Deep (and true, IMHO) thought from Garrison Keillor two weeks ago: "Pumpkin pie is the essence of mediocrity. The very best pumpkin pie you ever tasted is practically indistinguishable from the very worst pumpkin pie you ever tasted."

I happen to like pumpkin pie, but when I eat it I'm always conscious of the fact that I'm enjoying nostalgia, not food I love. Can you really say you've ever had a traditional pumpkin pie that knocked your socks off?

(I solve the problem by making a chiffon pumpkin pie with a gingersnap crust.)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

If i were cooking Thanksgiving dinner and working this week, I'd be shopping for as much I could five days in advance, making the carrot souffle and freezing it (see earlier Thanksgiving menu), cooking the cranberry sauce and cutting the bread in cubes for the stuffing.

Instead I think I'll watch the episodes of "Flashforward," "The Good Wife" and "V" I've TiVoed.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I'm taking next week off to do something I haven't done in forever: Have a week off at home. There are chores to be done, and my daughter and I have a movie list a yard long; but I'll still have time to blog with the help of some virtual friends.

I'm going to try to make vegetarian meals while she's here next week, and I'm already fighting the urge to wake up one morning early and start making stuffing for a nonexistent turkey. ...

Continue reading "Looking ahead to next week" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

I just deleted a long comment about Bicycle and Ullswater. What thirstywoman said may or may not be true, but please remember I and the Sun can't publish unsubstantiated accusations like that. Let me refer you back to the Commenting Rules. Please use your common sense.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Robert of Cross Keys eats better than I do, and I'm the restaurant critic. Here's RoCK with a Free Market Friday guest post that's making me hungry. EL

This week the wife had a business lunch in Harbor East.  She decided to bring me along. I was already off for Veteran’s Day, and a downtown lunch beat my original plans for the day of watching reruns of The Golden Girls on Lifetime.

My normal weekday lunch routine is going to the American Legion in the burbs. (I should say that American Legions are great places to go for lunch.  Where else can you get soup, sandwich and a beer for $4?)  On this day, however, I went to Roy’s, where I got some Hawaiian with a touch of the Philippines and even a little bit of Baltimore.

One of the things I like about Roy’s is that there is some discretion over the menu that allows for the chef to add some unique items to be mixed in with the standard menu items.  At Roy’s Baltimore, the chef is from the Philippines; and you can see some of the culture in the menu....

Continue reading "Robert goes Hawaiian" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Free Market Fridays
        

I've come up with one more Thanksgiving dinner that you can probably afford, even if you can't do the $40 fixed-price menus or the hotel buffets that I mentioned in my Top 10 Tuesday.

My daughter and I stopped by the Crossroads Restaurant in the Radisson Cross Keys when she was visiting one weekend recently and had a bite to eat. (The not-so-great art is a camera phone photo by me.)

I was curious about it because I had gotten a press release about its new farm-to-table menu. ...

Continue reading "One more reasonably priced Thanksgiving dinner" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Thanksgiving
        

Don't miss Other Reviewer Richard's review today if you like interesting, small ethnic restaurants. It sounds like a real find.

The restaurant is Cazabe, a Dominican restaurant in Jessup. It must have been a good evening if Richard enjoyed it in spite of getting stuck in traffic for 2 1/2 hours getting there.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

...Susan Reimer tells me there's a canned pumpkin shortage again.

In other news, the Sun has a readers' cookie exchange going. 

And there's a new Taste Facebook page, not that it does me a lot of good because I can't FB.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Recently I got an e-mail from a reader:

I'm an aspiring bread baker trying to work up the courage to leave my office job and begin baking full time.  The Sun article on [Dale] Dugan from a few months back is taped on my wall as motivation; I will definitely apply for the position if he is still there.  

The article in question was an excellent column by Rob Kasper, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be online anymore, so I can't link to it.

[Update: Community Coordinator Carla has come up with a link to the story.]

Today I got the sad news that Dugan died this morning after a short battle with kidney cancer. He was 48. ...

Continue reading "Death of an inspiration" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

I get so many e-mails like the following one, I need to come up with a Top 10 of every neighborhood and suburb.

Let's get started with Catonsville. My first choice is Catonsville Gourmet (seafood), followed by Jennings Cafe (pub), Pho #1 (Vietnamese), Wong Gai Bi (Korean) and Ships Cafe (seafood).

Any other nominations, specifically in the categories asked for below?

My father recently moved to Charlestown in Catonsville. I would like to take him out to a local restaurant but I am not familiar with the area. Could you please recommend a nice Italian, Fish, Am food, and Chinese restaurant in Catonsville. Thank you. ...

Continue reading "Best restaurants in Catonsville" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

I'm finding out that fewer restaurants are open on Thanksgiving than I thought. If you want to eat out, you have my Top 10s to consider, or the traditional lavish buffet many hotels in the area are offering. But I freely admit these are expensive options.

NotableM, I hear you.

I also realized, reading the comments under my earlier post, that not everyone wants turkey on The Day. ...

Continue reading "Untraditional, inexpensive restaurants for Thanksgiving" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Thanksgiving
        

Think RoCK's guest post on RA was controversial? How about this one from our Shallow Thought guru John Lindner? Here's John. EL

Note: there is no known connection between the Advanced Cat Yodeling video and the following Shallow Thought. My apologies to newcomers who haven’t learned to ignore the STW videos.
 
Food-related things I won’t say on my hospital death bed: ...

Continue reading "What he won't be saying on his hospital death bed" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Shallow Thought Wednesdays
        

Instead of Table Talk this week, I wrote a more general wrap up story on restaurants for the Taste section today. Other Reviewer Richard also had one that dealt with less expensive eating places.

The package looks nice in the print edition. You don't get the same effect online -- and I don't usually praise print over Web. If you get a chance, take a look.

