I was thrilled when Robert of Cross Keys said he wanted to write a guest post for us. I was even more thrilled when he asked what the rules are. No one ever asked me that before. I love rules (which is why my guest posters tend to migrate to Midnight Sun).

I told him there were only two rules: Only Owl Meat can be weird, and he has to have more food in his posts than Bucky did.

Well, one out of two ain't bad. You always get one free pass when you're new. Here's RoCK. EL

This week took me back to Aberdeen, my boyhood home, to see the Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan concert.  A one word review: disappointing. I only got to listen to two songs from Willie, and I had to listen to Dylan’s entire set plus his encore.

When it comes to the short Willie set, I have myself, my wife and falling barometric pressure to blame. ...

Also, who would think that Willie Nelson would open for Bob Dylan?  Red-headed strangers are not beaten by beatnik poets. "The City of New Orleans" cannot be topped by "Hurricane."

My wife also needs to share some of the blame.  As soon as we get in the car she tells me that she has not eaten all day, and she is not interested in whatever is being sold at the stadium.  So, the stadium food is no good, but what would be?  Well, she is thinking Arby’s, or to be more precise, the potato cakes from Arby’s and a burger from Burger King. 

After picking up the potato cakes and smuggling them into the Burger King, she hands me a flier that eats up 30 minutes of time I don’t have to spare.  It's for a nostalgia show at some Aberdeen hotel next month featuring Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane and one of the kids from a Family Affair. For the next half hour we have a discussion on who would have to be at this show to make us pay the $15 admission. She goes with the Queen of England, and I vote for Ponch from CHiPs. 

I finally make it to the stadium, and as I approach I hear the foreshadowing lyrics of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" joined with thunderclaps.  I take a seat, listen to "On the Road Again," and the next thing I hear is Willie telling everyone to head for cover.  The stadium’s limited covered section is inaccessibly packed with people, so the only option is underneath the bleachers…the metal bleachers in the middle of a thunderstorm. 

After about 15 minutes of telling myself the rain wasn’t that bad, I opt for the drier, albeit riskier, comfort of cover.  I am not alone under those bleachers.  In addition to the wife, I am joined by a bunch of hippies, which I expected.  What's surprising is all the families with young children.

What are young children doing at this concert?  There is no offspring of Billy Ray Cyrus performing.  There are no free giveaways of purity rings.  There’s no Guitar Hero featuring Willie, Dylan or Mellencamp. 

There were no rock concerts in the Aberdeen of my youth. There wasn’t much of anything, but there was a McDonald's. It was a great McDonald's.  It had a playground the types of which lawyers have long since dismantled. As the concert resumed and Dylan came out to play one insufferable and indiscernible song after another, my mind drifted to that McDonald's.  In many ways, however, that McDonald's has always been…wait for the cheesy ending with the tie in…"Always on My Mind."

(Photo by RoCK)  

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (60)
        

I've spent a lot of time in my life complaining about slow service, but I never thought much about the fact that  that the best servers find a happy balance between leaving you to languish and rushing you.

Once when time wasn't as much of a factor for everyone, you didn't even get your menus in a nice restaurant until you'd had a cocktail or two. Now, I have to admit, I'd rather have the following problem described in C. Grene's e-mail than the opposite: ...

Last week my wife and I vacationed in Lexington Virginia, and we decided to stop into a restaurant for a late lunch, so we went into a medium sized place about 1:30 pm.  About 25% of the tables were occupied, and the hostess led us to table near the center of the restaurant and put 2 menus on the table.
 
As soon as our bottoms touched the chair, a waiter arrived and asked "are you ready to order?"  I politely explained that we were not ready because we had not yet read the menu, so he walked away, but hovered.
 
As soon as we opened the menus, before we had a chance to read one word, he returned with the same question, "are you ready to order?"
 
My wife and I looked at each other and we were thinking the same thing.  Something is wrong somewhere if the restaurant is this anxious to get rid of us, we put down the menus and walked out.
 
It would seem to me that customers would be better treated that that, and I wonder what your opinion is?

(Photo of a Prime Rib waiter who would never rush you by Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

What they say about hotel bargains right now is true.

How cheap is our special rate at a boutique San Francisco hotel just off Union Square?

Let me just say that when I was told it would cost $45 a night to park my car in the hotel's garage, I realized I would be paying almost half as much to park my car as for the room.

(No, I didn't park there. I found a garage around the block when I recovered enough from the shock to be able to drive again.) ...

We wandered around downtown yesterday afternoon and ended up having tea in the gorgeous Samovar Tea Lounge  (motto: Practice peace. Drink tea.) above the Yerba Buena Gardens.

The pictures on its Web site don't do it justice, and I forgot my camera. It was a gorgeous day, blue sky, puffy clouds but cold. I knew that was going to be true, but I just couldn't make myself pack the right clothes when it was 90 degrees in Baltimore.

But that wasn't the dynamite meal.

We had our choice of fine seafood, Thai, Italian, and Korean restaurants within walking distance (in sandals with heels), but ended up at a wonderful French-Vietnamese restaurant called Le Colonial. It's in a small, charming standalone building next to a big tree in a back alley, quite surprising when you suddenly come upon it.

The special that evening was a two-pound lobster with bok choy. I couldn't manage that, but I loved my sweet corn soup with avocado cream and shrimp and mussels with Chinese eggplant and mango in a coconut curry sauce.

"Loved" may not be strong enough.

On the agenda today: A drive down the coast to Carmel, where the wedding will be held tomorrow in the Santa Lucia Preserve.

(Photos of Le Colonial by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

A few days ago Gailor was telling me about an article in her school's alumni magazine. The writer had asked alumni to describe their college experiences in six words. (Shades of our four-word restaurant reviews.) My two favorite were "Lost my accent, found my voice" and "Twice a year we drank sangria."

I love that.

That same day I came upon  this comment (although I don't know why he was shouting):

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO YAGO SANGRIA?

Actually I didn't think anything had happened to Yago Sangria. I saw an enormous, colorful bottle of it in the Eddie's of Roland Park wine shop the other day. ...

But all this led me to suggest a story on sangria to our food editor. Not a recipe story, but a review of the best places in town to get sangria (suggestions, anyone?) and maybe a taste test of bottled sangrias. I will, of course, throw in a recipe if pressed, but I think for a change of pace -- we've done sangria recipe stories before -- I may talk about how to jazz up bottled sangria instead.

Sure for a party you'll want to make your own, but if it's just something to sip while you're fixing dinner, or to take on a picnic, or to sit on the back porch with, it's nice to be able just to pour some out of a bottle.

(A photo of Mom's sangria from the book "101 Sangrias & Pitcher Drinks," by Kim Haasarud, photography by Alexandra Grablewski.) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
Categories: Wine and Spirits
        

Other Reviewer Richard reviews B10 South today. This is the place that was Brasserie 10 South, a French restaurant. I gave it 3 1/2 stars when I reviewed it, which promptly closed it.

Richard seemed to like its next incarnation, a Southern comfort food version, almost as much as I liked the place when it opened. ...

He, too, found the restaurant empty, and that's sad. There aren't that many places downtown where you can get food as good as this. No matter what sort of cuisine the owners seem to try, it doesn't seem to draw folks in.

We've discussed the reasons why at length under various posts. They all boil down to location, location, location. Maybe two good reviews in a row will help.

(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

In today's guest post, Professor OMG tackles a profound question, one that I addressed obliquely in an earlier post but had no answer for. Trust Owlie to come through for us. Here's Owl Meat Thursday. EL

Something is awry with our humble meat loaf of the sea. On a 1977 Haussner's menu a crab cake sandwich was $2.75, the same price as a sardine sandwich or a "hamburger sandwich." Crab cakes have morphed from a homely local staple to an over-hyped, perplexing, lower-quality luxury good. ...

Crab cakes as big as soft balls? Absurd. Using expensive, less flavorful jumbo lump? Curious. Sneaking vapid pasteurized Asian crab into "Maryland" crab cakes? Preposterous. For years I have wondered why people desire this increasingly inferior and bombastic product. To understand demand for a less tasty, more expensive product, we must consider psychology in addition to economics.
 
The crab cake is becoming food bling – an object of conspicuous consumption. It is for some an exhibition of vulgar materialism, a lumpen-luxury good, an ironic status symbol. It is a gesture of silly wealth as American as a $12 Grey Goose dirty martini, $300 Nikes, or designer baby clothes. Flavor is now Flavor Flav.
 
Note: A longer version that includes historical data, quotes, photos, and an explanation of why Tony Danza is like a crab cake is posted here.  

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (118)
        

By the time you read this, Gailor and I will be on a plane heading to California for Amanda's wedding.

As regular readers of Dining@Large know,  Amanda is Gailor's crab-killing best friend and doubles partner from college. She's also an actor, and has done a couple of videos for us that still get hits every day -- not only the one about West Coast crab I just linked to, but also one for Sugar Week where she bakes a black bottom pie, and one where she dresses up as a retro housewife and makes crab enchiladas. ...

Anyway, Amanda is a serious foodie, and I can't wait to see what she's cooked up, probably not literally, for her wedding. I'm hoping she'll give me permission to report on at least some of it here. As usual, for those of you who aren't interested in my travels, there will still be plenty of posts on Baltimore area restaurants.

Just to quiet the rampant speculation sure to result from my taking off even more days (I'm judging by the comments last time I was on vacation), let me explain my situation. Every year I get four weeks of vacation plus my birthday and hiring anniversary off. (It's good to be in a union.) Until Tribune bought the Sun, I could carry over any vacation I didn't use, and I had quite a bit saved up.

But Tribune's policies are different, and now I have to use it all up by 2011. So expect me to be taking off even more days between now and then.

As usual, I'm taking my laptop and my trusty Digital Elph with me on my trip.

As for my Baltimore area posts, they may be shorter than usual and a little more reliant on brilliant comments from you the readers; but don't think you can check back next Tuesday when I return and not have missed anything.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (36)
        

You realize I have to go through the whole Tex-Mex horror all over again, don't you? You don't, you lucky blog readers. But the list of Tex-Mex places appeared in the print edition today; and because they can't comment directly, print readers will send me e-mails or call.

Sigh.

the lead item in my Table Talk column is the new Pizzazz Tuscan Grille in the Pier V Hotel. Several restaurants have come and gone here, probably because people think of it simply as the hotel's coffee shop. But it sounds as if Pizzazz, which is independently owned, is doing something so different people are starting to take notice. ...

I also mention that Alizee in the Inn at the Colonnade will have a new chef in a couple of weeks. I've heard that the owner left soon after Chef Joshau Hill did, and the hotel is now running the restaurant.

By the way, every week I have to come up with a Deal of the Week for the column. If a place advertises or I otherwise come upon a restaurant's special, that's great; but I worry I'm missing some good ones. And I'm bored with the whole cheap-wings-on-Tuesday-night thing at some area bar. So if you have any suggestions, please post below.

(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Oh, John. I'm so with you on this one. People have tried to take away my gourmand credentials because I prefer milk chocolate to dark chocolate. Also, I have to admit I Googled "olate," thinking it was some esoteric ingredient. Then I came to my senses. Here's one of guest poster John Lindner's finest Shallow Thought Wednesdays. EL

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (72)
        

These days I'm grateful to have a downtown restaurant opening to write about instead of a closing. The restaurant in question is the B & O American Brasserie, which opens tomorrow, July 30, for breakfast and dinner. Lunch to follow on Aug. 17.

The brasserie is next to Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco Baltimore and in the former Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Headquarters at 2 N. Charles St. 

The man running the kitchen will be E. Michael Reidt, who was named one of the country’s “Best New Chefs” by Food & Wine magazine in 2001. The menu, not surprisingly, will feature American regional cooking. ...

The dining room has seating for 146, including 76 on the mezzanine level. It features a bar in front, an open kitchen with counter seating and an exposed brick oven.

The dinner menu includes Rockfish with Smoked Shrimp-Pea Risotto and Arugula Pesto ($24), Murray’s Farms Chicken with Pesto Mash, Smoked Bacon and Summer Squash ($19), Not Your Dad’s Mixed Grill with Smoked Sausage, Jumbo Shrimp and Beef ($26) and Vande Rose Farms Steak Frites with Duck Fat Fries, Pickled Red Onion and Watercress ($18-34).

The brasserie will be open daily serving breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and dinner from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.  

(Photo of Reidt courtesy of B & O American Brasserie)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

McCormick & Schmick's downtown has a promotion running from now through September called "Reel to Reel."

Hard as it is, I know, for you not to make popcorn your dinner at the movies, you can get an unrestricted ticket for a Landmark Harbor East Cinema movie for five bucks more when you buy an entree at the restaurant. You can use the ticket opening night or whenever. ...

Even though I know how unlikely the odds are, I wish I could enter the Reel to Reel Sweepstakes. Someone will win a trip for two (airfare, hotel, VIP passes) to next year's Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah. Gailor used to go every year when she was in California and made it sound like a lot of fun.

You can register at the restaurant or on the Web site.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

I haven't given Baltimore's Summer Restaurant Week any love yet only because so many other things have come up.

We still have a little time, but it probably wouldn't hurt to get your reservations made for the restaurants you're interested in.The best ones have filled up in the past.

I'm interested to see how the recession changes things for Restaurant Week, if it does. On the one hand, more good restaurants are offering deals and fixed-price menus these days anyway, so Restaurant Week might not seem so special. On the other, the actual meals may be better than usual because restaurants are more anxious than ever to get people in. ...

I'm hoping we'll get some reports from the field on which alternative is true. (Or maybe both are.)

Restaurant Week runs from Aug. 7 to Aug. 16. For those who haven't taken part before, many city restaurants offer a three-course meal at dinner for $30.09 and a three-course lunch for $20.09. Check the Web site for a list of participating restaurants.

Sometimes these Restaurant Week menus are wonderful deals as restaurants try to showcase their chefs' skills -- sometimes not, as places try to make a fast buck at a dead time for restaurants.

In the past, commenters have posted where they got the best meals, and that's been helpful. I hope they'll do that this time round as well.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (51)
        

Midnight Sun Sam has just posted on his visit to Hampden's new wine bar, 13.5%.

His description of it as '60s chic reminds me of how much I thought the designers struck the right note when I passed it by. It has a lot of style, but it's a style that fits in its surroundings.

I haven't been in yet, but Sam's review makes me want to stop by for a glass of wine. The food will have to wait.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Wine and Spirits
        

When I asked for suggestions for Top 10 Blog Topics That Will Not Die, I got ones only from Bucky and Shallow Thought Wednesday John. I already had nine, but their suggestions were so good I had to dump some of mine and substitute theirs.

For your reading pleasure, I'm going to number the list in order of importance to the blog and constant recurrence.

I should say right here I have no problem with these topics. I personally could happily discuss the shortcomings of the blogware and whose fault poor service is in every entry. If you continue to have fun rehashing these topics, I say go for it. ...

But maybe we've missed some (although I did give you six leftover bonus ones). If so, feel free to tell us what they are. And if you feel like putting the list in a different order, I'd be interested in that, too.

Here's my list:

1) Children misbehaving in restaurants

2) Whose fault poor service is -- the restaurant's or the customer's

3) Which restaurant has the best crab cakes. Why they are terrible because they are made with alien crab meat

4) Everything tastes better in New York (bagels, reubens, pizza, etc.)

5) The shortcomings of the blogware

6) How much you should tip

7) Rachael Ray:  foodie or fraudie?

9) Foie gras: heaven or hell?

10) The evil server who substitutes coffee for decaf

Bonus Topics That Will Not Die:

* Birches: the greatest restaurant in Baltimore? Or not?

* Starbucks hatin'

* Golden West Cafe in Hampden

* Old Bay:  great condiment or worn-out tradition?

* Ketchup on hot dogs.  Ketchup on anything.  Ketchup

* T.S. Eliot and other dead poets  (Note: feel free to say that I [that is, Bucky] nominated this one and Eve seconded)

(David Hobby/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (53)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Thanks a lot, Brett Johnson. Faithful readers will remember that Johnson is the research coordinator for AMC's "Mad Men." He promised to call me to let me know if Haussner's made it into Season 3 of the show after he asked for my help with the waitresses' uniforms.

How did I find out that it did? By reading the news on Z on TV. 

(Photo courtesy of AMC Web site)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Several commenters have mentioned this under another entry, but if you missed their posts, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations will feature three Baltimore restaurants in its Rust Belt episode tonight.

Baltimore doesn't get the whole hour, unfortunately. The episode covers Detroit and Buffalo as well. It airs on the Travel Channel at 10 p.m.

