One of my favorite things to do when we are traveling far and wide is to sample the local specialty foods and drink.

And during the third port call of our Fall Foliage cruise this fall, we did just that in the northern Maine town of Bar Harbor.

The weather was gray and damp/cold, just the way we like it. I don’t think I have ever seen so many moose- and blueberry-themed items in my life at all the little souvenir shops scattered throughout the town.

The fact that four other big cruise ships were in port the same day as us didn’t help. We felt overrun by fellow cruisers!

Our first encounter with local cuisine was of the beverage variety. We enjoyed sipping and sharing a bottle of Old Soaker Bar Harbor Blueberry Soda.

The soda wasn’t too sweet and tasted of natural, not synthetic fruit. Spencer said it reminded him of the Grapette sodas he enjoyed as a child.

We bought our bottle of pop at the oldest continuously operating grocery store in Bar Harbor.

With 110 years under its belt, J. H. Butterfield Co., purveyor of fancy food, wine, and beer, was located at 152 Main Street.

In addition to blueberry soda, the venerable store featured all sorts of ale, wine, turnovers, muffins, maple products, and local and imported cheeses. We enjoyed sampling the big wedge of Grafton Village Cheese Extra-Sharp Cheddar Cheese and even back to the boat with a small wedge for late-night nibbling.

Located on the ferry dock in Bar Harbor, Grumpy’s Bakery’s window tempted with other local specialties–freshly baked blueberry pie and muffins and apple cider.

But after a couple hours of sightseeing and shopping, we wanted something more substantial, so headed over to the wildly popular (lines out the door) Stewman’s Lobster Pound at 123 Eden Street and 35 West Streeet.

There I discovered that a lobster pound is “a place where live lobsters are cooked outdoors in wood-fired lobster pots. The centerpiece of any shore dinner, a freshly steamed lobster is beyond perfection accompanied by clams, mussels, corn on the cob, and a baked potato.”

And the restaurant is justly proud since President Obama ate there last summer.

We’d been eating a lot (this, after all, was a cruise!), so I opted instead for an authentic Lobster Roll–lobster salad on a toasted brioche-style bun with cole slaw and a pickle.

Frankly, I found this New England delicacy kind of underwhelming. I did much better the day before in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with with my steamed “lobsta.”

But Spencer gave me bites of his Fish ‘n Chips platter so I didn’t starve. And we felt very sanctimonious when we passed up a slice of good-looking blueberry pie à la mode for dessert.

Photo from our hotel room

Here is a photo from our centrally located and LOVELY hotel–the Renaissance Times Square. Highly recommended.

In subsequent posts, we’ll give you updates on our port calls and notes from the journey–high winds, a hurricane, all sorts of nautical tales, and “lobsta.”

So please stay tuned!

While we’re taking a little break, this is a reprint of one of our favorite blog posts from prior years of Northwest Notes. Enjoy!

Last month, while dining at Canaletto, the complimentary, family-style Italian restaurant on Holland America Line’s M.S. Veendam, I ordered a lovely Limoncello Creme dessert.

Big surprise was a shot of the luscious lemon-y liqueur on top of the tart, tempting pudding.

This would be an easy, and elegant, way to bump up any pudding-based dessert, especially an English Trifle. Imagine the possibilities of Limoncello-soaked sponge cake layered with summer stone fruits (juicy peaches, apricots, or cherries) or berries (straw or blue) or winter citrus (oranges or satsumas) plus slightly sweetened whipped heavy cream!

My latest Seattle Times article for Pacific Northwest magazine features a love story about local cocktail king A.J. Rathbun.

He and wife Natalie, and their two 80-pound dogs, Sookie and Rory, set out for Italy last fall, and will be back stateside in April.

Meanwhile, they’re enjoying la dolce vita in a rented villa in Italy.

Here’s their story and a recipe for a Spanish-Cava-based cocktail called “The Very Vernalagnia.”

Cin cin to lovers everywhere!

Cranberry, Horseradish, and Garlic Vodka, along with typical Russian appetizers, served at a restaurant in St. Petersburg

During our summer vacation cruise of the Baltic region, we took a shore excursion in St. Petersburg billed as “Life Through the Eyes of the Russian People.” It included a tour of the city’s massive subway system, a project undertaken during the Stalin era; a visit to a farmers’ market; a stop for souvenir shopping; and a vodka tasting at a “real” Russian restaurant.

The restaurant had the ambience of a Long John Silver and was filled with Americans from our cruise ship and others in port that day–no locals in sight.

