Food and Drink: Best of the Rest

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snack
Fox Family Potato Chips

The Maine potato is such an icon, such an enduring and delicious epitome of starchy goodness, and the Fox family, of Aroostook County, has been growing potatoes for so long (since the 1800s), that you begin to wonder why they waited to get into the chip business. No matter. The chip that Rhett Fox refined in the back room of his Mapleton convenience store has been worth the wait. Made with russet potatoes, sliced by hand, and fried until dark (“but not too dark” in Fox’s words) in canola and corn oils, these are, amazingly, the only potato chips actually manufactured in Maine. Available in three flavors — plain, salt and black pepper, and barbecue — they are addictive. Fortunately, they’re cholesterol and trans-fat free, too. Tretts, Main St., Mapleton, 888-304-8281, www.foxfamilypotatochips.com [2]

food guide
PortlandFoodMap.com

Anestes Fotiades is obsessed! But we mean that in a good way. A software designer by day, Fotiades transforms after dark into the all-knowing cataloger of Portland eateries, roaming the city streets from Riverside to the East End and recording every café, bistro, and taqueria he discovers on his encyclopedic Web site. The site offers a visual approach to the city’s restaurant scene, “mapping” all the available dining options by dining style and ethnic cuisine. Fotiades doesn’t editorialize (much) but does link to available reviews so you can decide whether the new tapas place is really worth your time and money. www.portlandfoodmap.com [3]

brewery
Allagash Brewing Company

Fifteen years ago, Belgian-style beer was a novelty in this great nation — the micro-brewed version of Jean-Claude Van Damme. That makes Rob Tod a visionary in our eyes. Long before American chefs began pairing entrees and appetizers with dubbels and tripels, Tod created the Allagash Brewing Company in a Portland industrial park, starting first with a signature white beer and then expanding to cellared and barrel-aged ales that rival the best brews ever to emerge from a Belgian monastery. The brewery offers tours and retail sales. 50 Industrial Way, Portland. 207-878-5385, www.allagash.com [4]

hot sauce

Photo Credit: Jennifer Baum
Captain Mowatt’s Canceaux Sauce

It’s not every day when a Maine hot sauce heads into the jalapeño heart of darkness that is Louisiana and burns the doors off the local competition. But that’s what Dan Stevens of the W.O. Hesperus Company did with his Canceaux Sauce — a fiery mix of jalapenos, African birdseye, japones, and cayenne red chilies, with just the right touch of sugar, vinegar, and garlic. Stevens’ homemade concoction took first place last year at the Cajun Hot Sauce Fest in Louisiana, beating out — get this — Tabasco. W.O. Hesperus’ other picante pickles, jerkies, and rubs warm our hearts, too. 64 Eastern Promenade, Portland, 207-773-8047, www.wohesperus.com [5]

specialty shop

Photo Credit: Jennifer Baum
The Cheese Iron

Route One in Scarborough bears zero resemblance to a back street in Paris’ Montmartre. Zero. So the Cheese Iron — a European-style shop offering more than two hundred domestic and international cheeses, from chevres and bleus to aged cheddars — already gets a prize for its sheer unlikeliness. But what really distinguishes Jill Dutton and Vincent Maniaci’s specialty store is the expert advice of the people who work here and their devotion to what they call the holy trinity of food — cheese, wine, and bread. 200 U.S. Rte. 1 Suite 300, Scarborough, 207-883-4057, www.thecheeseiron.com [6]

root beer

Photo Credit: Courtesy Capt’n Eli’s Soda
Capt’n Eli’s Root Beer

It wasn’t exactly the Pepsi challenge, but in the interest of crowning the king of Maine-drafted root beers, the editors of this fine publication submitted ourselves to the ultimate taste test. We lined up all the available challengers and sipped our way from one to the next until we had a clear winner (and our consensus was overwhelming, by the way). Capt’n Eli’s is a full-bodied, traditional root beer flavored with wintergreen oil, anise, and vanilla, and sweetened with natural cane and brown sugars (not that yucky corn syrup stuff). Since it was created by the artisans at Shipyard Brewing, it should be good. 86 Newbury St., Portland, 1-800-BREW-ALE, www.shipyard.com [7]

place to find a new recipe
Rabelais Books

When the senior editor of Food & Wine magazine raves about the culinary knowledge and rare cookbook selection of Don and Samantha Hoyt Lindgren, the owners of this still newish shop on Middle Street — well, who are we to argue? We might never be in the market for the first American edition of The Savoy Cocktail Book (price: $350), but we know where to find one. Rabelais carries more than 1,200 titles, proving that its motto, “thought for food,” is no boast. 86 Middle St., Portland, 207-774-1044, www.rabelaisbooks.com [8]