Duckfat Fries in Maine

On our lovely getaway to Portland, ME, I knew we had to go to Duckfat. Everything else was negotiable. I just couldn’t be in a town with french fries that are fried in duckfat and not try them. This trip was definitely a culinary adventure and why yes, we did enjoy donuts then duckfat fries on the same day, thanks for asking! I’m not saying it was a healthy trip, but we did walk a lot, and swim daily and I view vacation just like your birthday, you can do whatever you want when on vacation!

Back to the duckfat fries.
The Three Bite Rule - Duckfat Maine

We ambled up to Duckfat at about 2:30pm on a Sunday. There was only a short wait, but literally people are munching here all the time. I was so busy peering at everyone’s food that I almost didn’t notice they were trying to seat us inside. Ohh no. There were 2 open spots outside so we asked to be there. You wouldn’t have the glorious sunlit photos to enjoy if we were inside…though there is fun magnetic poetry as backspash against the high top tables.
The Three Bite Rule - Duckfat Maine

Mr. J and I were not exactly starving after feasting on donuts that morning but this was a mission we were happy to accept. The menu is a bit pricy but we stayed focused and made great choices. By pricey, I mean $9 sandwiches that don’t come with a side or $8 salad without a protein. I didn’t feel like we were there for the sandwiches anyway so onward we went.

We split everything and ordered:
Corn Chowder with Bacon – delicious. Not too heavy but definitely had a chowdery appropriate thickness.
The Three Bite Rule - Duckfat Maine

Blueberry Buttermilk Milkshake – bright and buttery. This was calling to Mr. J and he loved it. I liked it, but saved myself more so for the chowder and fries.
The Three Bite Rule - Duckfat Maine
The fries – decadent. They weren’t distinctly duck flavored but they were richer than any fries I’ve ever had. We chose a roasted tomato aioli as our dipping sauce which was great. They were perfectly soft inside and crispy on the outside.
The Three Bite Rule - Duckfat Maine I loved it.

Behind the Food Trucks

Do you watch the Great Food Truck Race? I’m obsessed. I love it. They were in BOSTON and I didn’t even know it! I googled to see when it was actually filmed but now I know where they parked. The finale is Sunday night. I’ll be glued to the food network. Anywho, there are a bunch of food trucks that park right near my office and I’ve never shyed away from food truck events.

Last fall I went to this food truck festival and had some fightin’ words.
I happened upon the make-up event for the Greenway’s Food Trucks.
I featured a guest post of a food truck festival.

They do make me wonder about the logistics since that’s my area. Permits in Boston are redonkulous. Trust me, I get permits for parks, parades, food service, fire safety etc and they are no small feat. I also wonder about where they park at night, how they track their sales, hiring, and how they got the truck outfitted to begin with.

Boston’s probably ONLY helpful page of the city’s website is about food trucks. There’s a schedule of who will be parked where that is searchable. It also has tips to get a business started. Now, maybe you’re not trying to start a business (I know I’m not!) but I got this guest post and thought it was really interesting.

America's Food Truck Infographic
Full 3 Bite Rule Disclosure: This guest post was sent to me as a complimentary guest post to use carinsurance.org’s image if I chose to. My thoughts, opinions, and words are entirely my own. I was not compensated; I just thought it was interesting.

What I Ate: Foodie Vacation Souvenir

Wayyy back, just about a year ago, Mr. J and I went on our honeymoon to Spain & Italy. We actually didn’t buy many souvenirs since we were racing around like maniacs to see the sights! Although I wasn’t impressed with the sights of Naples, I still chose a treat to bring home. We got some lemon risotto.
WIA lem_risotto_390_590This very same treat provided a halt at security in the US after flying for 8 hours. Not funny. Serves me right for claiming it to a customs dude who had noooo idea that risotto wasn’t a vegetable. Sad.

I remembered the freeze dried pack in the cabinet and thought it was as good a time as any. I hadn’t been saving it but I buy arborio rice in containers so this flat pack slipped my mind. It wasn’t amazing, but it was good and a nice reminder of our time in Italy.

WIA lem_risotto_bowl_590_390
Get excited! I finally got around to editing the photos from our delicious anniversary getaway. Seriously, this tasty destination means so many meals to share next week. Just maybe I’ll get around to sharing some final shots of the completed bedroom renovation/redecorating project.

Sauce

More vacation fun! I wanted to get this amazing meal recap out before I spill the beans of my next vacays scheduled! 😀 You can check out what else I loved eating on vacation here.

I eat at this restaurant (Sauce) every year when I travel to San Fran for work and I fell in love the first time. They had me at mushroom jenga.
Sauce sign
Sauce serves this ap of lightly breaded mushroom “fries” stacked like jenga or lincoln logs. It comes with ranch dipping sauce. Even people who don’t like mushrooms like these.

mushroom jenga
After another crazy-filled day of sightseeing Mr. J and I were starving (as in this was the day we didn’t have Ghirardelli sundaes for lunch). We also had endured a somewhat impromptu hike. I don’t mean the regular crazy hills, I mean up the side of a peak.

I mentioned this spot and the menu caught Mr. J’s eye too. Sold! It was near our hotel and I was pretty jazzed at the prospect of splitting a bunch of small plates.