We were served a trio of cranberry-, horseradish-, and garlic-flavored Vodkas, along with typical Russian appetizers.

The appetizers included a chunk of dill pickle skewered on a plastic toothpick along with a tasteless cherry tomato and canapes layered with coleslaw, whitefish, cucumbers, and other bland spreads and veggies.

If this was typical bar fare, I was glad I didn’t live in Russia!

Once back in the tour bus, our guide announced that “real” Russians would never drink flavored Vodka–only the straight stuff. And that most women eschew Vodka for Champagne (my kind of women!). The spread we had sampled was strictly for the tourist buses!

Preferred nibblies with alcoholic beverages  among St. Petersburg natives include brown bread with pickled herring, pickles of various types, and vegetables of the season.

We found a little bit of home at Restaurant Koefoed–a top restaurant in Copenhagen recommended by the concierge at our hotel–when we looked at the wine list and discovered Snoqualmie 2008 Chardonnay offered as one of the by-the-glass pours!

The restaurant specializes in contemporary Danish cuisine, with particular focus on seasonal ingredients sourced from the island Bornholm. The restaurant’s Web site says, “Bornholm is an island with a unique richness of nature. Its salty soil and sunny fields give a special foundation for growing corn and vegetables that actually taste of something! Both the spelt, figs, and mulberries grow and ripen under excellent terms on the island.

The Web site goes on to say, “We prefer simplicity over clutter and clarity over confusion. That is why our menu is simple and with few dishes, which are prepared thoroughly down to the last flavor.”

Maybe so, but we found the portions to be small while the price per person was extremely high. Nevertheless, Scandinavian cuisine is hot, touted as “Europe’s next big cuisine” in a recent article in Nation’s Restaurant News.

Just for fun, here’s Restaurant Koefoed’s summer menu:

STARTERS

‘Sol over Gudhjem’ – A la Koefoed | 95,-

Marinated veal, buckthorn, malt bread, & beetroot | 105,-

Lobster, cucumber, herbs & malt | 155,-

MAIN COURSES

Rooster from Bornholm, potato foam, chanterelles & herbs | 195,-

Baked Baltic Sea Cod with foie gras from Bornholm, pumpkin & spinach | 235,-

Beef tenderloin, baby greens, new potatoes, & sauce | 265,-

DESSERTS

Sorbet, buckthorn, blueberry, yoghurt, & raspberry | 85,-

Chocolate, fume, blackberry, & mousse | 95,-

Cheese with crispy & sweet | 115,-

We had to chuckle during one of two day excursions we enjoyed in St. Petersburg during our Baltic cruise this summer when we spotted this McDonald’s sign prominently placed right across the street from St. Isaac’s Square, a must-see for all tourists to that great and beautiful city.

In that same area was the Hotel Astoria, which our tour guide told us was built by the American family of the same name and opened in 1912, and a popular place for visitors from around the world to lay their weary heads.

We also enjoyed seeing the Monument to Nicolas I equestrian statue (a bronze horseman).

Another fun photo from our summer vacation. . .the Norwegian Sun (the boat we seemed to follow all over the Baltic Sea) gets a paint job.

And you think you have a tough job?!?!

During our recent summer vacation to Scandinavia and Russia, we enjoyed a four-hour tour of Helsinki, Finland, that culminated in a Finnish food workshop.

We were offered Finnish beer or vodka to accompany the tastes of reindeer salami, smoked salmon, heavy butter with fish roe, and wonderful fermented dark bread.

Because I’m not much of a beer drinker, I opted for the tar-flavored vodka, which smelled so strongly of tar I could hardly get it past my nose. Once I took a small sip out of the little bucket (pictured above), the tar flavor continued along with a very sweet aftertaste. Hmmm. . .maybe this is an acquired taste.

Dessert brought some relief thanks to the cloudberry cake and cranberry-studded dark chocolate (Finns supposedly love their chocolate). But the salted licorice may be another acquired taste, not unlike the tar-flavored vodka.

Once Stateside again, a ProChef SmartBrief article showed me that perhaps the Finns were simply ahead of their time, since an Alaskan distillery is making smoked salmon-flavored and one in Seattle touts bacon-flavored vodka, both reportedly very popular for use in Bloody Mary drinks.

On our final afternoon in Copenhagen, when temperatures were close to 90 degrees outside and temperatures had been unseasonably warm since our start in London 15 days before, we sought most welcome comfort at the cool (both literally and figuratively) IceBar CPH by IceHotel.