Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. We sold our lofts
Speaker 1: in Chicago, moved into an RV. Now we're talking in
Speaker 1: the country full time, exploring America's national parks with our
Speaker 1: dog Finn, and we're excited to bring you another bonus
Speaker 1: episode of traveling Eats with Matt. A special place in
Speaker 1: my heart for this because again, I get to live
Speaker 1: vicuriously through you most of the time, but in these situations,
Speaker 1: now we get to travel together and do it together
Speaker 1: and eat all these amazing things together. Yes, and excited
Speaker 1: is an understatement, because this week is very nostalgic. It's
Speaker 1: about Maine, a state that I grew up visiting frequently.
Speaker 1: I grew up in New Hampshire, so Maine was right
Speaker 1: in our backyard. I would go to the beaches there
Speaker 1: all the time. I would road trip through it in
Speaker 1: the summers. And these are some of the most I
Speaker 1: mean some of the most iconic American flavor and dishes
Speaker 1: you'll find here. And they're wonderful things like blueberries and
Speaker 1: lobster and whoopy pies and shellfish of all sorts and
Speaker 1: and so much more, and and for me, I was
Speaker 1: just coming in as a newbie. I've never been to Maine. Um,
Speaker 1: I get to explore it through their food in their
Speaker 1: national parks, and I'm just loving it because I get
Speaker 1: to again reap the rewards. So we have two different
Speaker 1: perspectives here and fresh fresh first main experience fresh lobster, yes,
Speaker 1: and we really took full advantage. So I want to
Speaker 1: back up and first talk about my my nostalgia with me.
Speaker 1: And so I grew up like New Hampshire's coastline is
Speaker 1: really minimal and not all that great, but Maine is
Speaker 1: right there, so we would always just drive over. It
Speaker 1: took like an hour to get to Maine, and we
Speaker 1: go to beaches like Old Orchard Beach, York Beach, and
Speaker 1: Wells Beach and a whole lineup of others. And I
Speaker 1: just remember not only swimming and going on like the
Speaker 1: boardwalks and stuff like that, but just the foods that
Speaker 1: came with it, like feasting on lobster, whether it's lobster
Speaker 1: rolls or just like whole lobsters that you you know,
Speaker 1: rip apart and it's like yeah, right, And then things
Speaker 1: like blueberry pancakes and blueberry pie of course, with all
Speaker 1: the whip cream and whoopee pies, which I grew up
Speaker 1: like spoiled by my proximity to whoopee pies, assuming that
Speaker 1: they're just abundant everywhere and they're not really about the
Speaker 1: tricky thing about it about growing up, You're like, I
Speaker 1: just think that this is everywhere. Yeah, I mean to
Speaker 1: be able to get it anywhere, and it's just not it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's so hard. Sucks. That's a hard part about traveling.
Speaker 1: You don't get any normalcy, but you get all these
Speaker 1: new experiences, right, It's a wind lose win win win
Speaker 1: win win win situation. Well, it does make me appreciate
Speaker 1: them more. I guess, like I fully took whoopy pies
Speaker 1: for granted growing up, and now when I am in Maine,
Speaker 1: I am super excited and it's like I'm experiencing them
Speaker 1: for the first time all over again, which is a
Speaker 1: great thing. So we would also as a kid, and
Speaker 1: I actually did this this past year or two, but
Speaker 1: a tradition was road tripping up from New Hampshire all
Speaker 1: the way to Prince Ederad Island in Canada, and that
Speaker 1: means obviously driving right through Maine for several hours. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so we would spend like one week every summer
Speaker 1: in Printederated Island. But one of my favorite memories from
Speaker 1: that road trip was we would always stop at this
Speaker 1: restaurant slash truck stop called Dyes Arts in Bangor. They
Speaker 1: actually have a few locations in Maine. It's like a
Speaker 1: little mini restaurants slash truck stop chain, but it's shockingly
Speaker 1: good food for being like in a truck stop. It's
Speaker 1: this like these like rich homae recipes in this really comforting,
Speaker 1: warm dining space with thinks, like all the main things
Speaker 1: like blueberry french toast and then lobster and like baked
Speaker 1: pasta dishes and sandwiches and huge chocolate woopy pies with
Speaker 1: marshmallow filling. Huge. They're huge. They look like cakes. They
Speaker 1: come in like a variety of sizes, but they you know,
Speaker 1: they look like layer cakes more so than just like
Speaker 1: can we go, let's go, let's just fly there for
Speaker 1: this because you're the way you describe it, I need
Speaker 1: to have this experience. I haven't You've yet to share
Speaker 1: this experience with me. I know I wanted to go
Speaker 1: back to Diazearts when we were you and I were
Speaker 1: there this fall, but kind of right out of time. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a lot to eat, man, I can't criminal into
Speaker 1: one one trip, I guess, but this is something So
Speaker 1: that was no soldier, that's all long, kid, But I
Speaker 1: actually learned something new and exciting about main cooking and
Speaker 1: main like recipe traditions. So my dad's girlfriend, Gail is
Speaker 1: from me, and she actually has like dual heritage or
Speaker 1: dual citizenship between Canada Maine because she's from Northern Maine,
Speaker 1: which is Acadian culture, like French Acadian culture, which is
Speaker 1: a whole like kind of world in realm in and
Speaker 1: of itself, especially food wise. And I learned from her
Speaker 1: all about these dishes called plois p l o y
Speaker 1: e s, And they are these thin buck wheat pancakes.
