In our August newsletter we posted a recipe for Seared Maine Scallops and Sun gold Fresh Herb Salad. Did you give it a try, or do you have a favorite way of preparing your scallops and a fresh salad? We’d love to hear your methods and see pictures of your adventures in the kitchen with scallops.

In this month’s newsletter we introduced a lemon beer recipe. If you tried it, let us know what you thought. Do you like it?

Q: After a trip to K. Horton Foods one foodie expressed how much they loved the raw milk cheese and wondered, “why doesn’t all cheese get made this way?”

A: If you love raw milk cheese, you will find a lot more of them from European importers. Here in the United States the government heavily regulates raw milk. In fact, in many US states it is illegal to buy or sell raw milk. Most American milk undergoes a pasteurization process where the milk’s temperature is raised to kill potentially dangerous bacteria. Because the government is concerned about bacteria, the FDA requires cheese makers to age raw milk cheese for 60 days before the product is allowed on the market in the States. So your wonderful, tasty, raw milk cheeses are usually imported from France for example and carried at specialty stores. So if you have a small dairy farm here in the US you either have to pasteurize your milk before you make cheese or age it for sixty days, which is a long time to wait for cheese!

If you are interested in exploring some lovely raw milk cheese make sure to check out K. Horton Foods at www.khortonfoods.com or give them a ring to see what they have in stock, 207.228.2056.

Q: Not only is Gritty’s a great place to grab a beer and catch up with friends, but they are very neighborly and give their leftover wort to local farms. One of our visiting foodies wondered, do cow’s get drunk when they eat wort and if so, where can we buy that milk?

A: It is funny to think of cows eating wort, a sweet, fermented mixture of hops, liquid and barley used in brewing beer, but it is a great addition to their meals. The acidity and sweetness of the wort is very yummy to the cows who eat a heavy diet of grains, hay and salt. Wort is like cow’s dessert! As much as they love the taste they don’t have any of the side effects of getting a beer buzz, so if you are looking for beer flavored milk, it might be time to get creative in your own kitchen. Give it a try and let us know what happens!

Until then, if you are looking for an excellent local beer be sure to stop by Maine’s original brewpub, Gritty McDuff’s at 396 Fore Street in Portland or call 207.772.BREW.

Q: If you have ever indulged in the lovely little chocolate delights called truffles, aside from how wonderful they taste, you might wonder, why are these chocolates called truffles and where did the name come from?

A: Truffles originated in France in 1895 and it was here that the ball of chocolate ganache dusted with cocoa received the name, truffle. As it turns out, truffles are named after the mushrooms of the similar name because of their resemblance to the dark and rumpled mushroom. Truffles come in all varieties with anything from nuts, fruit, cream and nougat centers.

Voted the best legal drug in Portland, Dean’s Sweets makes hand dipped truffles from fine imported dark chocolate. The cayenne truffle is very popular and locals debate whether it should be three times as spicy or keep its subtle warmth. Check them out at www.deanssweets.com or call 207.899.3664 and let us know what you think.

Hello foodies from near and far! Welcome to our second season of summer culinary tours in Portland, Maine. We are very excited to have started our trolley tours where we get to visit our friends at Standard Baking, Shipyard, Rosemont Market, Maine Mead Works, The Farmer’s Table and Dimillo’s Restaurant. All of the people and samples are delightful and we hope you’ll join us on one of our trollies to celebrate our local fare. If walking is more your speed we are still running the Beer tour of the Old Port and the Dessert Tour as well. So depending on what you are craving, we hope we’ll see you soon to share a tasty bite!

Apparently the brewers get asked this one quite a bit:

Q: Since you brew beer, can you make Budweiser?
A: Um, well, no. The folks at the little brewery in St Louis make Budweiser. They tend to make mostly lagers and we make mostly ales. We make Gritty McDuff’s here, they make Budweiser there. We like it that way.

MFT thinks you will like their beers too. Try one soon at 396 Fore Street in the Old Port.  Head downstairs and sit outside.  You’ll be glad you did.   ‎grittys.com

Our guide, John Hickson pulled a lobster out of the tank with just one claw.   A woman from England asked, “How many of the lobsters are born with just one claw?”
Answer:  Well, none of them actually.  They are all born with two, but they do fight one another and this guy, well, he lost!  Actually, lobsters will eat one another in the tank if their claws are not closed shut by elastics.  So it’s a lobster-eat-lobster world down there on the bottom of the sea.  His one claw will taste great though.

For the freshest lobster, fish and seafood delivered next day to your door, visit www.harborfish.com or give them a call: (207) 775-0251‎  You’ll be glad you did.

Every day we have some amazing guests who share their enthusiasm for food  by asking us lots of questions on the tours.  We thought it would be fun to share some of them with you since they often provide opportunities for all of us to learn, or at least have a good time.  We welcome your questions here too.

In partnership with Portland Discovery, Land and Sea Tours, MFT is now offering a “culinary delights” trolley tour!   You can hop on board a beautiful trolley for a fully narrated tour while you learn and taste why Portland has become a culinary destination.  Guests will dine on board and disembark to tour  three unique destinations while enjoying many native-to-Maine culinary delights.  You can read all about it on our website.  Tours are now running weekends in June and then being offered daily beginning June 19.  They start at 1:30 on the Portland Discovery Trolley and run 2.5 hours.

Yesterday we had some travel writers join us from food and wine magazines. They said they had a blast, so I’m real interested to read what they write about us.