Rabelais Books Blog

The Rabelais Blog has Moved!

2010-04-17T17:41:00.002-04:00

After much delay, we've relaunched our website, with much more inventory, convenient searchability, and an ecommerce shopping cart system. We've also migrated our blog, which you can now find, as part of the website, here.

Right now, most of the books on our website are from our inventory of antiquarian titles, and include rare food and drink books, with cocktail books, farm and garden titles and more, all listed. We're adding new titles every day, so stay tuned.

New Farmers

2010-03-27T11:47:00.003-04:00

In our world there are a couple of different varieties of celebrity. We are all familiar with the Food Network specimens, I will skip those names, you all know who they are. Some of those folks engender loyalty, others rancor. Then there are the chefs abroad in the world who have their own fans, often by no feat of their own publicity, just because people love their food. Grant Achatz comes to mind. Within the world of agriculture there are a couple of notable figures: Joel Salatin; Will Allen; Eliot Coleman, and a collection of faceless demons: Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland come to mind. Since being here in Maine we have been introduced to a community that gets little press but is wholly remarkable if for nothing other than their optimism: the journeyperson farmers. Here is a link to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners website with the list of this years class. Go take a look at them, read their stories and feel a little better about the planet.

New book of Julia Child correspondence to be published this December.

2010-03-16T12:44:00.003-04:00

The NYTimes reports the planned publication of a new book of correspondence with editor Avis Devoto. from the time surrounding and following the publications of Mastering the Art. The book is due out this December.

Max Watman at Rabelais on Thursday at 4pm

2010-03-10T13:54:00.003-05:00

Max Watman, author of Chasing the White Dog, will be speaking tonight at the Slow Food Portland Writers Night, along with Greg Marley and Ben Hewitt. But you can also meet and chat with Max on Rabelais Books on Thursday at 4pm. Who knows? there may even be a bit of moonshine.

The Menu for Wednesday's SFP Writers Night

2010-03-08T14:37:00.004-05:00

Slow Food Portland Writers Night
SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress Street, Portland, Maine
Doors open at 6:00
$25, $20 for Slow Food members.
Tickets can be bought here.

Oh my goodness. If you don't have tickets, there are still some available. But hurry because when everyone sees this menu they will go fast....

Delectables from Lee Farrington of FIGA.

TANDOORI CHICKEN SKEWER
Chicken marinated in a yogurt based sauce, grilled and skewered

WILD MUSHROOM PHYLLO PURSES
Wild mushrooms from Greg Marley baked in phyllo dough

SHRIMP PATIA WITH CORN BLINI
Tomato based sauce with Indian spices, Maine shrimp,
Served on top of a small blini with corn and scallion

PICADINHO STUFFED TOMATOES
Brazilian style ground beef stuffed in tomatoes

HEARTSONG FARM GOAT CHEESE TARTLETS
New Hampshire Goat Cheese, wild Maine honey from Harecrest Acres

APPLE TURNOVERS
Black Oxford apples from John Bunker, phyllo dough
BRIGADEIRO
Brazilian chocolates: some rolled in coconut flakes, sea salt

Food Industry Mug Shots 1899-1954

2010-03-01T14:21:00.002-05:00

Come join us for an opening reception to celebrate an exhibit of food industry mug shots assembled by Dr. Lou Jacobs. Dr. Lou's been collecting these little gems for some time now, and the assemblage offers a window into the food professionals of yesteryear. Chefs, bartenders, butchers, bakers, soda jerks, etc., all found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The bad boy chef is nothing new, and these original documents prove it!

Friday, March 5th, 6-8pm

Winter Work

2010-02-17T15:04:00.003-05:00

So one of our favorite farmers, Chris Cavendish of Fishbowl Farm was in the store recently, and we spoke of the impending spring and of our mutual desire to get outdoors and into the soil. Chris told us he's already planting greens in his hoop houses, which makes us terribly jealous. Inspired by his early work I headed outdoors yesterday, trying to beat the predicted snow, and hoping to do some pruning. I spent some time reaching high into the apple trees, pruning with a pole clipper, and then more time on my knees in the snow, cutting out the two year canes from the raspberry patches. My stamina for winter work isn't what it should be, but these simple maintenance tasks will make for a much more productive season later, and working in the light snow amidst the dormant fruit trees sure beats office work.

This doesn't happen very often

2010-01-07T15:08:00.004-05:00

In our three short years in business we have had many occasions to be frustrated by the buying behemoth that is Amazon. It is impossible for independent brick and mortar book stores to compete with their muscle. We choose not to fret over them for the most part, we provide something they cannot: service, opinion, personality. And Raleigh. But occasionally we must remark on their existence. This is one of those moments. Currently they are out of stock of Thomas Keller's newest book, Ad Hoc at Home. In fact they have not had the book since before Christmas, prime shopping season. Ask me, just go on and ask me, do we have the book....?

Well, yes we do.....

Snicker.

Sometimes the little guy outthinks the giant.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T09:27:00.001-05:00

Chang was here, did you miss him?

2009-12-11T09:13:00.004-05:00

Last weekend we were pleased to host the most talked about chef of the moment. And even more pleased to find that he is a great guy, in addition to being a brilliant chef.

As you can see from the photo he signed a couple of books. If you didn't make it in for the signing, which was a shame because he did a fascinating Q & A with Andrew Knowlton (The Bon Appetit restaurant editor), then come down and pick yourself up a copy.
Or buy one for you and one for a friend....
The Holidays are here.
As are the in-store cookies.

East End Holiday Stroll & David Chang

2009-12-04T13:25:00.004-05:00

Get your Holiday Shopping started this Saturday in the East End! For the second year, the End End Shops have organized a day of shopping fun. This year there will be special deals, warming stations, a shuttle to transport folks around and all sorts of delight.

Rabelais will be offering a 10% discount on everything in the store, hot mulled cider and tasty tidbits. This year we are raffling off a signed copy of Stir, Mixing it up in the Italian Tradition by Barbara Lynch. Come by the store to pick up your raffle ticket. Then stop in at least four other neighborhood businesses to qualify for the raffle. The weather has been very cooperative, this will be a good weekend to get your shopping started. And buying local from people in your community is a great way to give twice: once to your loved ones and once to your local businesses.

On Sunday we are thrilled to be hosting the three time James Beard Award winning chef owner of Momokuku, Ko, Ssam Bar and Milk Bar in New York City. From 1:00 to 3:00 on Sunday afternoon Chang will be here signing copies of his cookbook and answering questions. This will be a fabulous opportunity to meet this incredibly talented chef. Everytime we go to NYC we make sure to eat at one or another of his restaurants. Had the most scrumptious pigs tails last time....

Samantha's in Gastronomica

2009-11-19T19:15:00.003-05:00

Samantha's first published article, an interview with our good neighbor, Rob Evans, appears in the current issue of Gastronomica. Gastronomica remains one of my two favorite food magazines (the other is Ed Behr's Art of Eating), and balances a scholarly approach to food with real fun. Taken together, the two magazines are essential food reading, each published quarterly.

Samantha's interview gives us the back story on Rob, who's risen from yeoman's cooking on cruise ships to the top of the heap with his recent James Beard Award. Fortunately, she didn't mention his amazing new charcuterie platter, so there will still be some for us. So come get the new issue now, along with the new issues of The Art of Eating, Meat Paper, and Maine Food & Lifestyle.

Back from the Book Fairs

2009-11-15T09:04:00.005-05:00

So today the big show at the Hynes Auditorium continues, but the smaller Boston Book and Paper Show was a single day, so I'm back home with our trunks of books, including some new ones. The show was a bit better than fair to middling, and given that it had to fight a terrible weather day, that's not bad. Book fairs have been headed in the wrong direction for a long while now, but I still felt this one was a half step back in the right direction. Traffic was fairly steady through the day, with the standard drop off at noon when dealers head back to the other show.

Gone? Our pair of firsts of Julia's Mastering the Art, some fine little oyster books, a wonderful association copy of Watt's Paris Bistro Cooking, bread baking books, and Sheila Hibben's rare National Cookery in a dust jacket.

But we found some new treasures as well including: two small early Maine cookbooks, a 1930's cocktail book I haven't seen before, a rare menu designed by Belgian Surrealist E.L.T. Mesens, and inscribed by him to British jazz figure George Melly. I'm really looking forward to spending time with a collection of trade catalogues of chocolate making equipment, and with a collection of printed and manuscript cookbooks from the collection of a late 19th century Milanese chef.

The New York Times and Bon Appetit

2009-09-19T14:29:00.011-04:00

We have gotten a little press lately.

In case you haven't seen, there is a link here for a lovely story written by the talented Julia Moskin in The New York Times, about the happening food scene in Portland, Maine. As if that is not enough, there is another link here for a pretty serious shout-out from Bon Appetit's Foodist, Andrew Knowlton, naming Portland, Maine America's foodiest small town. We have always known that what's going on here is special. The inspiration for our business came directly from what we knew of the chefs, farmers, fishermen(& women), gardeners and home cooks of this dynamic enclave. After we opened and began to meet these folks personally all of our impressions were fully borne out. Moving into our third Fall with the Out on a Limb Apple CSA, Goatstravaganza II, the 20 Mile Meal and the FoodFilms series we are continually inspired by what's going on around us. This is a really cool place to be!

One of the unforeseen results of the New York Times piece has been the repeated calls we have been getting for reservations. We are included in the listing of "Where to eat in a city of abundance", in the context of all those restaurants. So folks eager to eat at some of Portland's finest have been calling our number to reserve a table. The desperation in some of their voices has led us to believe that our good friends also mentioned in the story have been booked solid. It is easy for us to steer them to some of the other fantastic restaurants in town that didn't get mentioned (because there are so many good places it was inevitable some would get left out of this go-round with the press). Just another way in which the rising tide raises all boats. If you think what you read about is good, there is even more here to be sampled....

Fall books are starting to arrive on the shelves!

My Bread, The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste
Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York, and the originator of the no-knead technique that took the New York Times by storm back in 2006, has written his own version of this fantastic technique into a book. Fall is almost here (by the calendar) and with it comes bread baking season. Some may say that it is always bread baking season, and they may be right. But for us cool weather brings on baking urges. Starting with his own history as a bread baker, progressing into a detailed description of how and why the no-knead technique works, and then rounding out with recipes, Lahey speaks to the reader with a genuine warmth. The book includes some of his famous pizza recipes as well as those for sandwiches, and even what to do with stale bread. Sure to be as well received as the New York Times article.
W.W. Norton & Company, 223 pgs, cloth, $29.95.

Love Soup, 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes by Anna Thomas

Now that we've got you thinking about cold weather cooking, here is the perfect accompaniment to the delicious bread you are going to make. She of The Vegetarian Epicure, a 1973 classic, Anna Thomas is back after a long absence with a new soup book. Ranging from the basic stocks to the hearty bean soups, there are recipes here from the light soups of Summer to the hearty soups and stews of deepest darkest Winter. Nothing as comforting as a warm bowl of soup and a hunk of crusty bread....
W.W. Norton and Company, 28 pgs, softcover, $22.95.

