Top 10 Most Difficult Foods to Eat - I'd like to nominate Head Cheese for number 1. I don't think I could ever eat it under the best circumstances. However; I would like to try certain things like sweetbreads and shad roe. I wouldn't have a clue of where too order such things though.

Wow...mystery writing and dining in the same topic.

From Rocco Granite, Special Agent (Ret.), my most enjoyable 2008 summer read:

“I saw the fleeting flash of panic in her eyes as she glanced at her watch and the symmetry of our predicament presented itself to her: It was 4:00 p.m. and we were 400 miles away from our dinner reservation at the Four Seasons.

Our reservation was for 7:00 p.m.

Other than the way she filled out that slinky red evening gown, which was cut too low and slit too high, her most endearing charm was the way she scrunched up her nose when she tried to do long-division in her head.

I knew immediately, however, that at our current speed of 133 mph, we’d still be a mile away from handing the keys to the valet when the Maitre’De gave our table to someone who had just walked in off the street, without calling ahead.

I loved her too much to let that happen. So I gunned it…”

I think Gailor's suggestion is great. It also opens up a broader kind of top ten for you in the future. My vote is probably the kiss of death though, since about zero of my twenty or more suggestions have ever made it to the top ten. True, some were not that mainstream, like top ten scungilli or top ten restaurants to deliver a restraining order to your surrogate mother.

For openers, the date in question is Saturday, October 11, and the Sheraton in question is the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel at 101 West Fayette Street (formerly the Wyndham, previously the Omni, originally the Hilton), and not the Sheraton Inner Harbor Hotel at 300 South Charles Street. (For steakhouse devotees, the Sheraton Baltimore City Center is the one with the Shula's, while the Sheraton Inner Harbor is the one with the Morton's.)

Lucy's is about 1/4 mile away, and I've always liked their food (both as Lucy's and as Maggie Moore's), but it's across the street from the Hippodrome, where "Legally Blonde, The Musical" will be playing twice on that date (2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.). I would want to call Lucy's well in advance (like today, if not sooner) to see whether they can accommodate a group of that size on that date.

The logistics of getting from the Sheraton to Sabatino's or other Little Italy restaurants may be a bit tricky, especially for out-of-towners. The round-trip walking distance is a good two miles (or longer, depending on the dining destination), and involves having to cross President Street twice on foot (not a challenge for the faint of heart).

What happened to the Voodoo Pork clan? Lost in China?

Gailor's suggestion sounds really fun, but I think it might be too intellectual to attract the steaming masses via The Nouveau Sun. Given that even here among the literate scheming masses, the most popular Ten Tops are very basic, I would aim lower for print regurgitation. That sounds so cynical. Although "messy" foods has a certain broad Adam Sandler-like cachet.

In for a cynical penny ... I will know that all is lost when you sink to Baltimore Magazine's level and just have lists of restaurants that advertise in the Sun. I know that you wouldn't do that Elizabeth, but an MBA with an Elizabeth Large mask might.

Let's try some voodoopork free associating. The weather is cooler, summer's almost over, the kids will be back in school,. Back to school? Seasonal topics. Worst school lunches? No. Best sloppy Joe's. Foods that stain the worst. Ugg. Pitiful.

I really need to be around some adults.

I find dining in Baltimore with large groups somewhat difficult because so many of the restaurants are in such small spaces. So I don't really have any new suggestions, but Sabatino's did an excellent job with a large group of about 20 I took there a few years ago. They put us in our own private room on the basement level. It was very nice.

How about a “You know you are dining in Baltimore when…” Top Ten?

Top Ten Restaurants with "back rooms"? I'm thinking of places such as Sammy's with its upper room. I'll bet there are plenty of other establishments have similar setups.

EL: Did you happen to know that Vozzella had a blurb today about Martick's getting a paint job?

How about "Top 10 Salad Dressings" or "Top 10 Wrapped Foods"

Just two thoughts.

Also, on this other blog I frequent (it's about pop culture), we were talking about the foods we loved as kids but hate now. For me, it was Necco wafers and Lucky Charms.

