Well, that's a relief. Portland Public Schools **don't serve pink slime**! (I wrote about some of the good things they do serve in this piece last year.)

Here's this, from a district release (via the "Seth and the City" BDN blog):

Unlike most other school districts in the country, Portland does not purchase ground beef from the U.

The folks behind winter's Restaurant Week (which will happen March 1-12, 2011) have organized an autumnal incarnation, which features the usual suspects and will run from Sunday, October 24-31. Three-course meals run from $20-40; you pay for booze, tax, and tip. These days, you can search for vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options.

You might be wondering why there's a Google Map centered on Fajita Grill up here. Couple answers:

1) Fajita Grill rules; so cheap and ridiculous; enormous margs. Funny servers. Etc. You can get a taco/chalupa/enchilada combo for less than $8, for realzies.

2) It was a good landmark to indicate the location of my new favorite (probably illegal) swimming hole; right there in the Presumpscot just before Bridge Street.

"Nothing in this installment will be less than 500 calories. Just saying. But hey, Maine's beach season's almost over anyway, right?" So says Phoenix intern Andrew Steinbeiser, whose picks for good summer eating can be found below. (Not that my own recommendations have been any waist-friendlier...)

• Sweet Corn gelato at the Gelato Fiasco on 74 Maine St.

Different format for this installation (previous ones are from earlier this month and last). I got a book at the office today: Fresh From Maine: Recipes and Stories from the State's Best Chefs (Table Arts Media), by Michael S. Sanders with photography by Russell French. The book highlights meals, recipes, and food philosophies from 20 restaurants (and chefs) up and down the coast.

Previous installments are here and here.

• Beals ice cream from one of their several locations around Greater Portland
• Crow, with coconut curry chicken poppers and a pitcher of beer, when your friend beats you bowling at Bayside Bowl (58 Alder St, Portland) on a rainy day.
• A beer you've never tried before -- ask your server for a recommendation from the ever-rotating draught selection, or pick at random from more than 300 bottled choices -- on the deck at Novare Res (you should know where it is by now).

The next five in our list of summer must-eats/drinks:

• Lobster roll from the Lobster Shack at Two Lights (225 Two Lights Rd., Cape Elizabeth). Eaten on the rocks above the crashing surf. Summer.
  
• Fish tacos at El Rayo (101 York St., Portland). Simple and satisfying, with seasoned fish, crunchy slaw, and smooth avocado.

"50 Things to Eat and Drink in Maine This Summer" was going to be a feature in this month's Phoenix Summer Preview issue, but it turned out that the issue was so chock-full of interesting summer stuff that it didn't fit. So we're breaking it in to more bite-sized chunks here on the blog, where installments of five dishes/drinks will be posted at a time.

Roger Doiron, of Scarborough, was instrumental in the long campaign to get Barack and Michelle Obama to break ground on a "Kitchen Garden" at the White House. His Kitchen Gardeners International organization, based in Maine, encourages people not just to plant gardens in their backyards or windowsills, but to think more about local, sustainable food sources

Patrick Alan Coleman, a food writer for the Portland Mercury over in the other Portland, is trying to start a cross-country inter-Portland food fight, with this post, in which he pledges to "continue to bait" us over here in the original Portland. I say let's take him.

First up, Portland, Maine, is the original Portland - Coleman dismisses this claim, but he should check the program his crosstown rival Willamette Week issued at the 2007 conference of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies