{"id":9232,"date":"2013-11-27T14:44:03","date_gmt":"2013-11-27T19:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=9232"},"modified":"2017-12-20T11:10:07","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T16:10:07","slug":"feast-of-the-7-fishes-other-holiday-tales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/feast-of-the-7-fishes-other-holiday-tales\/","title":{"rendered":"Feast of the Seven Fishes (& other holiday tales)"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 2013 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Local inspirations add sparkle and spice to international
\nholiday traditions in Maine.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hungry_Eye\"<\/a>Christmas Eve is by far, without exception, our single busiest day of the year,\u201d says Nick Alfiero at Portland\u2019s Harbor Fish Market. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy<\/em>. We have people directing traffic; in the past, we\u2019ve hired policemen outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Mean, Who\u2019s Counting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The feast of the seven fishes is an Italian Christmas Eve tradition, but at Harbor Fish it\u2019s more a point of departure. \u201cIt\u2019s not a rule, but it\u2019s a Catholic tradition not to eat meat on Christmas Eve. Growing up, my mother might treat us to baccal\u00e0<\/em> (salt cod), soak it for three days, and make a salad. Or, she might stuff calamari or serve it with red sauce and linguine. We always had fresh eel\u2013even my Irish wife developed a taste for it. Then we started to branch out with baked stuffed shrimp and clams casino, but it was never strictly seven.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, at Harbor Fish, \u201cI couldn\u2019t tell you seven anything<\/em>. People buy absolutely anything and everything for Christmas Eve dinner. From gray sole to lobster to salmon. Oysters, for oyster stew, and lobsters for lobster stew are big. In the old days it was the squid and eel, but I\u2019ve seen it more and more over the years\u2013there isn\u2019t a fresh fish that doesn\u2019t sell. And nowadays, seafood\u2019s not just for Christmas Eve, it goes into Christmas Day, too. It\u2019s a real challenge to get enough fresh in here, because we won\u2019t put out the frozen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbor Fish\u2019s understanding of this holiday is so legendary, \u201cevery year, one family drives all the way from Brooklyn, New York, on Christmas Eve to get the freshest seafood\u2013eels, periwinkles, baccal\u00e0<\/em>, smelts, shrimp, and lobster,\u201d Nick\u2019s brother Ben Alfiero says. \u201cIt blows me away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just down Commercial Street at Browne Trading Company, the very first festive thing we see walking in the door is a display case of Maine-raised Belon oysters lined up on crushed ice in front of a bowl of gigantic, shiny sea scallops. \u201cA lot of our customers order whole sides of salmon because they cure their own gravlax<\/em> at home for holiday parties. That and our house-smoked finnan haddie are big sellers,\u201d says Kelsey Elliott, in a watch cap and white fishmonger coat as she takes orders behind her refrigerator display case. \u201cWe sell a lot of seafood and cheese at the holidays. People like small, whole wheels of cheese for parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t miss our annual Christmas champagne and caviar tasting on December 14,\u201d she says. \u201cWe open up a few tins of the good stuff so you can try them and pick out what you like for New Year\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbor Fish Market, 9 Custom House Wharf, 775-0251.<\/p>\n

Browne Trading Company, 262 Commercial Street,\u00a0 775-7560.<\/p>\n

Franco Soul Food<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPork pies are huge<\/em>,\u201d says Kari Grant of Grant\u2019s Bakery in Lewiston. \u201cThe traditional French-Canadian tourti\u00e8res<\/em> we bake year-round become a hot commodity during the holidays.\u201d They sell \u201cup to 2,500 of them during Christmas week. We don\u2019t have enough refrigeration space, so we rent a refrigerated 18-wheeler for our parking lot!\u201d<\/p>\n

The pies\u2019 filling is \u201c100-percent pork, with just a hint of mashed potatoes.\u201d The 10-inch pie is $11.40, and there\u2019s an individual size for $3.80. \u201cIt\u2019s busy at Christmas. People stop by to pick up meat pies and desserts all day long. So just remember, when we\u2019re out we\u2019re out<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grant\u2019s Bakery, 525 Sabattus St., Lewiston. 783-2226.<\/p>\n

