havana

On our way home from an extended weekend of camping in Nova Scotia, miss_chance and I took the Cat to Bar Harbor so that she could meet with a potential customer. After clearing Customs, checking into our motel on Main Street, and taking the first of two lovely showers, we headed across the street and found a gem of a restaurant. Perfect Mojitos, the leanest and tastiest duck I've ever had, and simply amazing swordfish. Too much swordfish suffers from being cut wrong, but the chef had a sushi master's understanding of how most succulently to orient the grain. A light grilling and a sauce just strong enough to stand up to the flavor of the fish made a wonderful combination. The scallops were very good for scallops in the US but as we had just come from Digby they had a very hard act to follow. The only real disappointment was that they were out of the tuna.

Not cheap, but then little in Bar Harbor is.

Havana
318 Main St
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
+1.207.288.2822
daily: 1730-2200

fuji sushi

Heading down east, miss_chance and I found ourselves with an hour and a half in Portland before it was time to board the Scotia Prince for Yarmouth. So naturally we headed down to the old port, browsed in the antique map store (they had the Hampden/Hampshire and Fall River leaves from the ubiquitously incomplete 1880's Tunison atlas, but not the Essex I've been looking for), and then dithered for some time about where to eat before setting on the sushi place across the street.

As soon as we saw the a la carte menu we realized that this was no ordinary sushi place. Two kinds of clam on the everyday menu. Scallops and lobster, not too much of a surprise in Maine. Maki full of gobo, kanpyo, shiso, pickled carrots, garlic, and so on. Two or three good kinds of tuna, so far so good. Monkfish liver I've not seen on the a la carte slip before. Uzura on the uni, that's a bit unusual around here. Real crabmeat I've never had as sushi. Tubugai (snail) I've never even heard of! Lime ceviche bincho maguro, chemically cooked an eighth of an inch deep on the outside and luscious on the inside, with finely ground oshinko and bonito garnishes and ponzu sauce. Wow. The ultimate sushi crescendo.

We stopped on the way back too, with much less hesitation. The chef recognized us and plied us with things that weren't on the menu. He had perfect fatty tuna, finely marbled with no stringy shear layers. After feeding it to us raw, he cooked some, and the rendered fat made it taste like pate. Just incredible.

Fuji Sushi
29 Exchange St
Portland, ME 04101
+1.207.773.2900
Sun-Thu 1130-2200
Fri-Sat 1130-2300

Apparently their sushi master is opening a location in Framingham (as Miyako, not to be confused with the Miyako on Newbury Street). I can't wait.