First of all, I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see John McIntyre attending the Baltimore Sun tweet-up. I would have thought the name alone would prevent him from going. But he is nothing if not a good sport.

In his blog entry about the event and other such things was a nugget of wisdom I thought I should bring to your attention. On "the superiority of bacon over sausage: with bacon, you know what you’re eating." ...

The weird thing is that even though he's totally correct, I still like (Tennessee) sausage better than bacon. And don't be fooled by the sausage sold in northern supermarkets and called Tennessee Pride or some such. Although Tennessee Pride tastes great in Tennessee.

Of course, maybe it tastes better in Tennessee because I'm on vacation.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (57)
        

I kept meaning to get to Bistro Blanc. Honest I did. But a lot of new restaurants were opening closer to home than Glenelg, and somehow I didn't get around to it until now. 

The funny thing was that when we pulled into the whatever it's in (strip industrial park?) I almost turned around and went home. But not to worry, the interior is much, much nicer. And the food is well worth the drive. The menu is the creation of Marc Dixon, the chef who opened Iron Bridge Wine Company in Columbia. He's still there after almost a year, which is something of a record for chefs and new restaurants these days.

(Elizabeth Malby/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Review Preview
        

Note to servers - Here is the wrong way to respond to an inquiry:

Me: I can't decide between the chicken and the lamb - would you recommend one over the other?

Server: I don't eat the flesh of dead animals.

Posted by: Baltofoodie | May 26, 2009 1:41 PM

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Here's MD Canon on the Mystery Product:

Answer: Burger King (brand) French Toast Flavored Snacks. The primary flavor: cinnamon!
 
Buy again ... no, thank you!
 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

It's been a long time since we've played the Mystery Product game, but MD Canon has kindly come up with a new one for us. It's Saturday, time to enjoy ourselves.

The important thing to remember is Rule No. 1: No cheating. Yes, you can probably Google the ingredients and come up with the answer, but what's the fun in that? My dog could do that.

Here we go: ...

Corn meal, Vegetable oil (contains one or more of the following: corn, soybean, sunflower or cottonseed oil), sugar, salt, maltodextrin, molasses powder, natural maple flavor, (gum arabic, natural flavor), caramel color, beet powder (color), citric acid, malic acid, paprika extract (color), natural and artificial flavors.
 
Serving size: 35 grams. Calories 190; Fat calories 90.

Hint: I got this from a vending machine! They were odd, almost tasty ... almost!

Second hint: the primary flavor isn't mentioned in the ingredient list.
 
Third hint: NASDAQ: SNAK

I'll post the answer later on. This seems so obscure you get credit for approximating it with a good guess, or an entertaining guess even if you're totally off base.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (43)
        

Has the bottled water craze died down? You would think so, given the backlash from the ecologically concerned (what's the non-pejorative fun phrase for tree huggers?), the price in this economy, the concerns about purity and other criticisms.

But I haven't read that sales are off. And a cursory use of Google wasn't much help. I did find an official-looking bottled water Web site, but you have to pay to read any of the articles. Wow. You have to really be into bottled water to be willing to pay to read about it.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

If I die before my time, it will be at 7 a.m. on a Saturday in the Waverly Market parking lot. I've got to remember to park on the street. Those early morning shoppers are crazed. Also they can't drive. There was a guy in a wheelchair sitting near the Gardener's Gourmet stand, and a woman backing out of her spot nearly hit him because she wasn't bothering to actually turn the steering wheel once she could.

What I like about the Waverly Market is that I always discover a new stand there; and then when I ask, they say, Oh, we've been here five years. ...

For instance, I never noticed Zeke's coffee having a presence there before.

The headline was just to scare you into going over there to get asparagus before noon or down to the city market tomorrow. The vendor I bought it from said it was almost the end of local asparagus.

I know I talk a lot about the Waverly Market and the Market Under the Viaduct because those are the ones I shop at. I've also mentioned the farmers markets at Cross Keys, Towson and the Whole Foods parking lot in Mount Washington.

But these days markets are springing up everywhere. If you've found others you like or know of any that should be mentioned, please post it here and tell us a little  about it, including what day it's opened.

(Photos by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

I've got to get back on a regular schedule of thinking about Top 10 Tuesday before Monday afternoon. My fear now is that I can never duplicate the success of Most Controversial Restaurants, and it's all downhill from here.

However, Helpful Reader Lou has sent me a list of Top 10 suggestions. Some of them we've done, but maybe one of them strikes your fancy? Or do you have another suggestion? I actually toyed with making his list a Top 10 list -- you know, Top 10 Top 10 Suggestions -- that's how low I've sunk.

Here's Lou's e-mail: ...

suggestions for TT if they they haven't been covered already

Top 10 restaurants for good service
Top 10 for poor service
Top 10 spiciest dishes (name dish and restaurant)
Top 10 BBQ Joints
Top 10 Best smelling restaurants (one of the reasons I like Indian food, the smell of spices when u first walk in the door)
Top 10 Ma & Pa restaurants
Top 10 Best Restaurant locations
Top 10 Worst Restaurant locations
Top 10 most ambitious restaurants that succeeded
Top 10 most ambitious restaurants that failed
Top 10 Hotel Restaurants
Top 10 Healthiest Menu restaurants
Top 10 Original (style) dining rooms
Top 10 Chain restaurants (in Baltimore Metro area)
Top 10 meals that should only be cooked in a restaurant
Top 10 "one and done" restaurants (one visit and never going back)

thats it....

Yeah, I know the photo has nothing to do with the post. I just liked it.

(Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (63)
        

This excellent guest post by Bucky got me to thinking about my favorite restaurant names. Top on my list has to be the Burnt Wood Roadhouse, which is so awful I've decided it's wonderful. Although Butter isn't far behind. Here's Bucky. EL

SEASIDE, ORE. – In July 1976, I went out one evening to get a cheeseburger and came home with a new jeep.  I bring this up so you will know that I’m nothing if not flexible. 

Two weeks ago the Oregon coast wasn’t even on my list of potential vacation destinations.  As I write this, I’m sitting on the deck with my laptop, watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean....
 

One of the many reasons I return to the Oregon coast periodically is to eat at my very favorite breakfast place, the Pig ‘n Pancake.  It is part of a small — five locations — restaurant chain that operates in tourist beach towns up and down the northern Oregon coast.
 
What originally drew me to the Pig ‘n Pancake was its name, of course.  “How good must breakfast be,” I wondered, “at a place called the Pig ‘n Pancake?"  (It is good, I found out.)

If you are starting a restaurant and want me to pull over and give you a try, put a catchy name on it.  Some of my other favorites that I would not even know about except that their name once caught my eye:
 
My Favorite Muffin – a muffin and bagel shop I go to (that I think is part of a growing chain).
 
Ramble Inn – a beer joint where I spent at least as many hours in college as I spent at the library.
 
The Grateful Bread – a Denver wholesale bakery that supplies some of our fanciest hotels like the Ritz and the Brown Palace.  But they sell to the public at a farmer’s market and I drive half-way across Denver on Saturday mornings just to get to their baked goods.
 
Mustard’s Last Stand – a hot dog place that I think started here, but might be growing into a chain now, in the Midwest.
 
And my very favorite name for a restaurant, Dick’s Hickory Dock, a barbecue place in the little town of Kittredge, Colo.
 
For long time, I thought when I retired, I’d move to a beach town and open an ice cream stand that sold double-dip ice cream cones.  I figured I’d call it Little Deuce Scoop.  Probably will never happen, though.
 
(Photo by Uncle Larry) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (71)
        

A friend of mine who commutes to Washington a couple of times a week has been bemoaning the fact that Penn Station no longer has a cafe or coffee shop.

In her situation I'd go across St. Paul Street to Cafe Mocha, but that's not good if you're in a time crunch. It's odd because a coffee shop seems like a no-brainer for a train station.

Good news for her and for anyone else who has been suffering. Ed Gunts, who was working on the story about Penn Station, stopped by my desk to tell me about the food angle. ...

Apparently the newsstand folks are taking over the spaces formerly run by the Eddie Dopkin's Crazy Man Restaurant Group. Dopkin left after 17 years because he wasn't happy with the way the facility was being maintained.

The new places will be a Java Moon Cafe and a "limited menu" Dunkin' Donuts.

Huh?

Doesn't Dunkin' Donuts sell doughnuts and bagels and not much else? How much more limited can your menu get?

(Kim Hairston/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Over breakfast I was explaining to my husband why these days I'm always either at work or on the computer at home working on the blog. I told him, "With great power comes great responsibility."

He said to me, "But also with great power comes great power."

Wow. I never thought of that. That's going to be my new mantra. Maybe I'll come home early today to watch Nadal beat up on his poor opponent at the French Open, speaking of great power.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I almost forgot to link to Other Reviewer Richard's review of Boheme Cafe downtown today.

I usually wait until its headline pops up on the Dining@Large main page to the right so I don't have to go hunting for it. (Hunting, I have to admit, involves only typing his name into the search function of the Web site.)

His review and the photo make it so appealing I think I might take a stroll down there at lunchtime once the weather improves.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Much to my surprise, the story I wrote for Sunday's travel section on Ocean City's restaurants has already been posted on the Web site. I only found out because someone e-mailed me saying Nantuckets across the state line in Delaware should have been on the list.

I keep forgetting about our new policy to get stories online as soon as they're written and edited. Unfortunately I wrote that Ocean City's Restaurant Week was starting "today," as in Sunday, May 31. I also forgot our new policy of giving actual dates instead of using "yesterday," "today" and "tomorrow."

Oh well, it didn't stay up that way long. I just hope no one goes to an Ocean City restaurant tonight and insists on getting the Restaurant Week menu because that critic in Baltimore said it started today. 

(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I admit my title for this fine Funtastic Thursday is completely misleading, but I wanted to lure in all those new people who commented on How to Butter Corn. This is actually a pretty accurate description of how I eat corn on the cob -- I just didn't realize how scary it was. Here's guest poster Owl Meat. EL

I spent a lot of time at my friend Jimmy's house when I was about six or seven.  Jimmy's father Woody had a barber shop in the front of the house.  It was the place to be.  He had grass in his tiny row house yard and a finished basement with a record player, a drum set, and his father's ancient Elvis Presley records.  Not the good ones, but effluvial soundtracks like "Clambake" and "Speedway."   That was the music from the late '60s that I got to hear?  What a rip-off. ...

Woody's Barber Shop was part Afterworld waiting room and part torture chamber (in my mind).  It was strewn with lurky old men reading girlie magazines and whittling the past into trinkets of regret and resignation.  The glinting steel cutting tools and buzzing electric razors layered menace upon torpor.  Every spring before school ended, my father would drag me there to get sheared like a Paschal lamb. 

Woody closed the shop and had family supper around 3:30 p.m.  One day Jimmy's mother called over to my mother and asked if I could stay for supper.  Approved.  I don't remember what exactly was served that day, because I was about to be dazzled by the most amazing demonstration of corn-on-the-cob eating ever. 

Corn on the cob in my home had the accoutrements of civilized commoners: manners, plastic cob-shaped cob holders, and the prohibition from wolfing down food.  We wouldn't want people to think we were immigrants after all.
 
Woody sat at the kitchen table with his back to the sink.  Jimmy's mother placed a sparkling metal tray on the table stacked with corn.  Woody smiled, smoothed his shiny black hair, took a deep breath, and then tore into a cob like Grendel in a petting zoo. 

He was a biting-chewing machine going left to right, swallowing, no, gulping, then like a typewriter carriage return, DING, next row.  Before I could fully digest the scene, he finished the cob, pause-swallowed, exhaled, and tossed the cob over his shoulder into the sink. DING.  Woody continued his conquest of the corn, the Great Berserker of 11th Street, the Master Masticator, devouring, inhaling, dominating the peasantry of Cornville, destroying all conventional notions of etiquette and possibly time itself.  He was the Tasmanian Devil of the Cob.
 
After the Beast within had been sated and the sink was littered with the bones of his destruction, Woody leaned back with a sense of accomplishment and asked, "Who wants Jell-O?"  Woody loved cherry red Jell-O with Cool Whip, and he always had room for Jell-O.
 
Because of his barberous butcher's tools, Woody the Barber terrified me.  Woody the Eater was the embodiment of animal desire and gluttony, like a Viking on shore leave.  Somehow this gnashing noshing shiny beast, this King of the Chews, this cob-gobblin' eating machine was oddly comforting.  Perhaps it was fun to see the Torquemada of the shears devour something other than the top of my skull.
 
Whether someone eats corn slow or fast, around and around or across, it's impossible not to think of Woody the Barber.  DING. 

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (51)
        

I found myself in an unusual situation recently. A friend from college and her daughter decided to come to Baltimore from Boston to see the Visionary Art Museum as a way of celebrating the daughter's graduation.

Where you or I might get a nice comfortable hotel room, my friend, OK, my hippie friend (we were all hippies in college) decided to rent a houseboat for a few days.

This sounded like a great idea until I actually stepped on the boat. I have a strong stomach, and sailboats don't bother me, but the rocking of a houseboat made me a little queasy. The good news is that it cost only slightly more than a luxury hotel room.

But anyway, the question was where to take these two guests to dinner. ...

The houseboat was moored at 2001 Aliceanna St., officially Fells Point but right on the edge of Canton. The two of them were up for hip and/or funky. Harbor East would have been a little too yuppified for them. Plus we wanted to stay reasonaby close to the houseboat.

The funny thing is that, as many times as people ask me this question, I don't remember being faced with having to pick the quintessential Baltimore restaurant for my own guests before.

After a lengthy exchange of what kind of restaurant would you like to go to, do you want seafood, oh, anything's fine, etc., my friend's daughter told us her mother had wanted to try a soft-shell crab. That simplified things.

I first called Mama's on the Half Shell in Canton and was told that while they often have them as specials, they had run out that night. On a whim I herded my guests and husband into the car, and we headed to Peter's Inn. I took the fact that we got a parking place half a block away a sign that we were destined to eat there.

