Zeke's coffee, the Lauraville coffee roaster, has branched out into the cafe business.

Zeke's opened its cafe Friday at 4607 Harford Road, just 0.2 miles north of its production facility on Montebello Terrace. Zeke's continues to roast its coffee at the old spot but you have to got to the new location now to buy beans to go.

The 20-seat cafe is in a 1920s-era building that once served as a tin-ceiling showroom, so the ceiling and walls are completely covered with the stuff, said Todd Brizzi of Zeke's. (I'd asked him his job title and he said "worker bee."

The cafe has been casting about for a celebrity endorser. A few suggestions posted on Zeke's Facebook site: John Waters, Duff Goldman and Sheila Dixon.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (41)
        

I'm not much for work e-mail on a Sunday morning, but I couldn't ignore one subject lined: "Help!"

A faithful Dining@Large reader writes:

"Where  is a great place to go for 6 at 1:00 pm ish on a Sunday? It's too late for brunch. Something nice. My dad's paying. Sunday after brunch is always a no-man's land for me. Thanks!" 

Suggestions?

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

I'd like to take up for poor, old, unfashionable gluten.

Gluten-free everything has become so popular that a friend recently had trouble finding ordinary wheat flour amidst all the gluten-free varieties on the Annapolis Whole Foods shelves.

Gluten-free menus are said to be one of the hottest restaurant trends for 2010. As EL noted on this blog this month, an article on gluten-free Tastykakes was the most read story on The Sun's Web site -- amid two mega-blizzards and a Super Bowl.

All great news for people who can't tolerate gluten. 

But for non-allergic home bakers, especially those of us bent on using whole wheat flour where it doesn't belong, I have a suggestion: More gluten, not less.

Not too long ago, I came across a product on the King Arthur Flour Web site called Vital Wheat Gluten. Adding it to whole grain flour gives the dough a boost while it rises, resulting in a lighter texture, the site claimed. 

As someone who mercilessly sneaks whole wheat flour into the baked goods I make for my husband and two young children, I was interested.

I like a good, dense whole wheat bread as well as the next gal. But the whole-wheat pizza dough I'd been making sometimes fell flat. Using bread flour would have helped, but I wanted to stick with whole wheat because it's more nutritious. (I'd already been using a mixture of white flour and white whole wheat flour, a whole-grain variety made with a lighter-tasting type of wheat. I use two parts white whole wheat to one part white.)

I ordered a $5 1-pound bag of the King Arthur wheat gluten, paid an absurd $6 in shipping, and very soon thereafter was making distinctly better pizza. (I've since learned you can find vital wheat gluten in some supermarkets, including that Whole Foods with the almost annoyingly well-stocked baking aisle.)

I like a thin, crisp pizza crust, and I still got that by rolling and stretching the gluten-boosted dough thin. But the edges came out softer and more bread-y -- an improvement over past crusts, which could be as dry and hard as crackers. 

It says on the gluten-booster bag to add up to 1 tablespoon per cup of flour. I found 2 tablespoons were enough for a batch of dough made with 3 cups of flour. (I've adapted Christopher Kimball's pizza dough recipe in his book The Cook's Bible, which calls only for all-purpose flour. I'd include the recipe here, but I'm afraid Kimball would send a bunch of bow-tied lawyers after me.)

I made a batch of gluten-boosted dough last night for Malaysian Chicken Pizza, an old Cooking Light recipe. It didn't taste the slightest bit like health food.

Malaysian Chicken Pizza and the gluten-booster that makes it better. Photo by math-hubby

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (175)
Categories: Pizza
        

If you want to boost the umami factor in your cooking, you could add mushrooms, cheese or meat. Or you could reach for a tube.

British supermarkets this month began selling tubes of umami paste made of "pulped anchovies and porcini mushrooms," London's Daily Mail reports. Taste No. 5 is meant to satisfy the fifth sense of taste. A little tube costs about $4.50.

"Named Taste No. 5, evoking the allure of a high-class perfume, it triggers the sensation of delight in the brain when at least one of the primary tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and salty is also present," the newspaper reports.

Until No. 5 makes its way to this side of the pond, we'll have to make do with a dab of MSG behind the ears.

Umami the old-fashioned way, from mushrooms and tamari. Chicago Tribune photo by Bill Hogan.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

A few days after I posted something about Sam Sessa's sniffing out Pazo's cupcakes-and-cocktails nights, I stumbled upon the same unlikely combo at another Baltimore restaurant.

I happened to be on the phone with Peter Mooradian, general manager of Milan, the new hipster Italian place in Little Italy. You know, the one that lists prices in dollars and euros?

I'd called Mooradian on a matter related to The Talk column I write, but I mentioned that I was also minding the Dining@Large blog these days. I asked him to let me know if he had any interesting restaurant news. Not, say, a two-for-one entree deal. But something unusual, like that cupcakes-and-cocktails thing at Pazo.

"Cupcakes and cocktails?" he said. He'd just done that at Milan!

"She came in the afternoon and brought hundreds and hundreds of gift-boxed cupcakes," which were stacked in towers and pyramids. Mooradian didn't know where she'd bought them, but said, "They looked pretty classy. They were Fed Exed from somewhere."

There was no claim, as at Pazo, that the cupcakes were expertly paired with the drinks. But apparently there were not complaints as the guests -- there were over 100 -- washed them down with "fashion martinis."

So there you have it: a near-trend. (It's not official, by old newspaper standards anyway, until we get to three.)  

Pazo's Angel Food Cupcake made with Creme Anglaise and Raspberry Sorbet, paired with La Vie en Rose made with Moscato d'Asti, Soho Lychee Liqueur, rose water and fresh rose petal. Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Late Night Places
        

America's latest food scare has me wondering: If you can't trust a Girl Scout, who can you trust?

A Kentucky bakery recalled one variety of Girl Scout cookie this week after customers complained of a "foul smell and taste," the Associated Press reports. The recall affects Lemon Chalet Cremes distributed in Maryland and two dozen other states.

Little Brownie Bakers of Louisville said on its Web site that the problem was caused by the breakdown of oils used in the cookies. No one has gotten sick and the company contends that the cookies, though "not up to our quality standards," are safe to eat.

I'm sure everything would have been fine if those oils had just been given the chance to break down inside our bodies.

Which must be great, since the Girl Scouts of the USA says right on its Web sit that it's "proud that all Girl Scout cookies are 'zero trans fat per serving.'"

Ah, the old per-serving dodge. A serving of Thin Mints? Four cookies. Those Do-Si-Dos or Tagalongs? Two. Two measly cookies! Not the whole sleeve. Eat that, and you'll have enough trans fats for a lifetime.

Mayor William Donald Schaefer downs one of the 21 cookies he tasted at a Girl Scout event in 1980. That's perhaps 10 cookie servings, though he's lived to tell about it. Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum. 

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (71)
        

Robert of Cross Keys' Free Market Friday post is loaded with buttery and deep-fried inspiration for a good exercise program. Here's RoCK. LV.

This week I started to think that the bourbon, ham and cocktail parties were starting to take a toll, so I started a fitness program. The program is ... ahem … a work in progress.

First thing was to join a gym. 

In my Cross Keys newsletter, there was a coupon for a free week at the neighborhood tennis club. Since free is always nice, I thought I should get active. I also decided if I had to go, I was going to bring the wife with me.
 
I knew that we would be facing an uphill battle the moment we walked into the club. Everyone else was wearing nice tennis whites and designer fitness apparel. Our t-shirts didn’t exactly convey a commitment to healthy living.  I was sporting a T-shirt from Tony Packo's, the Hungarian hot dog restaurant in Toledo, Ohio that I have written about in the past. It proudly proclaimed: “The Best Buns in Town.” The wife’s T-shirt was embossed with the emblem of Heinz Ketchup. Rest assured our complementing wardrobes were not planned. Well, they were not planned by us; the Fates may have had a role.
 
The next day came and the wife and I thought about going back to the gym. Not wanting to overdo it, we decided to stay home and make dinner. Now, what to have that would build on our previous day’s workout?  I went to my culinary library and pulled out my London cookbook. When looking for healthy cooking, what better place to look than the land that gave the world deep fried Mars bars? 
 
In this cookbook I somehow managed to find perhaps the unhealthiest recipe in all the British Isles, and of course it was what I made. The selection was potted shrimp -- a shrimp and butter dish. For those unfamiliar with this recipe, it is not some kind of shrimp scampi. Hell, Lean Cuisine offers shrimp scampi, but they’ll never offer potted shrimp.
 
The potted shrimp began with a pound of shrimp heated in a cup of clarified butter. The mixture was then poured into ramekins and refrigerated. A few hours later, another half cup of clarified butter was poured over top to seal in the goodness. Yes, butter poured over butter.
 
I would like to say that the decadence was restrained, but it was not. Potted shrimp is normally served with warm toast, but there was no toast in the house. No, we substituted butter and chive biscuits. 
 
I can say that we didn’t have dessert. Then again, I didn't have any Mars bars in the house.

Photo by Robert of Cross Keys

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

The Atlantic magazine suggests that Walmart just might beat Whole Foods when it comes to local foods. Really.

"The Great Grocery Smackdown" describes efforts by the world's largest retailer to buy from small, local farmers.

The story includes a Walmart-vs.-Whole Foods taste test.

Walmart produce was cheaper and fresher in some cases, testers found, but Whole Foods' meat was much better, if more expensive, than the discounter's.

Of course, Walmart could suck us all in with low-priced local produce, run Whole Foods out of business and then start stocking its shelves with stuff from -- gulp! -- China.

But that sort of thing never happens, right?

Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Don't get too excited. I haven't found a falafel cart yet for Joe Surkiewicz, who is pining for one near his City Halll-area office.

But I did find Falafel Guy, the JFX farmers' market vendor I've been missing since the market closed for the season last fall. Where I found him made me think there's more money in falafel than I'd imagined.

Falafel Guy is wintering in Vail.

It's not really as posh as it sounds. Falafel Guy, aka Adam Kandel, followed a friend out to Colorado. He's working as a ski lift operator.

The 29-year-old from Hamilton promises he'll be back in Baltimore before the Sunday market starts up again in spring. It will be his fifth season there.

No, there are no strawberries in the sandwiches this time of year. But shredded beets, carrots, purple cabbage and local hothouse arugula keep the chickpea croquettes company inside a soft wrap.

Everything but the wraps -- those are purchased the day they're baked at a Middle East Bakery in Beltsville -- is made from scratch with organic ingredients. They even grind sesame seeds to make their own tahini. The sandwiches are vegan, unless customers take the optional honey condiment. As an animal product, honey is not vegan, Kandel noted.

(Am I the last one to learn that vegans don't eat honey? Don't bees make honey and live in cramped quarters in nature? I mean, the bee hive is the original factory farm, in a good way. But I digress.)

The sandwiches cost $8 at the JFX market, a little less in the off season at Waverly. How much less? Kandel didn't want to give me the price because he doesn't want the JFX crowd to expect the winter price.

I'll try to get over to his stand at the Waverly market to find out -- and grab a great lunch at any price.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

I just got off the phone with Randy Stahl, part owner of the Brass Elephant and the restaurant's chef from 1980 until 2000. He filled in some blanks on the sale reported -- Tweeted, actually -- by the city Liquor Board this afternoon.

A group of three or four investors -- Stahl just deals with one -- has signed a contract to buy the shuttered Mount Vernon restaurant. But they have 30 days to decide if with they want to go through with the deal.

"There's a period of due diligence and they're in the middle of that now," said Stahl. During that time, he said, they'll be "looking at the building -- is there lead paint, asbestos?"

Who are the potential buyers?

Stahl won't say until the deal is done.

"They are people from Baltimore who no longer live in Baltimore," he said. "They're planning a restaurant, I can tell you that. ... I have no idea what the concept would be. Depends if they'll operate it or if it's a tenant."

Warm chocolate risotto at the old Brass Elephant. Baltimore Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

The Brass Elephant has new owners, and I have that on good authority: Twitter.

BaltoBeerBaron, the guy spreading this news on Twitter, is in the know. He's Steve Fogleman, the board's chairman. Here's what he shot out to followers during a board meeting just half an hour ago:

"Brass Elephant, 924 N Charles St, hardship ext appd, contract for new owner has been signed."

I'll fill in the blanks as I get more information -- and not just in 140-character bites.

 UPDATE: Still no more word on the Brass Elephant, the fine dining restaurant that closed in August.

But I can share another bit of news Fogleman Tweeted from the meeting: "Outdoor table service granted to Helen's Garden."

 Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox  

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

When a new restaurant opens, I usually want to know all about the chef, not the owner.

But I've been curious about ownership of Prime Steakhouse, which opens Friday in the location once occupied by Timothy Dean Bistro and TD Lounge, because chef Timothy Dean has made a point of saying he's not part of it.

