Kelly the Culinarian: #CabotFit Trip to Maine: What I Ate

Monday, August 3, 2015

#CabotFit Trip to Maine: What I Ate

My oh my, where to begin. Maine is delicious! However, it took me quite a while to get to Maine for #CabotFit. There was some sort of snafu in my travel plans and thank the stars I did not check a bag because I was on standby for no less than four flights. FOUR. None of which I actually took. So while I was stranded in the Philadelphia airport, breaking down over my bad luck, I figured, screw it. Time to carb load ... for a 10K race. Don't judge.


So I went with the crab fries and a Philly cheesesteak at Chickie's and Pete's in the airport. I only ate half of what's there and that was probably a quarter more than what I needed to eat. The sandwich only had cheese on the top half and the chicken was dried. Crab fries are interesting - they're basically crispy fries with bay seasoning. It filled me up for lunch and then kept giving when I finally landed in New Hampshire and then drove 1.5 hours to Portland, Maine. 

The next morning after my shakeout run, the folks at Cabot were kind enough to hook us up with a make-your-own Greek yogurt bar. We had fruit and granola options as well as vanilla and regular Greek yogurt. It went well with the donut sampling from The Holy Donut courtesy of Kita. My favorite was the dark chocolate potato donut with toasted coconut and coconut milk glaze. It was the donut version of a Caramel DeLite.

After that, we piled into our Cabot swagger wagons to visit Pineland Farms (more on that later, it was amazing). My lunch at the farm as a whole wheat wrap with turkey, avocado, tomato and lettuce from the farm and a chipotle mayo. It was so tasty.


Next up was a trip to the Cabot Farmers Annex in downtown Portland. Because of my late arrival, this was my first jaunt to the city proper and it was so cool. The whole downtown is a super cute touristy district loaded with mom and pop shops, vintage apparel, hole-in-the wall bars and upmarket date night joints alike. In the heart of it all is the Cabot's store, which has a great location and even better merchandise.


We were there for my favorite of pairings - a cheese and beer tasting! The cheese platter featured their Legacy line of cheese, the Old School (super aged and delicious) cheddar and a cloth bound aged cheddar. They were served up with local baby pickles and pickled fiddleheads. I was so excited to finally try fiddleheads! They were deliciously crunchy and lacked the snap of the pickles, which made for a great variety. For the beer, we tried a variety of Shipyard brews as well as their house-made root beer, which was excellent. The beers were excellent with the cheese, but beverages does not a dinner make.


So off we went to Gritty's just down the street. We were able to sit outside, which is where I enjoyed this monstrous turkey club sandwich with sweet potato fries. Carb loading!


After the besting the Beach to Beacon 10K, I figured I should do something decidedly Maine and finally have a lobster roll. I'm not a huge seafood person, so I split this $22 beast of a sandwich with Regan. It was from a little market within walking distance of our hotel and I was assured it's top-notch. Zero complaints for this kid.


Our last meal as a team was at Joe's Boathouse in Portland. It had a beautiful view and quite the menu. I ended up going with the evening special, which was avocado and wasabi-encrusted haddock with green beans and mixed grains. My goal was to enjoy as much seafood as possible while in Maine, so mission accomplished!


3 comments:

Unknown said...

So many amazing food options in Portland and it looks like you chose well!~Carolyn

Anonymous said...

So fun to see that you ate at so many of my favorite places in Portland! I love the fresh lemon donut from Holy Donuts! Whenever I'm down on Commercial street, I love popping into Cabot's for some cheese, cracker and spreads tastings! Looks like you had a yummy time in Maine:)

Anonymous said...

So fun to see that you ate at so many of my favorite places in Portland! I love the fresh lemon donut from Holy Donuts! Whenever I'm down on Commercial street, I love popping into Cabot's for some cheese, cracker and spreads tastings! Looks like you had a yummy time in Maine:)