Speaker 1: Basically they look kind of like crepes or like a
Speaker 1: really like a flattened English muffin more so is how
Speaker 1: I describe them. And they're real simple. They're made with
Speaker 1: buck wheat flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder and water.
Speaker 1: Traditionally it makes like a thin crape like batter and
Speaker 1: then you prepare them on ungreased iron grittles and doesn't
Speaker 1: take long to cooks is the batter so thin, and
Speaker 1: they're so thin, so they're done when they kind of
Speaker 1: start to bubble and get a little bit of golden
Speaker 1: brown underneath, and then they're served traditional the whole variety
Speaker 1: of things. They can be dipped in chicken stews, chicken soups,
Speaker 1: or served with maple syrup or even peanut butter. But
Speaker 1: the most traditional thing in Acadian culture is something called crypton,
Speaker 1: and that is a savory like ground pork patte made
Speaker 1: with onions and spices blended into it, like cinnamon, not
Speaker 1: meg allspice, ginger, and it's nice and thick, hardy aromatic
Speaker 1: spread that you serve and eat with poise, so you
Speaker 1: have like a little bit of spicy and fragrant, like
Speaker 1: a little bit of sweet nuttiness from the pancakes here where.
Speaker 1: I just want to leave this room and go onto
Speaker 1: a plane and go every you're describing, because like I
Speaker 1: just want to travel. Yeah, I want to travel there.
Speaker 1: I want to eat it and then I want to
Speaker 1: come back. Um, so if you can give me a day,
Speaker 1: we'll pick this up. I mean, I mean, I want
Speaker 1: to explore this region because I have never really spent
Speaker 1: time in the Acadian portion of main which is like
Speaker 1: the far northern along the Canada border, and you can't
Speaker 1: find it, Like I never saw Poise or Creton like
Speaker 1: along the coast by any means, I've never even heard
Speaker 1: of them. But you can find them in restaurants that
Speaker 1: like Long Lake Sporting Club and Dollies and here in
Speaker 1: this part of the country there you just you with everything.
Speaker 1: They're used kind of in place of bread employer, and
Speaker 1: you can do a lot with them. But I'm so
Speaker 1: I'm so into it, so interested that I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: Maine has so much already. I didn't know there's this
Speaker 1: whole like subculture that I I'm just learning about it, right,
Speaker 1: It's more than just Lopstism. So but getting back to
Speaker 1: the coast, which is kind of my main thing, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like my heartfelt memories and everything that I crave
Speaker 1: all the time. Was like, Portland is the main city
Speaker 1: of the biggest city in Maine, and what an incredible
Speaker 1: foods foods in that city has. It's amazing. You and
Speaker 1: I were there somewhat recently because my brother got married.
