Portland, Maine

I am just back from my not-long-enough trip to Maine. Of course, food was a central part of my trip. I started out by planning my itinerary and looking for recommended restaurants in my trusty Fodor's Maine Coast travel guide. One thing I have to say about Fodors is that by and large, the restaurants that get the best reviews are usually the expensive ones. So for all of you traveling food lovers out there, it pays to look at blogs or ask locals for recommendations. Our flight was delayed several hours (boo!), so we didn't arrive in Portland until about 10. I did a quick search for late-night dining in Portland, and saw that Vignola, located in the Old Port, was open until midnight. The only reason we went there was because we were in a pinch, but I'm glad we went! I love restaurants like Vignola, which specialized in cheese and charcuterie. Sadly, both unpasteurized cheese and charcuterie are off limits for me right now, so I had to pick two pasteurized cheeses, one of which was a Cabot clothbound. It wasn't that special (almost like a standard cheddar). However, the other cheese, whose name now escapes me was great. The menu had a choice of several different accompaniments for the cheese. We chose fig bread and truffle honey, which was nice and raw with a detectable truffle flavor. The cheese came with greens topped with what appeared to be stewed cinnamon apples. I thought at first blush that the apples were weird, but they ended up being fabulous! We also ordered a simple pasta dish with red meat sauce, which had a great texture -- not watery, and was flavorful because of the ample amount of meat. We stayed at the Inn at St. John, which for the most part only offered pre-packaged food for breakfast. We forewent the free breakfast and went to the Porthole for breakfast, which got really good reviews. I was sorely disappointed. Don't order the creme brulee french toast. It's sour tasting and boring and can only be saved by a generous portion of syrup. The other standard breakfast items were blah, and the balls of sausage were dry and tough. The decaf was watery and weak. The standouts, though, were the whole wheat toast, which tasted homemade, and the fact that breakfast was served outside by the water. Before leaving town, we went to the Standard Baking Company, because of all of the hype. I am happy to report that it lived up to the hype. We bought molasses cookies, a brownie, and a brioche roll. All were excellent, and kept exceptionally well. The molasses cookies were nice and chewy with a perfect balance of molasses and spices and a thoughtful dusting of granulated sugar. They were just as chewy and moist almost a week later, even though I had been carrying them in my purse in a plastic sleeve closed with a twisty ties. The brioche roll had nice pieces of big, opaque sugar on top and a light texture and buttery flavor, and the brownie, was well, your good standard brownie. I'm glad we stopped here to get our road snacks!