The Salt Exchange

• The Press Herald covers Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation benefit, of which we were proud to be a part.
• In water sustainability news, Working Waterfront discusses how lobster populations are monitored. (You can also see a video about sustainable lobster management from the folks at Organic Nation here).
• In other Maine food News: Salmon Falls Winery - Maine's newest winery - opened its doors this month
• The Press Herald takes a look at some chicken recipes while making these great suggestions: go local, and hormone free.
• Down East suggests that Summertime = Berry Time.
• How about some summer specific food safety tips from Bangor Daily News?
• Bonnie of Going Home to Roost writes about eating seasonal vegetables.
• Finally: Don't forget that our tequila event is coming right up, and you should RSVP for it here. In the meantime, catch up on our guide to useful tequila related Internet links.
   

While preparing for our upcoming tequila tasting (more info here), we took a look at some tequila odds and ends found on the ever-vast and ever-interesting Information Super Highway. We're excited to share the wealth:

• Because everything on the Internet is true, how about some tequila facts?
• Thank you Poco Tequila for making these vintage tequila recipes available.
• Smithsonian (yes - that Smithsonian) is to start distilling tequila in Washington, D.C.
• Read why Mark Ellwood of the New York Times compared tequila to Paris Hilton:
• "More rum," demanded the matador. "Damn the tequila. Just rum—Jamaican and bitter.  - A mnemonic [by Kent Woodyard] for the names of Matt Damon's twelve made up brothers in Good Will Hunting. (Marky, Ricky, Danny, Terry, Mikey, Davey, Timmy, Tommy, Joey, Robby, Johnny, and Brian.)
• Mas Tequila performer (and - depending on who you talk to - Van Halen ruiner) Sammy "The Red Rocker" Hagar announced the upcoming release his autobiography. (And should you be hungry -er, thirsty - for more Sammy Hagar related news, you can read about a hilarious fight between he and indie rock darling Devendra Banhart - told from Banhart's perspective - here).
• And - last but not least - watch Pee Wee Herman do The Tequila here.

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie attended a Gulf of Maine Research Institute [GMRI] event called "Trawl to Table." The event was targeted at local restaurant chefs, and was intended to take a look at - and demystify - the concept of trawling as sustainable practice. Attending the event had such an impact on Charlie that The Salt Exchange is now offering more sustainable catch fish. I (Alex Steed, the Salt Exchange blogger) talked with Charlie a bit about the event.

What was the premise of the From Trawl to Table event?

The intention was to educate local area area restaurant chefs and owners on sustainable catch and fishing practices around the gulf of Maine. Sam Hayward [of Fore Street], Guy Hernandez [of Bar Lola] and Michele Cory [of Five Fifty-Five] were there as well, as were some members of Browne Trading Market and others.

What was discussed at the event?

Well, the name "Trawl to Table" is a play on "nose to tail" or "farm to table," and we discussed current fishing techniques and technology at great length. As indicated by the name, we focused on how these techniques and technology relate to trawling.

Can you talk more about trawling?

They explained that trawling gets a very bad rap because of some terrible and somewhat barbaric practices in trawling being utilized in the practice overseas, like the killing of whales, dolphins, and other aquatic animals. The adoption of new trawling technologies have made the practice especially sustainable here in Maine. By using nets that differentiate between fish morphology and swimming habits, local fishermen can increase their catch of one type of species while reducing the number of fish caught that they do not want.

Additionally, net gap-width and shape can help to determine the size of the fish they intend to catch, so fish too small for catching swim through.

What else did you learn there?

We had a conversation regarding the types of fish at market and their longterm sustainability, which I found compelling. The sustainability ratings were based on current data about their stocks off the Gulf of Maine. There are many great, local fish that are not being utilized because there is no market for them commercially. If restaurants - particularly those serving higher end fare - were to more actively showcase lesser known local varieties, we would see reductions in over-fishing as it pertains to more desirable fish such as Cod.

By rotating the type of fish that we eat and serve with more regularity and purpose, we could reasonable contribute to managing Maine fishing stocks to more sustainable levels.

How can other restaurants be helpful with regard to helping manage fish sustainability?

I had suggested a need for increased marketing of these lesser known fish - perhaps a "Fish of the Month" that can be advertised through the Maine Restaurant Association, as well as by going through local, respected purveyors like Harbor Fish and Browne Trading Market. At the Salt Exchange, we will definitely be including more Hake on the menu, and educating our community about it. Also, I would also like to give a shootout to Five Fifty-Five and the Cory's, as they are featuring a drink on their menu where $1 from every drink goes to support research for sustainable fishing practices in Maine.

• Are you looking for local food from real people? Enter your zip code here and look no further.
• Not sure how many of you are up in and around the Rockland area, but this event for the film Meet Your Farmer at the Strand Theater looks well worth a visit.
• The Kneading Conference and Maine Artisan Bread Fair is coming up. It's in July. Check it out.
• Here is a great story from the Bangor Daily News about farmers market approaches to making vegetables more farmer's markets affordable for folks who qualify. The "Veggie Prescription" is part of an initiative to get folks to eat healthily and locally, and it is funded by Redington-Fairview General Hospital, the national Wholesome Wave Foundation and the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Foundation.
• Right across the border, New Hampshire is finding out the benefits of maintaining a local food economy.
• And finally, we have a tequila tasting coming up on the 30th of this month. The event features Hornitos tequila, and you can RSVP for it on Facebook here.
   