I think it gave our visitors a taste of what's good about Baltimore. Yes, there were soft crabs: a soft shell BLT on baguette. It's actually a great combination, although I'd use some other kind of bread.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (74)
        

I love this entry from the HowChow blog, particularly the concept that the parking lot cafe is the ultimate Howard County experience. It's a phenomenon I've noted often enough, but just never thought to blog about it. Luckily I can link.

Even someone as diehard as I am about eating outside thinks twice before taking a table that's essentially in a parking lot. I don't know why it feels so different from a sidewalk cafe with traffic going by, but it does.

(View from the table by David Hobby/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

In today's Table Talk I feature the new Talara in Harbor East. One reader noticed I used the alternate spelling for "ceviche" and wrote me an e-mail complaining that it was wrong. (I used "seviche" because that's how Talara's sister restaurant spells its name, and it seemed odd to have two different spellings in the same item.) ...

I sometimes have to make a judgment call on foreign words, and I can't really defend why I do it one way or the other. Nor am I consistent. I just can't make myself, for instance, say "Beijing duck" or "sichuan beef."

Sometimes the copy desk changes my spellings and sometimes not. But by that time, it's out of my hands.

My most controversial Top 10 Tuesday yet appeared in the print edition today. So far I haven't got any nasty e-mails, but I won't be surprised if I do. My guess is that people won't read the intro, and they'll think that the Love It/Hate It comments are mine.

(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

If guest poster and Shallow Thought Wednesday guru John Lindner keeps this up, I'm going to be looking for another job. Here's the second in his series of hysterical bar/tavern reviews. (The reviews are hysterical, although I'm sure the bar/taverns will be, too.) Here's John. EL 

Looney’s is the warehouse version of Greene Turtle, et al., a capacious mid-scale barstaurant in upscale Maple Lawn. It replaces Trapeze, which performed, apparently, without a net profit. Like the Turtle, Looney’s is a chain; its locations include Canton and Bel Air.

On the first visit our waitress, who wrote down our orders, egalitarianly muffed each one (party of four). The gaffes of wrong salad dressing, wrong cheese, and an overcooked burger paled in comparison to her delivery of the steak version of the Philly cheesesteak, which was, reportedly, quite good, but the chicken version had been ordered. ...

In the second visit (party of two), the waitress wrote nothing and got the orders right, except for the mayo.

Despite the bloopers and blunder, the burger reports came back positive, the Philly worked, and my salad was one of the more inventive I’ve had in the tavern genre, though its chicken topper was on the bland side.

On the return visit, I tried the highly recommended burger. Its superior tastiness was smothered by a large, cakey bun. Ouch. Worse, the fries: I hope the batch I got was laying around under a heat lamp for couple hours waiting to be ordered, because if they’re always that stale and tough, Looney’s is begging for a lawsuit from the Roots and Tubers Anti-Defamation League.

Still, I’m eager to return to Looney’s, but for anthropological rather than gastronomic reasons.
Looney’s trots out all the barstaurant clichés, the most glaring, its 42,708 television screens … or 50, or some big number like that. I get that it’s a sports ADD thing. But here, on the other side of the shark, it’s sort of old-jock sad.

Another cliché: its claim to Irish pubness: groundless. And the obligatory team jersey wall hangings: What is up with that? Flypaper for sports fans?

Here’s why I want to go back: In both visits, the wait and kitchen staff exhibited an unusual behavior. In a gnarly twist on restaurants that expose their kitchen activity to the dining room, Looney’s wait and kitchen staff hang out at the host station in the middle of the restaurant or at the upper bar. All my dining companions noticed it, too. It gave us the impression of eating in the employee lounge. I need to go back and study that. I wonder if they have window seating overlooking the dumpster area where the dishwashers hang out and smoke.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (108)
        

A group at work gave my husband a Smart Living corn butter spreader yesterday. They said it was because they had read about his corn buttering habits in the paper, but I don't believe it.

I've never written about them. He must have told. His family of origin had the nasty habit of running the corn directly over the stick of butter, something we don't do in my house. So they give him this...thing.

You put the stick of butter in it and there's a sort of plunger effect.

I went on line hoping to find a photo of it so I wouldn't have to bother, but I couldn't find one. I did get this interesting patent information, however. ...

The proper way to butter corn on the cob is to put a pat of butter on your plate and then spread it on your corn. It isn't rocket science.

However, my husband told me that one of the group said that in his or her family they buttered bread and used that to butter the corn. Then they ate the bread. 

Getting enough carbs there?

The other problem with this corn butter spreader, besides wasting a stick of butter, is it's such a "guy" butter spreader, if you get my drift.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (49)
        

I did get a laugh over the following e-mail from Shannon, forwarded from her fiance who had attended a presentation by a restaurant. (And, no, I don't know what restaurant it was.) I've never thought to ask for anything but maybe salad dressing on the side, so I don't know if this is a universal problem or not. EL  

...Ok, I go in and it’s [Unamed Restaurant Boxed Lunch].  I instantly think, “Oh boy…”
 
I’m in line and it’s all separate boxes, like, each person gets their own box, with a sandwich, chips and cookie.  Fine.  I’m looking at what they have and the guy giving the presentation says “I was told that someone wanted condiments on the side.” ...

I said, “Yes, that’s me.”
 
He said, “Ok, there’s one over there that has condiments on the side.”
 
I get excited.  Then, I go over and look at what it is.  Guess what it was! 
 
CHICKEN SALAD!!!  Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicken salad sandwich, with a cup of mayo and a cup of spicy mustard on the side!!!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 
I asked whether everyone had chicken salad in their box and he said...
 
"Each box had a sticker on it that told you what it was.  The type of sandwich was printed on the sticker.  There were other chicken salad boxes, but mine had a sticker with chicken salad printed on it with “Mayo O/S” & “Spicy Mustard O/S” written on it. 
 
So, they made the sandwiches, printed up all the labels, decided to make the chicken salad sandwich (WITH MAYO ALL OVER IT) the sandwich to put the condiments on the side, then handwrote the aforementioned. 
 
I guess, at no point, did someone stop to think, “Hmmm, maybe this isn’t the smartest decision”!!!  I’m speechless at the level of ineptitude it must take for someone to do that.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan was one of my favorite people while she was working at the Sun as an entertainment and fashion writer.

She was generous to a fault, and when she left she turned over a file of features sources to me that was enormously helpful. So I owe her one. ...

Plus she was the first person to ask me to be a friend on Facebook, back when everyone else thought I was too old to be on Facebook. (And I was, although the Facebook demographic has changed now. But I was flattered to be asked.) It didn't surprise me the other day when Gailor told me that Cheryl has 1,215 friends.

I'm telling you all this because now I find she has a food blog, with beautiful photos, called A Tiger in the Kitchen, which is also the title of her book to be published in a couple of years by Hyperion's Voice imprint.

(Photo courtesy of Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Over at Midnight Sun, Sam snagged a guest post that really belongs to us. The discussion is about what a server should say when you ask for a recommendation. It's a good question.

I know it must irritate some wait staff because it's so broad, but I think they ought to see it as an opportunity -- to upsell if nothing else.

If I were a waitress (God forbid, I feel your pain), I would say something like, "If you like seafood, I personally love the [insert second most expensive fish dish here]. Or if you feel like meat tonight, the [insert second most expensive meat dish here] is wonderful." ...

Of course, as a customer, I hope never to have such a conniving server. I would like the person to say, "Our fish just came in and it looks great. I love the way the chef prepares the salmon, with a buerre blanc. And the lamb chops are our house specialty."

I understand why servers, particularly when they're busy, answer, "Everything's good" or "What do you like?" But I think at the very least they could recommend what the chef thinks is the best dish on the menu.

I picked the photo because that waitress looks like she knows what to recommend.

(Photo of Oceanaire Seafood Room by Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (42)
        

Last week's Top 10 Tuesday, Most Controversial Restaurants, was such a success I thought I'd look at its opposite this week. There are some restaurants that seem to do what they set out to do without having many detractors. They might not be the most intriguing restaurants in town or everyone's favorites (although they may be). They aren't necessarily the least expensive or the most expensive. But you don't hear a lot of people bad-mouthing them.

Here are the 10 restaurants that I think best fit that description. After the name I've put the restaurant's reputation. Of course not everyone loves these places, but it's hard to hate them. They pretty much deliver what they promise. ...

If you have  a suggestion for a restaurant that's even less controversial, please post below. And tell us which one on my list you would take off to make room for it.

* Amicci's in Little Italy. Its reputation: Good pastas, the neighborhood's most reasonably priced, casual, fun restaurant.

* Catonsville Gourmet in Catonsville. Its reputation: The seafood-lover's restaurant Catonsville badly needed.

* Charleston in Harbor East: Its reputation: Exquisite special-occasion fare and priced accordingly.

* Mari Luna Mexican Grill in Pikesville. Its reputation: Authentic Mexican food, priced right, family-owned.

* O'Learys in Annapolis. Its reputation: A lovely, creative and pricey seafood restaurant. You get what you pay for.

* Orchard Market & Cafe in Towson. Its reputation: Hidden gem serving Persian cuisine.

* Peppermill in Lutherville. Its reputation: Reliably good American food for an older crowd.

* Prime Rib downtown. Its reputation: Luxurious supper-club atmosphere, great steaks and chops.

* Thai Landing in Mount Vernon. Its reputation: Decent Thai food served by a caring staff.

* Wine Market in Locust Point. Its reputation: A great place to eat if you like wine, and the place has the right food to go with it.

(Photo of Catonsville Gourmet by Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (80)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Andrew alerted me to the fact that Harborque opened Friday in Locust Point (1421 Lawrence St., 410-685-7675).

First of all, catchy name. You've got to wonder why no one has thought of it before. When I Googled Harborque, I was surprised to find there was no chatter about it on the 'net. Usually new places, especially new barbecue places, have people in a twitter.  (Can I still use that expression?)

I picked up the phone and talked to the owner briefly. He says the place specializes in Carolina barbecue. It's BYOB and seats 30 inside, with 30 to 35 more seats on the deck. The motto is "Carolina 'cue with a view."

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

Gailor just called me with a breaking news story. She had gone into a Subway in Evanston and ordered a wrap, and was told that Subways don't have wraps anymore. I don't quite have the energy to start calling local Subways on my day off (I'm too busy writing tomorrow's Top 10), but I did look on the Web site and that appears to be true.

She hypothesized that in times of recession and depression we retreat, "back to the basics, back to what's most familiar to us."

"We need bread," she said.

I said I had to finish the Top 10 and I didn't think I was up to such a high-falutin' discussion right now.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Here's Owl Meat's missing Funtastic Thursday Memorial Day post, missing because I managed to publish the wrong one last Thursday. It was worth waiting for. EL

Before I became an urban monk, I had an abundance of pastoral family outings in Pennsylvania.  The photo with little brother Liam was taken at the cottage where we escaped the urban fervor and concrete back yard for family cookouts.  In the lovely dark, deep woods a cookout could escalate into a weekend of bonfires, joyful chaos, and roasting food on sticks.
 
As a city dweller I was discouraged from experimenting with fire.  Not so in the country.  The elements were our toys.  We were masters of creation and destruction.   I once stepped in melted marshmallows in my new white Keds.  Instead of scraping it off, I decided to be clever.  I put my foot at the edge of the fire and burned the marshmallow off.   Ow, ow ... my foot is on fire!  Keds burn too. To quote David St. Hubbins, "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." ...

It was the place where I remember my old Irish relatives being hilarious.  My great aunt Ruth on a riding mower ... in full nun's habit. Girl's just gotta have fun.  When I dropped a hot dog in the dirt, my great Uncle Bobby said, "It's okay, Bobby.  You gotta eat a pound of dirt before you die."  Baffling advice. 

It's where I learned the value of punctuation.  Great Aunt Mary once found this note: "Joe in / lock up."  So she went down to the local jail.  It never occurred to her that Uncle Joe was in and she should lock up.
 
We used to wolf down hot dogs, hamburgers and corn on the cob, then against medical advice, run down to the creek and jump in.  No cramps, no drowning.  Then a neighbor started dumping raw sewage into the water.  After reason failed, it was time for a covert operation.
 
Under cover of night my father mustered his beery mercenaries, waded to the other side and packed the sewage pipe with concrete, a dry log (it would expand when wet), more concrete, another log, etc.  I sneaked down to the water to watch.   It was a work of art.  The next day my cousin Sean shipped out for Vietnam.  I never saw him again, but I remember his hysterical laughter as he tried to float a tub of concrete across our creek on Memorial Day.
 
Sometimes a good cookout is much more than just food on sticks.

(Photo courtesy of OMG)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (45)
        

Wow. I never realized how unattractive potato salad was until I went look for a photo for it. Actually mine isn't unattractive because I never overcook the potatoes, I use vinaigrette as well as mayonnaise so it doesn't get too mayonnaise-y, and I chop up olives with pimiento and celery in it, which adds color. But I'm sure if I took a photo of it, I would end up with a big white blob. This photo, from the Idaho Potato Commission, isn't too bad. ...

I haven't done anything for food for dinner tonight, and we aren't going anywhere, but I might make some potato salad. I have a craving for it.

One way Dining@Large is helpful to me is that I use it as a personal journal. I went back to see what I ate and what I was doing last Memorial Day. That reminded me that last year people wished me a "happy Memorial Day." Funny. This year people have just said, "Have a good weekend." As though the war part was no longer something anyone was thinking about.

(AP photo)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

My review of Taverna Corvino did indeed run in yesterday's paper, but I had a heart-stopping moment when I realized it wasn't under Restaurant News and Reviews, a neat feature that appeared one day on the right side of Dining@Large.

That meant I had to go hunting around the Web site for the review so I could give you a link.

I can never remember whether food is under Life or Entertainment on the Sun's home page, but one thing's for sure: Whichever category I pick, it's the wrong one. ...

