we're in portland, maine

today we drove to maine after spending the morning wandering the streets of providence, rhode island. we arrived in portland early in the afternoon, then hit up j's oyster for our first bit of local fare.  we chowed down on a couple dozen oysters, a big-ass bucket of piss-ah clams (little neck clams), and lobster rolls, then strolled around the touristy harbor streets and shops.

dinner was a treat.  we ate at james beard award winner restaurant fore street, which was just around the corner from our hotel.  it's a great local farm-to-table place with a HUGE wood oven.  every thing was fresh and springy.  eating a salad of local greens tastes so much different than that shit in the bag at the grocery store.  we normally just harvest from our garden, but we rarely expect those flavors at a restaurant.  here in the northeast though, we are on a mission to find places that serve only real food.  so far we've been successful and it seems that many places are on board with the idea of saying a collective 'fuck you' to sysco and other food service corporations in favor of local farms, fisherman, and foragers.  i had the hanger steak.  and for real: it was the best steak i've ever had.  morton's and ruth's chris can eat shit, because fore street took a basic cut of meat, treated it simply and made it sing.  then finished off with some fresh locally plucked strawberries, all for less than we would have spent had we gone to a place like morton's.

i really hope that this movement of local, fresh, and real food catches on across the country.  i for one am sick of eating disgusting mass processed garbage posing as food filled in with salt, fake sugar, and chemical flavors.  living in lafayette we have few options, and purdue hosts one of the biggest 'food science' programs in the country supported by major chemical companies.  food is not science and anyone who claims it to be is not serving food.  they are only contributing to the problem.

the northeast has been a welcome change from the monsanto fields of the midwest.