Here's David Z's take on the show. ...

If you're wondering what restaurants Bourdain visited in this Rust Belt city, let me just say they weren't Charleston, the Prime Rib and the Brass Elephant.

On the other hand, they aren't the three restaurants you'd expect, either. Or at least that I would expect from an outsider. Oh well, at least this portrayal of Baltimore will have the happy result of fewer tourists coming to visit and crowding downtown.

The Roost
Tony and Zamir enjoy one of Baltimore’s specialties, lake trout. But there’s a catch -- it’s not trout, and it’s not from a lake.
Address: 5275 Reisterstown Rd, Baltimore, MD 21215

Mo’s Seafood
Tony eats here with Felicia “Snoop” Pearson, from The Wire. This is one of her favorite restaurants.
Address: 502 Albemarle St, Baltimore, MD 21202

Chaps Pit Beef
Tony eats pit beef with The Wire’s Jay Landsman.
Address: 5801 Pulaski Hwy, Baltimore, MD 21205

(Photo by Marvi Lacar)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (100)
        

I got a couple of e-mails from people who were upset about my review of Pairings Bistro in Bel Air that appeared in yesterday's paper. I feel for them. It's a nice restaurant, and most of my review was very positive. But not all.

If it weren't for the stars, I don't think anyone would be complaining. On the other hand, I can only imagine the fuss if I gave the food 3 stars after saying that the crab tasted fishy; really that was the only thing that dropped it to 2 1/2 stars.

And even if I went back, as one reader suggested, it would be hard to ignore my first meal. I wonder what she would have done in my place.

Then another reader felt that my ratings, particularly for atmosphere, should be more consistent:

An objective (non-narrative) system of ratings must be self-consistent.  Three stars must mean approximately the same thing in every case. I believe that Pairings was short-changed in this way.  I'm an engineer and a professor and find consistency in ratings to be paramount. ...

I hope he's not holding his breath. He may wish that the stars were objective, but they are no more or less so than the review itself. They are simply shorthand for my own likes and dislikes, which I express at length in the review. I do think I'm pretty consistent in that regard from restaurant to restaurant, but if his experiences were different from mine at restaurants I've reviewed, he's not going to see it that way.

Both these e-mails had points to make and argued them intelligently. Then I got this one from Dowgoup. I have no idea who he or she really is. Of course, it could always be Owl Meat trying to make me crazy:

I'm shocked Lizzy. When I asked you a year or 2 ago if my daughter and I could join you when you review a restaurant, you said you don't take people with you that you don't know. Now I see you have your TOP 10 THINGS TO EXPECT WHEN DINING OUT WITH A RESTAURANT CRITIC (Taste 7/15/09). What gives?

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

I decided I was only going to make a third separate entry for restaurant bathrooms if I could find some art this morning. And I did. Of course, the restaurant, Ray's Full Moon Bar-B-Que is now closed, but I do have restroom art for you.

For those who don't read the comments, there's been a lively discussion of the subject under Great Lunch Buffets. (Don't ask.) I'll reprint those comments here, and also mention a trend we've discussed before, the weird unisex bathrooms. Actually, only the sinks, outside the toilet stalls, are unisex. I've seen them at places like Meli, Lebanese Taverna and Abbey Burger Bistro. ...

I've never seen the restroom discussion here. I would contribute my thoughts.

Posted by: NotableM | July 26, 2009 4:11 PM

Notable,
There was one where a restroom's sinks had rocks in them and Bucky tried re-creating the effect at home, but it didn't go over too well with his wife.

It was one of Bucky's first posts here, and quite good.

Posted by: PCB Rob | July 26, 2009 4:54 PM

NotableM, by all means contribute your thoughts. I believe the last conversation began by discussing that some us (me and some others) are impressed by particuarly nice bathrooms in restaurants and rank the restaurant higher based on that as well. On the flip, if a nice-ish restaurant has a pig sty for a bathroom, that brings them down in points.

In my world, great soups and iced tea can make or break a place though. Perhaps, my longtime love for Linwoods? Great soups, great iced tea, great ladies lav. What more is there to life?

Posted by: Joyce W. | July 26, 2009 5:27 PM

o.k. - my favorite restaurant bathrooms are Bluestone in timonium, J&P's in Hampstead, liberatore's on deereco road and Macaroni Grill on Padonia Road. Outback also has nice, clean bathrooms The restroom in the Rotunda next to Casa Mia's is about twenty degrees warmer than the rest of the building. Seriously, the heat is on in the ladies room year round. It's stifling.

Posted by: Anonymous | July 26, 2009 7:09 PM

Update: I wanted to link to Bucky's post about rocks in the bathroom sink, but I couldn't find it. It turns out that it was a comment under one of John's Shallow Thought Wednesday posts. Here it is. EL

Posted by: Bucky | July 30, 2008 4:29 PM

(Elizabeth Malby/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Well, this is awkward. Yes, I will have a review next Sunday -- barring even more complications -- but I can't tell you what the restaurant will be.

That's because, for reasons I can't disclose right now, I had to postpone my visit until later this week. Obviously I can't announce what the place will be before I actually go there.

Usually I work fairly far ahead exactly for times like this where I'll need a little wiggle room to get the review done. But this is the first time I've needed it since I started doing review previews the Sunday before.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Review Preview
        

With all the new farmers markets springing up in different neighborhoods, you would think it would make the Sunday market under the viaduct less crowded. Not so. At 7 this morning I couldn't get my usual parking place on the street off the Pleasant Street exit.

Finally there were bi-color corn and a lot of tomatoes. i was getting a little nervous that summer would slip away without either.

Federal Hill Jim has been sending me market reports from some of the newer markets that I never get to, which I'm delighted about. I hate to give only Waverly and the Under the Viaduct market publicity just because those are the ones that are most convenient for me.

Here's what Jim had to say about yesterday's at Harbor East: ...

The Inner Harbor East market today was a bit of a disappointment. Fewer stalls (about eight) than the BMI market (12) last week. Also thinner crowd, though later in the morning than at BMI. Big attraction for us is Springfield Farms with a pretty good assortment and Atwater's, with soup this year!

Other stalls were Gunpowder Bison, a produce and a fruit-only stall and a couple of others I can't remember now.

Last week's stuff from BMI was OK but nothing to rave about. Peaches were uneven quality in the same batch, tomatoes better than winter but not peak summer, corn was good but not great.
Neither holds a candle to Waverly or downtown, except for better parking at BMI.

Then last Saturday he sent me this one:

The new farmers market at the Museum of Industry is getting off to a slow but promising start. About a dozen stalls (as opposed to nine last week), not counting crafts. All food to go except for a lemonade stand that also sells peppermint sticks. Crowd thin but growing 9.30 to 10. It has moved from the parking lot annex to the large shed used by the Downtown Sailing Club for its childrens program (great program, by the way). Some tables in the permanent parking lot as well. Lots of room to roam (or hopefully expand). It's dog friendly, like many places in this neck of the woods and unlike Waverly and downtown. About half the stalls are produce (good peaches and plums last week, will report on corn and other items later). There's a small meat vendor, a couple of free roaming eggs and a goat cheese guy, with a spreadable item without salt and an as yet untried goat cheddar -- a first for me. Parking was getting tight when we left.

Stacy posted a comment about a new market on Baltimore Street that you may have missed because it was under Deep Thought on Advertising:

Not sure where else to put this, but there's a farmer's market today on Baltimore St. It's in front of the PNC building. They're going to be around every Friday from 11-2 during the summer. 

And there are other suggestions of area farmers markets under last week's Sticker Shock post.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
        

It would have been easy to pick a funny comment for this week's Comment of the Week. Or rather, it wouldn't have because there were so many that had me laughing. However, the original purpose of CofW was to highlight a comment that was insightful, didn't get as much discussion as it deserved (not that anyone seems to comment on the Comment on the Week) or otherwise was worth posting as an entry. I have two this week.

First, Elite Elephant Lover's interesting description of his trip to Reid's winery, which he undertook when I asked for volunteers, and I'm grateful:

Made the trip to Reid Orchard on Saturday to try the wines. It was my intent to tell everyone to avoid east coast wines and only drink French and Italian wines. A funny thing happened. I actually liked three of the offerings and the others were well made but just not a style I like. ...

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I didn't remember ever discussing restaurant buffets on Dining@Large. But when I did a search, I came up with this post from last summer. I think we can do better.

Jules W. wrote suggesting buffets as a topic, and I think it's a good one. For one thing, I wonder if there are more or fewer of them during a recession.

If we could come up with 10 of the best lunch buffets, it could even be a Top 10.

Anyway, here's Jules W.'s e-mail: ...

I was just wondering-- has there ever been a discussion centered around buffets?  The chains (Old Country Buffet comes to mind) seem to be for older and less adventurous people, but I've noticed in the past couple years that there are a lot of Chinese or Indian places that advertise lunch and dinner buffets? Or is it too, uh, proletarian for the Sandbox?

I like the new-ish (about six months old?) Hibachi Grill for lunch or dinner, because there's cheap, good sushi, and recently, Korean short ribs and pepper shrimp; and one also can fill one's stomach comfortably for under ten bucks at lunch.

I told him nothing was too proletarian for Dining@Large, and pointed him to the Tex-Mex discussion.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (66)
        

I'm sorry I said Abattoir was the worst name for a restaurant ever.

How wrong I was.

I want all of you to go to Grand Cru in Belvedere Square over the weekend, have a glass of wine, and personally thank owner Nelson Carey for sending us this photo.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (50)
        

A couple of nights ago Gailor and I found ourselves at the P. F. Chang's in the Columbia Mall. (Long, boring story as to why.)

Something happened that's never happened to me before. Or rather, it may have happened, but I didn't notice it.

I ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc from the wine list, pointing to the one I wanted to make sure our server got the right one.

Now I don't have the greatest palate for wine in the world, and I've never pretended I did. But even I can tell the difference between a sauvignon blanc and a gewurztraminer.

Well, they are both white. ...

It had to be an honest mistake -- no one would try to pass one off as the other.

I tactfully complained. (It's a little tricky. I ended up saying, "I think the bartender may have given me the wrong wine," not "Didn't you listen to what I ordered?")

The waiter took care of it, and he actually charged me for the cheaper gewurstraminer but brought me the more expensive sauvignon blanc, so it all worked out.

But that got me wondering how often mistakes are made, either deliberately or not, when you order wine by the glass. A substitution could even be a desperation move when a bartender is slammed and has run out of what you ordered, not a matter of someone deliberately trying to cheat the customer. Of course, the server should ask if the substitution would be OK, but I bet sometimes he or she doesn't bother.

Usually it would be more subtle than what I experienced: Substituting a less expensive chardonnay for a more expensive one, for instance.

My guess is that anyone who would be sure enough of his palate to complain would have ordered a bottle in the first place.

Note: The photo was the nicest I could find of a glass of white wine, but the restaurant where it was taken has never poured me anything but excellent, and correct as far as I could tell, wines.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
Categories: Wine and Spirits
        

Thanks to nalagirl for sharing this sad news with us:

...[R]ecently the owner of Nacho Mamas had to remove the Elvis statue from outside their front door. Apparently it has been there 16 years and someone just recently complained about it.

My first question was "wow, who did they tick off?". The restaurant is displaying a sign against the red line, I wonder if it is related. My next question is what kind of law is this? What makes a statue any different than a flower pot? Also, how come the Blues Brothers across the street at the old firehouse get to stay out?

(Elizabeth Malby/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Yes! Bacon Floss is back in stock at Urban Outfitters! (And here I never knew it was out of stock.) One question, though. If it's so popular, how come the price has been reduced  from $6 to $4.99?

OK, Bacon Floss is pretty disgusting; but for some reason, Waxed Cupcake Floss bothers me more. I can understand why it's been reduced to $2.99.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Look, you, too, can have your very own Irish pub. Check out this ad on Craigslist.

All kidding aside, it's a beautiful building, and I'm sorry Lucy's and before it Maggie Moore's couldn't make it there, for whatever the reasons.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I'm sure Other Reviewer Richard's review of Harbor Que will create a storm of controversy. I knew that before I even read it. Why? Because it's about barbecue, of course.

My heart sank when I saw what restaurant he wrote about this week. After Tex-Mex Tuesday I was kind of hoping for a tearoom or something.

As usual he's thoughtful, fair and stern but kind. And now, Richard, it's time to hide out for a week.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Let me just say that my memories of school lunches involve having to eat liver and spinach on Fridays or no ice cream. Owl Meat's are a little...different. Here's guest poster Owlie. EL

Sometimes a new relationship involves fights – fevered fractious fracases full of frenzy, fried flesh, frosh and flying food. Our first independent restaurant experiences began in school cafeterias. We chose our companions and meals and practiced social skills. Over time the food got better and we stopped throwing it.
 
Unpacking my totally uncool red-and-black-plaid lunch box in the grade school cafegymatorium in Reading, Pa. Lebanon bologna sandwich. Carrot sticks. Oreos? Oreos? Come on Oreos. Aww .. dried apricots, but I never objected like Little Gordon Ramsay (NSFW).

Junior high in Tucson, Ariz. – total freedom to eat doughnuts or get high in the desert. Everybody was divided into jocks or freaks. No respect for sardonic malcontents ... yet. ...

Back in Reading, I attended a large urban high school. A thousand kids ate in each of the two lunch periods. For me, lunch was raconteur training. Lunch table politics was Hobbesian; switching tables was socially hazardous. You needed a loyal crew.

One day Stacy Gottschall pointed a fish stick at me and said, "People either love you or hate you, Bob." 

Yes! This was now my lunch table. I was the roller of big cigars.
 
The cafeteria was a tinderbox of itchy teenage angst, with teachers slurking about the restive herds. Inexplicably we had a juke box and every day for weeks someone played the P-Funk classic Flash Light.
 
♫ Ha da da dee da ha da ha da da da ...
 
I'm sure that if poet Wallace Stevens was valedictorian of Reading Boys High School, there was no Parliament-ary funk debate on whether to get up or get down. He had empires of ice cream to consider.

I sneered at the trippy funk jam. I banged my elbow on the table to the beat in mock enthusiasm. Then I started feeling it, really feeling it. It became a ritual for my table. Soon half the caf was elbow banging, dinging glasses with forks, and chanting along.
 
Flash light
Red light
Neon light
Ooh, stop light
 
Sardonic loner meet sardonic stealth-funk lunch table insurgent – Che Groovarra. My antic metastasized into a farrago of ironic, derisive, and genuine enthusiasm of white, black, and Puerto Rican kids. Why? Teacher torture. They trundled around muting our tempo-taunting tables, only to have the tintinnabular tapping pop up at others in a Whack-A-Mole slurry of chaos. Our pubescent tribes were briefly one nation under a groove.
 
On Hoagie Friday a fight broke out during Flash Light. The teachers swarmed the brawlers. Instead of getting up, we got down and banged to the beat and bleated Flash Light ... creating a funktastic West Side Story rhythmic throw-down.
 
The legacy of that year's valedictorian: I whipped in cafeteria cups a cacophony of concupiscent nerds. During my graduation speech, I burbled out some approved banalities, but in my head I was going ...
 
♫ Ha da da dee da ha da ha da da da ..
 
Sometimes the finale of seem is not be but beat.
 
P.S. I'm doing a weekly guest post on Midnight Sun called Tipsy Tuesdays.  The new posts and 15 previous guest posts are collected here.

(Photo credits: Getty Images and bootsy.collins.com)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (64)
        

Last year when I wrote about the Zagat Washington, DC/Baltimore Restaurants 2009 restaurant guide, I said how impressed I was that local editor Marty Katz had gotten so many of the newest restaurants in.

This year even he couldn't keep up with the closings.

That means, for instance, that the now-gone Ixia and the Bicycle (No. 15 on the Most Popular list), are still included. On a happier note, the just-opened Hell Point Seafood in Annapolis, the Hill in Federal Hill and Talara, all very new, are in the 2010 book. ...

For whatever reason, this year's Top 40 Most Popular list is almost identical with last year's. (That wasn't true the year before.) You have to get down to No. 34, Lemongrass, before it changes, and that's only because last year's No. 34, Brasserie Tatin, closed. The top five are once again 1) Charleston, 2) Prime Rib, 3) Helmand, 4) Petit Louis Bistro, 5) Ruth's Chris.

The top food ratings went to Charleston and Sushi King, as they did last year. The top decor rating went to Scossa's, a northern Italian restaurant in Easton, as it did last year. And once again Charleston took top service honors.