"I have chosen to remove myself as executive Chef and Owner in order to become a consultant for Prime Steakhouse," Dean said in a news release.

In separate interviews, Dean and the restaurant's office manager both declined to identify the owners. All Dean would say was, "It's a group of investors who don't want to be disclosed."

Well, there are personal wants and then there's the law. If you own a restaurant that serves liquor, your name is on file with the Liquor Board. And for Prime Steakhouse, the owner listed on that public record is none other than Timothy Dean.

Dean's contention that he does not own Prime Steakhouse came as a surprise to the city Liquor Board, which was alerted to the chef's comments posted on this blog yesterday.

The board has contacted Dean's lawyer and sent the chef a letter asking him to disclose who owns the restaurant if he doesn't, board Chairman Steve Fogleman told me this afternoon. In board records, Dean is the liquor licensee, Fogleman said.

"If there's a liquor license, you have to disclose the ownership," Fogleman said.

And there's no hiding behind one of those sneaky LLCs. "That can include disclosure of limited liability agreements," Fogleman said.

If Dean has sold the business to someone else, the liquor board has to approve the transfer of the liquor license, Fogleman said.

"We've been in contact with his lawyer and we sent him a letter that if he's transferring a license, a proper application has to be filed," he said.

I could not immediately reach Dean and his lawyer, Peter Prevas. I'll update this post when I hear from them.

Dean has had problems with previous businesses. Just a year ago, a judge ordered him to pay $10,801.70 to Carey Sales & Services, a restaurant supply company.

Lots of restaurants have had trouble in this economy. But the chef's statements about Prime Steakhouse's ownership are creating problems for his new venture even before it opens its doors.

Baltimore Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (58)
        

Orville Redenbacher, move over.

Chef Christian deLutis of Alizee pops his corn in duck fat. He gives it a drizzle of truffle oil and a shake of truffle salt, then gives it away free as a bar snack.

"It's not a cheap bar snack, if I could put it that way," deLutis told me.

But, he said, it keeps people drinking at the bar.

I talked popcorn with deLutis the other day for a story I am writing for next Wednesday's Taste section in The Sun. As you might have guessed, it's about hafalutin' popcorn, not the ordinary stuff.

Anybody out there know another bar or restaurant serving fancy popcorn? I know Woodberry Kitchen offers Eastern Shore popcorn, which may qualify if you factor in locavore chic.

Multicolored organic heirloom popcorn with exotic spice blends from 479 Degrees Popcorn. Photo credit: Chicago Tribune.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Baltimore's National Aquarium holds a series of fish dinners next month, and I'll confess there's something about that idea that cracks me up.

Come admire the fish, then eat them.

Only sustainable seafood will be on the plates, so in that sense the series is in keeping with what an aquarium is usually all about.

Well-known area chefs Bryan Voltaggio, Jesse Sandlin and Jill Snyder -- all three were Top Chef contestants -- will conduct cooking demonstrations before the meals.

The first event takes place March 23, when Sandlin prepares Marvesta shrimp. On May 18, Voltaggio will prepare arctic char. And on June 22, Snyder will serve scallops. 

Cost is $79 for aquarium members, $89  for non-members. There's a package deal for all three dinners that knocks a total of $25 off the tab. You have to buy tickets by March 15 to get in on the discount.

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

I know what you're thinking:

Wednesday is winding down and you haven't encountered a single shallow thought, at least a shallow thought from Shallow Thought Wednesday guru John Lindner.

Lindner vowed that last week's STW would be his last. But it seems that reports of STW's death have been greatly exaggerated.

I asked -- OK, begged -- Lindner to keep the STW tradition alive, and he agreed. He had to take this week off for some reason (he needed to be profound for at least one Wednesday), but he expects to be back at it next week.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 6:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Do all those "small plate" restaurants take Maryland's "America in miniature" slogan a little too literally?

Chef Timothy Dean thinks that in this economy, restaurant patrons are looking for value in the form of a big hunk of meat, not a demitasse of soup. And they don't want to have to pay for every side dish, he contends, as is the case at traditional, a la carte steakhouses.

"I don't know how you go and pay 40 bucks or plus for steak on a plate and then they want you to get a side for 8 or 9 bucks," he said. "I decided, that's my niche: I'm not going to charge for the side." 

That's the thinking behind Prime Steakhouse, the restaurant filling the Eastern Avenue space once occupied by Timothy Dean Bistro and TD Lounge. It opens Friday, with every entree paired with a side and priced at $30 or less.

In a phone conversation this afternoon, Dean said that after studying different restaurant concepts for the past six months, he noticed that steakhouses seemed to be weathering the economy better than other restaurants.

Dean said the steakhouse venture will allow him to get back to his roots in the restaurant industry and away from the nightlife business he got into when Timothy Dean Bistro turned into TD Lounge. 

"I'm tired of the 2, 3 in the morning type thing," he said. "I'm turning 40 next week. I've had enough of that."

So have the neighbors, but that's another story.

Dean will not serve as chef at Prime Steakhouse. His role is consultant to the restaurant, whose ownership is shrouded in mystery for some reason. "It's a group of investors who don't want to be disclosed," was all Dean would say.

Dean was more forthcoming about expansion plans for Prime Steakhouse. He plans to open a second location in the fall in Prince George's County's Woodmore Towne Centre, which, he notes, has a Wegmans. He's been looking at a location in National Harbor, either for another Prime Steakhouse or a bistro.

Longer term, he hopes to expand Prime Steakhouse well beyond the Baltimore-Washington area.

"Emeril and Thomas Keller and Wolfgang are doing it," he said. "Why not me?"

(Baltimore Sun photo of Dean's diver scallops in his bistro days. Now he's into big hunks of meat.)
 

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)
        

Chef Timothy Dean is about to open a new restaurant in the same Eastern Avenue space that first housed Timothy Dean Bistro and then TD Lounge.

Prime Steakhouse opens Friday with a menu intended to appeal to recession-weary fine diners. Every entree will be priced $30 or below, and will come with one side. The wine list will feature 30 bottles under $30.

"In this economy, change is necessary," Dean says in a news release. "As a result, I have chosen to remove myself as executive Chef and Owner in order to become a consultant for Prime Steakhouse."

If that sound like a rather dour way to herald the opening of a new restaurant, at least the headline on the release was exuberant: "Mastermind and Master Chef Timothy Dean Reinvents Steakhouse Experience in Baltimore."

I couldn't reach Dean by phone just now, but the the restaurant's office manager, Tanay Medley, offered to fill in a few blanks.

First and foremost, Dean will not be in the kitchen, she said. Chef Abdella Drake of TD Lounge will do the cooking.

She could not discuss the restaurant's ownership, except to say that Dean was not part of it.

"In all honesty, it's a group of investors," she said. "I don't personally don't know. They remain blank faces so far."

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun Photo)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (70)
        

Whoopie pies are going the way of cupcakes.

The once-humble dessert sandwich is getting dolled up in exotic flavors like ginger with lemon curd filling, The Sun's Jill Rosen writes in today's Taste section.

That’s one of the many varieties cooked up at a Security Square Mall bakery named B. Hall, Baker, which is selling them exclusively, and expensively, by mail order.

Writes Rosen: "If the nouveau flavors don’t draw gasps from Amish baker women, the $28-per-dozen price tag likely will."

My question: What cocktail pairs best with whoopies?

I ran that by the highest imaginable authority: Pazo, which just started a cocktails-and-cupcakes special on Thursdays. Read the beverage manager's suggestion below.

He suggests pairing a whoopie pie with a chocolate mint martini or chocolate orange martini.

Rationale: You need something to amplify the cocoa in the whoopie pie, and then something to balance it out. 

<i>Photo: Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun</i>

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

I can’t wait for spring, and not just because Baltimore could be in for another 7 inches of snow. I miss Falafel Guy.

I don’t even know his name, but I know where to find him when the farmers’ market under the JFX is open for business. Anyone at the market can direct you to him.

The day I made my way to his booth last summer, he tucked chickpea croquettes inside an oversized wrap along with fresh beet matchsticks, fancy greens and – sounds weird, but trust me here – sliced strawberries. They were perfectly ripe, red-to-the-core local strawberries, too. I seem to recall two sauces – one creamy, one spicy – but memory fails me here.

Falafel Guy came to mind this week when Joe Surkiewicz rang me up to vent:

“Why are there no falafel stands in this city? There should be good, cheap food that you can get from a cart. It’s why it’s a backwater.”

It must be noted that Surkiewicz, who works near City Hall as communications director for Maryland Legal Aid, once had the luxury of a crepe cart just across the street from his office. It was at Lexington and Gay streets, right by the War Memorial Building.

So why the bellyaching?

The crepe cart disappeared. And it wasn't Surkiewciz’s idea of cart food anyway.

“It was very expensive, eight or 10 bucks – from a cart.”

The farmers’ market is only a short walk from Surkiewicz's office. My suggestion to him: Come spring, start working Sundays. It’d be worth it.

Photo credit: AP

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

Some people still observe that old rule about not talking politics or religion at the dinner table.

At least a few of them are readers of this blog, who gave me the equivalent of the spousal kick under the table this morning when I dragged a bunch of unsuspecting mayors into the conversation here at Dining@Large.

You can't really argue with the rule, especially if you don't want to argue at the table.  

But I can’t say that I observe it. Except at family gatherings with one particular brother-in-law, who on Christmas 2001 remarked at the table that all Muslims and Jews were going to hell.
I begged to differ. Then, as the “discussion” went on, I shrieked to differ: “Anne Frank went to hell?!!”

Everyone else at the table stayed mum, even the NPR-listening, Sierra Club-belonging, liberal-to-the-core secular humanists in attendance. They piped up only with a few vain attempts to steer the conversation toward how particularly good the gravy and dressing were.

The two of us went at it all through dinner, dessert and dish-washing. No china was broken. Credit the season of miracles for that much.

At the urging of our respective spouses, we’ve both tried, mostly successfully, to hold our tongues at subsequent family gatherings.

That Easter, when my brother-in-law spoke approvingly of Augusta National Golf Club’s exclusion of women, I responded, “Ha, ha, ha. I have a different view.”

My tone was gay, breezy and — OK, a little sarcastic. But just a little. No fur flew.

So I understand the value of keeping the dinner conversation light.

But a blog, even one about Christmas dinner, is not Christmas dinner. It’s a place for spirited conversation.

And if we disagree sometimes about who serves the best crab cake, how much we should tip or whether politics belongs in a restaurant blog, at least the family peace is not at stake.

To anybody out there who thinks the blog should never stir the pot, I say, “Ha, ha, ha. I have a different view.”

(Associated Press photo)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (50)
        

I don't know about you, but I'm not always sure which mixed drink goes best with my cupcake.

Three-Martini Playdate moms aren't alone in that struggle. Apparently the proper cupcake-cocktail pairing can elude even the hippest diner. Which is why Pazo has stepped up to the plate.

On Thursdays starting this week, the restaurant will offer cupcakes specially paired with grownup drinks, as The Sun's Sam Sessa reports on the Midnight Sun blog.

The cupcakes are no more kiddie fare than the drinks. One of the more unusual varieties is bacon & Manchego cupcake, made with miticrema nousse. That's paired with a warm apple cider made with Grey Goose La Poire, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram and Velvet Falernum.

See the other four cupcake and cocktail pairings at Sam's blog.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

I wear a couple of hats here at The Sun these days. I write a weekly column about politicians and other local oddities. And, for the time being, I write this blog. When I started on the blog last week, Dining@Large reader Federal Hal wrote:

“To test your crossover skills ... If you were going to deliver a restaurant gift certificate in an unmarked envelope to City Hall, which restaurant would you choose?”

The short answer: Depends on the mayor. The long answer: Below.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake: The Capital Grille. It’s near City Hall. And the service is formal. Wait staff’s not gonna call her “Stephanie.”

Sheila Dixon: Nordstrom Cafe at Towson Town Center. Convenient to shopping.

Martin O’Malley: Mick O’Shea’s. Those three little words: Guinness on tap.

Kurt Schmoke: The Johns Hopkins Club. It’s where Baltimore’s eggheads meet and eat.

Thomas D'Alesandro III: Werner’s. The classic lunch-counter look seems not to have changed since 80-year-old “Young Tommy” really was young.

William Donald Schaefer: McDonald’s. Mayor Annoyed loves fast food, so long as the counter staff speaks English.

OK, I’m out of live mayors. On to other elected officials.

Bob Ehrlich: Soup’s On. His Government House chef once told me he likes soup. And there are lots of varieties, so the once-and-maybe future Guv can keep the counter staff guessing about his plans.

Jim Smith: Kali’s Court. The outgoing Baltimore County exec is a judge, after all. Bonus: Kali’s  “buy one entree, get the next capital project for free” deal.