Encyclopedia of Pasta by Oretta Zanini De Vita, translated by Maureen B. Fant with a foreword by Carol Field

Every possible pasta shape, 310 variations, from Abbotta Pezziende to Zumari. Each entry has cultural information from ingredients to how it is made, from alias' to where it is found. If you are a pasta afficionado this is a book for you. Translated into English from the original Italian, this is the real deal, straight from the horse's mouth.....

University of California Press, 375 pgs, cloth, $29.95.

Our beloved friend, Julia Child has returned to us. We are back in stock with both the cloth and the softcover. While the cloth edition does have that silly belly-band advertising the film, it is removable without any damage to the book or the dust jacket. We are proud that she made it to the New York Times bestseller list finally. If the movie inspired you, come on in and get the book. Boeuf Bourguignon!

Alfred A. Knopf, cloth $40, softcover $30.

Mastering the Art of Selling a French Cookbook

2009-08-24T09:08:00.005-04:00

In the weeks running up to the release of the film Julie &Julia, we worried (only a bit) that the film might trivialize the iconic American chef, we wondered how the two books My Life in France and Julie & Julia would be woven together, and we looked forward to Meryl Streep's portrayal of Julia Child. When we saw the film last Monday, our worries were erased and our anticipation for Streep's acting was rewarded. It was great fun. But we hadn't expected that Mastering the Art of French Cooking would be a hit alongside the movie. In fact, we barely ordered more copies. The regular versions of the books have been replaced with movie tie-in editions, with photos of the stars included, and there's little in the book world I care for less than movie tie-ins. Besides, didn't everybody who eats already own these books?

Apparently not. This Sunday, MTAFC will top the NYTimes bestseller list. The weighty, serious cookbook which brought French cooking to America's home kitchens has surpassed sales of the two popular and slightly breezy books the movie was based on, and even Sam's Club and Costco are ordering palettes to be parked next to skids of the toothy Rachel Ray and the slinky Giada Delaurentis.

It's a surprise bestseller. And I really mean surprise. The publisher ran out within what seemed like minutes of the movie opening, and the distributors are still playing catch up (as of this writing, one of our distributors has none in stock, 6000 on order, but 15,000 currently on order with them - so they're already 9000 copies behind). And it warms my heart to see that not even the inventory wizards over at Amazon got this one right, and are taking orders for books they hope will arrive in the next few weeks.

Used copies of the book have been selling quickly also. At Abebooks, only 41 copies of the title are listed for sale, which for a books of this sort - in print for nearly 70 years - is a tiny number. And many of the copies listed are paperbacks, or listed by foreign dealers. Prices have escalated as rapidly as supply has dwindled, with ordinary copies of vol. 1 or vol. 2 selling for two or three hundred dollars. My favorite is offered by the ever amusing dealer, "Extremely Reliable" of Richmond Texas, for $48675 (for the paperback). A near very good copy of the first edition, first edition, sold recently on eBay for around $2300, where someone else lists a first with underlining for $3000.

The good news is that Julia and the book are reaching a new generation (or two) of readers and cooks. It's fun to watch teenagers come in with their parents and ask about the Julia books (it was more fun when we had MTAFC in stock). The kids are excited, and making a beef bourguignon as something they too can do. After all Julie Powell did it, right?

So now we wait for the backorders to arrive, and steer customers to some of Julia's many other great books that we do have in stock. Or show off the first edition, first printing that we have, or the signed Julia's in the case. Or best of all, remember to go back to the MTAFC on our own shelves when we wonder what to do for dinner.

The Best Part of Summer

2009-08-23T18:36:00.007-04:00

It's the time of year when gardening starts to really pay off. Besides a short battle with tomato horn worms earlier in the month, and now the first appearance of blight on those same tomatoes, things are looking good. Here's a look at the ingredients for breakfast this morning. The chanterelles are from the edge of the woods, picked this morning; the tarragon is a day or so old, left over from pruning back the out-of-control herb; the beautiful potatoes are Purple Majesty, and the eggs are from what's left of our three year old layers.

Last night at Peter and Natalie's we shared three

lovely haddock from a local CSF (Community Supported Fishery), with potatoes, roasted cherry tomatoes, and an olive oil, lemon, fresh-crushed coriander sauce. My favorite item of the evening was a fresh crabapple juice, from

Portland's own foraged crabapples. It was a beautiful color.

Finally, although Samantha thinks I'm a bit batty for this, I've taken a shine to a pair of fully bolted lettuce plants. They've gone through flower and now are in seed. They're a handsome five foot tall, colorful, with a full head of small yellow flowers. They're deer tongue lettuce, and now I can see where it gets its name. I'm now fully tempted to plant lettuces and other plants which seem to me quite lovely when allowed to grow at will.

I'm already leaning toward lovage, which is a beautiful, large, dark green leafy thing in spring, hyssop, with its August purple flowers, and the lettuces.

Farm Lunch

2009-08-04T13:06:00.003-04:00

Did you know that August is National Goat Cheese month? I am celebrating on my day off with a delicious and simple farm lunch that includes some beet greens newly harvested from the garden, a couple of recently layed eggs and a healthy dose of fresh Chevre from our friends Karl and Margaret over at Ten Apple Farm. The recipe (such as it is ) is borrowed from The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider, a marvelous book that flies wonderfully under the radar. This makes a lovely lunch but can also be a delicious last minute dinner. The following is more of an outline than an actual recipe, not to be repeated slavishly but rather to be interpreted in your own style.

Some greens: beet, mustard, kale, broccoli raab, chard etc.
A couple of eggs (fresh from the laying box if possible)
A generous handful of Chevre.
Oil for the pan, S&P, a splash of vinegar.

The whole thing can be done in one pan, unless you are a poached egg fan, in which case you will need two. Wash and coarsely chop the greens. Heat your pan with the oil of your choice and then gently saute your greens until they are soft, but not brown. You could add some chopped garlic, some hot pepper, some sliced onions/shallots/scallions.... I like to hit the grens with a shot of vinegar, but that's just me. Transfer greens to a plate and cover with your Chevre, as much as you desire. Then in the same pan gently fry your eggs: sunnyside up, over easy, but don't over cook them, you want your yolks runny. That's what makes your 'sauce'. Then layer your eggs over your cheese covered greens, sprinkle with some salt and pepper and dig in. Delightful....

See you at Chicken Run!

2009-07-11T19:05:00.002-04:00

So it may be a bit gray tomorrow. What else is new? So I'm headed for One Longfellow Square for the FoodFilms showing of Chicken Run. The Aardman animation classic poultry film will be paired with a fried chicken dinner by Josh Potocki of 158 Pickett Street in South Portland. Short chicken-themed films and a question and answer session with the chef are also part of the night. 6pm, at One Longfellow Square.

The dangers of outdoor cooking...

2009-07-07T17:08:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Easily Mused for this classic interpersonal food moment.

The One-Straw Revolution

2009-06-24T11:36:00.003-04:00

“I was aiming at a pleasant, natural way of farming which results in making the work easier instead of harder. ‘How about not doing this?’ ‘How about not doing that?’—that was my way of thinking.”
Masanobu Fukuoka, in The One-Straw Revolution.

Over on the Good Magazine blog, Peter Smith talks about this classic book and briefly examines this author's individualistic philosophy of farming, extending it into the world of the kitchen. This important book has long been out of print, and sadly unavailable. But now the NYRB Press has brought it back for us, with an introduction by Wendell Berry. Michael Pollan called it, "one of the founding documents of the alternative food movement, and indispensable to anyone hoping to understand the future of food and agriculture."

Out on a Limb: Apple CSA

2009-06-15T11:41:00.003-04:00

From Super Chilly Farm in Palermo Maine - A chance to taste and learn about the rare and interesting apples being grown in Maine, and support their continued cultivation.

Rabelais is very proud to announce the inauguration of the first apple CSA in Maine, to be distributed from our store.

···

Starting September 2nd, every other Wednesday and ending November 11th, heirloom and unusual modern apples harvested from four orchards in central Maine will be driven down to Rabelais Books in Portland.

· Each share will include 30-40 varieties of rare, interesting and highly flavored apples over the course of the season with a wide range of uses, appearances, histories and tastes. Each week you will receive a mix of dessert apples (apples meant to be eaten fresh) and culinary apples. We will make sure you have enough of the culinary varieties to cook something with them. Some of the varieties will be organically grown, others conventionally.

· Each bi-weekly delivery of at least 1/4 bushel (approx. 10 #) will be accompanied by a newsletter with descriptions, history, tidbits and lore about each variety, as well as recipes and ideas for how to best use them. The cost for a share is $120.

· Orders will be available to pick up at Rabelais from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm on Wednesdays (9/2, 16, 30, 10/14, 28 & 11/11). Shares will be held at Rabelais until Thursday at 5:00, unless other arrangements are made.

If you are interested you should sign up soon, shares are limited! To sign up send a check to : Out on A Limb CSA, 167 Turner Mill Pond Rd, Palermo Maine, 04354. Include your name, snail mail address, phone and email address with your check, which should be made out to Out on a Limb.