Zagat is keeping up with the times. You can get the survey online at Zagat.com; through two mobile applications, Zagat to Go (for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, and Windows Mobile) and nru (pronounced “near you” ), available for Android. Or, of course, you can buy the print edition for $14.95.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Some days it's better not to open my e-mail. This is the kind I hate to get, although Jim couched it in the nicest terms possible:

Reading this morning's paper, I was delighted to see my post to your blog included in the "Readers talk back" box, until I saw the word "macaroons."  My original post said "macarons."  As perhaps you know, a macaron is a delicious French sandwich cookie made with a kind of meringue.  A macaroon is a disgusting coconut thing that no self-respecting French person would touch. Is this what happens when all the proof-readers get fired? All snarking aside, though, please keep up the excellent work. ...

This was in the print edition of last week's Top 10, which appeared in today's Taste section. My policy is not to edit comments at all, which makes my life easier, but I guess it was hard for someone to let what seemed to be a error go by that would embarrass the poster.

Interestingly, this was the first time I've substituted one of my original choices for the print edition. I had completely forgotten about Cafe Normandie in Annapolis until Naptown Represent reminded me. It certainly deserves a spot.

Also in my Table Talk column in today's Taste section I talk about 13.5%, the new wine bar in Hampden, and Howard County's Restaurant Weeks.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I have only one shallow thought to add to guest poster John Lindner's Shallow Thought Wednesday today. How does he know what cat tastes like? Here's John. EL

I have Lissa and Bucky to thank for today’s shallow thought. Lissa suggested Bucky bowed out of his regular Friday guest post to avoid jumping the shark. It was with mild (only) disgust that I realized I lack that scruple. I have no idea what I wouldn’t do to a shark to keep my STW. For example:

One of my most memorable steak meals was a shark.
 
Had it at a wedding rehearsal dinner. Ordered it to be cool, to be able to say “I ate a shark."
 
I find it thrilling to eat things that, were they given the opportunity, would gladly eat me (and they have the advantage of never once having to face a phalanx of angry vegan beavers demanding humane treatment of one’s dinner). Except for worms. I’m talking about creatures that have the wherewithal to kill me first, not just the ones who’d snack on my already demised remains.
 
I guess with the shark I expected something fishy. What I got was meaty, steaky, tender, juicy ... not at all what I expected from the “pale ravener of horrible meat."
 
The only other human-eating carnivores I’ve noshed is bear, in the form of one of the best salamis I’ve ever tasted, and gator. Mmmm...gator.

Are the array of man-eating entrees so limited?
 
I can’t imagine lion, leopard, and tiger (and their ilk) would work. I would guess they taste too much like cat.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

I knew going in that a Top 10 on Tex-Mex would be ugly, and it was. 

I, too, am tired of readers who drop in only to make nasty comments, who have their own set of rules about what I should be doing ("Your top ten or any list should be places you have visited," "including a corporate chain and a restaurant in bethesda doesnt really make this a top ten list of tex-mex in baltimore" [since when is Top 10 only about Baltimore?]), or the thing that annoys me most, who don't bother to read the introduction because they are in such a hurry to put in their own two cents.

Breathe. Breathe. I'm taking several deep, calming breaths now. ...

I wouldn't feel bad if I never did another Top 10, but now that it's a print feature on Wednesdays it's taken on a life of its own. And I do like the extra page views I get on Tuesdays. Not because I get paid per hit (I don't) but because it brings in new voices.

And much as some of them annoy me, some are an asset -- even if it's something as simple as Patty saying we ought to define Tex-Mex. Or the people who managed to curb their annoyance at my list enough to be polite and give us some ideas of their own. And, who knows? Those people might stick around.

(I was particularly grateful for the Taco Fiesta suggestion from Kristen Mitchell and others. I've seen it, but thought it was part of a chain. As a matter of fact, I think chain Tex-Mex is probably better than half the places on my list, but I decided to leave them off for no particular reason.)

Anyway, Top 10 isn't going away any time soon. I do now have a Top 10 on cream of crab soup almost completely done by readers (thank you very much) that I'm going to save for when I'm next on vacation.

Now I need another one for next Tuesday.

Someone suggested Top 10 Happy Hours for 35-and-Olders, which I kind of like. And there's always pit beef, although that's a little close to Tex-Mex for me to be willing to tackle it so soon.

I could always do Top 10 Blog Topics That Will Never Die. I've actually started this, but I've only come up with seven so far, so if you have any ideas, please post below.

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

As far as I know, I have only one food allergy, and no one believes me when I mention it.

That's how rare it must be. I can't even find anything about it on the Internet.

When I eat honeydew melon, I get an instant, bad sore throat. That's my only symptom. It goes away fairly quickly when I'm finished.

I developed it as an adult, and not only does it seem to be my only food allergy, it's my only allergy.

You know what's sad? Even a bad sore throat doesn't keep me from eating honeydew whenever someone offers it to me. It was my favorite melon as a child, but that was before Crenshaws were widely available.

I think there's something wrong with my priorities.

(Con Keyes/Los Angeles Times photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (96)
        

I can't answer that for you, but I bet the Roost can. Thanks to LAbun1066 for sending me a photo of the best lake trout sign ever.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Six years ago I wrote a story for the food section about the new self-scan lanes. My lead was "Passions are running high at your local supermarket." Now it's hard to remember what the fuss was about. Either you like them or you don't, but no big deal.

I just heard about the next generation of self-scanners from Good Eater Peter -- hand-held, scan as you go. They've been installed in his Giant in Timonium.

Good idea or bad idea? I can't quite decide. I embrace technology, but not when there are more potential glitches than advantages to moi. ...

Probably the store is going to have to rearrange its shelves from heaviest to most fragile and lightest so I can bag efficiently before I stop thinking it's probably more trouble than it's worth. But I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Here's Peter's e-mail to me:

We should discuss one of the latest features to invade Giant Food stores - the Scan It! device. It's a handheld scanner that readers the bar codes on groceries.

Here's how it works: You walk into your local grocery (mine is the new Giant in Timonium) with your reuseable bags and you go to the Scan It! display, scan your store ID card, and pick up the flashing handheld scanner. As you shop, you scan your groceries and bag them. When finished you simply present your scanner at any checkout, the information is downloaded and you pay.

It's a great labor-saving device for the checkout clerk but does it save the shopper much time? My experience is probably not. If you bag as you go, you tend not to bag as efficiently. Plus, it slows you down. What happens if you change your mind about buying an item? There's probably a way around it but I'm not patient enough to find out.

On the plus side, the scanner has an LCD screen that flashes store specials as you enter the aisle. The grocery carts even have a convenient holster to hold the scanners as you shop.

Buying produce involves a two-step process where you have to weigh, count or otherwise define your selection so a sticker with an appropriate bar code can be created.

What do others think?

Peter was also bemoaning the fact that he only got one comment on his Walter Cronkite post. So while you're checking out the link I gave you, make his day.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (50)
        

Sometimes I get Top 10 suggestions that would be helpful to readers but it's not really possible for me to do them. They end up working better just as a topic for discussion.

I was surprised when I got the following e-mail to find we've never talked about cream of crab soup. It's not something I order regularly when I review because I'm not sure it really tests the range of a kitchen's talent, and it's usually not a specialty. (If it is, I try it.) ...

Cream of crab soup is one of those dishes that isn't hard to make if you don't mess too much with the two essential ingredients: crab and cream. I do hate it when crab soup is thickened to the point that a spoon stands up in it; the idea is that even if it contains a million calories, it should taste light.

Funny, I haven't heard of the restaurant my correspondent mentions. ...

I think you should do a top ten list for the best places to get cream of crab soup.  Sometimes that can be a daunting task.  My husband and l like to try cream of crab wherever we find it.  The majority of the time we are disappointed.  Too much flour.  No crab.  Too think.  Many problems.  I can give you my first suggestion for the list of good cream of crap soup.  Woody's in North East, MD has something they call crab bisque.  This soup is not bisque at all.  It's like lumps of crab in a silky white cream sauce.  It's absolutely wonderful.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (64)
        

Jill Rosen over at Unleashed saw dcdiva's comment on Dining@Large about the puppies for sale at the farmers market and has done a post on it. If you're interested in her followup, check it out.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

I'm probably not the best person to be making up this list. I've certainly eaten a lot of Tex-Mex over the years, but I'm not the one who usually reviews Tex-Mex restaurants.

More than ever I've had to rely on others more knowledgeable than I am, which means that those of you who don't read Dining@large regularly should check out my Official Disclaimer. And even with the help of others, I've barely managed to come up with 10 -- good, bad or indifferent. 

Note: If you want a list of restaurants serving Mexican or other Latin American cuisines, look elsewhere.

However, I did promise you this Top 10 list when I did Top 10 Mexican Restaurants, so I'm going to bravely wade right in: ...

* Austin Grill in Canton. An area chain that features 15 homemade salsas and sauces and mesquite-grilled fish.

* Geckos in Canton. Technically they call themselves Southwestern, but if I'm too strict with my definition, I'm not going to come up with 10.

* Holy Frijoles in Hampden. The food here has gotten mixed reviews since it expanded, but it's a neighborhood institution with lots of personality.

* Loco Hombre in Roland Park. If someone at your table doesn't feel like having Tex-Mex, you can always get an Alonso's burger.

* Mex in Power Plant Live. Still more bar than restaurant, the food here (classic burritos, enchiladas and tacos) has improved since it first opened.

* Nacho Mama's in Canton. You have to love Elvis, Natty Boh and quesadillas, not necessarily in that order, to appreciate this well-liked spot.

* Nino Taco in Owings Mills. A popular taco joint, where to go for your fix of fajitas, cheese, beans, tortillas and beef in this area.

* Rio Grande Cafe in Bethesda. This is far afield for a Top 10, but so many people mentioned it as the only authentic Tex-Mex in the area, I thought I ought to include it.

* Si Salsa in Pikesville. It doesn't call itself Tex-Mex, but Si Salsa is definitely American-Mexican, and take a look at the menu. There's as much Tex-Mex as anything on it.

* Zen West in Govans. Family friendly, clean, colorful and cheerful. Sometimes those qualities are just as important as fabulous food.

(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (129)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Print out this coupon and get a free pastry at Starbucks before 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. Or you can show it to the barista on your iPhone, if you have an iPhone. (Geez, why not just give out free pastries?)

I do think that cake doughnut looks good.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Joining two other restaurateurs in the area (I posted about them earlier), Christopher Spann of the Wine Market says he will honor gift certificates from the now-closed Bicycle for up to $50.

I'm beginning to wish I had some unused gift cards from the Bicycle.

(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

This seems to be my day for colleagues stopping by my desk and coming up with posts for me. Just now it was Good Eater Peter.

He was grumbling about being corrected by a couple of the wait staff at Petit Louis for pronouncing the "s" at the end when he ordered a salade nicoise for lunch. (He did say it was a very good salade nicoise.) ...

I've noticed that servers (not at Petit Louis) also drop the final "s" sound when they talk about a restaurant's vichyssoise. I'm not sure why they do; I guess it's simply because final consonants are often not pronounced in French.

I certainly don't care how a waiter says either one as long as I can figure out what he means. On the other hand, I don't like being corrected, especially when I'm right.

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Charm City Mom Kate just stopped by my desk and suggested date night for parents as a possible Top 10 topic, although she admitted it might be "too conceptual" when I asked her how that would differ from a romantic restaurants Top 10.

But I think I get it. When you've been married for awhile you don't really need or want a super-romantic restaurant for your night away from the kids. It needs to be adult, and not too noisy because you don't often get a chance to really talk. ...

Still, you want a place that's somewhat lively so you don't feel like an old fogey. It can't be too expensive because this isn't a birthday or an anniversary.

A restaurant where you can try a lot of different dishes is a plus because you don't get that many chances to eat out alone. If you have a large entree and it isn't great, it's a real disappointment. A good selection of reasonably priced wines by the glass is important so you can try a couple of different ones.

Kate and her husband went to Taverna Corvino in Federal Hill, which fit all her criteria. The food was great, she said (and I trust her judgment; she used to be the Sun's food editor). 

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)
        

I've got my own couple of restaurants like the Hill in my neighborhood. These are places my husband and I go sometimes on a Friday night when the work week for both of us has been cumulative, so we don't have energy even to wash up the dishes we would use if we got carryout.

We know exactly what to order -- and what to avoid. Most of the staff knows us by now, and everyone is friendly. The owners at both of them probably know who I am, but we don't get any more special treatment than other regulars, and that's the way I  like it.

Maybe the food isn't as good as I could fix myself, but it tastes good because I didn't have to fix it. ...

That's the kind of place I imagine the Hill is to lot of folks who live in Federal Hill. Owner/chef Antoine Petteway seems like a genuinely nice guy, and the people who work for him reflect that.

Reading over my review, which appeared in the paper yesterday, I'm not sure I conveyed how reasonably priced the food is. Or maybe I've been eating too many meals in Harbor East lately.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

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

I've been hearing good things about a wine  shop and restaurant called Pairings Bistro that opened not too long ago in Bel Air. The chef/owner, Jon Kohler, has a Belgian wife, so the food is an interesting mix of Mediterranean and Belgian cuisine. The dishes on the menu (mostly small plates but a few more substantial offerings) are paired with a suggested wine, available by the glass or bottle.

So last week we drove up to Bel Air to check it out. Like so many wine bars in the burbs, Pairings doesn't have the atmosphere one in the city would. It's in a newish shopping center, and the outdoor seating overlooks the parking lot. But don't hold that against it; Pairings is definitely worth a try.

To find out more, look for my review in next Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section.

(Photo courtesy of Pairings Web site)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Review Preview
        

I try hard not to complain about prices at farmers markets. It's been a long time since I shopped at them to cut out the middleman and therefore get lower prices.

I expect to pay as much or more as at the supermarket. But my heart stopped when I bought two heirloom tomatoes today, one large and one quite small, and the tab was $4.

I guess it's been a bad growing season for tomatoes, because every stand I saw at the Sunday market today that had heirlooms was charging $4 a pound. ...

I used to grow heirlooms when they weren't available locally, so I know how much trouble they are and how low the yields can be.

I guess next year I better put in a plant or two again if I can find any sun in our small yard. I'm just not going to enjoy eating a tomato that costs $2 in July, no matter how delicious.

I did discover a new (to me) vendor this morning. It's called Tomatoes, Etc. out of Westminster. Really nice folks who had the most beautiful haricots verts and baby summer squash and zucchini. But no tomatoes.

I asked where the tomatoes were, and the farm owner said they were still greenhouse tomatoes -- or rather, cold frame. (That will mean something to you gardeners.)

They are delicious, he said, but it wasn't worth bringing them to the Baltimore market because he can get $5 a pound for them in Silver Spring.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (77)
        

If I get to laughing so hard at a comment I have to e-mail it to Gailor, that automatically qualifies it as the Comment of the Week. This was posted under the entry Enjoying Guinea Pig.

Well, my appetite has been whetted. I was going to swing by the Superfresh for dinner tonight, but change of plans, I'm off to the Petsmart.

Posted by: Robert of Cross Keys | July 15, 2009 2:02 PM

However, numerous readers were right. I have to award a Co-Comment of the Week to RayRay under Baltimore's Pretentious Restaurants:

I think it's pretentious when they make you pay at the first window, and then drive up to the second window to pick up.

Posted by: RayRay | July 17, 2009 12:08 PM

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

I’m still getting e-mails from people wanting to know where to get Tex-Mex around here. I feel a Top 10 is inevitable.

Nothing against Tex-Mex, in spite of my headline. When you're in the mood, fajitas and a margarita hit the spot. But I am going to have trouble coming up with a Top 10 list. 

Here's Erin, for instance:

My husband and I recently moved to Odenton after living in Dallas and Austin, Texas for over 35 years - and we are in search of some good Tex-Mex food.  We've been to all the chains - On The Border, Chevy's and Don Pablo's - but not surprisingly, they all pale in comparison to what we were accustomed to down in Texas.  Also, my husband thinks Don Pablo's adds a lot of MSG to either their salsa or their tomatillo sauce because he has a tendency to get a migraine after he's had MSG and he's gotten one the last two times we ate at D/P (which is a shame because I like their Slenderita margarita that they make with Splenda)

Do you know of any good Mexican places our way?  We've been to Annapolis a few times...also, we've been planning to get out and explore Baltimore - can you recommend any good places there?