Needless to say, I got the portabello fries. Mr. J got bacon wrapped mini meatloaves served on mashed potatoes with gravy. What a fun idea for a potluck or dinner party?! Then we split everything else. Put your fat pants on, there was a lot of food.
mini meatloaf
We got Dungeness crab rangoons. It was pretty much all crab, no filler. Swoon. They were really good. I kind of changed my tune when we calculated the cost per Rangoon. Whatever, we were on vacation.
wontons
Next up was a side of Mac & Cheese. It was baked with a delightful cheese and cracker topping. I’m pretty sure the deliciousness came from a good quantity of butter.
Mac & cheese baked
And then the server asked us about dessert. Mr. J felt like we had to get the mini doughnut holes with vanilla bourbon dipping sauce. I wasn’t impressed with them earlier in the week because they weren’t warm and soft. Same story this time. Womp womp. We did a good job at them nonetheless.
mini donut holes
I was really interested in the PB&J cake with strawberry perserves, chunky peanut butter layer, and vanilla ice cream center.
pb & jelly cake
That’s when it went downhill. There was a sampler and we went for it. You can see above that it had the doughnuts, the PB&J cake. It also came with rum raisin cookie dough ice cream sandwiches.
cookie dough ice cream sandwich
They put some strawberries dipped in whipped cream and brown sugar on for good measure too. Why? Probably because these are full servings and intended for 4 people.

Mr. J was adamant that we finish. We were laughing so hard about how stuffed we were that we gave it a good shot but it was a doozy. I had a serious case of the giggles and Mr. J was doing some Lamaze breathing. Our waitress kind of thought we were insane.

It was such a fun meal. I kind of love the last night of vacation. Do you? I means it is almost time to go home and by the end I’m ready. It was such a fun dinner of sharing and there was PLENTY of food. Mr. J and I truly got to just enjoy ourselves and relish the moments.

source: Sauce

Best Fries of My Life

Want to hear all about my vacay? Ok, great!

I feel like I’ve been traveling non-stop for work. Luckily, I get to go to pretty great places (love Chicago, and San Fran x2) but it definitely makes me focused on maintaining my everyday life when I am home (seeing my people, going to the gym, cooking real food, blogging, etc).

As much as I was tiring of living out of my suitcase every other week, I stayed after one of my trips and Mr. J came to meet me. I was really tempted to opt for a more relaxed getaway but I do truly love San Fran and I was psyched to share it with Mr. J for the first time.

You might think that spending time in a city I’ve been to about 5x might be relaxing, but he and I are like sightseers on speed. We literally race around a city to see all the sites, learn the history, do as the locals do, all while capturing the best photography light (for him) and eating fun local finds (for me- as seen here) . This is precisely why our honeymoon cruise through Europe was so appealing to mix up the relaxing I-don’t-have-to-think (as in I’ll just show up for dinner after lounging by the pool) with how-to-see-Rome-in-a-day.

I have a few meals to share with you from this trip. They are actually both restaurants I’ve been to before. I know that might not seem exciting, but I’m telling you. After running up & down hills for about 7 hours a day without stopping for lunch meant that by dinner time we were starved and trying to regroup after a busy day. Even I don’t want to browse reviews and price ranges at that point. Our hotel did have homemade cookies all the time and that’s quite the treat when choosing a dinner location 😉

With that long winded recap, I give you Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen!
Jasper's
I ate here after working a 24-hour event. We work for a million hours through the night, sleep for a few hours then everyone is up and ready for food. A group of us ended up here and I thought it was just so charming. They have this crazy-good side of brussels sprouts pedals with bacon and filberts…sooo good and definitely I want to attempt to recreate. This time I brought Mr. J back and he loved it too.

I was sad that they don’t have a veggie, turkey, or chicken burger since I can’t eat red meat, but I do get that chefs are sometimes quite against fake-burgers. It’s not really a burger-joint per se, but that’s what I had in mind. I did 100% get on board with a grilled cheese with pork belly.
Jaspers Pork Belly Grilled Cheese
Seriously best grilled cheese I’ve ever had. It was perfectly grilled on some quality bread. This was a substantial sandwich served piping hot. There’s not much worse than a limp, tepid grilled cheese. I liked the tomato and onion relish on a few bites too.

Mr. J got the “J Burger” how appropriate?! It had blue cheese, bacon onion marmalade…after that topping, need I say more? I’m sure it tasted better than my fuzzy-low-light photo makes it look!
Jasper's burger
Now, one of the best parts: the fries. This restaurant has a French. Fry. menu. The fries are seriously good enough to deserve their own menu. We splurged and got a side of fries to share in addition to the fries that came with his burger.
Jasper's fries
We had the regular thin fries and thick cut truffle parmesan. I was so impressed that Jasper’s really knows what they are doing with the fries and does it really well. These suckers are seriously addicting. I couldn’t stop reaching for more.

Needless to say we were wayyy too stuffed for any dessert. I learned a lot about their desserts from an obnoxiously loud table nearby who our sweet server humored and unfortunately the owner seemed to dote on. Chocolate cake with toffee ice cream dipped in chocolate does sound delicious now though.

Our server was from MA too and was so full of personality. She was great and I was FLOORED that she remembered the work group when I mentioned I’d been there a month ago. She remembered where we had been sitting. This gal was so great, attentive, and made us feel at home. Speaking of feeling at home, the fries didn’t hurt either.