Search results for '"Nomming Thru Maine"'

Nomming Thru Maine: Mid-Coast (Lincolnville, Camden, and Rockland)

21 Jul

After Acadia, we drove back down the coast a bit to the “Midcoast” region (we were in Lincolnville, Camden, and Rockland).  This is the area I was most familiar with from family vacations growing up.

There is one main street through Camden right next to the beautiful harbor (where we later took a great kayak tour).   A must-stop in Camden is Cappy’s Chowder House.

“Good food served here” is right!

Mike got a side order of cole slaw.  It grew on me.

We started with a salad that I remember enjoying but don’t remember ordering.

Mike chose… you guessed it! A burger. He enjoyed.

I was having a tough time deciding, but when the waitress said the lobster mac and cheese was her favorite, I was sold.  And it was SO. GOOD.  Wooooey.

Overall, Cappy’s is dependably good and a very New Englandy restaurant.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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Continuing our drinking fest, we stopped at Cellardoor Winery in Lincolnville.

Turns out they are not yet planted for long enough to produce their own wine.

So they just mix their own.  And whomever is choosing this mix has a great palate. They also did a very nice job decorating their tasting room (they are building a big facility across the street).

We were especially intrigued by their chairs made from tractor seats and axe handles.  Quite comfy actually!

We enjoyed almost every single bottle we tried (and it was a healthy sampling with many to choose from).  We actually wound up buying a bottle.

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In Rockland there is a great sandwich shop called The Brown Bag that I grew up going to.

Their specials menu included a grilled trip cheese sandwich with avocado, tomato, onions, sprouts, and pesto mayo.

It was delicious!  The perfect balance of toastiness and cheesiness.

Mike chose the Brown Bag Ham Sandwich (with Grilled Ham, Havarti, Capers, Artichoke Hearts & Special Sauce)

For the road, we got a whoopie pie (which The Brown Bag is famous for).  Delicious.

Overall, The Brown Bag is just a perfect sandwich place.  Everything is delicious, fresh, and in a great atmosphere.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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We stumbled upon a specialty shop called Fiore that sells artisan olive oils and balsamic vinegar.  I LOVED going around and sampling every single thing in the store.  Wound up taking home an 18 year aged balsamic, a blackberry ginger balsamic, and an olive oil that tasted SOOOOO good but I can’t remember which one it was (WHOOPS!)

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Our final special restaurant stop of the trip was Primoin Rockland (it’s actually right before the border of Owl’s Head).  You will have to forgive this review for lacking in detail in some cases… we MAY have had a lot to drink by this time.  MAYBE 🙂

Primo is all about sourcing their food from what is fresh and local.

We sat upstairs and it was beautifully decorated.

We started with a chef tasting of asparagus cold soup shooters and a tartare that was good, but I can’t remember what it was.  D’oh!

We ordered the wild boar carpaccio.  It was delicious.

Mike had a roast chicken with bacon.  It was so tender and yummilicious.

I had the Sautéed scaloppini of Pork “Saltimbocca” served on a bed of roast garlic mashed potato layered with wilted garden spinach, prosciutto and a sage, mushroom~Madiera jus.  HOLY COW! (Or… Pig…) Nom Nom Nom

For dessert, Mike chose the artful parfait.

I went with the Warm Belgium Chocolate “Budino” ckae with mint stracicella gelato and fresh berries.  I don’t know what Budino nor stracicella is… but I’m curious why it’s Warm Belgium and not Belgian… but who cares about grammar when you’re eating delicious chocolate?

The final bite from the chef was a chocolate… thing… Man this is when the night is really fuzzy.  I remember enjoying it, but NOT the candied ginger orange peel to the left on the plate.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with Primo.  Everything was quite delicious and it was a great place to have a romantic meal.

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

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Nomming Thru Maine: The Stops Along the Way (Moody’s Diner and Young’s Lobster Pound)

19 Jul

We made two stops on our Maine Roadtrip that don’t exactly fit into any of the town posts.  They are the stops in the middle that make driving OH SO worth it!

A “must stop” is Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro on Rt. 1 (you have to take the coastal route from Portland to Acadia, but it’s good enough to add a bit of travel time).  Moody’s Diner began in 1927 when they built a few cabins to offer cheap lodging and soon expanded to a cute little diner.  That cute little diner still looks like it belongs in 1927 but with some modern touches. 

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My dad has talked about Moody’s cinnamon buns for as long as I can remember and it was a routine stop for him when he was going to college in Maine.  They are usually sold out by late morning in high season, so I had never experienced these wonders.  This time, however, we were there during the very first weekend of the “season” (before it gets busy), and we managed to secure one right around lunch time.  It was DAMN good, but it had the unfortunate experience of having to be compared to the cinnamon bun from Five Fifty Five from just a few days before.  It wasn’t quite as delicious, but it was still quite delicious.

Mike went for the turkey club.  He voted it an exceptionally good turkey club.