If you have more questions you can email: OUTONALIMBCSA@gmail.com, or call us at the store.

~~~

"Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is."
Mark Twain

Some different views on"local"

2009-05-29T12:16:00.002-04:00

Here's a very interesting piece responding to some things Thomas Keller recently said about "local foods". [thanks to the Psst for the link!] Keller makes an argument for using "the best" ingredients even if they come from afar. While I disagree with the definitions Keller uses (why not just admit that it isn't local?), I think he's right in principle. Local does not always mean best quality, and a chef has the right (some might say responsibility) to pursue the best ingredients for his or her cooking. And, frankly, local food producers can sometimes learn something when they see a superior product coming from elsewhere. And then, hopefully, they will redouble their efforts to produce better food right here. Of course we are thrilled when customers far away recognize the quality of our Maine food products and purchase them for use in their states.

What's a fungus to you?

2009-05-26T10:30:00.003-04:00

Do you like, bread, beer or wine? Thank a fungus.

Natalie Angier, in today's NYTimes.

How to get the most from your pig

2009-05-23T21:02:00.001-04:00

Here's a great little photo essay on pig butchering from the Guardian. It's interesting how the British butcher watches the Italian butcher, and wonders at how slow it is, but also how little of the pig is wasted.

Portuguese Wine Dinner at Local 188

2009-05-20T21:28:00.003-04:00

A Portuguese Wine Dinner at Local 188. Samantha and I will be heading to Local 188 to join Jay and his crew for this taste of Portugal.

I've often threatened to run away to Portugal - the country of my favorite writers: Pessoa and Saramago; and the home of fado, the saddest music ever. So any chance for a piece of Portugal close to home is worth it.

Looking forward to it!

Congratulations Flyrod!

2009-05-15T09:27:00.004-04:00

Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz's goat doe Flyrod, finally gave birth last night, around 8pm. The little one is a 7 pound unnamed buckling.

Margaret and Karl have been making some lovely cheeses lately, and unfortunately, this little guy can't help with that.

Celebrate Sandwich Week

2009-05-13T10:10:00.003-04:00

Here's a UK holiday that needs no explanation (unlike "boxing day"). It's Sandwich Week! Celebrate accordingly. this week I'm likely to celebrate with a roast beef, horseradish and cheddar on homemade bread from Food Works, a hot Italian panini from Duck Fat, and a Chicken Shwarma from Olives. Any other favorites out there?

Beard Awards in the news...

2009-05-04T23:15:00.005-04:00

Here's the NYTimes short piece on tonight's James Beard Award winners. I didn't realize until now that the cookbook awards were given Saturday night, relegating them to the position of the Oscar's "technical"awards, which I believe are held on a Tuesday at 10am at a Holiday Inn banquet room. The cookbook authors, restaurant designers, etc., should be right up there in the big ceremony, as should the film techs.

And here's the Portland Press Herald piece, with a short, post-award interview with Rob.

James Beard Award's Best Chef Northeast goes to Rob Evans!!!

2009-05-04T19:56:00.006-04:00

Bravo Rob! (and you too Nancy!)

Can humans distinguish pate from dog food?

2009-05-04T14:34:00.003-04:00

"...although human beings do not enjoy eating dog food, they are also not able to distinguish its flavor profile from other meat-based products that are intended for human consumption."

This is the conclusion of a fascinating piece from the American Association of Wine Economists. It's a double blind study asking the surveyed to distinguish between dog food and pate. The duck liver pate well outperforms the liverwurst and Spam which (among others) were offered up alongside the dog food.

I particularly enjoyed the bibliography, with titles like "Optimizing the sensory characteristics and acceptance of canned cat food: use of a human taste panel."

Now this study strikes me as similar to one brought to us by the Journal of Wine Economics titled, "Do more expensive wines taste better? Evidence from a large sample of blind tastings." The problem seems to me that the participants in the surveys are just ordinary folks, and what ordinary folks eat duck liver mousse on a regular basis (or drink expensive wines). My point is just that these products aren't aimed at most people, so why test them (and waste them) on most people?

What a week!

2009-05-03T14:18:00.005-04:00

It's been a very busy week here at Rabelais. We started out with a lecture at Bates College on Tuesday, as part of a course being offered by our friend Myron Beasley. The lecture was titled "Food in Print: The Cookbook in History and as Physical Object." It hoped to offer a brief overview of the history of books about food (including but not exclusively, cookbooks), and a survey of the many physical forms cookbooks have had through the ages. Cookbooks have taken on so many forms, including scrolls, accordion books, the exquisite corpse, calendars, file-card boxes, manuscript books, shape books, and more. We showed off books bound in leather, copper, wood, and plastic, and others cut into the shapes of soup bowls and beer mugs. The students were great and we hope they got something out of it.

Wednesday was another meeting for the Slow Food Portland Book Group, and we tackled George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London. This one everyone liked a great deal, and it was a pleasure to read such fine writing. We all seemed struck by the immediacy of Orwell's depiction of hunger. Now we move on to MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf, which also takes place during a time of less than plenty, and gives advice on how to survive a downturn. Timely.

Thursday Samantha stayed home to work on the finishing touches of a piece she's done for Gastronomica, deadline Friday, while I hung a show of original pages from Nicole Chaison's Hausfrau, the local homemaker's zine, with a book due later this month. Nicole was let loose by our neighbors, Dean's Sweets, on their front windows, and has decorated them in time for Mother's Day. In order to celebrate, we hung some work from Nicoles's upcoming book and joined Dean's Sweets for a First Friday reception. Unfortunately I couldn't attend as I was down with a cold (not swine flu). I also missed Leon Johnson's Blue Hammer, a performative meal at Whitney Art Works. Samantha did attend, and is still explaining the many, many pieces of this intricate dinner/art work.

I'm back in today, and we're getting ready for the next FoodFilms installment, which we do together with One Longfellow Square, The Maine Food Ambassadors program and Aurora Provisions. Tonight's film is Tampopo, and the food will be a three-course offering by Food Factory Miyake's Masa Miyake. Should be great.

I have to mention that Monday night the James Beard Awards will be held in NYC. Two of our favorite restaurants in town are up for significant awards: Sam Hayward and Dana Street of Fore Street are up for Outstanding Restaurant in the US, and Rob Evans is up for Best Chef North East for Hugo's. Best of luck to both of them! Our finger are crossed.

Death Match Last Meal '09 - this is all gone!

2009-04-24T11:12:00.003-04:00

Joe has gotten himself together long enough to send along this list of the wines, beers and other drinks that accompanied the Death Match Last Meal. Read it and weep!

The Wine: (More than 92 bottles worth if you do the math!)

12 x Broadbent, Vinho Verde N/V
Bellenda, Brut Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene “San Fermo”, 1.5l
Bellavista, Brut Franciacorta Cuvée, 1.5l
Perrier-Jouët, Brut Champagne Cuvée Belle Epoque “Fleur de Champagne” 1990, 3.0l (Jeroboam)
6 x Lustau, Amontillado Jerez Puerto de Santa Maria “Almacenista Jose Luis Gonzalez Obregon” N/V
Georg Breuer, Riesling QbA Rheingau Rüdesheim Berg Schlossberg 2004, 3.0l (1 of 30 Produced)
Dr. Bürklin-Wolf, Riesling Spätlese Trocken Pfalz Forster Kirchenstück 1997, 1.5l
St. Michael-Eppan, Sauvignon Alto Adige “Sanct Valentin” 2004
6 x Bodegas Aragonesas, Campo de Borja “Coto de Hayas” Rosado 2007
Estancia, Meritage Alexander Valley 1989, 1.5l
Tramonti, Chianti Classico 2004, 3.0l
Nicolis, Veronese IGT “Testal” 2001, 1.5l
Poggio Amorelli, Toscana IGT “Oracolo” 2003, 3.0l
Domaine Henri Perrot-Minot, Chambolle-Musigny Vieilles Vignes 1999, 1.5l
Domaine Jean Chauvenet, Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Rue de Chaux 2001, 1.5l
Louis Bernard, Châteauneuf-du-Pape 1999, 1.5l
Domaine de Vieux Télégraphe, Châteauneuf-du-Pape “La Crau” 1997, 1.5l
Château Lamartine, Cahors Cuvée Particulière 2004
Bodegas Alejandro Fernandez Tinto Pesquera, Ribera del Duero “Janus” Gran Reserva 1995
Château Musar, Bekaa Valley 1999
Hanzell, Pinot Noir Sonoma Valley 1990, 1.5l (Signed by Bob Sessions)
Marchesi di Barolo, Barolo “Grande Annata” Riserva 1988
William Hill Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 1990, 5.0l (Imperial)
Librandi, Val di Neto IGT “Gravello” 2003
Tenuta Il Poggione, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 1997
Ridge, “Geyserville” Sonoma County 1999, 1.5l
Fauchon, Sauternes “Réserve” 1995, 375ml
Foreau, Vouvray Moelleux Domaine du Clos Naudin 1995
Wegeler-Deinhard, Riesling Spätlese Mosel-Saar-Ruwer 1990
Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasiu

m, Riesling Beerenauslese Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Trittenheimer Apotheke 1989
Fonseca, Reserve Porto “Terra Bella” N/V
Château de Montpezat, Coteaux du Languedoc “Palombières” 2003
Condado de Haza, Ribera del Duero 2001
Mt. Difficulty, Pinot Noir Central Otago 2004, 1.5l
Etude, Pinot Noir Carneros 2004
2 x John Duval Wines, Shiraz Barossa Valley “Entity” 2005
Niebaum-Coppola, Zinfandel Napa Valley “Edizione Pennino” 1999 (Signed by Francis Ford Coppola)
Masciarelli, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo “Villa Gemma” Riserva 2000
Marchesi di Barolo, Barolo Cannubi 2004
Jean-Luc Colombo, Cornas Les Ruchets 1998
Bollinger, Brut Champagne “La Grande Année” 1999

The Beer:

G. Schneider & Sohn, “Wiesen Edel-Weisse” Hefeweizen, Kelheim, Germany, 20l (1/6 Barrel)
St. Bernardus, “Abt 12” Quadrupel, Watou, Belgium, 20l (1/6 Barrel)
Harviestoun, “Ola Dubh Special Reserve 12” Old Ale, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, 40l (Cask)
Castle Eggenberg, “Samichlaus Bier” Doppelbock, Eggenberg, Austria, 3.0l
24 x Geary’s, “Wee Heavy” Scottish Ale, Portland, Maine, 12 oz. bottles
24 x Geary’s, Imperial IPA, Portland, Maine, 12 oz. bottles
12 x Anheuser-Busch, “Bud Light Lime” Beer, 12 oz. bottles (F’n Spider)
6 x Falstaff Brewing Company, “Ballantine XXX” Ale, 16 oz. cans (F’n Gerry)
Lots x Pabst Brewing Company, “Pabst Blue Ribbon” Beer, 12 oz. bottles, 12 & 16 oz. cans

The Hooch:

Lillet, Apéritif Blanc, France
Cointreau, Triple Sec Liqueur, France
Cock-Russell & Co., “Boodles British Gin” London Dry Gin, England
Lucid, Absinthe “Supérieure”, France
Leblon, Cachaça, Brasil
Herredura, Tequila “Silver”, Mexico
Don Julio, Tequila “Reserva de Don Julio” Blanco, Mexico

Death Match Last Meal '09

2009-04-21T15:21:00.004-04:00

Reports are that FEMA should reach John and Joe's place sometime early next week. Helicopters circling overhead report that most of the revelers are down off the roof.

Death Match Last Meal, for which sixteen chefs (culled from the areas most masochistic amateurs and professionals) produced eigtheen courses, arranged in ascending order from Hell through Purgatory and finally up to heaven. This sixth marathon of mastication was a good one... with a whole leg of jamón ibérico de bellota, wines in magnum jeroboam and other large-size bottles, some rare beers from near and far, a cross section of Portland's food industry and broken plumbing in the sink.

For the real story, JohnnyD, former sea urchin diver and the Edward R. Murrow of the Death Matches, is filing his reports over at eGullet. And Zach Bowen, who took most of the photos for the DM Last Meal book (yep, there was a book detailing the imagined last suppers of each of the chefs), has posted over 350 photos of the event on Picassa.

I had many favorites, and I don't think there were any serious missteps, as an event of this sort might produce, but the dishes that stick in my mind include: Leslie's tagliatelle with shaved white truffle (I like this dish even more because of her earlier panicked mid-afternoon phone call about the homemade pasta giving her trouble); Nolan's candied pulled pork over popovers; Stephen and Merry's shortrib pot pies with a perfect crust (65 of the little buggers); the trays and trays of Erik's beautiful little quail; and of course Samantha's perfect pound cake.

Cocktail master John Myers was on hand to start us out with (appropriately enough) a Corpse Reviver #2, famous from the great Savoy Cocktail Book. I will have to wait for the list before taking a shot at talking about the wines, but there were some very generous folks who pulled gems from their cellars to share.

More soon, We're still recovering.

Death by Dinner

2009-04-07T11:36:00.002-04:00

Chow.com has a great little historical survey of some figures throughout the ages who have died at the hand of their food. A personal favorite: Francis Bacon who died from pneumonia contracted while stuffing snow into a chicken - inventing refrigeration! A death bed letter indicates he thought he had succeeded.

"Who wants to visit the farm?"

2009-04-05T20:48:00.003-04:00

