Tasting bee abuzz with culinary delights

Decades ago, we established a love for spelling bees. So it wasn’t a big leap that we should also be drawn to a tasting bee. Superb idea, we thought, when we heard about the annual Orono Volunteer Rescue Squad tasting bee at the Penobscot Valley Country Club on Monday. We imagined a place where high-minded librarians with mellifluous voices called out names of entrees over a microphone and enunciated distinctly: “Chicken. Cordon. Bleu. With rice.” And little kids gave stoic answers: “Fowl. French. Cheesy. Slightly overseasoned.”

But, by golly, the Orono to-do was much more fun than even we could imagine. The idea was that local restaurants would set up food tables with samples from their menus, and participants would donate $10 each (less for the kids) to taste the wares. Many of the restaurateurs were from Orono, where the rescue squad finds most of its customers — a full 500 calls in the past year.

There was Pat’s Pizza, with samples of its beloved winner in Hawaiian, pepperoni, hamburg and plain flavors. There was Margarita’s with Baja Mexican shrimp and virgin strawberry margaritas. The Bear Brew Pub was on board with crisp Shopska Salad (a combination of fresh veggies and feta cheese marinated in olive oil and vinegar), a similar salad of hot green peppers, and several hearty pick-up sandwiches with meats or eggplant.

Our favorite from the Orono bunch was The Store-Ampersand, the area’s closest thing to a gourmet deli, coffee shop and cool gift store all in one building. From the lemon currant scones to the oil-cured black olives, the zesty garden tomato soup with orzo, the salamatti, black bean hummus, pasta salad and no-fat chocolate cookies, we couldn’t have been more sated had we been in New York City. Well, OK. Portland. But this team consistently offers clever foods that are thoughtfully prepared and amicably served.

Here’s something particularly fun about a tasting bee: It’s completely unbalanced nutritionally. That means we had a slice of Pat’s pizza, then stopped by the Pizza Dome table for more pizza — as well as a steak-and-cheese sub. And then visited the guys from Angelo’s Pizzeria in Old Town for the heartiest slice of all, followed by a slab of lasagna from the Olive Garden in Bangor.

Did we need CPR yet? No.

In fact, we topped it all off with a Styrofoam cupful of thick seafood chowder from City Limits in Bangor. Before that, we waddled by the Lemon Tree table for nibbles of deep-fried pickles and fried alligator from Louisiana. (Given the choice, go for the pickles. Or as one teen-ager said of the alligator: “Just the idea of it makes me sick.” Frankly, the pickles had a more distinct flavor.)

Speaking of young folks, the crowd here was filled with sprouting girls uninhibitedly stationing themselves around the Governor’s Restaurant table loaded with shameless desserts such as cherry cheesecake, eclairs, M&M brownies, German chocolate brownies, cream puffs and strawberry puff pastries. That ol’ Gov, he sure knows how to kill aspirations for fitting into that bikini next month. But the kids like him. And so do the old ladies. They seemed to hover near the goodies and at a table of wildly home-cooked pies provided by Drydock Restaurant in Winterport.

Just when we were certain we couldn’t take one more bite, we did. Of Gifford’s Maine Black Fly Ice Cream, which is vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and a strawberry swirl. We thought the only cure for those pesky perennial bites was Skin So Soft. Now we know a new ice cream flavor that makes May and June more palatable.

This is the third year the Orono Rescue Squad, now in its 25th year, has held this bee. The buzz is that it has grown each year to become one of the most outrageous food events this side of the Penobscot. Cheers, we say to them. And lift our glasses a bit higher when we consider that this event brought together artists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, janitors, merchants and salt-of-the-earth community types in a delightful setting for a worthy cause. Even the restaurant owners brought their children. And sent them back for seconds.

Plus there were door prizes, orange soda from McDonald’s, and a cash bar. Does it get any better than this?

But that’s not the question we want to leave with you. Here’s the one that matters more: How do you spell a good time?

We’ll even answer it: The annual Orono Volunteer Rescue Squad tasting bee. The only down side is that now we have to wait another year to have so much tasty amusement again. Oh well. Maybe it’s for the best. We wouldn’t want to eat this way all the time and risk giving the rescue squad even more business.