Ken Ulman: Chuck E. Cheese. Howard County’s whippersnapper exec will enjoy the youthful ambiance. Let's hope it’s a Healthy Howard-certified eatery.

John Leopold: Chipotle at Westfield Annapolis Mall. The Anne Arundel County Exec can take his barbacoa out to his county car and have a spicy time in the parking lot.

(Photo by Jed Kirschbaum/Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Tomorrow is National Pancake Day, and to be perfectly honest, I don't much care. Not that I have anything against pancakes. It's the obscure commemorative days I can do without.

But I've decided National Pancake Day is worth a mention for this reason: Participating IHOPs are serving free short stacks of buttermilk pancakes all day Tuesday, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

That's right. You pay nothing. Nada. Zip.

Unless the guilt gets to you. 

The Pancake Day promotion is a charity fund-raiser. Patrons will be asked to make a donation to to a children's charity. Money raised in the Baltimore area will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

You can always tell your server you gave at the office. But heck, it's for a good cause. And you're saving all that dough -- batter? -- you would have spent on pancakes.

(Photo by Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

You're missing EL. Just don't miss her farewell piece in The Sun, which ran in print Sunday. 

Tim Smith, who writes about classical music for The Sun, also has a piece recalling his dining adventures with the critic. 

And reporter Jill Rosen finds out what many of you Dining@Large fans imagine the mysterious critic is like. 

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The Center Club just sent out letters to members who failed to cough up their $985 annual dues by Jan. 1.

"If your annual dues are unpaid, please send us a check ASAP!!!" the letter reads. "Furthermore, the club is not interested in sending 'past due' notices to our Members nor do we want  to collect interest."

I know all this because a copy of the letter was mailed to me by some anonymous tipster. "Is this club doomed?" the tipster wrote in the margin.

Triple exclamation points aside, Center Club General Manager John L. Warnack assured me the club is not doomed. In fact, he said it's thriving.

"We encourage people to try to pay their dues on time," he said. "Sometimes we give them a friendly reminder. We've done this every year since 1962. It's a form letter from years ago."

Warnack said the club, which underwent a major renovation last year, has seen membership grow in the past year.

"Our numbers are up," he said. "2009 was a net 40 [increase]. We've had our best January in six years."

(Piano bar and lounge area of the Center Club. Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

March 14 is Pi Day, which celebrates that nice, irrational number 3.141593-yada-yada-yada representing the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. (Thanks, math-teacher husband.) It's also an excuse for a party.

Donna Beth Joy Shapiro, of the late Old Waverly History Exchange & Tea Room, has thrown a Pi Day party for the past 12 or 13 years. The menu changes, but the food is always round. Say, salad with cherry tomatoes and slices of carrot, cucumber and radish -- no lettuce. If she serves pizzas, they're sized for one so the circles don't have to be "desecrated" into wedges. (Or sectors, suggests math-hubby; OK, dear, you've done your part. Go away now and let me work.)

Shapiro's no-desecration stance tends to exclude pie, oddly enough. Unless they're mini-pies. Shapiro is thinking of making individual cheesecakes for dessert this year. And maybe homemade bagels.

The conversation is circular, too.

"We get into the more existential -- life is a circle," she said. "There are all sorts of wonderful quotes that deal with the circle of life." 

The idea for the party came from her husband, Fred Shoken, an architectural historian.

"He is a pi freak," she said. "He can recite pi to I don't know how many decimals."

This year, for the first time, their party will take place on the night before Pi Day. That's because Shapiro, who intends to start making cheese professionally, has to travel to Vermont on the 14th for a workshop on washed-rind cheeses.

"All Jewish holidays start the night before," she noted. "That's why we feel it's OK."

In other words, the circle will remain unbroken.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Lollygagging lovers have until tonight to mark Valentine's Day, thanks to the one week extension Gov. Martin O'Malley granted because Marylanders were all too snowed in, snug at home, fire in the fireplace, for any romance. Well, any romance that makes cash registers ring.

Looks like there will be a good crowd celebrating tonight with an opera dinner at Sotto Sopra. (I couldn't reach anyone at the Mount Vernon restaurant today, but Open Table indicates it's sold out.) 

A soprano, tenor and pianist will entertain while guests make their way through a meal that begins with warm tomato tartlet with fried leeks and parsley oil and winds up five courses later with creme caramel with candied apricots and pistachio fricassee. Cost is $58 per person, not including drinks, tax and tips.

My husband and I attended an opera dinner at Sotto Sopra and found it delightful. That was several years and several chefs ago. The food and music were great treats, though I could have done without the soup course and the performance of "Danny Boy." The former was a little bland. The latter made me think of O'Malley.

Doesn't sound like tonight's soup course will lack for flavor.  It's sweet potato and artichoke with spiced pine nut gratin.

(Random photo of Valentine's chocolate by Sarah KK)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I've neglected the bacon lobby lo these three days of blogging.

I'm on it now, this Sunday morning, which, come to think of it, is the perfect time to put on a pot of coffee and cook up those fabulously fatty strips. If only we could get that coffee kick and meaty thrill all in one bite.

Wait! You can, thanks to Perky Jerky. It's beef jerky fortified with guanara guarana, an ingredient in energy drinks made from the seeds of a plant in the maple family. (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Developed by a couple of ski jocks, it's billed as "the world's first all-natural performance enhancing meat snack." (Is there a second?)

Perky Jerky packs 120 milligrams of caffeine in every 2-ounce bag, says the company Web site. (Link: perkyjerky.com) That's about what's in two energy drinks. And just 90 calories and 2 grams of fat.

OK, it's not exactly bacon. But any self-respecting baconista ought to have room in the cupboard for Perky Jerky, next to the Baconnaise, squeeze-bottle bacon, bacon salt, bacon mints, bacon popcorn, bacon lip balm and bacon gumballs. (Link: Thinkgeek.com, search for bacon)

If you insist on REAL bacon news:

There's a chef in South Baltimore who will soon be serving a bacon he makes himself with a birch beer brine. I'd tell you who it is, but if I write about the guy one more time, I'll be accused of stalking.

(Photo courtesy of Perky Jerky)

(Editor's note: Yeah, so you know how the blog software can get a little wonky? LV and I [SKK] overwrote each other's work, and this didn't get posted when it was supposed to. So no, despite the time stamp, you aren't crazy. It's us, not you.)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

A friend of mine recently traveled to Chicago and, while dining out at The Publican restaurant, was surprised to see venison heart on the menu.

Sounds to me like a twofer movie sequel, in which the huntsman charged with doing in Snow White presents the Evil Queen with a deer's heart instead of a pig's, and it's so tasty, they all live happily ever after. Except for Bambi.

Giving nary a thought to Disney, my friend ordered the venison heart and thoroughly enjoyed it.

That got me wondering if anyone around here offers that sort of delicacy. I asked -- you guessed it -- Chef Patrick Morrow, partly because his restaurant Bluegrass will offer game, and partly because I already had him on the horn to discuss a couple of other, aforeblogged matters.

While venison hearts aren't on Morrow's menu, he has cooked hearts of geese and lamb for himself and friends.

"I have some friends who are hunters," he said. "They'll come back, and the next thing I know I'm cooking a six-course meal at their house."

Which the other night, included goose livers and hearts.

"I thought I wouldn't like heart and actually it's very good," he said. "It can be very tough so you have to slice it very thin. ... Lots of people are probably sous vide-ing it because it makes it more tender."

(Paging Prof. McIntyre: Sous vide-ing? Sous viding? Which is it? I'd hate to tick off the French.)

With more adventurous eaters out there, and more chefs buying whole animals straight from farmers, expect to see more "off cuts" of meat on menus, Morrow said.

"In the last year, I've paid more attention to the offal," he said. "More people are trying it."

(Photo of Bambi courtesy of The Walt Disney Company)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

With more chefs buying directly from farmers and fishermen these days, some unusual animal parts are showing up on menus.

That's because buying direct often means buying the whole animal -- and coming up with uses for all of it. If a chef wants to traffic in just tenderloins, better to ring up Sysco.

The snout-to-tail cuisine trend struck me particularly this week when, on the same day, The Oceanaire Seafood Room in Harbor East started offering Alaskan king crab tail, and a friend happened to mention that he'd recently dined on venison heart.

I'll get to the venison heart in my next post. On to the tail.

Oceanaire executive chef Benjamin Erjavec discovered king crab tails during an October 2008 trip to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to learn more about king crabbing and processing. He couldn't get his hands on them in the lower 48 until this week.

"They're just trying to get full utilization of the product," he said of the fishermen. "I assume up until now the tail has gone in with the rest of the shell and gets ground up into bait."

Erjavec got his first shipment of 150 2- to 3-ounce tails just the other day, and he was playing around with how to prepare them. They're flat, thin medallions that look something like veal scaloppini. 

"We deep fried them, steamed them, poached them, tried a lot of them in and out of the shell," he said. "I think right now the way we found was the best was flour and pan sear."

That's how the tails debuted on the menu this week, five on a plate for $38.95. Quite a promotion for near-chum.

"When it's cooked, it's got a very different texture than anything I've used before -- almost got a cooked egg white texture -- spongy, but extremely delicate and sweet," the chef said.

He doesn't expect the tails to make anyone forget king crab legs, but he thinks they're "a great product" that will get some attention because "it's something new."

"I hate to say it, but if they were better than the legs, the legs would not be the big deal."

(Photo courtesy The Oceanaire)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Baltimore has its share of food deserts, which are a disgrace.  It also has foodie deserts, which are merely a pain.

"We have Shoppers [supermarket] and that's about it," chef Patrick Morrow was telling me the other day. "If you want something organic or all natural, you're driving around the city to go to Whole Foods."

In the South Baltimore neighborhood Morrow was describing, help is on the way.

His soon-to-open Bluegrass restaurant will offer local, pasture-raised steaks both on its menu and in a take-out meat case.  Customers can buy the meat raw and cook it themselves at home. 

"We're trying to partner up with a local farmer, and we're trying to work a deal out where we would sell some local, all-natural beef [to go]," Morrow said.

(I interrupt this blog entry for a brief explanation for my initial Morrow-centrism, and a warning to brace for a bit more of it. Yes, I just wrote about how the chef didn't mean to diss Langermann's. And I'll have something else with him soon related to venison heart. But heck, I've just started this gig, I had the guy on the phone and he had some interesting things to say. I'll branch out. Pinky swear. Now, back to the beef.)

In addition to raw steaks, Bluegrass will sell wines and local cheeses to go when it opens -- the target is mid-March -- but that's about it. The place, at Fort Avenue and South Hanover Street, does not seek to become an upscale mini-mart.

"If you're coming in to buy a bottle of wine, why not buy a steak or artisanal cheeses there instead of going to the grocery store?" Morrow said.

Morrow thinks the restaurant and meat case will feed off each other. 

"You can't go out to eat every night," he said. "If they've eaten a meal and they're, like, 'Oh my God, that steak's great,' they'll come by and grab a pound to go."

And when they don't feel like cooking, he hopes happy meat-counter customers will come in for a meal.

(And an editor's aside, too: Sorry for the lack of art, but I'm having a bit of a technical issue to be resolved soon. -- SKK)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

So who are these brave, brave Baltimoreans who dared have America's high priestess of entertaining over on Valentine's Day?

I speak of the mysterious Mr. and Mrs. Phung Doan, with whom Martha Stewart lunched last Sunday. Stewart reports on her blog that the Doans treated her to a Vietnamese feast to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

"I was very much impressed with the traditional foods that Mrs. Doan artfully prepared, including goi cuon -- shrimp spring rolls and banh chung -- rice cakes wrapped in banana leaves and stuffed with mung beans and pork."

It's not like Stewart just happened to be in the neighborhood. She schlepped to Baltimore -- she doesn't say from where, but presumably from Connecticut, Long Island or someplace else she hangs her hat -- aboard the Acela specifically for the meal.

I'm still trying to track down the Doans. Anybody out there know them, and know if they take reservations?

(Associated Press photo)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Chef Patrick Morrow of soon-to-open Bluegrass in South Baltimore would like you to know: He wasn’t talking trash about Langermann’s.

In EL’s final Table Talk column in The Sun the other day, she wrote: “I asked Morrow how he would compare his menu to Langermann’s and he described it as ‘more refined. It’s not barbecue and collard greens.’”

Baltimore Magazine’s food blog ran the comment by chef Neal Langermann and reported that he’d been surprised by it. Headline on the item: “War of the South.”

Morrow phoned me today to say he’d been misunderstood. (He’d also tried EL, but she was already out the door.) Morrow said he wasn’t comparing his restaurant to Langermann’s, but to a traditional barbecue joint.

