Mardis Gras Cooking Challenge - Portland ME

[johnnyd]

Every year in February, WMPG-FM, the non-profit radio station here in Portland ME, hosts a huge Mardis Gras party at the USM student center,

It started as a fun thing to do among DJs who hold down the 5p - 7p weekday Blues/Zydeco shows that the city of Portland have supported for years. Each of them made a dish and announced to the audience that there was great food at the studio if anyone was hungry.

Well, after a few years there was simply no room in the station to hold the hundreds of people who showed up to look around and meet the volunteers who bring alternative radio to their homes and cars.

The party was moved to the USM student center and area restaurants were invited to bring in a dish for people to try and vote on the annual ballot. The winner gets a cool trophy. After the move, we had at least a dozen respected restaurants send a chef and some excellent food to be judged, but there remains an Individual Category for folks to compete among themselves - kind of a holdover from when the tradition started - regular folks with Momma's mean recipe.

I made a killer feijoada in 2006,

This year's Mardis Gras Celebration is Tuesday February 24th and if anyone is interested in submitting a dish for the party - restaurant or individual categories - you are invited to do so!

Contact:

Dale Robin Lockman

Development Director

(207) 780-4151 development@wmpg.org

WMPG 90.9 / 104.1 Greater Portland Community Radio

Mail: 96 Falmouth St Box 9300 Portland, ME 04104

Offices/Studios: 92 Bedford St. Portland, ME 04104

The year I helped throw this shindig we got about 600 people through the door (it is free to anyone) and channel 8 came by for a taste...

This is news-anchor Jeff Whats-his-name and his cameraman,

If you want to give it a try, a couple tips:

1) Make a lot. The winner is the last man standing (usually the station manager, Jim Rand) so if you can, make 10 or so gallons. Ask Dale Robin how much she recommends.

2) Enlist a friend to help and tell everybody you know to help stuff ballots

3) Winners in the restaurant category always have a secret ingredient - or so they say.

As you may imagine, it's all about having some fun in the middle of a long winter so I encourage everyone with a pulse to give it a go. Background music courtesy of real live WMPG DJs.

Here is the 2006 winner, Beale Street BBQ,

If you can't make the party, drop by one of their locations for a plate of their jambalaya - the winning dish that year.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or ideas, or DRL at WMPG

See you there!

[johnnyd]

Last week's Cajun cooking challenge was covered by the USM Free Press:

Chefs from some of Portland's favorite eateries, and a lone amateur, cascaded upon the Woodbury Campus Center, spice racks in tow, to compete for the title of Cajun Cookin' Champ, and raise money for WMPG.

Back-to-back champions Bayou Kitchen brought the heat with their spicy gumbo, and won style points for their glistening ice carving bearing the restaurant's name. "I liked Bayou Kitchen's" said one discriminating pallet "it started spicy, and got to be kind of sweet."

Forest Ave favorite The Great Lost Bear returned for their third year competing in the Challenge. With a table featuring a jackolope festooned with an impressive collection of beads, the chefs offered up a seafood gumbo, along with GLB's signature dirty rice and beans.

Chowders are a regular menu item at GLB, and the spiced up gumbo put a N'awlins flair on a New England classic.

Aramark's spicy pork was a surprise favorite among the crowd, featuring a chili-laced kick that many thought was sorely missing among some of the other entries. "It was the only spicy one," agreed USM student John Wise Jr.

First year competitor Silly's Restaurant seemed undaunted by the Cookin' Challenge, and added another dimension to the cook-off by serving up a vegan Cajun item.

"We try to cater to different dietary needs," said Silly's owner Colleen Kelley, who ended up walking away with the Challenge's top prize for best Cajun dish.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods' Barbara Gulino educated tasters on the Canadian roots of the Cajun culture.

The Cajun culture might be most commonly associated with the bayous of Louisiana, but it can actually trace its roots to the groups of exiled French-speaking settlers of Southeastern corner of what is now Canada.

With this lineage in mind, the Whole Foods team came up with a recipe featuring fresh Maine shrimp, and nitrate-free sausage.

Congratulations go out to Colleen and the crew at Sillys, 40 Washington Avenue, Portland.

As for the amateur category, no one challenged Station Manager Jim Rand, whose "Land of the Lost" jambalaya, named after his weekly radio show, walked off with the trophy for the fourth consecutive year. C'mon people! Jim has to go down next year!