Portland is a great city. About the size of the city Max and I come from in New Zealand- roughly 60,000 - it seems to have many of the benefits or a much larger place, without all the irritations of a larger city. It also has Casco Bay and the rest of Maine on its doorstep, albeit with a heartbreakingly short cruising season.
Key for me after a month cruising in Maine, and mainly eating on the boat, is a bunch of good, inexpensive restaurants. We're both well bored with the usual tourist town menus: chowder, boiled lobster, tasteless haddock sandwiches and bad burgers. So in Portland, it was extra good to have outstanding Thai for lunch, and yesterday, after a 45 minute run around the waterfront, Max and I devoured - this is no overstatement - an outstanding chicken tikki masala, lamb rogan josh and saag aloo at the fantastically named Hi Bombay!
We also went to Whole Foods (can you tell I am hungry?) and restocked the boat with goodies. If you don't know Whole Foods, it's and excellent supermarket with great, fresh produce, a full fish and meat section, and treats from all over the world (although the focus on organic everything is a bit tiring). The New York City one has 35 cash registers going at once! (not quite so busy in Portland). I bought some fresh shrimp and a fillet of snapper, serrano chilies, coriander (coriander? No we don't stock that, but we do have cilantro), red onion and for the citrus, lemons and limes, and made ceviche for the first time ever. I reckon it was pretty good, and it gives us a new option for when we're hauling huge dorado and blue-fins over the rail!
We also caught up with Hunt, a mate we met in Northeast Harbor a few weeks back, had a few dark & stormies with him on the boat, and went to his cool Portland pad for dinner, and then to a local bar. It had a great band, and as is typical, Max was soon raging up the locals and dripping with sweat. Excellent!
So we're all fueled, watered, provisioned, and ready to leave tomorrow back SW towards Cape Cod.
Photos are of Fort Gorges (I think) in Portland Harbor, and a lobster boat: note the riding sail to keep it steady in the swells.
No comments:
Post a Comment