If you enjoy mysteries definitely go to Sabatino's. Mystery #1 why would total strangers on a blog allow you to make such a poor choice. Mystery #2: Why does this place have any repuation at all. The food is dreadful, much of it made 8 or more hours earlier and kept in warming trays all day. (My niece worked there one summer) Mystery #3: what is that weird feeling in my abdomen at 3 A.M.? It makes me sad that people make stops at Philips and Sabatinos and judge our fair city by those epxeriences.

If it's an early dinner, you can probably get a private room in more than a few places in Little Italy and NOT in a basement. I went to a Christmas party in Sabatinos basement once and it was a grim space.

I commend hmpstd on his research regarding the 'drome. I have to disagree that it's difficult to get from the hotel to the Harbor East area which includes Lil Italy. Mappy says it's exactly one mile from hotel to the center of Lil I. And seriously, President Street is just a big street. And we have traffic lights and crosswalks in Charm City.

If you are heading to L.I. or nearby, for those that want to walk it's an interesting and very safe walk. Take a cab back. It's super-easy to get cabs from the hotel and in Little Italy. Probably about $5 total. Don't drive, the parking is bad there.

Check with locals about the specific restaurant if you can and don't trust sites like metromix or any of those places with user-supplied "reviews". They're garbage.

Foods that are hard to eat:

Any food that requires tools in addition to silverware. So, lobster, crab.

Buttered popcorn, if you are doing anything except eating the buttered popcorn. If you are watching television for example, the clicker gets all greasy.

Any food eaten with chopsticks.

One Lay's potato chip. Just one.

How about a top 10 most attractive restaurant ads?

Returning to the topic of foods difficult to eat, I'd nominate a corned beef or pastrami sandwich from any Jewish deli, which is always hugely overstuffed (I'm not complaining). The bread bowl that's left after eating the soup in the Panera Bread "soup in a bowl" is difficult, too: no soup spoon will cut the bread, a knife and fork are awkward, and tearing off pieces of bread with your hands leaves your hands covered in soup.

A Top Ten Most Difficult Foods to Eat invites a rerun of the Gack Index topic.

You know you're dining in Baltimore when the mouse running past your table looks up and says "Hi there, Hon."

Here's an idea. A few weeks back a columnist for Newsweek wrote a piece about his hatred of Crocs http://www.newsweek.com/id/150240 and the tremendous response http://www.newsweek.com/id/154409/page/ How about the Top 10 Crocs of Food? By that I mean the Top 10 things that people are incredibly passionate about one way or other. I bet you could even come up with a quick 10 off the blog. For example, though Burgers received a lot of comments, I'm not sure if it raises passions on either side. I can't imagine a big anti-burger lobby (maybe PETA), however both Foie Gras and Children in Restaurants seem like good candidates.

hmpstd -

Please don't kill me, I'm about to recommend a chain. But it has a great Baltimore location and great food. McCormick and Schmick on Pier 6. Check their web site and decide for yourself it the prices are reasonable. (That's a judgement I've lost after living in Arlington, VA for 7 years) You don't have to cross President St,, either. Added bonus: you may get lucky and have nice enough weather to sit outside, esp since you are talking about an early evening dinner.

RevEd-

Thanks for your comments about Sabatino's. I've been there a few times, and I just don't get all the excitement.

Thank you also for your warning about parking in LI. Although, I must add this: the city has recently built a VERY cheap garage on Central Ave, just 3 blocks from the main High Street restaurant area.

Rev'Ed -- I was at the old Maggie's the night when the Rolling Stones played the Arena AND the Billy Joel musical "Movin' Out" was at the Hippodrome. The place was gridlocked. Ever since, I've checked the Hippodrome calendar before going to what is now Lucy's. (AFAIK, Orioles games don't have much of an effect on the place.)

Ms Joyce W: sweetbreads: Petit Louis.

