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When in doubt there is always whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com, which even has a vegetarian option.

Haiku Review: Ten Portland Area Lunch Spots

My best buddy Tyler and I have been doing the rounds at various Portland area luncheries for some not very cornucopasetic, but very fun, eating. Here are our reviews in haiku.

El Rayo

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 6 jumping green lizards.

Two little tacos
failed to excite my taste buds;
ah, but the refresco.

Tyler

Rating: 5 effervescent cucumber bubbles.

Simple beans and rice
sparkling cucumber cocktail
fusing fares falls flat

Nosh Kitchen Bar

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 7 bacon dusted fries.

This time it was a
sandwich to tell tales about;
bacon dust fries win.

Tyler

Rating: 9 gusts of freaky cold wind.

Who would have thunk it?
Garlic jam and egg burger
good? You're damn skippy!

Skinny Cart BBQ

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 8 G-spots.

G-spots, bacon bongs:
Is this really barbecue?
Oh hell yes it is!

Tyler

Rating: 9 wasp's nipples.

Pork chop on a bun
grilled to perfection, quickly
enjoyed on the prom.

Mrs. Muffin & Mr. Sandwich

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 5 macadamia nut and white chocolate chip cookies.

Bread too thick to eat
Is not so yummy a treat;
thanks for the cookie.

[N.B. Tyler's friend Breana and her family opened a bakery and sandwich shop on the corner of Congress and Deering. My sandwich was held back by a french roll that was too dense and hard, and by orange american cheese. Some of the other sandwiches I saw there looked a lot better, so give them some custom to help them work the kinks out. As a further aside, Breana and Katie are really beautiful (and they're twins), so—with all due respect to their mother—the picture that was used for the PPH article is kind of baffling.]

Tyler

Rating: 8 "she's MY friend, jackass"'s.

turkey, pickle, rye
spicy avocado sauce
sandwich nirvana

Po'Boys & Pickles

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 7 tablespoons of bacon praline.

Fried oyster Po'Boy
and crazy bacon topping—
this place doesn't play.

[N.B. This refers to when I asked for the hot barbecue sauce at a soul food place in Oakland, California. After the sauce cause smoke to come out of my ears, the waitress said, flatly: "Honey, we don't play."]

Tyler

Rating: 8 used napkins.

sweet potato fries
very jubilant taste buds
I hanker for more

Bogusha's Polish Restaurant and Deli

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 5.5 hot pierogis.

The Polish Platter:
Five forms of starchy goodness.
Oh gods, I'm so full.

Tyler

Rating: 7 tins of pork

nice Polish accent
yummy home-cooked Polish food
Brad is a lousy tipper

[C: Am not!]

158 Pickett Street Cafe (f/k/a One Fifty Ate)

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 8 cowboy cookies.

In the back clearing
A sandwich epiphany;
Mustard on my shoe.

Tyler

Rating: 9 flat punchlines

five napkin sandwich
loved every minute; still
licking my fingers

Bazkari

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 8 parma hams.

Very special rice.
So very very special.
And a ham sandwich.

[N.B. Building on the street food presence started by Skinny Cart BBQ, Bazkari will soon be bringing "Spain to Maine" from their street cart at the Wednesday Farmers' Market at Monument Square. Her "Very Special Rice" was amazing with bits of prosciutto, egg, shrimp, pork and scallion. The sandwich that day was ham, manchego and a "special sauce" that I couldn't get very much information about. This place is excellent. For now you can catch them on Wednesdays inside the Portland Public Markethouse. Also, if you phone in your order to them in the morning they'll deliver your lunch to you without charging you a delivery cost.]

Stareast Cafe

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 7 kebabs (pronounced "keh-babbs" like Jamie Oliver or Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would pronounce it).

Lamb kabob, rice and
samoor baked in a tandoor;
I love cardamon.

