The last stop we made in Portland before heading back to MA was a mecca for foodies and cooks alike. The name of the store is LeRoux, and I believe it has two other MA locations in addition to an online website. I strongly encourage you to visit one of the stores if possible or check out the website, but you might want to hide or otherwise restrict your wallet first. If you have automatic credit card fill in, consider yourself warned. Let's put it this way -- I'd be shocked if this place didn't have every single thing listed in Alton's Brown book about compiling an impressive kitchen arsenal. I'm not kidding -- I got a bit dizzily overwhelmed from trying to take everything in and to avoid buying beyond fiscal constraints! As my husband rightly noted, you know you're in trouble/heaven when you spend the first twenty minutes in the four feet from the front door in a two-story store.
Why so long in that tiny front space, you ask?
Tasting vessels of infused oils and vinegars! I've never been so happy to see little paper cups (generally used for ketchup at chain food restaurants) transformed into happiness holders of precious drops of vinegar and oil. From blood orange, basil, and white/black truffle oil to fig, cherry, and raspberry balsamic to aged oils/vinegars, the selection was incredible and such as I have never seen before.
In addition to the tasting section, the entire second floor was dedicated to a huge variety of pots, pans, and other cooking vessels. If I had won the lottery that day, I would have no doubt purchased one of their gorgeous tangines, but alas. Back down to the first floor, after leaving the front right tasting corner, you can meander past specialty sweets and treats in their showcases and counters, through local and artisanal products on the shelves, around the knife cases and shelves of bakingware and food display items, over into the kitchen accoutrements section, and then back into the specialty food items and wine section.
Are you still reading? I'd probably be on the website already.
When we finally got home last night, I could not wait to try my new balsamic. After much experimental baking indulgence in recent weeks and our food fest in Portland, all I wanted was a simple salad for dinner. Lettuce, sunflower sprouts, dried cranberries, and carrots + fig balsamic = elevated simplicity. If, like me, you usually try to reduce fat intake when you can, treating yourself to a special vinegar can really make a difference. Previously, I have made out just fine with the basic red wine or balsamic, but this infused vinegar added a delightful sweetness to my salad. Since figs are a special treat in a restaurant much less at home, this vinegar adds a new dimension of flavor to a basic meal and will help in the resumed pursuit of waistline reduction. I used a mere 1/2 T. and that alone augmented the flavor of my full bowl of salad (standard cereal bowl).
Even writing about this vinegar makes me want to enjoy another salad today (which I will), and I look forward to seeing how it works in savory dishes as well.
Check out LeRoux, and see what you think!
K
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