A child's view of meat ethics in this week's Sunday NYTimes. With characteristically great artwork by Tamara Shopsin & Jason Fulford. Tamara is a great graphic designer, and a member of the oh so talented Shopsin family.

Record high prices for maple syrup

2009-04-05T20:43:00.002-04:00

The price of maple syrup is up to $60 a gallon, but will Maine's syrup producers benefit?

How to Cook Everything, 10th Anniversary Edition

2009-03-04T15:40:00.002-05:00

When this book first came out in 1998 I was not cooking as much as I do now. That is not to say that I did not cook at all, or that I did not have a hefty shelf full of cookbooks. But I was in a different place in my life where preparing food did not give me the same pleasure it does now. I do not think I had a copy of the original when it came out. Not entirely sure when this "..more hip Joy of Cooking."* came into my life, probably around 2001-2. When it arrived it did so with a vengeance, I believe that I owned two copies for a couple of years.

I certainly knew who Mark Bittman was from his New York Times columns. I still have a folder with NYT clippings of recipes that I cherish. There was one for fish with peas, lettuce, mint and bacon that is a time-worn favorite but I have never found in any of his books, so I keep that clipping, faded though it is. However I was at that moment still unaware of what a resource I had sitting on my shelf. I think I had looked through the book cursorily a few times and been over whelmed by the breadth of it. How can anything be very good when there are so many. I do remember that there were recipes that I was not fond of. Tried his brownie recipe and found it seriously lacking: not rich or chocolatey enough. A spiced nuts recipe as written had you roast the nuts to a burnt mess. So for a few years I used it only as a reference, a task which it rose to admirably. Exact timing for a soft boiled egg? Basic rice pilaf formula? Braised Chicken variations? Then one day I went to look for the timing and temperature for pork chops and noticed a roast pork recipe that sounded enticing. This recipe has since gone into my repertoire and stayed there. (In fact it was served on New Year's Day to some close friends.) So although I did not think of it as inspiring, I was pleased with the book and happy to recommend it to others. Sure that I gave it to some neophyte cooks over the years.

This Fall when our John Wiley rep told me that there was going to be a new tenth Anniversary edition of How to Cook Everything I was mildly curious. Were they actually going to change this book with new recipes, different format or a change to the layout? Would it really be 'completely revised' as it said on the dust jacket? I was sceptical, I mean Bittman churns out material for the Times, how would he have time to update the old tract, wouldn't they just re-arrange some chapters and call it new? And could it be improved, since I found the first edition so passable? Don't get me wrong, I have been recommending this book for years and stand by it. I do agree with the Washington Post* that it is a modern Joy of Cooking. When a customer asks me for a good basic general cookbook this is often at the top of my list. (others will come soon in other posts) But with this new edition I feel it truly belongs there. Over the past ten years, through all those columns he has been writing, and the companion book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman has sharpened his tools. He has expanded his universe, he has stretched his envelope. While I still consider Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (see an earlier post) to be my favorite, I now must place How to Cook Everything (10th Ed) in the same category, just with meat.

What distinguishes the 10th Anniversary edition? Well, let's start from the top. The kitchen basics chapter has gone from 14 to 20 pages and now includes illustrations for some foundational techniques that, if mastered, can help anyone cook more efficiently and with more ease and confidence. As Bittman says in his introduction more people are cooking at home these days (this book went to press way before our economy took it's Fall nosedive) and this rise has coincided with an increased awareness of cuisine and appreciation for good food. We are also moving faster than ever and have grown to rely on convenience foods. Bittman strives to educate his readers to the ease and simplicity with which really good food can be prepared. You don't have to default to take out when you have had a long day, and he shows you how. So spend a little time with those first 20 pages and anyone will have the rudimentary skills to cook anything in this whole 1044 page book.

After the introduction he walks you through all the myriad numbers of recipes that one might expect from a general interest cookbook. There are chapters on: sauces; appetizers; soups; sandwiches; salads; vegetables & fruit; beans; grains; pasta; fish & shellfish; poultry; meat; eggs; bread and lastly dessert. Each chapter begins with what he labels his essential recipes. In the Cook's Illustrated fashion he gives you the formula, with explanations, for how to prepare the subject. Then he branches out and offers up all sorts of variations and alternatives to take you beyond where you started. In the back of the book he has an addendum that includes a two page spread of his "102 Essential Recipes". If one wanted to cut to the chase this would be one way to start working your way through this tome. This is a handy feature for someone new to cooking. You could fashion your very own cooking school by mastering these 102 essentials. Recipes in this category encompass the simplest yogurt sauce, a simple green salad, roasted vegetables, baked beans, spagetti with garlic and oil, Pad Thai, simple roast chicken six ways, beef stew eight ways, corn bread, brownies (and yes, the recipe is better, more chocolatey, still not quite there for me, but better) and a free-form fruit tart. I am guessing they will break these recipes out into their own book, which would be a useful thing.

To my mind the biggest improvement in this edition is the depth to which he has expanded the scope of these recipes. In the earlier edition he skimmed the surface (ably) but did not give much flourish to most treatments. This time there are a dazzling array of alternatives to the basic approach with offerings from such cuisines as French, Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, to name a few. You could cook many different cuisines with just this book if you had no space in your home for any other. He has also added all sorts of sidebars which provide useful tips on say, making a quick poultry stock or bean, green and pasta combos or 14 seafood, meat and poultry dishes that work as pasta sauces, or adding grains to soups. He has charts that list different type of beans or chiles or grains, what their uses are and what substitutions one might make. There are tips for extending meals, and in that back addendum there is a spread for his "Top 100 make-ahead recipes" as well as his "Top 100 fast recipes". Both groupings belie the notion that good food cannot be fast and accesible for those who squawk about being too tired to cook. (sigh) Bittman has published some very well recieved articles in the New York Times within the past year that streamline meals down into manegable components without compromising flavor or nutrition. This is obviously a theme for him, eating healthy but without sacrificing taste. His focus on whole grains and eating less meat (if one so chooses) are given ample time here. While we have access to healthy, sustainably and ethically raised meats and poultry here in Maine, others are not so lucky. Bittman offers up other ways of eating that cut down on the flesh without depriving the soul. His last spread in the addendum is the "Top 100 vegetarian recipes". We are certainly no vegetarian, however we believe the industrial meat production in this country is untenable. If more Americans ate less meat maybe those agribusiness idiots would get the message and change their ways. Just a thought...

So to sum up, after a rather long post. The new 10th Anniversary edition of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a worthy addition to anyone's library. If you have the first edition and like it you will be blown away by this update. If you have the first edition and were ambivalent, you should give this one a look, you will be pleasantly surprised. If you never liked the first edition, you might want to give this version a chance, it just might make you understand what all the fuss is about. It is a great gift for a new cook, a stalwart addition to a curious cooks arsenal, and icing on the cake for those of us who are serious collectors of cookbooks.
And my favorite pork recipe is still in there.

Sardine- arama

2009-03-02T13:54:00.002-05:00

Here's a new Sardine appreciation blog: The Society for the Appreciation of the Lowly Tinned Sardine.

England's Fat Duck temporarily closed

2009-03-02T13:47:00.005-05:00

And in a totally different manner, this week Heston Blumenthal showed some real control of his business, talking the extreme step of shutting down The Fat Duck in Bray, England (not to be confused with Portland's own Duck Fat - no relation). When customers called to report some form of food poisoning, he shut it down, and sent everything out for testing (including his employees). He appears in a video interview with the Guardian's Matthew Fort explaining his actions.

Here's a guy in control of his restaurant

2009-03-02T13:37:00.003-05:00

Blogger A Continuous Lean, has dug up some wonderful photos from Life Magazine: Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley's elaborate system of hand signals, used to alert staff to his customers needs (and more).

A left, Billingsley signals his staff that there is to be no check for this table. Obviously someone he likes. Other signals are for those doesn't.

a favorite bookshop

2009-02-24T09:54:00.003-05:00

Allison Arieff has written a very nice profile of William Stout and his San Francisco shop in the NYTimes. Stout's shop sells architecture and design books - new, used and rare - and was one of the shops we used as a model when planning Rabelais. Through specialization, and integration of in and out-of-print books, Stout offers a selection which the Amazons of this world cannot match. Not to mention the expertise to back it up. The proximity of the very rare and today's books (not everything in the field - just the good ones), also serves to emphasize the link between the great works of the past, here in concrete form, and the books which may serve to shape our future.

Like so many others writing about books these days, Arieff faceplants on the sidewalk by turning the article into yet another elegy for the bookshop. I'm hoping that next year's MLA conference will offer several papers on this new literary form - the elegy for the not-yet-dead (think of the plague ridden medieval peasant in The Holy Grail, obviously ailing but declaring "I'm not dead" until he's clobbered on the head to finish him off).

I see nowhere in the article any mention that Stout's shop is teetering on the brink, so why introduce the bittersweet note? Why not write about how his shop offers something undeniably superior to the hollow experience of Amazon? Or how maybe his shop is a model of how old fashioned, high quality hand selling still exists? Instead journalists stand to the side and shrug, like the photographers on a nature show, as the baby ducks are swallowed by the fox. "There's nothing we can do. It's nature's way." But there is something we can do, and it's so simple.

So Allison, you spent time listening to Stout, and you even wrote about him, but did you buy a book?

a new literary cocktail blog

2009-02-03T11:09:00.003-05:00

"There is nothing more terrifying to a fine bartender than the whir of a blender battering away at ice cubes. Yet there is nothing more calming to Smilla than being around water that has fallen to the freezing point—and drinking."

The New Yorker's Book Bench, its literary blog, has a new weekly column on cocktails inspired by contemporary literature. This week, Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow. There's been an explosion of drinking blogs of late, with the NYTimes' Proof: Alcohol and American Life garnering the most attention. A dip into the comments section is enough to horrify anyone with an appreciation of the place of drink in civilized life, as the puritans, prudes and prohibitionists are out in force.

High Fructose Corn Syrup and Mercury in your food

2009-01-30T09:40:00.006-05:00

So some daylight is finally being shed on the secretive nature of High Frustose Corn Syrup (HFCS) production. Just as the corn refiner's ad campaign swings into full gear, telling us that it's all natural and safe in reasonable amounts, the sugar replacing food additive is found to contain mercury. And the Corn Refiners' Association doesn't deny this, they just say they stopped using it last year (although they admit a few plants still use the mercury process). So this is an admission that a highly toxic substance has been in their "all natural" food additive all along. If you (or more importantly, your children) eat processed foods, it's time to really think about what might make them sick.

In case you think I'm passing along some silly web rumor, here're some sources:

US News & World Report, The Washington Post, Fox News (yes, even them),
Here's some info on how mercury is used to process corn syrup.
And here's the actual study showing the detection of mercury in food.