[N.B. This place got robbed by Nancy English's review a few years back. The rice served with the kabobs is really excellent—basmati with small threads of vermicelli that have been fried with cardamon and tumeric. He sprinkles ground sumac over the lamb kabob. The lamb is tender. The bread is baked in a tandoor to order, so you get it still crispy and hot and the hummus sort of melts into it. Why don't we hear more about this place on the food blogs? Sure the decor isn't much, but so what.]

Taste of Tampa

Cornucopasetic

Rating: 6.5 conch fritters, in transit from the Bahamas.

Manly ham sandwich
produced amidst purses
and dresses: still good.

[N.B. This place had a soft opening today. The interior is pretty crazy. I wasn't really sure they actually offered food until I found my way to the back past all the purses and clothes and giant, fake plants dominating the several central tables that each, oddly enough, have just one chair. Today they only had their cubana sandwich and a pulled pork sandwich. I know there's a whole cult following for the cubana sandwich and that it's supposedly impossible to get one made correctly outside of Miami or whatever—I've never had the real deal so I don't know the difference—but this sandwich was pretty good: crispy on the outside, not unmanageably large, nice sauce, although it could maybe use some better ham. Starting next week they'll have conch fritters, bean fritters, corn fritters, crab empanadas, fig empanadas, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I'd suggest getting it to go and eating it in some nice, sunny place.]

No Queso "Quesadillas" and La Bodega Latina

I was sure I read somewhere that La Bodega Latina didn't serve hot food anymore. I remember being really, really sad about this. But yesterday I went there to get some yuca root and they had the usual compliment of fried chicken and empanadas and potato balls and even those amazing strips of pork belly with the super crispy skin on them [how do they cook that?].

[Image from Wikipedia.]

No Queso, "Quesadillas" With Yuca, Chard And Other Stuff In My Refrigerator
[I'm sort of mashing/mixing-up/channeling Veganomicon here, I think.]

• 1 yuca root
• 1 bunch of chard with the largest part of the stems removed [Isn't silverbeet a cooler name for it? Why is silverbeet not used more often?]
  
• 2 – 3 cloved of garlic, roughly chopped
• About one pepper's worth of red and yellow bell peppers, diced
• 1 cup of frozen corn
• 1 good handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
• Juice from one lime
• Whole wheat tortillas

Peel the yuca and cut it up into chunks and boil it in water until tender. While the yuca is boiling, which takes about 20 minutes, bring another pot of water to a boil for the chard. Boil or steam the chard for a few minutes until its tender and done, then drain it and squeeze the water out of it and roughly chop it. Also while the yuca is boiling away, saute the garlic and diced peppers.
Take the yuca off the heat when it's done, but before you drain it you can toss your frozen corn in there and let it sit for minute or two to thaw it. Now drain the yuca and corn, put it in a bowl and mash it up gently (meaning, without creating a giant, homogeneous starchy mess). Add the sauteed garlic and pepper, the chard, cilantro, lime juice and some salt and pepper and that's your "quesadilla" filling. I use a mixture of olive oil and Earthbalance for grilling the quesadillas.

Good News: Black Bean Tempeh From Lalibela Farm

Andrew from Lalibela Farms offered me a sample of their new black bean—that is, soy free—tempeh. I tried really hard to resist the obvious approach of just putting it tacos, but that's exactly what we did with it tonight and it was really excellent. I rubbed in oil and spices and grilled it.

I'm told the black bean tempeh will be available from them in a few weeks after certain tests are completed by the state. Other not-soy-bean-bean tempehs in the offing: possibly chickpea or navy bean.

EDIT: Scooped again by Avery.

Sad News: Mother Oven Bakery Closing Down

Dean Zoulamis is closing down Mother Oven Bakery on May 1st of this year. This is sad news indeed. He is taking special orders for the month of April for those who want to stock up on Mother Oven items and freeze them. Fortunately, I understand that he may be teaching some baking classes in the area after the bakery is closed and also helping people build their own wood fired ovens.

[Photo from Peter Smith's Sunday Best.]