I'm not sure why the Dining@Large feature is called Restaurant News and Reviews. I'm hoping one of these days my restaurant news column, Table Talk, will appear under it, because Table Talk is usually hard to find without a link. Or even better, some restaurant news stories so I won't have to actually go out and find news for my column on my own.

I'm getting a little away from the original purpose of this entry, which was to link to the Corvino review so you could read it and talk about the restaurant, but, hey, it's early.

This also gives me an opportunity to clear up one minor point. The headline (which I didn't write) says, "Storefront once home to Vespa and Juniors finally gets it right." That implies that I didn't like Vespa or Juniors, but I did. When I said in the review "the fifth time's the charm,"  I simply meant that I thought Taverna Corvino had a good chance to succeed, considering how busy it was when I was there.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

Next Sunday I'll tell you about my meal at Si Salsa in Pikesville. If they decide to publish the review. Hahaha, just having a little fun, Editor Tim.

You have to give the place credit. I'm not sure I would have the nerve to open another South of the Border restaurant here, where two of the most popular Latino restaurants in the area are located.

Anyway, check out next week's Arts & Entertainment section to see what I thought of it.

(Doug Kapustin/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Review Preview
        

Lissa's mini-review of her recent meal at Rehoboth Beach reminded me that I want to ask anyone who wants to participate to write a guest post for Beach Week. If you have a photo as well, all the better, but you don't have to. The main requirement is that they be about beach food, the second that they be short.

It could be an observation, a memory about beach food, good or bad, or a mini-review like Lissa's. In fact, if I had caught hers in time I wouldn't have published it as a comment, but used it for an entry. ...

I know many of you are shy about your writing or critical skills. (OK, or lazy.) But I want some guest posts because the only time I go to the beach is when the Sun sends me. I'm talking to you, Dahlink. And you, Robert of Cross Keys. And you, Laura Lee. And, of course, you, Sunshine Kid, Chowsearch, ATigerintheKitchen and Pigtown. And any of the rest of you who wants to give it a try. If you're uncomfortable about using your real name, or even your blog user name, make up another one.

Is there any restaurant owner out there who wants to tell us about his or her favorite restaurant at the beach and why? Free publicity for your own restaurant.

Just e-mail your mini-review, memory or observation about beach food to me at elizabeth.large@baltsun.com. Put something like "Beach Week entry" in the subject line.

I promise other readers will be kind. And it would be great for me to do nothing for Beach Week but lie in a deck chair eating bonbons and reading trashy novels to have lots of different voices and lots of posts for Beach Week, which I'm now thinking should start June 14 or June 15.

(Photo of soft crab at Jules in Ocean City by Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

I promise not to complain about the heat all summer. I promise to eat lots of corn on the cob (preferably yellow or bi-color, white is just so trendy). I promise to eat peaches and let the juice drip down my arms. I promise to make a dinner out of fat slices of juicy red heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. I promise to only wear four items of clothing at a time. And not to wear any shoes that cover my toes except during athletic endeavors. I promise to make iced tea from my leftover breakfast tea and add a sprig of the mint I'm growing in my garden. (OK, that has taken over my garden and is threatening to eat the house.)

What inspired all this was that my husband and I were having breakfast on the back porch this morning. ...

After we finished (this now swerves wildly off topic), he brought out his mother's old yearbook. She got her certificate of nursing from Temple University in 1936. In among its pages was a yellowing newspaper clipping from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin of the graduation ceremony, which listed all the graduates. Can you imagine a big-city paper doing that these days?

There were also a couple of human interest stories. One was about John Raymond Hendrickson, the outstanding honor graduate, who took 40 courses in four years and made an A in all of them. (He was a Latin major.) The other was on the fact that five sets of twins were in the graduating class.

After I looked at the clipping, I folded it up reverently, not just as a bit of family history but because for the first time I thought, this is a bit of history about how the news used to be delivered. My yet-to-be-born grandchildren may never see a paper newspaper of their own.

Also next to the stories was a supermarket ad for Snellenburgs. A can of Hormel Spiced Luncheon Meat, which was pictured, cost 35 cents. I tell you that not because it's cheap; we all know things cost more these days. But that must be the precursor of Spam, right?

It's so much more attractive a name. I wonder why they changed it.

(AP photo)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I was actually searching for another comment when I came upon this one. So much else was going on under the controversial restaurants post that you may have missed it. He makes an excellent point, although, hey, our specialty here at Dining@Large is beating a dead horse. I don't think we're going to stop anytime soon. ...

Top 10 things thats it was once cool to hate, that is now passe to hate:

1)hipsters
2)inedible garnish
3)steelers
4)dane cook
5)goat cheese
6)jacks bistro
7)springs1

OK i'm only good for 7, i need help.

I dont think GW is quite passe to hate yet, but this thread is helping.

No order(just like EL)

Posted by: bob ... just bob | May 19, 2009 3:50 PM

At least we could come up with the last three for him. Actually it should be the last four: Has anyone ever mentioned Dane Cook here? And I would substitute "ranch dressing" for "goat cheese."

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

Ooooh. Come on. You know you want one. Isn't this the cutest? It's a teeny-weeny little plate for a canape, and it fits right on your finger so you can hold your champagne glass with the same hand.

I'm not sure whether it's better to wait until the Finger Food party plate is provided by your hostess, or if it makes sense to bring your own. What is the etiquette here anyway?

Let me just suggest if you're going to a black-tie affair at the Peruvian embassy, you not take your Finger Food party plate.

They are available at Perpetual Kid for the teeny-weeny price of $10 for 12 reusable plates.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Can there be Saturday morning quarterbacking? I was at the beach on Thursday, and I didn't get around to linking to Other Reviewer Richard's review of the Pub Dog in Federal Hill.

Mmmm. A soft pretzel appetizer followed by a pizza. I wonder if anyone actually orders that except restaurant critics. 

I knew the place had changed its name from the Thirsty Dog awhile back, but I never knew why. Anybody? I really like the name Thirsty Dog for some reason.

Have you noticed how this morning's posts are starting to have a dog theme? I promise you it's merely coincidence.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

Last May a reader wanted to know if we had ever done a Top 10 on dog-friendly restaurants. The answer was no, just because I didn't think there were 10, if by dog-friendly she meant your pet could eat with you.

The issue has come up again over at Unleashed, for those of you who like to dine with your dog. There are definitely 10, judging from the comments, if you're willing to eat at an outdoor table.

(Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Breaking food news. Bad news for me. The Giant supermarket in the Rotunda, my Giant, will no longer be open 24 hours. It's going to a 6 a.m. to midnight schedule starting tomorrow. I called and was told that only the Loch Raven and Taylor Giant will still be open 24 hours because it has a huge pharmacy business.

Some of my best food shopping has been done outside the Giant's new hours.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

Petit Castro wrote me an e-mail describing an incident that hasn't come up before. He and three others had gone for the half-price crab cake sandwich promoted on a restaurant's Web site, which they ordered without looking at the menu. When they got the check, surprise, they had been charged the full price. ...

They complained, of course, and the waitress got the manager. He doesn't seem to have handled the incident well, even suggesting that they had made up the special.

Petit told me he didn't want to discuss the Alpha Male attitude of the manager so much as what I thought of this bait-and-switch. And what they, as customers, should have done about it.

My first thought is that it wasn't deliberate. Many restaurants aren't great at monitoring and updating their Web sites. But as long as the special was posted, duh, the restaurant should honor it. The problem is that I don't know how you prove this without an iPhone, another reason the Sun should buy me one.

I guess the only thing you can do if the manager doesn't resolve the whole thing satisfactorily at the time is write to the owner, a thankless task. I'm going to see if I can get a guest post one of these days from a restaurant owner who is willing to tell us what kind of letter actually works and what doesn't.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

This fine Bucky's World is the third in a triumphant triumvirate of guest posts about Memorial Day.  What? Owl Meat's Funtastic Thursday yesterday wasn't about Memorial Day? Well, that's because I didn't publish his Memorial Day post. It's tempting to blame him because he put "date: whenever" in the subject line of the one I DID publish; but since the other was right there in my inbox, too, I don't think I could get away with it. So we'll be getting a bonus Funtastic this Monday. Meanwhile, here's Bucky. EL

I have a theory that nothing is all good or all bad.  Take, for example, polka music.  Mostly bad, except that the “Chicken Dance” is fun when you’re at a wedding reception that has an open bar.  Bacon…mostly good, right up until your left arm goes numb and that elephant sits down on your chest.
 
See how this theory works? ...

I understand that global warming is mostly bad.  But here’s a good thing: Once the globe warms sufficiently, people who live in the Arctic will be able to have backyard cookouts on Memorial Day, something they can’t do now.

In fact, they will be able to have backyard cookouts even at 2 a.m. because of the, you know, midnight sun thing.  The real midnight sun thing, I’m talking about here.  (That will, if I understand it correctly, leave the Village of Cross Keys as the only place in the northern hemisphere where you can’t have a backyard cookout.  But I digress.)
 
I’ve been to cookouts all across this great land of ours and am seriously thinking about pitching a show to the Food Network where I travel all over the country, preferably with Giada, and eat regional backyard cookout cuisine.  I went to a cookout in Maine one time where they boiled up freshly trapped lobsters.  I was the guest of honor at a cookout in Albuquerque once, and they roasted a goat over a pit to mark the occasion.  A few weeks back, commenter LEC related he did a cookout once with a soft-shelled crab they pulled out of the grasses in the shallow area of Chesapeake Bay.  Here, of course, we grill rainbow trout when we are feeling the purple mountain majesty love.
 
For the life of me, however, I can’t figure out what those people who live in the Arctic will be grilling up, once the ozone layer disappears and it’s warm enough to fire up the Weber grill on Memorial Day.
 
I’m trying to imagine grilled seal with a lip-smacking hickory barbecue sauce or, maybe, polar bear kabobs.  They both probably taste like chicken, don’t you think?
 
(AP Photo/John McConnico)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

When I got back last night, I got an e-mail from a friend saying that she had heard that the Paolo's Ristorante in Towson had closed and "trucks were moving things out." 

I have to say that startled me. It seemed like a fairly recession-proof restaurant, and there aren't many places  to eat in Towson that aren't college hangouts or sushi bars.

I called the number. It rang and rang but no one answered. Then I remembered it's part of a restaurant group in the area, so I called the Paolo's in Georgetown. (It was hopping, by the way.)

The person who answered the phone said the Towson location closed last Sunday.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

...for the last five hours, we were doing a little tinkering with the spam filters. Unfortunately the software decided that ALL the comments were spam. That included Multimedia Editor Mary's, which seems harsh.

I thought everyone had suddenly abandoned me.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I just finished lunch at the Sunset Grille in what they call West Ocean City. I know I said I wasn't going to blog about the food until Beach Week, but this was so surprising I have to write something.

The menu the waitress put down in front of me just had the $4.99 lunch specials on it: the Italian chef's salad, the fish and chips, the half a tuna sandwich with a cup of soup, the barbecued ribs and homemade macaroni and cheese and...the six-ounce char-grilled filet mignon with maitre d' butter, french fries and cole slaw?

For $4.99? ...

Now after my dainty breakfast this morning, I wasn't planning on eating much more than a few lettuce leaves for lunch, but your restaurant critic had to check out the $4.99 filet mignon for you. And you know what? It was excellent.

It was indeed six ounces, and the char and the maitre d' butter gave it good flavor. It wasn't the most tender filet mignon I've ever eaten, but I didn't expect Kobe beef here. I'm still shaking my head in awe.

With it came crunchy, twice-fried french fries and cole slaw that was a little too sweet for me but tasted freshly made.

It's strange to order an entree that costs $2 less than the soup (Maryland crab) and $2 or $2.50 less than the desserts: creme brulee, a turtle-brownie sundae and cheesecake, all made daily on the premises.

And, no, I didn't indulge.

Of course, I left my camera in the car so I couldn't take a photo of the beautiful plate, but then my food photos are usually terrible anyway.

(Photo by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Owl Meat's title, Feral Cat Lunch, for his intriguing guest post was much better than mine, but perhaps too obscure to bring in the masses of readers it deserves. Just the idea of his working at an animal rights magazine has made my day. EL

Feral Cat Lunch

Years ago I worked at an animal rights magazine, which was hypocritical since I believe that animals have the right to be delicious. Animal food products were forbidden in the office (for humans).

That was the summer of vegetable juicing, Emily, and biking to work, so I rolled with it. ...

The office was a filthy open space in a former factory, with huge, southern-exposed windows and no air-conditioning.  The windows could only be opened an inch, for fear that an office cat might leap to its death, something I considered as the summer heat throbbed on.

Veronica trapped feral cats and imprisoned them in the office.  One mangy beast lived in a cage and yowled like a Cub Scout in a wood chipper.  Five more patrolled the office like ninjas on crack, pouncing on my desk, tearing up papers, and generally owning me. Retribution was unwise given their status as "people" and their fondness for biting, scratching and Wehrmacht-style coordinated assault. I had to eat lunch while they napped to dodge their spiteful attacks on my dismal vegan lunch.

I was hired to create a database, but had no computer. I used Tammy's while she injected insulin into her "companion" rat stolen from a lab. (The word "pet" was forbidden.)  My schedule revolved around a diabetic rat and five Waffen-Katzen.  It had to be 112 degrees inside and my brain was melting.

One night after sashimi, Emily grabbed my shoulders and pleaded, "I need steak ... now!"   We ditched our sushitarian ways and never looked back.  I was hell-bent on seizing the same dietary rights as the lint-mop psychopaths who kept me as a pet.  I am an animal, too!

My English boss Lord Summer-Teeth inspected the lunches in the refrigerator. Because the ambient temperature was between broil and bake, the feline overlords would triangulate on a warm sandwich like meat-seeking missiles. The plan:  Make tiny sandwiches and freeze them the night before. When Tammy was rat-tending I would "work" on the database and gobble forbidden flesh like an angry badger. My stealth-wiches were wrapped in bike clothes for olfactory camouflage.

