Let's Do Lunch!!! /#1 India & Middle Streets

This is the first in a series of lunch posts from different areas of Portland. Not intended to be fully comprehensive, either geographically or within the small areas of a particular post, it is rather a series of small bites. It will be varied by types of food, a mom and pop store, a lunch cart, a good restaurant  all nearby each other as an example. And as usual it will be heavy on images and lite on words.


 India & Middle Streets the heart of the old Italian neighborhood meets the Old Port. It's home to Amato's sandwich shop and Micccci's grocery store. One not much different from when I came to Portland in the mid 70's and one, Micucci's which has evolved into something more... a little hipper.

The sandwiches are the same, fresh and a good deal. The patio was added a few years back.

Micucci's, I lived in the West End, but came here to buy food a lot. Cheese, cold cuts, olives, bread, chocolate & wine.  Things a just dropped out of college age kid would be looking for.  You can make a nice little picnic with those. Add a pretty girl and a nice secluded ocean view, (way before gentrification ) a sunny afternoon passes easily. Now days Steve Lanzalotta, author of "The Diet Code", has a little bakery in the back as well, where you can get pizza made from his "Luna bread dough".   Light as a feather, puffy and a really nice homemade tomato sauce.  Breads come out all day and cannoli and other traditional Italian pastry as well.

My wife's favorite Luna bread.

Cannoli come in several flavors.

Middle Street starts at India and runs across the Franklin Arterial to the Old Port. But this one block section has added a few restaurants over the years and you can have lunch at Duck Fat, the little brother to Highly regarded Chef Rob Evans, Hugo's.  I go here for the hand cut Belgian fries and a Stella. Get the Beignet's for dessert.

Right next door is the new guy on the block, The East Ender. Opened by Mitch Gerow & Megan Schroeter, in early January, it's two floors offers plenty of flexibility for both bar and table spacing. M&M both worked at Evangeline before Eric closed the doors, so they both know what a high quality bistro/restaurant should look and feel like.  Indeed as I was taking pictures of a couple at  an outside table, their salad and Trout fritters arrived, and the man immediately began waxing rhapsodic about the fritters. When a friend of mine and my wife came thru town a week later we had lunch at East Ender and confirmed his opinion. In fact all our three dishes, the fritters, the lobster nachos and a salad with buttermilk dressing were 1st rate!

Amato's / 71 India Street

207-773-1682

Micucci's  Italian Grocery / 45 India Street

207-775-1854

Duckfat / 43 Middle Street

207-774-8080

East Ender / 47 Middle Street

207-879-7669

eastenderportland.com

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Keep your eyes out for:

Coffee By Design

Two Fat Cats Bakery

Foodworks

Italian Life Expo / Friday Food & Travel +

Luisa De Luca from the Institute of Italian Studies can hook you up with a more in depth  knowledge of Italy & the language, to better prepare you for a vacation. 

Smoked mussels from Azure Cafe in Freeport.

Slitti / Cacao Pregiatihttp://www.slitti.it

Auto Europe

Suzanne B. Cohen can find you a country home or villa for your stay in Italy.
She is just one of the options you'll find helpful in planning your trip wether it's a guided tour ...
 Check the Expo website for more options.

...or an outdoor adventure!

Of course you'll want to try the wine!
And you can find the largest selection of Italian wines at Micucci's on India Street.

Cookies are just the sweetener at Fattoria Poggio Alloro.  The website has a helpful English companion site.

Flatbread Pizza was on hand for the middle session Friday providing delightful  to look at and oh so good to eat pies.

Paola D'Amato talks about the many types & varieties of wine to be found thru-out Italy.

All of the Bertagni cheeses and a large selection of Italian wines and specialty foods can be found Micucci's Market on India Street or for the wholesale division here.

Gorgeous Gelato temps both coming and going as their cart was set up in the passageway leading to  the main hall. They have been open at 434 Fore Street for several months, dishing real Italian Gelato, cakes & cannoli, affogato, expresso and more. I highly recommend a visit. You won't be disappointed! 

Saturday Bonus Food images

The 3 to 6 session food was provided by Frontier Cafe of Brunswick.

A happy and successful ending!

"Piatti per Tutti" A Place for Everbody

Before I get to todays post, I need to note for you boxing fans that I will get to the  PBC New England Championship Semi Finals later in the week, probably thursday.

Today starts a journey thru the Portland Food Map  calendar section.

I check in there often and noticed that this week is especially busy.

The regular monday food & drink trivia at Bull Feeny's

Simply Divine Brownies store opening in the Eastland on tuesday

The Portland Farmers market on wednesday

Maine mead Works Pub Crawl and Shipyards Prelude party on thursday

3 wine tastings... Falmouth, Portland, Scarboro, on thursday & friday

3 cooking classes, including todays post, "Piatti per Tutti" with chef Stephan Lanzalotta, author of "The Diet Code", at Micucci's; and SMCC Cooking Class and Black Tie Bistro are the other two.

Plus the weeks biggies three dinners

The first is a wine dinner, tuesday at Bar Lola on Munjoy Hill,

The 2nd is the "Slow Food Dinner"  wednesday at Cingue Terra

The 3rd is the 4th Annual Allagash Tasting dinner at Vignola!

MONDAY 2 FRIDAY, 14 items: I thought why not do as many as I can or at least one every day.  So let's get started!

Many of you know Stephan's food locally from his previous adventure, Sofia's Bakery, in the Portland's Old Port.  If you missed it, well I'm sorry for you: You will find this on quote his website

"[your cannoli are] better than Ferrara's!
 Molto Bene! Molto Grazie!"-- Frank Serpico

Now days he can be found working his magic on breads and pastries at Micucci's on India street where he also teaches his cooking classes.

The 1st delectable was Cannelloni ("cannelloni are rolled, simple and straight sided, while manicotti are preshaped tubes, often ridged, and usually with ends on a diagonal--homemade versions are rolled corner to corner along the diagonal. Cannelloni can be stuffed with cheese, meat or vegetables and topped with tomato or cream sauce...")

After we finished eating these we needed a dessert, that's where the brownies came in.

Soft but firm, moist, chocolaty with a mix of milk and dark, flaky topped and caramel colored, lovely with a cup of coffee!

Check back daily to follow my week!