Tag Archives: take out

Word of the day – adaptation.

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Adapt or die, you’ve all heard the phrase. And never has it been more crucial for small businesses to do just that.

Bars and restaurants have been especially hard hit by the pandemic and though take out food helps them stay afloat, it’s in the bar that establishments realize their largest profit.

Enter The Great Lost Bear.

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A veritable institution of alcohol and beer consumption in Portland, Maine for the past 40 years. With 80 rotating taps…

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And a large creative menu, it’s worth the hassle of trying to finding a parking spot on the always crowded Forest Avenue.

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(If you’re a fan of John Connelly’s books? This is the bar Charlie Parker uses as a makeshift office.)

Sadly, we haven’t visited this paragon of drunkenness for quite some time but I was pleased to see they’re adapting.

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With outdoor drinking during good weather…

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And cocktails to go when Mother Nature says no.

Brilliant!

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Some of them sound quite tasty.

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And now that we have our own bar, I might have to mix a few.

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Pie in a glass?

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Who doesn’t love that?

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I should have known.

 

I should have known finding that tasty take out a while back was a fluke.

We really do have the worst luck when it comes to grab it and go, (unlike the President) but since we liked the last little place, we gave it another try for lunch.

 

 

Yeah, I knew that as soon as I opened the containers.

 

 

This gelatinous mess was supposed to be crab stuffed mushrooms.

And while admittedly there was some crab, it was basically a soggy tasteless mess. You could have bounced those mushrooms like a rubber ball.

 

 

Husband loves chicken fingers and since these were advertised as homemade, he tried them.

Blech.

The coating was so hard and thick you needed a buzz saw to break through.

 

 

After two appetizers, we decided to split a chicken Caesar salad wrap with sweet potato fries.

Problem was, they put the cold wrap in with the hot fries so the cold sandwich heated up ( melted wrap, warm lettuce and thoroughly liquified dressing ) while the hot fries cooled down ( limp and chewy ). Who does that?

Another total disaster of a meal.

 

It finally happened.

 

I swear I’ve cooked more meals in the last two months than I have in the previous six.

Virus quarantining means a lack of many things, but around here? A full plate isn’t one of them.

I never used to cook or eat breakfast. Now it’s blueberry banana pancakes and thick cut bacon.

I used to eat a light lunch. Now it’s cream of turkey and wild rice soup, a chicken Caesar wrap and a chocolate chip cannoli.

Four nights a week we used to have salad. Now it’s more likely to be a pot roast dinner with all the fixings.

 

 

We may not do much else, but damn it… we eat.

Which means I’m getting tired of cooking and craving some decent take out.

Our last two attempts were abysmal failures but we finally got lucky at a little local restaurant in the next town I never paid much attention to before.

 

 

Delectable, juicy, and dripping with sauce… these sweet and spicy Thai wings were pure ambrosia. I admit to sharing with the husband…. but only grudgingly.

 

 

There was also a stellar pizza called the Mainer. Garlic butter brushed crust with Italian sausage, bacon, onion, peppers, mushroom and olives.

I was thrilled.

I was ecstatic.

I may have drooled.

So yes, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say we’ll probably be repeating the process.