During Tammy's rat break I broke out a morsel of rare roast beef, onion, and emmentaler with kalamata and roasted garlic tapenade. The careless whiskers were snoozing. Hot pastrami mommy! That was the most delicious bite of food, a mind-bending beef-quake. Warm, juicy, flesh for fantasy.

Uh oh. Tammy forgot something and surprised me in mid-rapture. I scrambled to devour my moist orts of rebellion. Her sputtering righteous harangue roused the Beelzefuzz, who descended on me like Puss in Jackboots. Meatopia was over. My time in the hair ball sauna was over, too, but that was the greatest sandwich of all time.

Everything forbidden tastes better.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (71)
        

Like I said in my earlier post, I don't want to do too much blogging about my meals here because the Dining@Large Beach Week is coming soon. But I will tell you about my breakfast.

In a minute.

But first I have a beach deep thought.

Nothing has illustrated for me how times have changed for me as much as coming down here. When several of you urged me to have a nice, relaxing time while I'm at the beach, it occurred to me that that's exactly what I would have done three years ago. (And actually did do three years ago when I was sent here for a story.) ...

But that was before they gave reporters laptops.

When I was last here I couldn't really start doing anything until places opened, so I had time to take a walk on beach and sit on the nice porch at the place I'm staying, the Inn on the Ocean. But this time I was on the computer by 5:30 a.m., and while I did walk along the boardwalk later, I felt guilty the whole time. Weird.

By the time breakfast was served at this B & B (9 a.m. to 10 a.m.) I felt like I was on my lunch hour. Of course, I never had a lunch at the Sun of fresh fruit with a sprig of mint, molasses bread, individual cheese souffles, crisp bacon, and small, soft, crisp-edged potato pancakes. So I'm not as unhappy as this might sound.

(Photo by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Beach Eats
        

Today's Table Talk column in the Taste section led with an item on the opening of Joss Cafe & Sushi Bar in the spot where Kawasaki was. I had to tread delicately about the relationship between the two restaurants because I'm not sure what it is, and I hope people will judge the new place on its own merits. Certainly the Annapolis Joss has lots of fans.

I also mention the new Red Spring Cafe, which I wrote about earlier. I got an e-mail today from them saying they had updated the Web site and they do sell more than chocolates. So someone there has a sense of humor. ...

And, of course, there was Top 10 Redux, although there was no way to link to the previous posts in print, so it was a little strange. But maybe it lured readers to the blog itself.

I'm sitting here writing this in a room where if I peer out the window I can just see the ocean, by the way. Now I better go out and look for some beach restaurants.

(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

This Shallow Thought Wednesday, a beautiful and poetic ode to the pleasures of Memorial Day and summer, may be one of the finest pieces guest poster John Lindner has ever written for us. The photo not so much. EL

Some men barbecue. Others grill.

The wizards, philosophers, theologians, alchemists and related mad scientists of barbecue (of which there are about eight distinct spellings, all correct as far as I can tell) know things. They are shamans of not just heat, but of the quality of heat. To them, the fuel that feeds the flames over which they cook is an indispensible ingredient, a seasoning rudimentary and reliable as salt. They have evolved intricate psychological profiles of those who were raised in dry rub families versus those whose forebears apply “sauce.” They hold contests.

Grillers paint with broader strokes. The pinnacle of their art is demonstrated in performing, simultaneous, the feats of flipping a burger and taking a good long pull from a beer. Over the course of summer, their arms lack hair from knuckles to elbows. ...

The barbecuist’s ultimate canvas is the rack of ribs, a foodstuff defiantly comprised of 75 percent bone accented treacherously by gristle. When a tight-rope walker falls, he, mercifully, dies. When a rib barbecuist stumbles, he may live -- scorned, repudiated, snickered at -- for decades amid the ashes of his reputation.

Grillers are appreciated merely for showing up.

No, there is no comparison between barbecuist and griller. The one’s a scholar, the other a tool. Yet as much as I aspire to culinary distinction, I laugh at the pains taken by the bbq aesthetes. Because, though I lack the precious refinement of the their arts, I, skillless and impatient, can grill something as good or better than ribs: bratwurst.

All the correct ingredients distilled from centuries of careful testing are packed into each weiner. No muss, no fuss. And bratwurst grilled is as good or better than other meats bewitched by all the power of the barbecuist’s arts. Burn the brat? So much the better. The carbon adds depth to the kraut. They’re easier to eat than ribs and they are, ideally, bone free.

Today is the gateway to summer. Tomorrow is preparation for the swan song of a Labor Day blowout. Bratwurst, packed with everything a fool needs to succeed, is forever.

This Memorial Day, I wish you cookouts, and picnics, and Usingers.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (45)
Categories: Bar-B-Que
        

I'm a little discombobulated this morning because I'm unexpectedly heading for Ocean City for a couple of days.

We're doing a series called Bloggers at the Beach that will appear in the Sunday travel section and on the Web site.

Of course, I'm delighted because of our Beach Week, tentatively scheduled for mid-June. Remember when I said the Tribune Company would never send me to Ocean City for the blog? I was wrong.

I'll be taking my trusty laptop with me, of course, but I'm having a hard time deciding how much to blog about Ocean City while I'm actually there. I don't want to scoop myself. I'll also try to take some photos -- Yes! I'm going to remember to take my camera! -- so I won't be completely reliant on the pictures in our archives.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (43)
        

I guess I should be glad when Maryland restaurants get any sort of national recognition, but at the same time I'm a little jaded about how national publications come up with their nominations of "best" whatever. So recently whenever I get one of these press releases, I ask.

Yes, I know it's the pot calling the kettle black. (See my Top 10 lists.)

But it still interested me that Coastal Living magazine named Cantler's Riverside Inn in Annapolis one of America's Top Seafood Dives. (I gather the magazine thinks "dive" is a positive term.) ...

Here's the item:

Maryland - Cantler's Riverside Inn, Annapolis
What to order: Anything involving crabs which are unloaded right at the dock. Try the rockfish stuffed with crab imperial.
What you'll pay: $11-$26 for entrées.

"A friend from Baltimore took me to Cantler's in 1998.  I loved the place.  It felt very relaxing: on the water, with open-air seating--such a classic Chesapeake Bay-area crab house that it almost seemed part of the natural landscape.  And the crab tasted wonderful. Since then, I've eaten at literally hundreds of other seafood restaurants. Cantler's remains what it was 11 years ago: one of my all-time favorites.

"For 2009, we decided to do a 'greatest hits' version of our Seafood Dives feature--listing our picks as best-ever dives in each coastal state. Settling on a winner for Maryland wasn't easy.  So many restaurants do such a great job with crab cakes (which I love), other crab dishes, and oysters. But the setting, the friendliness, and especially the food pushed Cantler's to the top."

Nothing against Cantler's, but did you try Mr. Bill's Terrace Inn in Essex, Mr. Millburg? Of course, you won't get the water view, but I feel like it ought to have been in the running.

(Doug Kapustin/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

I've decided I should start eating a carton of plain yogurt every day for health reasons. I'm not defending this decision, so don't try to get in an argument with me about whether yogurt is any better for you than a glass of milk, We can talk about that another time. What I want today is your advice. ...

I already mix plain and fruit-flavored yogurt half and half because the fruit yogurts taste too sweet to me, so I decided I might as well just bite the bullet and switch to plain. Yesterday I had a carton of Dannon fat-free yogurt (the only kind of Dannon plain my supermarket sells), and I could barely gag it down. The texture didn't make up for sour taste.

Maybe I should go for full-fat plain. I don't mind yogurt's calories (most of the calories are in the "fruit" anyway). I want it to have the texture of sour cream, only be yogurt. Or maybe I should just eat a carton of sour cream. Nah. That probably wouldn't have the same health benefits.

So you plain yogurt eaters out there, please recommend a brand for me to try. Of course, with my luck it will probably be some brand from Switzerland that can only be bought at the Whole Foods in Fairfax, Va., and it will become another food obsession that I will spend too much time and money trying to track down. But recommend away. I'm listening.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (71)
        

The idea for this Top 10 started with a discussion of Golden West Cafe in Hampden. I felt like I was hearing two different restaurants being talked about: People either loved, loved, loved it or hated it, with very little in between. As one person pointed out, you could say the same of several places in Hampden; but I wanted to broaden the scope of this Top 10.

There are some places that just generate strong feelings both pro and con, I'm not sure why. (If you have any theories, I'd like to hear from you.) Anyway, here's my list of the 10 most divisive restaurants -- ones that could ruin marriages or cause friends to come to blows. After the names of the restaurants, I've put why people say they like them or hate them: ...

* Ambassador Dining Room in Tuscany/Canterbury. Love it: Good Indian food, wonderful setting and suave service. Hate it: Overpriced, small portions.

* Birches in Canton. Love it: Excellent New American cuisine. Hate it: Outrageous attitude of the owner and wait staff.

* G & M in Linthicum Heights. Love it: The best, biggest crab cake in the Baltimore area. Hate it: Overrated crab cake made from Asian crab meat.

* Golden West Cafe in Hampden. Love it: Where else can you get New Mexican food around here? And very kid friendly. Hate it: Too many pretentious rules about the food, lots of attitude from the staff. And very kid friendly.

* Morning Edition in Butchers Hill. Love it: Fabulous breakfasts, quirky setting. Hate it: Rude, slow service.

* Papermoon in Remington. Love it: Fantastic, original decor,  good chow. Hate it: Bizarre, a little trashy and annoyingly precious. 

* Petit Louis Bistro in Roland Park. Love it: Wonderful French food, authentic atmosphere, fine wine service. Hate it: Noisy, crowded, expensive for what you get.

* Sabatino's in Little Italy. Love it: Great Bookmaker salad, generous portions of good Italian-American food, friendly staff. Hate it: Terrible food or hit and miss because it's become such a tourist attraction.

* Sip & Bite in Canton. Love it: Cheap, decent, quick diner fare, late-night menu. A Baltimore institution. Hate it: Grouchy servers, needs a good cleaning.

* Tio Pepe in Mount Vernon. Love it: Spanish food in generous quantities, Old World service, festive atmosphere, sangria -- what's not to love? Hate it: Food isn't as good as its reputation, crowded basement rooms, the staff plays favorites.

(Photo of Papermoon by Mauricio Rubio/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (231)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Glasz Cafe in Lake Falls Village closed last Saturday. Three years ago Classic Catering Company bought it as a pilot program for a line of cafes. In this era of retrenchment that wasn't going to happen, so Classic decided not to renew its lease.

I called the management company to see if anyone there could tell me what might go in that space. I liked sitting at the outdoor tables with a latte this time of year, so I'm bummed to see it go.

Unfortunately everyone in the company's retail division seems to be at a convention and no one could tell me anything; but when I hear anything, I'll let you know.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

I've found out the name, at least, of the new restaurant at 938 S. Conkling St. It's the Blue Hill Tavern. As you can see from the photo, it's not quite ready to open.

The food will be "contemporary American cuisine," not a bad choice in this economy.

I heard from Mel Carter, whom I talked to last year about the restaurant space. In fact, he took this photo with his iPhone.

He won't give an exact date for the opening, but he says I'll be able to watch the Fourth of July fireworks from the back deck.

The restaurant will seat around 180 and have two bars, a 600-square-foot second-flour lounge area, and eight tables on a second-floor "veranda." There will be a 15-seat chef's table and a private dining room for 50 people.

Here's what Carter had to say in his e-mail: ...

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (54)
        

I'm not in favor of the new JFX plan, the "urban boulevard," because the Sunday farmers market wouldn't be the market under the viaduct anymore. I'm sure a place would be found for it somewhere, but it would get all prettified.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (44)
        

Ha. I gotcha with that one didn't I? No, really, now About.com has decided to weigh in; and I'm sure that's very, very good for the restaurants selected. Two of them are just what you'd expect: G & M in Linthicum Heights and Faidley's in the Lexington Market.

But the third surprised me. Not that I necessarily disagree. I didn't have the crab cake sandwich when I reviewed Todd Conner's in Fells Point.

Here's what the About.com reviewer said about it: ...

"The small restaurant and bar in Fells Point serves a unique interpretation of the classic. Served drizzled with red pepper aioli, the sandwich bursts with flavor. It's not necessarily traditionally Baltimore in its preparation, but it is delicious."

I'm not allowed to use the word "unique" in my reviews.

(Photo of Todd Conner's by Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

OK, let's take it from the top. Once more with feeling. Because of a bit of a glitch in the production process (new editors, vacations, yada, yada, yada), today's review of Taverna Corvino in Federal Hill was not in the paper. No review was in the paper. (Although it did say I was on vacation.) Nor will there be a Monday Morning Quarterbacking tomorrow.

I did get a very nice e-mail from one of my editors saying it wasn't my fault, which was very nice because at this point I was so confused I was perfectly willing to think it was.

So next week, I promise, my review of Taverna Corvino will appear in the Sunday Arts & Entertainment section.

The good news is that it's given me the opportunity to use lots of Jed Kirschbaum's very fine photos of the place. This one is of housemade linguine with Gorgonzola cream, toasted chestnuts and basil.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Review Preview
        

Ron just posted this comment about something I hadn't noticed:

I must be going blind, but I cannot find your review in the A&E section of Sunday's paper.

I don't see it either. Maybe for space reasons it was held until next Sunday, when I would have been "on vacation," since there would be no review one week or other. Probably no one thought about my previewing it on the blog. But, hey, I myself get so confused with the early deadlines and vacations that it could have been my fault. I won't know till I get in tomorrow.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

I stopped at the farmers market under the viaduct on my way to the gym this morning. It was early, a little before 7 a.m., and a lot of the vendors weren't set up yet. But I was able to get the one thing I had come for -- Eastern Shore strawberries.

I was struck by how it looked more like a garden store than a farmers market that early and this time of year. Most of the people who were set up by then were selling flowers, flowering plants, hanging baskets and vegetable plants and herbs. The tables overflowed with greens and lettuces.

When I got to the gym the woman behind the counter asked me if it was raining. I said a little, and she said, "Too bad. I wanted to go to the farmers market." But almost all of it is under cover. Don't let that stop you.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

I remember what I fixed for dinner after the Kentucky Derby last year. How likely is that?

