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Nosh Kitchen Bar.
Nosh Kitchen Bar.
Photo: Lorre F., Yelp

Seven Maine Meat Dishes That Think Outside the Box

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Nosh Kitchen Bar.
| Photo: Lorre F., Yelp

To wrap up The Five Days of Meat, we've assembled a list of some unusual meat dishes in Maine. Mixing influences from global cuisine with local terroir, these innovative examples range from playful to extreme. We welcome your suggestions; in fact, we'd be disappointed not to hear what other bombastic dishes are out there, waiting for their moment in the spotlight. Keep on meatin' on.


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Shepherd's Pie

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Shepherd's Pie in Rockport makes the PB&J mom never dared to: Layered with grilled duck, spicy peanut butter, hot pepper jelly, and grilled onion on toasted brioche.

Fog Bar & Café

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Everyone does nachos. Not everyone does duck nachos with house-made flour tortilla chips, blackberry-apple-thyme marmalade, melted cheese, and Fresno peppers. FOG does.

Blue Rooster Food Co.

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With a rotating menu of outlandish combinations, and with its current guest chef series that sees ingredients like foie mayo and truffle mac and cheese as toppings, Blue Rooster has cornered the creative hot dog market.

Nosh Kitchen Bar

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Nosh could take every spot on this map, between its Apocalypse Now burger (patty, pork belly, smoked bacon, foie gras pate) and its rotating list of burgers-sandwiched-by-desserts. Typically you'll find Holy Donut's potato donuts as the bun, and there was even a brief moment when two Maine Pie Line apple hand pies passed as "bread" around a burger patty. Honorable mention: Bacon dust. When will it be packaged and sold at retail?

Maine Pie Line

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Owner Bri Warner tries to hire only from the refugee community. Much of her inspiration comes from the experience of her employees, leading to unique fusions of cuisine. The kim-chi beef hand pie was created with a Burmese employee who learned Korean barbecue while he was in a refugee camp in Malaysia. Another employee helped turn traditional Moroccan lamb kefta into a hand pie. Who needs a plate?

The Holy Donut

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The Holy Donut calls its bacon-cheddar-filled variety "Another popular one, very indulgent and addictive." That's an understatement. If that weren't enough, the shop, which now has two Portland locations, runs rotating specials, like its whiskey bacon donuts for Father's Day. That's something the whole family can enjoy for breakfast.

The Great Lost Bear

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Mixed in with a wide variety of pub fare is THE ALMIGHTY CHEESUS BURGER, served between two grilled cheese sandwiches. It's like three meals in one. If that sounds too intense, you could just get a super burger, which has bacon and chili, along with a fried egg, three cheeses, plus cheese sauce.

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie in Rockport makes the PB&J mom never dared to: Layered with grilled duck, spicy peanut butter, hot pepper jelly, and grilled onion on toasted brioche.

Fog Bar & Café

Everyone does nachos. Not everyone does duck nachos with house-made flour tortilla chips, blackberry-apple-thyme marmalade, melted cheese, and Fresno peppers. FOG does.

Blue Rooster Food Co.

With a rotating menu of outlandish combinations, and with its current guest chef series that sees ingredients like foie mayo and truffle mac and cheese as toppings, Blue Rooster has cornered the creative hot dog market.

Nosh Kitchen Bar

Nosh could take every spot on this map, between its Apocalypse Now burger (patty, pork belly, smoked bacon, foie gras pate) and its rotating list of burgers-sandwiched-by-desserts. Typically you'll find Holy Donut's potato donuts as the bun, and there was even a brief moment when two Maine Pie Line apple hand pies passed as "bread" around a burger patty. Honorable mention: Bacon dust. When will it be packaged and sold at retail?

Maine Pie Line

Owner Bri Warner tries to hire only from the refugee community. Much of her inspiration comes from the experience of her employees, leading to unique fusions of cuisine. The kim-chi beef hand pie was created with a Burmese employee who learned Korean barbecue while he was in a refugee camp in Malaysia. Another employee helped turn traditional Moroccan lamb kefta into a hand pie. Who needs a plate?

The Holy Donut

The Holy Donut calls its bacon-cheddar-filled variety "Another popular one, very indulgent and addictive." That's an understatement. If that weren't enough, the shop, which now has two Portland locations, runs rotating specials, like its whiskey bacon donuts for Father's Day. That's something the whole family can enjoy for breakfast.

The Great Lost Bear

Mixed in with a wide variety of pub fare is THE ALMIGHTY CHEESUS BURGER, served between two grilled cheese sandwiches. It's like three meals in one. If that sounds too intense, you could just get a super burger, which has bacon and chili, along with a fried egg, three cheeses, plus cheese sauce.