Duck Fat - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

December 9, 2012 Duck Fat

One Saturday afternoon we decided to head up to Maine to do some outlet shopping. On our way up, we made a pit stop in Portland for lunch. We tried to get into Duckfat but the line was over 45 minutes long, so we headed over to Two Fat Cats bakery instead. After a long day of shopping, we made our way back down to Portland to see if we could do an early dinner at Duckfat. 15 minutes later, we were in. This place is small and the food is delicious, thus the long wait times. The seating, if you are only 2, will almost always be communal-whether sitting at the counter, the bar or at a table for 8 with a few other strangers.

We start off with a waiter recommended rutabaga and parsnip soup ($4.50). It came in a small bowl screaming “this is what winter soup should be”. The soup was thick and left almost in a course pulse from the food processor or blender. It wasn’t bland but I couldn’t even really find a good word to describe the taste, the words that come to mind are earthy and hearty. Good recommendation from the waiter, glad I branched out and tried some new root veggies.

I went with the classic ham and cheese panini, baked ham and swiss cheese on bread by Sorella’s bakehouse. ($7) The service was good, our waiter was thorough and knowledgeable, but speedy and efficient, which you have to be when there aren’t many seats in the house, but never once did we feel rushed.

We also sampled the meatloaf panino ($9.25) that came with tomato chutney and lime mayo. The meatloaf was thinly sliced, man was it delicious!

And of course you have to try the duckfat fries-hand cut Belgian frieds, fried in duckfat with your choice of dipping sauce, and we had the truffle ketchup….one word…amazing. (Large for $6.50, small for $5)

And just to round out the meal, a blueberry buttermilk milkshake. ($5) Wasn’t really sure if I was going to like this, but it was really tasty. This is what Maine is all about 🙂