Food editor Kate has asked me to mention the Sun's holiday cookie contest, although I shudder to think of the recipes she could get from some of you. So Be Nice.

It reminds me of when Gailor was little and every day I made a different cookie starting Dec. 1 until Christmas Eve.  (I think I've told you this story before.) 

But Gailor grew up, and we all felt a little guilty about eating a lot of sweets. Not to mention the time it took. Somehow the tradition died out.

Anyway, here are the instructions for the cookie contest: ...

Continue reading "The holiday cookie contest" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Today for Shallow Thought Wednesday, Multimedia Editor Emeritus and Biker Dude John Lindner isn't messing around. He's even referring to himself in the third person. The video is great; I feel sorry for all of you whose work blocks it. Obviously you need to get another job. EL

This from George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London* (whereby jl ends, forever more, all quibbling regarding tipping practices): ...

Continue reading "Everything you ever wanted to know about tipping" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
                    

Hot dogs. The Baconator. In-and-Out burgers. Clearly the refined sensibility of Dining@Large is deteriorating. (Although fancy crab cakes and bottle service have kept it from going completely off the rails.)

Just so we won't lose our reputation for effete snobbery completely, I think we need a discussion of the most elegant meal you've ever had, preferably in a restaurant.

Actually, elegance has sort of gone out of style. Nowadays people equate it with stuffy. But at places like the long-gone nouvelle restaurant Stall 1043 and the more recently closed Hampton's, elegance was the order of the day.

(Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)
                    

Read it and weep, boys and girls.

But at least it's nice to know that the Bon Appetit blogger, Andrew Knowlton, has as refined tastes as we do.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
                    

You have to love the phrase "fear cuisine." Unfortunately I can't take credit for it; Gourmet magazine has a story on Depression-era food in its current issue.

Citing icebox cake and marshmallow-spiked salads, the author asks what "culinary disasters" the present economic crisis will bring.

But this is just the taking-off point. ...

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Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
                    

This Top 10 started with a query by the editor of AirTran's Go magazine.

I thought fancy crab cakes with an interesting twist would make a good Top 10, but I quickly realized that you can only make a crab cake interesting in three ways: How you season it, what you sauce it with, and what you serve with it.

I also realized that most of the list would come from fine-dining restaurants downtown because tourists want crab cakes. So no matter what kind of restaurant you are -- Italian, Asian fusion, genteel Southern -- if you're in the harbor area, you have to offer one. But you don't have to be boring about it.

Remember, these are fancy restaurant crab cakes. If you want to see the Top 10 list of crab cakes in general, click here.

And here's my list of Top 10 fancy crab cakes with an interesting twist: ...

Continue reading "Top 10 fancy crab cakes with an interesting twist" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (48)
                    

Richard in San Francisco wanted me to do a Top 10 on best bar food steamed shellfish. That's pretty specialized (of course, I am doing fancy crab cakes with an interesting twist for tomorrow), but it could be broadened to restaurants as well as bars.

I have to nominate Hamilton Tavern's clams in an addictively good broth of wine, tomatoes and garlic.

Sometimes you can't believe how good this simple preparation can be, while other times the kitchen seems to have simply dumped the ingredients in a pan together, thinking that the only thing the customer really cares about is the shellfish.

(Photo of Brasserie Tatin's mussels by Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
                    

I got an e-mail from DN about a restaurant I had just noticed, Vernisage in Pikesville. I haven't heard word one about it, though, and the Internet for once is no help. Anybody know anything about it?

Hi! I enjoy your columns and blog; wonder if anyone has tried Vernisage in Pikesville. It appears to be mostly Russian/Ukrainian/Georgian cuisine with some standard American dishes as well. Located at 1004 Reisterstown Rd and appears to be quite new, but I do not recall seeing any ads for it.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
                    

Some weird products amuse me, some creep me out. Peanut butter slices creep me out. The basic thing about peanut butter is its yummy stick-to-the roof-of-your-mouth consistency, isn't it? Otherwise wouldn't you just, well, eat peanuts?

P. B. Slices isn't a new product, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere but in the West, so I hadn't heard about it before. According to the Web site, it took more than 5,000 pounds of peanut butter, four years and 432 formulations to find the perfect P.B. Slices recipe.

I'm not even sure what the perfect peanut butter slice would consist of, let alone imagine wasting four years of my life looking for it.

OK, maybe I'm a little cranky today. It's Monday.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
                    

Gailor is obsessed with the Baconator. This is odd for someone who is a vegetarian, except that she says sushi and prime filet mignon don't count.

The Baconator, if anyone isn't familiar with it, is Wendy's bacon burger made with two beef patties, six strips of bacon and two slices of cheese.

Not that Gailor would ever eat one. But she likes to imagine the naming process. ...

