Our current plans are to leave the Portsmouth area, but now we are being prompted by a new reason. Two of our favorite restaurants are closing at the end of the month. Such a shame. Particularly disappointing to me is the impending closure of the Stockpot (although it has been delayed). It really is a Portsmouth institution and I’ve spent a lot of time there. It actually holds a good deal of sentimental value for me. Not only did I spend a lot of time there in general, but my sister worked there for years, and it’s where Liza and I met, in fact it’s where we had our first date too. So we may never get to back to reminisce. Oh, Nostalgia!
Of course, I’ll also miss the restaurant itself. I first started going there in my early 20′s. My friends and I would go 
there because it was cheap. You could get 2 grilled cheeses and a couple PBR’s (on draft mind you) for less than 10 bucks. Plus they have a harborside deck. Easily one of the best places to hang out during the summer, whether on a hot sunny day or a cool late summer night. Dark & Stormy’s and PBR were typical fare for me.
But let’s not forget that they had good food. The Stockpot was one of those consistently good Portsmouth eateries. Their menu was diverse and inexpensive. And it changed just enough to make things interesting and not take the favorites away. It really was a solid restaurant and was part of what you might call the holy trinity of restaurants/bars for me. When all else failed, I could be found at the Stockpot, the Rosa, or the Coat of Arms. Guess that will have to drop down to 2 places now (as long as we’re here that is).
The Victory on the other hand is a more upscale place that I’ve only ever eaten a meal at once (and it was really good too). What made it one of our favorite places was their bar. The little room is as gorgeous as it is cozy. It was our favorite place to grab a fabulous dessert and a swanky drink. It really made us feel like grown-ups. The bartender there was great (it kills me that I can’t remember he name to give her the credit). She made expert suggestions to pair drinks with our desserts. The chocolate terrine was heavenly. It’s really a shame that it’s closing too.
Hopefully someone will reinvent the Stockpot either where it is now or somewhere else down the line, and that Duncan Boyd will do something interesting (in Portsmouth) with a new venture similar, at least in execution, to Victory. Both places hold a special place in my life and will certainly be missed. Cheers.
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Tags: beer, dessert, drinks, local, NH, Portsmouth, Restaurants, Stockpot, Victory
As I right this, the delicious smell of simmering southwestern goodness is eminating from our little kitchen… and it’s really making me hungy. I’m currently experimenting with a sort of tinga-type recipe all from leftover stuff we have kicking around. So far the sauce smells and tastes great, and the chicken was already tasty (I roasted a chicken with a recipe inspired by Julia Childs’ tried and true method. It was delicious. Cheers Julia!) I plan to just make simple tacos or burritos or something Mexican. We only have some Mexican cheese, refried beans, and tortillas, so my options are fairly limited. I’m hoping there will be some left over for Liza to try. It seems like enough for at least two servings, but I don’t know, I’m really hungry.
Here’s what I did (one day I’ll start taking pictures and sharing them with you):
I shredded what was left of the chicken, 1 thigh, 2 legs, 2 wings, the best stuff for this type of thing. I put in a saute pan on medium heat and sauteed for just a second. Meanwhile I added the following:
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
I continued to saute for really just a minute and added I would guess somewhere between a cup and 2 cups of chicken broth and 3 tablespoons of this garlic chipotle salsa that Liza bought that’s really good (especially with chicken quesadillas). I’m now simmering that mixture on low heat and I’m going to reduce it down to a nice sauce. But I’m thinking of adding a bit more salsa. I’ll return later for an update.
Update: I did end up adding another tablespoon of salsa and ended up simmering the chicken for about a half hour. The chicken shedded up nicely and the sauce is thick and tasty with just enough of a kick. Delicious. Rating: Good
Update 2: I made enough for 4 small tacos with just cheese on corn tortillas, which I ate without reservation. Sorry Liza! So Good!
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Tags: burrito, chicken, chipotle, garlic, Mexican, recipe, salsa, spicy, taco, tinga
I just wanted to give a quick shout out to what has become my favorite go-to wine: Cono Sur Pinot Noir. I’m not a wine expert so I can’t give you detailed tasting notes— to me, it’s just a really nice, drinkable Chilean Pinot Noir, with some added benefits. What I can tell you is that this wine is a good deal, in more ways than one. Not only does it come in at under $10, but it is also has certified carbon-neutral delivery. That means the wine-makers take measures in production that offset the carbon emitted due to transporting their products around the world. Word is that they’re transforming their vineyards to be all organic as well. Cheers to them! Rating: Good
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Tags: carbon, cono sur, environment, friendly, green, neutral, organic, pinot noir, review, wine
I have finally decide to no longer buy meat at Shaw’s. Their selection is lacking and quality is poor. It is less than convenient to buy things like lamb, nice stew beef, roasts, etc. Forget about buying shortribs!