Scandinavia in Deering<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll sell every single one of these before Christmas,\u201d says Susan Lund Iverson, hauling one of many 3.3-pound white tubs of preserved lingonberries down from a shelf of Swedish jams and preserves, including gooseberry and cloudberry, in the Simply Scandinavian Foods shop on Stevens Avenue. \u201cCloudberries are a superfood; they\u2019re full of anti-oxidants.\u201d She circles a display of licorice candies from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands\u2013such a Scandinavian staple there are even uten sukka<\/em> (sugar-free) varieties. Holding up a familiar yellow bag of red Swedish Fish candy, Iverson laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s American, but the kids like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at these beautiful cheeses and herring.\u201d She slides open the refrigerator case. Nokkel-ost<\/em> is cheese fragrantly studded with caraway seeds. \u201cWe just got a shipment of Christmas food. Peppar kakor<\/em> are spice cookies and gingersnaps in tins decorated with snowflakes and reindeer. She raises the lid of a freezer chest to reveal frozen Swedish meatballs, vacuum-packed lutefisk<\/em> (large filets of cured cod), and plump sausage links of korv,<\/em> a holiday sausage of pork and potato. \u201cPeople just love these things at Christmas. And I have five bakers delivering breads, cheesecake, and pastries. \u201d<\/p>\n

Simply Scandinavian Foods, 469 Stevens Avenue,
\nPortland, 874-6759.<\/p>\n

Holiday Baking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Close your eyes and inhale the fragrance. \u201cOur chocolate stout cake\u2019s made with Gritty\u2019s Black Fly Stout,\u201d says Atticus Naylor at Rosemont\u2019s Brighton Avenue store. Rosemont Markets\u2019 baker Scott Anderson adds stollen<\/em> to his line of richer treats, such as glossy braided challah loaves and fresh ginger molasses cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make a good amount of panettone<\/em>, but it doesn\u2019t hurt to order ahead,\u201d says Victoria Levesque at Standard Baking Co. on Commercial Street. \u201cWe use raisins, orange zest, candied orange, and there\u2019s some rum in there\u2013we bag them up to look pretty. We put raisins in the challah for Hanukka. Our stollen<\/em>\u2019s got dried cherries, dried pears, and dried cranberries, and then we make things like sage-onion biscuits for big dinners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church holds a huge holiday bake sale every year on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. \u201cBaklava<\/em>, finikia<\/em> (walnut cookies), and paximathia <\/em>(biscotti) are some of the sweets, and we have spanakopita<\/em> and vasilopita<\/em> (Basil\u2019s bread) for the Epiphany (January 6),\u201d says Father Sarantidis, the church\u2019s priest. These are all made by talented parish volunteers, and this is a real opportunity for a taste of Greek home cooking.<\/p>\n

But if you missed the sale this year, you can find fresh spanakopita<\/em> and a selection of sweets including baklava<\/em> at Lakonia, the shop for Greek food and products in Saco hailed for its delicious imported Pelopponesian olive oil, olives, and herbs. Lakonia has expanded its offerings and now also carries a full menu of prepared foods such as moussaka<\/em>, also made by their Greek pastry baker; in the fridge case you\u2019ll find loukaniko<\/em> sausages, bright with spices and a hint of orange zest.<\/p>\n

Rosemont Market, 580 Brighton Avenue, 774-8129; Standard Baking, 75 Commercial Street, 773-2112; and Holy Trinity, 133 Pleasant St., 774-0281. Lakonia, 575 Main St., Saco, 282-4002.<\/p>\n

Polish Oasis<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the holidays, people want walnut and poppy-seed roulades, cheesecake, and streusel,\u201d says Bogumila Bogusha at her cozy combination cafe and\u00a0 imported food shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a Polish community of about a thousand around here. But I drive down to the really big Polish community in Worcester, Massachusetts to get fresh baked goods. Everyone wants ham and Polish sausage at Christmastime.\u201d She shows off jars of imported herring from Poland in various sauces. \u201cMost women take them home and make their own herring salads.\u201d She has shelves of spicy Polish mustard spiked with horseradish, and horseradish made pink with shredded beets. The cafe serves two iconic national dishes: bigos<\/em>, a rich stew of sausages, cabbage, and sauerkraut; and pierogies<\/em>, the tender dumplings stuffed with potatoes, mushrooms, or cabbage.<\/p>\n

