Bangor and Augusta

This is really just a place to share some photos but to also share a little love for the 3rd and 4th biggest (using that term loosely) cities in Maine.  So just a little background:  After coming back from our great weekend in Providence, Shel and I wanted to go out to a nice restaurant in Bangor and WE FOUND ONE, a New American Cuisine place on lower Hammond Street called Fiddleheads.  You may have seen my shares on FB and Foursquare, so I won't repeat it but the food was first rate, as good as found in a much bigger city; and the staff was wonderful.
Before our reservations we took a couple hours to walk Downtown Bangor, which I'm quite familiar with having worked there a lot but Shel had not really been.

Hannibal Hamlin statue

Public Enemy #1

I don't have any so-called skyline pictures but I did notice on Friday coming back home from Surry, driving up 1A and then 395, crossing the bridge on 395 between Brewer and Bangor that if you could get up there, you could get an awesome picture of the Penobscot River in front of the Bangor skyline.  There's got to be another place.  That would be a great panorama picture, which will be my segue to share yesterday's time in Downtown Augusta.
Yesterday we went to dinner at the Riverfront BBQ in Augusta, which has a great bar upstairs called the Gin Mill.  We ate upstairs, had a drink with the owner and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Before we got to the restaurant I took a few pics of downtown, two of them with my new panorama app, which will explain the awkward nature of those pics.

Key Bank bldg. from one block above Water St

Kennebec River bridge from downtown

Old Federal building

There's a block of downtown behind this picture.  That's the Key Bank building again on the distant left and there's another half dozen blocks of downtown beyond.  The entrance to the restaurant is that glass area that goes all the way to the sidewalk in the left foreground.  A great spot for a skyline shot of Augusta would be from that bridge and that one, unlike 395, has a sidewalk.  Hmmmm.

PS  I actually took a picture yesterday from that 395 bridge over the Penobscot River between Bangor and Brewer looking toward the Bangor skyline but it didn't come out well.  Maybe because I was driving (shhhh), maybe because downtown is at least a half mile from this bridge and also due in part because of Todd's nose smudges on the passenger window.  I'll try again.  It would make a nice picture if it could be gotten.

Texas with the boys

As many of you know, a very good friend and his family moved from NH to TX a year ago.  This late winter he sent an email to four of us asking that since the Red Sox would be in Arlington the first weekend in May, how would we feel about coming down for that weekend.  All four of us immediately said we were in.
There's a fair bit to tell but I don't want to bore y'all, so I'll try to summarize the highlights as briefly as possible.  I need to start out by telling you that I personally had not flown since returning home from SoCal in 1988, partly due to my love of roadtrips and in equal measure since they banned smoking on airplanes but I wasn't going to miss this get-together and I couldn't roadtrip it with my limited time off in my "new" job.  It's not that you have to go without a smoke for a 5 hour trip; it's that you need to add in the time to get through security before boarding and add in the layover since the vast majority of airports these days don't have a smoking area.  So Ell and I get to Portland on time, get through security pretty smoothly (though he forgot he had a saline bottle in his bag LOL) and were off to wait to board the flight to Chicago.  Well, we noticed one big band of nasty weather in the Midwest and soon heard that our flight was delayed, followed shortly by the announcement that we wouldn't make our connecting flight in Chicago to Dallas (nice way to help the smoker deal with his addiction!)  So we got on the plane and were told they'd take our info and get us rerouted.  When we landed in Chicago (a nonsmoking airport), folks lined up to try to get info about our leg to Dallas but we noticed that the screens were saying that flight hadn't left yet and we had plenty of time to get on it.  So we made the decision to hustle way over to where that flight was board and made it in plenty of time.  Luckily for us they had never taken us off that flight.  End of airport and smoking stories...suffice to say I'm proud of how well I handled it.
We arrived in Dallas around the same time that TJS did and soon found AA and my brother who were there to pick us up.  We proceeded to Ranch AA, after a short stop at Tom Thumb for critical supplies, where we commenced to catch up, drink and eat lots of cow and pig.  AA grilled us some awesome burgers for a late lunch and we then awaited the brisket and pulled pork he'd been smoking all day.  Man, was it worth the wait.  Forgot to mention that we flew on Friday and the game was scheduled for Saturday night.
Saturday we had a relaxing morning and then struck out for Grapevine to eat some real Texas chili at a place AA was familiar with (hopefully the name will come to me as I write.)  Grapevine is a tourist town, for lack of a better description, a town that's maintained it's old Texas downtown look and is littered with little artist shops and restaurants.  Stevie Ray Vaughn played at the chili place when he was still a teen.  I can't begin to tell you how good that chili was.  "Real Texas chili" doesn't have any tomato base or beans, though beans are an option.  It's just meat and spices.  Good time to share a few pics I took in Grapevine.  Tolbert's!