“I’ve never eaten there and I definitely don’t want them to think I’m talking bad about their food,” Morrow said. “I don’t want another chef in the area thinking I’m talking down about him.”

For his part, Langermann told me he’d never been upset by the comment. Spicy Baltimore Magazine headline aside, the blog had only quoted him noting that his Canton restaurant offers more than traditional Southern food. (Barbecue, yes, but “not all over the menu,” he later told me. And not a collard green in the house, though “I imagine they’ll poke their head up on a special at some point.”)

 “I wasn’t offended in any way, shape or form,” Langermann told me. “People are talking about it but certainly there’s no competition between myself and anybody.”

(Photo of Neil Langermann by Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

I know, I know, the body isn’t even cold. But you’re a hungry lot, and EL tells me it’s best to keep you fed.

While the beloved original hostess of this restaurant-and-foodie smorgasbord starts savoring retirement, my job, at least temporarily, is to keep the grub coming.

In other words: My name is Laura, and I’ll be your server.

At least one EL fan, apparently familiar with The Talk column that I’ll continue to write weekly, voiced concern on the blog that I am “mean spirited” and “nasty.”

Rest assured, I’m only mean to politicians who wear ill-gotten furs, dress down constituents who call them by first name or promise to hold down my BGE bill and don’t. To everyone else, I’m a peach.

I’d like to clear up another misconception that’s popped up in this space: I am not now and never have been a libertarian suburbanite. I live in the city. Call me a libertarian urbanite and I’ll cop to it.

I’m also someone who loves food, and loves talking and writing about it. I look forward to doing that with all of you.

(Photo by Istockphoto // A diner sizes up a new dish. If he tries it, maybe he'll like it.)

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (61)
        

I'm sorry to get up from the table so abruptly, but I've got a lot of things to do, and none of them involves writing about food.

I just bought a new pair of hiking boots at Hudson Trail Outfitters. Aren't they beautiful? Now I need to break them in. These boots are made for walking.

This is my last post for Dining@Large, unless they let me write a guest post in the future. It's been a blast, but I'm ready for some down time. ...

I'm still on the payroll till the end of the month; but tomorrow I leave for San Diego for a vacation scheduled before I thought about retiring. I won't come back until you promise me it won't snow again this season -- and then who knows?

If I feel like it, I'll lie in bed all day reading trashy novels and eating bonbons, or go to the movies in the afternoon.

Spend more time in the gym.

Reclaim my basement and polish the silver.

I promised my husband that dinner would never again consist of Gruet Blanc de Noirs and Smartfood White Cheddar Popcorn out of the bag. 

I should work on my topspin backhand. Sit at the breakfast table and do the crossword.

Maybe I'll learn Italian or take a bridge class.

I sound like that Dolly Parton song, don't I?

Hey maybe I'll learn to sew

Maybe I'll just lie low

Maybe I'll hit the bars

Maybe I'll count the stars until dawn

Or to quote my favorite ex-Terp basketball player-philosopher Stevie Francis when an interviewer complimented him on his game:

"I had some moves. But I got some more moves you ain't even seen yet."

But I will miss you.

When the Tribune offered a buyout the summer of '07, I would have taken it then after 34 years on the job. But I had just started this fabulous new thing called a blog, and I was having too much fun. Mostly, that was because of you, dear readers and commenters.

You know who you are. I wish I could thank each of you individually for your contributions.

If I tried, I would have to start with my daughter, Gailor. All the best ideas for posts came from her. (I'm not counting Top 10 Tuesday, which was her idea. It became an albatross but did generate page views.) She was also the one who insisted that every entry had to have art. That seems so obvious now, but if you look at my first posts, they didn't.

Robert of Cross Keys, Bucky and Owl Meat Gravy in their guest posts all added points of view that I simply couldn't provide, and I'm very grateful.

I wish Jay C. well.

As for John Lindner, our Shallow Thought guru and my blog guru (both while he was at the Sun and after he left), I hope once I can bear to sit in front of a computer again we can come up with some sort of joint internet adventure. After all, we're yin and yang: I've never drunk a beer in my life, and I can't imagine him sipping Assam from a fine bone china teacup. But he appreciates a good pot au feu, and I like a burger and fries now and then.

Maybe our friends John McIntyre and Sam Sessa, who have been enormously helpful to me, will come in with us.

So what happens next? I'm not sure. The Sun's new restaurant critic hasn't been decided yet, so the fate of Dining@Large hasn't either, but there will be a restaurant blog.

In the meantime, my friend and colleague Laura Vozzella will start posting here this afternoon, so please check back. She's trying out blogging to see how she likes it.

And as soon as I can bear to sit down in front of a computer again, I'll be joining you as a reader and commenter, even if not an original poster.

Looking forward to it.

(My last photo by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (81)
        

I love this post. It may be the last Free Market Friday that I publish, but I'm hoping Robert of Cross Keys won't stop writing guest posts for the blog. Here's Robert. EL

Last week I went to Joe Squared.  While talking to the owner, Joe, I mentioned that I am Robert of Cross Keys.  He responded with disbelief.  “You’re RoCK.  No way.  I thought you were like 50 or something.”
 
I’ll admit that I was probably born after my time. I spend a lot of time thinking about the past and what life used to be like.  Now, I’m not talking about what was life like in medieval Europe or colonial America, I’m talking about what adult life was like . . . when I was only a child.   
 
At work I find myself seeking out the veterans and asking what was Accounting like back in the 70’s or what was going on in Human Resources during the 1980s. Most of these conversations end up with me going on a rant about how lame office parties have become.  I’m not sure why, but somewhere around 1985 the highlight of these festivities moved from Seagram’s 7 to seven layer dip. ...

My favorite foray into past, however, is talking about restaurants that I didn’t get a chance to visit.  I will always welcome the opportunity to talk about Baltimore’s food scene from days gone by.
 
One time I was in Petit Louis eating sweetbreads. I started talking to these two older guys sitting next to me about how sweetbreads used to be more common in restaurants, but now they were more of a special treat.   Well, the next thing I knew they were telling me about everything from the shad roe at Danny’s to chocolate sauce at Marconi’s.
 
The history lesson isn’t limited to places that closed up shop years ago. A few days ago I was down in Annapolis at Middleton Tavern, which has been a tavern since the 1700s. I got a chance to meet Jimmy. Jimmy has been working in the kitchen at Middletown since 1946. I probably could have spent hours talking to him.  To think of all the things he has seen change -- while staying at the same place.
 
While meeting Jimmy, I couldn’t help but think about Elizabeth . The longevity of these two individuals is somewhat of an anomaly in their respective fields.  How many cooks or journalists are you going to see staying in the same place for years, let alone decades?
 
What I’ll miss most about Elizabeth is her institutional knowledge and local history, because that will not be duplicated. There will be other reviewers, and I’m sure they will be able to describe what the food tastes like at Roy’s, what the room looks like at Pazo and what the servers serve like at Birches, but they’re probably not going to know what Danny’s was like back in the 1970s or what was going on at  Marconi’s in the 1980s.

(Photo of Jimmy courtesy ofTamar Fleishman)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Wow. I can't believe I'll be going into work for the last time today. Unlike most people, I love going into work. I just don't want to, you know, have to work when I get there. ...

Working in a newspaper office is like being in no other work environment in the world. I don't understand why they won't pay me to go in to suggest story ideas and schmooze with the other reporters and editors, who are all 30 years younger than me and still my friends. Who will explain to them obscure food references, who Paul Pierce is, and why Kalinda on the Good Wife is going to be the Next Big Thing?

Well, as Gailor says, I'm the world's oldest teenager.

They're having a potluck lunch for me today as a sendoff, with the piece de resistance, I hear, being fried chicken from KFC. 

My dear editor, Sarah KK, gave me a gift bag yesterday with more gourmet milk chocolate bars in it (she's also a milk chocolate fan) than any human being should have access to. I mention her specifically because after today if you have food/restaurant tips while guest writers are still handling my chores, please e-mail them to her at sarah.kelber@baltsun.com.

I'm almost down to the last of the e-mails in my inbox, so I'm going to throw these few out this morning for you to deal with, and hope I don't have anymore when I get in: 

This one from Cynthia stumped me. Maybe the Peppermill in Lutherville?

I'd like to take my mother out for her 80th birthday to a place where they still sing Happy Birthday, etc. -- can you make any recommendations?

Meredith has this request that I feel like I've posted before, but I can't find it. Maybe they all sound alike at this point:

Considering your restaurant expertise, I was hoping that you could help me find the right place for my wedding reception.  We want something outside with a pretty garden or patio - view optional.  We are only going to have 25 people and would want to have one long table.  Any suggestions?
 
The only place I can think of right now is on the patio at the Wine Market, but I would love more flora and fauna.

This is a tough one from Jamie:

I'm a ex-pat from Baltimore and a fellow foodie and would love to get the recipe for Western Fries. I grew up loving the ones that were at Eddie's at Cross Keys and was so sad to see that the one on Roland doesn't serve them anymore. Would you have an idea on how to get the recipe?

Felicity had a good suggestion for a blog topic that I never got around to writing:

Sometime perhaps you could write an article on the subject of restaurant china - I was so infuriated by the pretentious soup plates and  saucers at [Chez Maison] that the (reasonably good) meal was less enjoyable than it should have been...

Finally, it looks as if that Valentine's Day sex-in-the-bathroom promotion at the Toronto restaurant was a hoax.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

OK, I've written the farewell column and done the photo shoot. Now I have to pick 10 memorable reviews that will be part of the Signing Off package.

Only I can't remember 10 most memorable reviews. (I have five so far if you count my first one.) They start to blur after all this time. Any nominations?

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Astute readers will have noticed that Other Reviewer Richard doesn't have a review in today's features section. That's because the new Thursday Health Style section was introduced today. His review will appear tomorrow.

This is as good a place as any to tell you what's happening with my columns for now. Things are still up in the air, but until a permanent decision is made, Laura (as you know) will be taking over Dining@Large and Richard will be writing the fine-dining reviews and Table Talk. Rob Kasper will  be taking over the casual eats column until the dust settles. (But Richard wrote the one for tomorrow.)

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I have to go get my hands photographed for my farewell column Sunday. What? You wanted to see my face? Ha ha.

Anyway, a couple of people  forwarded links to me today to stories that are well worth reading. One, from Casey Jenkins, is about chefs Tweeting aggressively. The other is from Alexander D. Mitchell IV on a kinder, gentler, fresher Walmart.

Take a look.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Apparently the Super Bowl wasn't so super for restaurants and bars.

Actually, I hadn't realized it was expected to be. I thought most people had Super Bowl parties at home. Or you ordered pizza.

And, of course, the blizzard didn't help around here. ...

Anyway, Technomic, an industry research firm, reports that sales data from 3,000 establishments nationwide showed that business was down 6 percent from the year before.

“The Super Bowl is the first big event of the New Year, and we had hoped to see people returning to bars and restaurants,” said David Henkes, a Technomic vice president. “This is the first true indicator for 2010 that restaurants and bars are still struggling, and it corresponds to our forecast for another down year for the food service industry.”

Well, that's cheerful.

Who would go to a restaurant on Super Bowl Sunday anyway? I mean, I can see going to a bar (although not if you actually wanted to watch the game). But restaurants shouldn't be affected one way or the other.

Or maybe restaurants figure they should attract those 65 percent of Americans who don't want to watch the Super Bowl but can't get their hands on the remote that evening.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

According to CityPeek.com, Boccaccio in Little Italy was sold at auction today for $1,450,000. The new owner? The site says Peter Angelos.

Maybe he'll open Marconi's there.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

You thought the era of extravagant lunches was over? Not so. Charleston in Harbor East is going to start serving lunch next Tuesday, Feb. 23.

Lunch will be served Tuesday through Friday from noon until 1:30 p.m. There are several fixed-price options being offered, starting with three courses for $44 a person.

I'm not sure what Charleston's new lunch service says about the economy, the neighborhood, or the health of business lunches (or Ladies Who Lunch, I guess); but it definitely says something.

(John Makely/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Actually that's our Shallow Thought guru John Lindner's title for this guest post, not mine. I will be very disappointed if he doesn't change his mind and continue. I was looking forward to commenting on his posts below them, not above. And p.s., John, I'm really, really sorry about the centerpiece story that appeared in the Taste section today. I had no idea it was going to include a creamed corn recipe. Here's John.  EL

Things I’ve learned from Dining@Large:

There are a lot of smart foodies in Maryland and at least one in Colorado.

Foie gras is more explosive than dynamite.

We’re running out of things that haven’t been deep fried.

You think cholesterol’s bad, try surviving a 3 1/2-star review.

No topic is so riveting that it cannot be digressed from.

Except maybe tipping.

If bacon ran for President it would get 97 percent of the votes.

De crabcakes non est disputandum.