That was the Derby, you may remember, where Eight Belles had to be euthanized. Up until then I would watch a leg of the Triple Crown with mild enjoyment if someone else had the TV on.

Gailor was home, so that meant that any time there was a major sporting event, she and my husband were in front of the TV. They even got me excited about watching the filly try to beat the boys. I stopped cooking and came over to the little kitchen TV to watch the race. ...

I haven't felt the same about horse racing since.

Usually I'm pretty good about shrugging such things off, but the three of us sat at the dinner table afterward and pushed the food around our plates. I had poached a nice piece of salmon in white wine and served it cold with a little dill mayonnaise, but Gailor and I didn't eat much of it.

Since then, I notice when I'm at the seafood counter and the choice is salmon or something else, I usually buy the something else. Food preferences are such a delicate thing. It's not a big deal. I always enjoy salmon if I'm having it elsewhere, and sometimes I cook it.

Did it seem odd to you that not much of the coverage (what little I read or saw) of Rachel Alexandra didn't mention Eight Belles? I watched the Preakness because my husband had it on yesterday, but it was an anxiety-making experience because there was a filly in the race.

Afterward I realized that by some creepy coincidence (I hadn't cooked the fish in months), I had bought salmon for dinner. It didn't taste as good as it usually does.

(AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

This week's Comment of the Week has two important ingredients of a good comment that we don't always get here. (Not to say I don't love the other comments, too.) The commenter made a point that was right on target and hadn't occurred to me before, and then he/she backed it up with examples and explanations.

Plus, it makes my Top 10 Tuesday post easier. A comment gets bonus points for that. It was under The Next Top 10: Restaurants You Come to Blows Over: ...

I think it's just Hampden in general. Golden West, Cafe Hon, Holy Frijoles and Rocket to Venus. People love them or hate them.

Golden: Great variety of delicious food or a hipster fashion show with too many rules printed right on the menu?

Hon: Overpriced kitsch or the perfect place to take a visiting relative?

Frijoles: The greatest or worst Mexican ever? (Most agree the drinks are good.)

Rocket: Foodie heaven (some good special dishes) or awkward hipster haven?

Posted by: incunabulum | May 15, 2009 8:39 AM

(Photo taken at Holy Frijoles by Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

If you're a Spike Mendelsohn fan, the former Top Chef contestant will be holding cooking demos in the Preakness Village today at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon. You might even get a sample of dishes like Classic Crab Cakes with Chile Garlic Mayonnaise. (Sounds good, but once you pair a crab cake with chile garlic mayonnaise you can't call it classic anymore.)

He'll be cooking with Kelsey Nixon, his Food2 co-host. (Food2 is the Food Network's new online channel.) ...

Mendelsohn owns the Good Stuff Eatery burger joint in DC, just visited by the First Lady. (Do the Obamas eat only burgers? Probably it only seems that way if you read this blog.)

The Mendelsohn burger must be a pretty good one. He swept the South Beach Food & Wine Festival's annual Burger Bash earlier this year.

(Photo courtesy of The Door PR)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

I came home from work tonight and fell on my face on the living room floor.

"You figure out dinner," I said to my husband.

Figuring out dinner on his part involved calling a Chinese carry out and ordering delivery. On the one hand, it wasn't very good; on the other, it was delivered. ...

So after dinner I broke my fortune cookie in two and was confronted with this fortune:

The days you work are the best days.

Isn't that depressing? I wanted it to say, "The Saturday you play doubles, get a massage, read the first chapter of the new sci-fi novel by Richard K. Morgan and go see Wolverine is the best day."

Even worse, the Learn Chinese word on the back of the fortune was eggplant, and the transliteration of the Chinese was qie (with an accent over the "e" and no "u") zi. They think I'm going to figure out how to pronounce it from that?

I ate my husband's cookie to get a better fortune. It was:

The situation is changeable, yet you cannot push the river.

I'm sure it's referring to work, but I just can't figure out what it means or what I should do about it. Does it mean change happens and you can't do anything about it? Or something more profound? (The Learn Chinese word, by the way, was "July," which also doesn't seem very useful.)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Rob just sent me this e-mail. I called a friend who lives in Canton and knows a lot about local restaurants, but she hadn't heard anything. Maybe it's not a restaurant. Anybody know?

I just moved to Canton and while walking my dog the other day, I noticed what seems to be a new restaurant going in at the corner of S Conkling and Dillon. It seems to be quite a unique structure with a balcony over the sidewalk on the second floor. Do you have any idea what will be going in there? I noticed yesterday a lot of kitchen equipment being moved in...does that mean I have a new place to try to eat at soon?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

I'm excited. Are you excited? Bucky might come to Baltimore to eat. Some of his restaurant choices surprised me, some didn't. I did think it was a little disingenuous of him to say he would be going to Michael's because he had a recurring dream about it. He'll be going to Michael's because of the photo of the two-pound slab of prime rib that accompanied my review. Here's guest poster Bucky. EL
 
It is about that time of year when we start planning our summer vacation.  The possibilities this year are varied, because Kaikala’s family is visiting here; we don’t have to make that dreary trip to the islands. 

Potential destinations at this point are (from west to east): ...

Alaska – the only state I’ve never visited.

Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon – For having spent all my life in the west, you would think I would have seen these three places at some point, but I haven’t.  (This would be a nice trip because it doesn’t involve getting on an airplane.)
 
Baltimore and environs – I need not explain this.

Oh, before y’all start voting, I should explain that Mrs. Bucky and I have an agreement that has served us well in our marriage:  I don’t try to run her life and I don’t try to run my own, either.  Which is to say that Kaikala will decide where we go.

I have a strategy, however.
 
Over the course of the last year, I’ve been taking notes.  I have developed the following list of restaurants — listed in no particular order — I intend to visit when I come there. (I'm including the thing about the place that struck me sufficiently to put it on my list.)
 
Sander’s Corner (for a nice breakfast on the porch, which is the best place to eat breakfast)
 
Michelle’s in Fells Point (for tamales, because there’s nothing like a good tamale)
 
Daniel’s (jl’s recommendation for cheeseburgers; and on the long list of things I trust jl’s judgment about, cheeseburgers rank No. 2.)
 
Koco’s Pub (for top-notch crab cakes)
 
Michael’s Steak & Lobster (Even though I’ve never been to Michael’s, I’ve had dreams about eating there.  Recurring dreams.  How weird is that?)
 
Faidley’s (for more top-notch crab cakes)
 
Glass Grill (for the food and the glass art)
 
oZ Chophouse (not to eat, just to see the rocks in the restroom sink.  I’ll have a scotch in the bar.)
 
On my last night in Baltimore and its environs, I’m eating at:
 
Corks (I’m not eating foie gras because it is, you know, liver.  But I’m going there to give them my support.  I’m ordering big and tipping well, since I only get to Baltimore, on average, once every 25 years or so.)
 
The problem should be clear to those of you who are numerically-oriented.  There are nine restaurants on the list.  Dining@Large operates on the metric system.  There are no Top Nine lists, just Top 10 lists.
 
Against my better judgment, I’m going to let the Sandbox determine which additional place I should add to my list.  Once the list is complete, I’m trusting Laura Lee to map me out an itinerary of places to see while traveling from restaurant to restaurant.  When this entire project is complete, I’m going to put it on PowerPoint slides and present it to Kai, to lobby her that Baltimore is the place we want to go on our summer vacation.

(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior; photographer, Ansel Adams)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (50)
        

Under an earlier post, Robert of Cross Keys came up with this suggestion for a Top 10 that I think I'm going to have to do next Tuesday:

...we have to do a top ten list for Baltimore's most divisive restaurants. Restaurants that are either loved or hated. Clearly Golden West would be on the list. Martick's, back when it was open, would also feature prominently. ...

Top 10 Most Divisive Restaurants. Top 10 Restaurants You Love to Hate and Hate to Love. I like it. I'm doing it next week. Suggestions?

I think Robert meant that they are both, not either, loved and hated (although not by the same people).

Maybe I should call it Top 10 Restaurants People Feel Passionate About. Or Top 10 Restaurants People Might Come to Blows Over.

What I need from you is a vote on what headline you think will be most attention-getting and also some suggestions. If you can tell us why they are both loved and hated, all the better.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (74)
        

In case you didn't see the story yesterday evening, Frank Bruni is stepping down as the New York Times restaurant critic. His leaving the job -- but not the paper -- is tied to the publication of his memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater, in late August. He'll stay at the Times as a magazine writer.

I'm amazed he lasted as long as he did, five years. I imagine it would be an awful job.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

As I've mentioned before, former Washington Post restaurant critic Phyllis Richman once told me the category of restaurants she had the hardest time reviewing was American Chinese restaurants.

I knew exactly what she meant. One sweet and sour pork tastes much like another.

I thought Other Reviewer Richard handled this task (OK, maybe not describing sweet and sour pork -- do Chinese restaurants still have it on their menus?) very well today in his write up of China Taste in Nottingham.

I like his idea that this is the kind of meal for a rainy night after a hard day at work. Mmm. Something like tonight.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

I love this Funtastic Thursday guest post from Owl Meat. I have to agree with him, that's the most amazing video ever. I should retire and let him (Owl Meat, not the guy in the video) take over the whole blog. EL

I was looking for new Owl Meat business cards and found this amazing video.  He is right – my cards are wretched.  They don't even pop up.  Still, I wondered if a pop-up $4 business card was the best.  
 
What makes the ultimate business card?  Meat and lasers.  Welcome to the brave chewy new world of MeatCards.Com. ...

From the over-capitalized jerky merchants:
 
"We start with 100% beef jerky, and SEAR your contact information into it with a 150 WATT CO2 LASER.  Forget about foil, popups, or UV spot lamination. THESE business cards have two ingredients:  MEAT AND LASERS.
 
"Unlike other business cards, MEAT CARDS will retain value after the econopocalypse. Hoard and barter your calorie-rich, life-sustaining cards.  MEAT CARDS do not fit in a Rolodex, because their deliciousness CANNOT BE CONTAINED in a Rolodex."
 
What other food can you read?  Alpha Bits.  Alphabet soup. Candy message hearts. M&Ms will print a message or, gasp, someone's photo on them.  What about creepy birthday cakes with someone's face painted in icing?  
 
Can you think of other non-food uses of food?  Macaroni art – remember fusilli Jerry?  Someone in Little Italy uses spaghetti as Christmas tree tinsel.  There is intriguing Japanese hot dog art.  
 
Sometimes food is not just a medium, it's the message, and a medium well done is rare.

(Photo courtesy of MeatCards.com)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (44)
        

I got the following e-mail from a reader who wanted to remain anonymous. She had eaten at Sullivan's Steakhouse and then gotten a handwritten note from her server, something that's never happened to me. But, of course, it wouldn't, would it? Since I never give my right name.

I was given a card with the check to fill out if you wanted info about specials, events, etc., and I filled it out since I am starting to be a regular.
 
Yesterday, I got a pretty long hand-written note on a nice card from our server thanking me for dining there on Mother's Day.  I'm not a sucker for that kind of stuff, but it was a nice touch. 

I've never even heard of this happening; I didn't know anyone wrote notes by hand anymore. (And I am a sucker for that kind of thing.)

(Elizabeth Malby/Sun photographer) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

Sometimes when I get back from vacation, I open my Microsoft Outlook Inbox, take a look, and feel like closing it back up, the way a surgeon must feel when he opens up a patient and finds the cancer has grown so large it's inoperable.

Many of these new e-mails have gripping subject lines like CALIFORNIA TORTILLA ADDS GOLDEN TWIST TO POP TART DAY. (I'm not even going to mention the exciting investment opportunities that for some reason Outlook doesn't think are spam.)

There is always the e-mail from the person who will be visiting Baltimore soon and wants to me to recommend a great, casual seafood restaurant in the Inner Harbor with a view of the water. Actually I got three of those requests this time.

I want someone to recommend a great, casual seafood restaurant in the Inner Harbor with a view of the water for me. ...

But among the other e-mails, I always get some useful restaurant news, as well as some good suggestions for posts -- many more than I can actually get around to. (I'm still kicking myself for not following up on the Obama burger tip I was sent. I ended up having to link to, of all things, our editorial page blog in my late-to-the-party post.)

For instance, I got this tip from Andy of Harbor East. I hadn't realized Woodberry Kitchen was serving brunch now:

Just wanted to let you know that we went to Woodberry Kitchen for Mother's Day brunch and it was wonderful.  Our waitress told us that it was the first day they've been open for brunch but will now be open every Sunday from 10:00 - 2:30 and they will soon have outdoor seating.  I've always been one who has loved the ambiance at Woodberry and thought the menu was very clever; however, to me, the food has always been "just fine" (i.e., a good meal but not a great one).  For full disclosure, I've been 5 or 6 times for dinner so I think that's a fair sample size to form an opinion. 
 
As for their brunch, the food and service were great.  A creative and fun (and reasonably priced) menu.  Great baked goods (we had a fun basket of sweets to start -- sticky bun, warm, jelly doughnuts, rhubarb scone, toast and monkey bread).  Good eggs dishes and a creative drink menu.

You know how I love mini-reviews.

Then I got an e-mail telling me the Red Springs Cafe, specializing in southern cooking, is opening on May 19. But take a look at the Web site and see if you can guess anything about what it will be like. It's two blocks from the Sun, so it could be a potential lunch spot. 

The duffster wrote to say that he was running through Patterson Park and noticed that Three... didn't have its tables out the way it usually did. When he got closer he saw a sign on the door that read something like "they could not renew their liquor license b/c of the bad economy, so they wouldn't be serving drinks tonight."

I called Three... and spoke to an owner, Michael Harmel, who told me that the license should be renewed by tomorrow.

And wait. There's more: the Wine Market in Locust Point is featuring a Rumba on the Patio event on Tuesday, May 26 from 6:30 p.m. till 9 p.m. with Mojitos, Light & Stormys and beer and wine, grilled Caribbean salmon, burgers and more. Tickets are $25 and include all food and drinks.

