We All Scream for Ice Cream (especially in New England!)
Wallace Stevens, the great imagist poet is famous for his statement that “there is no Emperor but for the Emperor of Ice Cream.” Well, if there is an “Emperor of Ice Cream,” you can be pretty sure he lives in New England. In fact, the average New Englander eats 22.8 quarts per year compared to…
Wharf Street: A Cornucopia of Delights
It is summer and happy hour on Wharf Street in Portland Maine presents the itinerant ambler with a cornucopia of delights. There’s lots to eat and drink, and see. Maine – maybe because of the sometimes harsh weather and rocky coast – has always taken its fun seriously. In the 1840s about a half million…
Think Global, Eat like a Portland Local
One of the most interesting groups of visitors we have led yet! Maine winters are cold and inhospitable, our growing season and summer are pretty short, right? Our local culinary traditions are supposed to be comparatively limited, too. Hold your horses for this one. Last week I led a group of exchange students from the…
The Stars Come Out In Portland, Maine
What the heck is this? Or this? Look up and you’ll see these things all over the place on the waterfront in Portland, Maine. Sometimes they are not even stars! What’s going on? The answer is that these decorative metal pieces are not ornaments. They serve an important function, literally keeping many of our turn of the…