Speaker 1: Just as how to Portland just a couple of months
Speaker 1: in the past from the time of this recording, so
Speaker 1: we were there in the fall, beautiful time to be
Speaker 1: in Maine, and we're able to get more of a
Speaker 1: recent taste, like for me, like revisiting some of those
Speaker 1: flavors and you experiencing it for the first time and
Speaker 1: some of the highlights I think we're There's this bakery
Speaker 1: there at this famous bakery in Portland called Two Fat
Speaker 1: Cats Bakery, and it's this rustic little shop, super fragrant,
Speaker 1: like you start to you get this waft of like
Speaker 1: pie crust room as soon as you're approaching the door,
Speaker 1: and then you just get enveloped with it and it
Speaker 1: feels like you're in like this little cottage kitchen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just thinking about it really, And they have things all
Speaker 1: sorts of goodies, but like blueberry pie and burbon pecan
Speaker 1: pie and seasonal things like New England bog pie, which
Speaker 1: is wild main blueberries and cranberries with oat crumble and
Speaker 1: some flecks of bittersweet chocolate as well. It sounds great,
Speaker 1: like I've not had that sounds great. Yeah, I'm like
Speaker 1: my mouth is filling with saliva. They also have layer
Speaker 1: cakes and cupcakes and of course what peepies. They're known
Speaker 1: for what pepies? I think in particular and rightfully so,
Speaker 1: because they are wonderful. They have the classic, which is
Speaker 1: two chocolate cakes with marshmallow buttercream filling, and then they
Speaker 1: do seasonal things like in the summer they have lemon
Speaker 1: zucchini woopee pies with blueberry filling. They also have pumpkin
Speaker 1: woopee pies in the fall with maple filling. Love it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like tearing up um. And then my favorite, like
Speaker 1: coffee shop, which is somewhat of doesn't really do this
Speaker 1: place justice because it's really a full fledged, incredible bakery.
Speaker 1: It's called Tandem Coffee and Bakery, and they have a
Speaker 1: couple of locations, but the one that I love the
Speaker 1: most is housed in a former gas station, which is
Speaker 1: just the coolest thing. Looks really cool, It's fun to
Speaker 1: go there and hang out. But their pastry assortment is
Speaker 1: mind blowing, just the amount of products that we're able
Speaker 1: to create and innovate with because these aren't these are
Speaker 1: not traditional stuff you see just at every comic place cafe.
Speaker 1: They have things like cornmeal cake with berries and ricotta,
Speaker 1: and squashed cakes with on butter cream cheese, and chocolate
Speaker 1: horses shot a cream pie corn and red chili scones.
Speaker 1: Love it. The biscuits are amazing to just you can
Speaker 1: get the biscuit by itself and that's great, but they
Speaker 1: also serve it with butter. You can basically it's like
Speaker 1: they give it so much butter. That's basically a biscuit
Speaker 1: butter sandwich, which I'm gonna yeah, I feel like I
Speaker 1: need a moment. Just give me a couple of again,
Speaker 1: like trying to breath, right, gosh, sorry. You know, there
Speaker 1: was a caterer at Brian and Whitney's wedding and that
Speaker 1: was okay amazing. I mean their food at their wedding
Speaker 1: was just the best. Brian Whitney, great job on that wedding.
Speaker 1: It was the perfect wedding. Uh. And that's not just
Speaker 1: because I was your Dane minister or bat with Matt
Speaker 1: was the best man, you know, the best, the best man.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but they had one of the most acclaimed
Speaker 1: restaurants in Portland, like do the catering in this place
Speaker 1: is called even Tide Oyster Company. Their their main restaurants
Speaker 1: right downtown Portland and totally worthwhile because obviously Maine and
Speaker 1: coastal Maine is very well regarded for its seafood, not
Speaker 1: just a lobster and lobster rolls, which they have plenty
Speaker 1: of that here. They are known for their brown butter
Speaker 1: lobster rolls in particular, but Even Tide does a ton
Speaker 1: with some of the best oysters you'll probably ever slurp
Speaker 1: in your life, as well as like little neck clams
Speaker 1: and crab claws, clam chowder New England style, of course,
Speaker 1: the only style worth mentioning. They have lobster stew, and
Speaker 1: then if you want oysters in cooked form, you can
Speaker 1: get fried oyster buns as well. And then I think
Speaker 1: a fun option would be to bring a group go
Speaker 1: to Even Tide and then do one of the family
Speaker 1: style lobster bakes and that comes with a corner copia
Speaker 1: like with Whole Maine lobster steamer, clams, hustles, potatoes, salt
Speaker 1: pork knock worse in steam tuns. It's a lot to
Speaker 1: take you just not fair. It's just not fair because
Speaker 1: I mean, I've had it, so it is fair in
Speaker 1: that aspect, but that I want it right now and
Speaker 1: I'm way too far away to go get it. I
Speaker 1: know it's it's hard, well, but it's just one of
Speaker 1: those places that you absolutely have to go to. Its
Speaker 1: very destination worthy and then swinging back in the direction
Speaker 1: of sweeter things. And well, also on the topic of
Speaker 1: Brian and Whitney's amazing wedding, they had donuts from this
Speaker 1: place called Holy Donut. Like instead of a wedding cake,
Speaker 1: they had this tiered stack of donuts. And Holy Donut
Speaker 1: is a local institution. Some of the best donuts I've
Speaker 1: ever tasted in my life. And I'm not just saying
Speaker 1: that because I just remember they brought out the donuts.