And here's info on current mercury contamination levels in the US population.

Make your own Haggis. Yeah!

2009-01-23T12:23:00.004-05:00

With the annual Robert Burns celebrations rapidly approaching, it's time to break out the haggis ingredients. Here's a step-by-step visual guide to making your own.

And remember that haggis may still be alive in Scotland, it was brought there by the Vikings and others from Scandinavia. And a version of haggis even shows up in Homer (book 20, line 38):

"Just as a man turns
quickly to and fro on a blazing fire a stomach
stuffed with fat and blood when he's keen to roast it fast."

There is more to read on haggis here, here and here.

NYC

2009-01-21T16:45:00.004-05:00

We made a short trip down to the city last weekend. A Book Fair at the 69th Armory on the East side was disappointing, although we did better than many. The best meal of the weekend was certainly the Chinese at Don's favorite Szechuan place on 24th and 9th. Otherwise meals were unremarkable, we just didn't hit the groove this trip. I was a little creeped out by all the for lease/rent/sale signs on retail spaces. And then every block was populated by a useless combination of drug stores, cell phone stores and ATM branches of banks. It would seem that banks are the only businesses that can afford NYC real estate these days....

The most remarkable thing I saw during our trip was the Farmer's Market in Union Square on Friday, 1/16. If you are in the Northeast and think back to last Friday you will remember that it was in the middle of that frigid cold snap. (Lucky us returned to Maine on Sunday night to a foot of new snow and frozen pipes, sigh) If you are not here on the East coast, let me tell you it was COLD. I was traveling through Union Square and was so impressed to see that the market had vendors, temperature be damned. I whipped out the camera and took some snaps just to be able to prove that this was true. Maine's Farmers Markets have to go dormant, or scale back to minimal distribution in the Winter. The snow just makes it impossible. So to see this display filled me with pride for those people who grow our food....

Of course there are Markets in California and the South year round. But I think this picture shows how dedicated and serious the East coast food community truly is.

More about basic books coming soon.

Some basic books...

2009-01-14T17:42:00.004-05:00

In this moment when cooking at home has taken on new importance, there is a search for useful reference material. Many many posts could be written on this subject. I will attempt to cover some of this ground over the next little while. I find that the better basic how-to-cook books have loyal followings. I have my personal favorites which I will certainly highlight. There are others that I am less enamored of but see the value of nonetheless. I will try and do those titles justice as well. So without further ado, one of my favorites.

Chances are that anyone who has come into the store and asked me my favorite cookbook will have heard about Deborah Madison and her tome, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I bought a copy of this book a decade ago before I had chosen the world of food as a profession, when it caught my eye at a book store. For years it has been my go-to book even though I left the world of the protein-challenged back in the early 90's. I spent ten years eschewing red meat, which in retrospect was tied to the way that I believed commercial meat was produced. I jumped back on the flesh eating bandwagon with gusto (due to a steak I just couldn't resist) and yet still found Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone was incredibly useful for everything else on the plate. Madison addresses the entire vegetarian oeuvre from how to store vegetables to yields to preferred techniques to complimentary flavors, yet she never preaches about meat substitutions. If you had only seen an eggplant in the store but never brought one home with you, Madison would see you through various different preparation options with clear, descriptive and salient instructions. Here you will find the traditional cookbook layout, starting with a fantastic chapter on becoming a cook. She advises the reader on how to shop, set up their kitchen, work with tools and ingredients, and how to pace the cooking of a meal. The latter including techniques that I imagine were learned cooking at her restaurant Greens in San Francisco in the 80's. She also talks about vegetarian menus and how to pair wine with them, and then spends a whole chapter on foundational ingredients like butter and vinegar, seasonings and flavor profiles. Those first few chapters are extremely accessible and empowering for the both the novice and the experienced cook.

The book then takes the expected road through salads, soups, stews, pastas, beans, casseroles and the like. Sandwiched in the middle, however, is an A to Z catalog of vegetables that is worth the price of the book in itself. If I had a nickel for every time I went to this section of the book I would be drinking some mighty fine wine right now. In this section there is a description of the types of, say, an eggplant. There is advice on what to look for when buying, how to store, how to utilize and what the yield is for eggplants. There are basic preparation techniques (roasting, anyone?) and good partners for, including cross reference on sauces and seasonings that go well with eggplant. Then she gives you a handful of basic recipes. The eggplant turns up in many other places within the book, but this is a good place to start your education on this noble vegetable. Many is the time I have gotten a hankering for something that looked delectable in the market: cauliflower, celery root, parsley. Bring the charming bit home and flip open Madame Madison and there it is: a recipe for fusilli with cauliflower, green olives and herbs. If you already feel at home in your kitchen you will find this book a treasure trove of twists and turns in the world of produce. If your kitchen is that room where the microwave lives you will find a supportive gentle hand leading you down the path of kitchen love.

If you have any interest in learning where to start preparing more of these fabulous vegetables that are available to us these days I would advise you find yourself a copy of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Do not be intimidated by the size of this book, yes, it is big, but it covers a lot of ground and you will be using it for years. I have been.

Moving Forward

2009-01-08T12:56:00.003-05:00

So, here we are in 2009.

I am not one for resolutions or predictions for the new year. Changing the year on my correspondence is about as much of the transition as I notice. And yet this year we have had some changes that are notable and disruptive enough for me to mark the passing of 2008 and the potential for 2009. The reports on retail sales for the holiday season are grim and the stock market has reacted negatively. And yet Rabelais had a good showing these past five weeks. When I read those dire pronouncements about Wal-Mart and other mall stores I cannot help but think that the public is acting on it's dislike of big box stores. Bigger is not always better. There is no doubt that the next year holds many challenges for us all, but we think that being small is good. Our customers certainly seem to appreciate the ability to have a conversation at Rabelais about the books on our shelves (or any other myriad array of food related topics). We intend to be able to keep those conversations going in the ensuing months. Last night's showing at the Slow Food book group was formidable. New readers are always welcome.

President elect Obama gave a speech this morning about belt tightening and the continued potential for things to get worse if we do not take these economic times very seriously. I do find his call for action encouraging. The past eight years left me with very little optimism about the US government, I had thought that I was inured to political hope. However I see a silver lining in these tough times. Re-connecting with where your food comes from is never a bad thing. On so many levels, being accountable for the resources that sustain us has huge repercussions throughout society.

Americans have become too removed from their food chain. I find it truly depressing how many folks have no idea how to make a simple vinaigrette. It's salad dressing, people, not programming the VCR (although I guess no one does that anymore either)! These tough times may spur a renewed interest in the culinary arts beyond the food fads of TV and celebrity chefs. If our sales during the holiday season were any indication, there is an interest in learning to cook. I take encouragement from the 2009 Saveur 100. This month's edition of this national food publication is dedicated to the home cook. Peppered throughout the magazine are recipes for such staples as vinegar, mustard, ketchup and worcestershire sauce. Some of our best selling books in the past months have been those that address cheese making and home curing of meats, as well as preserving books. If there ever was a moment in our modern history to learn how to feed yourself, this is it. Between global warming issues, the cost of food, the hemorrhaging economy and it's financial insecurity this is a great time to teach yourself both how to get the pleasure of feeding yourself and your loved ones, and how to economize by preparing real food at home. Learning how to cook may also spark a new found appreciation of, and respect for, real restaurants (ie not the fast food chains). When Obama talks about sacrifice I see the possibility of re-learning how to make ourselves happy without electronic gadgets (well, I guess the modern range has some pretty fancy electronics and I do appreciate my food processor, but you know what I mean). During the Second World War, Americans were asked to do their part by growing a Victory garden. I think the current call should be to make a Victory Meal...

Cookery books in all forms are one of the better ways to learn about the culture and mechanics of preparing a meal. It is an endlessly engaging school of study, the culinary arts. They can be approached at any level, from any background and to whatever degree you desire. If you can't quite figure out where to dive in, ask us for our opinions. We give them freely and with much gusto.

Here's to the meals of 2009. As Julia Child would say, Bon Appetit!

a British Christmas tradition just hangs on

2008-12-21T12:07:00.002-05:00

French onion sellers, who traditionally arrive in London to sell their Roscoff onions for Christmas, are a dying breed. Apparently their are only 15 left, down from 1500 in the 1930s.

2008-12-20T08:42:00.002-05:00

We are very sorry to note the passing of Jim Cook, who has been such an important part of Maine's world of food for so long, and a tireless toiler for a better food future. Thanks Jim!

Here's an article about Jim and his activities from the mofga website.

local isn't always better, and other news...

2008-12-18T11:09:00.002-05:00

Local isn't always better... at least in terms of tv commercials. We'll be working on a Rabelais ad to compete with these soon.

A new men's cologne, not likely to attract the bikini girls of Bangor.

G. Franco Romagnoli passes.

a Secretary of Food

2008-12-11T08:40:00.002-05:00

"A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat." - Nicholas Kristoff in today's NYTimes

some news

2008-12-09T09:01:00.003-05:00

A woman chef in France wins three stars from Michelin for the first time in 50 years. Oyster rustlers in Britanny are on the poach in the run up to holiday dining. The aromas of New York City can be therapeutic. In time for you to order from Netflix: a round up of top booze movies. And a new blog about tippling from the NYTimes.

What it is it with the New York Times cookbook reviews?

2008-12-07T08:00:00.005-05:00

Must begin post with admission that I love the NYT, I have a long history of Sundays sharing the paper with my Father.

But what is the deal with their cookbook reviews?
Todays piece begins "I am so over being lectured by food writers to honor the seasons and stock up on sea salt and otherwise comport myself virtuously...."
Is that the way you begin a round up of holiday cook books? Do they need to give this duty to another writer? This is the not the first time that I have read a cranky diatribe about food books. Granted this a subject matter near and dear to my heart and so I may be taking this a bit personally. And yes, there is a glut of writing in book form on the subject out there, some of which is painfully and embarrassingly bad. I blame the commercialism of the publishing world for giving a contract to any food celebrity idiot. But in this day there are many good ones, and it is a subject that is relevant and satisfying to our daily lives, so I cannot for the life of me figure out why the New York Times is taking this stance. Is this not the moment to get people back into their kitchens, cooking their own food, concerning themselves with the quality and the provenance of their ingredients? And are food books not an entry point for so many people who were never taught to cook and don't know the difference between industrial and local (sorry to say it) sustainable food?
Earlier this Fall the NYT did a round-up of the crop of new high cuisine books that had a similarly snarky tone. In a society that values flat screen tvs and cell phone connectivity as much as ours, I see nothing wrong with the allure of a high end cuisine book. At least the end result of this mania is something to eat, something that will truly feed your soul, not suck it out or give you brain cancer.