MEMO TO BLOGGERS
From: Lee Abrams

Listen up, e-cats and kittens, it's time to reinvent this blog like James Dean did for breakfast sausage and Elvis did for jumpsuits - Rock&Roll style! Dig this ... journalism is dead. New Journalism is deader than the drummer from Supertramp. Welcome to the new new (one more) new (hit me) new journalism. But we can't call it that. We need a new hook, a phresh tag, something that wordifies this thing we do and engorge it with the street, the digital street, zoom zoom zip-a-dee-DO, not zip-a-dee-DON'T, positive and tight! Idea: Foods that are EASY to eat! Yeah, say you're chillaxin' with yer shorty, got some Coldplay goin', thinking about what to buy this weekend and WHOA who put the brakes on my mojo with HARD TO EAT buzz kill? I want easy peezy soulja! See what I did? Turned a negatory to positivition - yeah, that's a positioned positive statement that keeps people in the mood to buy what our ads are selling! So we need to develop byte-ology to jack up the journo delivery system for ads and smooth the mood for ad trajectories. What do I call this new monster? JOURNALINGUS!

Now go create content me, bee-atches, ai-ight?

FLIRV -- I don't know why you'd think that I'd kill you over recommending a chain. However, the person who wrote to EL said, "we'd like to be be within a mile of the Sheraton if at all possible as people will need to get to evening events [presumably being held back at the hotel]." Walking to and from Pier 6 or points east, or waiting to hail cabs at either end (as Rev'Ed suggested), may not be logistically compatible with the group's remaining evening schedule. For that reason (among others), I also refrained from suggesting that the group look into Birches.

Well, I have an item for a Top Ten List of Most Disgusting Behaviors in Restaurants.
My DH and I went to dinner tonight at an inexpensive restaurant where families are welcome.
Three adults sat down at the table next to us (separated by a window), and proceeded to place an infant ON THE TABLE. They let her sit there ON THE TABLE, for a good 10 minutes at least before they placed her in her infant carrier.
When we left about 30 minutes later, I looked for the manager and told him what happened, and that the table needed to be thoroughly disinfected when they left.
He seemed horrified but that could have been an act for me. I can only hope that they disinfected the table.

in re: Top Ten suggestions --

[1] Did you ever find a better name for the "new" column?

[2] A variation of the Gack! topic: You've had stranger things in your mouth.

Maybe I missed something. Birches is in Canton 2.2 miles from the hotel. That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless they have a large party and want to split the check 25 different ways. I sense that there is a little too much anxiety being transmitted here. Baltimore is pretty easy to get around early on a Saturday night compared to many other biggish cities. There are cabs lined up outside every major hotel and are abundant around the harbor and LI. Relax. I travel by cab around the harbor areas all the time. I would hate to see someone limit themselves to the three blocks surrounding that hotel. Knowing hmpstd, I have to assume that there is somehow an another place named Birches inside the hotel, since his laser research skills are deadly. Another thing about Little Italy is that some places have big vans to shuttle people to and from hotels for free.

My very personal and biased recommendation is Rocco's Capriccio on High St. They have three dining rooms, two of which are used for groups sometimes. It's family run place and the food is excellent. They will also shuttle you to and fro. I love it there and I'm a hypercritical bastard. I had the most delicious cod there once. Cod? Yeah, who would think? It turns out that chef Rocco had it flown in overnight from Portugal. That's fresh - fresh as in it goes from the docks to the airport fresh. Now that's the kind of food you remember. It's the real deal.

OK, I'll be the one to ask the dumb question. One person responded to "difficult to eat" with foods that are gross. Another person responded to "difficult to eat" with foods that present challenges to the eater (for instance, foods that require more than basic silverware). For this list, which type of "difficult to eat" are we going for? Because a blended list (that includes head cheese and buttered popcorn) might just confuse the heck out of everyone. There, I did it. I asked the dumb question. Flame away.

Nobody gets flamed on my blog. Unless they're a regular. And then all bets seem to be off. I noticed that too, and hadn't thought about it when I wrote the post. Gailor was thinking of things messy things or something like an artichoke or a crab, that if you didn't know how to tackle would be hard to get nourishment from. EL

OMG -- My allusion was to the (in)famous Birches post of last month. (I shudder to think of what might happen if all 15-20 diners didn't arrive at Birches on time.) While "Birches" does sounds like a good corporate-jargon name for a restaurant for a hotel chain, the Sheraton's restaurants have all used Shula's-related names since the Omni era (ca. 1995).