But the last straw was this weekend. I was planning on doing a nice carnitas pork shoulder, so I picked up one at Shaw’s. When I went to start cooking yesterday, I noticed that the pork smelled bad as I removed the wrapper. It was totally unusable. I looked at the wrapper which showed and expiration date of 2/16/09… 2/16/09! Fresh meat should never have an expiration date that far off. Something was very wrong with situation. Either it was mislabled or it was supposed to be frozen. Either way it could have made us seriously ill. Unacceptable. So, with that, Shaw’s has lost any business from me as far as meat goes. With more high quality meat departments in town I don’t need to get meat from Shaw’s anyway. We have our remodelled Hannaford (Pic n’ Pay), Philbrick’s Fresh Market, Carl’s Meat Market, the Meat House, and of course the local farmer’s market. Rating for Shaw’s Meat Department: Failure!
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Tags: beef, butcher, lamb, market, meat, NH, pork, Portsmouth, Shaw's
This is great recipe that’s kind of a conglomeration of 2 different recipes— this one (which we haven’t tried) and one from Giada de Laurentiis which is also squisito. It’s another fairly simple and quick pasta dish that really satisfies.
Olive Oil
Garlic, sliced thin
½ c. White wine (use whatever you happen to be drinking)
1 14oz. can diced tomatoes
Salt & Pepper
¼ t. Crushed red pepper flake
Fresh basil (about a handful, chopped)
1 lb. Pappardelle (or any other wide noodle)
¼ c. pasta cooking liquid
½ c. Ricotta
Pecorino or Parmesan cheese, grated
Heat up about a tablespoon of oil in a saute pan on medium-lo. Add garlic and saute until brown around the edges. Add wine and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, spices, and about half the basil, simmer until pasta is done (the longer the better, I say). Meanwhile, boil the pasta according to directions. Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta water to the sauce. Add ricotta and the rest of the basil to the cooked pasta and mix well. Add sauce to pasta and mix well. Garnish with grated cheese. Delizioso!
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Tags: basil, easy, pappardelle, pasta, recipe, ricotta, tomato
One weekend Liza decided that she wanted a stove-top style macaroni and cheese. We have been making our way through a series of baked mac & cheese recipes here and there– all of which have been more or less successful. So I did a little research and came up with a nice, simple recipe that you can easily alter to suit your taste or mood. It’s really just a basic bechamel sauce with cheese– typical macaroni and cheese. The creativity, and even the fat/calorie content, are up to you. You can add different spices, cheeses, fats, etc. It’s really versatile.
On our first attempt, I just used a bunch of cheeses we had kicking around, but you could just as easily use a normal, 2-cup -size bag of your favorite shredded cheese. Here’s the recipe for the version I made:
8 oz. pasta (we used large elbows)
¼ c. butter
¼ c. AP flour
1½ c. whole milk
2 c. shredded cheese (Cheddar, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano)
¼ t. salt
¼ t. pepper
I believe I added paprika & garlic powder
Boil the pasta as directed. Meanwhile, melt the butter (you could substitute olive oil) in a medium saucepan. Add flour and cook over medium heat for a couple minutes, to get rid of the raw flour flavor. Whisk in the milk, making sure there aren’t any lumps. Continue to cook until just about boiling and add the cheese. Mix until smooth and creamy. Add any seasoning and combine with the cooked pasta. Serve it up!
Like any good mac & cheese, this recipe makes for good leftovers. And you could make so many different varieties of this. For a lo-fat version you might substitute 1/4 cup olive oil for the butter, lo-fat milk for whole, use lo-fat cheese, etc. You could make a tex-mex version with some pepper-jack and cumin. The bottom line is that it’s really simple and quick to make. I think the longest part is waiting for the water to boil. The sauce comes together in no time. We’re really hoping our future children will enjoy this as much as we did. Rating: Good.
Addendum (2/7/2009):
I made this again yesterday. This time I sauteed a half an onion and a couple cloves of garlic with the butter then added the flour. I used Mexican shredded cheese blend, cumin, oregano, and paprika. We really seem to be on a Mexican kick lately. Maybe it’s because it’s so cold out. Either way it was tasty. This is really proving to be a great, versitile recipe. Can’t wait to try another version. My sister’s coming over for dinner Tuesday so we might cook it up for her. But I’m also thinking of trying a pasty recipe from the latest Bon Appetit. I’ll be sure to relay whatever we do. Cheers.
