Portland Birthday Eats

Not that we don't love the Capital Region food scene, but for my birthday weekend, I wanted an extra special culinary experience. One of our favorite places to visit and eat is Portland, Maine so we went on a little foodie tour. We packed a lot of bites into two days. Here a few highlights:

Pai Men Miyake
Ramen of the non-college staple kind. This Japanese noodle joint is some seriously good eats. I indulged in a bowl of Mazeman--a low broth ramen made with scallop and aka miso dashi, porchetta xo, yam croquettes, miso cured egg, uni cream, wakame seaweed, edamame, and menma bamboo shoots with a giant spoonful of salmon roe. 

Holy Donuts
Would you believe that all these donuts are made with Maine potatoes? Plus they only use pure cane sugar and glazes are from fruit juices or vegetable dyes only; no artificial anything. The results are fluffy donuts much like cider donuts but Holy Donuts puts a spin on its flavors with unconventional glazes. We were big fans of the berry cannoli and coffee brandy flavors but the money bite was in a freshly fried cheddar bacon potato donut. Yup! As odd as it sounds, this savory bite totally worked! 

Duckfat

Of course there's always room for more donuts. Not only are these citrus-scented doughnut holes fried in duck fat but they're served with a salted caramel made with duckfat. For good measure, we paired our doughnuts with duckfat salted caramel milkshakes. Can you hear our arteries clogging up? It was all worth it.

Eventide Oyster Co. 

This joint is home to the best brown butter lobster roll in Portland but lucky for us also serves Sunday brunch. That meant starting my birthday off with a bloody mary oyster shooter followed by this magical bite: fried cauliflower and oyster with romesco, almonds, and a luxurious egg yolk. Heaven!

Benkay Sushi
We just couldn't leave Portland without more bites of lobster. In this case, in sashimi form with grapeseed oil and fine Japanese sea salt. By the way, even Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert have stopped by here, and for a good reason. It serves some of the best seafood.