Portsmouth, NH & Kittery, ME

Portsmouth New Hampshire is a nice little town just over the river from Maine. Known for great shopping in its walking center and close proximity to the Kittery Outlets in Maine, we found it also has a lot of hidden culinary treasures. We arrived late in the afternoon and after checking in to our hotel headed out to find some dinner. After a few suggestions from the hotel staff we ended up at the Portsmouth Gas Light Co. This restaurant has several different facets to it. There is the street level restaurant, the third floor club, the outdoor patio, and Downtown Pizza, a brick oven pizza joint in the basement of the building.

Upon entering the bar area I felt like I was walking into any number of local pizza parlors from my childhood. Brick walls, a dark wood bar, and the smell of pizza and beer wafting in the air. We decided to sit at the bar and order a few drinks and a pizza. They offer a full menu of appetizers, salads, pastas, calzones, and pizza. We decided on the Isle of Shoals pizza. A thick crust brick oven pie topped with proscuitto, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, and mushrooms (we got it without the shrooms).

As soon as the pizza hit the bar I knew it was going to be amazing. The proscuitto was thinly sliced and torn into bits cooked to perfection with a little crispness to the edges. The saltiness of the procsuitto was complemented by the earthy flavor of the artichokes and the sweet taste of the roasted peppers. All the toppings were slightly melted into the cheese and sauce that covered the slightly crispy dough. Note: Yes, I am a thin crust guy but that wasn’t an option here. This was very tasty dough and was nothing like the buttery Greek style pizza dough one might expect on a pie like this.

Pizza of course goes great with beer. I’m pretty sure they were Samuel Adams Summer Ale.

Later that night while walking around downtown we got a bit hungry and stopped into an Irish looking pub for a small bite and a drink. It was dark and kind of loud. We sat in a small booth that resembled gothic church pews. We ordered some pub fries. They tasted just like they look. Kind of dry and not a heck of a lot of flavor. We accented them with salt, pepper, and malt vinegar. We didn’t finish them. But we were still thirsty.

Then we found Coat of Arms. It was a lonely little green door down a dark side street. It looked like a private club to us. Inside the door and up the stairs and I thought I had stepped into a pub in England. We had a blast but missed the kitchen. So, beers it was. We stayed until closing and had a blast.

The next morning we parked on a small side street and decided to walk downtown Portsmouth. We happened upon The Works Bakery and Café. It was a bustling little bakery with a rather large selection of breakfast choices. Having had a few drinks the night before we both decided on the bacon, egg and cheese on a freshly baked bagel. I had mine with some hot sauce on it. The bagels were extremely fresh with a crisp crunchy outside and a soft chewy inside. I did not get to watch the sandwiches being made but I’m certain the eggs were microwaved. The cheese was a sharp tasting cheddar so at least they didn’t skimp out on that. Accompanied by OJ, this made a good start to our day.

After walking around the city for a few hours and working up an appetite we were told we should try the Portsmouth Brewery. A few blocks away and we entered the brew pub. Their local microbrew menu was written on the wall in colored chalk. I wish I had written down what we ordered, but here they are.

And for lunch…black bean dip. This stuff was awesome. Layers of black beans, scallions, cheese, sour cream, and salsa all served with a side of tortilla chips for dipping. It was just enough to fill our bellies (along with a few beers) to get us to dinner.

Crap…we missed dinner. But we did get some late night wings. They smelled a lot better than they tasted. Chewy and fatty chicken. Blah, not worth it to write about. So we went back to Coat of Arms. I really wanted one of the Scotch eggs I saw on the menu the previous night. But we missed the kitchen AGAIN.

Before leaving on Sunday we headed over to Kittery Maine for some shopping. We didn’t buy anything but we did visit Bob’s Clam Hut. Serving fresh fried seafood since 1956. These had to be some of the best fried clams I’ve ever had in my life. I’m sure that eating them al fresco helped the whole experience a lot. Fresh clam strips coated in a crunchy coating that wasn’t greasy and didn’t just crumble away upon first bite, all on a New England style roll. The lobster roll left something to be desired. I’m in Maine; I want some fresh lobster smothered in butter on my roll. This was chilled and mixed with mayo. The lobster was fresh but they should specify the cold and mayo part on the menu.

