PORTLAND INTERLUDE
As is our wont, our annual trip to Maine included about 36 hours in Portland. Portland is red brick and squawking gulls (Florida seagulls don’t seem to squawk, at least I haven’t heard them). It’s also home to a branch of the ubiquitous Sherman’s (books lowercase, gifty items uppercase), the seriously good Longfellow Books, and a plethora of good to great restaurants. It’s a real foodie’s town. And in our short time there, we managed to squeeze in a tasty lunch at the Garden Café, two superb dinners, and an atmospheric, but somewhat disappointing, lobster roll lunch in the Old Port. 
We like to stay at the Portland Regency Hotel in the historic Armory building. It’s conveniently located close to the touristy Old Port yet also easily walkable to the center of town and to the Portland Art Museum. Like all of the hotels this season, it’s pricey—summer is when Portland makes real money.
On our way to dinner one night, we stopped in at said art museum (turned out it’s free from 4:00 to 8:00 pm on Fridays) and found the exhibit of the photography of Clarence White most interesting. Self taught, White gained attention at the beginning of the 20thcentury for his soft focus photos of women and children and was later commissioned to do illustrations for a number of books and for advertising. He also was one of the first individuals to teach photography in a university setting, at Columbia and also elsewhere.
WHERE WE ATE
Garden Café
This is the Regency hotel’s outdoor dining spot, and when the weather is perfect, which it was on Thursday, it was just right for lunch. The menu includes the usual coastal fare of fish and chips, chowder, and lobster rolls, but you can also order a quesadilla with chicken or one from their appetizing selection of salads. Service is leisurely, but who wants to hurry on a beautiful day!
Hugo’s is a seriously good restaurant and the dinner we enjoyed here was exquisite. The menu is divided into three sections: appetizers, to share, and mains. We ordered mostly from the appetizers section with the addition of one entrée and shared everything. The cold smoked halibut with almond milk and ramps was different and delectable, the tuna tartare luscious, and the orcchiette with lamb bacon and spinach an inspired and hearty combination.
As a main, we sampled the roasted scallops with mole, probably the best scallops I’ve ever eaten! Seating is in booths or stools at the bar and the wait staff are all very friendly and welcoming. For those who may be hesitant about this refined food, the staff will put them at ease.
This Spanish style casual place in the west end is celebrating its first anniversary this week. We have dined at Piccolo, its sister Italian restaurant in the Old Port, several times and found it so wonderful, we felt we needed to try Chaval. Chaval too is marvelous. There is pleasant indoor seating, but we opted for the walled-in patio out back and were charmed by the bold painted flowers on the building wall.
The menu has a number of tapas dishes on the To Start section of the menu along with Stuck in the Middle and Forks and Knives. We like small plates and so tried the fried cauliflower, patatas bravas (the Chief Penguin pronounced these the best ever!), deviled eggs with shrimp and caviar, and a special of the night, duck rillettes. 
These were several bites each and thus, we then went on to lettuce and nuts (a salad with walnuts and cabrales blue cheese) and a beautifully presented plate of shrimp a la plancha. To end, we succumbed to an order of churros. Another wonderful meal!
READING UPDATE
#8 Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
This historical novel has so many different strands at work that it’s difficult to know what aspects to pinpoint. It’s a story about a father-daughter relationship, albeit one that exist in bursts with 12-year old Anna recounting a memorable outing with her father, followed by his disappearance, and then her resignation at knowing his fate. It’s also about the divers who worked at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during WWII and how Anna becomes the first female diver. And there’s the shadowy background of the mob—the corrupt underworld of nightclubs and shady yet tantalizingly seductive men like Dexter Styles. Egan brings all this together in a compelling, richly detailed, dark tale that kept this reader wondering how it would all come together and whether any of these characters, Anna, her hapless mother, or her rootless aunt Brianne, would find ease and stability.
For the record, more than fifteen publications included this work on their lists of the top books of 2017. (~JWFarrington)
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved). Header photo is back side of restaurant Chaval.