I went with the old fashioned Yankee Pot Roast.  I was quite concerned about this choice because good pot roast can be great but there ain’t nothing worse than bad pot roast.  This… this was FAN.FREAKING.TASTIC pot roast.  It looked so humble… but it was just so good.

Overall, Moody’s diner does home cooked comfort food right.  They don’t get too artsy with their food styling nor do they make anything trendy.  They just make great diner food.  Really great diner food.

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10

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Another stop on the stop was Young’s Lobster Pound in Belfast (we hit this heading back south from Acadia when we were heading to Camden).  My family stumbled on Young’s years ago and I couldn’t wait to go back.  It’s a very authentic lobster pound that pulls their stash in right from the water.

(Side Note: Belfast as a town wasn’t exactly a shopping destination last time I was there, so I was excited to see that it has become a total artist destination.) 

They have their lobster in big tanks and sell a 1 & 1/4 pound lobster plus steamers and potato chips for less than $20.  Awesome.

They supply a good deal of lobster beyond just their restaurant… so they have a lot of tanks.

Mike saw Moxie in the fridge and decided to try it.  Unfortunately, neither of us knew it tasted like root beer… and neither of us like root beer.  Oh well! Now we know.  (As I’m writing this with Mike sitting next to me he saw the picture and reiterated, “Moxie is disgusting”)

It took far too much time to get our food… though any time I wait for fresh cooked lobsters and steamers while waiting on a beautiful doc is too long!

Again, I think it’s pretty hard to screw up steamed lobster, but the steamers at Young’s just set this one apart.  The lobster couldn’t be fresher, of course, and then you have the scenery…

Overall, Young’s is just too good to drive right past (even though it’s easy to miss the sign to show you where to turn).  A must stop.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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Nomming thru Maine: Acadia National Park/Bar Harbor- Part 2

14 Jul

After planning so well for our restaurant stops in Portland, I really didn’t have many foodie plans for Bar Harbor.  We mostly stumbled upon places through the week.

One night we were looking for an early bite, however, most places didn’t open up until after 5:30.  One place we did find that was open was Rupununi. 

We started with the “empanadas” which were unlike any we had ever had before.  It was described as “Traditional Argentinian style, hand made empanadas stuffed with lobster, roast corn & cheese.”  It was like an empanada went to France and mated with a croissant.  But it was delish.

Mike ordered the Fisherman’s Fried Sampler with scallops, haddock, and Maine shrimp.  I think Mike maxed out on the fried food, however, the scallops were heavenly.  The rest was ehhhh. 

I went with the Lobster Scampi which came with fresh Maine lobster, artichokes, capers, cherry tomatoes, and spinach over linguini.  This was AMAZING!  You don’t see chunks of lobster like this outside of Maine.

Later that evening we were strolling through town and ducked into an ice cream store to buy some fudge.  I was so blown away by the following sign that I just had to try some of this ice cream flavor. (It was actually not half bad, though nothing I’d ever want as more than a taste)

Total Nom Points: 6.5 out of 10

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Unfortunately, our stay was very rainy, however, we made it over the Jordan Pond House one rainy afternoon for tea.  The location was a beautiful, old building right on the lake.

Here was the menu:


I went with the tea and popovers.


These were OUTRAGEOUSLY good popovers.

Mike went with the lobstah chowdah.

It looked kinda oily, so I was concerned, however, there were solid chunks of lobster meat that were as big as the bowl’s circumference.  And the taste was just sensational.

Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10 (for the afternoon tea anyway)

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On one of our last evenings in Bar Harbor, Mike and I went to Reel Pizza Cinerama, which is a movie theater that serves pizza (that smelled AMAZING) and had couches and little tables in front of seats to eat from.  We just had the beer.  It was a fun experience!

For dinner, we took a TripAdvisor recommendation and tried out Cafe This Way.  

I appreciated the design aesthetic on the ceiling.

The bread came out and smelled delicious. (It was fair)

We ordered the smoked duck wrapped scallops for an appetizer.  They were pretty good, but it wasn’t quite as ducky or scallopy as I would have hoped for.

We ordered a Pinot Noir while we were there that we enjoyed so much that I took a picture.  Look out for Angeline!

I guess I was on a duck kick and I ordered the roasted duck with spiced pears and blueberry jus.  This dish was dissapointing.  First, there were only 2 little slivers of spiced pear on the plate (with that heaping portion of duck!) and the blueberry jus wasn’t very interesting and the duck just wasn’t as flavorful as I’m used to (perhaps it was the type of duck this restaurant uses?)

Mike chose the grilled lamb sirloin that was served on a goat cheese, cheddar, onion, and jalapeno quesadilla with cilantro mint chimichurri.  I’m pretty sure he declared this just average.  Nothing like the lamb from Fore Street a few nights before.  

Overall, we were pretty disappointed by this place.  Nothing was bad, just underwhelming.

Total Nom Points: 5.5 out of 10


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