I also did my dining awards.  ...

Continue reading "The restaurant issue" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

It seems to me, reading the comments under The best faux meatballs in the country post, that what we need is a Faux Meatball Poll. I fall into the category of happily eating vegetarian meals, but also enjoying meat. I'm really not attracted to meat substitutes, and the fact that my husband once ordered a veggie burger with bacon still gives the creeps. ...

Continue reading "The Faux Meatball Poll" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Talara in Harbor East has made various changes that all sound like improvements to me. But I'm not its core audience, so I'd be interested in hearing from others about them.

I liked the Nuevo Latino ceviche and tapas bar when I reviewed it, but it's a place I would think of more for drinks and nibbles than dinner.

But management would like to change that. ...

Continue reading "Changes at Talara in Harbor East" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

I've done a lot of exciting Top 10 lists on this blog, but none quite as exciting as PETA's Top 10 Vegan Meatballs.

Normally I would continue to make fun of them (and me) except, hey, one of Baltimore's restaurants is on the list, the One World Cafe near Hopkins University. Its vegan meatball sub sandwich is a winner.

Suddenly I feel pretty good about the list, considering it's a national one. ...

Continue reading "The best faux meatballs in the country" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Vegetables
        

I got this e-mail from Sean yesterday (I don't think our Sean), but I had never heard of the following before:

I have some co-workers who have eaten at Faidley’s at Lexington Market and they wish to know why sliced hard-boiled eggs are placed on top of raw oysters. Is it a Faidley’s thing or a Baltimore thing?  An explanation would be great.

So I asked both my Old Baltimore food gurus what was up. ...

Continue reading "Sliced egg on raw oysters" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Now you decide you don't want to cook after all, and you're looking for a restaurant open Thanksgiving day. I did my best for you with this list of Top 10 Restaurants for Thanksgiving Dinner, but it wasn't easy.

First of all, check out my list from two years ago. I didn't want to repeat myself this time, so I'm really giving you 20 choices. I can't guarantee at this point, of course, that there will be any openings; but I didn't include any places that were booked as of this writing. ...

Continue reading "Top 10 Restaurants for Thanksgiving Dinner" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Thanksgiving, Top Ten Tuesdays
        

There's an interesting discussion going on under RoCK on RA! about how newbies should be treated. Usually I'm the one begging for the conversation to be more civil and asking regulars to encourage new people, but I have mixed feelings this time.

I'm not happy that Robert of Cross Keys is getting attacked, because he's doing me a favor by writing his guest posts. They give me a bit of a break, and they give you a different point of view so we all benefit. But the important thing to remember is that he's not getting paid for this. ...

Continue reading "How newbies should be treated" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (69)
        

Continue reading "The latest on Grano" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

I've written about how new restaurants aren't as quick to let me know they're open as they used to be because they don't want to be slammed and don't want me to review them until they've had time to get the kinks out. (Believe me, I won't come right away; I just need fodder for my Table Talk column, which is mostly about openings and closings.)

So I love, love, love the fact that some of you take the time to shoot me an e-mail when you hear (or see) that a place is open. ...

Continue reading "New restaurants continue to open (and close)" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Sometimes I wonder if readers read the same review I think I've written. This morning I got an e-mail from Laura in Queenstown saying, in part,

Your evaluation couldn't have been any more off the mark. Our dinner was very well prepared and delicious. I think that the prices are appropriate for the menu choices and are certainly well worth it. I guess if you are looking for the typical boring Chesapeake Bay menu you should cross over to Carols Creek or the Charthouse. Check out their prices for an assembly line service with an atmosphere so loud you can't hold a conversation with the person beside you. I'm glad I decided to check it out for myself. And I would drive 45 min. for the meal I had tonight and so would everyone else in our group. ...   

Continue reading "Monday Morning Quarterbacking: Hell Point Seafood" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

If there were any doubt about the popularity of Bravo's Top Chef, and the importance to your business of doing well on it if you're a contestant, a couple of current magazine issues would dispel it. I'm thinking of Entertainment Weekly (the holiday movie preview issue) and The Week, which condenses all the news in the universe into one thin magazine each week.

First, Entertainment Weekly's Shaw Report -- no, really, I subscribe to The Economist; my daughter gave me the heads up about this feature -- says the following:

"In: the Voltaggio brothers; Five Minutes Ago: the Simpson sisters;  Out: the Hough siblings."

Then in this week's The Week my review of Volt was condensed but given quite a bit of space. Somehow I don't think it was my brilliant writing that caught the eye of The Week's editors. (You may not be able to get to it with the link unless you're a subscriber, so I'll reproduce it here.) ...

Continue reading "More buzz for a (somewhat) local restaurant" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: What's Hot
        

Next Sunday I tell you about our dinner at the new Grano, the Hampden pasta bar that moved from 36th Street to larger quarters where Dangerously Delicious Pies Savory House used to be at 3547 Chestnut Ave.

I'm not sure what the status of the old location is. I know the Cuban shop/cafe or whatever it was going to be decided not to move in. Someone on this blog commented that the old location was still open, but when I called today no one answered, and there isn't a voicemail message that says it's Grano. ...

Continue reading "Next Sunday's review: Grano " »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Review Preview
        

Nice to see the sun again, isn't it? Hal Laurent just sent me a description of a recent meal at Charleston, and you know how much I like mini-reviews. To think some people get to do this for a living. Here's Hal. EL

Neither of us had been to Charleston before, so this was a bit of an adventure. We opened with cocktails (Rusty Nail for Peggy, Manhattan on the rocks for me). We also had a very tasty amuse bouche of lobster salad. The lobster was incredibly tender. ...

Continue reading "A reader dines at Charleston" »

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)