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

Greg and I are hopping in the car on Friday for the 10 x 10 painting show in Portland. We hope to get to Ladle, a new soup restaurant on Exchange and Congress that is partially owned by our friend Regan. I've heard good things about the joint and it got great reviews in the local papers. If you are around the area, stop in and let me know what you think.

Enjoy,
Seth

I had cake issues yesterday. Actually, it was more like cake tragedies, one after the other. There are days when one should just put away the pots and pans and go order out, and yesterday was one of those days, but I had a job to do. I offered to make two cakes for birthdays yesterday. One cake for a 1 year old and one cake for a 29 year old, both celebrating at the same party. The one year old got yellow cake with chocolate frosting, easy. The "grown-up" cake was mocha chocolate cake with kalhua mousse between the layers and chocolate caramel frosting. I overbaked the first chocolate cake and decided to start again. The second ones came out perfectly, until I cooled them and tried to work with them, then they fell apart, literally. Luckily, I saved the first two overdone cake layers and tried to salvage one of the fallen apart cakes to use as a layer but that just dissolved into the mousse...what an ungodly mess. I thought to myself...WWJD? (what would Julia do?) So I quickly got out a springform pan and picked up the pile of cake/mousse from the counter (I wish I shot a picture of that) and tamped it down into the springform pan and poured a nice layer of chocolate caramel frosting on top and shoved the whole thing in the freezer...it looked very elegant at that point.
Then I salvaged what mousse I could and assembled the original chocolate cake and shoved the lopsided mess into the fridge to set at 4pm (we were due at the party at 5pm).
MEANWHILE, my frosting was not setting because I made a double batch and there was too much of it to get thick in the fridge. Its essentially water and sugar boiled til amber and then infused with heavy cream which is then poured over chocholate , stirred til smooth and then put in the fridge to get thick...that didn't happen, so I was left at 4:45 with unspreadable frosting and both cakes waiting. WWJD? I pulled out the mix master and whipped that frosting into shape. I came out like heath bar frosting, light chocoate with bits of caramel in it....saved the day and its amazing what frosting can hide!!
We were a bit late to the party and I smelled like frosting, but a good time was had by all. The evil cake disappeared very fast much to my suprise. The 1 year old got frosting everywhere, including her hair, her face, her mother's hair and everywhere else...a job well done in my book!

Not sure how the springform cake came out as it still in the freezer, I'll let you know.

Enjoy,
Seth