Is this a case of cooking still being considered too low culture, not intellectual enough for the New York Times to give it it's credence? Do they not realize that the growth in the world of food culture extends much deeper than the Food Network's inanity? That there is a community of considered, thoughtful and intellectual folks who think that using (and specifying) free-range eggs in a recipe is not just about being cool, but that those self same eggs taste different and therefore will make the recipe taste different?
I tend to respect the opinions represented in the Times. I love traditional print media, used to be in the field, my heart bleeds a little every time I read about layoffs and cutbacks and closings. But I cannot fathom the tone of the recent coverage of food books in the New York Times.
Maybe they are just trying to keep up with Frank Bruni?

another obit

2008-12-02T09:47:00.001-05:00

I'd thought it was long gone, but Zima hung in there longer than expected. It passed, almost unnoticed on October 10th.

a real bibliophile

2008-12-02T09:07:00.003-05:00

I don't often write here about book collecting, but here is notice of the passing of a real bibliophile. The catalogue of the auction of Helmut Friedlaender's collection was a wonder to me when it was published in 2001, and a few months later I met the man, briefly. Earlier this year, the world of books lost Pierre Beres, dealer and collector. There are few giants like these left, and it seems unlikely that the world we live in could ever produce such again.

some Thanksgiving reading

2008-11-26T08:19:00.003-05:00

Here's a lovely piece on the disappearance of wild foods from our Thanksgiving table.

And another which advances the idea that the French settlers in the New World ate better than the Puritans. No news here. We're still suffering from the bland palates, general abstemiousness and cold unfriendly demeanor of the Puritans.

Food is art!

A Portrait of a New York Rooftop Beekeeper

2008-11-21T08:49:00.003-05:00

Rooftops in NYC should be an inspiration for all communities. People use them as beaches, movie houses, aviaries, garden locations and more. Here's a portrait of one of its better known beekeepers:

Amuse bouche

2008-11-15T08:02:00.003-05:00

Food seems to play a large role in Guiness Book of World Records attempts. Germans keep up the drinking even on the front lines. Johnny Rotten is flogging butter!!

help build a herd

2008-11-08T09:11:00.002-05:00

I've always wanted my own herd of cows too. But Matt Webb has figured out a way to do it, and benefit the world at the same time.

chocolate covered bacon

2008-11-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

Need we say more?

100 pounds of Beef

2008-11-06T11:48:00.006-05:00

This is what 100# of grass fed, Maine raised all natural beef looks like. Back in late August we were offered a share in an animal by our friends Karl and Margaret and eagerly accepted. I have been having increasing trouble buying and eating commercially raised meat of any sort. Just can't bring myself to do it. Rather not eat meat in a meal than have something that came from god only knows where. So this was a great opportunity for us to buy ethically raised, natural meat, support one of our local small farmers, Caldwell Farms, and stock the freezer for the Winter. It was an interesting process to go through: speaking with DeeDee Caldwell about logistics of delivery and with Arnold the Butcher (not to be confused with Joe the Plumber) about how we wanted our animal broken down. It was a way of voting with our food as Michael Pollan would say. I felt good just going through the process. There is some karmic beauty to receiving this delivery two days after Barak Obama was elected President. We are doing our small part and somehow the universe is rewarding us.

The breakdown of our share included such tasty morsels as : flank steaks; Porterhouse; top sirloin; rib eyes; a number of roasts (bottom round, rump, top round, chuck); short ribs; stew meat; liver; stock bones and about 30# of ground. This is all in the chest freezer keeping company with the 1/4 of a pig that we bought from our friends Karen and Dave. It is a good feeling to have a freezer stocked. I wish I had done more canning this Summer. We only got the freezer last month so I did not get to freeze any fruit or veggies. Next year...

Don is working on hanging the show for our next event, a reception for Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes to celebrate the East coast launch of their book A Year of Mornings, 3191 Miles Apart. If you're around come down to the store tomorrow evening, Friday 11/7, between 5-8 to say hello to Maria and Stephanie and have them sign a copy of the book. Should be fun!

Victorious Apple Cake

2008-11-05T09:34:00.004-05:00

I have to start this post by saying I am so relieved that America has elected Barak Obama as our next president. I am taking this as an indication that there is still some sanity present in this country. Hopefully we can all move forward and start fixing the horrifying mess made by George W. Bush. We here at Rabelais think the man should be arrested and punished for the things he did to this nation.

But on to more pertinent matters. We shared the election night festivities with our good friends Stewart and Lela at their farm. Many delicious foods were consumed but there is one in particular that I need to share with you:

This is the Apple and Olive Oil Cake with Maple Icing from Ottolenghi, The cookbook. Holy crap, Batman, this is insanely good! I used three different local apples: a Macoun, a Spencer and a Jonagold. No butter, olive oil instead, a couple of eggs, including two beaten whites for levity, golden raisins(my preference) and a little cinnamon. Baked slowly at a low temp in a springform pan, you then slice and fill with the most wonderful cream cheese/maple syrup/brown sugar/butter icing. This one is going in to the repertoire for future re-use. A truly marvelous thing to do with apples. This Ottolenghi book is a British import, so many of our favorites these days come from the Brits. Not sure what is in the water over there but they have taken the local/seasonal concept to it's nth degree and damn if their food isn't GOOD.

Nigel Slater and Michael Pollan

2008-11-03T13:07:00.004-05:00

I do not want anyone to think I am obsessed with Michael Pollan, even though it does seem he is all I blog about lately. I can get in a groove and get stuck there for a while. I will move out of the Pollan groove presently. And I will make you scroll all the way down to the end of the post for the Pollan content, but I am not above invoking him to draw readership....

Nigel Slater, on the other hand, is a writer you should know about if you do not already. Rabelais had been open for a good three or four months with a copy of The Kitchen Diaries on our shelves before we made an acquaintance with Nigel Slater. If you have come in to the store anytime since then and asked us about some of our favorite books you will have heard the above mentioned title more than a few times. Slater is a Brit who has a column in The Observer and a stack of truly magnificent cookbooks to his name. He calls himself a cook, not a chef, and that is who he writes for. I suppose you could call his metier comfort food, in fact others (Nigella Lawson and Tamasin Day-Lewis) have. Jamie Oliver calls him a genius. His comfort food is not the American iteration of meatloaf and macaroni and cheese but rather Don's favorite roast chicken with cheese mashed potatoes and garlic gravy. Or my favorite sweet and sticky chicken wings. When describing Nigel Slaters food I use words like authentic and organic (but with a lower case 'o'). His approach to food is simple, straightforward and approachable without being dumb or using convenience food short cuts. His latest US publication is a perfect example. Real Fast Food is luckily billed below his name, as I have profound reservations about any food book with the words Fast and Food adjacent to one another. However you must see past the title of this book which was originally published in the UK in 1995. Then you will find the beauty in it's approach to feeding yourself and your loved ones. There is a good reason why there are over one million copies of this book in print, and why it was finally published here in the States.

In fact one might say there are 350 reasons.
The subtitle reads 350 recipes ready-to-eat in 30 minutes, but we are not talking tear-open-pouch-pour-into-bowl-place-in-microwave-press-start recipes here. No, here we find Lamb Chops with Flageolet beans and Cilantro-Parsley sauce made with canned beans and shoulder or blade lamb chops. Here we find Whole Wheat pasta with Sausages, Mustard and Caramelized Onions, Chicken with Orange and Black Olives, Mushrooms on Toast and Brussels Sprouts with Bacon. These are all recipes I can make when we get home from a long day talking about and selling books about food, and hold my head up high. I love cookbooks, but must confess that I rarely follow any recipes all the way through. I use written recipes more as suggestions. When I read Nigel Slater I feel in my element. If one needs a precise directional recipe you will find them here, but if you are looking for the outline with guidance you will be in heaven. Especially because there are so many suggestions. Slater is chock full of inspiration, his voice is so enamored of his subject you can hardly help running to the kitchen to whip something up. Nigel Slater and Michael Pollan have totally liberated the way I cook in the past year. I never buy any food my Grandmother wouldn't recognize and I get my inspiration for ways to prepare it from Slater.

Which brings me to Michael Pollan. He was in Maine last week to speak at Bates College. We drove up to Lewiston early and were comfortably seated to watch the hordes crush in to the College Chapel. Some poor souls actually got turned away. This was a view before they had to clear the aisles.

Pollan is an engaging speaker, if you have a chance to go hear him I encourage you to do so. This night was no exception. I will not go on about what he said, other than to say that he touched on all those issues that I think are so very important to all of us right now. But what I will share with you here is an opportunity I had to combine two of my great interests: food politics and knitting. Below is an image I took of Michael Pollan holding a sock I was still knitting that night. He was truly graceful about my bizarre request but after I jabbered on a bit seemed to see my crooked logic about knitters being comparable to local foodies in their desire to work with their hands and have direct contact with their materials. It seems obvious to me, but then I like to think all my obsessions interrelate. So without further adieu, herewith Michael Pollan with sock.

I thank this gracious and remarkable individual for his forbearance.

Fernand Point's posthumous masterpiece republished

2008-10-30T09:18:00.004-04:00

After such a long wait, Fernand Point's Ma Gastronomie is being republished this week. Michael Ruhlman, who will be making an appearance here in Maine at the Maine Literary Festival in Camden, has a nice blog post about the book and its place in culinary literature.

Since we've been open, young cooks have been coming in and asking us for this book, usually having been sent by their chefs. We've made a point of keeping this book in stock, but it's been out of print (in English) since 1974, and copies are expensive. So now it's a relief to be able to hand one to the inquisitive young cooks.

Ma Gastronomie is one of those elite few books which truly address the condition of being a restaurant chef. How should one think? Not just about food and cooking, but about life and one's relationship with the world. It's interesting that it is being reissued in the same season as a very different book which deals with the same questions: Kenny Shopsin's Eat Me.

A Local Food Calendar

2008-10-16T13:31:00.002-04:00

One of our favorite local photographers, Stacey Cramp, has come out with a new calendar just in time for the holiday season. They're selling quickly, so come and get 'em!

Here's Stacey's description:

Savoring Maine: A Year of Seasonal Recipes and Fine Art Photographs is a 2009 wall calendar that features photos by local photographer
Stacey Cramp of food grown or harvested in Maine and corresponding recipes from Maine chefs, farmers and other food experts. Some of the recipe contributors are Rich Hanson of Cleonice, Abby Harmon of Caiola's and cookbook author Nancy Harmon Jenkins. The photos are
intended for framing and the recipes can be cut out for your files.

More information about the calendar, including photos of the prepared
recipes, can be found at www.savoringmainecalendar.com.

sunday afternoon notes

2008-10-12T14:05:00.004-04:00

It has been rather a long time since I last posted. The store has become an ongoing conversation on all things food related with our community. This is a wonderful thing for conversation, but not so much for writing. Don and I decided there were many advantages to taking a computer home where each of us could do work uninterrupted by conversation. So we now have a home office where each of us can write, both for this blog and for catalogs, and in the future for a full service e-commerce website. Our intention is to offer the same perspective and opinions about books here and on the website that we do so readily in the store. Another way to have a conversation, or dialog if you will, about these issues that we find so compelling.