Maybe I ought to do a Top 10 Places to Get a Great Margarita instead. Also, hasn't the MSG thing being disproven? I should try to find a link so Erin can have her Slenderita margarita again.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (54)
        

Bucky's guest post this week needs no introduction. Especially as he asked me not to give away the ending in my intro. Here's Bucky. EL

So, we were at the bar on Saturday, were Paco, JMT and I, and it was uncharacteristically quiet.  We were the only customers in the place.  Paco was concentrating on his chili relleno, JMT was rearranging the condiments on his cheeseburger and I was staring at my BLT, thinking that it isn’t really “toast” if it’s still soft on the outside.
 
Stacy was providing a syncopated rhythm to the odd afternoon by absent-mindedly drumming on the bar with a couple of swizzle sticks. ...

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

I love this.

(Photo courtesy of Richard Gorelick)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

This is the third year I've gone to Artscape for lunch on opening day. I was sorry to hear there wouldn't be anything new in the food line this year like the green food court last year, but I was looking forward to my crab cake.

Weather report: 93 degrees and overcast. It might as well have been raining it was so humid.

I bought lunch at Sherri's Crab Cakes stand this year: "World's Greatest Concession Crab Cakes."

Armed with a crab cake ($7) and a lemonade ($3), I headed for someplace to sit. ...

Every seat everywhere was taken, except for an orange bench that said "doubt" on it. It was empty. Doubt is what I do best, so I sat down and ate my crab cake and thought about the vendor telling me the crab cake had 75 to 80 percent lump crab meat in it and no filler, just mayonnaise to hold it together.

Then it started to rain in earnest, so I abandoned my plan to visit the green food court and headed back to the office.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

I've gotten two offers from the owners of restaurants near the now-closed Bicycle in Federal Hill to honor its gift certificates. Jason Zink of Don't Know Tavern says he will "let customers take half off their entire check up to the amount of their Bicycle gift certificate if they want to redeem it."

Then just now I got the following e-mail from Alan Morstein, owner of Regi's American Bistro: ...

It's always unfortunate to see a restaurant close, especially when you are in the restaurant business. In addition, I sympathize with the guests who purchased gift certificates from the Bicycle, that they can not use them at this time. Therefore I am willing to honor each gift card presented from the Bicycle to us at Regi's American Bistro (down the street from the Bicycle) for food and beverage in the amount of up to $50.00.
 
It is essential that guests believe in the restaurants of their respective neighborhoods and are not skeptical over buying gift cards from them.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

What is it with lobster rolls? I mentioned that the new Hell Point Seafood served lobster rolls in this week's Table Talk column, among many other kinds of seafood, and so far I've gotten two phone calls and an e-mail about the lobster rolls.

One woman didn't want to drive all the way to Annapolis, so she asked me to tell her all the restaurants in Baltimore than have lobster rolls on the menu. I don't know of any, and she seemed surprised I couldn't help her. Maybe one of you can.

Then just now I got this e-mail from someone in Silver Spring: ...

Hi Elizabeth,

A friend told me you reviewed a restaurant in Anapolis that has great lobster rolls.

May I please have a link to the article.

Thanks,

Well, that's how rumors get started. Already people think I've reviewed a restaurant that's been open a week. And that I said the lobster rolls are great.

If I were a seafood restaurateur in Baltimore, I would immediately put lobster rolls on my menu. There seems to be an appetite for them here.

(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Richard has suggested a discussion of what we mean when we call a restaurant "pretentious" on this blog.

It's not good enough just to name Baltimore's fanciest places: There's a difference between a restaurant that serves excellent food in a formal manner and one that has pretentions it can't live up to or are unjustified or make the customer feel uncomfortable unnecessarily. ...

In other words, while name calling is fun, let's be more creative.

If a waiter corrects your pronunciation of Chateauneuf du Pape, that's pretentious. If the menu lists every ingredient and technique of a dish, using words many customers have never heard of, that's pretentious -- at least in Baltimore. If the waiter gives you attitude because you ask if the restaurant has ranch dressing, that's pretentious. (OK, we may have to rethink that last one.)

The most blatant example of pretentiousness I've ever run into is one I wrote about once before. It happened in California at a very nice restaurant with very good food. There were five of us at the table having an interesting conversation, and the head waiter interrupted us to name every ingredient on each plate as another server placed it in front of us. That said to me, "We think our food is more important than your conversation."

The food wasn't that good.

Anyway, here's Richard's e-mail -- not Other Reviewer Richard, by the way:

One thing I noticed about the comments on your blog is that folks often use the term pretentious to describe a restaurant.  I would be interested in seeing a discussion of exactly what people think that means.  It is clearly a derogatory term, and I know what the dictionary says, but I'd like to know specifically, whether it is some particular action or some particular thing said, that causes this term to be used.  When used without some context, it always comes across to me to say more about the individual using the word than the restaurant it is meant to describe. 

So, what particular traits make a Baltimore restaurant pretentious?

(Monica Lopposay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (151)
        

It's nice that at least some eating place in the city is considering expanding, not closing. Check out Ed Gunts' story about Attman's Delicatessen on Corned Beef Row that ran in the paper today.

While I'm at it, here's a link to Other Reviewer Richard's review of Kitchen of India in Parkville. The owner and customers had mounted quite a campaign (in a nice way) to get reviewed, which always amazes me. But I guess you roll the dice and figure that whether the reviewer likes you or not, at least it's publicity, as we discussed in an earlier post.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I got the following e-mail just now from Nicholas Batey, the chef/owner of the Bicycle in Federal Hill, which closed unexpectedly. I asked him if he was still planning to open his new Italian restaurant, Ullswater, and he said yes, although no date is set yet. It is "in the finishing stages, we're just waiting for a couple of permits and inspections." You can redeem gift certificates for Bicycle there, he told me. And you can reach him directly at thebicycle1444@gmail.com. EL

My name is Nicholas Batey, the Chef/Owner of The Bicycle restaurant. I ran The Bicycle along with my wife and parents. After long deliberation, we came to a painful decision that The Bicycle has to close its doors, for now. ...

First, I would like to apologize to the guests that had reservations this week; I appreciate the thought of you choosing us for your dining destination. We truly regret any inconvenience we caused people and I assure you it was not done in malice. I hope in the very near future you would give us the opportunity to make it up to you.  I would also like to thank all of our regular guests that have made the last 3 years memorable and we now consider friends. I never got in the restaurant business to be a rich man; my reward was always the gratitude that our guests showed as they walked passed the kitchen line and thanked us for a wonderful meal.
 
Unfortunately, The Bicycle fell victim to a perfect storm scenario, and there wasn’t much we could do to avoid this outcome. The economy would have to be the major contributor, and we attempted to adjust our prices to better accommodate our guests during these hard times. We reinvented ourselves by lowering prices to make them more affordable, while still maintaining our uniqueness, service standards, and quality of food. We had  given our restaurant a facelift—we closed for the first week of January to do all the remodeling ourselves, even sleeping in the restaurant, to finish the work and be ready to re-open for business the following week. Regrettably, our sales had dropped drastically from the previous year, making it hard to maintain running the restaurant in its normal capacity. We never wanted to sacrifice the quality of our food and service that had made The Bicycle what it was.
 
Once again, I would like to apologize for any inconvenience we might have caused our guests. I want to thank all of the guests that ever dined at the restaurant; we truly appreciated all of your support.

(Barbara Taylor Haddock/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (44)
        

Welcome to my life, Owl Meat. EL

Sometimes there are subtle signs that a restaurant might not be for you.

•    You have to construct your own burger, pasta, etc. from a menu of 50 ingredients. Be a chef already.

•    Bathrooms with ambiguous male/female silhouettes. Or labels like Knights/Damsels, Dudes/Dudettes, or Caballeros/Caballeras. Dios mio! My bladder is exploding.

•    They display a yellowed award that is over ten years old.

•    A place called Prometheus' Buffet where an eagle eats your liver – every day. Caveat emptor. Any restaurant named Caveat Emptor should also be avoided. (Don't worry the Latin/art history part is over). ...

 

Prometheus (1868) Gustave Moreau

•    Waitresses in black uniforms that resemble retro morgue attendants. Not that there is a restaurant in Baltimore that dresses their servers as grim Todeswitwen.

•    Menus with food stains. No scratch & sniff.

•    The chef is sitting at the bar doing shots of Jaegermeister with the dishwasher. Ditto for mumblety-peg.

•    Photos of the owner and family with washed up minor celebs.

•    The chef has a tattoo ... of Anthony Bourdain ... on his neck ... shooting up.  

•    Three words: Day old sushi.

•    The "sommelier" parked your car.

•    Your waitress is named Fajita and when you order the "Sizzling Fajita," she says, "Ooooh yeah" and blots her lipstick.  

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (59)
        

Fans of Pappas Restaurant in Parkville weren't happy with my review last Sunday. Some expressed their difference of opinion politely, some not. But I think that's what inspired EdG to write to me about some of England's much more terrifying restaurant reviewers.

Quoting an article about British food critics, he came up with these two gems: ...

Matthew Norman, Sunday Telegraph

Norman described Shepherd’s eponymous London establishment as being “among the very worst restaurants in Christendom” and “the eighth circle of hell.”  “Were it found today in a canister buried in the Iraqi dessert,” he wrote of the crab and brandy soup, comparing it to Saddam’s missing weapons of mass destruction, “it would save Tony Blair’s skin.”

“There is so much about Shepherd's that is wrong that it would, in a more elegant age, merit a pamphlet rather than a review.”

Jan Moir, Daily Telegraph

Reviewing Deya, Jan said, “I’m choking on a really nasty amuse bouche, a kind of savory, macaroon-sized bite flavored with what tastes like dried shrimp.  At least, I hope it’s dried shrimp.  If not, then it is some suspiciously fishy business of uncertain age and background.”

EdG then suggested a Top 10 list of the worst things I've said about restaurants. Because I've written over 1,500 reviews in my 36 years on the job, I don't think I could research that very easily. I did send him the list of quotes from my early reviews I had in my 30th anniversary article, which I reprinted here. Faithful readers will remember them. I'll reprint the list once again, but please remember that the few of these restaurants that are still around have different owners and different reputations even if the names are the same:

* "Crabtree's has its peccadilloes. (The first time we made reservations, for instance, no one bothered to tell us the restaurant would be closed that Sunday.)"

    * "I pointed out [to the waiter] that a small insect was walking on the Russian [dressing]. 'Oh Jesus,' he said." (Baltimore Museum Cafe)

    * "I was surprised at how terrible my plain omelette ($3.95) was. ... It tasted as though it had been cooked in automobile grease." (Owl Bar)

    * "I had dinner at the Milton Inn in Sparks, Maryland, recently, and except for the food, it was a pleasant experience."

    * "My job lands me in some odd situations, and one of them was sitting in the Bamboo Inn's unfestive dining room with a flaming Pu-Pu Platter."

    * "I ordered six steamed clams ($2.15) to begin with, but they didn't arrive until after my crab fluff. They were the biggest, hoariest granddaddy clams imaginable. Oversteaming only made them more leathery. They were served with drawn margarine." (Blue Gables )

    * "We all need a little romance in our lives, especially this close to Valentine's Day. The question is whether we also need a waiter who not only introduces himself -- 'Hi! I'm your waiter Gregory' -- but also the water bearer, as in 'Your water bearer's name is Ronald.' " (Carolyn's Cafe)

    * "There is one small problem with 'Connolly Special No. 6, Pan Fried Rock' ($8.75).

    "It's sea trout."

    * "You've got to love crowds to love Alonso's. You've got to love people watching you with hawk eyes, willing you to hurry up so they can have your table."

    * "There's a certain point at a restaurant past which I suddenly say, 'I don't want to be here anymore.' The Rusty Scupper took us long past it."

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

I heard earlier today that the Bicycle in Federal Hill might be closed, and then when I checked my work e-mail just now I got this from Mark:

Did you know that Bicycle, on Light Street, is closed?  My fiance and I had a reservation, which we booked on their website, for 7 pm tonight.  It was, and still is, our 2 year dating anniversary.  When we showed up, the curtains were shut and the door was locked.   We are both so disappointed.  We hope they open again.  Plus, we had a gift card that we were going to use.  Just sucks. ...

I called the restaurant, and the voice mail says it's closed "till further notice."  The Web site has disappeared too.

I left a message, and I'm hoping to hear back, both about its future and the new Italian restaurant chef/owner Nicholas Batey was planning to open.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

My Table Talk column in today's Taste section featured the new Hell Point Seafood in Annapolis.

Veteran chef and owner Robert Kinkead's eponymous restaurant is such a fixture in DC that I'm sure people will flock to it.

In the same column I listed some more steamed crab prices, this time in the Dundalk/Essex area. ...

I was also interested to see that Recipe Finder published a chopped salad recipe inspired by the now-closed Maison Marconi's version. (We've talked about it here before.) I don't remember all those hard-boiled eggs in the original chopped salad, but that was a long time ago.

As for Top 10, this was my Top 10 Things to Expect When Dining Out With a Restaurant Critic plus comments from last week. It was a lot of fun to write, and I wish I could come up with more topics like it to vary the 10 Best Crab Cakes, 10 Best Romantic Restaurants, etc. model.

(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

You know how sometimes you just dread playing a video someone sends you? Someone like guest poster John Lindner? This would be one of those. But it's not as disgusting as it could be, and I had to laugh at myself because the whole chickens roasting next to the guinea pigs looked absolutely delicious to me this close to lunchtime. Really, what's the difference? Here's John. EL

One guess as to why this gem remains a strictly local delicacy. I’ve never liked guinea pigs as pets. But as food? On a stick? I can’t imagine anything more revolting – and I’ve eaten sea cucumbers! And creamed corn! *
 
The video reminds me of the scene in O Brother Where Art Thou? where the boys ran across a “gopher village,” except the roasted guinea pigs aren’t as funny.
 
Memorable meal? Indelible.
 
Perhaps along the same line: What’s with “lake trout” in Baltimore? The subject came up at work and, judging from my colleagues’ reactions, “lake trout” is code for the seafood equivalent of scrapple. But no one could tell me why he considers “lake trout” across-the-board sketchy. What’s the deal? **
 
Curious, some of us plan to check out a nearby “lake trout” joint. Any good ones in the downtown area, or failing that, in Greater Baltimore? Or is there no such thing as “good lake trout?” ***
 
* Granted, not on the same day.

** I started to research this, but decided I’d rather get my info from the Sandbox.

*** I’ve had superb lake trout, caught in Big Green Lake (Green Lake County, Wisc.). It was actually lake trout, not whiting.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

Last summer's virtual Crab Week has taken on a life of its own. I just got this e-mail, which made me smile:

Hi Elizabeth

I am emailing you from England where we are in the planning stages of a new Crab and Lobster Festival.

I came across your blog on the Baltimore Sun website about the Baltimore Crab Week and I was wondering if you had a link to more information about it as I am really interested to see what it includes?
 
Many thanks and best wishes

Kate Royall

Actually her Crab Week sounds better than ours, a) because it includes lobster and b) because you actually eat them, you don't just talk about them. But what do they do with crabs in England? I'll have to find out more.

(Rich Watts/Special to the Sun)

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

OK, that may be a slight exaggeration, but I found myself looking forward to an Artscape crab cake last night. And that's just sick.

Please understand. I love jumbo lump crab cakes, well seasoned and with a minimum of filler. I like them broiled. But when you order them in a restaurant, you have to give the owner your first born to pay for them, given the price of jumbo lump crab meat. ...

I also don't like the way these special occasion cakes have driven out the old-fashioned crab cake, which chw spoke so eloquently about under an earlier post.

In the same way that every Baltimore restaurateur believes his or her restaurant cannot survive without a crab cake on the menu, he or she now believes crab cakes have to be made with colossal jumbo lump and cannot possibly be messed with or deep fried.

I believe that's why crab imperial has mostly disappeared from menus -- it's too much like today's crab cakes, only with more mayonnaise.

Just a theory.

Anyway, last night I wanted an inexpensive crab cake, but a good one, with no lump crab meat and therefore maybe a shell or two (not a requirement). Well seasoned, with some but not too much binder. And fried to a golden crunchiness.

Sound good?

The restaurants I review don't feature that style of crab cake anymore. I have to wait until the flower mart or Artscape to get one. 

Later note: I hope this doesn't sound like I blame the restaurateurs here. They are as much a victim of the It HAS to Be Lump and Broiled Syndrome as the consumers are. I'm just saying there is room for both. EL

(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (98)
Categories: Crab Cakes
        

Pretty soon there are going to be so many restaurant weeks you'll be able to eat out most of the year at some of Maryland's finest restaurants for $30.09.