A lot of people don’t realize how much creamed corn sucks.

It’s not as easy as EL made it look.
 
Sandbox rating: * * * * *

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

In the interest of historical accuracy, I should remind everyone that I haven't been the Sun's restaurant critic continuously for almost 37 years.

I realize by the comments some of you made that you hadn't read my 30th anniversary story. That's just a convenient shorthand.

It would be unfair not to give credit to John Dorsey (pictured), Janice Baker, Carleton Jones, and Lynn Williams, not to mention any number of freelancers who took over or shared that honor with me over the years, particularly while I was an editor.

When I started in 1973, the wonderful John Dorsey was the Sunday Sun Magazine critic, and his readership was about five times what mine was in the daily features section. His opinion was the one that counted for many years. ...

In those days, we didn't separate the reviews into fine dining and cheap eats, so we often reviewed the same restaurants. It made for interesting reading.

I'm too lazy to go back and see exactly how long I was the home and food editor (when the Sun had two food sections, an interior design section and a home and garden section every week) and then editor of the Sunday magazine. But during those years my reviewing continued only for the twice-a-year dining guides. I did get to eat at a lot of restaurants, though, because we reviewed a lot of places in them.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

As I'm writing my farewell column for next Sunday, I realize I'm not going to have room to answer all the questions that were asked here. No worries. They make good blog posts.

It's hard to imagine I haven't addressed this question from Cleatus in an earlier post, but if I did I don't remember after 3,565 entries.

Did you ever go into someplace you were reviewing and realize you'd been "made" (recognized) by the restaurant staff/owner and knew that the food, service, etc. you were getting was not the usual? ...

I've wondered, but have never been sure until the end of the meal when a few times the manager, host and so on seemed extra-interested in how things went. My guess then is that they did realize, but nothing was said and I didn't notice anything extraordinary about the food or service when this happened -- even if they were hoping I had.

The only time I've been certain was some time after I reviewed, when the owner of the Chameleon Cafe in Lauraville bragged to someone they didn't know was a friend of mine that they had seen from the caller ID that the caller was from the Sun when I made reservations. Obviously I didn't make that stupid mistake again.

Unfortunately because I knew they would recognize me, I could never go back to review the Chameleon again, much as I would have liked to. The moral of the story for restaurateurs is don't let anyone know if you recognize the next reviewer.

I do have a reverse story to tell. Very early in my career, before I imagined I would be returning to restaurants years later, my husband and I reviewed Cacoa Lane in Ellicott City under the first owners. It was just the two of us.

After dinner the husband of the owner/chef came out and sat at our table. (We were the only customers there.) He lounged back and talked at length to my husband, asking him questions about his job and so on, while completely ignoring me. Hey, it was the early '70s. I got more and more irritated at our evening together being interrupted with such rudeness.

Finally the owner's husband asked me in a condescending tone, "And what do you do?" ("Little lady" were the unspoken words.) I just couldn't resist.

"I'm a restaurant critic," I said.

It was amazing how I got his immediate attention. Not that I wanted it at that point.

(Photo of kitchen of Chameleon Cafe by Jed Kirschbaum/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I don't know if, as a casual reader, you realize how many people in the restaurant industry comment on this blog. I might not know if they weren't kind enough to leave their e-mails or sometimes mention it in an e-mail to me.

I want to be sure to thank them before I go, because their insights have added a depth to the discussions that we might not otherwise have gotten. Not to mention the fact that one of them actually did a Top 10 for me. Now that's a contribution.

Some are restaurateurs or bar owners who use their names and the names of their restaurants and bars, some are line cooks or bartenders or  servers.

It takes courage to put their names and their opinions out there -- perhaps having to read and respond if someone says something negative about their businesses....

They don't always agree with what I say in my entries, and sometimes they could be gentler about expressing that disagreement, but they never do it in a mean-spirited way.

At one point, for instance, I went through a bad (actually a good) patch where every restaurant I reviewed got three stars for food. I sympathized with turkeybone when each week he said the equivalent of "does Baltimore only have good restaurants?" It almost, but not quite, made me want to go review a sure-fire clunker.

A restaurateur once said to me he didn't like to blog (I think he meant he didn't like blogs) because it seemed like they were nothing but complaints.

Too bad. He's missing the great opportunities that taking part in online discussions offer: Free publicity for your restaurant as a nice place to be if you do it right; or, if nothing more, at least customers might have a more sympathetic view of what it's like to be in your shoes.

I hope more people involved with the local dining scene will become part of this blog community. It educates the rest of us.

(Oyster Romano at Portalli's in Ellicott City by Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

They are covering the three major food groups there, aren't they?

The Cheese, Beer & Wine Festival will be held at the Carroll County Ag Center, featuring -- you guessed it -- "GREAT GRILLED CHEESE, BEER & WINE."

I like the way they call it the "inaugural festival" in the press release. Clearly they know they are on to something. ...

The event will be held March 6, from noon to 6 p.m. Believe it or not, they expect 2,000 attendees. That's a lot o' grilled cheeses.

Of course, that may be because there's live music as well as local beer and wine and gourmet grilled cheese.

Update: Apparently the date got changed or the original press release was in error. Thanks to Colonel Tamar below for the correction. The correct date is Oct. 23, but who can wait that long to drink beer and wine and eat a grilled cheese sandwich?

(AP photo/Muir Glen)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Denny knows how to flatter: The subject line of the e-mail to me was "A little help from all the wonderful Dining@Large readers." How could you refuse? EL

Elizabeth, I know you are preparing to hit the retirement party circuit soon, but wondered if I could shoot out one last question to you and all the great dining@large posters for their collective wisdom. ...

My family (parents, two aunts, brother, SIL) are coming to town for the weekend for my baby shower, and hubby and I want to take them out to dinner along with my MIL and FIL on Friday night.  Problem is, we're stumped on WHERE to take them!  We'd love to hit up our favorite haunts, but many of them are just too small to handle such a large party - i.e., Hamilton Tavern, Dizzy Issies.  We're looking for something fairly relaxed and not too pricey, and unfortunately, nothing too ethnic - Thai or Indian would be met with blank stares. And as much as we'd love to take them all to Woodberry Kitchen, it's probably a bit too fancy for our families' tastes.

The only places we've come up with so far is Clementine or Mount Vernon Stable - both completely different vibes, to be sure, but both could probably work.  So I'd like to punt to you and your readers -- any other suggestions on where to take a large group for a casual, yet still delicious and impressive dinner?

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Here's the Top 10 Tuesday list you've been waiting for: What I've learned from almost 40 years of reviewing restaurants distilled into 10 tiny lessons. ...

1) You might as well admit you eat small babies for breakfast as criticize a reader's favorite restaurant.

2) Yet another young couple with some great recipes who think that's all you need to open a successful restaurant will always come along.

3) Some readers will always think you must be being paid off if you like a restaurant where they've had a bad experience. It never occurs to them that a) the review was written a year ago, b) maybe the chef left or c) maybe our tastes are different.

4) If there's a location where any number of restaurants have failed, the landlord will always find another sucker to open a restaurant there.

5) Nobody wants to invite a restaurant critic to dinner. One reason may be that there's always another guest who thinks it's funny to say, "Are you reviewing this meal? Ha ha ha ha."

6) The art of being a good waiter or waitress is, for the most part, a dead one. We all just have to get over it.

7) Your server probably thinks most customers are jerks even if he or she disguises it well.

8) It's best not to make your reservation at 7 p.m. in Baltimore if you can avoid it because everyone else does.

9) Most restaurants haven't learned that reasonable portions of meat and more vegetables are good things. This may be because most customers eat the meat and leave the vegetables.

10) No restaurant meal tastes as good as the meals at Chez Large because I'm only cooking to please myself.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Dear Saundra Mason:

While I'm not a restaurant consultant, nor do I plan to be one after I retire, I would like to take this opportunity to give you some unsolicited, unwanted and generally irritating advice.

Last week I called you and asked if we could talk about your new project, Rain, which will be opening where Angelina's used to be on Harford Road. I explained that I write a column of restaurant news and wanted to tell readers about your plans for the new restaurant. ...

You said you were too busy to talk and you would have to call me back, so I gave you my number. You called me back one minute later, a sort of delayed reaction, and asked where I had gotten your number. I could tell you didn't like my having it. I said from the Liquor Board because it's a matter of public record. You hung up.

I wasn't surprised when you didn't call me back to talk, so after a couple of days I tried again. You were clearly annoyed this time and hung up on me. I sympathize. I would hate to be bothered by reporters if I were dealing with the hassles of opening a restaurant.

But here's the bad news: No matter how annoying you thought I was, I wasn't one-tenth as annoying as at least one customer will be every day for the rest of the life of your restaurant. From what I've learned watching restaurants come and go over the years, how owners and managers deal with their customers, particularly the annoying ones, is at least as important, if not more so, than how the food is. People have the irritating habit these days of reporting their interactions with restaurateurs on the internet to lots of others.

When the next person in charge of writing Table Talk calls -- or someone from the City Paper or Baltimore Magazine -- remember that this is the only positive publicity you can count on from the media. You couldn't pay to get this kind of good press -- telling folks about your restaurant without being critical of it.

It's weird. I've had restaurateurs call me and beg for a review. I felt like saying, "Why didn't you tell me about your restaurant when you were brand new and I could have used it in my news column? That's the kind of publicity you really want."

Good luck with your new venture,

Elizabeth

(Picture of Angelina's crab cake by Nanine Hartzenbusch/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (71)
        

Patty, a frequent commenter here, sent me an e-mail asking, "Now that you are leaving, may I invite you and as many of the sandbox participants to my memorial day party? Can I announce it someplace? ... It is informal, casual, and kid friendly." When I said, "Why not?" She sent me the following. EL

It is Sunday, May 30,  from 2 p.m. till 9 p.m.

It is just a celebration of warmth, friends and family. ...

If you want to that is fine. If you have a special dietary issue, by all means bring your food.

What in general do you have?

Domestic beer (Coors/Coors Light), if you like a special beer bring it. Hot dogs, hamburgers, I do a ton of brownies, and potato salad. If you have something that you like and are famous for, bring it.

Can I bring  family?

By all means.

Can I bring my dog?

No, I have a sheltie mix and they might not get along.

Kids? Parents-in-law?

by all means, just know that you have to take them when you leave.

Would love to see faces and names.

Patty and John Bolgiano

Sparks, Md.

If you're interested, write her and tell her so. Patty's e-mail is pbolgiano@gmail.com. This post gave me the opportunity to use a beach photo, which we all badly need even if it doesn't have much to do with a picnic in Sparks. This will end. (Photo by David Hobby/Sun photographer) EL

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

Because I didn't have a review yesterday, I thought instead of talking about the past, we could talk about the future.

After a new restaurant critic is appointed, are there any restaurants you'd like to see him or her review?

We've already talked about places the Sun has neglected, so I don't mean that. ...

While we're at it, are there any topics you'd like to see whoever takes over the blog on Friday tackle? Any changes you'd like to see incorporated? Any suggestions for new features? This is the time to speak up.

Remember, change is good.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

I hope everyone who went out last night had a wonderful meal and a good time celebrating Valentine's.

Believe me, even as I write this, I'm conscious of what one commenter said, that a colleague of hers calls it "Singles Awareness Day." But I don't think we've moved into overkill territory yet.

I'd like to hear your stories, and I'd be grateful if you would post them below. ...

I'd like to know if the place you went had a special menu, and if it seemed overpriced or definitely worth it. Were your reservations honored for the time you made them? Did the wait staff make you feel rushed or as if you were the most important customers they'd had all night? Were there any extras? A rose for the lady or a glass of champagne? (Where I went they gave us chocolate-covered strawberries at the end of the meal.)

What I've noticed is the places that are traditionally romantic and booked a month in advance aren't always the best restaurants for this kind of occasion. The smaller, less well-known places sometimes seem to make more of an effort to make you feel welcome for a holiday meal.

(Monica Lopossay/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

You may have noticed that there was no review by me in the paper today. I had planned to do an Important Last Review, but the fates decreed otherwise.

It was an unusual combination of things that deep-sixed it.

Over the years I've learned to work ahead in case we have a blizzard or two (or I have a stomach bug, or the restaurant I went to got a new chef the day after I ate there so I have to go back, or whatever).  ...

This time I went on vacation for a week and came back with the kind of cold where you can't taste anything.

That's OK, I told my valiant companions of the week: my husband, music critic Tim Smith and his significant other. We'll go on the weekend.

Only there was a blizzard.

No problem, I said. We can't go Monday or Tuesday night because the chef might be off or the restaurant might not have all its ducks back in a row, but Wednesday looks good.

We all know what happened Wednesday, and Thursday wasn't much better. The section the review appears in was put together Friday.