So, if you have not read "Farmer in Chief" by Michael Pollan in todays NYT, do so immediately. It will take a little time, but I can wait...

OK, now we are on the same page. I do not think it is necessary to go into detail about why what he says is so important. Chances are if you are reading this you hold similar views. But I will say this. The past couple of weeks have been hair raising for anyone watching the stock market, reading the newspapers or watching their 401k bleed out. It is impossible as a small business owner not to harbor your own individual nightmares about the near future. And the political candidates have not yet said anything concrete about what they will do with this mess when they take office. Is there even anything they can do? So it is not hard to be anxious. I am anxious. But when I read these ideas that Pollan puts forth I feel like there is some glimmer of hope. Not because I think our future president is likely to put most of these practices into effect, but simply because there is a way out. If there is anything I have taken from the financial pickle we are in it has been this dark feeling that there is little hope, that we have screwed things up beyond repair, that as a nation we value all the wrong things and that is why we are in this mess. But if I calm down, turn off the news static and think about the people we have met in the past 18 months since we opened the store, I can see in my minds eye the faces of various young farmers we have met. I can hear the conversations we have had with people who want to know where their food comes from. I can recall the exchange with one particular group of customers who objected to a photo we had on the walls showing a slaughtered pig, at the same time that they had built a stack of barbecue books for purchase on our counter. Though the dialog began contentiously, by the end they were vowing to return to their local farmer's market to find a source for locally and ethically raised pork. I cherish that interchange. And we have it often. We are providing the forum for these ideas and they are coming out into the light.

I have long thought that it would be impossible for our nation to feed itself without resorting to the sickly system we currently support. However Pollan has addressed that concern and given me concrete examples of alternatives that I can see working. There are sacrifices inherent to these solutions, but if there was ever a better moment for Americans to be comfortable with making sacrifices I cannot think of it. We are going to have re-learn how to run our financial systems. Why not re-structure our food chain at the same time? I was freaked out by the price of gas earlier this Fall. Recent events have distracted me from that worry, while prices have crept down. The issue of our petrochemical use is still a very dire one. The every real threat posed by our dependence on a waning resource is only that much more significant when you realize how much of our food chain is in that equation.

The growing season is winding down here in Maine, at least for those of us who carve our gardening time out of our 'working' time. I still have carrots and greens, but have planted my garlic and various green manures in much of my plot. I wish that I had grown more food, and preserved more of what I had grown. When I caught up with a friend recently and we were commiserating over the state of the economy she said to me, "I am just glad I grow my own food." We laughed together but I thought to myself, why didn't I grow more? Hopefully we will be ok this Winter, but next Spring I will plant more. And I am glad that this year we bought a chest freezer and at the end of the month we will fill it with 1/8 of a cow we are buying from a local farmer. And that it already holds a part of a local pig.

If ever there will be Winter for cooking at home this will be it. I see lots of soups and stews in our future. I will work on my bread making. We will keep ourselves warm and safe with the delicious food that we prepare together and for our loved ones. Not sure how this got so maudlin, although I imagine Don is cringing somewhere on the sidelines. Going forward I will endeavor to provide any who reads here with guidance, inspiration and reference for making their own lovely meals for their own lovely loved ones...

a bientot

Don't eat these!

2008-10-09T10:41:00.001-04:00

While there are at least two errors in this interesting site, it's still worth checking out for it's list of common, but poison plants.

Books of Poetry

2008-09-29T12:47:00.003-04:00

Nina Katchadourian
is
using book titles as lines of poetry
to great effect.

Eat Me - Kenny Shopsin in print

2008-09-23T11:31:00.009-04:00

So I've been putting off blogging about Kenny Shopsin ever since we opened this place. And when we heard he was writing a book, I put it off some more. Ditto when we received the advanced copy a few months ago finding it to be everything I could have hoped for in a book by Kenny.

Kenny's a chef who's had his eponymously named restaurant in three locations in NYC. I first ate at his place around 1990, and quickly became a pretty regular customer (a really regular customer might eat there almost daily, or at least several meals a week - I was in the 4-7 meals a month range). I remained loyal until I moved to Maine in 2000, and made a point of going back whenever I was in town. Samantha and I can be seen on an early date in our relationship in the film "I Like Killing Flies", Matt Mahurin's documentary about Kenny, his family, and the restaurant on the eve of the first location's closing.

Many of my visits to Shopsin's were spent alone, sitting at the counter (later it was a strip of small tables), watching some of the most interesting people I'd ever seen come and go, some unwillingly. Kenny even set me up with a woman I dated for a while in the mid-1990s. I can't begin to explain the seemingly random set of rules by which customers were expected to comport themselves at Shopsin's. But that's what Kenny's new book, Eat Me, does. It's a cookbook, but also an explanation of a personal philosophy which allows an unusual, somewhat eccentric and talented person to survive in this world. Many of us have come close to weeping as New York rapidly loses its specialness. To me, New York was the sum total of millions of conflicting dreams being played out on its streets, in its studios, galleries, shops and restaurants. The oddness has been on the wane for some time now, and the city is more a reflection of some homogeneous, focus-grouped concept, imported via chain stores and Midwesterners seeking a Seinfeld lifestyle. But Kenny seems to have spent a lot of time thinking about this changing world, and concocting ideas about how one might remain true to oneself in it.

To experience Kenny, you have to eat his food. And you have to sit in his restaurant and take in the interactions: of Kenny and his customers, Kenny and his family, the customers with each other, and the customers with the food. But if you can't make it to the Essex Street Market on NYC's Lower East Side anytime soon, the book is an excellent fill-in. Kenny's real voice is there on the page, with long, tangled explications, summed up with a zinger or an expletive, and somehow, grounded and utterly sensible.

And the book his designed throughout by Kenny's daughter, Tamara Shopsin, an incredibly talented young woman whose work can be seen in the pages of The New York Times and elsewhere.

There's an interesting blog entry at Serious East about Kenny's customer service style, and even more interesting responses from people (most of whom have never eaten at Shopsin's).

Oh, and Kenny's going to be on Conan O'Brien tonight.

Great Lakes Compact is a go

2008-09-23T10:00:00.000-04:00

So the House voted today to prohibit new diversions of water from the Great Lakes region to other places. This plan has been more than ten years in the making. So what are Maine lawmakers doing to protect our water?

Fall Cookbook Lineup

2008-09-19T17:01:00.006-04:00

[still under construction] Here's a heads up on the fall cookbook lineup. There is a lot of amazing stuff due (and a bit of it already here). If you're serious about food and food books, then this is a good very season. I'm naturally drawn to the big books - with all of their high octane, high cuisine bragadoccio. And there will be many. We've got new books coming from Joel Robuchon, Ferran Adria, Pierre Gagnaire & Herve This, Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz. For most of us, these books will provide more food for thought than put food on the table, but for anyone interested in what food can be, and in the intersection between food and art, there much here.

For the less cerebral but still serious cooks among us, there are promising new books from Jamie Oliver (a tie-in to his recent Food Network show, one of the few palatable offerings on that low cable network; The Prawn Cocktail Years from Simon Hopkinson, who's produced a series of brilliant books since walking away from the kitchen at Bibendum in London some years ago; and David Talis' much-awaited A Platter of Figs.

Outside of the cookbook category, we've got Rowan Jacobson's Fruitless Fall, about the collapse of honey bee colonies, and the implications thereof; Gary Paul Nabhan's Where Our Food Comes From, the first biography in English of the great seed saver Nikolay Vavilov;

City Chickens in the News

2008-09-16T14:13:00.002-04:00

"It’s a shame, because they’re cool chickens.” Animal liberator moves chickens from slaughterhouse to busy NYC intersection.

The Gastrononscriptophobe

2008-09-15T13:30:00.002-04:00

A whole new kind of twit: from the Portland Press Herald.

"Prime Minister defends cooking show in court"

2008-09-08T14:21:00.000-04:00

Now there's a headline you don't see every day!

"The creepy joy of cooking"

2008-08-21T17:36:00.001-04:00

Vincent Price's recipe for a hot dog -

"slit franks down the middle, lay on "sharp cheese" and sautéed onions, and then wind around a strip of bacon."

From Slate.

The Water Question

2008-08-14T12:28:00.003-04:00

Water's been in the news a lot lately. Maine, which has rich resources and long history with water, is embroiled in a number of disputes, most of which have Poland Spring bottled water at their center. Historically, the disputes have been located around the town of Poland Spring itself, and Fryeburg. But lately Poland Springs has been widening its grasp and new issues have popped up in Springvale, Hollis and Kennebunk.

Fortunately we have Elizabeth Royte to help us frame the issue and warn of some of its larger implications. Royte's new book Bottlemania has been extensively and quite favorably reviewed. She has a recent NYTimes article on turning sewage into water, a practice increasingly necessary in some parts of the world and even of this country (San Diego, for example).

Royte will be coming to speak in Portland this September 17th, and you'll have two opportunities to catch her. First she'll be speaking at the Portland Public Library from noon-1pm, as part of their Brown Bag Lunch series. That evening, Rabelais will host Royte at One Longfellow Square, where she will talk about her book, and about the future of water in Maine and the world beyond. Stay tuned to our events calendar for more info in the near future.

Berries

2008-08-09T13:41:00.004-04:00

So my efforts with the apple trees seem to be for naught. A years' worth of pruning, spraying (organic), and worrying has yielded four trees full of gnarled, black spotted little globes. Thankfully, we've planted nine new apples, plums and pears in the last two years, and we will look forward to future fruits from them. In the meantime, I've been turning my attention to the much more satisfying (right now) world of berries.

We've many clumps of brambles around the farm, and a few years of pruning and mulching have finally brought the berries back to fruiting. In some places new growth has outpaced berry production, and in others one miserable looking bush has produced a quart or two. Most exciting is the discovery of blackberry and black raspberry bushes tucked away in corners of our hay fields. The black raspberry bushes have put up thick, heavily thorned canes which arch to the ground in search of a new place to start a new bush. I've been busy directing these canes toward where I want them to go, and popping the berries in my mouth as I work.

I've been reading Gene Logsdon's classic Successful Berry Growing, as well as a few more modern works on the fruit, and it's gotten me thinking about how much I love berries. While supermarket berries tend to be a bit lacking in real flavor, real backyard berries - wild or cultivated - are infinitely more satisfying, in part because they take a bit of labor to harvest. And berries offer the extra satisfaction of a long rotation through the seasons; strawberries give way to blueberries, raspberries to black raspberries and finally blackberries. You might even get lucky with some late fruiting varieties which can take you into fall.