Weekend Wreckage, Part V

Local

VoterVale Farm's Lamb Cam!

Rabelais Books reminds us that there are some really interesting stories behind Maine's latest crop of of organic farmers.

Food For Maine's Future's 5th Annual Local & Sustainable Food Conference is coming up on April 10 and 11.

Peter Smith's piece on Will Bonsall, "a self-designated Noah," posted late last year, was really interesting.

Portland Cook's second post is a radio interview with Randy Lautz of MeFoodTrader.org (and MeAgTrader.org).

I've been enjoying LisaF's permaculture related twitter feed.

Little Ridge Farm's blog has a lot of good recipes for anyone who gets overloaded with veggies from their CSA this summer.

From Away

Mollie Katzen recasts the detestable word "flexitarian" as "vegatablist."

Maciej Cegłowski, who came up with the term steakation and who's blog includes the excellent Alameda-Weehawken Burrito Tunnel post, writes about the discovery and loss of the cure for scurvy.

King Corn was a great movie, but it pulled a lot of punches when it came to environmental issues. They take up that topic in a sort of sequel: Big River.

No, I do not have a lettuce fetish:

Vegiterrible!!

Finally, as a sort of follow up to the interview with Jeff from Heiwa Tofu, I should mention the Tempeh and Tofu Challenge.

Cornucopasetic Interview: Jeff Wolovitz of Heiwa Tofu

I used to live near a tofu "factory" in Sacramento, California, that made the best tofu I had, up to that time, ever had. Before discovering that tofu, I just couldn't understand why anyone would bother with the stuff. The place also made really good soy milk. Unfortunately, I have yet to find any soy milk as good, but there is a local option for tofu that is even better than the stuff I used to get in California: Heiwa Tofu.

Heiwa Tofu is run by Jeff and Maho Wolovitz. Jeff was kind enough to answer some questions about Heiwa Tofu for Part II of our interview series (read Part I with Jaime Berhanu). Now, I'm no photographer—as this blog constantly proves—but Kate Hasset is. She created a gallery of images she took on her visit Heiwa's "mini-factory," so you can take a virtual tour after reading the interview.

I only discovered your tofu sometime last year. How long now has Heiwa Tofu been in business and how long have you been making tofu?

The business turned out its first batch in September 2008. During the year the leading up to making tofu in the "mini-factory" in Camden, I practiced making it at home maybe a dozen times. It was very messy and time consuming. I'd spend four hours and end up with like three pounds of tofu. It tasted so good!

How did you come to start Heiwa? I saw on your website that you bought your tofu making equipment from a man named Rob Lovell, who had it in his barn for twenty years. There has to be a good story there. Why did he have tofu equipment in a barn in Maine for twenty years?

I was in my fourth year of teaching high school science and wanted out. I wanted to get back into the local food systems. I spent three years apprenticing on organic farms before becoming a teacher. I tossed around a handful of niches that I thought I could fill. The tofu one seemed the safest. I talked to a lot of people about it and eventually, someone mentioned that Rob used to make tofu in Rockport in the 1980's. I connected with him and he still had a lot of his equipment. Just as he was getting ready to move! He was glad to get it out of his garage and to see it getting used. He had many fond memories of his tofu making years.

Where do you get your soy beans? Are these the same beans that Lalibela Farm is using to make their tempeh?

Bob Reisner in Skowhegan. I'd like to diversify. I've talked to Henry Perkins about growing this coming year. Also, Donnie Webb in Pittson. Donnie cleaned Bob's beans for me this year and would like to try growing soybeans for me. They are all great folks. I've really enjoyed getting to know them all. We'll run out of the beans Bob grew sometime in the late spring or early summer. When that happened last year, I got beans from another Bob (Bob Crowe) who is near Albany, NY. I like and trust him a lot, too. The beans aren't certified organic, but the are tested non-GMO and pesticide free. I have so much to learn about soybeans and tofu making. I use a lot. At least 20,000 pounds this year. That takes roughly ten to twenty acres of land and will make 35,000 pounds of tofu!