On the way home, we came across a store advertising they had over 10,000 pounds of candy on display. We were like kids in a candy store, except adults and in a store with THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF CANDY!!! Yeah, we spent a bit of money here.

North Branford Potato & Corn Festival

North Branford is a tiny little town just in from the shoreline of Connecticut. It is mostly farmland with two main crops; potatoes and corn. Hence the Potato & Corn Festival. This is a small little festival with a few midway games, a couple of shaky carnival rides, and a handful of local arts, craft and food vendors. We arrived late on a Friday afternoon, walked around a bit, listened to a friends band play on the main stage, then headed straight for the food tent. First up was my wife’s favorite, fried dough.

It has recently been brought to my attention that elsewhere in the country people may not eat fried dough the same way we do. Powdered sugar and cinnamon seem to be the toppings of choice. But for us here in New England, sauce and cheese rule. A good grated parmesan cheese adds nicely to this dish, but good…no GREAT sauce is a must. If your sauce is more like hot ketchup then I’m not interested.

This is how fried dough should be. A little bit of a crisp on the outside and fluffy and doughy on the inside. These were the perfect size fitting nicely on a paper plate with an oasis of sauce floating in the middle. The proper way to eat New England style fried dough is as follows. You start from the outer edges tearing off a piece, dip it in the sauce in the middle, pop into mouth and do your best to avoid dripping sauce on your shirt. Once the outside is gone it’s a free for all. I like to fold mine up and try to eat it like pizza. It is inevitable that sauce will drip out. Where it lands in anyone’s guess.

Being a potato and corn festival, we next hit up the potato vendor. We had to wait since they were out of both corn and potatoes. We skipped the corn (I know…) but we both got potatoes with the works. Bacon, broccoli, cheese, sour cream, and butter. They were fresh out of the cooker so we had to let them cool for a minute. Once they were cool enough to eat, we dug in.

If you’ve never had a loaded potato like this it is an experience to be had. The fresh steamed vegetables mixing with the liquid cheese, coolness of the sour cream, and moist starchiness of the potato is a medley of flavor not to be missed. As I write this I think of the potatoes from the Eastern States Expo. The North Branford potatoes could hold their own against the Maine potatoes in my opinion.

Just after we finished eating the power in the food tent went out. We had more things we wanted to try. Maybe next year.

The Melting Pot - Darien, CT

It has been a while since the wife and I went out to a nice meal.  We were invited to celebrate the anniversaries of the Brother with his girlfriend and our friends Tim & Missy.  This was our second trip to The Melting Pot in Darien, CT and I was very excited about it.  Our last trip to this restaurant was to celebrate Valentine's Day last year with the Brother and his better half.

Upon entering the establishment we were greeting by a smiling host who I later discovered was the owner/manager James.  He had been our host during our prior visit as well.  We waited for our table in the bar with our previous bartender Neil.  The bar is an elegant long room with a black granite bar top and backed by large windows overlooking the quaint streets of Darien.  After our first round or two we were informed that our table was going to take a little longer than expected and if we didn't mind waiting drinks were on James.  So we waited.  And drank.

We were eventually seated at a booth in the dining room.  The set up of the restaurant is very unique as it is split up into several smaller dining rooms with only a handful of tables in each.  The smaller rooms and the dark wood decor give the feeling of being in an exclusive private dining club.  In the center of our table were two flat top burners.  We glanced over the menu and all three couples quickly decided on the "Big Night Out", an all inclusive four course meal for two.  Since we had two burners we were able to choose two different flavored pots for each course.  Our waiter Joe was very attentive to our requests and explained everything in great detail.

The appetizers we decided on were the Fiesta and Wisconsin Trio.  Our waiter Joe came over to our table with double boiler pots, cranked up the heat, and retreated back to the kitchen to retrieve the ingredients for our first course.  When he returned he created our cheese fondue right at our table.  The fiesta pot was a mix of beer, salsa, jalapenos, and a cheese mixture.  It was slowly turned in the hotpot until it was melted down into a smooth bubbling mixture.  The Wisconsin Trio was constructed in a similar fashion with Fontina, Butterkase, Buttermilk Bleu, white wine, scallions and a hint of sherry.  To dip into all of this were we given tortilla chips, chunks of white and pumpernickel bread, sliced Granny Smith apples and crudités.  