• Joe Appel, Rosemont Market superstar and all-around good guy, has begun writing about wine for the Portland Press Herald. In his words, he's "the new wine-talking guy."  He introduces himself here. 
• Further in Portland Press Herald reading, Anne Mahale meditates on grilling, timing, and knowing when to strike (as it were). More here.
• Downeast has offered suggestions on the tastiest things to eat in Maine. Fortunately Best Beach Bite - some of the best french (er… Pier) fries in the state - made the list.
• Just a reminder that MOFGA makes it super-easy to find local food, farms, and CSAs in your area.  (And speaking of local food, Jonah Fertig, An Owner at Local Sprouts Cafe Cooperative, is featured in the Meet Your Neighbor section of the Munjoy Hill News
• We are proud to be a participating restaurant in Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation: Portland, Maine. The event will occur on the 27th of this month, and you can learn more about it here.
• And finally… It's Martha's birthday tomorrow, and it may or may not be true that she is a Sephora fiend. Just saying. 

For your reading and web-browsing pleasure:

We will celebrate (!):  Today marks our one year anniversary, and we just can't believe it. We will be offering new signature drinks and complimentary canapés from 5-7. As always, there will be free parking available in the MEMIC lot and we are so excited to see you. It has been a fabulous year for us at the restaurant, and we have received so much love and support from the community. For that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  

• Also worth noting (especially for those of you with a taste for literature): Our anniversary falls on Bloomsday, a day set aside to celebrate the life of author James Joyce. More about the day can be read here, and we encourage you to have a drink for James. The Writer's Almanac writes about Bloomsday here, and you can hear Garrison Keillor talk about Bloomsday here. 
• Finally: Joe Ricchio made a beautifully entertaining appearance on WCSH this morning, where he made tripe soup. Topics covered included soups that make for good hangover cures, living safely through vicarious blog-reading, and - of course - early morning tripe-eating. You can watch his performance below. 

Just a quick update to let you know that we're just getting our first deliveries of local farm fresh pea tendrils, greens, radishes and herbs. We've been getting some really nice strawberries from Massachusetts (there isn't yet much available locally).

To date we have been fortunate to see Matt at Sparrow Arc Farm and Beth at Dandelion Spring Farm and we expect to see them more - and more folks - soon.

From New market day expands options for buying local, by way of Avery Yale Kamila at the Portland Press Herald:

Two weeks ago, the Portland Farmers' Market added another day, with a new crop of farmers who intend to set up shop from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every MONDAY in Monument Square.

...

The market's expansion to three days comes as a result of the number of farmers who wanted a spot at either the Saturday or Wednesday markets and have been languishing on the waiting list.

The Portland Press Herald reports that Becky's Diner and the Porthole will both be featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, the Food Network's serial tribute to three classic American culinary institutions.

The article, which you can take a look at here, is well worth checking out, though this excerpt is a nice testament to Becky's:

Allison Page, vice president of programing for the Food Network, said Becky's has everything the show looks for -- great characters and great food.

The episode on which the restaurants will be featured is not yet scheduled. Many congratulations to Becky Rand and Oliver Keithly, owners of Becky's Diner and the Porthole respectively, on this much-deserved coverage of these Portland, Maine institutions.

[Photo Credit: Gordon Chibroski / Portland Press Herald]

A couple of years after its publication, Charlie has finally gotten around to reading - and loving - David Kamp's The United States of Arugula. If you are not familiar with it, upon the book's publication, Alison Arnett of the Boston Globe described wrote that the book is "a lively assessment of how far we've come as food mavens and who got us here." She goes on to say that it "stands out from a sea of issue-oriented books written in the last few years."

We're lucky to have an interview with Kamp for the blog lined up for next week. In preparation for that, we've dug up some Arugula-related treasures online, which we think you'll find interesting whether or not you have read the book.

Kamp's website is hilarious, as it features blog entries entitled A Borscht Stain on the World Wide Web and A Valediction on the Passing of "Law & Order." On the latter subject, he writes (in the style of Auden):

It was my North, my South, my East and West,
My DVR mainstay and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that L&O would last forever: I was wrong.

(We feel your pain, David)

• The New York Times Book podcast interviews David Kamp here.
• You can here more audio of Kamp here, this time on NPR's On Point, on which he discusses his book in the context of Thanksgiving. 
• The New York Times' A.O. Scott reviews Kamp's "lively, smart, horrendously titled new book," explaining, "The cover depicts Lady Liberty clutching a bunch of greens in place of her torch, proving that Kamp’s publishers have turned a deaf ear to the wisdom of a leading American gourmand, Homer Simpson, who once observed that you don’t win friends with salad."
• Joe Meyers, of Connecticut News, wrote of Arugula: Clearly, we were long overdue for a book explaining how this all came to pass in a country where TV dinners and Howard Johnson galvanzied the populace only 50 years ago." He goes on: “The United States of Arugula” is so well written that you don’t really have to be a foodie to enjoy it: Kamp makes a strong case that the story he tells is as important as the rest of the cultural history of the past half-century.
• Powell's features this talk with Kamp, in which he reflects on the book, being lucky enough to interview Don DeLillo, and author A. J. Liebling, who Kamp claims "ate food the way Charlie Parker played sax."
• And finally, David Kamp shares with New York Magazine his favorite NY food books.