So no Last Review, or rather, the last place I reviewed turned out to be Pho Dat Thanh last Sunday.

In a way, it's a relief. I couldn't decide where to go to mark the occasion. Tim suggested Charleston, because I haven't been there in several years and it's arguably the city's premier fine-dining restaurant. But that seems like one the next reviewer might enjoy taking a crack at sometime.

I was leaning toward one of the several new places that opened up a month or more ago. But maybe it's just as well to leave them for the next restaurant critic as well.

Next Sunday I'll have a goodbye and summing up column. Look for it in the A & E section or online.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Still looking for a restaurant to take your sweetie to tonight? I found this from Christopher when I checked my work e-mail just now.

If you don't know Henninger's, don't be put off by the word "tavern." Its little dining room is actually quite romantic, and the food is good. Just be sure to report back here if you end up there tonight:

I am a fan of Henninger's Tavern. Just found out that they are opening for V-day. Usually closed on Sundays, they would appreciate the extra business!  ...   

Maybe you could mention them on your blog. I think Kenny and Jane may be too humble to ask.  The bar opens at 5 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:00.  No trap ... just food straight off the menu.

I like the "no trap" part.

Of course, I didn't think to look at what we did about Valentine's Day last year on the blog until now, when it's probably too late. The day after I posted an entry For Next Year's Top 10: Rate Your Valentine Dinner, which could have been useful. Although if you're desperate, take a look. I bet all these places get some last-minute cancellations.

Two years ago I did a Top 10 Last-Minute Restaurants for Valentine's Day if that helps, although the list is dated.

When I typed "Valentine's" into the Dining@Large search function, I was struck by how much bigger a deal we made of the holiday last year and the year before. I guess two blizzards took priority.

I loved going back and reading the descriptions of your Valentine dinners, and I recommend it to others even if you already know where you're going tonight.

(Nanine Hartzenbusch/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I woke up feeling hopeful this morning. (It didn't hurt that the weatherman downgraded the chance of significant snow tomorrow and Tuesday.)

It is, after all, Valentine's Day. Can spring be far behind? The best thing you can say about February is that it's short.

I've been sort of mean about Valentine's Day up until now, but actually it's a holiday that has a lot going for it. Can any holiday that involves chocolate, fresh flowers and romantic love be all bad?...

And even though the whole retailer thing is annoying -- bring back my $12.99-a-dozen roses at the supermarket -- if you look up the history of Valentine's, Hallmark didn't invent it. It just helped make the day a commercial success.

What puzzles me is how it became a holiday where you eat out. It wasn't always that way. In fact, although I'm a little hazy about this, it seems to me that instead magazines were always printing recipes for an intimate dinner for two with aphrodisiacal food. The idea was that you didn't go out; you wanted to stay in and fool around.

Maybe it's just that we use any excuse for eating out these days. I sometimes feel that way. Only 10,000 more dinners to fix in my lifetime.

If you you blew it and didn't plan anything for Valentine's Day (blame two blizzards), the  Sun has a Web page with various suggestions, including some for procrastinators like you.

(Christopher T. Assaf/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

I don't think there could be another comment that so perfectly captured how most of us felt during the second blizzard-o-rama of 2010. It was made while we were discussing what we were having for lunch. EL

Lunch? I've been grazing all day, for several days, so can't say that I can distinguish any particular meal anymore.

Posted by: She Who Is Bored to Death | February 10, 2010 2:22 PM

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

Both Hal Laurent and Chowsearch alerted me that Grace Garden in Odenton, the most beloved Chinese restaurant in the area, is closed indefinitely because its roof is collapsing with the snow.

The closing was discussed further on Chowhound.com.

Thanks to you both for the heads up. When it was reviewed, Grace Garden got four stars for the food from Other Reviewer Richard.

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

That was the subject line on an e-mail I just got. I'm not sure why he thought I'd be checking my work e-mail on a Saturday, but I guess it was worth a shot.

The e-mail itself was very nice but somewhat mysterious:

I was wondering if you could recommend a couple of restaurants for tomorrow night.  Not looking for anything too cheesy, but just a nice place with good food and atmosphere.  Thanks. ...

He felt it was important to repeat the cheesy part, as if he was worried I would come up with some real clunkers if I didn't get direction. Also he didn't want anything too cheesy, but maybe a little cheesy would be OK?

i sent him to Open Table, not because I wasn't willing to make suggestions, but I couldn't tell him which restaurants would still have tables available this close to Valentine's Day.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

I've been thinking about the whole idea of the governor's extending Valentine's Day so it will be Valentine's Week. Could it really make any difference? 

The scenario would go like this:

Husband: I know I forgot to get reservations for Sunday (Valentine's Day) or buy you a dozen roses and you're angry at me. But Governor O'Malley says it's OK to take you out Tuesday night instead, and I can buy flowers, too, anytime this week. It still counts.

Wife: No, it doesn't. I don't care what O'Malley says. It's not the same. You don't love me anymore. Maybe it's good for the restaurants and florists, but it doesn't cut it with me.

The governor's edict is one sign of a larger problem: Recently I've started to feel pressure to eat out just to keep the restaurants I like in business. ...

No one loves eating out or sympathizes with the plight of restaurants in a recession more than I do. But it's an odd feeling to feel I ought to go out.

After all, most people go out to have a nice evening, not to feel as if they're taking part in a charitable event. And yet I want restaurants to succeed -- I like it that we have so many choices in Baltimore when we want to eat out, and I hate to see the number of choices diminished. It's not just the bad restaurants that get weeded out in circumstances like these.

Here's the restaurateur's point of view, which I got in an e-mail yesterday:

This entire winter, the restaurant industry has been hit probably harder than any other type of business, except maybe traveling. Speaking personally, our ... restaurants lost three Saturdays and one Friday due to snow, and an additional Saturday to Christmas.  That's a lot of revenue to lose in a business where managing your cash flow is crucial to your success.  In addition, most people in the industry work on either an hourly wage or strictly for tips, so a lot of restaurant employees are feeling the crunch just as badly as the businesses themselves.

I'm writing this letter to encourage everybody who enjoys eating out to pick their favorite establishment and give them some business once you feel comfortable venturing out into the frozen tundra that the Baltimore area has become.  I was talking it over with other local restaurant owners and we were saying that none of us would be shocked to see at least a handful of restaurant closings in the coming weeks as a direct result of the revenue lost this winter.  Any restaurant that was on the brink could easily be pushed over the edge to a point where it would be impossible to recover. ...

It's hard to argue with him, but I wonder how many people feeling the pinch of a troubled economy themselves will be persuaded by his words not to eat at home tonight.

(Valentine's Week roses by Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

No, Robert of Cross Keys and I did not discuss our dovetailing posts today. It's just, of course, that great minds think alike. Here's RoCK. EL

I go to conferences from time to time, and I’m noticing that the number of people participating in the cocktail hour is dwindling.  Instead, the attendees make a bee-line to the buffet.  Often times they are setting up camp in the dining room an hour before the meal service is even scheduled to begin.   I’m not sure why.  The food is usually something like chicken parm and eight different kinds of pasta.  (These are not AIG conferences.) ... 

At least these conferences still go through the motion of offering a cocktail hour, even if the atmosphere ends up like being at an airport bar in a place like Harrisburg, Penn. around 10 Sunday night.  Most dining establishments, however, have long abandoned the practice.  Now any restaurant will certainly encourage you to have a drink at the bar, but a cocktail hour shouldn’t simply be about biding time with booze.   

There’s a sense of social obligation with the cocktail hour, and maybe that’s why the practice has gone out of favor.  People go out more than ever now, but they do so in a very insular way.  There is very little expectation that when you go out that you’ll interact with those outside of your own party. With a true cocktail hour you are expected to mingle and meet people.  It is not meant to be a chore, but it does require a little bit of effort.  

That effort comes not just from those with drinks in their hands.  It also comes from the host.   In addition to having good drinks and snacks, the cocktail hour needs to be an integral part of the evening.  Cocktails at 6 and dinner at 7 creates the sense that you are going out for the evening, not just for a meal.

A place that still does a cocktail hour, and they do it well, is the Antrim 1844 in Taneytown.   There’s a lot to love about the Antrim.  The food and the atmosphere there are among the best in Maryland, (click here to see some photos the wife took on our recent visit there), but it is the cocktail hour there that is my favorite.

The cocktail hour there is just very special.  The drinks are flowing and the hors d'oeuvres are being passed. (Normally when I’m experiencing something like this I had to buy something off a registry for some couple.)  The best part, however, is that you feel like being social. You want to strike up a conversation with perfect strangers. 

You understand the fun of going out is more than just leaving your house to get something to eat.

(Kathryn Whitney/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I got a voice mail from someone at the Office of Tourism saying she had seen my blog item on Valentine's Day and wanted to let me know the governor will be announcing that "they" were extending Valentine's Day through Feb. 21 because of the weather.

Does our state government have the power to do that?

Wouldn't it have to be Hallmark?

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Thank you for being so patient with my non-food-related detours. To make up for it, I'll post one about a chocolate bar in Paris.

I think we need one here.

I learned about it this morning when I got an e-mail with the subject line "I'm really interesting by your Blog."

Most of you would wisely delete that e-mail without opening it, right, because you would know it contained a virus?

Hey, this is my work computer. ...

I realized the writer didn't speak very good English. Not because of that, but because she said, "I like the seriousness, the quality and the various articles of your blog and that's why I added it to our friends' list."

She obviously isn't reading Dining@Large.

Also, if you go to the friends' list she's talking about, there's no link to Dining@Large. Do you think we're the Food Trend Blog?

But I love the concept of a chocolate bar. There was one in Evanston when I visited Gailor the first time. (It's since closed.) Instead of alcohol -- or maybe including certain kinds of alcohol like Godiva Chocolate Liqueur and chocolate martinis -- you serve expensive chocolate drinks and sell candy, all in an intimate lounge atmosphere.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

I wish I could make this more food-related, but desperate times etc.

I want to make up a list of things we should remember for the next blizzard, or better yet, that we can pass along to our descendants because we don't have another snow like these in our lifetimes ....

For example, the smartest thing I did the moment I heard the first dire forecast was fill my gas tank.

I vaguely remembered from '03 that getting gas was a problem immediately after the snow because the tankers couldn't get in and then later because everything is more difficult until this stuff melts, and it's one less thing to do.

(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

I don't know if you noticed, but the Web editors have put together a nice little retirement package for me. (No, not the kind that involves money.)

One of the items in it is my very first review, which was published on March 30, 1973, of Danny's, the most expensive restaurant in town. ...

Now you're probably expecting me to be laughing at myself for having been shocked by the cost of two crab cakes, cole slaw and home fries -- $8 -- at the most expensive restaurant in town.

Or that dinner for two with drinks at the most expensive restaurant in town came to $50, less than what two of us would spend for a prix fixe bargain Restaurant Week dinner these days.

But, no. What struck me rereading the review was that a dessert cost $8 -- 37 years ago. Now that's shocking.

We've talked about expensive desserts here before, and I've even done a Top 10 Tuesday on them.

But my theory has been that recently restaurant desserts have gotten out-of-proportion expensive to compensate for the fact that people have stopped spending so much on alcohol. Remember when people always used to have a cocktail or two before ordering? (Or if you don't remember, you've seen it on Mad Men.)

Hey, my dessert theory was just a feeling based on looking at a lot of restaurant menus. No hard facts to back it up. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

With all the excitement yesterday (read "shoveling"), I didn't get around to linking to my Table Talk column. In it I tell you more about Miguel's Cocina y Cantina in Silo Point, as well as the new Pazza Luna in Locust Point.

One thing that interested me when I talked to Miguel's owner, Michael Marx, was that much to his surprise sangria has become the drink of choice at his new place.

He says they can barely keep up with demand, although the house drink is the paloma and he's got some good wines at good prices on his list. ...

Marx isn't sure why his sangria is so popular this time of year (although, of course, he thinks it's the best sangria he's ever tasted). One theory of his is simply because it's set out on the bar in big glass jars. But I've seen that done at other tapas places, so it's not new.

Another reason may be that you get a pint glass for $6, or a 64-ounce pitcher for $24. If it's as good as Marx says it is, that's quite a bargain.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Wine and Spirits
        

Thanks to Marilyn for sharing.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

10) No fresh produce on supermarket shelves

9) Comfort food

8) People driving around talking on their cell phones during a Phase III snow emergency

7) Commuting after two blizzards

6) The Weather Channel calling for "snow showers" Monday, when we all know what that really means is coming down the pike

5) The sound of my neighbor's snow blower while I'm shoveling

4) Having my snow shovel in the living room

3) The word "snowpocolypse"

2) Reshoveling

1) Photos showing the beauty and magic of snow

(Photo showing the beauty and magic of snow by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

Just now when I checked my work e-mail, Harry had written to suggest moving Valentine's Day this year:

I think that we/you need to start a campaign to move V-Day this year. Call it V-Day 2.0 or V-Day+5 and make it next Friday night. Otherwise lots of restaurants, shops, florists, etc. will take a big hit.  But I need someone with a bull horn, a soapbox- someone like you!  I'm sure many of your advertisers and readers- restaurants and erstwhile diners- would embrace this. So please consider my modest proposal. ...