We've had a couple at the beach, and Howard County's comes next, July 27 through August 9.

The fixed-price menus actually vary in cost, from $10.09 to $40.09, depending on the restaurant.

You may not be getting a bargain at a restaurant that has a prix fixe anyway, so check first. Most of Howard County's good restaurants are on the list. And let us know how your experience was.

(Doug Kapustin/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

An ad for the building that was the home of Martick's, the French restaurant that Morris Martick closed last year, has appeared on Craigslist. Thanks to Paul for telling me about it.

I had heard Martick was willing to either sell or lease the building, but I hadn't found the ad. ...

I also heard he was conflicted about doing anything with it, and I can see why. Morris Martick was born in the building. He had operated his restaurant there from 1970 until he retired last August at age 86.

(Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The comment that LouieNCanton posted early this morning reminded me of a subject I've been meaning to write about:

Well, the good news is that Pappas will not suffer a loss of business as a result of your review. The place will be packed just about every night of the week, no matter what you had written. You review may have hurt many other restaurants but Pappas will continue to thrive. Matters not if EL liked the service or not.

A couple of weeks after my mostly positive review of Sasha's 527, I happened to see the owner, Sascha Woldhandler, sitting at a table outside her restaurant. I stopped to ask if the review had helped business; and while she was glad it wasn't a negative review, she admitted she hadn't noticed much difference after it ran. ...

She confirmed what I already believed to be true. Once, a positive or negative review from the critic of the city's main newspaper would have made a huge difference. My reviews were prominently placed in the Sun's Sunday magazine. They were a must read if you loved going out to dinner because there weren't many other places where you could read about local restaurants in town.

Now we have, to mention just a few other places to find reviews, Baltimore magazine, the City Paper, Zagat, Yelp, Urban Spoon, City Search, MetroMix, and many local bloggers. People may like to read what I have to say about a restaurant, but they certainly aren't going to spend their hard-earned dollars (or not) on just my word anymore.

That's a relief to me. If anyone thinks I enjoy eating a bad meal or writing something that hurts the feelings -- or the business -- of people who are trying to run a restaurant the best they can, he or she is very much mistaken.

The best I can do is tell readers what my and my companions' experience was on a particular night, because my first responsibility is to my readers and not to the restaurant owners. And the most I can hope for is that regular readers feel I'm consistent, so they can decide for themselves whether they might like a restaurant from my review.

One of the most flattering things anyone ever said to me about my reviews was that he never agreed with me; but at least he knew that if I liked a restaurant, he wouldn't, and if I didn't, he would. So he felt my reviews were very useful.

(Photo of Pappas by Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

When I told my editor yesterday I was going to do a Top 10 on French restaurants in honor of Bastille Day he had the usual response. Do we even have 10 French restaurants? Then he asked me if I was going to include IHOP for its French toast.

He's got a point. After our conversation I changed Top 10 French Restaurants to Top 10 Places to Celebrate Bastille Day. Did IHOP make the cut? Read on. ...

* Bonaparte Breads in Fells Point. A casual French coffee shop with sandwiches and good French pastries and breads.

* Bonjour Bakery & Cafe in Mount Washington. Authentic French pastries and a few savories like quiche and meat and cheese croissants.

* Cafe de Paris in Columbia. In honor of Bastille Day, have tonight's special buffet for $35.95.

* Crepe du Jour in Mount Washington. In spite of the name, it's more French restaurant than creperie.

* Elkridge Furnace Inn in Elkridge. Check out the three-, four- and five-course fixed-price menus. 

* La Madeleine Country French Cafe, area locations. A popular, cafeteria-style chain.

* Les Folies Brasserie in Annapolis. Fine French food and an extensive raw bar.

* Petit Louis in Roland Park. The Foreman-Wolf restaurant group's excellent take on an authentic French bistro.

* Sofi's Crepes in Baltimore and Annapolis. The owner got her inspiration from her trips to France.

* Tersiguel's in Ellicott City. A self-styled French "country" restaurant, but upscale all the same, there will be dinner and live entertainment tonight.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

...Or as close to real news as this blog gets, which is rumor, speculation and questions for someone else to answer. Just kidding, just kidding. We have a reliable report from the field here.

Robert of Cross Keys tells me that New No Da Ji, has been closed for renovations for a month or so, and now the phone has been disconnected.

If anyone knows anything more about the status of the Korean/Japanese/Chinese restaurant, a staple in Charles Village, please post below.

Robert also came up with second tip of the day: ...

He was craving Middle Eastern food, so he decided to see if the Semiramis Grill (57 W. Main St.) in Westminster had reopened. It closed when the owner had a heart attack.

According to Robert, it reopened today as the Kebab Kitchen, and he says the food is pretty good. The building owner let the previous owner out of his lease, took over the stand and runs it with a young Egyptian woman.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (56)
        

Mondays are so exciting. While I try to keep up with my work e-mail on the weekends, I invariably lag behind. So I have communications like this waiting for me when I come in. Of course, it could always be Owl Meat pulling my leg. EL

Subject: Ignorant and boorish restaurant review

What a stupid review of a very good and popular restaurant.
Shake hands with Jean Marbella; she creates her own reality too.
We certainly wouldn't want to eat with you at the table!!!
Shame on you;grow up a little bit, if you can.
Get control of yourself.
Try being courteous to telemarketers; that's good practice.
People at Paner'as in Towson are canceling their subscription to your rag
because of such a stupid review; maybe it's just as well. ...

Huh?

I immediately wrote back asking about the telemarketers and also what she meant by Paner'as. I assumed she was talking about my Pappas review, but I wanted to make sure. I got the following reply. EL

Quick, a positive characteristic, good
it's Panera's, as if you didn't know
you sneaky cutthroat you.

That's when I began to think it might be Owl Meat. However, I have offended a lot of telemarketers in my time, and he wouldn't know that.

By the way, all you other telemarketers. Don't bother calling; I will never, never be courteous to you until you start paying my phone bill. EL

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

The comment posted by NJ chick last night under my Top 10 list of crab houses made me realize that the list isn't very useful for visitors. They don't want to be trekking down to Essex to get steamed crabs if they're only here for a weekend. And they don't want to be faced with 10 choices when they don't even know if Canton or Dundalk is closer to their hotel.

So I'm going to suggest three places for tourists. I'm assuming most want to be around the harbor because they always tell me they do. I know regulars don't need this advice, but I need a link to send to the visitors that continually e-mail me with this question. ...

Go to Bo Brooks if you want to pick your crabs with a water view. Obrycki's will give you more of the Old Baltimore atmosphere. Try Canton Dockside if you want to get a bit off the beaten track (and not be surrounded by other tourists) but still want to be within an easy taxi ride of the Inner Harbor.

Rusty Scupper has an interesting -- I don't know what to call it, certainally not a deal -- something for tourists specifically who want to try one crab for the experience. The restaurants sells a No. 1 jumbo crab for $10.95.

It's a very heavy male crab, the woman who answered the phone assured me. It would have to be the Arnold Schwarzenegger of crabs for me to pay that price, but I can see that if money was no object it would be an easy way for a visitor to try one.

Of course, if the tourist is around on a Tuesday, he or she could always go to Ryleigh's Oyster in Federal Hill for its $2 crabs.

The biggest problem NJ chick is going to have with her request is the limited budget part. Crabs at all the places I've surveyed have been expensive this year.

Okay, I plan on visiting Maryland late July with my family of four. We are on a strict budget but would love to try Maryland crabs that we've heard so much about. Where's the one place you would recommend that we try with our limited money but a hearty appetite?

Posted by: NJ chick | July 13, 2009 12:21 AM  

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Steamed crabs
        

Yesterday I reviewed Pappas Restaurant in Parkville. I can see why the crab cakes are so popular, although I like them with a little more oomph; but you can't complain about the prices there.

I have friends who love to go to Pappas and have a martini ($3.95) and a burger or a crab cake sandwich. That sounds good to me. (OK, not the martini part, but you know what I mean.) ...

I hope I conveyed in the review that even though the food was uneven, and even though the staff wasn't handling the crowd very well that night, the hostess and waitresses were so pleasant and trying so hard we didn't go away unhappy.

Maybe some of you who eat there more often will post a comment on whether our meals were typical or not. Or on what you get there that keeps you going back.

For instance, I got this e-mail in response to my review:

Well Dear Elizabeth

It appears you missed the whole reason this place is so popular!! We older folks don't LIKE highly seasoned food and love the slow pace of service that you complained about.

We have been going there for many years and have not found any place in this general area more satisfying for both the food and service!

So from your report, I will have take "WITH A GRAIN OF SALT" your reports on other places.

Ernest T. Davis

(Tasha Treadwell/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

Next week I review the new Hill Restaurant in Federal Hill. The owner, Antoine Petteway, was the chef at the Metropolitan a couple of blocks north. I'm guessing he's got a loyal following, and a lot of his customers are now enjoying his cooking at the new place.

But it isn't easy locating the phone number if you want to make a reservation, so save that link. With the Hill, I've finally found a restaurant name even harder to Google than Three... Especially because it's in Federal Hill.

To find out what I thought of the food and how our evening went, check out my review in next Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Review Preview
        

This morning I went to the Sunday farmers market under the viaduct for the first time this summer. That's unusual for me. And I've only been to the Waverly market on Saturday once or twice.

But the corn I got yesterday was so good, I had to have more. It didn't have that artificial-tasting, bred-in sweetness that corn can have these days -- even when it's been sitting around. This particular variety is called White Out. Remember that name. ...

Jon Parker had given me a heads up that bi-color corn was supposed to be in this week so I was planning to buy even more corn, but luckily the vendor who sells it told me it hadn't been ready to pick after all. There's a limit to the amount of corn on the cob even I can eat.

I still didn't find any tomatoes that weren't hydroponic, except some grape tomatoes. But I stopped at Reid's Orchard even though I had plenty of fruit (still eating a second box of mangoes that arrived just before we left for vacation) because the strawberries looked so beautiful.

"Isn't it late for strawberries?" I asked owner Dave Reid. He explained that these were from plants that they had put in for next year, but I guess the cool weather made ideal conditions for a crop this year. They are delicious.

Then he told me Reid's had a new winery. It opened in March, but I hadn't heard about it because I've been so bad about going to the market. I really think we ought to delegate someone to go try the wines, and I nominate Elite Elephant Lover.

I always feel a little guilty focusing in these posts on the vendors I frequent, but on the other hand, this is my day off and the Sun isn't paying for my produce. 

I tried some place new today for organic string beans. When I asked the guy behind the table to pick me out a good basket, he said, "They're all from the same field."

I joked, "Yeah, but I want the best one," and he looked at me like I was alien. OK, it was early, but I don't think I'll go back to him no matter how good the beans are. Not that he was rude, but part of the fun of the market is the interaction with the vendors. Anyway, the reason for this long-winded story was I'll probably stick with the farms I know and rely on you to tell us about your favorite ones by posting below.

(Photo of Dave Reid by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Exactly, Hon! I enjoyed my Chinese meal at Grace Garden last night (fish noodles - mmm!), but I also like the crummy Egg Foo Yung from the local joint. Totally different beast.

Likewise, the more authentic Mexican at the places in Upper Fells Point, and the quesadillas at a Tex-Mex joint. But that said, with a sister who has lived in Texas for 15 years (and who I make take me around for 2-3 Tex Mex meals everytime I visit), I also agree with the people who say we don't have very good versions around here, comparatively. I guess that means 3 different kinds of beasts: Mexican, crummy-tasty Tex-Mex, and real Texas Tex-Mex, each with its own virtues.

Posted by: KristinB | July 8, 2009 11:01 AM ...

ok, so, coincidentally enough, I had lunch at M&S grill, and what do I see on the menu? MD fried chicken!

Although the burger sounded better, I figured I would take one for the team, and order it to get down to what md fried chicken really is. (plus, when I asked the waiter, the burger ONLY had 2 strips of bacon...*sigh* i miss their blt sandwich)

I order the md fried chicken, and when it comes out, the fried chicken is covered with the white gravy, a side of mashed potatoes (which had no gravy on it), and a roasted 1/2 of tomato. The white gravy itself resembled chipped beef gravy, though there were no satisfying morsels of meat in the gravy... more like bacon bits from a bottle.....

I first dipped my fork in the gravy, and it tasted like it used WAY too much buttermilk. very sour/tangy, but so much so that it just left it a bit unappetizing...wondering if they accidentally used spoilt milk. :-(

I then examine the chicken and realize they used a skinless/boneless breast (fried chicken without skin!??!!.....)

I cut a piece of the chicken and take a bit, and the texture of the chicken... it was unappetizing. it was like biting through a foam memory pillow...if you could imagine that. (that was difficult trying to think of what equated to that chicken's texture).

Anyways, this is the lengths I go through to report on md fried chicken for you guys :-P
wish i had a burger....

Posted by: Matt | July 9, 2009 2:00 PM

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Every good thing has a downside. I didn't think there was anything negative about this wonderful summer we're having, but that was before I went to the farmers market this morning. (I hadn't been for awhile because of the vacation.) There are no local tomatoes yet, even the early, very small ones that in past summers have been ripe by the Fourth.

When I asked one of the vendors, she said, "It's just been too cool for them."

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Sending food back in a restaurant is something I almost never do. If I'm reviewing, I don't want to bring attention to myself, I'm not paying for the meal, and there's always more than enough food on the table to keep me from going hungry.

But the biggest reason I tend not to send food back is that it disrupts the flow of eating out with friends. Food is only part of that equation. I hate it when everyone else has to choose between eating while I have nothing in front of me or sitting and waiting for my problem to get fixed while their dinners are getting cold. ...

Obviously if something has spoiled it goes back to the kitchen, or if it has a foreign object in it. I've also sent well-done steaks back. But when I think about it, these things rarely come up.

Just lucky, I guess.

What I like about the video (which Owl Meat pointed me to) is that it stresses you shouldn't send a dish back just because it's not to your taste or not prepared the way you expected.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

I was interested in the story about the latest studies on the calorie restriction diet that appeared in today's paper because I wrote about the diet three years ago for the Taste section. (Which seems an odd place for it, now that I think about it.)

I talked to so many people who were so enthusiastic about the diet's benefits that I had the weird urge to try it, but the idea of being slightly hungry for the rest of my life was unappealing.

Equally unappealing was the descriptions I got of people thinking about food all the time. I'm obsessive enough about food without that.

I'm republishing my story below. When you read about some of these people's daily intakes of calories, just remember that a milkshake alone can have 1,500 calories.

The photo is of (at the time) 53-year-old Liza May in the story. ...

Small bites, long life?

By eating carefully chosen portions of nutritious foods, believers in calorie restriction hope to extend their years

Whoever said hunger is the best sauce should talk to Brian Delaney.

Delaney, who is 5 feet 11 inches tall and physically active, has two meals a day. His morning meal consists of whole-grain cereal, nonfat yogurt, berries, sliced fruit and soy milk.Dinner is usually whole-grain pasta or rice; a legume dish, such as lentil soup; and a large vegetable salad with ingredients like lightly steamed broccoli, red pepper, arugula, sesame seeds and pieces of fruit.

For a treat, Delaney sometimes allows himself a small piece of chocolate or a glass of wine.

That's it.

For years Delaney, who is 42 but says he feels like he's in his late 20s, has followed an extremely low-calorie diet known as calorie restriction, or CR, in the hopes of extending his lifespan - perhaps by a decade or two. Hunger is a fact of life.

"I like eating fewer meals but having more food per meal," he says. "The hunger is concentrated in one period. Late afternoon I'm hungry, but it's manageable. With grazing, there's a tiny bit of hunger all the time. You're thinking about food all the time."

Scientific studies in the 1930s showed that mice on an extremely low-calorie but healthful diet lived 30 percent longer and also seemed to age more slowly. Ever since, researchers have been trying to figure out whether a semi-starvation diet that was also rich in nutrients would extend human life.

Further animal studies and research on small groups of humans have been encouraging, and this month scientists at Louisiana State University reported an extremely low-calorie diet can reduce the DNA damage of aging. But there are negative side effects, depending on how severely calories are restricted, such as crankiness and lack of interest in sex.

The challenge for Delaney and others on the calorie-restriction diet is to get maximum nutrients and maximum volume - so they feel full - while taking in very few calories.