Speaker 1: Everyone was dancing, so they didn't even get to like
Speaker 1: cut their donut or their cake, you know that aspect,
Speaker 1: And so they boxed them all up, you know, and
Speaker 1: then they put them back in the kitchen. And I remember,
Speaker 1: like later into the wedding party, like sneaking into the
Speaker 1: kitchen just eat donuts. And I had literally fed Whitney
Speaker 1: a donut because she didn't want to touch it because
Speaker 1: she was still in her wedding dress. You know. He
Speaker 1: was stunning. But the cool thing about Holy Doughnut is
Speaker 1: how they make their dough and stuff, and they incorporate
Speaker 1: main potatoes into their dough. It's mashed local potatoes, and
Speaker 1: I I mean, how perfect, how incredible, and it adds
Speaker 1: a really great texture. It's they're soft. I remember these
Speaker 1: donuts were so soft and fluffy and light, even though
Speaker 1: the flavors kind of sound hawgier than they are. And
Speaker 1: they're all topped with like the most vibrant glazes and frostings,
Speaker 1: and they're just their eye candy and then also just
Speaker 1: literal candy for your mouth because they're so good. I
Speaker 1: love a good donut, and we talked about my old
Speaker 1: fashioned donuts in Chicago, but you know, these donuts might
Speaker 1: have kicked the I mean hard hard to top, especially
Speaker 1: when they come in flavors like maple in blueberry glaze, chai, pomegranate,
Speaker 1: and then they also do in addition to like Maine
Speaker 1: potato donuts that do sweet potato donuts, and then they
Speaker 1: come in flavor with like ginger. So yeah, I would
Speaker 1: eat Swo potatoes like wa do that pretty much. She
Speaker 1: was with him here where I am just eating nothing
Speaker 1: about Swoo potatoes in every form. You are listening to
Speaker 1: Parklandia from my Heart Radio. Portland also has a really
Speaker 1: great bar scene to which we're kind of starting to
Speaker 1: bronte and One of the biggest surprises there that I
Speaker 1: that we discovered was this adorable little cocktail bar called
Speaker 1: jewel Box, And the name itself is just the cutest
Speaker 1: thing ever put This place was really interesting. I've never
Speaker 1: seemed to core like this, like a lot of vintage knickknacks,
Speaker 1: soaring ceiling, like bright pink colors and purples, the whole
Speaker 1: like luck was very It looked like promage vintage prompt,
Speaker 1: but like not TACKI really enough. Like normally if a
Speaker 1: bar went for like a prom theme, it would be
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and bizarre. But this was this works hip story,
Speaker 1: hipster vintage prom And there was two floors. There was
Speaker 1: like the main bar area with the tall sailing and
Speaker 1: then there's you go upstairs to a lofted area, which
Speaker 1: was so cool, which is great. Um when we went there.
Speaker 1: We went there at the wedding party. There was like
Speaker 1: probably thirty people that all met up here, took over
Speaker 1: the bar, and we go upstairs and you know, there's
Speaker 1: people on their like dates and things like that, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden you just see them start
Speaker 1: to leave because they're like what is going on? And
Speaker 1: more and more family members get up there and then
Speaker 1: I remember the last group leaving and we all just
Speaker 1: kind of looked at each other and started cheering because
Speaker 1: because we took it over, which was wrong and it was,
Speaker 1: but it was funny to us, and really we do
Speaker 1: feel sorry for everyone who had to leave um because
Speaker 1: we were just weird and familiesque environment we turned it
Speaker 1: was like basically if National Lampoons like Christmas fan case
Speaker 1: occasion took over the upper floor of this place. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a fun time and the cocktails were really good,
Speaker 1: very they tended to be really strong, but like so
Speaker 1: flavorful and really interesting combinations as well. And right now
Speaker 1: and when we were there, they had things like the
Speaker 1: Fall Fashion, which is barrel aged gin anti chili liquere,
Speaker 1: apple cider syrup in orange bitters to like a spicy
Speaker 1: kind of apply version of an old Fashioned, and then
Speaker 1: the Aged Discovery, which has absinthe, raspberry liquor, all spice liquor,
Speaker 1: aquavy lemon juice, and campari, like very robust flavors I've
Speaker 1: never seen. I've never had like absinthe and aquavy in
Speaker 1: kampari together, for instance, but it all works. They do
Speaker 1: really bold things here and the results are really exciting
Speaker 1: and great. I love main I mean, yeah, I fell
Speaker 1: in love with Portland and if it didn't get cold,
Speaker 1: probably try to move there. But yeah, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: stay away from cold. Yeah. And then if you continued
Speaker 1: up the coast as you shed because a Katie National
Speaker 1: Park is up the coast, there's this lovely little seaside
Speaker 1: town called bar Harbor and that's the entry town to Acadia.