When I read this I went looking for Midnight Sun Sam to ask him what a Light & Stormy is, but he only knew about Dark & Stormys. I could always call the Wine Market, but I prefer just to use my imagination. I presume it involves rum.

Anyway, you get the idea. I can't just Define All and hit the delete button the way I'm tempted to. So if I haven't gotten around to replying to your e-mail yet, it's only that after three days I still haven't gotten through my Inbox.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Midnight Sun Sam has the latest on the restaurant that will replace Banjara at 1015-1019 S. Charles St. He's busy right now doing Important Editing Chores (Sam has returned to the Sun from his wedding as a "content editor") so I thought I would help him out by getting in touch with the liquor board to find out more.

It wasn't much. The license was transferred on May 7, and the contact person is Clark Hudak. But the number he gave the liquor board rings endlessly and no one picks up.

(Photo by Sam Sessa)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

Golden West Café in Hampden cracks me up. The restaurant, not 10 years old, calls itself a "beloved Baltimore culinary institution" on its Web site. You gotta love it.

Anyway, the Beloved Baltimore Culinary Institution (BBCI) will take Slow Food Baltimore’s Eat in Season Challenge this month, starting tomorrow through Thursday, May 21.

This is the last month of the challenge, which Slow Food started in 2008 to encourage restaurants to focus on seasonal, local foods.

Little did the Slow Food organization know that this would happen anyway, and now even fast food chains are trying to get a piece of the action. (OK, maybe not. Maybe it just seems that way from some of the press releases I get.) ...

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (76)
        

The title of today's Shallow Thought Wednesday by guest poster John Lindner made me laugh out loud. It may be a bit obscure for those of you who aren't frequent readers, however, so I'm going to link to an earlier post of mine. The rest of his post, by the way, is just as funny. Here's John. EL

The Olney Ale House, by its own admission, is famous for its stew.

This I take on faith bolstered by the unsolicited testimony of a friend who, when the restaurant came up in conversation, said, “They have really good stew.”
 
I cannot vouch for it. ...

In my experience, good stew is something one’s mother cooks because what do kids know? But then, so is bad stew. Great stew is either an oxymoron or a better dish misnamed. Therefore, among the things I will not order at a restaurant (e.g., pbj sandwich, pork chop, taco), stew figures prominently.

But perhaps a bowl of OAH stew would expand my universe. A good reviewer would at least try it. Would I go to a steak house and whine about the stuffed flounder but not mention the filet?

No.

Maybe?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

This morning I have widget envy.

Rob's column on Maryland's Ultimate Burger according to the Food Network Magazine has pride of place among the home page's widgets today. It's an excellent column, with lots of information my modest little post at the end of April didn't begin to cover. ...

But I did break this important story over two weeks ago, and did I get any love then? No.

Did I get any credit today on the home page for opening the e-mail from the Food Network my fine investigative reporting? No.

To make matters worse, I don't have a Table Talk in today's print edition because I was on "vacation" last week. Now I have such a pile of things to talk about I'm not even going to begin to be able to fit them into next week's Table Talk.

However, the soft-shell crab Top 10 was in the paper today. I'll link to it in case you want to see what comments made it in. (I usually give my editor all the comments that have been posted by my deadline and let her pick and choose.)

(Photo by Mike Buscher/Special to the Sun)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Do you get obsessive about food-related things? I do. (See Brownberry Bread.) This usually happens when it becomes extremely difficult to track something down.

My latest obsession is Murchie's tea, possibly because I'm having trouble finding the one I want. Shortly after my earlier tea post extolling the virtues of Twining's Irish Breakfast, I found the handsome tea tin pictured pushed to the back of a kitchen cupboard.

I remembered vaguely that a friend had given it to me, telling me how wonderful Murchie's tea was. She regularly ordered it from Canada.

I decided to give it a try and fell in love.

The only problem was that there was no name on the tin, and she couldn't remember which Murchie's tea she had given me.

She thought it was probably Empress Afternoon, which the company used to custom blend for the Empress, an exclusive hotel in Victoria. (The blend is now sold to the general public as Murchie's Afternoon.) ...

A couple of days after I called and ordered a pound of Murchie's Afternoon for $23.95 plus $10 shipping, my friend told me she had made a mistake. Maybe the tea was Prince Charles. Or Golden Jubilee. Or even the CBC Radio Blend. She wasn't sure.

Meanwhile I had fallen more and more in love as I finished the nameless tea she had originally given me. It was a robust breakfast tea but with a faintly smoky finish, as though a tiny bit of Lapsang Souchong had been blended in. I yearned for it and could no longer appreciate the Twining's.

So now, a couple of weeks later, a pound of Murchie's Afternoon has arrived at my door, and it's a good tea. Perhaps even a great tea. But it's not my tea. 

And at $35 a shot, I can't keep ordering pounds of tea until I hit upon the right one.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

Thanks to 20something for reminding me that Joss Cafe & Sushi Bar has finally opened, in the spot where Kawasaki once was on N. Charles Street. This is the Baltimore branch of the popular Annapolis restaurant.

It opened Monday, May 4. I'll be talking to the general manager tomorrow to get more details and set up a photo shoot. But if anyone has tried it out, please post below.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

Did you ever wonder how National Geographic would view the natives if the magazine planned a trek to...Baltimore?

No, I didn't think so.

However, the May/June edition of National Geographic Traveler has laid out a two-mile walking tour of downtown that features a few eating places. ...

They are wiser than many national selections, mostly because they were suggested by Baltimore Foodies' Lars Rusins and not just something they lifted from the travel section of the New York Times or whatever. (Am I being a little cynical here?)

One thing that amused me was that the author called Pazo a tapas bar. Tapas, yes. Bar? I don't think so. I mean, it has one, but...

The magazine must have even earlier deadlines than I thought. I know its research department is meticulous with its fact-checking, so this must have been written before bluehouse moved from downtown to Kenilworth.

(Photo of Pazo by Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)
        

On my drive through East Baltimore to Johns Hopkins Hospital, I noticed a large spray painted sign on the side of an abandoned house at the corner of Biddle Street (700 Block) and Nursery Place.  It took me a few more drives past to realize that the sign is actually a recipe, done with a beautiful stencil, for Gazpacho.

Maybe food brings hope in even the most troubled neighborhood.  I wonder if this is an isolated event or part of an urban recipe movement.  I am curious if you have heard of other recipe tags.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

I'm on vacation until I get to my desk at work this morning, so I was thinking of just skipping Top 10 Tuesday this week -- the first time ever since it started.

But this is the time of year I get lots of questions from locals and tourists alike about where to eat seafood of all kinds, preferably on the water. I thought it would be kind of neat to make up a master list of seafood posts I've done in the past. This way I can just send them the link when they ask me where's the best place to get a crab cake or what the area's best seafood restaurants are. You might want to bookmark this page for future reference. ...

Not all of these entries are Top 10 lists, so you may have to read through the comments to get suggestions. Also, some of them are from a year or two ago; feel free to update them if you've discovered a good restaurant since they were published.

This time I numbered the list in the order of questions I get asked most often: 

1) Top 10 Best Crab Cakes

2) Top 10 Best Seafood Restaurants

3) Top 10 Crab Houses

4) Top 10 Places to Eat on the Water

5) Where's the Shrimp [Salad]?

6) Top 10 Places to Get Soft-Shell Crabs

7) Top 10 Places for Fish and Chips

8) Top 10 Places to Get Raw Oysters

9) Bar Food: The Best Steamed Shellfish

10) Top 10 Crab Cakes With a Twist

(Photo of Oceanaire Seafood Room by Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

I heard from a very reliable source that Jesse Sandlin, the chef at Abacrombie, was in Las Vegas now competing on the reality show Top Chef. I called the restaurant, which is usually closed on Mondays, and the pastry chef answered. She said she was pretty sure that wasn't true, but Chef Sandlin wasn't in to confirm or deny. All I could find on the 'net was the rumor that the sixth season will take place in Vegas.

(Chiaki Kawajiri/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

ABC has ordered six episodes of a new "unscripted" (I hate that term, but "reality" is even farther off the mark) series produced by British chef Jamie Oliver and American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter.

It will feature makeovers of America's unhealthiest cities, a description that raises more questions that it answers.  The show, which doesn't have a name yet, will air sometime next year.

While we're at it, anyone want to take a crack at a name? ...

The story says that the six cities being made over will be chosen from a list of America's fattest cities. When I Googled, the only list I found was one in that fine scientific publication Men's Fitness.

Unfortunately, Baltimore is probably too low down at No. 17 to be in the running, and too high up to be healthy.

(Ryan Seacrest, above/AP photo; Jamie Oliver/Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

In yesterday's paper I reviewed the reinvented Carlyle Club near the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus.

If you like the Ambassador Dining Room, its sister restaurant, you'll like this place. It's that simple. They offer the same amenities and have the same flaws, or at least what some people will consider flaws.

There are two things I didn't get a chance to mention in my review. ...

This restaurant works particularly well, it seems to me, if you want Indian food and someone else in your party doesn't. The menu not only includes excellent crab cakes, but also a strip steak dinner, complete with mustard mashed potatoes and mushrooms.

Also there's an elaborate combination Indian and American brunch on Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $19.95.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

I've come straight from my bed to tell you about a dream I just had about a white-tablecloth Sun luncheon held in my father's study. The guests were former employees and a few current Sun people like my friend Good Reader Helen. I kept trying to get some task done on the computer before I joined them. The computer was very beautiful and glitzy, but I couldn't figure out how it worked. Finally I gave up and went to the rows of tables to find my place, but everyone was finished and someone had eaten my lunch.

What does it mean?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

The Comment of the Week got delayed yesterday because I was flying back from Savannah (and what an easy trip it was compared to our trip down) and hadn't had the time to read a lot of the comments. I published many, maybe most, but not all this trip.

It was fun just now to start at May 3 and read them as they should always be read, under their posts. (When I'm not on vacation and am doing all the comment publishing, I read them in the blogware in chronological order, and it can get quite confusing.) ...

There were so many funny ones (I'm looking at you again, Robert of Cross Keys) and so many great exchanges it was impossible to pick just one that stood out. But there was one that didn't get any discussion. I'm hoping if I designate it Comment of the Week we can talk about it further.

MD Canon had questioned the practice of waiters folding your napkin when you leave the table, a nicety that always seemed odd to me because once I've used a napkin I don't really want anyone else handling it until I'm finished:

Well MD Canon I can only speculate but I think that move is to keep the bussers from removing everything from your table. Since I do dine out alone quite frequently, I have had the experience of going to the restroom and returning to find my lobster tail & filet along with everything else removed from the table. If I had known the code, I would have gladly folded and placed my napkin on the back of my chair. This happened @ Captain Harvey's in Owings Mills who apologized most graciously and brought me a "fresh" meal.

Posted by: Lone Lady | May 9, 2009 12:35 PM

I'm not sure this is the reason, because the napkin folding thing happens to me often enough even when the rest of my party is still sitting there, ready to defend my unfinished plate from overzealous wait staff. Maybe they just think it's a nice gesture. 

Anyway, how do you signal that you don't want your plate removed if you're eating alone and have to leave the table?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Next Sunday I review the Taverna Corvino in Federal Hill, the restaurant that took over the Juniors' location.

The most surprising thing happened the night I reviewed it. Who should be standing in front of me waiting to be seated but Suzanne Loudermilk, the reviewer for Baltimore magazine. ...

I know her because we used to work together at the Sun.

It was odd because we weren't both reviewing, say, one month after the place opened -- it had what seemed like an endless soft opening under the informal name Test Kitchen while Chef Christopher Paternotte refined the menu. It was simply chance. I believe that's the first time that's happened to me in all the years I've been reviewing.

I had to laugh at the thought of the owner, chef or a server somehow recognizing both of us and our reviewing parties. What a horror for the staff: two restaurant critics in one night.

Anyway, my review appears in next Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section. You'll have to check the July issue of Baltimore magazine for Suzanne's review. Her deadlines are even earlier than mine.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Review Preview
        

1) Savannah has the best biscuits in the world. And I'm from the South originally, so I know my biscuits.

2) Savannah is very protective of its tourists. No panhandling is allowed in the historic district, and signs everywhere say, "If you feel physically threatened or someone asks you for money, call 911."

Whoa. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if you called 911 in Baltimore because someone asked you for money? ...

3) The best breakfast in Savannah can be had at the Gryphon Tea Room, not too far from where Forrest Gump's bench was.

4) Downtown Savannah has 24 squares shaded with huge live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. The benches and paths are surrounded by lush green grass, flowers, monuments, and fountains -- and, of course, the most beautiful architecture in the South surrounds the squares.

That's a lot of squares for a city with a population of 100,000, but what amazed me was that they are building a new one. I think we need more tree-shaded squares in Baltimore.

5) My blood pressure has gone down 40 points, or whatever units blood pressure is measured in, since I've been in Savannah. Things don't happen fast here.

(Photo of the Sorrel-Weed House by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

While wandering around this morning I came across a small farmers market in Forsyth Park. It's much smaller than our markets; but on the other hand, we don't have tennis being played on one side and basketball on the other.

(SAAFON stands for Southeastern African-American Farmers Organic Network, family farms located in six states.)

That reminded me that I probably won't get to the Sunday market under the viaduct tomorrow, even though I'll be home; but maybe if anyone went to the Saturday market in Waverly today, which has many of the same vendors, you could let us know what will be available tomorrow.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (47)
        

...if it's still gloomy in Baltimore.

It will be strange to go from summer (sunny, 90s, deliciously high humidity, breezy) back to spring when we fly back to Baltimore this afternoon.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

There are two quotes from colleagues of mine that have gotten me through my work life intact. Former Sun reviewer John Dorsey once said, "If you make the slightest error, restaurant owners will fall upon you like a pack of ravening wolves," or words to that effect. And food columnist Rob Kasper told me famously, "To review you need 6,000 ways to say mediocre."