TJS searching for espresso

The next leg of our journey was on to the ballgame, Red Sox at Rangers at the Ballpark in Arlington.  I've already written about that on BoSox Tavern.  So I won't bore you with that again.  If you haven't read that, you go do so through this link where you'll find a write-up and pictures.  What you won't see in that piece is that after watching the Bruins/Leafs game on the DVR and all the sissies had gone to bed, AA and I stayed up all night drinking, talking movies and watching "Django Unchained," which I enjoyed more than I thought I would.
Now on to Sunday, our last day there since we were all flying out Monday morning.  Our tee times at Champions Golf Club in Justin were for 9:00, which came really early for yours truly who got only a little over an hours sleep thanks to the above-mentioned night in AA's House of Pain.  I had been dreading the golf to some extent because I don't play nearly often enough to play well enough to enjoy it.  Well, I'm very glad I went.  The course was pretty forgiving and I played well enough to have a very good time.  Bro, myself and Ell played in a threesome and TJS and AA played with a couple of AA's new friends in a foursome right behind us.  I'd share my scorecard but I didn't play THAT well.  After an adult beverage at the 19th hole, we went back to AA's to relax for a bit before we struck out on the final leg of an awesome weekend.
We had reservations for 6:00 at the famous H3 Ranch Steakhouse in the old Stockyard area of Fort Worth but we left early enough to look around the stockyard area and have a drink at the historic White Elephant Saloon, where I took a picture and bought a cool-looking t-shirt.  I'll let you decide whether to click the links to learn more about these cool places.

But it's the first time I've smoked inside a public place in many years -- had to have one just for old time's sake -- and we learned about the history of the saloon and took in lots of eye candy.  Then it was on to H3, where we actually ended up eating in the saloon side called Booger Red's, where you'll see a much better picture of the place than the one I took.  At the link you can better see the critters on the wall.  I'll tell you, we ate lots and lots of cow at H3, yours truly and one other having rib-eye and the others porterhouse.  Throw on top of that a couple of awesome appetizers and goblets of grog and we left well satiated.

With full bellies and having run almost nonstop for 3 days, we were mostly too pooped to do much more than go back to AA's, get to bed and get up early to catch our flights out.  I can tell you that we'll have to do this again real soon...maybe Bruins at Stars this time? 

Providence, RI

We had been talking for awhile about doing a get-away weekend in Providence, a city I'd always heard about for its history and more lately its food but I'd never been (went to a ballgame in Pawtucket, which is very close).  So when I heard the NCAA hockey regionals were going to be played there (another bucket list item), it seemed the perfect time to go.

We had a fabulous but way too short weekend there, which really amounted to about 24 hours.  We walked around the city, which is small enough to easily walk around in three spurts over a 24 hour period.  Like some other cities, Providence has some painted lines on the sidewalks that related to different trails of interest throughout the city.  We walked a good bit of the Green Line, which gets you around to see many of the historical sites in the city.

The one thing we missed was being able to take a gondola ride (how romantic!) down the canal.  It doesn't start running each year until the end of April, first of May.  The weather was good enough Saturday (in the 50s) to have been comfortable on a gondola ride.

But the food (AWWW THE FOOD!) was the big story:  The first place we stopped at was a place called Luxe Burger, where you can build you own.  I was tempted to try to beat their challenge and earn a T-shirt (look at the picture below) but we had a nice dinner planned for the evening and I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.  Around 4:00 we decided to go downstairs in the Biltmore (we stayed at the famous old Biltmore) where there was a nice seafood restaurant with a bar to have a cocktail.  We ended up have Happy Hour appetizers -- I had mussels.  Then we had a 7:00 reservation at a "new American" restaurant called Local 121, an upscale modern restaurant that uses all local ingredients.  I would love to describe my meal but my entrée was a special that is not on the online menu and I can't remember the ingredients...suffice to say it had a few I'd never heard of.  It was a porkchop (seems ridiculous to call it a porkchop) and it was devine, as was my bacon wrapped scallop appetizer.  Shelly hopefully will describe her meal in the comments but I will include the restaurant links.
Finally, still being full in the morning, we didn't eat until brunchtime and we decided to go to a chain finally, one I'd never been to, The Cheesecake Factory.  I was very impressed with my meal, an appetizer of Vietnamese tacos and a Navajo sandwich.  Bought two slices of cheesecake as we left;  one for more darling daughter, Kim, who dogwatched Todd while we were gone.  She told me hers was yummy, a vanilla bean slice and mine is still sitting in the frig.

