR HARBOR INN Sunday brunch at the Bar Harbor Inn has gone up in price in the two years since I last visited. Back then, brunch was under $20 a head and included mimosas. Now, the tab is $23, I believe, and drinks are extra. But that should not deter you from going if you enjoy buffet brunches, especially ones with outstanding views. The food is mostly what you expect for a Sunday buffet brunch – carving station, omelets and Belgian waffles to order, pastas, salads, breakfast meats – with a moderate emphasis on seafood. How many places offer Finan Haddie on a buffet table, or at all? Decent smoked salmon. The bagels were pre-sliced and divided into eighths, so it would be impossible to make a sandwich, but in this instance I considered that a plus, because it helped to prevent me from overindulging in carbohydrates. Also a nice selection smoked mussels, shrimp and scallops. What was missed from previous years, however, were the crepes with strawberry sauce. XYZ, MANSET Alas, I am told that the owner of one of my MDI favorite restaurants as sold it. Whether or not it will operate this summer I know not. With that caveat, here's a report on it I wrote after last August's visit: XYZ remains one of my favorite Mexican restaurants anywhere (certainly east of Chicago, and it could compete there, too) and is one of the best eateries on the island. We dined there twice. The first night, dessert was the highlight. The proprietor made fresh blueberry sorbet from berries she had picked in her yard that day. Absolutely the best blueberry dessert I’ve ever had, including some exceptional pies and cobblers. The appetizer and entrée offerings have been updated. To my disappointment (but probably not to most diners), braised tongue no longer graces the menu. But there is a good range of other offerings. SWMBO particularly enjoyed the mole poblano chicken thighs. I found the braised short ribs an excellent replacement for the tongue – it was served as one long rib with meat on the bone, and I had enough left over to shred it into leftover pasta for dinner at the cottage the next evening. We enjoyed XYZ so much that we went back for our last night’s dinner before leaving the island. I started out with a special appetizer, which has been offered occasionally in past seasons as well: octopus, scallops, and shrimp in a devilish sauce over guacamole. Quite yummy and appetite stimulating. The previous time, I had ordered the queso fundido with shredded pork as an appetizer; this time SWMBO did, much to her satisfaction. For an entrée, she continued with one of the two shredded pork entrees (one spicy, one not; she selected the latter). I tried the “chef’s choice”, which I had hoped would be an off-menu surprise from the kitchen. I was a bit let down when it arrived as a combo platter. But it was a most satisfying melange with the chile-enhanced shredded pork, a milder shredded beef concoction, and chile rellenos, as well as rice, black beans and a nicely intense garlic-enhanced chile sauce. The chile rellenos was not of the batter-fried variety; instead, it was a most mellow composition, a poblano with a cheese and corn interior, baked with cream. For dessert, the waitress kindly excavated with pick and axe from the deep freeze a serving of that blueberry sorbet (they had not intended to offer it that night); though icy, I enjoyed it. XYZ’s featured dessert is XYZ pie, described on the menu as “layers of coffee and butter crunch ice cream divided by a rich ridge of solid chocolate covered in warm Kahlua chocolate sauce and topped with whipped cream.” SWMBO is a chocoholic, but religiously avoids the combination of chocolate and coffee. (Silly girl!) So she asked for chocolate ice cream which, alas, XYZ does not stock. The proprietor, Janet, suggested a dish of chocolate sauce which SWMBO snapped up. She loved it, not knowing at the moment that it had a bit of coffee in it via the Kahlua. THRUMCAP, BAR HARBOR I had enjoyed Porcupine Grill on Cottage Street in Bar Harbor in past visits, but a number of years ago the owner changed the menu and renamed the establishment Thrumcap, and I had not had an opportunity to try it. So, we made a point of stopping by last august. It offers quality ingredients, imaginatively prepared (perhaps too imaginatively) and well executed. The menu is prix fixe only: $39. This buys you a soup or salad course, a “next” course, a small mains plate, and dessert. Wine, of course, is additional. But be warned: this is a restaurant with a single serious problem, based on our visit there last August. For openers, SWMBO enjoyed a green salad accented with pears and feta while I selected a tasty tomato-less gazpacho dominated by corn and cucumber. “Next” I had a highly satisfactory feta-beet salad. SWMBO went for the cheese plate, selecting three cheeses from among the half-dozen offered, including a Dutch goat gouda. It was on the third courses where there was some displeasure on our part. I ordered the mackerel filet, which turned out to be much too frou-frou for my taste (though not to SWMBO's), adorned as it was with tropical fruits among other over-the-top additions. SWMBO opted for the bistro steak, which was an excellent choice with a notable exception: she was never asked how she wanted the meat done because, we learned too late, the chef always prepares it rare unless otherwise instructed. Now, I would have had no complaint, because that’s how I like my steak, but SWMBO does not. I think it was unthinking not to ask. Maybe the chef dislikes cooking it that way, but he/she is there to serve. Bottom-line: the server should have announced that the steak would be cooked rare unless otherwise requested; that would have avoided the issue. (At least they took it back to the kitchen and cooked it to her liking.) Desserts were good, if unexceptional: SWMBO liked her thin chocolate torte with ground almonds; I found the peach-rhubarb cobbler just okay. The problem we had with Thrumcap was its presumptuousness. We were told repeatedly how good every dish was and why, and how we should eat it. The implied message: “We know what’s trendy and good, and you don’t.” While this attitude was clearly expressed by the steak doneness episode, I found it most telling in the wine list. I have difficulty understanding how a restaurant that prides itself on wine and prominently displays Wine Spectator “Award of Excellence” certificates (that’s another story, well-covered by Mrs. Latte a few weeks ago in the Times) does not offer a single riesling. It’s all a matter of taste, of course, but there is no finer all-around wine for food than riesling. Yes, the Alsatian pinot gris offered instead was fine, but it wasn’t riesling! When I asked the a functionary in the front room (he may have been the owner, or perhaps just a barkeep – by my measure, if not his, he was no wine steward) his explanation was that they used to offer a riesling, but he doesn’t like German rieslings so he removed it from the list. This alone demonstrates the true value of Wine Spectator’s “Award of Excellence”. (A few other wine observations. Each dish on the menu comes with one or two wine recommendations, yet some of them do not appear on the wine list. Hard to know if they have them or not. SWMBO requested the chardonnay from the wine list with one of her dishes; they did not have it and replaced it with another without checking.) Again, it’s not that any of the dishes or wines were bad or even mediocre. All were good, some excellent. It’s just that the place has an irredeemable attitude problem. GEORGE’S, BAR HARBOR In three decades of visiting MDI, I have yet to find another restaurant that offers the combination of food, service, and gracious surroundings of George’s. It remains my favorite destination dining room on the island. I was concerned a few years ago when I learned George had retired and sold his establishment after some 20+ years of operation. But both two years ago, when I was last there, and last week prove that while there have been natural and evolutionary changes, the high standards (as well as a few of George’s standard dishes) remain in place. I went for the smoked salmon followed by the lobster strudel. The strudel was the same one George made when I first dined here 25 years ago: triangular phyllo (it had to be homemade) crisply layered around lightly seasoned, defiantly and properly undersauced lobster meat, served with chanterelles on the side as well as perfectly cooked and incredibly fresh sugar snaps. SWMBO began with fried green tomatoes surrounding a local goat cheese flan, followed by swordfish with a pineapple salsa. For dessert I savored a blueberry zabaglione, while she was disappointed in a dessert much less chocolate-intensive than desired; it appeared that her and the pastry chef’s conception of ganache differed greatly. SWMBO’s disappointment in dessert notwithstanding, we retain George’s on the top of our list of fine MDI dining establishments. And it would hardly fall in rank on any other island DEACON SEAT, SOUTHWEST HARBOR If you have read my previous postings on MDI restaurants, you know that I’ve recommended the Deacon Seat as a breakfast/blueberry pancake spot over Bar Harbor’s Jordan’s – not because the food is necessarily superior, but because the lines are shorter. Although there appears to be new management/ownership at the Deacon Seat, the menu seems the same and the pancakes unchanged. But I had an unwanted experience this year. Perhaps I am letting my parsimonious nature get in the way. So I’ll let you be the judge. I ordered blueberry pancakes with a side of sausage. The “side” of sausage cost $1.80. I received one sausage, slightly bigger than a Brown’N Serve. What really ticked me off is that the cook had nearly bisected the sausage (indeed, it was butterflied) in a feeble attempt to make it seem more than it was. I complained to the waitress, who commisserated with me, then I asked to see the manager (who was also the cook). When he eventually came out his explanation was simply that his costs have been going up. Other than telling him his reasoning was unsatisfactory, I let it go. But my guess is he either (1) overpaid in buying the restaurant and is cutting back to try to make it work or (2) he is a rotten manager or (3) both. It could be I’m just cheap. But $1.80 seems a steep price to pay for a puny piece of minced pig meat and fat. BURNING TREE, Otter Cove A "nearly" vegetarian outpost, which many swear by. Not me. CHASE'S, WINTER HARBOR Across Frenchman's Bay from Bar Harbor (you can drive or take a passenger ferry) is this diner-like restaurant in beautiful downtown Winter Harbor. Incredible fish stews and chowders. Excellent fried clams. Non-Bar Harbor prices.

