March 28, 2007
New Dining Horizons
As many of you might have surmised, Maine is no longer my full time residence. A new opportunity came my way in New York, and I’m back to my old stomping grounds, hanging my hat between New York, the Hamptons and Maine.
If I were looking for the silver lining to offset other factors I thought it would be found in the cornucopia of culinary opportunities that New York has to offer. To may surprise this, so far, has not been the case. Of course there’s more restaurants here than all of New England. And for this foodie I feel that my new the culinary outlook is as illimitable as foraging in strawberry fields.
What I’ve found so far that is sorely lacking—and perhaps I’ve just skimmed the
surface—is the notion of organic food as a mainstay. This is big and all important in Maine, something that I realize acutely now. Just look at local menus the next time you’re in any of Maine’s better restaurants to see a list of purveyors who supply chefs with local organically grown provisions. You won’t see this too often on New York lists.
For instance, the Hamptons, still something of farming and fishing community, though increasingly compromised by unending rows of shingled hovels otherwise known as McMansions, with vast designer kithens that are never cooked in, has only a smattering of places that sell organic locally farm-raised food.
Soon enough Greenmarkets will open in Manhattan where farmers from surrounding agrarian regions and states come to sell their products and I look forward to grazing these stalls.
Fairly soon vegetable stands will line the local Hamptons roads, too. But there are no farmer’s markets such as we know them in Maine where everything from heirloom varietals to free range everything is available. As for price shock I had the dubious opportunity to buy salmon at the local fishmonger at $30 per pound; and the average restaurant bill is at least 25 percent more.
I can’t, for instance, readily buy bottled heavy cream, most of which is ultra pasteurized here and housed in waxy containers. The local supermarket occasionally carries one from Vermont that’s available in a small health-food section.
Forget about finding unpasteurized dairy products altogether, which I think are not allowed in New York State. Locally churned butter, real buttermilk or other dairy products that I came to rely on in Maine readily available in Portland and elsewhere in the state will not quantify my shopping list either.
I’ve just barely made my way through the infinite number of restaurants that the New York region is known for. But I have reveled in great Chinese food and first-rate Mexican cooking, both of which are nonexistent in Maine or even Boston. And I’ve reserved a table at one of my favorite French halls of haute cuisine, La Grenouille, which I haven’t been to in years. I hope just one of my many pin-stripe suits that have languished in the closet for years may fit and that I still rate to sit resplendent at a front room table; the notion of status seating is a beloved New York thing after all. About the only time it ever mattered where I sat in Maine restaurants was not to be placed near a cold drafty window.
Recently I had an extraordinary meal in an out of the way place called the North Fork Table and Inn located in Southold, a small farming and fishing village on the other fork of Long Island called the North Fork, a seaside nonglitzy (but trying not to be), less rarefied version of the South Fork villages that comprise the Hamptons.
The cooking was some of the finest I’ve encountered. Other than local Peconic Bay scallops, the menu however was barely based on local foods. The free range chicken was from Pennsylvania; it’s still too early for local vegetables to be on menus. But the cooking was extraordinary under the hands of a former chef from New York's Aureole, Gerry Hayden. And I was very impressed by the local wines that were served, as the North Fork has grown tremendously as a major wine-producing area. All told it was a vastly memorable meal.
When I left the Hamptons five years ago good restaurants were an exception. But that has changed, and my experiences so far have been quite positive. They’re nearly all faultless—all quite good and substantial but nnot uinique.
As for Manhattan dining, I’ve barely broken ground and I should not be complaining as that world awaits endless discoveries.
From Eastern Long Island provisions I look forward to the terrific local corn, tomatoes and strawberries. The nurseries in these parts are extraordinary, too, and I’ve already been stocking up on flats of annuals and contemplating which rose bushes to plant in front of my house. There’s no snow on the ground, and I feel like I’m living in the tropics by comparison.
The best restaurants in Manhattan and elsewhere all tout the usual top quality sources: Berkshire Pork and lamb from Colorado or organic Pennsylvania free range chickens. What’s less evident is a list at the end of menus describing where the ingredients hail as a testament to the finesse of local sources.
So far the only place that I’ve encountered that pays homage to local stuff is, coincidentally, an establishment called Blue Hill, which takes its name from a Hudson Valley locale and whose menu is comprised of foodstuffs grown on their own farm .But these are flash in the pan compared to what I had become used to in Maine eateries.
I suppose I shouldn’t have expected much. After all, Maine is a farm state and New York is about cutting edge.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not starving or drowning in a sea of Hostess cupcakes. But such taken for granted opportunities like shopping at Hannaford’s whose shelves are lined with bottled Smiling Hill Farm milks and creams or other farm-fresh organics is fewer and far between here.
Most likely I’ll b e spending a lot of time in Maine during the summer and I can’t wait to board the boat to North Haven, for example, dazzled by that precious island outpost. There, some of the best lamb produced in the state is nurtured and I hope to get as much of it as possible. I still have a loin roast that I’ve lugged with me from last summer, which is in my freezer along with heirloom cuts of pork and beef that I saved from local farms.
