Lunch at Nosh, Portland, Maine

Who woulda thunk that I would stumble onto a brand spanking new restaurant outside of my hometown simply by surfing the blogosphere?  That's how I discovered Nosh where we ate our first lunch of the day in Portland.  My friend, Annie, and I set out from Boston early this morning and caught the 9 am train from Boston to Portland.  You can buy a round trip ticket for only $39 if you plan a few days in advance on the Downeaster line on Amtrak.  The last train leaves the Portland at 7:55 and puts you back in Boston around 10:30.  It was practically meant for a day trip, and after today, I'm sure I will be taking advantage of this tremendous bargain again very soon.  I'm not even sure you could drive from Boston to Portland and back on $40 worth of gas with the price of fuel these days.

Nosh is an unassuming little spot near Longfellow square on Congress Street near the Old Port area.  We had checked the menu out online and wanted to try their extensive selection of charcuterie, but unfortunately, it is only offered after 5 pm.  We ended up with sandwiches instead, but it certainly was not a disappointment in any way.  On the contrary, our meal was above and beyond any expectations that we might have had for the charcuterie and the price was even better.

I went for it with gusto by ordering the pork belly Reuben sandwich.  Just in case you don't know, pork belly is the same cut as bacon - it's just not smoked or cured, but has all the same delicious fat and meaty meat as bacon.  It was as wonderfully flavorful and rich as it sounds.  The pork belly was seared after being braised and had a lovely light caramelization that gave it the slightest bit of crunch.  The provolone cheese was melted and gooey and there was plenty of Russian dressing and kraut all served on nice rye bread.  It was a great way to have a classic with a twist and I relished every bite that I was able to eat.

Elizabeth Powell's Red Beans and Rice

I'm not a chef, but i've played one in a bar.

Here's my recipe for red beans. I also have a recipe for a crazy cocktail featuring a home-made espresso infused bourbon.

Elizabeth

Red Beans and Rice

Oh, I know, people look down on the simple, homey food stuff these days. Everything has to be macerated this or "scented" that. Yeah, I get it. I do it at times when i'm feeling all hoity-toity and looking to impress some visiting dignitary. Usually, I just whip up something that I would like to eat.

Being Southern and having a little love affair with Blue Runner red beans, I sometimes crave red beans and rice. Recently, I decided to tweak my recipe and the result was tasty.

Here's how it goes:

Bulleit Bourbon

Another Bourbon to try was purchased this week on my latest wine and spirits run.  I picked up a bottle of Bulleit that my blogging buddy, Banu, mentioned in a comment to one of my posts.  She writes a fabulous blog about food and cooking that I love to read.  It also turns out that we both love Bourbon.  I find it an extremely satisfying thing to have after a big dinner, or a great drink to warm up with on these cold nights during the long New England winters.  Last night, I poured myself a nice tumbler full and enjoyed it in bed while doing a little reading with covers pulled up and a snuggie!  I wish my beautiful, but old and drafty, apartment building held heat better.

Bulleit has a story that goes back around 200 years.  It was initially produced by someone who disappeared without a trace and later revived a hundred and fifty or so years later by a surviving grandson.  It has a higher percentage of rye than a typical Bourbon does, but still maintains the minimum corn mash quota for Bourbon - at least 51%.  That extra amount of rye gives it a spicy and zesty backbone that a lot of other Bourbons don't have.

I like it for its bold aromas and mouthful of flavor.  It has plenty of warm toasty notes on the back end that still make it smooth and warming balancing out all of that fire and spice at the beginning.  I'd venture to say that it's one of the more complex Bourbons I've had and I think the quality backs up its slightly higher price making it a justifiable indulgence.  It was a very satisfying way to unwind after a long service at work on one of the biggest days of the year.

Japonaise Bakery, Brookline

Yesterday, I stopped into Japonaise Bakery here in Brookline on my way to work for a bite to eat.  I wasn't counting on family meal at work being a terribly rewarding experience.  I knew the guys in the kitchen would be very busy putting out lunches and getting their mise en place ready for dinner service, it being Valentine's Day and all.  It's one of the busiest days of the year for us and requires a lot of work from every hand available in the back and front of the house to prepare for the plethora of guests, so there isn't much time to think about making a feast fit for a king to be served up between services and to be eaten only by employees.

I left my apartment with a good deal of excitement thinking about stopping at Japonaise.  I have been there many times and I knew that I would be able to get a quick and cheap meal that would satisfy my appetite and give me plenty of fuel for the busy night ahead.  They have terrific sandwiches, pastries, and cakes.  I usually get a loaf of their shoku pan, a traditional Japanese yeast bread enriched with heavy cream to take home.  It's as delicious as it sounds and it has a really nice texture that makes me think of the "snap" of al dente pasta or a natural sausage casing.

Truffles: The Forbidden Fungus

Truffles are probably the single most sought-after and expensive vegetable in the culinary world.  Traditionally, attempts to cultivate them have borne good, but not great results, although I understand that farmers are getting better and better all the time.  There are many many varieties of this little fungus that grows under ground, but two are commonly used in haute cuisine: tuber melanosporum and tuber magnatum, or the black and the white truffle respectively.

Truffles historically have been widely regarded as aprhodisiacs.  The Greeks and Romans were truffle crazy in their hedonistic societies.  Brillat Savarin, the great 19th century French gastronome, relays a story of a virtuous maid succumbing to a suitor after dining on truffle stuffed pheasant.  No doubt today, the smell of truffle from across a dining room gets many a heart palpitating.  I must confess that it is torturous for me to serve them to people - we usually shave them right at the table where I work.  This never fails to make me feel dreadfully ravenous.

Lore, legend, and commonly held beliefs about truffles are that people who forage for them use pigs to locate them under several feet of soil.  They usually grow among the root systems of certain types of trees - different species of truffles like different types of trees.  European truffles prefer oaks, and North American ones often grow under fir trees.  The reason pigs like them is because the chemical compound that makes truffles smell so delicious is the same compound as one found in boar saliva.  This drives the lady pigs wild and makes them want to root up the truffles to get at that sexy boar smell.  I am not making this up!

The only problem with all of this is that pigs, like humans, also like to eat truffles.  Therefore modern truffle hunters have trained dogs to locate them just as effectively as the pigs, only the dogs don't tend to eat the truffles.  Goats have also been used with some success.  New experiments are even being done with machines designed to detect them in ways I can't understand.  The market demand for them is such that people are willing and able to invest significant amounts of money into finding new and more efficient ways of tracking these little love nuggets down.

What you should know about truffles on your Valentine's Day date: