The Maine Coast Chocolate Trail: A chocoholic’s guide

Maine has an official art museum trail, a maritime heritage trail, an architecture trail, even a garden and landscape trail. It doesn't have a...
One of Maine's Best food festivals

Maine’s best food festivals & events

Hungry for a taste of the real Maine? Feast upon this tasting portion of some of Maine's best food festivals and events. (Updated July...
Craving tortierre or pot en pot or raisin pie? Check out Bouchard Family FArms new French-Acadian Cookbook.

Bouchard Family Farms cookbook preserves Maine’s French-Acadian recipes

Ployes! Pot en Pot! Tortierre! Creton! Raisin Pie! If you've ever had the good fortune to travel in Maine's St. John Valley, you're likely...

For a topnotch fare, find The Lost Kitchen, in Belfast, Maine

CLOSED. Chef Erin French has taken her show on the road with an Airstream food truck.  For too long, Belfast, Maine, had only one restaurant...
People line up to purchase bread from Barak Olins' Zu Bakery. hilary Nangle photo.

Barak Olins’ ZU Bakery gives meaning to life

UPDATE: ZU Bakery moved to 81 Clark St., Portland, in 2022. BIG UPDATE: The James Beard Foundation named ZU Bakery its 2024 "Outstanding Bakery," defined...

Popovers, lobster, and pie on Acadia’s Quiet Side

The majority of visitors to Mount Desert Island say on the west side, congregating in Bar Harbor and the sights along the Park Loop...
For a taste of the real, ungussied-up Maine, loop down to Jonesport and spend a day or two immersed in a real lobstering village. hilary Nangle photo.

Jonesport, Maine: an authentic, ungentrified lobstering village on the down east coast

Jonesport, Maine, is a bona fide, way-way down east Maine lobstering village with a salty disposition and a stunning location. Not many tourists, other...

10 ways to escape the heat in Maine

We're looking at a few days of scorching heat, at least by Maine standards. Keep that in mind: It IS worse elsewhere. And many...
In the early morning quiet and soft golden light, North Haven is especially enticing. Hilary Nangle photo

North Haven: autumn on a Maine island, oysters, organic produce, and Angela Adams

Most of my friends who live beyond Maine's borders think I live in the most ideal place. And they're right, to a point. But...

Road Food: Did somebody say doughnuts?

Oh yum, here's a find! Jeremy Towne, a.k.a the Towne Fryer. This spring, Towne relocated from Machias to Whiting, where he keeps his doughnut...

Hallowell, Maine: Where to stay, eat, and play

Hallowell, Maine, hugs the Kennebec River just south of Augusta, the state's capital city. Once a major port for ice, granite, and lumber, the...
After playing the Samoset's oceanfront course, hoof it out to the Rockland Breakwater or up the Camden Hills, then soak in the new outdoor pool. Courtesy photo.

New pool, spa, restaurant, and other renovations at Maine’s oceanfront Samoset Resort notch up...

If you haven't been to Maine's Samoset Resort in a while, you'll be amazed at the changes. I toured the oceanfront resort in Rockport,...
Chef William Howe's fish chowder aboard the Maine windjammer Angelique. Hilary Nangle photo

Nothing better than fish chowder on a Maine windjammer: Here’s the recipe

“I don’t really use recipes,” says William Howe, chef on the traditional Maine windjammer Angelique as he peels potatoes for the day's fish chowder...
Authentic Somalian and Morocan flavors come out of the tiny kitchen at Fez, in Portland, Maine. Hilary Nangle photo.

Fez, Portland’s new Somalian-Moroccan Restaurant dishes out authentic flavors

On a lark, I had lunch at Fez, Portland, Maine's, new Somalian-Moroccan Restaurant on Washington Avenue. Loved it! That's the short story, now let...
Penny Jordan and her siblings and dad saved the family farm by working with the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. Hilary Nangle photo.

All is Well at Jordan’s Farm, in Cape Elizabeth, thanks to development easements—and don’t...

Last week, I had the good fortune to visit a number of Maine farms with the Maine Farmland Trust, an organization that's working to...