Bogusha\u2019s, 825 Stevens Avenue, Portland, 878-9618.<\/p>\n

Bavarian Dream<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everyone thinks of Morse\u2019s Sauerkraut and its attendant store and caf\u00e9 as German, with lots of kraut and sausages. \u201cOh, we\u2019re not just German,\u201d says Jacquelyn Sawyer, who owns Morse\u2019s with her husband David Swetnam. \u201cThere\u2019s Austria and the Alps, and, really, we\u2019re all over Europe at the holidays. Everyone loves stollen,<\/em>\u201d she says of the rich holiday bread studded with nuts and dried and candied fruits. \u201cWe import that, but we have someone local bake our springerle<\/em> [cookies made with traditional presses and molds depicting animals, flowers, and decorative patterns], and they are wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She rattles off a dizzying list of cookies\u2013baumkuchen<\/em> (\u201ctree cakes\u201d), glazed liebkuchen<\/em>, and pfeffernusse<\/em> (ginger snaps) among them\u2013and \u201cGerman Kinder chocolates, Austrian Reber chocolates, and the finest marzipan in the world,\u201d which Sawyer says is from Lubec, Germany. \u201cWe have gingerbreads of all sorts, too; Dutch gingerbreads are phenomenal. From Italy, we have the most beautiful torrone,<\/em> panettone<\/em> and panforte<\/em>.\u201d Even farther from the store\u2019s original German sauerkraut mission are the Walker mincemeats and shortbreads from England.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to come. We get dressed up\u2013it\u2019s like a Bavarian village here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morse\u2019s, 3856 Washington Road, North Waldoboro, 832-5569.<\/p>\n

International Market<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOur clientele is Asian, but it also includes Central American, Caribbean, and African,\u201c says Liz Demers, the manager at Mittapheap Market (pronounced meat-a-fee-up<\/em>; the word means peace or friendship) at the foot of Portland\u2019s Munjoy Hill. \u201cAt the holiday\u2013the lunar new year is in late January but it varies because it\u2019s lunar\u2013the Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and Cambodians like moon cakes.\u201d These are pastry rounds encasing sweetened red bean paste or mung beans; some are green tea flavored.<\/p>\n

Mittapheap\u2019s aisles are as internationally diverse as the neighborhood the market serves. Dried chiles<\/em> de arbol <\/em>are stacked next to tiny, fiery dried Thai chili peppers. Crackling packets of skinny Asian rice noodles abut stacked tins of Goya brand sardines in oil and tomato sauce.\u00a0 \u201cWe try to respond to demand. If people ask us to get something, we try.\u201d<\/p>\n

The produce section has fresh cilantro, Thai basil, haba\u00f1ero<\/em> peppers, Chinese broccoli, green papayas, and lemongrass stalks. Makara Meng, arranging a display of knobby Chinese eggplants, says, \u201cAt the holidays, our African customers ask for cassava and semolina flours, palm oil, goat meat, and the African eggplant called \u2018garden eggs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mittapheap Market, 61 Washington Avenue, 773-5523.<\/p>\n

Little Italy on India<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe bring in panettone<\/em>, torrone <\/em>in a lot of shapes, and Italian chocolate, amaretti cookies, jars of rum babas in syrup,\u201d says Rick Micucci at Micucci Grocery in the East End. \u201cOnce a year we bring in beautiful, beautiful pastries fresh from the North End in Boston for delivery Christmas Eve\u2013these have to be special-ordered in advance, but you can place your order right up to December 20. There\u2019s ricotta pies, napoleons, and what they call lobster-tail pastries. We get in a lot of dried salt cod for baccal\u00e0<\/em>, and we put out big bins of really best-quality chestnuts for roasting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gil Galli leads the way into the stock room, lined with floor-to-ceiling shelves of imported goods with exotic labels. \u201cChristmas wine? First we get in a lot of Beaujolais Nouveau, and then everyone<\/em> wants prosecco<\/em>.\u201d He opens the top carton on a stack of wine cartons and pulls out a special-occasion-pretty bottle of Jeio prosecco. <\/em>\u201cWe\u2019ll go through a lot of this. It seems to be the one everyone wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just the thing to go with the seven fishes on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

Micucci Grocery, 45 India Street, Portland, 775-1854.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

December 2013
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