At its best (say, 5:00 a.m.), Baltimore's downtown traffic control system moves vehicles with ruthless efficiency across the two east-west axes of Pratt/Lombard and Mulberry/Franklin. At other times, such as Saturday evening, the east-west movement is a lot slower (and that's before you have to deal with rain, or north-south movement, or cars stopped on Little Italy streets for no apparent reason). Again, I didn't raise the time issue, the letter-writer did -- and if time is of concern to that person, it's only fair to address that concern.

I truly admire the tenacity of otters trying to eat clams while floating on their backs. Bravo.

Journalingus sounds more than vaguely obscene. Which is probably the point.

Add Bra1nchild's "you've had worse things in your mouth", and I think I go need to have a lay down.

This is journalingus:

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=8556

The City Paper has really gone downhill since back then.

Oh , hmpstd, I read yours wrong. You refrained from sending them to Birches. I got confused just like when Neal Cassidy fought the Sundance Kid in The Sting with light sabres.

If by obscene you mean obscenely profitable, then yes.

I guess you don't fly Aer Lingus then Lissa.
(But yes, Mr Owl walks a fine line.)

Hey Boutbon Girl - did you see this? I found it referenced over on Sessa's blog.

http://www.theagitator.com/2008/08/16/how-to-baconify-your-bourbon/

FLIRV and Sandboxers, the only problem with taking a large party to McCormick & Schmick's is that they'll insist that the "group leader" (for lack of a better term) select a menu from their banquet offerings. I wanted to make a reservation for a party of 12 and was immediately transferred to the Banquet Manager. Only when my group pared down to less than 10 would they relent and let us choose from the regular menu. I don't know about y'all, but I don't feel comfortable choosing a meal for my friends at a restaurant. If I'm cooking it, that's a different matter.

Not literally, terriermom.

I'm already ashamed. Sure you think Bacon Girl and Bourbon Girl might somehow meet in your imagination, both being super awesome but this ... it's just too public. I need to go say some Heil Mary's.

Chains? Seriously? No no no. There's no upside; all you are doing is managing expectatons and trying to minimize the down side. Why not just take a big pill and sleep through the whole trip. Oh, I'm so tired and I think Rock Chicklet is throwing pennies at my window. I need to quickly turn all the lights out and pretend to be dead.

Let's pretend that we're dead. That a fun song Get on that tomorrow RC, I forget who sings it. AND stop throwing things at my window. I have an English muffin with not your name on it. ka-DING toaster oven ready.

How about top ten places to bring your dog while owners eat?

After his spot-on parody of Mr. Abram's memo, it seems clear that Mr. Owl Meat must be a Sun employee or perhaps a recent casualty of the new order. Perhaps he is a wholly invented persona of Ms. Large and her staff to "juice up" the blog. How else and why would he be able to parody internal memos that the public is not aware of. As the Bard said, something is rotten in Denmark.

You are missing the trolley here e-comrades, what with all the what-what about reinvention and schemes for print and electronic media mutual stimulation. Why not have a top ten restaurant web sites list. Many people now judge a restaurant by its web site first, especially out-of-town travellors. Cheers.

Mr. Gilbert, I think OMG is just that clever. I don't think he has a tie-in to the Sun, ops sorry, the Baltimore Sun, other than as a blogger. I may end-up totally wrong, but I'd like to keep thinking OMG is someone with whom I might someday enjoy an entertaining meal. (Oh, and by the way, I do believe he has his own cast of characters. But that's just a bonus.)

All quiet on the restaurant front today. And this two day old post is the main featured blog post on the home page. Strange.

"Let's Pretend that We're Dead" is by L7. Classic song.

Rob keep[s] thinking OMG is someone with whom I might someday enjoy an entertaining meal

I keep thinking that OMG is someone FOR whom I might someday BE an entertaining meal.

Mr. Gilbert -- will we have to follow the list of "Top Ten Restaurant Websites" with a list of "Top Ten Restaurants That Don't Live Up To The Expectations Induced By Their Websites"?

Lissa - Love that song! Now I can get it on my pod - didn't know who did it before!

A(for) wrote: "I keep thinking that OMG is someone FOR whom I might someday BE an entertaining meal."