Shortly after we finished with our cheese we were served our salads.  I love a good salad, but it was not the highlight of this meal.  I ordered a Caprese salad and a few others got the Caesar salad.  Both were good, but unless my salad is my main course it’s usually nothing to write home about.  So, moving on…

Following the clearing of our appetizers Joe returned with two fondue pots filled with steaming broths, placed them on the burners and raised the temperature to a higher level.    We had ordered two different pots to cook our main course in.  The first was the Mojo Style which we had tried during our last visit.  This flavor is a Caribbean style broth with just the right quantity of garlic and citrus flavors.  In my opinion it was best with seafood and pork but not heavy enough to impact the flavor of beef.  The other pot was a Coq au Vin style broth with fresh herbs, garlic, mushrooms and burgundy wine.  This was a much heavier broth and paired perfectly with the meats although it was a bit overpowering for the light seafood.  The Coq au Vin pot is pictures below.

I mentioned previously that our meal was an “all inclusive” meal and that is not a stretch.  We did not have to choose what type of meat we wanted to eat as we got a plate with it all.  The Melting Pot offered three levels of main course for their Big Night Out.  Two couples ordered the Fondue Fusion which consisted of a single split lobster tail, Filet Mignon Florentine, Limoncello Balsamic Sirloin, Shrimp Diablo, Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken, Orange Fennel Pork, and Porcini & Portabella Sacchetti.  This was the middle option.  The higher option included a second lobster tail and the lower version did not include the tail at all.  All three came with a plate of vegetables which included mushrooms, squash and potatoes.  Every piece of meat was meticulously trimmed to the perfect size for fondue cooking and there was not a trace of unwanted fat to be seen. 

To put it simply, everything was delicious.  As I mentioned before my favorite pairings were the lobster, shrimp and pork in the lighter Mojo style broth and the beef and chicken in the Coq a Vin.  Not to say the chicken wasn’t tasty in the Mojo style, because it was.  And the mushroom sacchetti went well with both.  The method is simple.  As Joe explained to us, everyone is given two color coded fondue forks.  Stab your desired piece of food, place it in the pot, and wait approximately two minutes.  Vegetables and shrimp take a little less time than beef and pork do.  Once your food is cooked you place it on your plate, stab your next piece of dinner and enjoy the cooked morsel while waiting for the next to cook.  We were also offered a plethora of dipping sauces including a curry yogurt and sweet and sour (both great on chicken and pork), a teriyaki and a bleu cheese sauce (perfect for the red meat), herb melted butter for the seafood, and something called Green Goddess for our vegetables.  The last one was a mixture of cream cheese and fresh chopped herbs if I heard Joe right.  

If you’re not drooling yet, you will be soon.  Because after dinner we decided that we all wanted our own dessert pots.  Since we were limited to two burners at our table we asked Joe is we could move to the bar for dessert.  He made arrangements for that to be set up and we moved our party back to Neil.

Everything on the dessert menu sounded extremely decadent.  Milk chocolate, white chocolate, half and half, all mixed with various liqueurs.  The wife and I chose the pick your own of milk chocolate and Chambord.  My brother and his girlfriend ordered the milk chocolate with Kahlua and our friends ordered the Bananas Foster, white chocolate with bananas, brown sugar and cinnamon.  These were all mixed right in front of us.  All the desserts were served with an assortment of sweets to dip including strawberries, bananas, Rice Crispy squares, cheesecake, brownies, and marshmallows covered with toasted coconut and chocolate crumbs.  I doubt I need to explain how good all this was.  The chocolate was silky smooth with the hinted flavor of the liqueur.  Paired with a glass of my favorite cordials (DiSarrono on the rocks) it was the perfect ending to one of the most unique, mouth-watering, and memorable meals I’ve had in a long time.  

The Melting Pot and its do-it-yourself style of fondue cooking is a great culinary experience.  Will I return to The Melting Pot?  Without a doubt.