I am pretty sure Michael Salmon and his wife Mary Jo Brink are just about two of the coolest people on the planet. Two of the nicest anyway and he is an incredible talent in the kitchen of their beautiful inn situated in downtown Camden. So I guess I should not have been all that surprised when he sent me an email yesterday with oh by the way we are doing this and that this winter and …hello what is this In the Kitchen Dinner Series?  The exact wording “Join Chef Michael Salmon and his crew in the kitchen at the (Hartstone) Inn for an evening of mingling, beverage pairings and plenty of great food. Price is $29.50 per person and includes several food and beverage pairings and a kitchen full of food.” Um, yeah sign me up!  Check out this menu for one of the Sushi and Beer Dinners!!

Sushi and Beer
February 17, 2010
Various Rolled Sushi including:
California Rolls, Crab and Asparagus Rolls, Spicy Shrimp Rolls,
Spicy Tuna Rolls, Tempura Shrimp Rolls and Rainbow Rolls
Flash-Fried Nori and Tuna Roll with a Ginger-Wasabi Butter Sauce
Crab and Papaya Mamenori Roll with a Sweet Chili Sauce
Chef Zeph’s Japanese Short Rib Sushi
Chef Michael’s Sushi Dushi (sweet “dessert” sushi)

Paired with three different Hitachino Nest (Japanese) Beers:
Real Ginger Brew, Sweet Stout and Red Rice

Now, usually I am let’s try to eat in season, source locally gal, but sometimes a meal like this is well warranted luxury for anyone interested in delicious food and drink. Especially at this price. Besides, the fact that Michael is one of those chefs who actually is friends with the fishermen and farmers he sources from as well as keeps a garden (its size has doubled in the last year I think). He takes cheese making and mushroom foraging classes, and in all likelihood has taken any variety of preserving, beekeeping, and other homestead classes.

Other fun stuff.

For this morning’s Portland Examiner column, I wrote about a homesteading workshop at Ten Apple Farm in Southern Maine coming up on December 5.

David Chang, award winning chef owner of Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ko and Ssam bar restaurants in New York City, will be appearing at Rabelais in Portland on December 6 from 1:00 - 3:00 to sign copies of his first cookbook.

Photo by Jonathan Laurence for Maine Magazine.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Books, Epicurean Events, Friends, Midcoast Maine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.