Flatbread Company

While I haven’t been to Portland, Maine, since August (insert sad emoticon here) I still have some food posts from my last trip that never went up—one of them being about the tasty pizzas at Flatbread Company, located right on the water at 72 Commercial Street.   

I like Flatbread. It’s got a sweet vibe to it. The restaurant feels nice and spacious and you can watch your pizza being made and tossed into a blazing open wood stove. Inside is welcoming and warm, but when it’s nice out I recommend sitting outside by the water.  I'm biased toward a New York slice, but I've found life is much better when you just open yourself up to different variations on a good idea. My favorite pizza so far at Flatbread is the Homemade Sausage. I love the taste of the sausage—it’s nitrate free with a pleasant combination of subtle sweet maple and a bit of a bite from the fennel. The pizza also comes with organic sulfate-free sundried tomatoes, caramelized organic onions, organic mushrooms, whole milk mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese with organic bread dough and homemade organic garlic oil and herbs.  

Everyday they offer a vegetable and a meat special pizza, and they will also let you order a pizza half-and-half so you can try both without having to order too much food. On one visit we ordered half Coevolution and half of the meat special for the day. Coevolution is composed of imported Kalamata olives (guaranteed to make a good pizza even better), fresh organic rosemary, organic red onions, Sunset Acres goat cheese, fire-roasted sweet red peppers, and whole milk mozzarella on organic bread dough with homemade organic garlic olive oil and herbs. The meat special came with tiny Maine shrimps and a Thai peanut sauce. It had a little bit of heat to it and was also topped with peppers and snow peas. A success all around.  

A crisp Maine Root root beer is a nice accompaniment to the pizza, especially on a hot summer day. They also have nice options for beer and wine at the bar inside.  

One of the interesting aspects of Flatbread is that their menus are made from children’s drawings, some of which are highly entertaining. I am a seaweed! I am a cloud! I am a strawberry! I am an orphan?  

Pumpkin Ravioli Awesomeness

For dinner tonight I made pumpkin ravioli tossed with caramelized onions, minced garlic, baby spinach, olive oil and topped with goat cheese and crushed red pepper flakes.

Not too shabby. Not too shabby, indeed.

Garlic Rose

Earlier this year my parents visited me in Jersey and we hit up Garlic Rose, a restaurant I'd been dying to try for far too long. Located at 41 Main Street in Madison, New Jersey, Garlic Rose is BYOB, so we brought along a nice bottle of French malbec (my favorite type of wine). This cute bistro was packed to the brim on this Friday night and the scent of garlic filled the dining room, whetting our appetites for dinner.

First off, I just have to say that lots of restaurants bring out bread and oil or butter before your dinner begins, but at Garlic Rose this simple snack is taken to a new level. The bread was soft and warm and the dipping sauce was exceptional. It’s basically a super garlicky pesto sauce, and it tastes phenomenal when drizzled over the bread. I could have been happy just eating this standard fare.

But of course there were many more dishes to try! For one of our appetizers we ordered the Garlicious Escargots—snails served out of shell and sautéed with onions, shitake mushrooms, and basil in a red wine garlic veloute sauce. The snails were cooked perfectly and melted in the mouth with the delightful flavors of the accompanying sauce. 

We also tried the Artichoke Hearts Del Destino, which are egg-battered hearts sautéed with capers and red peppers in a roasted garlic lemon and veloute sauce. These were thankfully not battered too heavily and were perfect for sharing between us although I did prefer the escargot.

From the specials menu my mom ordered Shrimp Oreganato. This entrée consisted of shrimp topped with garlic orgenanato breadcrumbs that were broiled in a white wine, lemon, and butter sauce and was served with seasoned yellow rice. Also from the specials menu my dad ordered St. Peter’s Fish Fra Diablo, which consisted of Tilapia topped with a spicy garlic tomato sauce with hot cherry peppers, roasted red peppers, onions, fresh basil, and oregano. It was also served with seasoned yellow rice. This dish had a really nice level of intense heat and spiciness.

I opted for the Center Cut Frenched Rib Pork Chop. This 12 oz. center cut frenched rib pork chop was broiled to medium doneness in a garlic marinade, topped with a red wine demiglaze, and accompanied with caramelized Fuji apples and Gilroy potatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed this entrée. The pork chop was cooked just right, but the real gem of this dish was the caramelized apples. They added a slightly sweet delightful accompaniment to the pork that was all tied together with the red wine demiglaze. In fact, the sauces on all the dishes we tried were phenomenal—Garlic Rose must have a superb saucier.