Speaker 1: And it's this island town, small city with tons and
Speaker 1: tons of great independent restaurants and cafes, coffee shops, bars,
Speaker 1: all of that, and unsurprisingly, seafood is the star here
Speaker 1: at all of these there's so much yeah, and there's
Speaker 1: like we didn't get too much time here, which is
Speaker 1: really sad. I would love to. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: the place that it would be great to like kind
Speaker 1: of buckle down and like hang out for a few
Speaker 1: days and just go to a Kadia back up when
Speaker 1: it's not cold and like forty degrees right, good option. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because a lot of the restaurants here are seasonal to
Speaker 1: which makes sense because it does get so cold and
Speaker 1: tourism drops off because a lot of a Katia is
Speaker 1: not accessible in the winter, so you have a lot
Speaker 1: of like lobster centric restaurants like Stumins Lobster Pound and
Speaker 1: Rose Eating Lobster and a bunch of other settle clothes
Speaker 1: for they'll take like a winter break, you know, which
Speaker 1: is nice. Oh yeah. And then there was that one
Speaker 1: coffee shop, the Independent, which was so great. Um you
Speaker 1: know because when we were there was forty degrees. It
Speaker 1: was perfect. But they had some sandwiches and other like
Speaker 1: bakery items and perfect, perfect little shop. Yeah, it reminded
Speaker 1: me of Central Perk in Friends. It kind of yeah,
Speaker 1: not as like fancy, like you know, there's not like
Speaker 1: a lounge chair there, but it definitely had that like
Speaker 1: you know, the owners there, you know, or you know,
Speaker 1: the main people are there and they're not like trying
Speaker 1: to be something, They're just trying to do great quality
Speaker 1: food and coffee. It was really good. And yeah I
Speaker 1: had blueberry coffee cake of course, because yeah this again
Speaker 1: blueberry everything everywhere and I'm all about it. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: Bar Harber's just dotted with these really nice cozy places
Speaker 1: like the chart Room, just like the best like kind
Speaker 1: of quintessential nautical vibes. It feels like you're in like
Speaker 1: a sailor's I don't know, ship or something like the
Speaker 1: hull of a ship with like salmon and mc damier
Speaker 1: crusted halibit like main crab cakes and then the thirsty
Speaker 1: whale like lively, warm, rustic pub lobster rolls and chowder.
Speaker 1: And is this where I had the lobster bisk? I
Speaker 1: don't think so. No, I remember that lobster bisinks. But
Speaker 1: I'm sure you can get lobster bisk almost anywhere. You
Speaker 1: probably need to whale. You can get lobster best lobster rolls.
Speaker 1: But I love a good solid lobster bisk, like I
Speaker 1: I forget how much I love it and until I
Speaker 1: go to somewhere like Maine and get some beautiful lobster risk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well this is the place to eat it and go
Speaker 1: lobster crazy bar Harbor, Portland, the coast. We have a yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, we have a lot to explore here. I'm
Speaker 1: still very you to go to northern Maine and just
Speaker 1: to go back to all of this. And I think
Speaker 1: the beautiful thing here is like showing that Maine is
Speaker 1: a lot more than just lobsters and blueberries. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1: It's whoopy pies, it's ploys. It's diverse, it's um you knew,
Speaker 1: it's um inventing things and it's trying things differently. It's
Speaker 1: just a beautiful place to go and explore all these
Speaker 1: magnificent foods. Yes, I seriously cannot wait to go back,
Speaker 1: but I'm leaving now because I'm hungry. Yeah. Same. You've
Speaker 1: been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks Parkland.
Speaker 1: It's a production of My Heart Radio created by Matt Carrouac,
Speaker 1: Brad Carouac and Christopher hasiotis produced and edited by Mike John's.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Christopher hasiotis our researcher. It's Jocelyn Shields.
Speaker 1: A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters
Speaker 1: and the rest of the park La India crew and
Speaker 1: Hey listeners. If you're enjoying the show, leave us a
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you
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Speaker 1: and as always, thank you for listening.