Brian Boru

If District has the best burgers in Portland, Maine, then I've got to say that Brian Boru has the best wings. This Irish pub, located at 57 Center Street, is an excellent place to throw back some beers, enjoy live music, and sample their superb wings.

These spicy wings are juicy on the inside, have a crispy exterior coated with garlic sambal sauce, and are served with a side of creamy Gorgonzola dip. I'd been craving super spicy delicious wings, but the ones I'd recently tried in Jersey hadn't curbed my desire. Right before heading to Maine I came across some quality wings in Western New York, but the spiciness just wasn't there. The sambal wings at Brian Boru, however, hit the spot. 

I had to look up what exactly sambal is, and it turns out that it's a Southeast Asian condiment made with a variety of chili peppers. You can pick up a jar of Sambal Oelek if you want to try out this condiment at home.

But I'll warn you, these wings can be pretty fiery. It's a pleasant fire, in my opinion, but if you're not big on spicy food they might not be for you. Although you can always just load them up with the cool and creamy Gorgonzola dip and sip on a Guinness of a Black and Tan if the heat is too much. 

Having a plate of hand-cut, think fries doused in garlic, sea salt, and parsley butter is also an excellent idea.

In addition to serving up these delicious wings, fries, and beers, Brian Boru has live music Thursdays through Sundays, so it's a great place to hang out. And there's never any cover for the music. I was just checking out their website, and apparently they are currently having free BBQ every Thursday from 5-7. I want to go to there. Now.  

Nosh (or Tasting the Apocalypse)

Portland, Maine, is filled with amazing restaurants serving up superb food, creative cocktails, and delicious microbrews. One such exceptional restaurant is Nosh, located at 551 Congress Street.

We hit up Nosh the other night for some drinks and eats. Since the rapture is upon us we decided to try the Apocalypse Now burger. This ridiculous burger consists of a pork and beef patty, American cheese, crispy pork belly, bacon, foie gras, house mayo, and cherry jam, served on a brioche bun. This burger may be the most over-the-top decadent and indulgent food I’ve ever eaten. We split it three ways and that was plenty satisfying—eating the whole thing would have probably been too much, although if you’re having a hard time sleeping it might be good to just devour one of these Apocalypse Now burgers. It’ll put you right to sleep, for sure. 

Because the burgers have pork in them they need to be cooked throughout, which sounds unfortunate but the burger really doesn’t suffer much. And while I might be wary of putting jam on a burger it worked out perfectly—it wasn’t intensely sweet or anything and it added a nice flavor. You really can’t go wrong with the Apocalypse Now burger. Seriously. When a piece of foie gras falls out of your burger while you’re eating it, you know you’re in the foodie capital of the world.  

As if the Apocalypse Now burger wasn’t enough, we also ordered the Pork Belly Poutine. The poutine was a combination of fries, gravy, melted cheddar cheese curds, and strips of pork belly. How absurd is that? Think about it—you’re sitting there eating your fries, enjoying yourself immensely, when all of a sudden you pop a fry in your mouth and realize it’s actually a piece of pork belly. How can you not be happy in that situation? The fries were nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and the gravy and cheese curds tasted phenomenal and didn't load down the fries too much.

In addition to the burger and fries we each had an oyster shooter. These shooters had an oyster swimming in vodka, clam juice, bloody mary sauce, and Sriracha, with a smoked salt and pepper rim. They had a really nice spiciness (how can you go wrong with Sriracha?), but it did overshadow the flavor of the oysters and was a bit overpriced.

For drinks I ordered a glass of Malbec, Sonya went for a Tempranillo, and Pat got Allagash Black. Allagash Brewery is located in Portland, Maine, and they make fantastic beer. The Allagash Black is a Belgium strong dark ale that is malty and chocolaty. I was perfectly satisfied with my Malbec, but after I had a taste of the Allagash I was a bit jeally—it was quite delicious.

Whether you are in the mood for tasting the apocalypse or just want some pork belly with your fries, Nosh is a great spot to hit up for on a night out. It’s one of the many must-eat-at restaurants in Portland that you’ve got to try if you’re in the area.

Song of the Week: Beer, Beer, Beer

Woo Chon

If you’re looking for delicious Korean barbeque in New York City then you’ll definitely want to check out Woo Chon, located in Midtown at 8 West 36th Street. We had quite a crew that night, and Woo Chon was a great place for family-style dining. We ordered a ton of food, and left stuffed and satisfied.

First the servers brought out an array of Korean vegetable dishes. These included kim chi, bean sprouts, egg plant, radish, and dried seaweed. Just look at that spread—there was something for everyone. 

 

And then the appetizers started filling up the table. First up was the Seafood Pajun—an incredible scallion pancake with mussels, squid, oysters, and mushrooms. It arrived at the table nice and crispy on the outside, fluffy and light on the inside, and simply exploding with seafood.

Next came the Mandoo Gui. These dumplings stuffed with beef, pork, tofu, and vegetables and fried until crispy were excellent, like little pockets of perfection that were great for sharing.

The server also brought over some Haemul Sun Tofu soup on the house. This spicy soup was prepared with seafood and soft tofu. There was lots of different types of seafood in the soup, and I was happy to discover some tasty tentacles.

I insisted on ordering grilled baby back ribs, which were flame broiled with a spicy marinade. These ribs were out of this world with their spicy and sweet sauce. One of the reasons I love ribs is tearing the meat off the bone—it makes me feel primitive (in a good way).