This could be interpreted in more than one way.

Such as anon.e.mouse literally afraid of being a meal.

Or Rockchick acting deperate again, despite herself.

Or maybe Springs1 is back. Maybe she's been to Potbelly, it being a chain and all.

Is that picture photoshopped? I've never heard of escargot(s) (what is the plural?) being presented with one that looks like it's on the move crawling around the rim of the plate. Talk about difficult to eat. Plus it's bigger than the other snails.

It's probably the most disgusting food photo I've ever seen, but it's not photoshopped. EL

Hey Bacon Girl - thanks. That Owl is a pervert. Do you think he'd meet us out for a drink? My guess is he's owl talk and no action.

top ten menu items???

Pervert? Oh that hurts. Nice try BG, but I'm sly to your ways. Psychology doesn't work on my avian brain. I'm starting to think that Bacon Girl and Bourbon Girl are one and the same. I can't wait for Melted Cheese Girl to make her appearance. Trifecta!

I've been reading, but haven't yet posted to this blog. Your wish is my command, Owl Meat. I've been thinking of becoming a “Girl” for a while (well, I am a girl, but I digress....) to counterbalance the proliferation of Roberts. So, hence forth, I shall be “Cheese Girl”. Please be gentle.

Delightful! Cheese Girl has been let out of her genii bottle. I feel mad with power.

Bread. Butter. Cheeese. Victory!

Why does the bread say "Cheesy Good"? That little girl looks possessed by some sort of Cheese Demon.

The posts are thick with innuendo for a Monday. The sex/sandwich thread on "Dinner at the airport ..." is starting to sound like food erotica.

I am outraged! And mean Mr. Owl, I was NOT throwing pennies at your window. They were M&Ms.

That's why I remain anonymous. I am a-skeered of OMG.

Don't be afraid little e-mousey. I'm a harmless woodland creature featured in many cartoons as a wearing glasses, a mortarboard, and reading a book.

ROFL -- While I do admit to having a strong love of cheese, I certainly hope I don't have that expression on my face when in it's proximity. (I'd like to think I save it for...other things.)

Calling Bacon Girl.... Calling Bacon Girl.... Do you have any suggestions on what kind of bacon is best? Let's just say I had to buy some from a regular supermarket, what would you recommend. I got some cheap bacon last week and was mightily disappoined.

My understanding is that tomorrow the paper version of the Sun will print last week's top ten list and some user comments. True? I'm curious to see what they do with that.

I am trying to learn a photoshop-like program and am DYING. It's making me feel stupider than a box of rocks. I'm using Photo Plus 8, which look exactly like PhotoShop but costs $9.99. The layers and masks beguile me. Basically I just want to copy part of an image and add it to another image. It was easy in MS PictureIt. Please help if there's an easy answer.

It will be in the Wednesday's food section. The section is printed ahead, so it can't contain tomorrow's Top 10. EL

Who chooses and edits the comments for the dead tree version?

I do the first cut, but I just found out I only have 7 inches. By the time I do a short intro and Top 10 (with addresses -- no links) too much of that is used up. I'd much rather reprint comments that give a better flavor of the appeal of this blog. EL

OMG, I don't get my bacon at the grocer. But you get what you pay for. Don't buy cheap bacon. And at the grocer, don't buy any of that maple "flavored" stuff, it's awful no matter how much you spend.

p.s. I can't believe you suggested I'm BG and vice versa. Ridiculous. And Owl man, she is going to be pissed off at your flirting with Cheese Girl. You are asking for it from the harsh mistress.

I have been reading too, but never posted before. Today, however, I have been inspired by Cheese Girl to rally to counterbalance the proliferation of Roberts.

Girls - 4 (Bacon, Bourbon, Cheese, Hyacinth)

Roberts - 4? (Piano, PCB, TBRS, Single... am I missing any?)

Oed' und leer das Meer.

Hey Piano Rob - the Owl is beguiled. Do you know this tune - "I'm wild again, beguiled again....." I had to sing that one when I took voice lessons. What a gem.

Sweetest Hyacinth: you have forgotten the RoCK.

There is at least one

"They called me the hyacinth girl."
--Yet when we came back, late, from the hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.