Now a third colleague (I refuse to think of him as an ex-colleague), John McIntyre, has issued a challenge. Welcome to my world, John. EL

A challenge: How well can you describe a banal restaurant meal?
 
A classic description appears in the first P.D. James novel Cover Her Face. Even though James is assisted by the quality of British cookery, can you top hers? ...

"Mrs. Piggott was reputed to take trouble with her soups. This was true in so far as the packaged ingredients had been sufficiently well mixed to exclude lumps. She had even experimented with flavours and today's mixture of tomato (orange) and oxtail (reddish brown), thick enough to support the spoon unaided, was as startling to the palate as to the eye. Soup had been followed by a couple of mutton chops nesting artistically against a mound of potato and flanked with tinned peas larger and shinier than any pea which had ever seen pod. They tasted of soya flour. A green dye which bore little resemblance to the colour of any known vegetable seeped from them and mingled disagreeably with the gravy. An apple and black-currant pie had followed in which neither of the fruits had met each other nor the pastry until they had been arranged on the plate by Mrs. Piggot's careful hand and liberally blanketed with synthetic custard."

I read the novel many years ago, and I still remember this queasy-making description. I would call it something stronger than "banal." EL

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

This is my favorite Bucky's World yet. However, I had to make guest poster Bucky promise the art wouldn't contain any bare breasts when I got the post with "art to follow" at the top. Little did I realize what he would come up with. I feel ashamed. EL

I believe that a few weeks ago we (and by “we” I mean “me”) agreed unanimously that we don’t comment about Hooters often enough in this blog.
 
So, last week I took Mrs. Bucky, Bucky Jr. and Mrs. Bucky Jr. (who, to simplify things, will hereinafter be referred to as Kai, Junior and L3, which stands for “Lovely Lori of Littleton”) to Hooters for dinner. ...

We went on a night when no local sports teams were playing. This was a strategic move on my part because I know that, at this particular Hooters, when no local sports teams are playing on television, they have Trivia Night.  It is my opinion that a Trivia Night promotion enhances your normal dining experience. (Why places like, say, Birches don’t add a Trivia Night promotion during these tough economic times is beyond me, but I digress.)

I also like going to Trivia Night and being on Junior’s team. We are from different generations (duh) so our knowledge gained from personal experience spans a longer period of time than that of most teams in attendance at Hooters Trivia Nights. 

Additionally, Junior once lost two Trivia Night Championships in a row when the final question came from the category “World Capitals." That prompted him to (and I swear I’m not making this up) memorize every single capital of every single country in the world. Now when a “World Capitals” question comes up, he is golden.  Junior also knows a lot about math, being a math teacher, and it will surprise no one that “Mathematics” is generally a stumper-category to the Hooters Trivia Night crowd.
 
We ordered our drinks and perused the menu, which is very colorful.  We ordered two starters (“Hootertizers”) to share:  a basket of fried pickles (deep-fried dill pickle chips, lightly breaded and served with a secret, yet tangy, dipping sauce) and a ribs platter which had small ribs glazed with a lip-smacking Budweiser barbecue sauce. (I ask you — how often have you ever eaten at a high-end French restaurant and been served something that could honestly be described as “lip-smacking”?)
 
While we were waiting for our Hootertizers, I gave Junior a warm-up quiz on obscure world capitals. Kai and L3 invented their own Hooters Trivia Night game, which they called “Real/Not Real.” I won’t go into it, but I imagine you can figure it out.
 
When the starters were delivered to our table, we ordered our entrées. Me: a bleu cheese burger. Ha Ha Ha.  I crack myself up. I ordered a Hooters burger, cheddar cheese, hold the mushrooms. Junior ordered two five-wing Hootertizers as an entrée. Kai went with steamed shrimp and L3 ordered a bowl of chili and a garden salad.
 
Oh no! I am limited to 500 words on my guest posts and I’m already at the limit. I’ll have to finish this review in coming weeks.
 
But, here are a couple of hints: When the category was “60’s Rock and Roll” and the question began, “The Troggs…” I immediately buzzed in with the correct answer, without waiting to hear the rest of the question. Any time the question involves the Troggs, the correct answer is “Wild Thing."  

And who but my son (his dad says proudly) knows that the capital of Tuvalu is Funafuti?

(Photo credit: Uncle Larry; Hooters Girls, L to R:  Tasha, Stephanie, Elise, Amanda)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

Yesterday I did a trolley tour of Savannah's historic district. I learned many fascinating things, such as why Sherman didn't burn Savannah.

Actually, I heard them and promptly forgot most of them. 

We even passed the Vinnie Van Go Go's pizzeria in the City Market that adam recommended. Love that name.

It is odd, though, to see a Five Guys Burgers, Outback, Starbucks, Ruth's Chris, Panera and other chains in the historic district where some wonderful old restaurant ought to be.

We did eat at one wonderful old restaurant night before last, Elizabeth on 37th, which my brother recommended.

The name is interesting: Why not Elizabeth's? (She's one of the owners.) When I was standing outside taking the photo I thought, I'm Elizabeth on 37th....

The fabulous setting, and I do mean fabulous, made the meal worth every extravagant penny, even though the food was good but not quite fabulous. I do think, for instance, that there ought not to be a shaker of canned ground pepper on the table. And my grouper with peanut sauce was a bit overcooked, although still moist.

Can't fault the oysters two ways appetizer, though, or those wonderful biscuits. Loved the smoked mussel amuse bouche, and the little salad with fresh herbs and edible flowers from the garden.

It's Five Guys for me the rest of the trip, though. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

In today's paper, Other Reviewer Richard has an excellent review of the new Alizee in the Inn at the Colonnade. It was particularly difficult for him to write, I'm sure, because he was recognized.

Meanwhile I've heard from a couple of people that Chef Joshau Hill has left Alizee's kitchen since Richard ate there.

I called just now, but the person who answered the phone would neither confirm or deny. He said he would have to have one of the owners call me back; but because I'm on vacation and didn't want to leave my cell number, I just thanked him and hung up.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)
        

Guest poster Owl Meat has come up with one of those topics I wish I had thought of first. I should ask all of you to post every example of a food product placement on a TV show you notice in the next week. I wonder how many we'd come up with? The one that drives me crazy, although it's not a food, is that everybody on TV uses Macs, not PCs. Now I'm a Mac person, but I know what they are good for and what they aren't. And my guess is that it would be hard to find a company other than Apple (food reference) that used nothing but Macbooks. But I digress. Here's guest poster Owlie. EL

Product placement is when a company pays to have their product featured in a television show or film usually as a prop or part of the background.  Ever wonder why the President and his cabinet are drinking Diet Mr. Pibb on 24?  The idea is that if Jack Bauer drinks Diet Pibb then maybe you can stay up for a day fighting implausible terrorists and your cell phone battery will never need to be charged. ...

Product placement is also obvious when  the name and logo of the product is always clearly readable in the foreground of a shot.  It's not a big deal, but it does break the dramatic moment.
 
In some ways it's better than when a character walks into a bar and asks for "a beer" and gets "a beer" with no other discussion.  Ever see a character on a television show pull a beer out of the fridge and it just says "BEER" on the label? 

I think they are getting better now with Photoshop, creating plausible-looking beer cans or bottles that look like Budweiser without actually using the name or exact logo.  Brand-name food and drinks are a regular part of most American's daily life, so these bad mockups break the dramatic moment.
 
30 Rock seems to walk a post-modern line by having product placement in the show and in the show within the show.  When they do it they usually make fun of the corporate goons who are forcing them to do so.  Confused yet?  They seem  to feature GE microwaves a lot, including a tiny one that you can use in the shower.  With 30 Rock it's hard to tell the product placement from product placement parody and sometimes they seem to function as both.  In the 30 Rock world GE owns NBC but GE's parent company is the fictional Sheinhardt Wig Company whose motto is "Not Poisoning Rivers Since 1997."  
 
30 Rock also has a running gag with fake product Sabor de Soledad (The Taste of Loneliness), a Mexican Cheetos knockoff that can cause false positive pregnancy tests because of testosterone in the ingredients. 

Do we care if Isabella Rossellini's character's fondness for Arby's Big Beef and Cheddar is real or product placement?  Who cares, the image is hilarious. 

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

Warthog made an eloquent and impassioned plea for culinary tolerance under an earlier post last week:

... I remain baffled as to why so many people from NYC seem to expect the rest of the world to duplicate their preferred style of pizza (or hot dogs, or bagels, or...), rather than accepting and enjoying the fact that a wide range of other styles exists. It seems like every time I see a post of the form "Well, it's not just like that from *location*, therefore it sucks", the poster is almost invariably somebody pining for NYC. ...

Hey, NYC - get over it. If you need to go home to get your favorite dish, do it. Enjoy a nice crab cake or deep dish pizza while you're there. The rest of us are busy exploring and enjoying what the rest of the world has to offer wherever we are, even as we cherish our favorite dishes from "back home" when we can find them.

I was nodding to myself when I read this and thinking how how reasoned and broad-minded it was, and then something occurred to me. Much as I appreciate anyone dissing New Yorkers, especially if they're Yankee fans, I have to point out one exception. 

Crab cakes.

Now don't we all agree that while there are very good pizzas, bagels, hot dogs and so on elsewhere in the country that aren't like the New York version, you can only get a good crab cake in Maryland?

Wouldn't it be absurd to appreciate, say, a North Carolina crab cake for its own merits, or a West Coast crab cake?

Well, they just aren't like that from Baltimore, therefore they s**k.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

I couldn't figure out what Robert of Cross Keys was talking about under the Table Talk post, so I moseyed on over to the Second Opinion blog and found that, indeed, an editorial writer was writing about food again.

I have to say that Peter Jensen is a serious foodie and cook, and in the past has reviewed for our dining guides.

Now I have to leave for my tennis lesson, but I'll tell you about dinner at Elizabeth on 37th later.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

NR had this request for me and I wasn't much help. But I said I would post his query on the blog and see if anyone had any suggestions:

I recently came back from a trip to Colorado. In Boulder my friends and I stopped in to a place called Falafel King. It was a chain, but it was the best shawarma I've ever had. I think Baltimore is missing out on doner kebabs, shawarma, and falafel. Perhaps I'm not aware of places already here? Do you have any suggestions?

The only place that comes to mind immmediately is the Semiramis Grill in Westminster, and I've never eaten there. Maybe someone else can fill us in.

(Christopher T. Assaf/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Our Shallow Thought Guru and John Lindner wrote an excellent guest post for today; and, yes, it has a restaurant theme. But because he knows I like art, he sent an absolutely random photo of his nascent vegetable garden to go with it. I'm using it; but this is your one and only Get Out of Jail Free card, jl. EL

Normal people don’t understand the stress inherent in being “leader of the pack.” You have to know things like where you are, where you’re going, how to get there.

I was recently cast in the LOTP role and saddled with the additional responsibility of selecting a restaurant. Because one cannot ride if one does not eat.

Your fellow riders will tell you that they “don’t care where we eat,” a lie. The truth is: “We don’t care where we eat so long as the place has great food, excellent service, won’t look askance at middle-age biker wannabes, and will put a lemon wedge in your water if you ask them to.” ...

So we’re cruising down the road. The moment is straight and flat and middlin’ scenic. I know what they’re thinking: Boring. I turn onto a neighborhood road of unremarkable suburban conformity. I can almost hear them: “Why did we let this chump lead? Oh, that’s right, he’s a born scapegoat.”

But the residential road soon transforms into a winding country lane fairly dripping with terroir and adorned with natural wonders like cows, horses and even wild turkey (the bird). Our path terminates at the southern gateway to downtown Sykesville, whose greatest charm is that its old-town quaintness doesn’t stretch on for more than two or three blocks.

I park, boldly, in front of E.W. Becks, as if to say: “I’m eating here. Don’t care what the rest of all y’all do.”

I consider Becks a convenient place to get a decent burger and would not be a semi-regular but for its wings, which are “the best” … most of the time. Having explored its menu over the years, I do not recommend the educated palate stray from the aforementioned two items. Beyond them, there be disappointment … most of the time.

So I cringed when my pack ordered everything but. A couple even foolishly went for the Thai tuna salad – perilously exotic for Becks. Last time they let me pick the restaurant. I smirked knowingly.

Well, it’s what I get for harboring evil thoughts. They praised the Thai tuna, loved the sandwiches (I don’t recall what they were because I didn’t know they would figure in a review), and generally awarded Becks more stars than the Great Andromeda Nebula. I sat there out-ordered with a bowl full of wing bones and four wadded-up napkins.

Later that day I would be chastised for zipping too quickly through a Catoctin Mountain pass, all memory of my exacting culinary judgment forgotten. The price of leadership … most of the time.

Photo of future vegetables, week 2)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Alive, maybe. Well, not so much. The plane landed at 1 a.m. and I got to bed at 2, which faithful readers know is closer to when I usually get up than when I go to bed. However, here I am in this beautiful city and the sun is shining.

I didn't forget you, though, and the fact that sometimes it's hard to find Table Talk on the Web site so I should link to it. ...

Today's TT covers ground that we've covered here before, but in a bit more detail.

I talk about the new Coal Fire Pizza in Ellicott City, and about the fact that Cynthia's in Severna Park closed. So about all that's new would be the Deal of the Week.

No, that's not true. I do give you a little news about the new Maisy's.

I'll also direct you the Top 10 from last Tuesday printed into today's paper because it's always interesting to see what comments they end up using.

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
        

I had never heard of it, and I didn't think there was any Maryland food I had simply not heard of. Great name, though, isn't it? I want some frosted crab soup right now

I learned about it in the Urbanite's Invisible City issue. You have to scroll down a ways to get to the fascinating little item, written by editor-in-chief David Dudley.

Private clubs have always interested me, and I remember being told when I first started this job that the reason Baltimore didn't have better restaurants was that the best food was being served in the private clubs instead.

This may not be the best example, in spite of the name. Note the key ingredient.