Recently I posted an email to a farm that I discovered in Gouldsboro last summer that raises the best chickens I’ve ever had short of Bresse varieties from France. Called the Mandala Farm, they’re just out of Winter Harbor and I inquired if they could ship some of their chickens and dairy products to me in New York. The farm is small boutique farming at its finest. Alas they’re not allowed to ship out of state and I’ll have to wait until I’m up there late in the summer for my annual visit to the area.
I hope to frequent the Portland, Cumberland, Camden and Blue Hill farmers’ markets. And I like to think I’ll have the best of both worlds before me in the summer, enjoying the bounty of Eastern Long Island products and the best that Maine has to offer.
I’ll be in Portland this weekend through mid-week and the biggest decision I’ve had to make is where to dine out. I’ve had some invitations to go to friends houses, all of which I’ve turned down because I want to enjoy dining out.
Dining in Portland restaurants is like belonging to an exclusive club. If you take the local dining scene for granted, don’t. Because given the scope of the confines in which they exist they’re first rate.
To be sure Fore Street is on my list as is Caiola’s. But for the limited time I’m here I’ll have to decide between the others, like Cinque Terre, Five Fifty Five,Hugo’s Back Bay Grill—but there will be other times and other places.
I had just missed the opening of Whole Foods in Portland and can’t wait to see it for myself. There are three in Manhattan and one on Long Island, but I haven’t been to any of them yet.
I feel fortunate to have the best of both locales to enjoy. I'm overjoyed to have spent only $100 to register my car in New York State, to the sunny prospect of enjoying vast stretches of powdery, pristine sandy white beaches are some of the contrivantes that are nonetheless consoling.
Comments
You are living a charmed life - enjoy, and no complaints, please. Some of us feel absolutely imprisoned up here, and we don't have the opportunity to leave, or the money to enjoy the kinds of places here that you do on a regular basis, because the regular people here make pretty paltry salaries. I envy you, but in a good way; NYC is my home, and it's the best. Be happy!
Posted by Anne-MarieMarch 28, 2007 10:54 AM
argh! broaden your horizons, john. you never did when you lived here full time, and i bet you won't down there.
you're all about exclusivity - i did this, i did that, isn't it grand? - not enjoyment and discovery. if nothing else, that makes for a very boring blog: reading about the same restuarants over and over and over is tiresome.
true, most of the restaurants you like here are excellent, and could hold their own against anything in the big city. but here's hoping you explore there more than you did when you were here.
and anne-marie, i bet we can collectively scrape up enough money to buy you a one-way ticket on the downeaster. follow him.
Posted by stuartMarch 28, 2007 11:38 AM
yeah anne marie, take a hike, last i checked there wasnt an impenetrable wall built at the new hampshire border
Posted by ryanMarch 28, 2007 01:01 PM
I see that all the nasty people are still alive and kicking.
Posted by john goldenMarch 28, 2007 05:26 PM
John -- I for one have always looked forward to reading your writing and to hearing what you've had to say about restaurants and food. It's been a learning experience for me and I've always found your reviews on target. I do hope you'll be able to continue to write in the paper, and you can be sure that you're got at least one major fan who looks forward to your writing. Keep up the good work and keep on giving us your insights - whether they're about New York or Portland or Maine.
March 29, 2007 12:32 AM
Thanks for the kind words. I supppose that forums such as these bring out all sorts of people, but sometimes those who contribute their thoughts stand out with venomous priase.
Posted byMarch 29, 2007 06:47 AM
"And for this foodie I feel that my new the culinary outlook is as illimitable as foraging in strawberry fields."? Huh? Syntax aside, there is a limit to the number of strawberries in any field.
You might consider taking some advice from that bible of good writing, Strunk & White's The Elements of Style:
"The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity. . . . Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating. . . . Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is ten-center handy, ready, and able."
Posted by nyc1March 29, 2007 10:03 AM
hogwash
Posted byMarch 29, 2007 11:42 AM
pearls for swine
Posted byMarch 29, 2007 09:15 PM
bunch of yacks
Posted byMarch 29, 2007 09:16 PM
Ah, Golden Boy, we hardly knew ye. Who will now tell us to "eat shit," as you so memorably did when more than two people posted something other than "You da man!!!"? (For the record, I think you meant this confrontationally, not as yet another plug for Oolong.) Who will now, as nyc1 reminds us, have us recalling favorite passages of Strunk & White? ("Omit unnecessary words" tops my list.) And most important, who will now guide us through the confusing culinary maze that is Portland? Just this evening, I was thinking, "If only someone would tell me about Fore Street, Hugo's and Back Bay Grill."
Posted by Brett WeirApril 3, 2007 08:16 PM
Quite honestly filling this space has been less than fulfilling in the last year. Besides your often rude comments, so many two-bit barbs have been just plain mean. The way life should be has often translated into the way life isn't in Maine. It's a shame since there have been many readers who were upstanding, respectable people who acted with civility and style. It's too bad that so much trash was allowed to trounce other voices. Portland could be a reallyl cool city if some of its second-rate citizens were gone.