Your process for making tofu is described pretty thoroughly on your site. How many beans do you go through in a given production cycle and how much tofu do those beans make?

Currently, each batch of tofu is twenty-five pounds of dry beans. My current yield is 1.6. For every pound of dry beans, I get 1.6 pounds of tofu. Bob Crowe's beans had a yield of 1.8. Same seed source, but maybe the New York summers are warmer and dryer. Over the course of a year, that small difference in yield adds up to a lot of tofu and money.

Is Heiwa Tofu a full time business for you?

By the end of the summer, we were up to six hundred pounds a week. Then things dropped off quickly once September hit. I worked hard at marketing through the fall and picked up a few biggish clients at fifty pounds a week and I've been making eight batches—320 pounds—twice a week pretty steadily since New Year's. But the business keep growing. I've begun some nine batch days to keep up with the demand, but physically, I am near my limits of production. It is such physically demanding work. I get the shop at 5:00am and work straight through till 4:00pm or 5:00pm. Go, go, go practically the whole time. I've made a couple of small changes to my process recently and actually get some time to breathe in there. Did you notice some of the very soft or rock hard tofu over the past month as I was figuring it out? [Ed.: Yes, actually, I did.] Mainly, I changed how I add the coagulant, the amount of water I cook with, and the temperature to which I heat and curdle the soymilk. I am ready to make some other changes because I won't be able to keep up with demand once summer rolls around and there are more people in Maine. I'll increase my batch size a bit. A I am hoping to get to a place where I can make 450 – 500 pounds in a twelve hour day.

It is nice to see a lot of small producers in Maine making wonderful ingredients. There seem to be more and more people trying to make a living that depends on the growing interest in eating locally produced food. Do you have any suggestions for someone who wants to start up a small food production business in Maine like yours?

Number one is to keep it simple. Also, when you are planning, figure what your average, absolutely best and worst years might looks like. I used to plan that things will take twice as long as I hoped and cost twice as much I as thought. Over the past year, I've changed them both to three times as long and three times as much!

My family drinks a lot of soy milk. When I lived in Davis, California, we were near a fantastic tofu and soy milk factory. But there is no local soy milk—as far as I know—available in Maine. Have you ever considered producing it too? Do you make soy milk at home?

We don't really use soymilk and I don't sell it. I am not convinced that it is really part of the traditional diet, but a newer trend in Asian countries. Commercial soymilk in this country is cooked at a high enough temperature to destroy most of the trypsin uptake inhibitors, but I don't cook that high of a temperature (I'd need a pressure cooker). I'll admit I haven't done much research concerning it. I've also heard that soymilk is a very strong/concentrated food
and that by not going through the chewing action when drinking it, it is harder to digest.

[Ed. I was not going to include the next question at first, but Jeff's response was just too right to pass up.]

I understand that there is, or has been for some time now, a group of people suggesting soy products, particularly unfermented soy products, are not healthy for a variety of reasons. We feed our kids (and ourselves) a lot a soy in any given week, so we looked into this issue quite thoroughly; it seems that the soy detractors have not closely read the research they refer to and have no real scientific basis for their arguments. Do you have any comments about this issue?

I try to stay out of soy politics. I believe in moderation and avoid food dogmas. You've got to feed your soul and eat what feels good.

Where can we find Heiwa Tofu in the greater Portland area?

If you look on our website, there is a current list of where you can get our tofu. For Portland, you'd find Heiwa Tofu at The Green Elephant, North Star Music Cafe, and Aurora Provisions. I am hoping to get our tofu into Silly's soon. Also, you can get it at the Friendly Toast in Porthsmouth and in Northwood, NH, at Susty's.

[Ed.: Also, you can buy it at Rosemont, of course, and through the Portland Food Coop via Crown of Maine.]

Any Parting Comments?