Thanks Bacon Girl™.

OMG, Now that's a real man for you: Holding the handle of a cast iron pan barehanded while cooking bacon.

Voodoo Pork, gastronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic pig. Voodoo Pork will be that pig. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.

Ta da! Hardwired and ready to blog. What did I miss?

Poor Owl Meat, you must have been lost without me. Stumped by Photoshop? I think you're just missing the basic mindset of the program. I always learn best by doing. Photo Plus is fine and a bargain. It looks exactly like Photoshop and has the same "logic". Don't bother looking for Photo Plus help, Photoshop has far more documentation. The help files are maddening. Try googling Photoshop tutorial or walk-through. I think a few examples will get your mind right.

Owl Meat -- weren't you trying to learn to use GIMP in place of Photoshop in the not too distant past? Whatever happened to the great GIMP experiment?

I got frustrated with GIMP. I think I'm trying to do simple things, but GIMP/PS/PP all resemble each other in that they seem designed to do really complicated things. Photo Plus is already better than GIMP because it has a magnetic lasso for cropping. That's fun except for not knowing where to go from there.

Thanks VDP, I guess.

Owlie, I can give you a Photoshop lesson. I'll throw some Smarties at your window later tonight.

Bacon Girl

I hope you are keeping track of the bacon activity at Sessa's place.

No need Chicklet, I think I've got the basic idea now of layers and backgrounds now. I just introduced happy flaming banana guy into the Frito Bandito's world.

Sorry RoCK to have left you off the list. Bucky screwed up my math by changing his name. Maybe you could change your name so that the girls are even with the proliferation of Roberts? Otherwise, we need another girl to come forward and represent.

Owl - nice. A man after my own heart.

LEC - I am on it. Bacon bourbon would be better than bacon vodka in my mind, but one can't go wrong with bacon; it will be good, I just know it. And I commend Evan on his hard work. I'm tempted to show up for a shot. Are you going? And are you going to do a shot? I can't believe Sessa is being such a girl about it.

Yay! The crazy happy banana thing with the hoola hoop! Makes me happy just thinking about it. I don't even want to know what it is anymore.

Is that Oak Meat Gravy??

Oh, I just had a flashback -- I remember having a Frito Bandito pencil eraser. And now I can't get that song out of my head. ("I am the Frito Bandito...")

I was just reading along too, but have been inspired by Hyacinth Girl and Cheese Girl to rally to counterbalance the proliferation of Roberts.

Go Charcoal Grill, Big Bad Wolf, Chaps, Alabama BBQ and Andy Nelson's! Smoked peppered turkey, smoked sausages.Corn bread and collard greens. Fries cooked in peanut oil, ribs, grilled chicken, smoked chicken, whole or half chicken, sweet Memphis, hot Memphis, smoky Texas, boo Carolina...
Brisket!

Girls - 5

Roberts - 5

Wow, two new food girls in one week. Welcome BBQ Girl. And now I have that Hyacinth Girl song in my head. Sorry, don't know any BBQ Girl songs. Girls named after food - it really doesn't get much better than that in blogland.

Owl Meat - make that three -- don't forget about me. ; )

Ooops, Cheese Girl equals three. My counting skills suffer after midnight when I'm all stuffed from moonlight hunting of anon.e.mice. Click on my name for a less interesting but less possessed version of Grilled Cheese Girl.

Less possessed, yes -- but still "Victory!" Thanks for the smile.

Hyacinth is a food?

I don't think hyacinth is a food. I guess I meant girls named after things I like: music, food, liquor and The Waste Land in no particular order. It all makes for a nice table setting.

Hyacinth bean is a food, for some value of "we're starving, this is edible, and we'll deal with the side effects".

BBQ Girl!
Welcome to the Sandbox. mmmm-Charcoal Grill. I used to live right near there and visited often, especially when it involved a side jaunt to the Liquor Pump right there.

Owl,
Re: The Waste Lands: Are you familiar with Roland Deschains (sp?) If so, you know that his journey FINALLY came to an end, sort of...?

I really enjoyed the series, bummed that it ended, and REAL bummed at the way it did. But then, I guess the writer tired of creating twists and darn sure didn't want to create another volume.

