We were really disappointed last night when we were walking to find Ladle, the new soup restaurant on Exchange Street inPortland, to find that it was closed! Perhaps there was a run on soup in the afternoon and they were left with empty pots, so they closed...who knows. We decided therefore to go to Federal Spice, a small walk up service Asian(??) wrap restaurant on Federal and Temple Streets. We were five people and on a Friday night at six pm were able to find a table on the first floor. My sister and my friend Doug had been there a number of times and really liked the place. The food was good and inexpensive and I lamented the fact that we have no place like this in Belfast except for the Baywrap. My sister had a black bean quesadilla with pineapple chutney which was beautiful, but smooshy. The taste was really good though. I had a burrito filled with lemongrass rice with coconut curry chicken. I had to add some hot hot asian sauce to give my wrap some flava. Greg had a black bean and jerk chicken wrap and Doug had his filled with catfish. What we didn't order were the famous Yam fries, which looked great and probably were incredible. Apparently the restaurant uses as much local produce as they can get in any given day and so one has to like this place simply for that fact. The food was a nice change from what we get here on the coast. They have a small (3 seat) bar with two beers on tap and a great outdoor table section.
We'd certainly come back here again and try some of the other fare. I was jonesin' for the Yam fries on the way home.

Enjoy,
Seth