The First

Don't expect anything fancy or world-shattering. I mostly plan to post about restaurants I try and food I make at home. I'm currently about to enter my fourth year living in Phoenix. As the blog title suggests, I'm originally from Maine. Georgetown, ME, to be precise. A nice sleepy coastal town with no traffic lights, one general store (for sale the last I visited), no gas station, and a 5-star New American restaurant, The Robinhood Free Meetinghouse. Or as my best friend calls it, the Not-So-Free Meetinghouse.
Growing up Maine in the 70s and 80s, pizza, Italian food, and Chinese food were pretty much the exotic cuisines available. Pepperoni, pasta, and pu-pu platters. Once in high school we visited Boston's Chinatown for a school trip. After making it through the legendary, and now defunct, Combat Zone, we entered Chinatown. For dinner, we went to a restaurant that whose name I never learned, but remember well. It was the first time I had an egg roll that wasn't frozen. It was huge, maybe the size of my fist, and the taste and texture captivated me. No nasty preservative aftertaste. The entrees we shared went way beyond my staple of sweet and sour chicken. Fragrant brown sauces and garlic sauces. They certainly didn't make it this way at The Atrium in Brunswick. My taste buds were intrigued, and thus began a my love of Asian foods. Although Chinese is no longer among my favorites, it was the first to open my eyes.