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Tags: cheese, creamy, easy, macaroni, Mexican, pasta, recipe, spices
The first recipe I’m posting is the one for the ‘sort-of’ Barbacoa beef I made the other day and am going to have the leftovers for lunch today. I will say that this is not a hard and fast recipe but one that I put together from different recipes and what we actually had in the house. It didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, but the flavor profile was good even though the execution was lacking. My big mistake was leaving the seeds in the chipotles. I knew I should have taken them out but I figured it might be OK. Lesson learned. I like spicy food, but it was overpowering, and so would have been potentially inedible for Liza. So I ended up literally watering it down, and instead of cutting the roast into smaller chunks, I braised it whole hoping that the peppers wouldn’t penetrate all the meat, which worked. It was a truly enjoyable meal. We just shredded the beef and cooked up some black beans and Spanish rice and threw together some tacos. Delicious. Anyway, here’s what I did:
Previously, we had roasted some beef with grape tomatoes, garlic and thyme (a recipe I may share at a later time). So we had about half of the roast left with some of the roasted tomatoes and garlic cloves. I threw the tomatoes and garlic in our new dutch oven w/ some olive oil. Then I added about 1/2 cup of leftover tomato sauce. For the initial liquid, I added 2 beers (Stonemill Organic Ale and Shipyard Blue Fin Stout) and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. For spices I used a teaspoon of both oregano and cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon each of onion salt, black pepper, and toasted and ground cloves. I then added an entire can of chipotles in adobo (chopped). With the help of our new handy-dandy hand-blender, I blended up the solids, as the original plan was for it to be an actual sauce. After tasting it I realized that the spice was just too hot, so I added some brown sugar, 2 bay leaves, and about 6 cups of water. That seemed to help and I decided to not cut the roast into chunks so that the spice wouldn’t be so strong in the center, which appears to have worked. I simmered the roast in the broth for about 3 hours. It shredded fine and tasted good. It went really well with the black beans, rice, and cheese.
The lesson learned: If you think you should leave out pepper seeds, DO IT. You can always make it spicier later, but it’s really hard to take heat away. Rating: Pretty good.
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Tags: beef, Mexican, recipe, spicy
I would certainly me remiss if I didn’t begin with the place that has served me the most meals of my life (except perhaps my mother), the Coat of Arms in downtown Portsmouth, NH. And since we ate there last night, it seems as good a time as any.
On this specific occasion, I had what seems to be my new go-to-meal at the Coat, the Camden Town Burger. Really it’s the perfect thing for a cold winter’s night: Beef, bacon, cheese, and bread… c’mon. The burger is always cooked perfectly–juicy and delicious–the bacon is good, the cheddar is good, the roll is good. So good.
This is a new addition to a long line of go-to’s in my dozen or so years patronizing the Coat. The list goes from the Lancanshire Hot Pot to the Beefeater to the Buffalo Chicken wrap to the Peppered Steak Caesar wrap to the Garlic Cheese bread with whatever the soup special was to the much beloved Curry Chicken Pita and now the Camden Town. I think it really speaks to the strength of the Coat– consistently good food. It’s one of those places that you can really just close your eyes and point at the menu and, barring any food allergies or aversions, pick a winner, every time. English specialties, including fish & chips, bangers & mash, shepherd’s pie (with just ground lamb, gravy, and mashed potatoes), basket meals, etc. meld with typical pub fare for a truly unbeatable pub menu. It’s kept me coming back for over a decade now.
Of course, the other thing that brings me back is the beer. Easily the best draft selection in town, including hand-drawn, cask-conditioned ales, always a plus. It has changed a bit over the years, more due to the state of New Hampshire than any other factor I think. Your favorite draft might suddenly disappear never to return again even though sales were good. If the distributors no longer want to pay the apparently steep fees to import a beer to NH, they drop it. Tough luck for you. For example, the Coat used to have a few Scottish beers on tap: McEwans, Belhaven, and Tennant’s in their various forms, and one of my most favorite beers of all time, Younger’s Tartan Special. Now they’re all gone. That is not to say that the selection decreases in quality or quantity, it just changes. And change can be a good thing, right? They still don’t offer Bud or any other mass-produced American beers, on draft or in bottles (They once even advertised a Pabst promo as an April Fool’s joke, and Portsmouth loves PBR). They stick entirely to local microbreweries and imports, mostly from the British Isles although a few brews that are not from England but are popular in English bars such as Stella, Kronenburg, and Carlsberg, have a strong foothold.
Overall the Coat is a great place to come in from the cold, escape the heat, take a break from shopping, read a book, watch a soccer game (the owner’s a Man United fan btw), shoot a game of snooker or darts, talk about the issues of the day, and of course meet up with friends for a pint or two and some good food. In time, the place becomes your second, or even first, living room. See you there. Cheers!
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Tags: beer, British, burger, food, NH, Portsmouth, pub, review
Buona Sera!
I’m beginning this blog as an outlet for my love of food and drink as well as the many great places to get them in our area. I plan to share recipes as well as my opinions on local restaurants, producers, and other aspects of the food and hospitality industries. Occasionally I’ll post something about things from afar such as the exotic locales of Iceland, Ireland, Italy, or any other country that starts with ‘I’. With any luck, my fiance Liza will make her opinions known from time to time. Because, as we all know, just because one person likes something, it doesn’t mean that everyone (or anyone) else will. Of course feel free to leave your comment, questions and opinions. Mangiamo!
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Tags: drink, food, local, NH, Portsmouth, Recipes, Reviews, seacoast
Recent Entries
- Where have all our restaurants gone?
- Impromptu Chicken Tinga… well sort of
- Cono Sur: My favorite (cheap) wine
- The poor meat department at Shaw’s, Woodbury Ave., Portsmouth
- Tomato, Basil & Ricotta Pappardelle… delizioso!
- Stove-top Mac & Cheese… so cheezy
- Impromptu Barbacoa: lesson learned
- Coat of Arms British Pub… of course
- Buona Sera!
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