In this country, tofu is used in so many different ways—smoothies, vegetarian chili, etc. How does it fit into the traditional diet? In this country, it seems like tofu is a food for vegetarians and vegans. Its a meat substitute. But in Japan and China (and probably other Asian countries) almost everyone eats it regularly. In Japan, people might have small amounts of tofu everyday. It's just another protein source, rather than a substitute for meat. [Ed.: Check out the seafood and soft tofu dishes at Happy Teriyaki, for example, although it's not exactly a local, whole food haven.]

I am so happy to be involved in the local food economy as a processor. People have been so supportive everywhere I go.

Thank you, Jeff!

Jeff also left me with a recipe for "neatballs."

Italian Style Tofu Neatballs

• 12 – 16 ounces tofu;
• 1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped;
• 1/2 cup peas or grated carrot (optional);
• 1 medium onion, minced;
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup bread crumbs;
• 1 egg beaten;
• 1.5 Tbsp red miso; and
  
• Dried herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, and so forth.

Squish up all the ingredients with your hands. Really work it so it oozes out from between your fingers! Form into balls and deep fry or bake in greased casserole at 350° until browned. Cover with tomato sauce and bake for 15 minutes.

Ukoy (Squash and Sweet Potato Fritters); Nosh Mini Review

Birthday lunch for Stephanie this weekend included Ukoy—a Filipino fritter traditionally made with shrimp. Steph is not very omnivorous, so the above is a picture of the vegan version we made her. The recipe below is based on one given to my mom by a friend of her's from the Philippines.

Ukoy
Traditional

• A handful of Maine shrimp, bought fresh and in their shells. [Hurry, the season must almost be over!]
• 2 Tbs. annato seeds
• About 3/4 lbs. of squash, grated. We used an acorn squash, but you could use butternut or red kuri, or just about any squash. See my comment about butternut squashes below.
• 1 sweet potato, grated
• 1/2 Cu. corn starch
• 1/2 Cu. flour
• Scallions, the green tops, sliced thinly

Shell the shrimp, reserving the heads and shells. Simmer the shrimp heads and shells with the annato seeds in one cup of water for a while, then drain, reserving the water. Poach the shrimp meat in the reserved water very lightly (not until cook through). Drain the shrimp, reserving the poach water. Now make the fritters by combining the grated squash, grated sweet potato, cornstarch, flour and enough of the reserved poach water (maybe 1/2 Cu.) to make a batter just barely hold together. [N.B.: These amounts are all really approximate, so you may have to play with them.]

Heat a half an inch or more of oil in a wok or some other pot suitable for frying the fritters. Make a small patty out of the mixture on a plate and press a few shrimp into the top of the patty together with some scallions. Slide the patty into the oil. You can baste the top of the fritter with some oil to cook the shrimp into the fritter before flipping it. Cook the fritters until crispy and yummy. Sprinkle with salt, of course.

You can optionally serve the fritters with a sauce made with 1 Tbs. mashed garlic, salt and 1 Cu. white vinegar. I think they are fine without the sauce, however.

Featured Farm: The Best Squash I Have Ever Eaten …

… was a waltham butternut squash from Little Ridge Farm. Seriously, it was amazing. Little Ridge will raise pigs if you pay a deposit up front. I'm considering doing this, but I'm not sure I eat enough pork to justify it. You can also place a down payment on turkey or join their CSA.

Cornucopasetic Micro Restaurant Review: Nosh

I went to Nosh for a business lunch last week. I ended up with the pork belly reuben, which is a massive overkill of a sandwich: thick slices of braised pork belly, caramelized onions standing in for the sauerkraut, cheese and russian dressing. From those ingredients it should have been a legendary sandwich to tell my grand children about, but it somehow ended up being just okay. The fries were a major disappointment, however, because they were probably really good fries but they were coated in some lime flavored "dust" that was just horrible. The chipotle mayo that went with the fries was harsh and similarly horrible. In spite of all that, there were enough interesting sounding sandwiches on the menu that I'd like to try it one more time and see if my meal was just a fluke.