Well, Owl, you wasted no time putting my pic out there. I was hoping folks would just use their imaginations. At least I look better than that creepy cheese girl (no offense, but scary eyes).

Rob in PCB FL (jeez, the Roberts are somewhat of a pain to type) - Liquor Pump still there - I was at Charcoal Grill last week (brisket sandwich and fries) and stopped into the Liquor Pump to pick up some bourbon (Woodford). They have good prices. When are you coming back up here? You don't seem to be here much for having a fiancee here.

It was Andy Nelson's tonight - their brisket was great, but not as good as Charcoal Grill (or Big Bad Wolf). But they did have these bbq potato wedges that were very excellent. Only they didn't have the presence of mind to poke holes in the top of the carry-out container like Big Bad Wolf does so they don't get soggy en route.

p.s. I forgot pulled pork last night in my little song to BBQ.

T.S. Eliot and his songs are food for the brain. And heart. That is more important than real food most days.

oh sure, put Rock Chick first. what, do we all have to come throw candy at your window to be first on the list? i can't afford that kind of cab fare to little itlay. i can't believe i was listed third.

PCP Rob, I have no idea what you mean. I'm referring to one of my favorite poems, The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot. I think Eliot is the best poet of the 20th Century and I really only like 2 of his poems, Prufrock and Wasteland, but I think that's enough. Otherwise I like Wallace Stevens for the Emperor of Ice Cream and Charles Simic for many, many things, especially The Butcher Shop. I also really like Pablo Neruda in the original Spanish and some of the so-called L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E poets, particularly Bill Knott (Outremer). And of course my own verse which is vastly under appreciated. So I swallow my rage and and turn it into the white hot Hot Pocket that is my blogging. What was the question again?

BBQ Girl -- no offense taken. That first cheese girl pic was disturbing. I think hunger was the least of her (Freudian) problems.

After your song to BBQ, I'm feeling like I should come up with an Ode to Cheese.

God, I love Google. I wasn't feeling inspired enough to come up with my own Ode to Cheese (too early in the day to try to rhyme with chevre and Stilton). So I did a search and found The Oxford Cheese Ode by James McIntyre, a Scottish born Canadian poet who was known as, I kid you not, the Cheese Poet.

My favorite stanza from the Oxford Cheese Ode --

To us it is a glorious theme
To sing of milk and curds and cream
Were it collected it could float
On its bosom, small steam boat
Cows numerous as swarm of bees
Are milked in Oxford to make cheese.

Go figure, a very sweet tour de force.

So, I swallow my rage, Clench my teeth, suck my lips in tight, and paint To please them -- sometimes do and sometimes don't; For, doing most, there's pretty sure to come A turn, some warm eve finds me at my saints -- A laugh, a cry, the business of the world -- (Flower o' the peach, Death for us all, and his own life for peach!) And my whole soul revolves, the cup runs over, The world and life's too big to pass for a dream, And I do these wild things in sheer despite, And play the fooleries you catch me at, In pure rage!

Yum... peaches.

Lobster isn't diificult to eat at all. I've loved eating lobster since I was six years old and it has always been my birthday meal. Send over a few fresh lobsters for my 50th birthday this Saturday, I'll cook them up myself and show you how easy and quick it is to crack them open and get to the most delicious seafood meat that you have ever tasted. Maryland crabs may taste good also but the work isn't worth the small amount of meat that you finally get out.

Ms. Jeanne, those lights you see coming your way are not birthday candles (happy bday, btw) but outraged Marylanders with torches and pitchforks coming to get you.

BINGO! "It's that time again...the next Top 10" has cracked the century mark for comments and will be enshrined in the Dining@Large Popular Topic Hall of Fame, which is currently located on a little yellow sticky note right here next to my basement home office computer.

Right...here...uh...no, wait...right...here...(Hey! there's that phone bill they said I didn't pay!)...uh...right...HERE! Yes! Right Here.

I'm putting the Dining@Large Popular Topic Hall of Fame in my wallet, so I won't lose it. hmpstd, if I can't find it in the future, would you please remind me of where I put it?

It's good to be gone, but it's better to be home....