My wild berries come in raspberry, blackberry and black raspberry, but within each family there is huge variety, and so I've been driven to consult Hedrick's Small Fruits of New York. This massive dark green tome is part of the monumental survey of edible plants of New York (but it works for all of New England) which was issued by the New York Experimental Agricultural Station. Hundreds of varieties of these three basic berry types are cataloged and illustrated here, some of which are no longer known, although they are hopefully out there somewhere in wild form. And there are separate volumes for Plums, Pears, Peaches, Cherries, Grapes, Wild Edibles, Mushrooms, and Apples, along with the much less well-known series on Vegetables. I've yet to identify my varieties, and given the complexity of identification and my lack of knowledge I may never, but this fall I'll be busy mulching, pruning and otherwise tending to my berry plants, and looking forward to next summer.

Portland Done Proud at Tales of the Cocktail

2008-07-26T15:35:00.004-04:00

Today's Wall Street Journal features a report from the annual meetup for serious barmen, Tales of the Cocktail, which took place this past week in New Orleans. Local bar ace John Myers was profiled as a contestant in the official cocktail smackdown of Taste.

"Standing next to Mr. Lermayer was John Myers, who tends bar at the Grill Room in Portland, Maine. He cultivated a dour glower in keeping with his Wild Bill Hickock whiskers and locks. His demeanor also appeared to reflect some culture-clash discomfort, the awkwardness Leon Redbone might feel sharing the stage with Moby."

Alas, John, whose work aspires to simplicity and elegance was beaten out by a Southern showman.

Thanks for the tip to the Portland Food Map

Nigel Slater on Summer Combos

2008-07-20T14:21:00.001-04:00

One of our favorite authors with some suggestions for the moment:

"Charentais melon amid soft folds of mildly herbal prosciutto; milky mozzarella and warm tomatoes; gooseberries and elderflower; broad beans, young and sweet, with smoky ham; poached salmon and crisp, cold cucumber. Summer's classic marriages are the sort of gentle offerings you might want to eat under a large, shady tree. As the season progresses, the need for recipes diminishes, and meals rely more on our own intuition and good taste."

Read the entire article at the Guardian.

Sacre bleu!

2008-07-20T14:18:00.001-04:00

"Our escargots de Bourgogne actually come from Poland," he said. "It's a shame they're not from France, but with all the pesticides in the ground here and intensive agriculture, there are no more snails."

So the French are paying more for snails this year (frogs leg's too).

Even the World Bank Knows the Truth

2008-07-06T12:19:00.000-04:00

"Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body."

Samantha on the Radio

2008-06-29T17:08:00.003-04:00

So Samantha's made her first radio appearance, on UMass, Lowell's WUML. She was interviewed on the Sunrise Bookshelf, making recommendations about cookbooks and other food books. Click on the link above to listen to a podcast of the interview.

2008-06-21T18:22:00.004-04:00

Last night, PBS' Newshour had a disturbing report on losses to farmers in the midwest who have fallen victim to the recent flooding. Here's more from The Ethicurean:

The vast disaster in Iowa has inspired an Iowa-based coalition of sustainable-ag folks to partner with Farm Aid to develop the Family Farm Disaster Fund specifically for small and independent farmers, including an Iowa-targeted sub-fund. Willie Nelson is coming to Iowa this weekend to kick off the program, and Farm Aid has also launched an online campaign.

There is much more information on this and other ways to help on The Ethicurean .

Happy Hour at Kansas State Special Collections

2008-06-13T18:18:00.002-04:00

Kansas State's Hale Library Features Happy Hour Exhibit, “Happy Hour! Top Shelf Selections from Special Collections”

Swizzle sticks, tiki glasses, pink elephants, and little paper umbrellas accompany drink books, which are the subject of a new exhibition now on display through September 10 at Kansas State
University’s Hale Library. The exhibition is organized by Hale Library’s Richard L.D. & Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections, which is home to one of the largest and most comprehensive cookery collections in the United States.

Nearly sixty rare and unusual books from the early 1700s to the present covering distilling, mixology, bartending, bar humor, Prohibition, spirits, beers, and wines are on display for the first time. The oldest book in the exhibition is George Smith’s A Compleat Body of Distilling which was printed in London in 1725.

“Our books about alcohol are a significant and underutilized part of our Cookery Collection,” said Roger Adams, associate professor and Hale Library’s rare books librarian. “Distilling has been part of American agriculture for centuries. K-State has programs in milling, food science and safety, fermentation, as well as restaurant management and hospitality that support the spirit, beer, and wine industries. This exhibit is not only informative, but it is an interesting look at the history of alcoholic beverages.”

- from the Hale Library's press release

Congrats are in order!

2008-06-13T16:49:00.001-04:00

Some of our favorite books won James Beard Awards this past weekend. Let’s have a round of applause for: The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads; Cooking by James Peterson; A Geography of Oysters by Rowan Jacobsen and Imbibe! By David Wondrich.

We feel particularly proud this year as three of the winners (Peterson, Jacobsen and Wondrich) have all had signings here at Rabelais.

Foie gras from petri dishes?

2008-06-13T16:45:00.001-04:00

Just what we need... foie gras from petri dishes.

Glass Eels, Elvers,

2008-06-09T13:21:00.004-04:00

an explanation, and some more info

Ethicurean.com in Portland

2008-06-09T11:34:00.003-04:00

Many thanks to Ali over at Ethicurean.com for her nice profile of Rabelais. She dropped in for the first time last week, right into a storm of activity. If you're not familiar with it, Ethicurean.com is an excellent source for info on all of the issues surrounding the food on your plate, including food policy and politics, food news, coverage of the local/sustainable/organic movements, etc. And it's a good read. Highly recommended.

Bizarre Foods comes to Rabelais

2008-06-07T12:05:00.004-04:00

There was a whirlwind that swept through the store yesterday. A modern day film crew is astoundingly compact and contained. And yet when they came in the energy in here changed noticeably. Andrew, who I actually went to college with (and who gave me an early glimpse into 'gourmet' food), has that ineffable presence of a person who lives much of his life in the public eye. He sweeps into the room with crew and the room expands. Now I have known this guy since we were finding our way as young adults, we have both observed each other making those silly mistakes you make when you are young. So I am not in awe of my friend Andrew. On the contrary I am proud of what he has made out of himself. So when he chose to film a segment on Maine for his show Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel I was happy to help out with segments ideas (the Deathmatch crew has agreed to put together a Bizarre Deathmatch for the camera, to be shot tomorrow). And then when he brought his crew in to film in the store I was appreciative that he was going to give us this publicity, but more importantly, wondrous at how our lives have taken us to this intersection.
Not to get too philosophical, I mean we are talking Bizarre Foods here. We have a small clip of Rob (Evans-Hugo's) working with Glass Eels that we will post soon. And I am sure I will have some photographic evidence from Sunday's Deathmatch. Yes, we have been invited. Some courses being proposed include Sea Cucumber; June bugs; Sea Beans; Moose Heart; and a deconstructed reconstructed Italian.... It is a shame that it isn't Uni season but it will still be a rocking party! We have been told that the show should air sometime in August. We will be sure to post any news as soon as we hear it.

Clearly its summer hours at the NYTimes

2008-06-02T17:21:00.003-04:00

This is not a book review. Wrong books (mostly), wrong guy, wrong premise, etc. I'm pretty sure there is someone at the NYTimes who likes food and can tell good cookbooks from bad.

Fiddlefest is upon us!

2008-05-22T17:51:00.002-04:00

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

Spices of Life

2008-05-22T17:36:00.004-04:00

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.

2008-05-19T12:12:00.005-04:00

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

2008-05-19T12:11:00.000-04:00

An incredible article on food waste in America.

Stop messing with our luxuries!

2008-05-18T15:04:00.004-04:00

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

2008-05-16T17:30:00.001-04:00

California winemaking patriarch Robert Mondavi is dead at 94.

Chicago rejoins civilization

2008-05-15T17:29:00.002-04:00

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.

Pigs, Pigs, Pigs

2008-05-11T15:11:00.012-04:00

So we missed the first Monday night at Evangeline. Erik's cooking up a single meal each Monday, and offering it at a great price. I mention it because I've got pigs on the brain right now, and the meal we missed included this:

Slow-baked Four Story Hill Farm “Cochon de Lait” with bean cassoulet,
and stuffed with riesling soaked apricots

I won't be missing too many of these nights.

Also regarding pigs - we're grateful for some more national press in the form of a "News & Notes" piece in the June issue of Food and Wine. They state, "the owners—a rare-book appraiser and a former pastry chef—stock quirky texts like notes written in 1905 on breeding pigs for bacon." We love the attention, and send our thanks, but think there's nothing "quirky" about bacon. We've got lots of bacon stuff in the store, including the piece they were referring to: Bacon Pigs in Canada. We love pigs, and bacon, and personally I get a big kick out of finding an unusual (ok, quirky) piece on the subject. I found this --> turn of the 20th century trade card, advertising a Lard Refining company with a great graphic.

And here's one of the many, many publications of Charles Lamb's Dissertation on Roast Pig in a limited gift edition from 1933.

Some of the great modern pig books include Martin Picard's Au Pied du Cochon, both volumes of Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail series, Stephen Reynaud's soon to be indispensable Pork and Sons and Terrine, and James Villas' single subject study, Bacon (the last three not pictured here).

And if you need a dose of pork, and other meats every few months, don't forget the new journal of carnivore culture, Meatpaper.

And while were on the subject, visit the new website of Dave Mallari, The Pig Kahuna, where you can book your summer pig roast (in Southern Maine).

The end of the British Breakfast?

2008-04-21T11:10:00.003-04:00

The Times of London covers some of the controversy surrounding a revision of breakfast offerings at the UK's highway eateries. The revision is organized by Heston Blumenthal, legendary British molecular gastronomist, which would be like handing Wylie Dufresne the job of remaking the menu at Dennys. Apparently, The Times doesn't seem too sad to see the giant breakfast go.

"The fried English breakfast was conceived during the Industrial Revolution (probably) as a form of fast fuel for a working class that actually worked. They ate 3,000 calories in the morning, then they burnt 3,000 calories by lunchtime. Or died when the mine collapsed."

the small independent bookstore

2008-04-17T15:30:00.005-04:00

When we opened there were many motivations for the birth of this business. The food scene here in Portland, Maine was certainly a large inspiration. But Don also wanted to prove a point about brick and mortar book stores, which have seen a steady decline since the birth of Amazon and the mega stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. We chose to specialize in food and wine in order to create a niche that would (partially) insulate us from the mercurial nature of the book buying public. And so far it is working, we are proud to report. Getting national coverage (in the April Saveur) within a year of opening our doors is a real accomplishment. However we are painfully aware of the balancing act that is being in a small business for yourself. We are members of our Buy Local organization, we also receive all sorts of bookseller mail. Recently I read something in the San Francisco Chronicle that I feel compelled to share. I know that everyone is hurting with the sub prime mortgage debacle, the price of oil, and the War and the election press down on us every day. But as a culture we need to support innovation and business on the small grass roots scale or we are doomed. I believe that book stores are like the canary in the coal mine, if they go there is not much hope for us all.
John King says it better than I do here from an article about book stores in San Francisco published in the paper on Tuesday, April 15th.
He says:
"...But a good bookstore is like a good city block: varied and rich, with layers that bear evidence of imagination and pride. There's a tactile connection to the ephemeral world of ideas. This is merchandise, but it's not something to be worn for a season or hung up on a wall; it's something to be discussed and shared, maybe even something that will shape your thoughts and actions. There's more going on than the creation of a scene. It's the slow formation of identities, of thoughts and passions and who knows what else.
In the grand scheme of things, bookstores' long retreat isn't a crisis on par with climate change or the war in Iraq. Some stores will survive at least for another generation, Cody's among them, I hope.
But the landscape has changed irrevocably. Ultimately, we're all the losers - in ways we don't even yet know."