Then there was the NCAA Northeast Regional game last night.  You can read about that at BoSox Tavern.  Enjoy the pics below:

Out our hotel window at the neat old roof of City Hall

My darling, then the canal and then the Capitol

County Courthouse

The very first Baptist Church in the US

Across yet another canal at a neat building but I forgot what it is

City Hall with the Biltmore behind

Thought this was a neat shot down the canal of that bridge with windmills

From Luxe Burger...maybe next time but my Kobe beef bacon cheeseburger was excellent

State Capitol building

 

Yarmouth Clam Festival

The Yarmouth Clam Festival is one of the best known and popular summer festivals in Maine, and I've always managed to remember it was happening either the weekend of or the weekend after it happened.  So I had never been until last weekend because I'd decided this year I was going come hell or high water.
To be honest, I'm not sure what the big deal is...it's a festival like most others -- yes, there's clams and lots of them but, other than that, it's just way too crowded.  It's held in downtown Yarmouth, a small, quaint southern Maine town, which is great; the problem is that they don't close Main Street.  So thousands of people are walking on the sidewalks because the street's not closed and the tents are on the other side of the sidewalk from the street.  It would be much more enjoyable if it were held in a park or someplace a little more open so that you didn't always have to be wading into endless waves of people.
We did have a good time for a few hours (the shuttle bus service is a major plus) -- did I mention the clams?  We looked at some nice artisan stuff -- loved some stuff by a guy who was reusing old wood from torn down old mills, for instance, and turning it into furniture; and I did buy Shel a nice picture of a lighthouse.  (She has the particulars and maybe I can get her to take a picture of it to share)  Basically he took a shot of a lighthouse with water between himself and the light, then made the whole picture black and white except for the reflection of the lighthouse in the water in the middle of the picture...very well worth the 50 bucks.  And I did buy a t-shirt, which you'll see in the photos below.  You'd have a good time but how good is dependent on how much you hate crowds...waves of them, and you'll love the clams.

Yours truly, waiting...

The street was closed for the parade only.  New t-shirt, yellow and purple

A Day of Sightseeing

Shel and I had originally planned on going sightseeing on Saturday, since the weather report was great for the whole weekend; but then the weather report seemed to show Saturday might be iffy, we were missing my cousin's daughter's graduation party and we could use a day to chill first.  So we decided we would do our sightseeing on Sunday and that decision was rewarded with perfect weather -- in Maine that means sunny, in the high 70s and very little humidity.
We wanted to get out and enjoy the outdoors and also be able to take our furry, four-legged friend with us.  So we chose to go to Fort Knox, Maine, to look around the fort and also for me to ride up to the observation tower of the new Penobscot Narrows cable stay bridge near Bucksport.

Observation deck at the top of one of the towers holding up the new bridge

Todd and me at the entrance to Fort Knox

The photos taken from the tower were taken by yours truly, the rest were taken by Shel, who got tired of taking photos.  So I have none to share with you from the second half of our trip, which was to take her around some of the cute coastal towns I'd been working in lately, show her some of the great views of Penobscot Bay and visit Holbrook Island Sanctuary, a small state park in Brooksville, ME.  I do agree though, how many photos of the beautiful coast of Maine can you share without getting boring.
All three of us had a very good time, one of the highlights being to grab lunch at a little seasonal stand called Bagaduce Lunch, which is located on the town line between Penobscot and Brooksville, overlooking an inlet of Penobscot Bay that becomes a little river separating the two towns.  I do wish we had snapped a shot there.  I had the obligatory and expensive (10 bucks) lobster roll and Shel had the haddock sandwich, which was basically a whole haddock between two buns.  Great stuff!
If you would like to see the remainder of the photos we took and I encourage you to do so, you can see them at the following link.  They include photos I took from the observation tower and those that Shel took of the fort and the area around the bridge, including this one:

Old and new bridges, looking from Fort Knox toward Verona Island

Oh, the Maine Park Service has this little booklet that's free that has a page for every state park, where you can add your attendance stamp.  We crossed off two this day and plan on trying to visit many of the others.  Maybe we'll share more photos later.  Please let me know in the comments if you cannot access the rest of the photos.  They're at Facebook but my account is open.  You should be able to see them.