Sounds good to me, although frankly I wouldn't count on next Friday being any better than this Friday the way things are going. I woke up officially sick of this whole thing. It didn't help that Marty Bass on WJZ (why do I even bother turning it on) was talking about "another few inches of snow" Monday night into Tuesday. After all, that's how they were touting this one at the beginning.

My godfather, Walker Percy (my one famous semi-relative) had a theory that people love natural disasters like hurricanes because only then do they really come alive. Or something like that. Well, I'm so past it.

My husband even said this morning he'd rather go shovel someone else's walks and driveway than shovel ours again.

Somehow I've wandered off into complaining about the blizzard again instead of staying on track here. Sorry about that. Anyway, the proposal is to celebrate Valentine's Day next Friday when restaurants can get their supplies in, florists have received their shipments of roses and so on. 

What do you think? If we did move Valentine's Day for the benefit of everyone concerned, what day should it be?

Should I do a poll?

(Photo out my dining room window by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
        

To my amazement, it took us about as long as it usually does to walk to Donna's in Charles Village.

Of course, we were walking down the middle of relatively well-plowed streets. However, it was enraging to see how many cars were on the road, including one woman who nearly ran over me and didn't honk BECAUSE SHE WAS TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE WHILE DRIVING ILLEGALLY IN A BLIZZARD. ...

I suggest tomorrow if Phase III is still in effect we all start collecting license plate numbers and calling them in to 311.

Donna's was hopping. It was fun to be out with a lot of people, and we were actually glad we called and made reservations, although it seemed silly at the time.

We had whole wheat linguine with fennel, red pepper, golden raisins and spinach (instead of broccoli rabe because the produce truck hadn't made its way in). A glass of Prosecco for me, cab for my husband.

I asked him what we were going to do tomorrow, and he said we would shovel all day and then go out for dinner again.

When I asked him where, he said, "Well, since I married someone who's been a restaurant critic for nearly 40 years..."

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

I'm trying to talk the Zen Master into taking me out to dinner. if I succeed, I'll report back afterwards with photos. If I remember to take my camera.

If I get back.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

I sent Laura Vozzella, who had the unenviable job of writing a news story about my retirement, an e-mail saying, "Thanks very much for not making me sound like an idiot."

She wrote back, "You mean the 'Woman dumps dream job' angle? They spiked that version!"

Totally unrelated, our good friend John McIntyre at You Don't Say wrote a very nice piece about my retirement. Thanks, John.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Our Shallow Thought guru John Lindner is so good at this I don't understand why I didn't get him to write all my Top 10s. Here's John. EL

Things I won't do after Feb 19 

1. Take pictures of my food

2. Feel guilty for not taking pictures of my food

3. Lose sleep trying to find the perfect word for "tastes funny."

4. Record Captcha phrases.

5. Confine Sugar Week to 7 days per year.

6. Be tempted to reconsider my stand on creamed corn.

7. Count comments.

8. Browse YouTube for the perfect bacon cheeseburger video.

9. Lose sleep trying to think of the 10th thing.

10.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

This is my driveway when I went out to shovel after my last post. It was down to pavement when I finished the first round at 8 a.m.

I'm 5 feet 5 inches tall, and there is no longer anywhere I can reach to put the snow.

I'm so over the Zen of Shoveling.

I'm going to ask for a snowblower for my birthday.

Lunch is going to be a cinnamon-raisin bagel and hot chocolate. I'm feeling sorry for myself.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

I just got this e-mail from Mark:

Hi Elizabeth, Mark from the Firehouse Coffee Company in Canton. Just a note to let you know we actually opened in the blizzard, and we've been open through all the snow. I have local staff who are happy to open. Locals in Canton love to have a  place to stop in and get warm, and perhaps have a hot latte,  muffin, etc.

and earlier Andy, the chef at Donna's in Charles Village, posted this comment: ...

Hi there, Just wanted to let everyone know that we are open in Charles Village! Walk don't drive....Soups, salads, pastas and specials...and getting ready for Valentine's Day too.

Posted by: andy | February 10, 2010 8:38 AM

And Alan had this to say under this morning's very Deep Thought:

For all those Fed Hill readers, once you finish from your daily shovel, we will be waiting. We are open (of course) with a brunch/lunch afternoon menu. The hot spiced wine will give an opportunity to continue with those DEEP THOUGHTS.

Posted by: Alan - Regi's American Bistro | February 10, 2010 9:31 AM

Keep those restaurant, bar and coffee house announcements coming, folks. (You can even tell us if you're closed.)

OK, now I'm going back out to shovel some more. A woman's work is never done.

(Photo of Andy Thomas by Kim Hairston/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (46)
        

I'm more grateful than I can say for all your good wishes. They mean a lot to me. I wish I could thank each of you individually for making this such a fun three years.

Hey, even Sadie said she was happy for me. And Anonymous posted! Not to mention the two designer shoe companies!

The only thing that worried me was the people wishing me good luck in my new endeavors. I wasn't planning on having any endeavors. I was thinking retirement meant I could just sit and watch vampire TV all day.

Ha ha. Just kidding. 

I woke up at 2 a.m. and went to the window. The snow had stopped and there were only a few inches on the ground. We had dodged the bullet! I went back to bed happy. ...

Looks like I was a little premature.

I've now become an obsessive snow shoveler; but before I get back out there, I noticed there were several questions directed at me in the comments under my retirement post. It occurs to me that you may have others, and if so I could answer them in a bunch either in a post on the blog or in my last column.

For instance, here's one:

If you could have ONE LAST MEAL, what would you order and from what restaurant?

(Doesn't need to be open anymore, could be a place from yesteryear) ...

Posted by: irwin | February 10, 2010 2:14 AM

Anyway, ask away below and I'll try to answer them. Or maybe after 3,534 posts and 68,928 comments, you've asked and I've answered all the questions about food, restaurants and me you have.

(Photo by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

This might even deserve four exclamation points.

February is my birthday month, and it's also the month I'm going to retire.

I just want to give you, dear readers, a heads up. ...

No, this isn't my last post. And I promise when I do write it I'll have some concrete things to tell about what's next -- for me, for the Sun's restaurant reviews and for the blog.

As far as I know, my replacement hasn't been decided on yet. But one thing I do know: Absolutely the Sun's restaurant blog will continue, probably under a different name.

I will no longer be the original poster, but I will be here as a reader and commenter. And, no, I won't be taking Dining@Large private. I'm tired.

Stay tuned for my next announcement.

(Photo by me)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (163)
        

Passions have run high over the Super Bowl in Baltimore. OK, specifically over the Colts.

When one commenter who loves Indianapolis called Baltimore "this pit," Robert of Cross Keys responded, "Well, if that's how you feel perhaps you should go back to Indiana with your corn, your 'One Day at a Time', and your little pink houses for you and me." ...

When I had picked myself off the floor where I had been rolling around and laughing, I thought maybe we could go through all the rest of the states naming three things, one of which has to be food, that sum up each state.

It needs to be in the same form that RoCK used. For instance,  "Well, if that's how you feel perhaps you should go back to Maryland with your crab fluff, your "Believe," and your gift-card-swiping politicians."

(Photo by Lisa Wiseman, Special to the Sun)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (46)
        

I didn't think anyone could possibly come up with a new crab cake question.

Actually, I thought no one would ever ask me any crab cake question except "Where can you get the best crab cakes in Baltimore?"

But Sherri has done it. She's asked a new restaurant crab cake question.

And it's one I can't answer: ...

I enjoy reading your restaurant reviews and Table Talk column in the Baltimore Sun. My husband has been searching for a restaurant that prepares crab cakes without mayonnaise. Are you aware of any restaurant that prepares a mayo-free crab cake?

The thing is, even if you came up with a mayonnaise-free crab cake, wouldn't it still contain all the ingredients that are in mayonnaise? That is, egg and oil? So what would be the advantage?

But I totally understand irrational likes and dislikes -- I have a few myself -- so maybe Sherri's husband just can't bear the thought of mayonnaise for some reason. It's not really a taste thing or an allergy. It's the gack factor.

In that case, maybe it would help him to find some restaurants that are making their crab cakes without mayonnaise.

I have no idea, but just off the top of my head, I would think restaurant kitchens would be going the other way. With the heightened worries over uncooked eggs (consider what's happened to the original Caesar salad dressing), it would make more sense to eliminate the raw egg in your crab cake recipe and up the amount of mayonnaise.

Then if the cake isn't cooked thoroughly all the way through, you don't have to worry.

Again, all this is guesswork on my part, so if anyone can answer Sherri's question with, you know, actual facts, please post below.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

I couldn't believe it when I looked at the Most Popular Stories Right Now list on the Sun's home page just now and No. 1 was "Gluten-Free Tasty Cakes."

I mean, we have stories on the blizzard of 2010, the next blizzard of 2010 and the most exciting Super Bowl in recent memory, and you're telling me Gluten-Free Tasty Cakes is the most-read story?

Nothing against gluten-free products, mind you.

Maybe people thought the story was about TastyKakes.

I think I'll go back to bed.

(Barbara Haddock Taylor?Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Yesterday my review of Pho Dat Thanh in Towson appeared in the Sunday paper.

It was the perfect kind of restaurant for how I was feeling -- just coming off two weeks of a nasty, clingy head cold.

I so much wish we had a nice, big steaming bowl of pho for dinner tonight. The skirt steak I marinated doesn't seem half so appealing. ...

What I didn't expect was that I actually liked some of the restaurant's other dishes better than its pho. (Not that I've ever met a pho I didn't like in February.)

Now I have to start worrying about my next review. It's not fair to review a restaurant during this kind of emergency -- it's too atypical. I guess it's all going to depend on whether the dire predictions for the next round of weather hold true.

Every time I look at the Sun's home page, which I'm doing regularly from home this afternoon with glum fascination, the prediction totals go up a few more inches.

(Karl Merton Ferron/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

I'm not sure why the idea of a Toronto restaurant promoting Valentine's sex in its unisex bathroom, as reported by the restaurant critic of the Star, makes me squeamish.

But it does.

"'We've always had little trysts in our bathrooms,' says chef/co-owner Donna Dooher [of Mildred's Temple Kitchen], pointing to lingering weekday lunches as a popular time. 'We're taking it to the next level on Valentine's weekend.'" ...

Toronto Public Health is OK with it, as long as the kitchen isn't involved. I guess bodily fluids are bodily fluids.

It looks as if there's nothing sketchy about the restaurant itself. Just consider the photo from its Web site above. Sorry, I don't have one of the bathroom itself; but there is one with the Star story.

I'm probably being naive about this. After all, think about how many small places in Baltimore -- even Starbuckses -- have one unisex bathroom. You think no one has ever thought to ... have a rendezvous ... in those?

With the money local restaurants have lost because of the snow, maybe those that have unisex bathrooms ought to consider a similar promotion. It would certainly bring customers in.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I have to admit that the minute I heard the magic words "six to ten inches," I got in the car and headed for the Giant. What can I say? We were down to a pound of butter.

Just kidding.

But I outsmarted myself. I beat the crowds, but I also beat the trucks that were supposed to bring the food in, and the shelves were bare. The vendors might not even get in until tomorrow, I heard one employee say, but that's not written in stone.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

To get a little ahead of the week, I went through my work e-mail after I shoveled out the driveway yesterday.

The really long driveway.

No, no, of course I'm not bragging.

Here's what people told me about and what I'll be working on to find out more this week -- plus a few tidbits and crumbs that don't really fit anywhere: ...

A friend sent me more info on Porter's in Federal Hill, which is reopening with new owners and Peter Livolsi from Three... as chef (as I reported here before).

The menu will be a bit more ambitious than the old Porter's, with a lot of small plates, natch. I hope to talk to new manager Kevin Cooper this week, who was a bartender at Regi's for nine years. The liquor license transfer hearing is scheduled for Feb. 11, and plans are to open maybe as soon as next month.

I'm also hoping to talk to Patrick Morrow, who will be the chef at Blue Grass at Hanover and Fort Avenue when it opens.

I have no contact info about the following, but maybe someone at the Liquor Board will be able to help me. All I know is that Angelina's now has an awning that says "Rain." Sounds pretty trendy.

I want to find out more about the Brass Elephant being sold.