Proponents say the diet as a way of life isn't as grim as it sounds. Delaney, who lives in Sweden, is president of the Calorie Restriction Society, a sort of support group for a lot of very hungry people. He's written a how-to book, The Longevity Diet, with Lisa Walford, whose father pioneered much of the research.

Eventually, people who eat this way say, your body adjusts to even the most extreme version of the diet.

Liza May, 53, a clinical nutritionist who lives in Crofton and calls herself the "Martha Stewart of the Calorie Restriction Society," has been on the diet since the 1970s. "After so many years of eating reasonably" - by which she means being on a low-calorie, high-nutrition diet - "I don't have those crazy cravings," she says.

The mother of four and grandmother of three, May considers herself a gourmet cook and has a restaurant-quality kitchen, but she cooks for others. She estimates she consumes less than 1,000 calories a day, concentrating on fresh vegetables, leafy greens and fish high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to be good for the heart. She avoids bread and other baked goods.

May is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 114 pounds. She says the diet leaves her with plenty of energy. She and her husband are competitive dancers, and she exercises every day at the gym. She thinks her eating habits might be responsible for the fact that she hasn't been sick since 1973.

"Every calorie matters," she says. "The more you restrict, the more you have to pay attention to [the nutritional content of] every calorie you put in your mouth."

Anyone who might be pregnant shouldn't consider the diet, and research indicates it could stunt children's growth. It also would be dangerous for someone with eating-disorder tendencies.

It is possible to eat a very low-calorie but healthful diet by making calculated selections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture food pyramid, says Christine Gerbstadt, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. In about 1,100 calories, she estimates, you can get 80 percent of your requirements. (You would have to meet the rest with supplements.)

"They can't get everything they need through food alone," she says, "but they can come pretty darn close. Face it. They're still doing better than 70 percent of Americans. The lesson is that we can all make healthier food choices."

For the past 20 years, Dr. Mark Mattson has. Mattson is a neuroscientist who is studying calorie restriction at the National Institute on Aging laboratory in Baltimore. He eats the same sort of highly nutritious, food-as-fuel diet as those on calorie restriction. But he doesn't routinely count calories or try to limit them, even though he's seen that the mild stress of a very low-calorie diet seems to protect lab animals at the cellular level.

"I skip breakfast, eat a relatively light lunch and a good-size dinner," he says. "I estimate that my calorie intake is about 1,800 to 2,200 per day. ... I eat mostly whole grains, vegetables and fruits, nuts and fish."

The research isn't clear-cut, Mattson says, that people who aren't overweight will benefit much from severely restricting calories. He also stresses the importance of regular physical exercise and keeping sharp mentally as well as diet to stave off the effects of aging.

In his book, Delaney recommends seeing your doctor before you start the diet. But he believes most Americans could benefit from taking in fewer calories, even if they don't diet as drastically as he does.

Delaney limits his calories to about 1,900 a day. "It's not that different from a mostly vegetarian, health-food diet except that I skip lunch," he says. For a man his size, about 2,500 calories would be more normal, especially because he runs and lifts weights several times a week.

An ex-girlfriend once described Delaney as resembling "a hockey player on a two-day fast." After almost 14 years on the diet, he weighs 140 pounds. He's skinnier than he wants to be but, he says, he looks muscular.

At a restaurant, he usually can find something on the menu that fits his diet. When he's invited to someone's house, he eats whatever the host is serving but in very small amounts.

"If someone fed me [fried] fish and chips," he says, "I wouldn't like it, but I'd eat a little of it."

He wasn't always so disciplined. "I was a junk-food junkie," he says. "The first year [on the diet] I craved really fatty foods. I could smell McDonald's a block away, but not so much anymore."

News stories about the science of calorie restriction often focus on practitioners who eat almost nothing and whose weight is dramatically lower than what's considered normal. But many people who believe it will extend life practice calorie restriction to a lesser degree. It's the only way they can follow the regimen long term.

Those who have a scientific view of food, primarily as fuel, probably have the easiest time with the diet.

David Dorsey, 67, says he's done a lot of thinking about the role of food in our society since he started restricting calories. "You need to look at eating almost exclusively as nutrition," says Dorsey, who is the chief financial officer of a nonprofit organization. "If someone else wants to spend a lot of time making a Boston cream pie and then they are hurt because I just want a very small piece, well, so be it."

    Dorsey, who lives in Silver Spring, is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs about 144 pounds, 20 less than he did when he started the diet a year and a half ago. He's up from 131, his lowest weight. "I used to keep track of everything I ate, but it got too burdensome," he says.

He consumes plenty of vegetables and whole grains and keeps fresh fruit in his office in case he gets too hungry. Breakfast is oatmeal and fruit. Lunch is entirely vegetables. He'll microwave a bag of mixed frozen vegetables and eat them with a Diet Dr Pepper.

Dinner is smaller portions of what he used to eat (he and his wife were always healthy eaters) and no second helpings. His reward, he says, is 2 or 3 teaspoons of Healthy Choice chocolate ice cream before bed.

Dorsey is lucky that his wife is on board with his decision to live a calorie-restricted life. One of the big problems with the diet is that it affects the people around you.

"My girlfriend hates it," says Ray Hinish, 30, who has been eating this way for a couple of years. "She likes to try a lot of different foods, and I just won't."

Hinish, a pharmacist specializing in holistic medicines, recommends starting by simply substituting vegetables for more calorie-dense food. He also believes in getting extra protein through supplements.

The Columbia resident is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 175 pounds. Since he began restricting calories he's lost 25 pounds. Hinish estimates he gets about 2,000 calories daily, higher than the usual person on calorie restriction, but he exercises vigorously every day.

"A regular weight-watching diet leaves you almost malnourished," he says, "but CR makes you almost supernourished."

Another difference is that a low-calorie weight-loss diet has an end in sight: When you reach your goal, you can start eating more again, even if not as much as you used to. It takes a particular mind-set to be able to voluntarily live on a restricted-calorie diet for the rest of your life.

That's why Bob Hammer, 49, an engineer who also lives in Columbia, no longer practices CR, even though it made him feel "really good" and he still believes in its long-term benefits.

He says he just got tired of being hungry all the time. The fact that he couldn't eat what other people ate was also a problem. He and his wife are divorced, and his daughter lives with him. He had to cook one meal for her and a different one for himself.

Now he's hoping to live a healthier if not a longer life by eating the same nutritious foods he ate on the diet - just more of them.

    "I improved my habits quite a bit trying to get everything you need [nutritionally] but still eating less," he says.

Hammer first heard of calorie restriction in the '80s but didn't start seriously restricting calories until 1998. After about a year his weight dropped to 128 pounds, low for his 5-foot-8-inch frame.

At first "the motivation made me see beyond the hunger," he says. "But the urge to eat was very strong. Your view of food changes. You're thinking about food all the time. Man, you're looking forward to that next meal."

There was one good thing about it, he says. "It's hard to be hungry and depressed at the same time."

A day's menu

Lisa Walford, co-author with Brian Delaney of The Longevity Diet, is a vegan and a serious practitioner of calorie restriction. Here is a day's meals from her food journal in the book. In addition to these foods, she also takes calcium and B-12 supplements.

Breakfast: 4 walnuts, 6 almonds, 10 peanuts, black tea

Morning snack: 1-inch avocado slice, 1/2 slice whole-wheat toast, 2 tablespoons hummus spread (chickpeas)

Midafternoon snack: 16 ounces apple/beet/carrot juice

Dinner: Steamed broccoli, red pepper, kale, tomato, squash, sweet potato, onions and cauliflower; 1/2 cup tomato sauce; 2 ounces baked tofu; 1 teaspoon olive oil; 1 teaspoon flax oil; black pepper; marjoram

Evening snack: 10 toasted almonds

Chicken and tomato

Serves 1

This recipe is from Robert Cavanaugh, a member of the Calorie Restriction Society who posted it at recipes.calorierestriction.org. He wrote: "Typically, my wife and I have this chicken with 5 ounces of broccoli and a medium baked sweet potato, a large green salad and dressing, and a glass of red wine. I also have a 6-inch whole-wheat pita bread. Total calories for my dinner are 933. My wife skips the pita bread, which saves her 170 calories."

10 sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 chicken breast (100 grams), boneless and skinless

1/2 can (100 grams) diced tomatoes

2 whole oysters, boiled and minced

Make a pesto by processing the first 3 ingredients. Pound out the chicken breast to 1/2 inch thickness. Coat both sides of the breast with pesto. Broil 20 minutes in a foil-lined pan, turning once.

Combine tomatoes and oysters. Spoon over chicken and broil 10 minutes more.

Per serving: 191 calories, 23 grams protein, 7 grams fat, 1 gram saturated fat, 8 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber, 62 milligrams cholesterol, 231 milligrams sodium

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (79)
        

I just now read the comments about the Suburban House fire story; somehow I missed them last night. I meant to post something on the fire last night -- I actually heard about it yesterday from someone my husband knows who's a restaurant junkie. He said, "Tell Elizabeth to blog about where Pikesville residents can get matzoh ball soup now."

Unfortunately, I don't know.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

I can't figure out what got into guest poster Bucky today. I was expecting a good ole boy take on, say, summer grilling, and look at the fascinating facts he came up with. Here's Bucky. EL

Have you ever been in a restaurant that was so crowded that you couldn’t get your server’s attention to, say, get a refill on your Coke?
 
Think what it must be like at the Bawabet Dimashq during the peak dinner hour.
 
The Bawabet Dimashq (Arabic for “Damascus Gate”) is located in Damascus, Syria and is the world’s largest restaurant.  It seats 6,014 diners and at peak times during the day over 1,800 people are working there.  (I, myself, probably would have named it the Bawabet Bistro, just to make it sound more intimate, but I digress.) ...

It has a 581,251 square foot dining area and a 26,910 square foot kitchen.  (By comparison, a football field covers 48,000 square feet, excluding the end zones.)
 
I tried to find a Web site, but there isn’t one, apparently.  So I can’t tell you what’s on the menu.  But I bet Lissa can.
 
The world’s oldest restaurant is Sobrino de Botin in Madrid, Spain which has been continuously operating since 1725.  (Those of you who speak Spanish will notice that the name of the restaurant translates to “The Nephew of Botin.” You might think it is sort of like calling a diner, “Mom’s.”  The truth is that the founder, Jean Botin, and his wife died childless and their nephew took over the business.) 

Being Spanish, the specialties are lamb and pork.  The roast sucking pig is so good that it garnered a mention in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
 
(By the way, the oldest continually-operating restaurant in the U.S. is the Union Oyster House in Boston.  It was established in 1826.  Originally the Atwood & Bacon Oyster House, it is still in operation at 41 Union St., near Faneuil Hall.)
 
The best restaurant in the world is El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia, Spain.  Advance reservations are required.  (They are fully booked through 2009 and will announce in December which days reservations will be taken for 2010.  Yep, they take an entire year’s reservations in advance, although to be honest, they are only open from April to mid-December, so it isn’t really an entire year.)
 
Here is some of El Bulli’s philosophy about cuisine:  “Cooking is a language through which all the following properties may be expressed: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, humour, provocation and culture.”
 
And this:  “Decontextualisation, irony, spectacle, performance are completely legitimate, as long as they are not superficial but respond to, or are closely bound up with, a process of gastronomic reflection.”  
 
The next time you start thinking you’re a serious foodie, just go to the El Bulli Web site and be humbled.

(Photo of tomato and courgette flan with snails, courtesy of El Bulli Web site)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I got a press release from P. F. Chang's Chinese Bistro yesterday announcing that the chain has just introduced its first children's menu. It consists of Kid’s Chicken, Kid’s Lo Mein, Kid's Chicken Fried Rice and Baby Buddha’s Feast.

This surprised me. I mean, the one thing about taking children out to a Chinese restaurant is you don't need a kids' menu. You can always find something in your dishes to put on the child's plate, and it's a great way to introduce them to food they would never think of eating at home.

Of course, I realize it's more lucrative for the restaurant if even the toddlers are ordering their own separate dishes, but I wonder how many people will take advantage of it. ...

On the one hand, P. F. Chang's chicken fried rice comes without veggies in the kids' version. Any parent knows a little chicken fried rice might be just the place to slip in a carrot or two. On the other hand, the Baby Buddha's Feast consists of snap peas, carrots and broccoli served steamed or stir-fried.

I'd like to know how many of those they sell.

I don't mean to pick on P. F. Chang's. Anything that keeps other people's children happy in a restaurant is fine with me. Children's menus are tricky. They usually offer dishes that kids will eat, i.e., a grilled cheese and chicken fingers serve with fries and nothing else, even if the restaurant would like to be healthier and more creative.

I'm sure there are restaurants around here that have healthier dishes on their kids' menus, but I've never noticed them and I can't guess what they would be.

(Kenneth K. Lam/Sun photographer)

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

Here I am, up when I shouldn't be, reading comments. And for the second night in a row someone has posted this very flattering comment:

I visited this blog first time and found it very interesting and informative.. Keep up the good work thanks..

And guess what? His name is Van Leasing and he kindly included his URL, which I didn't click on. Because I don't need any vans.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

As usual on Thursdays I like to link to Other Reviewer Richard's review. This time he went to Piv's Pub in Cockeysville.

While I'm linking, I might as well link to my Top Chef story. It was interesting to report, because I was only allowed to speak to one chef yesterday afternoon, Bryan Voltaggio. Someone from Bravo has to listen in to all media interviews -- I guess in case someone forgets him- or herself and says, "I won! I won!" ...

The weirdest thing is to look at a story of yours in print and see that something has been changed that not only you didn't write but you have no idea what it is, in this case referring to Maryland as the "Old Line State." (Hey, I'm not a native.) Talk about Elegant Variation.

The story I'd like to read is the problems chefs and their staff have keeping the names of the contestants, and then the winner, a secret while they are trying to run a restaurant. How do they do it? How many people know?

Finally, I forgot to link to the Top 10 yesterday because I didn't have a Table Talk column in the section. It has a few more positive comments than usual because out of mild embarrassment I tend to weed them out when I'm doing the first cut.

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (42)
        

Guest poster Owl Meat has come up with a new game for this week's excellent Funtastic Thursday. I would play but I'm still trying to get past the concept of Owlie watching Gilligan's Island. EL

There was an episode of Gilligan's Island where radioactive seeds washed up on the island. Each vegetable gave one of the castaways a cliché super-power. Gilligan ate spinach and had great strength. Maryanne ate carrots and had super vision. Mrs. Howell ate sugar beets and became a full-on hard-tweakin' crank-head.  
 
Here's a new game. You pick the food and the superpower it would give you or wish it would. It can be any kind of food or beverage. It doesn't have to have any traditional association. 
 
I'll go first: ...

Crouton Man becomes more delicious the older and crustier he gets.

Porchetta gives you the power of flight and continental air superiority.
 
Jameson's Irish Whiskey makes you smart, coherent and beloved by all.
 
Necco wafers absolve sin (nod to Yum Porchetta).
 
Grilled conch erases ex-husbands (nod to Terrier Girl).
 
Maker's Mark bourbon tames wild owls.
 
Grilled kielbasa on warm naan with onions and sriracha is an appetite suppressant.  
 
Kimchi Man can find solitude in a crowd.
 
Tofu Man can walk naked through a hungry mob with complete invisibility.  Ditto on Tofurkey Girl.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (45)
        

I was doing a little housekeeping on the blog last evening when I came upon the following e-mail, which I had stuck in an unused entry form to write a post about in the future.

I'm a little late with it; Bill sent it last July. But his question is still relevant.

While I'm at it, I'm going to ask what makes fried chicken Maryland-style? You never hear other states getting credited for fried chicken -- except, of course, Kentucky, and that's just a fast food gimmick, isn't it? ...

One thing you have to admit about crab cakes: Maryland crab cakes are unique. For some reason, no other state can make them. But really. Does Maryland fried chicken taste any different than any other kind of fried chicken?

Anyway, here's Bill:

Are there any restaurants in the area, to include outlying counties, where you can get made-to-order fried chicken? There are, of course, plenty of places with recently made chicken sitting under heating lights, but I'm looking for some sit-down places that begin the process (maybe except for soaking the raw chicken in buttermilk) when you place the order.  The problem with this is that makes for a long wait before you're served, but that's why God gave us daiquiris.  There is such a thing, I think, called "Maryland fried chicken." Where can you find the real thing. Bill

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (78)
        

He went on to say his computer had been attacked by a virus and he had never gotten around to dealing with it. In other words, he didn't disappear; his computer did.