Find of the Week Via The Green Hand Bookstore

While waiting to sort an order for the Portland Food Coop this week, I visited The Green Hand Bookstore—which is run by the lady that runs the Strange Maine blog—and saw the most awesome book ever: a choose-your-own-adventure version of Staying Alive!

Week-end Wreckage, Part IV

We have two great local food interviews in the works. Meanwhile, here's the week-end wreckage:

Heather Davis, who works for the local non-profit The Telling Room, wrote in and asked that I mention her organization's Movable Feast event on February 24. The Telling Room website describes the event as follows:

Please join The Telling Room and friends for a culinary experience unlike any other; one that will take you and your group on a journey in three acts. In one evening, we will visit three acclaimed restaurants—Local 188, Five Fifty-Five, and David's—to enjoy three different courses, followed by a last call at Local 188.

[Nice correct typographical usage of emdashes, Telling Room.] The Telling Room works with kids to improve literacy and writing skills through story-telling, which is pretty cool, so please consider helping them out.

Check out Kate Hasset's amazing photographs of Maine food greats such as Mother Oven Bakery, Heiwa Tofu, Black Crow Bakery and others.

From Away:

My new favorite neologism is "Taco Shed." [via BLDBLG.] I am passing on the coined taco term, T&T&A, for the time being [as reported on Huffington Post recently].

Behold, the "Anti Fridge." [Via Ecology of Food via Edible Geography.]

Obi-Wan Canoli: Yes, Cuke. The Farm is what gives us our power; it's a kind of 'field' that creates all edible things. But, alas, the market has been taken over by the dark side of the Farm. [Via Edible Geography.]



Finally, what you've always wanted: a wasabi smoke alarm. Imagine setting that off accidentally. Calligula's recent "restaurant debauchery" post reminds me of the time I won $20.00 by snorting a line of wasabi powder. It wasn't nearly enough money. [What is the statute of limitations on criminal offenses in Illinois anyway?]

Also, yes, I know that I never spell dessert properly as has been recently pointed out.

Week-End Wreckage, Part III

Some new (to me) local food blogs: Karen, who writes for Maine Loves Food, wrote in to mention her food blog, Mignardise, which is nice. Judging from her blog's facebook page, everyone knew about her but me. Also, local (Peak's) author Catherynne Valente has started posting occasional restaurant reviews on her livejournal. She kicks things off with a review of Paciarino. Her latest book, Palimpsest, was the best by far of any book I read last year. Sadly, she totally pans Paciarino, partly for reasons I understand but nonethless I have a real soft spot for the place and I feel pretty sad she didn't enjoy her lunch there.


Jamie Oliver won a TED Prize and gave a terrific speech at this year's TED conference on food and obesity in America. He's a bit over-excited and over-anxious in the presentation, and there is much he says that one must take on faith (although it's hard not to at this point), but it is definitely worth the eighteen minutes to watch it.



As for the best book I've read this year (so far), it's definitely Novella Carpenter's Farm City.

Carpenter started and now runs a small farm in a ghetto in Oakland, California, by squatting on land adjacent to her apartment. [I used to stay at a friend's apartment just half a mile from where her farm is now located, and, yeah, it wasn't exactly a safe place.] The book is divided into three parts, each detailing her efforts to raise a different animal—turkeys, rabbits and pigs. But beyond the immediate story of her urban farming amidst drive by shootings, which is engrossing enough, she takes up an interesting issue in each of the three parts: things like the fate of the 1970s back to the land movement by her (and my) parent's generation and the relevance of that fate with respect to the growing interest in urban farming in America. It's brilliantly literate from the first sentence and just excellently written throughout. I'm really sad now that I missed the signing at Rabelais Books. Hey Rabelais, do you have any signed copies? I had to get this by interlibrary loan and I think I'd like to own it.