Although we were full and satisfied after these appetizers and entrees we couldn’t resist trying the Garlic Ice Cream from the dessert menu. I’ve heard that such a thing exists but had yet to try it. This ice cream was exploding with garlic flavor. There was a very interesting play between the heat and intensity of the garlic juxtaposed with the cool sweetness of the ice cream that made this dessert particularly addictive. It was surprising that the most garlicky item we tasted was the dessert, but it was delicious and any garlic lover should definitely try it out at some point.

I’d been waiting quite a while to eat at Garlic Rose and it definitely lived up to my expectations. If you find yourself in the town of Madison then it’s well worth it to try out this garlicious bistro.  

Quote of the Week: The Soul of Cookery

"Garlic used as it should be used is the soul, the divine essence, of cookery. The cook who can employ it successfully will be found to possess the delicacy of perception, the accuracy of judgment, and the dexterity of hand which go to the formation of the great artist."

--Mrs. W. G. Waters, The Cook's Decameron, 1920

Wine N Diner

The other weekend I took a little jaunt up to Albany, and that can only mean one thing: Girls’ Night! This fabulous tradition started last spring as we met up every Thursday night for wine, gossip, and good estrogen-filled times. The craziness of summer interrupted our regular meetings, but we still got together whenever possible. These are my Albany ladies, and I love them, so when I knew I was going to be in town there was no way I wasn’t going to see these good friends.

We would usually meet up at one of our apartments, but for this Girls’ Night we decided to venture out on the town and hit up Wine N Diner, a fairly new restaurant located at 544 Delaware Avenue. The interior of the restaurant definitely had that diner feel, but the menu was elevated above the typical diner fare.

We started off the meal with fried Brie. Fried Brie? Yes, fried Brie. I can die happy now. It was like mozzarella sticks but better. Huge pieces of Brie were fried to crispy perfection and served with a drizzle of balsamic. The Brie melted beautifully inside its crunchy shell, and we devoured the appetizer within just a few minutes.


As I looked over the menu I noticed they had fried oysters as an appetizer. “Mmm,” I said, “I may need to get these fried oysters.”

My girl Randy leaned over the table and pointed to the Gulf Coaster on the BLT section (they have an entire part of the menu devoted to BLTs. That’s my idea of heaven.). The Gulf Coast consisted of fried oysters, Cajun shrimp, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and creole remoulade. “I know what I’m getting,” I announced. No question about it—I needed this sandwich in my life.


And it was amazing. I would never have thought of putting fried oysters on a BLT, but now I can’t imagine a world without it. They offered a nice crispiness but also a little pop of succulent oceanic flavor in the BLT. The Cajun shrimp were also nice and slightly spicy, but the oysters were the star of the sandwich. The bacon was nice and crispy, the lettuce and tomato had a clean, fresh flavor, and the bread was perfectly toasted.


To accompany the BLT I opted for a Bloody Samurai, a creative spin on the Bloody Mary. It had sake, tomato juice, pineapple, and wasabi—clean, refreshing, and satisfying. The wasabi really popped against the coolness of the tomato juice. It was an excellent match for the Gulf Coaster.


Heather and I were foodie twins that night, and we ordered the exact same meal and drink. Great minds think alike, or perhaps great stomachs crave the same amazing food.


Randy opted for the Elvis—peanut butter, banana, and bacon. Mmmmm. I tried a bite and it was incredible. I never would have put those ingredients together, so thank the lord for Elvis Presley. He knew what was up. The combination of sweet and salty and creamy was great, and it made Randy very, very happy.



Sara went for the macaroni and cheese and an order of Spanikorizo. The mac and cheese was nice and creamy and seemed to have some sort of fancy cheese melted in. I love when restaurants take a homey classic and give it a little bit of sophistication without taking it over the top—Wine N Diner does it right.


The Spanikorizo was super garlicky and tasty. I wish their menu was up on their Web site because I can’t recall what was mixed into that dish, but everything tasted fresh, healthy, and, yes, it was loaded with lots of garlic!


If you are in the Capitol Region and looking for a good sandwich or an elevated classic dish you should definitely check out Wine N Diner. They’ve also got a nice selection of wine, beer, and drinks, so if you want to unwind with a fancy BLT, a glass of wine, and some of your friends, it’s the place to be.

Quote of the Week: Bourdain on Garlic

"Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime. Old garlic, burnt garlic, garlic cut too long ago and garlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please treat your garlic with respect. Sliver it for pasta, like you saw in Goodfellas; don't burn it. Smash it, with the flat of your knife blade if you like, but don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic. And try roasting garlic. It gets mellower and sweeter if you roast it whole, still on the clove, to be squeezed out later when it's soft and brown. Nothing will permeate your food more irrevocably and irreparably than burnt or rancid garlic. Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screw-top jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic."

—Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly