Happy meals Portland has shrimp, needs pizza BY WILSON ROTHSCHILD

Okay folks, this is the last you will hear from me in the food-year 2005. We have seen many new restaurants spring up all around the Portland area and we have also seen a few crash and burn. I was in particularly sorry to see a "for lease" sign in the window of Nile, the Somalian restaurant on Congress Street. I am however, excited to try both Caiola’s on Pine Street in the West End and The Front Room in the other end of town. Looking ahead to the food-year 2006, here are a few of the things that I would most like to see:

More street vendors: Coming up on the coldest, darkest part of the year here in Maine, this may be a tall order. The idea of standing on a street corner late at night (when we most need some good street food) with the wind biting any exposed skin and trying to keep condiments from freezing doesn’t exactly make me want to quit my other job. That said, somebody should do it — hey, spring is right around the corner ... maybe? A good taco stand is what I would most like to see. Keep it simple with just a few quality taco options (hopefully soft corn tortillas), a couple of good salsas and I will be a familiar face.

Falafel: This could easily fall into the above category. Falafel is a quintessential street food but I will take it however I can get it (on or off the street) if it is really good. Though it may be found here and there on menus around town, somebody needs to specialize in this delicious vegetarian dish. I’m talking about crunchy, warm, tender, well-seasoned, chickpea fritters wrapped in a soft, fresh pita with lettuce, tomato, onions, smothered in lots of tahini or tzaziki sauce.

Maine Shrimp: ‘Tis the season! On December 12, the commercial fishing season for Maine shrimp opened. Though scheduled to last for 140 days this year, it is the next couple of months when they are most abundant. Maine shrimp are the sweetest that I know of. Though painstaking to de-shell due to their small size, the flavor makes it well worth the work. They are, of course, readily available without the shell from just about any local fish market. I would like to see them on every menu at every restaurant in the entire state and I would like to eat way too much of them while they are in season. Only then will I be fully sated and able to wait another year for this local delicacy.

Pizza: My favorite pizza? Frank Pepe’s in New Haven, Connecticut, of course. Why? Because it is the best. If you think that this is a subjective matter and that different people prefer different styles of pizza, then you haven’t been to Frank Pepe’s. Go there. Grimaldi’s, under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, is a close second and I also really like Pizzeria Regina in the North End of Boston. As far as Portland is concerned, Flatbread offers a very good pie though I have found it necessary to custom-order the "Jay’s Heart" flatbread with extra sauce, in order to get a cheese pizza. I would love to see a new pizza joint with an old seasoned oven, the perfect dough and sauce recipes, where the simplest cheese pizza is good enough to be the star of the show.

There we have it. These are my wishes for the upcoming year. Please help them come true and have a safe and happy New Year.

Wilson Rothschild can be reached at nosliwdlihcshtor@yahoo.com