What a relief to report that Bresca is a superb addition to Portland’s dining roster. I say relief because there had been heaps of braise initially, and I was afraid it wouldn’t deliver. Essentially proprietor Krista Kern is the flowering of a remarkable chef holding court in the tiniest kitchen in Portland.

Some people think that the city needs more causal dining choices, which is a euphemism for cheap eats. On the contrary. For a metropolitan area of 250,000, there’s lots of room for the fabulous. For once Portland looms large in a small world.

If I had to name my favorite restaurant in Portland, if not the entire state of Maine, my answer wouldn’t rest on one singular, truncated candidate. That would place an unnecessary limitation on a whole world of dining options presided over by some very talented Maine chefs.

I think it’s obvious to many that over the course of this column, which sadly is offered only occasionally now, my favorite haunts are culled from a predictable list: Fore Street, Primo, Francine Bistro, Back Bay Grill, Caiola’s, Five-Fifty Five, Cinque Terre, Hugo’s, Provence and many more restaurants around the state where I’ve had very consistently excellent meals.

The so-called farm-to-table trend in dining is getting a lot of play lately amongst home cooks and big city restaurants around the country. But to many Mainers it’s the way life should be. The draw is this: even the simplest preparations taste wildly wonderful when you use the best, freshest ingredients.

Natural and organic farming has had a stronghold in Maine for years, and the locally coined phrase, “field to fork” is part of the Maine vocabulary. Farmer’s markets have grown by leaps and bounds, drawing local crowds who sift among the stalls as carefully as inspecting rare coins. These cooks just won’t settle for anything less than locally grown.