I was in Maine last week as "someone from away" and it felt great not to be thrown into an unruly crowd. I look forward to other times here as a plain old summer visitor, and then it might begin to feel like the way life should be.
April 4, 2007 10:39 AM
John,
While I regret that you may have been mistreated in the comments here, I don't know if you have realized that the slogan "the way life should be" is an unfortunate slap in the face to many Mainers. Unless, of course, you think that working three jobs to scrape $20,000 a year together to support your family, and looking to the government for heating assistance and WIC, is the way life should be, which I doubt is the case. Beyond that fact, the native Maine mindset has always been solidly austere, with an underlying contempt for waste, luxuriousness, fashion and status-seeking. That being the case, your column, with its emphasis on restaurants that many Mainers would view as inaccessible and probably wasteful (how much money for a meal at Hugo's and not enough food to make a decent lunch out of the leftovers?), became a flashpoint between the natives and those who seem to think that turning the Portland peninsula into North Cambridge, Mass. by sheer force of numbers is a good idea. Farewell, and good luck in your future travels.
April 6, 2007 01:29 PM
John,
I moved here over a year ago and found your blog very informative. Early on I decided that your tastes were closer to mine than any other review source that I could find on the web. I don't have the time or resources to try all the restaurants so your reviews were helpful in selecting expensive restaurants.
For some reason many Maine natives think that change can be stopped or slowed and that Maine will remain the same as it's always been. The first reaction is to blame anybody who has moved here from somewhere else for causing changes to their environment. I challenge anyone to name a place on this earth that isn't changing at a rapid pace. People are becoming more mobile and the world is becoming more homogenized. Holding onto the past and setting unreasonable expecations for maintaining a static environment will only frustrate you and make you miserable. Comments in this blog clearly indicate that there are many natives that are frustrated and miserable.
Posted by HankApril 8, 2007 02:04 PM
that was really well said.
Posted byApril 8, 2007 05:43 PM
Bravo Stuart. I stopped reading Golden's drivel a long time ago, and just found this while looking for something by a normal restaurant reviewer, N.L. English. Good riddance to JG; NY's gain is our gain too.
P.S. I was born in Manhattan, lived 20 years in Boston, have made 20-25 trips to France, so I know food. And I'm not missing anything by being in Portland.
April 19, 2007 11:08 AM
On another note, I took a drive up to Brunswick this weekend. A lot is going on up there. I stopped in a cafe called 111 Maine (also found them online: 111Maine.com) and had one of the best meal I think I've ever had in Maine. The staff were also extremely nice. Something I've found is kind of rare in Maine. Has anyone else tried it? I recommend giving them a try.
Posted by JTApril 20, 2007 10:06 AM
New Yorkers are rude. Mainers are mean. Which is worse?
Posted byApril 22, 2007 08:05 AM
JT, you've got it right. Jennifer (the owner of 111 Maine) and her staff are fantastic, and great people,a nd the food is fantastic. And check out Sweet Leaves Tea House on Pleasant Street. It is a hidden gem, but won't be hidden too much longer. Fascinating wine list, fascinating food. And again, great people. There are great restaurants in Portland that deserve their raves, but not everyone can afford Hugo's or Fore Street every night. But 111 Maine and Sweet Leaves is The Way Life Should Be.
Posted by Bob R.April 25, 2007 04:33 PM
No, New Yorkers are not rude, except maybe some of those who visit here. And Mainers are not mean, except when they're treated like yokels by those who should know better. Didn't that man's mother ever teach him manners?
Posted by Bob R.April 25, 2007 04:36 PM
Bob R. is completely right when he says Sweet Leaves is a hidden gem. It only opened at the end of last summer and I've had the pleasure of going there. That's what I love so much about Maine. All the absolutely amazing restaurants are hidden. There's a restaurant (and this won't be very helpful) which I believe is called the Blue Moon cafe which my mom and I accidentally found on the way back from Farmington. The staff was great and the food was amazing. Their homemade fries definitely were a must. I now live in Massachusetts and it's rare to stumble upon a hidden gem, all those hidden in Mass should remain hidden because they're just so nasty. Maine is a great place to find restaurants! And for those who think Mainer's are mean, well, we're mostly only mean to those from away and mostly for good reasons!
Posted by Amy D.June 14, 2007 12:19 PM
Just as an aside O'John of NYC and all places with silencer pads under the linen... it's "Pearls Before Swine" Just how well read are you???
Posted by SparkyJuly 7, 2007 09:33 PM
pearls for swine is exactly what I meant.
Posted byJuly 22, 2007 07:55 AM
Well, John, we shall miss the ongoing conversation about Maine dining that your blog inspires. When next in Maine, go to Brunswick and dine at Clementine. O my darling!The best new restaurant in Maine, hands down!
Posted by HelenApril 11, 2008 01:10 PM
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good ridance...
Posted byMarch 28, 2007 10:49 AM