Ode to the Maine Italian Sandwich

Since it is universally accepted that the Maine Italian sandwich's origins are in Portland, ME and Giovanni Amato, I've included a link to Amato's website, which has a great picture of the sandwich (you can leave the olives off mine, thank you) on the front page and a link to the history of the sandwich.  So I won't bother to repeat it here; but it's called an Italian more because it was invented by an Italian than what's in it, which wouldn't necessarily strike you as Italian food.
My purpose here though is to baptize the uninitiated and to swap stories with the choir about our favorite version of the Italian and where we fondly remember getting the "best one around."  It is true that you'd be hard pressed to go anywhere in Maine and not be able to find a very good one on the menu of any "corner store," as we tend to refer to mom & pop and general stores here in Maine; but we all have our favorite place, usually one near where we grew up.  It is one of those things when we're away from Maine that make us think fondly and eagerly about returning.
A couple of childhood memories:  I can remember my Aunt Polly in the '60s making dozens of Italians that seemed like they were going to a store for sale.  I couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old and that's my first memory of the Italian.  I will have to do some research and find out what that was all about.  The other memory is as an adolescent and teenager.  I used to bowl in youth leagues in Pittsfield at Frenchy's and then at Pittsfield Bowling Center after school, and whenever I had the money I'd be over at Richie's getting a bite to eat, quite often an Italian.  A couple of other places that may bring back memories is Sonny's and Whipper's in the Waterville Area.
Currently my favorite place is Franchetti's here in Livermore Falls (amazing how many places don't have websites!) -- it's actually just across the town line in Jay, and I have to say I've always been impressed with how fresh and abundant and tasty their food is, at the top of my list of great corner stores, right below The Maine Store in my hometown of Detroit.
Finally, for those who are unfamiliar, I'll tell you what ingredients you'll need to make an Italian of your own.  Having just made one a few days ago, I wish I'd taken a picture to include here but alas that sandwich is long gone.  You'll need a 12 inch soft sub roll sliced about 2/3 deep to stuff the ingredients in.  Layer generous helpings of sliced ham or salami (or both), then American cheese, chopped onions and bell peppers, tomato slices, dill pickles (optional Greek olives) and then drizzle some oil on top, add salt and pepper.  That's the traditional "recipe" but I'd love to hear about your favorite version.
Enjoy!  Anyone want to suggest a favorite beer to wash that down with?

Chicken salad club sandwich

I'm not sure what possessed me to try this, especially since I'm picky about what I put tomatoes on; but I'm so glad I did. Maybe I didn't invent this but I've never heard of it before.

I stripped a leftover whole chicken and then into the food processor I added some scallions (the ingredient most responsible for the awesome outcome), a little bit of celery, fresh garlic and mayo; then threw that on a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato and bacon, of course.

Just had some more of the chicken salad for lunch but this time just the chicken salad on the roll with a bunch of potato chips on top. Don't tell me I'm the only one who puts his chips right on the sandwich, especially tuna fish.

(Just felt like throwing something on this blog, and this was too big to be a Facebook status update)

Zebster's baked bean recipe

Traditional New England baked beans, none of that crap with the soggy little beans in a tomato or bbq sauce. You can use a crock pot, do it in the oven inside a bean pot; you can even dig a hole in the ground and cook it in there for several days (hardcore and best, but I'm too lazy and impatient). So I use a crock pot. You'll only need about a half hour or so of prep time but you'll need to cook them all day.

Ingredients: One pound Jacobs Cattle beans, onion, 1/2 pound salt pork, 1/2 cup of BROWN sugar, 2/3 cup molasses, 1/4 cup of real maple syrup (honey works good too), 3 teaspoons dry mustard, salt and pepper to taste.

I think using the right beans is one of the keys. I prefer Jacobs Cattle or Yellow Eye or the like. You can use pinto beans, I suppose, but see above and don't tell me if you did...it saddens me deeply. Let me amend that. If you want real baked beans, then find the good dry beans I've mentioned. Don't cheat and use canned beans or whatever. If you want it to taste right, like it's supposed to, then you need to start with the right ingredients. There's no point in doing it, otherwise.

You should check the bag of beans because occasionally there's a pebble or a bad bean. Then put them in a large bowl of water and soak them overnight.

In the morning parboil the beans until you can blow the skin off one, about a half hour, which gives you time to get your ingredients together. You'll need some salt pork (no bacon...this isn't breakfast), which you'll need to cut through the rind side about a half inch in a waffle design so it'll fall apart nicely when everything's cooked. Quarter at least one onion and place it in the bottom of the pot. Then drain and add your parboiled beans. Place the salt pork on top. In one pint of boiling water add your molasses, syrup, dry mustard, sugar, salt and pepper. I like mine peppery. I've been known to use Montreal steak pepper. But at least 3 teaspoons of pepper. Pour this over the beans, adding more boiling water, if necessary, to cover the beans...usually an extra half pint to pint. Then cook on low in the crock pot or 300 degrees in the oven for at least 6 hours.

When at all possible serve with red casing hotdogs and brown bread, also often served in Maine with coleslaw. Since you're going to fart like crazy after eating them, plus the cabbage in the cole slaw, you might as well go all out and wash it down with a hearty ale. You won't have any trouble being left alone after that.

And by the way, if I find out that you put ketchup on my beans, I'll hunt you down and shoot you! Ketchup is for hamburgers, meatloaf and bad french fries.

beans baked beans Maine Jacobs Cattle Yellow Eye Zebster salt pork molasses maple syrup brown sugar fart