Foodie in Maine...okay, Nerd in Maine...sigh...

My trip has gone wonderfully!
Work went as planned...down to the last minute...literally. I made a copy of the shipping docs a moment before the folks came to get the copier. It was a charmed timing.

In my free time I have gone to art exhibits, great restaurants, crazy local music events....and, AND the coolest History nerd food event!

Sunday at 10 I saw an article that the Freeport Historical Society was putting on a series of events celebrating the Tam O'Shanter...an historical ship attached to Freeport (somehow....must research).

One week they did Sea Shanties, another was a theatrical presentation of life at sea. This week was Maritime food on the high seas. "Lobscource for Dinner?"

I knew it was at 2pm. I knew it was 10 bucks. That was all I knew.

Well, I was the only person who wasn't part of the society and was 30 years younger than everyone there. Oh, and they were gonna serve food, prepared by the Portland Culinary Institute Freshmen.

We got to hear a fantastic lecture by Sandy Oliver (foodhistorynews.com) all about the differences between the crew food and the officer food. We also heard bawdy stories about the cook and the Captain's cook fighting in the galley, and terrible tales of retribution when the crew were rude to the cooks. Worse than now...I promise.

They split us into red and blue groups, where we sat at tables for grub....blue at folding tables covered in planks for the crew...with limited silverware, and red for the officers...with proper linens and knives. I was blue thankfully, because after we ate our stuff we got to swap. Glad I ate the odd stuff first.

Crew:
Hardtack - a biscuit meant to break teeth

Lobscource - a stew that was sooo salty I thought I may die, filled with boiled meats and hardtack. (funny thing...the majority of the people there were old women, but some brought their ancient quiet hubbys along. Every once in a while you could hear one man pipe up and say..."This CAN'T be low sodium...am I gonna have a problem hon?")

Duff - It is a"pudding" flour, a little lard, and mollasses...that is boiled in a ball in cheese cloth. The sailors were given a ration of flour, and they found this to be the best preparation of it. Also, they called it duff because the word they saw for it ..."dough", could only be pronounced by a word they knew much better..."rough".

Coffee - not coffee...chicory and barley...otherwise known as Postum.

Officers:
All of the above, except...
Hardtack - same

Lobscource - Oh yeah!!!! 4 peas and a piece of turnip added. There was also rice but the woman next to me argued that it was dissolved hardtack. I didn't disagree...she was the chair of the City Council.

Duff - I liked the crew one better. This has raisins in it and a lemon sauce. (Yes Charyl...for the scurvy!) Contrary to popular thought, I don't love raisins. ("It's got raisins in it...you love raisins!")

Coffee - It was coffee....but really strong and filled with grains.

The experience was amazing, and I was able to sit next to people with 60 years of history+ as well as next to a man who was career Navy and talked about the food in this century aboard ships. And we were filmed and interviewed for the local access channel.

I may be nerdy, but this adventure was sure better than going to the Banana Republic outlet up the street.
-Monkey