New2Maine.com

This little blog is on the map. The Portland Food Map that is. As of yesterday (Saturday), New2Maine.com is on the list of blogs that comment on food in Portland. Portland Food Map “is a directory of all restaurants, bars, groceries, and other food related resources in Portland, Maine—plus a small but growing number of places in the extended local area.”

The concept is pretty cool. You’ll have to visit the site to really see what I mean, but the Food Map consists of six major categories:

1. Eat Out—places you go because you want to try something different and eat out
2. Grab a Bite—diners, pizza joints and other casual eateries where you go when you need to eat
3. Nibble and Sip—coffee, tea, snack food
4. Take Home—food, raw or prepared, that you’ll eat at home
5. Drinks—bars, lounges, clubs, etc
6. Non-Edibles—magazines, blogs, and other resources for the foodie in you

We are, of course, part of the Non-Edibles section of the map, and we’re honored to be there.

After reading Type A Diversions: Emilitsa, a review of Portland’s newest Greek restaurant (on a blog which is now on the blogroll here), She and I have decided to bump Emilitsa to the top of, or at least very near, the top of our dining list. We just ate at Street & Co. last Friday (review coming soon), and The Front Room and Cafe at Pat’s are still on the list as well, but sometimes you just have a hankering for phyllo dough. Alas, we are going out of town for the weekend both this weekend and next, so we might not get to check another item off our “to-eat” list until March.

Update: We’ve finally eaten at Emilitsa. See my review here.

Portland, Maine is a busy place, especially for a city of just over 65,000 people. From the bars and restaurants to the theatre and art scene, it seems there’s hardly a dull moment. She and I have just begun to scratch the surface of what’s going on around here, but I thought it might be a good idea to share with you where we come up with some of the ideas for our “date nights.” Having decided that Old Port is more of a fair weather destination (wandering half-drunk down brick streets in the cold isn’t as much fun as doing it in shorts and sandals), we’ve begun to look for indoor (i.e. heated) things to do.

I’ve already blogged about the hockey game and some of the restaurants we’ve tried. For other ideas, we have come to rely on two main sources: MaineToday.com and The Phoenix. MaineToday.com’s Entertainment Calendar contains myriad listings for all sorts of events and happenings in and around southern Maine. The Phoenix, a weekly free newspaper, also contains many of the same event listings, and some interesting local flavor pieces to boot (please note that The Phoenix is not exactly kid-friendly, so watch where you leave it laying about).

So, if you’re looking for something to do in Portland that doesn’t involve the typical dinner and drinks in Old Port (which is great, don’t get me wrong), take a look at what MaineToday.com and The Phoenix have to offer. Of course, if you’re hungry before or after, you can’t go wrong with one of the many fine eateries in Portland.

Whilst at lunch with us, reader SteveG mentioned that he’d been reading the blog of another new Mainer, a college professor and his wife who recently moved out to Portland from Santa Barbara, California. He goes by Ickenham, though I’m not certain whether that’s his real name or not. His wife’s name is Watoosa, so you never know.

Anyway, I took a look at his blog, The Monocle, and decided I’d try to get in touch with him. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t seem to include a “contact the author” link (like mine, here), so I had to leave a comment and ask him to contact me. We’ll see what happens. I do hope he writes, as I think She and I might get along with them fairly well. I even noticed that they’re Episcopalians, as She and I are, so perhaps we could do a bit of church shopping together.

As a blogger about Maine, I try to spend some time checking out other Maine-related blogs and websites to get an idea of what Mainers are publishing on the ‘net. Here are a few that I’ve found to be interesting reading. Please note that these are opinion sites rather than MSM news sites. If you’re interested in Southern Maine newspaper coverage, take a look at www.mainetoday.com. And these are definitely not tourism or destination sites. I’ve started on a separate post for those.

• www.maine.com - This one definitely leans a little far left for my tastes, but it seems to provide a good overview of issues on the hearts and minds of Mainers
• maine.indymedia.org - An independent media outlet focusing on Maine issues and events. This seems to be pretty up-to-date, but the website could stand an overhaul, imho.
• www.mainwebreport.com - A good blog about Maine issues. I believe this is left-leaning as well, but if so, it’s balanced enough to make it hard(er than maine.com) to tell.

For the record I do not necessarily share the political views expressed on the sites above. New2Maine.com is not, however, a political blog, so I will refrain from discussing my personal political stances here as much as possible. Just know that I find the above sites informative. That doesn’t mean I agree with them…