The Boston Food Critic Travels to Portland | Northern Italian Food
Posted on Thu, Jul 23, 2009 @ 08:10 PM
Do a Google search for Portland Maine Italian and see what comes up.......
The first organic result is for Cinque Terre...no pun intended here....but this place is known for their use of organic, local farm ingredients and serving up Northern Italian food. So not only are they spot on with their SEO efforts, but they are also spot on with their food quality. I must say I was a bit nervous traveling out of my North End Boston comfort zone and having had Northern Italian food in Italy which is known as being bland especially for those used to spicy red sauces.
The Boston Food Critic traveled to Maine this past weekend and had a fantastic Northern Italian dinner in the Old Port and then sipped Allagash White for $3 a pop at Brian Boru's. I might move to Portland just for the cheap beer :)
Anyhoo, the dinner was fantastic. For starters we ordered the fried calamari and yummy oysters. The oysters are ordered invidually and you have your choice of either roasted with pancetta butter or raw with prosecco mignonette. I love raw oysters, but the roasted oysters were amazing....
For entrees, the lady and I shared in order to take full advantage of the Primi and Secondi without the calories. I ordered the Cacciuccio which was amazing. Typically when ordering some type of fish stew it is drowning in a thin broth of red sauce. Well this was not the case...clams, mussels, cod, smoked shrimp and scallops on top of crostini in a yummy thick spicy red sauce..FANTASTIC!
The lady had a fresh pasta dish complete with lots of fresh local organic veggies including but not limited to leeks, zucchini, olives, etc in a tomato cream sauce which was good, but by itself might have been disappointing.
We also had some wonderful Prosecco which paired nicely with the dinner. Our server was very nice and energetic, he also made some good recommendations.
Definitely recommend this place if traveling to the Old Port. Please check them out online at www.cinqueterremaine.com
Thanks to the Wells family for the wonderful dinner! Hope your reading.
Ciao!
Brian aka The Boston Food Critic