He then said, "Hello and goodbye. I'm moving back to Milwaukee. Tell everyone I really enjoyed my time with them on the blog."

OK, that was weird.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

Our Shallow Thought guru and guest poster John Lindner continues his series of tavern reviews. One of these days he's going to order rare duck breast on a bed of frisee, and I'm going to have a heart attack. Here's John. EL

Among the things the Tidewater Grille in Havre de Grace gets right is its view.

You can sit outside under an expansive umbrella, marvel at the trains clattering along a delicate bridge high above the Susquehanna, wonder what creature just thrashed the surface of the water, pretend to count ducks and geese in their shoreline promenade as you surreptitiously people watch; and you can gauge the state of civilization based on how many times the hostess fails to hold open the patio door for the patrons she is ushering to table.*

Or you can do all that from Tidewater’s air-conditioned, glassed-in porch.

After a long bike ride under the hot, hot sun I chose artificial cool. The added cover the porch affords people-watchers makes Tidewater’s porch a comfortable sanctuary. (Since no one outside is looking in, they’re not going to catch you staring.)

My experience of Tidewater’s menu is limited to wings, a cheeseburger and fries. (I know, I know. Look, I hereby vow to vary.) But if you agree with my theory that a poorly conceived burger is a sign of a tired kitchen, then my selection’s a fair test, at least for lunch.

As an exercise in futility, I negotiated with our splendid waitunit on the doneness of my burger. I asked for medium-rare to rare. She said I could have rare if I wanted it. I said I only ask for rare in hopes of getting closer to med-rare than med. She repeated, missing my point, that I could have rare if I wanted it. So I ordered rare. Did my burger come in rare?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Not even close. Aside from that, it was very good.

By the way, when in Havre de Grace, I normally hit MacGregor’s, just up the parking lot from Tidewater.**

Also most commendable. Had a great crabcake sammie there. I can’t tell you at what zip code the crab was caught (I’m not an Maryland native), but it seemed like it was probably a nice neighborhood.

Mac’s offers a deck for outdoor dining. Like Tidewater’s, it overlooks the water, but is set farther back. You’ll need binoculars to people-watch Tidewater’s patio.
 
* We’re doomed.

** For some reason, Tidewater long struck me as perhaps a bit too formal for bikerwear. I don’t know why I bother. I have yet to enter a restaurant and not have my sartorial self-esteem boosted a hundredfold by the presence of someone dressed like a shipwrecked Goth lawnmower repairman. 

(Photo courtesy of the Tidewater Grille's Web site)
 
 
 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

If you remember, in an earlier post I wrote about the rumor that Jesse Sandlin, executive chef of Abacrombie, would be a contestant on Bravo's Top Chef. The chefs competing in Season Six, which starts August 26, have just been announced; and indeed she is one of the 17.

What I hadn't heard was that a Maryland restaurant has a second contestant, Bryan Voltaggio of Volt in Frederick. His brother Michael, originally from Frederick and last chef de cuisine at Jose Andres's Bazaar in Los Angeles, is the third Marylander on the show.

Here's the complete list of the contestants:

Ash Fulk, 29 – Hometown: Pleasant Hill, Calif.; Resides in New York City

Ashley Merriman, 32 – Center Sandwich, N.H.; Resides in Seattle, Wash.

Bryan Voltaggio, 33 – Hometown: Frederick, Md.; Resides in Urbana, Md.

Eli Kirshtein, 25 – Hometown/Resides in: Atlanta, Ga.

Eve Aronoff, 40 – Hometown/Resides in: Ann Arbor, Mich.

Hector Santiago, 41 – Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico; Resides in Atlanta, Ga.

Jennifer Carroll, 33 – Hometown/Resides in: Philadelphia, Pa.

Jennifer Zavala, 31 – Hometown: Cromwell, Conn.; Resides in Philadelphia, Pa.

Jesse Sandlin, 30 – Hometown/Resides in: Baltimore, Md.

Kevin Gillespie, 26 – Hometown/Resides in: Atlanta, Ga.

Laurine Wickett, 38 – Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.; Resides in San Francisco, Calif.

Mattin Noblia, 29 – Hometown: Biarritz, France; Resides in San Francisco, Calif.

Michael Isabella, 34 – Hometown: Little Ferry, N.J.; Resides in Washington, D.C. 

Michael Voltaggio, 30 – Hometown: Frederick, Md.; Resides in Los Angeles, Calif.

Preeti Mistry, 33 – Hometown/Resides in: San Francisco, Calif.

Robin Leventhal, 43 – Hometown: Sun Valley, Idaho; Resides in Seattle, Wash.

Ron Duprat, 40 – Hometown: Mare Rouge, Haiti; Resides in Hollywood, Fla. and Naples, Fla.

(Andre F. Chung/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

Over breakfast my husband said out of the blue, "Your next Top 10 falls on Bastille Day."

Since I'm never sure he even reads my blog, that was startling. It's also a bit awkward because I've already announced I was doing Tex-Mex restaurants. It would be one thing if I were listing, say, summer treats; but a specific cuisine seems like a slap in the face of francophiles. ...

Should I switch to Top 10 Best French Restaurants? It might be amusing to see how I justify choices six through 10 since there are only about five French restaurants in the area, best or worst. Or maybe I should pretend I didn't know it was Bastille Day.

If I can't decide, I'll use the Zen master's method of choice, which has gotten me through worse fixes: When in doubt, Plan A.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Last night as Gailor and I were walking through a restaurant to our table, we passed a couple texting, each on his and her own phone. It looked very odd.

I don't mind people texting at other tables in restaurants -- in fact, I much prefer it to their talking on a cell phone -- but I wouldn't want anyone to be doing it at the same table where I'm eating. ...

We covered cell phone etiquette in restaurants in an earlier post, but that was a couple of years ago. Even then I don't think texting was as ubiquitous as it is today. At least I don't think the subject came up in the same conversation.

I can't decide if cell phone usage in restaurants has declined because of public outcry, or people have learned you can talk on cells in a low voice, or people are just texting more so they aren't talking. Or maybe I've just gotten used to it. But for whatever the reason, I'm rarely bothered by cell phone conversations in restaurants these days.

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (49)
        

Over a year ago I promised I'd do a Top 10 list of the best Tex-Mex. I started to, and then it turned into restaurants that were authentically Mexican.

Suggestions are welcome, and also some thoughts on what makes a great Tex-Mex restaurant. Is it the beer list? We're not looking for subtlety here, right?

Is there one dish on a menu that tells you this is Tex-Mex and not purely Mexican?

(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (75)
        

OK, this may be the strangest e-mail of all the 10,000 that I'm reading today. (I get a little behind when I go on vacation; and Outlook won't let me send out any e-mails until I get under the mailbox size limit.) I'm taking out the names of the server and the restaurant to protect the innocent, namely me so I won't get sued. EL

My name is [deleted], and you have referred to me in two of your articles now - from [deleted]. First off, I would like to thank you for commending my service. It is not too often we, as servers, recieive compliments - particularly of that magnitude - in this industry. Without your comments i am not sure i would have been hired at the new restaurant that i am currently working at: Blue Hill Tavern in Brewers Hill. I left [deleted] because the head cook and the owner assaulted me on the way into work one morning, leaving me with a concussion. The best part of the story is that it was about a Cobb salad two nights previous - such a triviality. Well, anyway, i mainly wanted to thank you for your recognition, as it helped me get my current job. You have a strangely powerful - if not prophetic at times! - voice in the world of Baltimore dining, and it is an honor to have been included. On another note, i encourage you to check out Blue Hill Tavern - it is absolutely beautiful, and the food is phenomenal. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Here I am. Back again. The big news today seems to be the Blue Hill Tavern, which I wrote about awhile back. It opened this weekend, and already I've gotten an e-mail from a reader I trust and a phone call from someone who asked about it back in May.

Midnight Sun Sam says people were calling him asking if he'd gone before it even opened. What's up with that? Genuine excitement or a media campaign?

(Photo courtesy of Blue Hill Tavern's Web site)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (59)
        

First of all, I should thank Josh, who sent me a link to a blog called Under the High Chair. I'm stealing the idea for this Top 10 post from it, although the list isn't the same as it would be if you were dining with a food blogger.

1) When you get to the restaurant, the critic will always get the best seat that has the best view of the dining room.

2) If you order too much alcohol or your drinks are very expensive, the restaurant critic will look daggers at you. Especially as she has to keep a clear head, which means severely limiting her intake.

3) If you get into a fascinating conversation with the other dinner guests before you've ordered, you will be sharply reprimanded for not staying "on task."

4) If you really want to be accommodating and you say, "I'll have anything" when asked what you want, she'll roll her eyes and you won't be invited back because you're not being helpful.

5) If you want to be helpful so you immediately speak up and say, "I'll have the calamari and the chicken marengo," you won't be invited back because you're pushy and demanding.

6) If you care too much about food and love, love, love fried oysters, your heart will be broken. She'll catch on and won't let you order them every time because she gets tired of describing the "crisp, gold exterior."

7) You want the delicious-sounding rib eye steak. The restaurant critic tells you that's too boring and you need to order the house specialty, Caribbean meat loaf with pineapple-tarragon salsa.

8) You love going on reviews but you're trying to watch your weight, so you say you'd like to order the house salad as a first course. She tells you salads are forbidden as a first course. You can order the cream of crab bisque with whipped cream and a house salad, but a salad by itself doesn't count as an appetizer.

9) You have the most delicious piece of grouper with a beurre blanc you've ever tasted in front of you. You would kill to eat this dish in peace. The restaurant critic insists you give a large chunk of it to her to taste, and also to share it with the other guests at the table since they are happy to give you a piece of their Caribbean meat loaf.

10) You are stuffed. Almost sick. You didn't mean to eat the whole thing. The restaurant critic informs you pleasantly that you can't not order dessert. No, it can't be the seasonal berries or the sorbet. It has to be the fried cheesecake with bananas Foster topping. You don't have to eat it, right? You can just take one bite and let her taste it? The server will ask you if you want a to-go box.

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

I always wondered why certain restaurants, particularly chains,  put their drink, beer and wine lists on their menus. To me, it always makes the restaurants seem less, I don't know, refined if it doesn't have a separate wine list. Now Gailor has told me why. (It's great having a daughter in business school who's learning cool marketing things.)

The answer should be obvious: Restaurants sell twice as many (or anyway, a lot more) when the drinks are on the actual menu.

I guess you can avoid looking at a separate drinks list, but if you see the word "margarita" and a description of the lovely frosty alcoholic goodness next to the fajitas, you won't be able to resist.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
        

Today, of course, there's no Monday Morning Quarterbacking because yesterday there was no review.

When I was a freelancer at the beginning of my career, never a week went by that I didn't have a review in the paper. This wasn't so much dedication to my craft so much as being paid by the review. Not to mention the free meals. ...

Even when I got pregnant I did six week's worth of reviews in advance because I knew once I had a baby and was breast feeding it would be difficult to get away for awhile for a relaxing evening out with friends.

What I didn't count on was having morning sickness and craving peanut butter and white bread. Basically for nine months I had to review bars and sandwich shops. 

See how good those oysters from the new Real Seafood Company in Annapolis look? I couldn't have even looked at them, let alone eaten them.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

Very occasionally I carefully fill in the tip in the proper place on the merchant's copy of the credit card slip, do the arithmetic, come up with a total and sign my (assumed) name. Then I carefully fold up the merchant's copy and stick it in my purse.

Then I look down and realize what I've done -- I don't do it that often, honest -- put it back and take the guest copy instead. All is well.

But once recently I never got around to noticing. I got home, realized what I'd done and was stymied. Of course, the restaurant would get paid, signature or no signature, but the server wouldn't get a tip. Or would he? Would the restaurant just add 15 or 18 percent?

I don't know because I immediately mailed the merchant's copy back to the restaurant. ...

That was the only time I've had to do that, but it was unnerving when the very next week the waiter chased me out to the car to tell me I hadn't left ANY copy.

I was sure he was wrong because I had just made the mistake the week before, so I had been extra careful. When I looked in my purse I had the guest copy but no merchant's copy. I filled in the tip and gave it to him. I wish I knew what had happen to the other one, though.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Sometimes I think vacations end on days like this to make going back easier. After six sparkling days of bright sunshine, blue sky, low humidity, highs in the low 80s, and clean mountain air, I woke up to rain, which turned into gloom and drizzle and then more rain.

My breakfast bread had gotten moldy.

Andy Roddick lost. 

To cheer myself up,  I took my husband to the new Sonic in Monteagle that Bucky told us about for lunch. Not because I was craving a fast food burger. In fact, I wasn't. But I was curious. ...

Much as I trust Bucky's judgment on fast food, Sonic's hamburger doesn't hold a candle to In-N-Out's.

However, for atmosphere and service, four stars. You drive into a little bay with a menu where you can pay with a credit card, you put in your order and incredibly quickly the cheerful little car hop appears at your window with your order.

That sonic speed means, however, that the burger has been sitting waiting for you.

The part I liked best was the second car hop who appears soon after asking if you want any extra mints or napkins. That's her whole job. Mints and napkins.

Last night I had the worst meal ever at the Smokehouse in Monteagle, the metropolis six miles away. I won't go into great detail. I'll just say that my catfish had a cornmeal crust that was as hard as a turtle's shell. So tonight I broke down and cooked dinner from ingredients I bought at the Pig (the Piggly Wiggly supermarket to you non-Southerners).

I meant to buy a Piggly Wiggly T-shirt ("I dig the Pig") for a future prize, but I never got around to it. When I'm forced to cook on my vacation, it's time to go home. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)
        

And now for a change of pace. Enough of these new, trendy, Harbor East, high-energy, tapas kinds of places. Next Sunday I review Pappas Restaurant in Parkville.

It's a classic Old Baltimore restaurant, the kind that used to be everywhere but is now a dying breed.  Seafood and steaks are the specialty. You have to have the crab cakes. And prices are surprisingly reasonable.

These days when most restaurants are struggling, Pappas had every table filled the night we were there. To find out how our meal was, please look for my review in next Sunday's Arts & Entertainment section.

(Photo courtesy of Pappas's Web site) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Review Preview
        

 
I know we still have French restaurants, although I don't think we have enough any longer to make a Top 10 out of them. (Maybe I should try.)

And, of course, we have some good ones: Petit Louis, Tersiguel's, Crepe du Jour, Cafe de Paris.

But how did Italian food take over French as Most Popular, Most Sure-Fire Bet for a Successful Restaurant and so on? ...

French food has the same range as Italian, from haute cuisine to comfort food (like coq au vin). But somehow over the years while I've been a restaurant critic in Baltimore, French food has acquired a certain elitist status that even the most upscale Italian doesn't have.

People used to argue over whether French or Chinese was the world's greatest cuisine. Italian may or may not belong in that discussion, but in this city it ranks right up there with crab places and steak houses as Baltimore's favorite kind of restaurant. 

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

I decided not to go to the parade today, which might take too much energy, but instead to lie on my bed under the slowly revolving ceiling fan and read all the comments of the past week.

I found I couldn't decide on just one for Comment of the Week, so instead I'm going to declare a winner of the four-word review contest (all of which were great, by the way, if you missed them). This one made me laugh out loud. ...

Fogo de Chao:
devour every farm animal

What's good about this review is that's exactly what I felt I had done after eating there.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Under an earlier post, a lively discussion developed about what condiments were proper for a hot dog. As if "proper" and "hot dog" belong in the same sentence. (Don't get me wrong; once in a blue moon I crave a good hot dog, and I indulge that craving.)

Anyway, Voodoo Pork once sent me an e-mail saying I should write a post about this very subject and I would get 100 comments. I thought that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard, but now I think he may have been right. Who knew? ...

Particularly as the Fourth of July is today, this seems like an appropriate subject for your restaurant critic to clear up for you once and for all.

The proper condiments to put on a hot dog, the kind made from pork by-products and so on, and don't ask what "and so on" stands for, on a Wonder Bread-type roll, are: 1) mustard, 2) ketchup, 3) relish, or 4)  failing those three, chili, preferably from a can.

You can heat the bun if you're really feeling fancy.

The photo, by the way, is of Grilled Hot Dogs With Quick Chowchow from the book Summer Gatherings; Casual Food To Enjoy With Family And Friends by Rick Rodgers. I do not vouch for Quick Chowchow.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (186)
        

This has been such a good vacation that I haven't been food once, which is some sort of record here. Not for a mosquito, deer tick, chigger, spider or copperhead.

