Bibo’s Mad Apple Cafe

   My two wonderful kids invited me to breakfast in Portland Mother’s day morning. For those of you who don’t normally read my blog and are just popping in, my son Kyle is 24 and will be 25 the end of May and my daughter Carissa is 26 and will be 27 in June.  My son has been living in Bangor for 6 years with a girlfriend, dog, cat, pet snakes, fish, and probably a few other creatures they have not told me about. For 6 years, I have only spoken to him by phone on Mother’s Day….if he remembers! There was the occasional “day after” mother’s day call! He came down here to temporarily stay with his big sister in her apartment on the third floor, to get a job and an apartment and then bring the girlfriend, snake, dog, cat and rest of the unknown critters down to join them. Good luck getting a landlord to welcome all that. I won’t go there….but I was excited to be able to spend mother’s day with both my babies this year! Kyle has been here about a month….maybe 5 weeks and we are all thrilled about it. My daughter made reservations at a little place called Bibo's Mad Apple Cafe for brunch for the three of us. I hung out at the apartment for a while with the kids and snapped some photos. My photos have been a bit blurry lately….not sure why. I called before I headed in town, which was a good thing, because I think they were both still in bed, and it only takes 30 minutes for me to get there. You all would have been pretty proud of me.  I made myself a little map and got there lickety-split….just like I knew what I was doing!!:) (For newcomers to my blog, I am directionally challenged) …and the kid were up and alive!

   She has a great place on the West End, three flights up, in a nice old apartment building. It’s a bit of a hippie pad and sooooo reminds me of myself when I was a young 20 something. She was a little “under the weather” from a birthday party she attended the night before and acting kinda goofy. There is a guy in Portland that is a street artist. One of his mediums (believe it or not) is tinfoil. He walks around the city carrying a couple big boxes of tinfoil. You ask him to make ANYTHING (my daughter says) out of tinfoil and he does it. She asked him to make her a guitar and a guitar stand. She watched him make them. This is her goofing with the tinfoil guitar. I didn’t get a picture of the stand.     She has a painting she got on the sidewalk at big trash day. This is in the bedroom….I love it. Why would someone throw this away? This is a little area where my son temporarily sleeps that she made up for him. Not sure why the grass skirt is there….not much privacy with that?  She found this vintage bureau at a building that was being renovated and she re-did it. My son is very comfy there. I decided to give him my old guitar and brought it with me. He tuned her up and gave her a whirl. That guitar has been with me since I was 15, when my dad bought it for me. It has been to California and Mexico and New Orleans and Canada and beyond. Now it will be making memories with my son. My hubby bought me a new Martin about 4 years ago. Carissa has a dog named Piper and Piper is the most loveable dog. She let’s you just lay all over her!     She has a little music area and most of the musical noisemakers I recognized. When I see musical items at yard sales I pick them up and give them to her. An area devoted to who else but her favorite…BOB DYLAN! This was painted by a friend. He just paints lovely things and gives them away she says. Again my camera was blurry but in person this looks like shiny tiles but it is not. Really pretty. She had many Monet’s and Van Gogh’s too…..two of my absolute favorite artists. A neat wooden female figures display hanging in a corner.

   Off to the restaurant we went. A cute little cafe and my daughter’s favorite place to have breakfast. I had never been there but I trusted her taste. What do we want to eat? It’s a hard decision because the menu sounds unbelievable! I’ll just look around at the place while you both decide.  Yup….It’s still raining outside. Ok….better get back to see if they know what they want yet? Oh for God’s sake! Children!! We are in a restaurant! Didn’t I teach you better than that! :):) Hey…the place needed livening up a bit. Ok…we finally decided. I had this….. Way off the diet with a maple waffles with raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, whipped cream with a side of bacon which as you can see was over done. I gave the bacon to my kids and the waffle and fruit were crazy good. My daughter had Eggs Benedict on English muffin with baby spinach and tomato.. and a side of sweet potato/russet potato/red pepper/onion and bay seasoning that was so freaking good I can’t tell you! I HAVE to try making that. My son had Canadian bacon and the same delicious potato side and little sausage egg sandwiches that were made with a wonderful seasoning combo…really unusual. Great meal……very cool place. My daughter gives it Five Stars or as she would put it “High Cinco!” Isn’t that the cutest bench out front? It was a grand morning with my two Gemini children. They sent me off with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and many hugs and kisses. I felt very grateful to be able to spend time with them. They wanted me to go to the movies but I had other plans with hubby and my mother and father in law. After all, my mother in law and best friend Alice is my second mother. I could not miss seeing her!! By the time I got to them and took a couple of photos, my camera died, but here is what I got……

Woody made the best Shrimp Curry  marinated and on skewers!

It was delish. Jecoda just decided to crash on the nice cool tiles and take a siesta for a while. There’s Woody….enjoying the day and waiting for that shrimp to be done! And I will respect my friend Alice’s feelings about not putting her picture on here….besides the fact that I cherish my life and don’t want to tick her off!!…Just kidding….I don’t want mine on here either as you can see!! We are in agreement about that! That’s all I got for pictures as my camera went Kaput! We had a great time. My brother in law Joe had marinated some large portabella mushrooms and then grilled them. They tasted like a rich buttery steak! We had them on rolls with baby spinach and a feta/tomato mixture and it was divine! I made a cheese ravioli/grilled chicken/roasted red pepper/garlic/scallion salad and we had Cole slaw and sausage and more. It was a day of going off the diet big time!! 

   I hope you all enjoyed your day. I lost my mom in 1998 and I miss her every single day. Rarely does a day go by that I do not think of her and my dad too who has passed. I tell people…. cherish the time you have with your folks if you are lucky enough to still have them in your life because you will miss them terribly when they are gone. This was one of the best Mother’s Day’s I have had in years because BOTH of my kids were able to spend time with me. How great is that! Thank you God. Now it’s time to focus on getting my garden in. Memorial Day is in two weeks and that is usually when all of us Mainers start planting. That means I need to get manure (still!!) and get my garden roto-tilled. Next I need to order my seeds and get my plants. So….I may be taking a break from blogging for a week. I will check you all out still though If I can. You are all so damned creative!! I am hoping my cousin Margaret and my friend Alice come back and share some with us all again……I miss them both!! Come on ladies…..get back here will ya????????? Have a great week ya’ll.:)