Eating in Portland

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to visit Portland, Maine for the Hood New England Chef’s Challenge. As a judge, the PR company that represented Hood gave me a complimentary hotel room, and since the competition was only part of the day, my husband, friends, and I spent some time wandering around Portland. Portland is an amazing foodie city, small, easily walk-able, and although cold, was a great place to spend the weekend.

I will recap the Chef’s Challenge tomorrow, but for tonight thought I would share some of our delicious Portland eats. We started at Duck Fat, a place well-known for its fries. And fries we ate. We ordered two cones of fries with every dipping sauce that Duck Fat has to offer, along with a Geary’s Autumn Ale.

The fries were very good but not the best I have ever had. My favorite part was most definitely the truffle ketchup with the fries. All of the dipping sauces, the horseradish aioli, the curry, the mustard, really made the fries, and the Geary’s Autumn Ale was the perfect pairing and a great way to control our hunger as we waited for an 8:15 dinner.

My friend Meghan’s birthday dinner was at Fore Street, one of Portland’s best-known restaurants, and a simply amazing choice. Fore Street is incredibly warm and cozy with a central, open kitchen and an emphasis on local ingredients.

We toasted with Perrier-Jouet Brut to ring in the birthday girl’s 30th year and feasted on oysters to start off the meal.

For my entrée, I had the bluefish with a hen’s egg. The egg was delicious, as were the veggies. The bluefish was good but a little too fishy for me.

We also split a bunch of sides: some to die for balsamic glazed beets, turnips, and heavenly mashed potatoes. All of those were perfection, and I could make a dinner out of sides.

On the way out I snagged a photo of the room where Fore Street keeps their vegetables. Isn’t it just beautiful?

We truly ate and drank to the best of our abilities in Portland, and I can not wait to return. It’s only about 2 hours from Boston, and there are SO many places to eat! We have barely scratched the surface.

Have you been to Portland? Any recommendations for our next trip?