No way. 55.32365362 rotation is the only way to go on the presentation side. I finish by dividing the circumference of the steak by pi squared to determine the non-presentation side grill marks.

Yes, 45 is much nicer.

Don't you mean 90-degrees, i.e., a quarter turn? If you do a perfect 180, you'll just re-do the grill marks you originally had.

Thanks to all for your swift replies. Adam, thank you for confirming what I feared: fresh fruits and vegetables would be problematic, both in terms of food culture and the time of year. We will be staying near to Boughton Street, so that was particularly helpful. And a visit to Stockbridge might also be in order. Hmmmm, bacon!

My wife and I will be on holiday in Scotland beginning next Tuesday, 18 May. We will have a self-catering flat in central Edinburgh for a week with modest kitchen facilities. Although I don't intend to do major cooking, I certainly wish to stock up on good things to eat. Specifically: Bacon, sausages, salamis, hams, smoked meats, etc. Smoked fish Cheeses Fruits and vegetables Breads Baked sweets and other treats I would appreciate counsel & advice as to where I may procure the best. I've omitted fresh fin and shellfish because we'll be staying in a fisherman's B&B on Loch Torridon for three days, and I expect to avail myself of its waters' bounty, particularly crustaceans and bivalves. As best as I can determine, I will not be in Edinburgh for the twice-monthly Saturday farmers' market. Are there any other food purveying events, activities or venues I should make a point of visiting? Any responses to the above prior to our Monday departure from Philadelphia would be appreciated.

Sounds like Lawrence P. Berra's famous line: "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

Bring it to the Breakfast Club a week from Saturday!

Fixng e-mail address for Michael Holahan (he's changed it since I wrote original message): mikejuls@pond.com

There are apparently other geographic areas where it's called Jewish Apple Cake beyond Philadelphia, but no doubt about it, that's the established moniker here. Episcopalian apple cake? Must be one that doesn't have many apples or much cinnamon. Everything in exceedingly modest proportions, everything in moderation, nothing to excess.