Click image for slideshow.

Slightly irreverent, decidedly innovative, Nosh Kitchen Bar is part of Portland's creative economy, successfully offering a lot of inspired cooking  from the kitchen behind the high counters in back.

An eatery of many facets, it’s a great concept motivated by the deli world of New York noshing where one person’s snack (as in knish) is another’s forshpeis (appetizer).  

     

Click image for slideshow.

I never met a lobster pound I didn’t like. That is, until recently.

After finding that Miller's, our first choice, was fogged in, my friends visiting from New York and I ended up at Waterman’s Beach Lobster in South Thomaston, based on the single criteria that it was sunny there.

   

Click image for slideshow.

The Good Table, in the heart of Cape Elizabeth, close enough to the beach to get some serious ocean breezes, has been such a popular neighborhood restaurant for years that it hardly seems worth extolling any more of its highly touted virtues.

On the other hand, perhaps it’s time to take a closer look.

       

Click image for slideshow.

From start to finish every dish was a revelation of taste and culinary superlatives. I’m referring to a special dinner that I was invited to at the Kennebunk restaurant, 50 Local. The name implies that locally sourced foods are the focus of this dining establishment. And indeed they are. The farms and local suppliers are prominently posted on a blackboard in the dining room, and there’s barely a dish that isn’t based on local provender from an excellent roster of farms.

       

Click image for slideshow.

What sets Miyake apart from other Portland restaurants is not just the caliber of the food or the stunning décor of its new digs at 468 Fore Street. But, rather, chef and proprietor Masa Miyake has gone beyond what’s loosely deemed culinary fusion and cruises through a starry celestial spin around global cuisine that is nothing short of exceptional.