Fiddlefest is upon us!

Sunday June 1st, 4-7pm, Slow Food Portland will be holding its annual Fiddlefest , a celebration of Maine's spring foods.

Spices of Life

Next Friday, May 30th 5-7pm, please join us for the opening of a new show of photographs by Portland photographer Stacey Cramp. The show, titled Spices of Life: Scenes from India's Himalayas, includes photos of food in the life and culture of this northern Indian region. Also during the opening, you can sample teas from South Asia in a tasting organized by Sweet Leaves Tea House & Restaurant from Brunswick. You can probably expect some funky Bollywood dance mixes as well.

There's always something good to read at Amy Ephron's food writers' blog/newsletter One for the Table. This week there are two favorites of mine up there. There's a great excerpt from Alexander Lobrano's Hungry for Paris: The Ultimate Guide to the City's 101 Best Restaurants. So much more than a book of reviews - the author tells real stories of his experience dining in this select group of Paris restaurants. The list includes restaurants from many culinary traditions - not just French - here are pleasant tips on dining happily and bits of history as well.

There's also a lovely article on the arrival of fiddleheads, by Brenda Athanus who, along with her sister Tanya, run the Green Spot in Belgrade Lakes. Brenda gives us real instruction, too, in the tricky craft of cooking them just right.

Food for thought

An incredible article on food waste in America.

Stop messing with our luxuries!

Iran has been messing with Iraq and now they're messing with the caviar markets. Iranian caviar, considered some of the world's best, is being sold for the first time via a major auction in Britain. Nearly $10 million dollars worth will be on the block. This may be a problem for some of the existing brokers of caviar, but we'll have to wait to see what it does to the market.

More seriously, global warming is effecting the truffle harvests in France. And the Chinese truffle, a cousin to the magnificent white truffles of Italy and black truffles of France has been found in Italy, perhaps imported on inoculated root stock. Truffle "farming" is getting more popular in Europe and the US, and inoculated oak saplings are being sent around the globe. So the truffle spores are traveling, and sometimes they're not the right spores. Time will tell if the bland flavorless Chinese truffles will be invasive and replace the real thing. The Chinese have been selling fake truffles to the west for years (and more years), but this time it's a threat to the actual existence of the real thing. Whether it's global warming or the invasive Chinese spores, it will be more than a shame if this grand piece of gastronomic heritage is eventually lost.

Winemaker Robert Mondavi is Dead

California winemaking patriarch Robert Mondavi is dead at 94.

Chicago rejoins civilization

The Chicago City Council has repealed its ridiculous ban on foie gras. For those of us who have a fondness for Chicago's food culture, this is a very good thing.