reviewed by Diane Hudson – May 2002
A visit to Happy Cooking is definitely different. Unless you live on Peaks Island, you’ll have to take a ferry And the ferry ride alone is a memorable experience.
Melissa Hall and Chris Moore, who were married at Peaks Island’s Fifth Maine Regiment Hall in 1990, an event she herself catered, opened Happy Cooking, a two-minute’s walk from the ferry terminal, on 78 Island Avenue, last summer.
We chose to travel there on a Thursday because it is easier to get a reservation then, and it is normally one of the two evenings likely to produce live music. Chris Moore is a highly respected musician (he was the soloist in the only Portland Symphony concert to feature a mandolin), and seasoned musicians of all disciplines are knocking on Happy Cooking’s door to play there just for the atmosphere, the appreciation and, of course, the food.
Inside, diners are afforded a cozy, reshaped dining area, a very pleasant deck for alfresco visits, and a wonderful view of the Portland waterfront and skyline.
We began with a shared Creek Salad and appetizer plates of mussels and smoked seafood. All three were exceptional. The salad ($5) consists of baby spinach, feta, a nicely tart vinaigrette, and, best of all, grape cherry tomatoes exuding sweetness and real flavor. The very meaty mussels ($6.50), from Bang’s Island, are cooked in white wine with (a first for us) tiny capers. The seafood plate of smoked salmon, trout, and oysters is accompanied by a spicy remoulade. At $7, for the amount of fine food on this plate, it is an extraordinary bargain.
We also sampled a handsome haddock chowder ($3.50 \ $4 for a bowl), creamy and thickened with lots offish, and a terrific dairy-free butternut squash soup delightfully seasoned with ginger, coconut, and a hint of the heat of green curn and jalapeno peppers. A dairy-free soup is always available at Happy Cooking.
For our entrees, we chose Pan-Seared Duck Breast with Sesame, Taman, and Ginger Sauce ($16); Grilled M Salmon with Roasted Pumpkin Sauce ($15); Coconut Ginger Chicken with Jasmine Rice ($14), and Sauteed Sea Scallops with White Wine, Garlic, Mushrooms, and Yellow Peppers ($16). All four, we agreed, were winners, but the vote for best choice went, hands down, to the duck. It’s done, with just a hint of rareness, and the sauce was delicately flavored, balancing ingredients that neither overwhelmed the meat nor each other.
The wine list is modest in price as well as number but reflects the overall good taste and generosity that permeates Happy Cooking. We enjoyed the house white, Lurton Chardonnay, the house red. Laurel Glen Reds ($16 bottle, $4 glass), and Barossa Estate Shiraz ($20 bottle). As satiated as we were at dessert time, we couldn’t resist Great Aunt Gwyneths Squash Cliocolate Chip Cake I and the Coconut Macaroon Pie ($3.50). the pie, Melissa tells us, is from a ‘1OO-year-old grange-hall recipe,” and we are as happy as she is with its resurrection.
The spirited playing the band provided while we were dining continued on our return trip to the mainland. The two fiddle players found a little nook on the boat to compare reels, but they didn’t mind if we listened in. For us the entire | evening, from stem to stern, was one Happy Experience.
Happy Cooking – Peaks Island, ME.
tel (207)766-5578
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