(Photo courtesy of Tasha Treadwell)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Your restaurant critic didn't expect to be celebrating Cinco de Mayo in Tequileria -- in the Charlotte, N. C., airport (one gold margarita and a fruit plate). Wow, are there a lot of stranded travelers here.

After the flight from hell from Baltimore, which left at 5:15 p.m. and sat on the runway for 75 minutes because of thunderstorms over Charlotte, I'm still an hour's flight away from Savannah. ...

I won't tell you about the fact that the only two screaming kids on the plane were in the seats behind me, and one of them kept kicking the back of my seat, or that my seat was broken and didn't recline. Or that the flight attendants parked the drink cart by my row, but then forgot to serve my row anything to drink.

Or that my connecting flight was, as far as I can tell, the only flight that actually left Charlotte on time, five minutes before we landed.

But when the captain got on the intercom to announce we were finally beginning our descent, he said, "If you look out your windows, the end of the storm is to the far left, and one of the most perfect rainbows I've ever seen is directly beside us.

"Unfortunately, Mrs. Large in seat 9F, you won't be able to see it. It's on the other side of the plane."

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Which has been canceled in Mexico, I see. It does feel like I should do something on Dining@Large, but I didn't think of it when I was planning this Tuesday's Top 10, or when I was giving you the details about the new Mexican restaurant in Locust Point.

Here's the best I can do. The Baltimore location of Salsarita's Fresh Cantina is offering a large burrito, large quesadilla, taco salad, nachos or Mexican pizza for $5 until Friday. Ask for Salsarita's Cinco.

I haven't eaten there so I can't vouch for the food, but there is a lot of it for five bucks.

(Photo courtesy of Salsarita's Fresh Cantina)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Along with the floods I now have a plague of locusts.

OK, not locusts exactly, but those little ants have invaded my kitchen again. I don't understand why all winter they stay away (do ants hibernate in the winter?), but then when it gets warm they come inside. Maybe it's the rain.

Before I leave for Savannah this afternoon, I'm going to toss all my lofty, high-minded, green eco-principles out the window and buy the most virulent ant poison I can find and spray all over my kitchen counters, sills, inside my dishwasher, the cabinets the floor, the ceiling. Then when I come back I'm going to enjoy sweeping all those little carcasses up and throwing them in the trash. ...

Of course, my husband won't appreciate that; but, hey, how much cooking does he actually do when I'm away? 

When I made these travel plans this winter, I hesitated. Did I really want to leave Baltimore in the most beautiful month of year? The answer after looking at the weather forecast is, I find, a resounding yes.

Forecast for Savannah? Mostly sunny, highs in the 80s. Chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.

My kind of weather.

Remember, I won't abandon you. I'm taking my trusty laptop, and if anything interesting happens foodwise in Savannah, I'll tell you about it. Otherwise we'll be talking about Baltimore and more general food and drink topics.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (48)
        

You don't have to be a native Marylander to appreciate the crunch of little legs, but it helps. People who are new to the area sometimes look in horror at even the most beautiful platter of soft-shell crabs, and the sandwich with the little legs dangling out seems particularly repellent to them. Especially when the yellow fat, otherwise known as the mustard, oozes out.

That's OK, as one commenter said under an earlier post. More for us.

Here's my list of 10 delicious preparations of soft-shells in alphabetical order. It should give you a range of options. If you're new to our Top 10 Tuesday lists, please read the Official Disclaimer before you comment. ...

* Asian, French and Baltimore-inspired crab cake and tempura soft crab finished with wasabi cream at Alizee in Tuscany/Canterbury (pictured).

* Dusted with flour and Old Bay rub (contains a little brown sugar) and sauteed, finished with basil aioli at Annabel Lee Tavern in Canton.

* Lightly tempura fried or sauteed with a Creole mustard drizzle at Catonsville Gourmet in Catonsville.

* Grilled soft shells served with tomato and corn relish or crunchy (fried) polenta at Chameleon Cafe in Lauraville.

* Lightly deep fried or pan fried to make it crispy and golden with an Old Bay and mustard  hollandaise at La Famiglia in Tuscany/Canterbury.

* Tempura soft crabs with succotash of sweet corn and butter beans and charred heirloom tomato emulsion at Ixia in Mount Vernon.

* A great soft-shell crab sandwich can be had at Kibby's on Wilkins Avenue across from St. Agnes Hospital.

* Crispy fried soft-shell crabs with a choice of chili, basil, garlic sauce or black bean, mushroom, ginger sauce at Lemongrass in Annapolis.

* Panko-crusted deep-fried with an arugula-frisee salad with a lemon vinaigrette is one of several varieties at the Oceanaire Seafood Room in Harbor East.

* Dipped in corn flour, pan fried and served with a whole-grain mustard sauce and angel hair zucchini at the Oregon Grille in Cockeysville.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (50)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

I'm happy. For once a restaurateur actually called me about his new restaurant when he said he would. Sometimes getting information about soon-to-be-open places is like pulling teeth. (Even though I understand the reasoning behind it, as a reporter I find it frustrating.)

The owner in question is Michael Marx,  the chef who opened Blue Agave -- which now has different owners -- and Rub in Federal Hill.

Sometime in mid- to late August, he told me, if all goes well, his latest project will open in Silo Point. ...

It's going to be a regional Mexican restaurant called Miguel's Cocina y Cantina. While that sounds something like Blue Agave, this time round, says Marx, small plates will be the order of the day.

"What's great about the food," he says, "is the diversity of flavors." With small plates, people can try more of them. "And it allows for a less expensive meal," he adds. (Well, it never does for me because I always think that because they don't cost much, I can order more.)

Most of the small plates will be priced between $5 and $9, and there will be a few entrees as well.

The menu will change often, giving Marx flexibility to, say, make empanadas when he has extra venison or duck from the entrees.

The space is "fabulous," Marx tells me, 4,000 square feet of glass and concrete, with 26-foot-high ceilings.

The bar will be the focal point, with the signature drink being a paloma, a favorite Mexican cocktail of tequila, fresh lime juice, and grapefruit soda with a salted rim.

Miguel's will be open Sunday through Friday for lunch and dinner, dinner only Saturday. 

One excellent feature of the restaurant is that you'll be able to take the water taxi to the restaurant. "It opens it up to the rest of the city," he says.

(Michael Marx, left, and his wife Jennifer. at Blue Agave in a 2000 photo by Kenneth K. Lam/Sun staff)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)
        

Federal Hill Jim just sent me a link to a post on Eric Asimov's wine blog on NYTimes.com and the interesting exchange of comments below it. It's about the validity of wine ratings.

I feel Asimov's pain when he says it's important not to over-analyze the stars...er, I mean the numbers.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Midnight Sun Sam riding up Charles Street to his wedding on Saturday. No kidding.

(Photo courtesy of Sarah KK)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Yesterday I reviewed Sascha's 527 in Mount Vernon. Of course, faithful readers already knew what I was going to say because I did a twittereview of it in a Saturday post.

See what you miss when you don't check in on the weekend?

I can never think of Sascha's without thinking of crepes, because that was the first place owner Sascha Wolhandler opened in the '70s, an outdoor creperie on a -- I guess you would call it -- second-story mezzanine on Charles Street, now long gone. Eventually the creperie moved to Center Stage.

I also loved her lunch spot on Hamilton Street, which is now the catering company only. It was one of those tiny, hidden-away places with loads of charm that have a lot of appeal for me.

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

I don't want to do that. It reminds me of how nutty people can be. I hadn't realized pork prices had dropped and people weren't buying it for fear of...what? contamination? until a story appeared in the paper last week.

We should have a Pork Week celebrating ribs, chops, bacon...nah. Forget it.

Also, does anyone ever remember outbreaks of the flu in May?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (52)
        

Oh, look. It's raining again. Isn't that nice. And to think I turned down a chance to live in Seattle, where it would have been drier.

Anyway, next Sunday I review the reinvented Carlyle Club in, sigh, Tuscany/Canterbury. I don't say Homewood anymore because there's a guy who always sends me a nasty e-mail when I do.

I shouldn't be mean. The poor man is probably head of the Tuscany/Canterbury Neighborhood Association and is tired of people saying, "Where's that? Ohhhh, you mean near the Homewood campus."

The Carlyle Club is now a "coastal Indian" restaurant, which translates to "We're offering something different from the Ambassador, our other Indian restaurant in the same neighborhood [Tuscany/Canterbury]."

So check out my review in next Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section. And, of course, I'll link to it here in my Monday Morning Quarterbacking feature.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)
Categories: Review Preview
        

We've discussed wine shipping before on Dining@Large, although only in the comments. It's mostly been talked about by those folks who live in other states and can actually get wine shipped to their homes.

If you live in Maryland and are interested in the subject, Peter Jensen tells you how you can help get the antiquated laws changed. Check out his editorial on Second Opinion.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (38)
Categories: Wine and Spirits
        

The Comment of the Week has to be this one from John McIntyre, because it told me that not only was he alive and well, but he hadn't lost his sense of humor. I would have lost my sense of humor.

I had taunted him in my soft shell crab post by writing, "I was going to say, ''Tis the season, after all'; but then I remembered that Professor McIntyre wouldn't yell at me anymore, and what's the fun in that?"

He replied, first comment: ...

HEY! DON'T EVEN THINK IT!
Posted by: John McIntyre | May 1, 2009 7:44 AM

This one made me laugh out loud, too, when Owl Meat was signing his name with the little owl face:

Owl (or should I say "the symbol formerly known as Owl"), you can get Lebanon Bologna (both regular and sweet) at Santoni's on Lombard St.

Posted by: Hal Laurent | April 26, 2009 8:36 AM

I always thought of this feature as a way to highlight insightful comments that deserve further discussion; but after the week we've had, I'll  settle for funny.

By the way, nominations for Comment of the Week always welcome. Just e-mail me.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

For someone who is convinced that Twitter is so over, jumped the shark, completely yesterday, I sure am fascinated by it.  

I was really hoping we would get more Twittereviews under Owl's fantastic Funtastic Thursday post (although I'm not surprised the conversation veered off into dead musicians).

Howie really deserves Tweet...er, Comment of the Week for his contribution:

@bmor kophy & t brbee hrgrve in crnr mks me wnt 2 tweet

Posted by: howie | May 1, 2009 4:15 PM ...

However, I want to give the subject more play.

I think the problem was that Owl's was too good, and that made everyone shy. So I'm going to step out on a limb here and give you a Tweet about my review of Sascha's 527 tomorrow. You can aspire to do better:

Saschas:tste pl8s food lish bt lukewrm shrimp grits seafd bisk yum mst hve dessert waitrs studnts? stage set dcor cafe vin list

It wouldn't let me download the Opera Twitter widget to count characters because, duh, I don't have a Twitter account; but that was roughly 127 characters. (The limit is 140.)

But then, I always did like writing short.

Now you try.

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

Suzanne over at In Good Taste has published more about the Ultimate Burger Controversy. I love her explanation of how the selection process went. It sounds like my whole life. (Her other choices besides Mother's, by the way, were the Kocoburger at Koco’s Pub and the Luca Burger at Luca’s Cafe in Locust Point.)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I was delighted to see that frequent D@L commenter Jon Parker wrote an excellent review of the Prime Rib on Chowhound yesterday.

I can't justify going back to review the Prime Rib as often as I'd like to because one of the restaurant's strengths is it doesn't change much from year to year. It may not be trendy; but if you have the bucks, you'll have a good time. It's nice to hear that that's still true.

(Glenn Fawcett/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

What impressed me most about this Bucky's World is that our guest poster would undertake such a dangerous culinary experiment for our benefit. EL

Last week, noted blogging psychologist Dr. O.M. Gravy shared with us his ground-breaking studies of Recovered Childhood Lunch Trauma (RCLT).  Commenting on Dr. Gravy’s work, Old Phil prompted my own personal recovery of a non-traumatic culinary memory from the 1950s:  Chef Boyardee Pizza Kits.

You might recall that my early years were spent primarily in a place so small that there was no café or restaurant of any sort.  Regular Bucky-readers have also certainly deduced by now that I spring from a decidedly meat-and-potatoes background. ...

All of this is to say that Old Phil’s comment brought back warm memories of the one exotic food that I ate when I was a kid, Chef Boyardee pizza, made from a box kit.  This was the only pizza I knew until our family moved away from Wyoming to a town that had a Shakey’s Pizza parlor.

Feeling nostalgic after Old Phil’s comment, last Sunday I baked up a Chef Boyardee pizza for Mrs. Bucky and myself, and we ate it while sitting at some old TV trays that originally belonged to my folks and have been in our basement storage room for decades.  (In our first apartment, the TV trays served as lamp tables in our living room, which is why we had them.)  While we ate our pizza, we watched Andy Griffith in black and white on the TV Land network.

The pizza, of course, was nowhere near as good I remembered it.  Neither was the old Andy Griffith show.  This is a lesson I have to re-learn from time to time.  The gossamer memories of youth are best left undisturbed, their beauty admired only through the distance of time.   

By the way, research reveals that Chef Boyardee was, in fact, Ettore Boiardi, an Italian-born chef who immigrated to the United States in 1915.  He Americanized his first name to Hector and eventually ended up in Cleveland, where he operated his own restaurant, Il Giardino d‘Italia. 

His canned food empire started when restaurant customers kept asking to buy his marinara sauce, which he originally sold them packaged in spare milk bottles. 

That is, indeed, his picture on his food products.  Chef Boiardi died in 1985.  

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

Time to think about next Tuesday's Top 10, boys and girls. The one that came to mind was restaurants that have the best soft shell crabs.

I was going to say, "'Tis the season, after all"; but then I remembered that Professor McIntyre wouldn't yell at me anymore, and what's the fun in that?

Soft shell crab dishes as a subject will actually involve some research on my part, so if anyone has another idea, please post below.

The photo, by the way, is apropos of nothing. It's just a small tip of the hat to Monica Lopossay, who took some wonderful restaurant photos for us over the years.

(Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (51)