The Korean-style barbeque was one of the main reasons we decided to hit up Woo Chon. At each table there is a burner. The server turns it on and allows a metal grill plate to heat up. After it’s hot enough the meat is placed on the grill and allowed to cook through. We ordered Galbi (prime rib filleted off the bone) and Saewoo Gui (filleted shrimps). Both were served in the Woo Chon marinade and tasted awesome.

When the meat was ready we wrapped the pieces up in lettuce and a dollop of spicy sauce (next time I'll definitely be saving those assorted vegetables to wrap up the barbequed meat!).

 

We also ordered two types of Bibimbap. Bibimbap is a very popular Korean dish—it is often a mixture rice, vegetables, and meat served sizzling in a hot stone bowl. The ingredients are then mixed together in the bowl at the table. I don’t remember exactly what was in each of the bibimbaps that we ordered, but they were delicious. Bibimbap is great to eat, but it's also a lot of fun to say.

For drinks to accompany our meal I ordered some cold house sake while everyone else opted for the Korean OB beer.

 

Woo Chon was a great place to devour tasty Korean barbecue. There’s so much to choose from that you simply can’t go wrong. I recommend going with a large group so you can try lots of these delicious dishes!

McSorley's Old Ale House

"Two players. Two sides. One is light, one is dark." This John Locke quote (the LOST John Locke not the seventeenth-century philosopher) seems apt when speaking about McSorley's Old Ale House. They serve up only two options--light beer and dark beer.  

Located at 15 East 7th Street, this New York City establishment has been around since 1854. Everything is old school in this bar. From the sawdust on the floor to the inch-thick coating of dust on the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling, McSorley's brims with history.


If you're looking for a good place to throw back a couple of beers and soak up some New York City history, McSorley's is the place to be.

 

Quote of the Week: Miasma of Hipness

"Order a Heineken in Portland or San Francisco--or just about anywhere, these days--and be prepared to be sneered at by some locavore beer-nerd, all too happy to tell you about some hoppy, malty, microbrewed concoction, redolent of strawberries and patchouli, that they're making in a cellar nearby. Unless, of course, you opt for post-ironic retro--in which case, that 'silo' of PBR will come with a cover charge and an asphyxiating miasma of hipness."


--Anthony Bourdain, Medium Raw

Thai Market

The best type of boyfriend is one that treats his girlfriend’s sister to dinner every once in a while. I’m a lucky girl—I get to be that girlfriend’s sister. Remain single and still get my dinner and drinks paid for? Yes, please.

So while Sonya cultured herself at a friend’s dance recital, Pat and I ventured up the Upper West Side to 960 Amsterdam Avenue to dine at Thai Market. He raved about it all day essentially since we left ’ino earlier, and I couldn’t wait to try out some delicious Thai food.

The décor of Thai Market was pretty interesting—definitely not what I expected for a Thai restaurant. It was very modern with sleek tabletops and just enough dim lighting that Pat could hide his phone and watch the game on it while we ate.

We started off with a couple of Singha beers (a Thai lager) and ordered some appetizers to share. One of the items Pat insisted we try was the Loog Chin Ping—Thai meatballs with a tamarind chili glaze. They were the perfect item for sharing. The cute, little meatballs came split in half and impaled on toothpicks and drizzled with the tamarind chili glaze offering a bit of sweetness and spiciness. I couldn’t wait to get my mouth around those balls. 

Next up was Yum Yum Thai spicy salad. We ordered the Yum Neau, which came with grilled skirt steak, mint, red onion, watercress, and roasted rice. The salad was my favorite part of the meal. Don’t get me wrong—everything else was fantastic, but that salad was something else. Pat asked them to go really spicy, and they delivered. There’s something about really spicy food that, once you get over that initial burn, you can’t seem to stop eating. It’s almost as if you think if you keep eating it the next bite will cool off your tongue. But it doesn’t. The flavors of the salad were so delicious I couldn’t stop, and the alternation between delicious flavors and intense spiciness is like a little dance of pain and pleasure on the tongue. I definitely need to learn how make this salad at home.

We also opted for one of the items on the specials menu—crispy shrimp pancakes. Just imagine a latke but even crispier and with shrimp incorporated into it. Delicious. And the dipping sauce that came it was one of the best I’d tried. It was light, sweet, and spicy, and it was the perfect accompaniment for the crispy saltiness of the shrimp pancakes.

For the entrée Pat ordered the Amber Shrimp dish, which came with shrimp, Chinese celery, onion, egg, and long hot pepper that was sautéed with yellow curry. I only tried a couple of bites but it was amazing and had a nice heat from the pepper and curry.

I ordered the Kow Moo Dang with roasted pork, Thai pork sausage, boiled egg, and moo dang sauce, served over rice. Sometimes I like to order what I know for sure will be good, and sometimes I take a risk—this night I took a risk. I was very curious was Thai pork sausage would taste like and was surprised to find that it was very sweet. The dish was sort of a yin and yang. On one side were slices of savory roast pork and on the other was the sweet Thai pork sausage, all brought into balance with the boiled egg in the center. The Kow Moo Dang sauce was also very sweet with almost an essence of maple syrup in it. While the sauce was quite tasty I needed some heat and tried it out with all the various hot peppers that served as condiments. Delicious.

 

Thai Market was a great place for dinner. The dishes were all high quality and authentic and yet the prices were not New York City prices—everything on the menu is completely reasonable. They don’t have a Web site, but you can check out the menu online. I highly recommend Thai Market to anyone in the city who is looking for a good place to enjoy some tasty, authentic Thai food.