Actually we had lunch at the Blue Chair yesterday, and I had a hard time choosing between these two items on the menu:

Maryland Crab Cakes -- handmade wild-caught crab claw cakes served with red pepper ranch and capers $10

and

Lunch Croissant -- ham or peppered turkey with cheddar and dijonnaise on a plain bagel, multi-grain toast or croissant $6

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

It never occurred to me to wonder where the name "slider" came from until I got an e-mail from a reader asking me.

What I do remember is that when they first started to appear on restaurant menus I was surprised that it was a name everyone had heard of for mini-burgers except me.

So I looked it up on the Internet and here's the explanation I found:

In 1994 White Castle was granted a U.S. trademark on the term "slyders" which derived from the way the burgers slide out of their cardboard boxes. ...

You know, that raises more questions than it answers, at least in my mind. Do we call them sliders with an "i" because with a "y" is trademarked? Why didn't White Castle call them sliders with an "i" in the first place if it had to do with how the burgers slid out of the cardbox box?

Why are three sliders considered an appetizer in trendy restaurants when they are clearly as much food as a regular burger? The Village Square Cafe, where I saw them last, even serves them with an enormous pile of fries. Some appetizer.

And why did the name "slider" catch on so fast? It certainly seems to have no connection with a miniature patty of beef on a little bun.

The sliders pictured, by the way, were taken at Luckie's Tavern.

(Doug Kapustin/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I was thinking of doing a post asking everyone to tell us how you're celebrating the Fourth. But frankly, I don't think yours could compete with guest poster Bucky's. EL

Tomorrow is Independence Day, and this year we will engage in one of our semi-traditional activities, going up into the mountains to have lunch at the Coney Island Boardwalk Hot Dog Stand in Bailey, Colo. ...

I say “semi-traditional” because it isn’t something we plan our Fourth around.  But if we aren’t traveling and if we aren’t having a neighborhood block party and if Bucky Jr. isn’t having one of his combination cookout/horseshoe pitching tournaments, that’s what Kaikala and I do on the Fourth of July.
 
None of those other diversions will be present tomorrow; we’re going to Coney Island Boardwalk for lunch.
 
As you can see, the Coney Island Boardwalk Hot Dog Stand is a building designed to look like a hot dog in a bun.  That is its primary attraction.  It also makes it a sort of fun place to eat.
 
We’ve discussed before in the blog about the “proper hot dog” and the “proper hot dog condiments.”  I don’t think anyone has ever opined on a smoked elk hot dog with jalapenos and cheddar cheese.  (Picture of menu included just so you know I’m not making it up.)   But that’s very likely what I’m eating tomorrow.
 
And just to be contrary, I think I’ll put ketchup on it. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)
        

Just in time for my vacation, I got an e-mail from Crabby Crab Host that makes an excellent guest post. I wish I'd raised some of these issues before, only I thought it was just me being greedy. EL

Living in a crabcentric (pretty good word, huh?) town presents us with a unique set of problems. Fortunately you are here to assist with our most pressing needs -- finding the best steamed crabs, crab cakes, and  settings. However, a real dilemma reared its ugly head the other evening -- steamed crabs etiquette. ...

We had just sat down, dumped the crabs on the table, had mallets in hand, and one of our party started pawing through the pile. She was obviously looking for the heaviest, biggest claws or something. Every time she finished one, she would do the same thing. Since my mother raised me to always be polite, I was horrified. I thought good crab manners meant you took the nearest crab from the pile and hoped for the best.

This led me to think about other issues. There is always someone who can pick a crab faster than anybody else and they're usually still picking right to the end. They could easily end up with three or four more crabs than a slow poke.

So what's a host to do? I thought about the obvious -- "there are four of us, two dozen crabs, so stop at number eight." That seems a rude because it's obviously directed at someone in particular and in effect you are calling him a greedy pig.

I could also try to keep count and say, "Wow! Did you finish your share already?" Unfortunately, I'm too busy picking away myself to do so. Or I could just put eight crabs in front of each
person, but then the paw person would probably walk around the table trading her small ones for bigger ones.

And then there is the beverage of choice. I've never cared for beer since I was forcefed the stuff 40 plus years ago while pledging a fraternity. After years of experimenting, I've settled on a very crisp Sancerre-like South African Sauvignon Blanc.  Just try ordering something other than a Bud or a Boh! Even the best waitress will raise her eyebrows, to say nothing of the sneers from fellow diners.

Life can be tough in Baltimore.

(Andre F. Chung/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Steamed crabs
        

Brother Bim: Would you like a glass of Trader Joe's shiraz?

Me: No.

Brother Bim (reading the label): It's a very interesting vintage. March. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

I want to give you a link to Other Reviewer Richard's review of Tahina in Owings Mills today before I go down to cut up apples and peaches to put in the pitcher of sangria I plan on making.

I have to admire Richard's ability to turn this into a full review. Tahina sounds like one of those places that are worthy of a review, but it would definitely have been easier for him to write a four-word review of it.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor/Sun photographer) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I'm not, but some people still are and are still commenting on an old post about where to get the Maison Marconi chopped salad recipe, which led to this joke from Bucky:

Q: How many Baltimoreans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: All of them. One to put in the bulb, and the rest to talk about how much better the old bulb was.

How true. I don't know how many comments the Top 10 Locations We Miss Terribly got, but I remember it was a ton.

Here's the caption for the photo:

Oct 1, 1998-- Marconi's on 106 W. Baltimore St. offers French and Italian (Continental) Cuisine. The restaurant opened in 1920 and the owner claims it is the oldest restaurant in Baltimore. The owner (proprietor) Ilene R. Booke loves the color green so when she renovated the front dining room, she painted it pale green. It has European touch in the room. It's signature dishes are Lobster Cardinale, Oysters Pauline, and Softshell Crab as well as homemade chocolate dessert dish. It opens for lunch and dinner from Tuesday through Saturday. Photo by Chiaki Kawajiri/staff

Oh, heck. While I'm at it, maybe I'll reprint my whole review, which this photo illustrated. Although it makes me a little sad to read it, because Doug H. died in a car accident not too long after. It was his daughter whose wedding we attended in Argentina this Christmas. If you aren't into nostalgia, don't bother to click "Continue reading..."

Marconi's closed in 2005. ...

Doug H. had lived and worked in Baltimore for 13 years before he moved to Annapolis, but he had never heard of Marconi's. Doug H. got taken to the local landmark for dinner recently, ordered minestrone and shrimp Creole and pronounced the restaurant "nice but dated."

Elizabeth L., a longtime resident of Baltimore who knew Marconi's well, ordered the lobster Cardinale, the fried eggplant, the creamed spinach, the strawberry Melba. She didn't say much (she was too busy eating), but she smiled a lot.   

So it goes. How to explain the appeal of this old-fashioned restaurant to those who don't have it as part of their pasts? How to justify a wine list that not only doesn't list vintages, it doesn't even list vineyards?   

Either Marconi's quirks will seem the epitome of Old World charm, or they will make you grumpy. (As restaurants do in Europe, for instance, Marconi's charges extra for bread and butter.)   

Many years ago I reviewed Marconi's and complained about my veal dish. An outraged reader called and chewed me out. "Everyone knows not to order veal at Marconi's."

Everyone knows not to order shrimp Creole at Marconi's if you're expecting anything but a mild, bland version, because -- frankly -- much of the restaurant's clientele isn't as young as it used to be, and its collective stomachs can't tolerate very spicy food. (At least that's my theory.)

You order the lobster Cardinale if you're in the mood for something extravagant. Lobster meat, mushrooms, lots of cream, sherry and Gruyere cheese are arranged in the lobster shell and broiled for a few minutes. It's a handsome dish. Or you have one of the oyster specials, like the plump little sauteed oysters arranged on a slice of Smithfield ham. Usually the lamb chops are wonderfully reliable, but this evening they had a distinct lamb flavor -- too strong for my taste.

As for first courses, you can order minestrone like Doug H. did, but it isn't much more than vegetable soup. Instead, have the delicious antipasto, which features fat lumps of lobster with Russian dressing, a couple of steamed shrimp with cocktail sauce, quarters of hard-boiled egg, a fine slaw, Italian cold cuts, pimentoes and anchovies.

I'm not a fan of the house salad, which is chopped lettuce, egg and tomatoes in a very mayonnaisey dressing; but Marconi's clientele seems to love it. Instead, I'd have one of the vegetables (everything is a la carte here), specifically the fried eggplant. It tastes like eggplant but has the texture of a cloud and a crisp gold exterior. The creamed spinach isn't bad either.

Doug H. had a slice of the "Dark Side of the Moon" chocolate cake for his dessert. Foolish. Everyone knows that such a trendy dessert wouldn't be a big seller at Marconi's, so chances are it wouldn't be all that fresh. And, indeed, it was a bit dry. Elizabeth L. had rich vanilla ice cream with plump strawberries and Melba sauce. Her husband and their other guest shared Marconi's signature dessert: more of that good ice cream with homemade bittersweet fudge sauce served in a bowl on the side.   

Doug H. glanced around and probably wondered what he was doing sitting on an uncomfortable bentwood chair in a dining room that looks like a pale green and white wedding cake (with elaborate crystal chandeliers). Elizabeth L. sat back and enjoyed being waited on by a truly professional and responsive waiter -- one who never even introduced himself.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

As I'm reading this fantastic Funtastic Thursday guest post from Owl Meat, I'm trying to decide what I want for dinner, drink and music.

This would be the music for some reason, maybe because I'm on vacation, and the food would be straight picnic fare, but including cucumber sandwiches, with iced tea for a drink. Here's Owlie. EL

You are stranded on the proverbial desert island. You find a lamp. You rub it and a genie appears. He says that you can have any food, beverage and music for dinner. What do you ask for? It isn't your last meal. It's just what you want today.
 
Over the past few weeks I polled people for their choices. I also included one of my own. I'm sure you can guess from the photo what my wish was. I was a little surprised by how quickly people answered the question. ...

* Salmon, Chimay Belgian ale, and Sinead O'Connor's "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got"
 
* Billy Squier's "Stroke Me," a six-pack of Bud, and a pound of beef jerky
 
* Spaghetti and meat balls, Sinatra, and a glass of Chianti
 
* Free-range Colorado lamb, a case of Cretto Barolo, and The Who's "Quadrophenia"
 
* Abba's Greatest Hits, white Zinfandel, and whole grain toast with apple butter
 
* An Incredible Hulk, a sirloin steak well-done, and Teddy Pendergrast's Greatest Hits
 
* 1978 Chateau Talbot, St. Julienne, boiled lobster, and Eric Clapton's "I'll See You In Heaven"
 
* Sunflower seeds, Asti Spumante, and Britney Spear's Greatest Hits
 
* Clipper City Loose Cannon hop3 ale, Big Bad Wolf pork ribs (spicy) and Van Morrison's "Into the Music"
 
* Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet tea, and classic rock
 
* Jamaican music, Corona beer, and tuna medium rare
 
* Surf and turf, Champagne, and reggae music
 
* Filet mignon medium rare, glass of Cristal, and "What a Wonderful World"

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (63)
        

Have you seen the site Four Word Film Review? Some of them are very clever. I picked out a  food-oriented movie we've discussed here and looked up the reviews to give you some examples.

For instance, for Waitress: "Keri Russells up pies." Although that's not really a review. If you've seen the film, you'll understand why this is both more clever and a review: "Quirky Romantic Comedy Pie."

It's harder than it looks, especially when you apply it to a restaurant review. ...

Of course, I could always say, "Three stars for food," but the idea is to be more imaginative.

For instance, for the Prime Rib: "Pearls, great beef slabs."

Or RA Sushi: "NOISE, good wacky sushi."

Now you try some.

(Photo credit: Alan Markfield ORG XMIT: BW14)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

I would be writing more about the restaurant meals I've been having on my vacation in Sewanee, Tenn., except that this year all the restaurants seem to have closed or burned down.

My brother arrived with a box from Trader Joe's, which he said contained the two major food groups. I looked in and it was filled with bottles of two-buck chuck, except that two bottles were missing, and two cans of tennis balls were in their place.

Here's how my days have been going so far: ...

Wake up, eat breakfast, hit tennis balls. Buy New York Times and USA Today. (This isn't as easy as it sounds; I have to hunt for them. One machine only contains two USA Todays a day.) Do New York Times crossword. Do USA Today sudoku.

Hit tennis balls with brother. Eat lunch. 

Walk in the woods. Sit on the porch with brother and sister-in-law drinking cheap red wine and listening to my husband play guitar.

Figure out what to do about dinner. (Last night we had pizza from a place called Crust. Weirdly, I don't think the crust was made there.)

Eat dinner. Fall asleep at the dinner table. Stagger upstairs to bed. Sleep solidly for eight hours.

Repeat. 

Question: Did you know that if your cell phone is in your jeans and they go through the wash drying it out with a vacuum cleaner sucks the buttons off but does not dry it out enough for it to work?

Bonus question: Does the fact that I put my jeans in the wash without taking out the phone mean that unconsciously a) I am trying to hark back to a simpler time and cut my ties to my frantic, 24/7 uber-accessible lifestyle or b) I am ready to buy that iPhone now?

Note to editors: Do not try to call me because you'll only get my voice mail. 

(Photo of the porch of the De Rosset House where we have cocktail hour by me)  

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

I was tearing my hair out while I was writing today's Table Talk column.

The news had just broken about the Brass Elephant being for sale, but it wasn't clear whether the Sun was going to write a news story about it or wait until there was some real news, like a buyer. So I didn't know how much to say in my Table Talk lead. (The food section prints on Monday, and I knew I wouldn't be around on Monday to make any last-minute corrections.) ...

I ended up writing more about Ixia because I realized my blog post didn't convey my sadness at its closing as much as I felt. 

At least I had some openings to report, two chain -- sorry, upscale group -- restaurants in Annapolis.

Anyway, today's Top 10 is last week's Lunch Spots for City Jurors, one of our more specialized topics. But I always enjoy seeing what comments the editors saw fit to print.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I know you've been waiting all week for this one. Our Shallow Thought Wednesday guru John Lindner, as promised, reviews Maggie's. Here's John. EL

I’ve been wrestling with how to accurately describe Maggie’s in Westminster.

Based on my first meal there, a dinner, I’d have called Maggie’s Carroll County’s Peter’s Inn, lighter on the inventiveness, but with gloriously more seating and decidedly less corner in its bar. Oh, and let’s not forget, plentiful convenient parking. ...

An alleged McDaniel College hangout, Maggie’s vibe consistently strikes me more as local stronghold where middle-age regulars rule.

And after several visits, I suspect the regulars are a forgiving bunch. My meals there have ranged from remarkable to merely commendable – which ain’t bad, but Maggie’s tempts me to expect more.

But who cares? This is one of the best restaurants I’ve found in Carroll County. It is not impeccable, nor does it strive to be. It’s menu doesn’t overreach nor is it timid.

Ambience: Like Peter’s, its interior wears aristocratic decrepitude like an old hunting jacket -- proudly, but not loudly. Along with a formal dining room and informal bar seating, you have two outdoor dining areas: one a parking lot vista, the other abutting but not exactly open to a sidewalk. While I haven’t seen anyone light up, tables in the parking lot dining area included ashtrays. How rebel-forces is that?

Service adds to the family vibe. I saw one waitress sharing photos of the kids with a couple at another table; I’ve seen others greet patrons with hugs.

In the past two visits we had the same server; she was competent and came with a working clutch – knowing when to engage and disengage our table.

Maggie's is more than the sum of her parts. Her food stars blink: 2 1/2 one day, 3 or higher the next. But throw in climate, service, and setting, and Maggie’s is a trustworthy stop and an even better hangout if you can return often enough to work your way into its gestalt, and vice versa.

I’d take Bucky and the indomitable Mrs. Bucky there should they find room in their schedule. Nuff said.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The question of our best food neighborhood came up peripherally on Chowhound awhile back, and many of the posters understandably ducked the issue.

But if you were forced to name Baltimore's best neighborhood for restaurants, bars that serve good food and even markets, what you say? And why?

Harbor East? Hamilton/Lauraville? Or somewhere else? ...

I'd like to throw a dark horse in the ring, or whatever you do with dark horses: Mount Washington. I could make a stronger case for it when Cafe de Artistes, and then McCafferty's, was open, but I like those restaurants along Sulgrave Avenue.

I can't really justify the use of the teapots at Teavolve photo except that the design is neat, and the Mount Washington (and other) neighborhood pictures weren't as interesting.

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer) 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (55)