Continue reading "The Baconator and Animal, the restaurant" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
                    

Next Sunday I'll review Michael's Steak & Lobster House in Bayview. This is not going to come as a surprise to many of you, considering that I've milked it for so many posts already: Old Baltimore restaurants, a Top 10 and even champagne cocktails.

I believe this is the kind of restaurant where if you're a regular you know what and what not to order on the menu, so you never have a bad meal. Coming in cold, we had some hits and misses.

I was impressed that the place offers steamed crabs year round. Not many white tablecloth restaurants do that.

Anyway, look for my review in next Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section or, of course, online.

There won't be a Monday Morning Quarterbacking tomorrow, by the way, because Elizabeth Large Was on Vacation in the section today. Do you get as confused with my deadlines as I do?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
                    

I was just going through my photos from the Chicago trip, and I came upon this one.

I don't know why it strikes me so much more absurd than, say, one of our barbecue chains. But here it was in the middle of a northern college town (Evanston, Ill.) filled with chic sushi restaurants, upscale coffee houses and expensive day spas.

If you click on the link for Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop (or don't bother, I'll just tell you), you'll find that it's a Chicago chain, surprise, that opened in 1994. The owners aren't from the South.

Also they don't sell bait.

I don't want to be mean about the place, and I didn't go in so I'm not saying anything about the food, which could be wonderful. But I am having a hard time coming up with something that looks equally out of place in Baltimore.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
                    

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
                    

My friend Patti-the-analyst-in-training and I were having coffee this morning, and she told me her son had gotten an iTouch. I told her I wanted an iPhone, but it wasn't going to happen unless I bought it in the middle of winter to cheer myself up.

"Ah," she said. "Retail therapy."

I love this concept. It's much cheaper than psychotherapy (well, OK, maybe not the iPhone) and as far as I can tell, just as effective. ...

Continue reading "The cure for winter" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

I made the mistake of thinking that even though it was somewhat dark at 6:45 a.m. I could wait until after 7 to go to the Waverly Farmers Market this morning. The place was packed. I shouldn't have parked in the parking lot, which I can get away with if I'm there before 7. It was like a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour.

Along with all the expected fall produce, I was surprised to see there were still red tomatoes and corn. Is that usually true in October? Some summers I go through a whole season and never buy an ear of corn, but this year I couldn't get enough of it. I couldn't bring myself to buy it today, though. I just can't believe it would be good this late. ...

Continue reading "The October market" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
                    

LeeAnn sent me this link to a story about restaurants and the economy that appeared on Time.com today. Nothing new, really, but fairly interesting.

I have an ostrich personality anyway, so maybe it's not surprising that I didn't click on the link at the end of the story that said: "View images of the global food crisis here."

Uh, maybe in the morning.

(Photo courtesy of Time.com)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
                    

I ate at Red Maple in Mount Vernon recently, and it was the first time I had noticed bottle service at a Baltimore restaurant. (Although you can argue that Red Maple is more lounge than restaurant, the fact that Jill Snyder, its executive chef, is a contestant on the current season of Bravo's Top Chef suggests otherwise.)

In case you're not familiar with the concept, you buy a bottle of premium liquor at a breathtaking mark up. For the money you get mixers, fruit and ice -- and at clubs, a reserved table. The advantage is that you get your drinks on your terms.

And, more importantly, there's the cool factor. ...

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Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (46)
                    

Subject line: Elizabeth, Unleash the Restaurant Critic in You! 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
                    

I ate at a cutting-edge little spot recently, and I was surprised to see the purple orchid garnish on several of the dishes. (No, the dish pictured isn't from the restaurant. That was all I could find in our archives to show you what I meant.)

This particular garnish just seems very yesterday to me. It also seems wasteful unless it's reused, which I hope it isn't. ...

Continue reading "The purple orchid garnish" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
                    

The concept of guest posters was born to make the blogger's life easier introduce new voices and fresh ideas to the blog. For instance, your restaurant critic is not going to be writing much about hot dogs, and yet look! We have two posts about them in one week.

Notice the clever way I worked "hot dog" into the headline, even though as you read you will start to wonder where the hot dog comes in. That's because, as I explained when Bucky worried that Multimedia Editor Emeritus John had scooped him on Wednesday, hot dogs translate into more page views -- almost as many as Sarah Palin.

I can't bring myself to write about them as much as I should (although I'm not above eating one), so the more hot dog posts by others, the better.

However, this is a weird coincidence. Bucky sent me his thoughts last Saturday, long before he read John's post.

Could he actually be John?

One other thought: How many people know how old their toilets are?

Bucky, by the way, says he wants to be a recurring, but not regular, contributor.

Clever boy. 

Here's Bucky: ...

Continue reading "Bucky riffs on the Home Depot hot dog" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)