Category: Food & Drink

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Saturday Night Enjoying Pizza at the Portland Pie Co.

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Pizza is one of those go to foods that often gets a bad rap or is dismissed as fast food. Probably because there are a lot of not so great pizza options out there. Fortunately, there are a lot of delicious, more creative choices available too. When some friends came up this past weekend, we decided to go to the Portland Pie Co.

While the Portland Pie Co. originated in Portland, they have expanded to seven restaurants throughout Maine and New Hampshire according to the location finder on their website. I counted up the pizza flags on the map which was more challenging than it sounds. For our Saturday night excursion, we headed to their Portland location on York Street.

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#atozchallenge | Y is for Yelp and Best Happy Hour Destinations in Portland, Maine

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On a recent outing into Portland, and in an attempt to finish prepping my a-z blog challenge posts, we let Yelp be out guide for the night. It’s important to point out a few things before diving into this post:

  • You can get extremely different Yelp results just by making slight modifications to your search criteria. “Happy Hour Cheap” and “Happy Hour Fun”, not surprisingly, don’t give you the same results. This was helpful to us, as we could manipulate our searches to make sure we liked the results we were seeing. We had to maintain some control over the night.

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Wings Closeup

#atozchallenge | W is for Wings Made with Deer Camp Black Bear Chipotle BBQ Sauce

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Finding ourselves in Portland one late afternoon with a few hours to spare, my daughter and I decided to pick up a few groceries at Trader Joe’s. Since the trip was unplanned, we didn’t have a shopping list so instead spent time wandering the aisles. Shopping without a list can be a dangerous activity. You never know what you’ll bring home. On a whim, I grabbed a two-pound bag of frozen organic chicken wings. I love wings, but surprisingly have never actually made them at home. This seemed like a reasonable splurge.

During checkout, the cashier commented that he’d heard great things about the wings saying “You wouldn’t think wings would be anything special, but they’re supposed to be delicious”. Interesting observation. I was feeling pretty pleased with my purchase.

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#atozchallenge | U is for Udon Noodles at Mi Sen Noodle Bar

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I have a nipponophile in my house. I had no idea that I had one until I did a quick google search for “someone who likes Japan and Japanese Culture” and up popped this new word. It started innocently enough with an interest in Japanese anime and then it expanded into a love of all things Japanese. One of her key areas of passion is Japanese food and especially noodles such as udon noodles.

Thinking I’d earn Mom points for taking her to a noodle house, we headed into Portland one recent Friday night to try Mi Sen Noodle Bar. It is a cute place, with nice decor and a serene atmosphere. But, one thing it is not, is a Japanese noodle house. My husband said I should have known by the name, and he is probably right, but I was focused only on the “noodle bar” part. While it does serve udon noodles, it is Thai based which gives their dishes a different flavor.

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#atozchallenge | N is for Naples in the Winter

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One thing I accepted long ago was that to live in Maine means to drive a lot, especially if I want to keep in touch with friends and family who are spread throughout New England and, in some cases, even farther. I could never lease a car. I’d go over my mileage in the first month.

Many of my drives involve meeting a friend “half-way” so that we can get together and have some fun. Since moving back to Maine, I’ve been making regular trips to Portsmouth, Kittery, and Newburyport, to connect with friends who live down in Massachusetts. I’ve become extremely knowledgeable on places to go and things to do in those areas. I could even rename my blog, “Weekends in Maine and towns off of Route 95 Heading South”.

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