As for the tidbits and crumbs:

I got something saying Margaritas, a New England Mexican restaurant chain (that's odd right there) is launching a big expansion into Baltimore with four franchise locations.

The Bistro at South River, a restaurant at the Golf Club at South River in Edgewater, just opened for lunch and dinner featuring "fine dining and original American cuisine." This is a strange trend -- the opening to the public of restaurants (some of which are quite respected) in golf clubs.

Sofi's Crepes downtown is now open for breakfast, with new hours from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. There are several new breakfast crepes, like blueberry and ham and maple syrup.

Tony wrote me about Sidamo Coffee and Tea, which opened in Maple Lawn in October:

Every Sunday at 2, they hold an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The ancient ritual involves washing and roasting arabica beans, along with the burning of incense and music commonly played in villages back home. It's really fascinating and underscores the important role coffee holds in this country, where goat herders  harvested the first coffee beans 1,000 years ago. Plus, I was blown away by the paninis our group were served.

By mistake I just killed out an e-mail recommending the new as of last summer Acorn Market in Salisbury, and I can't access my Outlook "trash" from my Mac, but when I get to work today, God willing, I'll try to remember to rescue it.

Finally, DuClaw Brewing Co. has opened in BWI, near the Southwest ticket counter.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

This query from a reader involves a restaurant that was before my time, but I'm posting it on the off chance that someone remembers something:

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Robert of Cross Keys' fine Free Market Friday guest post got postponed a couple of days this week, but hasn't everything? I laughed out loud at his description of his ham. Here's RoCK. EL

A day before this little weather incident occurred, I decided to go the grocery store.  I went to the SuperFresh in Hampden.  Crazy. I walked in and walked right back out.
 
I thought it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.   After all, I still have most of that ham I bought at the hardware store in Smithfield.  I also have a bottle of Rebel Yell Bourbon.
 
My ancestors were among the first settlers of both Virginia and Tennessee, and a country ham and a bottle of bourbon would have lasted them a winter, so surely it would be sufficient for me to get through the weekend.

I made my meal plans for the weekend. I would have country ham spread along with a pasta dish my wife found in an old Charlie Palmer cookbook that features orecchiette, country ham, peas and goat cheese. ...

Neither dish ended up the way I wanted.   I was trying to recreate the ham spread that Graul's and Eddie's sell, but I ended up with something that was more mousse-like.  If I do it again, and I probably will considering the ham seems to be regenerating itself each time I cut off a piece, I will omit the butter and cream cheese.
 
As for the pasta, the flavors were good, but it was too salty.  I’m not sure what Charlie Palmer was thinking or tasting when he thought it was good idea to add “a good pinch of salt” to a dish that already had country ham.  I’m going to try and restore the leftovers today by adding more orecchiette and goat cheese.
 
The cocktails, however, turned out great.  I had some Ale-8-One, a soda only available in Kentucky that tastes like a mix between ginger ale and Mountain Dew.  (It tastes much better than it sounds.)  The Ale-8-One was mixed with bourbon and some fresh snow.  It was slushy goodness.
 
I should admit that I didn’t live on country ham and bourbon alone this weekend.  Right before the snow became heavy, I stopped by Mount Washington Pizza for some chicken korma, palak paneer and samosas.

The ancestors may have lived in Jamestown and Piney Flats, but I don’t. 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

I'm already bored with the snow and I haven't even dug my car out yet.

One thing it's done is made me forget about posting anything about Super Bowl food, except for the top five unhealthy ones. Before the snow, I was thinking of looking into whether any restaurants were doing anything this past week. (I know, for instance, that Regi's American Bistro in Federal Hill has been running New Orleans specials.)

And I haven't even asked you yet what, if anything, you're serving during the game tonight.

Yesterday I made my stepmother's spaghetti sauce for Super Bowl dinner tonight. (That is, it will be eaten in front of the TV.) ...

This is not a fancy Italian sauce, and it's not even a homey comfort food southern Italian sauce. My stepmother was from Nashville. Can you have a southern spaghetti sauce? That's what this is.

My father married her a year after my mother died, which I resented because I was convinced he only married her because he wanted someone to cook for him again. But we ended up getting quite close in the decade after my father died. She turned out to be a fine grandmother to Gailor, who was too young to remember my mother.

My stepmother did have peculiar food habits. For instance, she could never eat the same breakfasts two days in a row. I would come downstairs and she would be fixing kippers or chicken livers for breakfast for herself -- something different every day.

And she wasn't much of a cook. Once when we were visiting over July 4, she served me some meringues she had made. They were surprisingly delicious -- dry and crisp. It wasn't until after I had eaten several that she announced she had made them the summer before and just discovered them in a tin on the back of a kitchen shelf.

Well, I didn't die.

Grandmother Dorothea's Spaghetti Sauce

4 pieces of bacon

2 medium onions, chopped

2 medium green peppers, seed and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon butter

4 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped

1 pound lean ground beef

2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes, unseasoned

1 8-ounce can tomato sauce (not paste)

2 tablespoons Worchestershire Sauce (very important)

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Freshly ground pepper, salt to taste

While chopping the veggies, except for the mushrooms, cook the bacon slowly in a large skillet. When done, set aside and cook the veggies in the drippings until translucent. 

Cook the mushrooms in another frying pan in the butter until lightly brown.

When the mushrooms are done, add to the other vegetables and brown the ground beef in the mushroom pan. 

Put all the ingredients together and simmer covered at least one hour. Add water if necessary. Freezes well.

Makes 4 servings.

I'm not sure what she did with the bacon, whether she crumbled it and added it or not. I don't.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
        

Now that Alan M. has told us Regi's American Bistro is open, and Sean has mentioned Zeke's, I ought to do what I should have done before their comments: Make a separate post under which people can let us know about places that are open.

(Lloyd Fox/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

jl played right into my darkest fears with this comment this morning:

Along with stocking up on comfort and party foods, one should also lay in plenty of CFF -- cooking-free food -- in case power is cut.

I wonder how many interesting meals and snacks could be made without cooking. If it snowed for weeks and you were stone bored to death with sandwiches and salads, what would you make to keep from going mad?

Posted by: jl | February 6, 2010 9:08 AM ...

I can't think of many cooking-free foods that I would want to eat in place of a hot meal, but maybe I ought to start.

Canned tuna fish. Red wine. Dried apricots. Cashews. Red wine. Peanut butter. A cheese plate with good crackers and olives. Smart Food White Cheddar Popcorn. (You could arrange it prettily on a plate with the cashews) For breakfast, croissants with sweet butter and jam. Those hard sausage we used to take backpacking. (Still haven't found the Svea stove.)

Maybe Laura Lee has the right idea. Milk chocolate.

(John Makely/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

It's hard to talk about anything but the snow, isn't it? I'm sorry I said all those mean things about people overreacting. This is a lot o' snow.

I was wandering around the house at 2 a.m. after the giant branch crashed on our house. Or maybe it was the thunder and lightning that woke me up.  I made a cup of tea and just sat at the dining room window, staring out. Now it just seems to be sleeting, but then it was amazing to watch.

My friend out west reading the comments under the Blizzard Food post noted how odd it was that everyone went to the supermarket when there was the threat of snow. ...

"Doesn't everyone have three days worth of food in the house?" he asked.

I think the answer is probably yes, even though we don't act that way. My new theory is that we don't just want food, and that's why we're willing to stand in the checkout lines for an hour, we want the right food. We want the treats. A snowfall like this is so unusual (which it isn't for him) we don't just want to have survival food, we want to have a party.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (74)
        

Wow. That's the first time ever I've been one of only two people in the whole theater. And I was sitting next to the other one.

We did stop by the Giant on our way out, which was still bustling. Don't those shoppers realize there's ... one inch of snow on the roads?

If you're desperate, there was still food on the shelves.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

With all the excitement over snowmageddon, I forgot to link to Other Reviewer Richard's review of Cafe Azafran yesterday. This is a place I never would have known existed except for your comments on Dining@Large.

I particularly liked the fact that Richard didn't try to oversell the place, although he obviously enjoyed it. Too bad it's not a little bit more accessible. Like in the Sun building, for instance. ...

I told Editor Tim I was leaving when the first flake fell, and he needed to tell me when that was because he has a window and I don't. Unfortunately he didn't tell me until it was snowing heavily. However, it was snowing heavily but not sticking anywhere.

Question to ponder: How are we going to get 30 inches if it doesn't stick?

Maybe I can talk my husband into trekking through the vast, snowy wasteland to the Rotunda Cinemas for the 4:20 p.m. showing of Edge of Darkness, followed by a slice of pizza across the way at Casa Mia. 

I want all of you to stop in at Casa Mia in the next week and buy a slice of pizza, or a Greek salad, or something from the nice guy who owns this place. He's really struggling.

Or maybe trying to support the Rotunda is a lost cause.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Not much shocks me any more, and particularly not the fact that people eat unhealthful foods while watching the Super Bowl.

But in the interest of public health, I'm going to pass along part of a press release I got from the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

I'm sure after reading this you'll change your menu and serve raw celery, carrot sticks and cauliflower with low-calorie ranch dressing dip during the game. ...

Shocking Nutrition Facts About Five Super Bowl Foods

Source, Nutrition Shocker

1. Tuna Melt (large), Quiznos, 1,793 calories

2. The Meats Pan Crust Pizza (2 slices), Papa John’s, 56 grams of fat

3. Muffuletta Potato Skins, Food Network’s “32 Team Potato Skins” recipes, Derives 54 percent of calories from saturated fat

4. Honey BBQ Wings (5 wings with dipping sauce), KFC, 35 grams of fat

5. Cheesesticks and Special Garlic Dipping Sauce (4 sticks), Papa John’s, 1,170 milligrams of sodium

(John Makely/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

If you get a chance, stop by the New System Bakery & Cafe in Hampden before the snow arrives and say goodbye. It's closing for good today.

I asked one of the current owners, John Ruthke, why they were closing. (The people in the photo are the former owners, Grace and Bernie Breighner.)

"The economy," he said, "It's complicated. It was a bunch of factors. We're not making any money."

When I asked what was next, he said, "We're going to get jobs somewhere."

I'm really bummed by this news. Maybe other people wouldn't, but I put New System in the Baltimore landmark category. ...

I know it got new owners a decade ago. I know it moved from the Avenue. But still.

Every year when Gailor was growing up I would get her birthday cake there. (I made her first birthday cake and after that realized it wasn't worth the trouble.)

I think I still have in a kitchen drawer somewhere the little plastic figures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that came on a cake one year. They were her favorite.

I loved that place.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (40)
        

I came across this photo in our archives with this amazing caption: "Wine tops Valentine's Day gift-giving lists."

Of course, whatever story it originally came with from the Associated Press has long gone out of our system (it's dated 2005) so I can't check the source of that statement, but it did get me thinking. 

First of all, if I had to say a wine I thought someone might give at Valentine's Day, it would be champagne. But isn't chocolate the top gift for Valentine's Day?...

Or if not chocolate, then roses or lacy lingerie?

Once my husband, in a fit of romance never equaled before or since, bought me an elaborately iced cake in the shape of a heart for Valentine's Day, but he dropped it on the sidewalk in front of the house.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
Categories: Wine and Spirits
        

Corey has been looking for good ramen around here, and other than Nina's spicy egg ramen, I didn't have any place to recommend to him.

Noodles shops usually fall under the cheap eats category, so I don't get to them much.

I was surprised when I went to our archives to see what our other reviewers have said. Nothing came up except a story about a Web site devoted to ramen, Rameniac.

I'm assuming that at places like Noodles & Company you can get Japanese-style ramen, but they aren't the major focus.

(Los Angeles Times photo)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

I can hardly keep up with the posts I want to do this morning. Check out Jay Hancock's item on plastic sandwich bags that make your lunch look moldy to deter thieves.

This is one of those products that are only cute-giftable, not usable in real life,  because who steals a sandwich? Has anyone ever had his or her sandwich stolen at work?

Chocolate, yes. Even maybe a yogurt. But not a sandwich.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

What's your dirty little secret in response to the latest hype around the White Death and the End of Civilization as We Know It?

Have you already run out to the supermarket and stocked up on more toilet paper and milk when you didn't really need anything? Before one flake has fallen?

Are you planning to live on hot chocolate, cheap red wine and microwave popcorn this weekend? ...

Mine is that, even though I know it's absurd, I'm convinced the power is going out and staying out this time round. I'm not doing anything about this craziness, except making ridiculous contingency plans in my head when I should be working:

Where is that Svea backpacking stove we used to have so I can at least have a cup of hot tea in the morning?

Can we cook on a fire in the fireplace or is that just absurd?

That kind of thing.

Anyway, if there is one food you have to have in a blizzard, what is it? Mine is soup, and not canned either.

Really, the hype over this perhaps-storm is incredible. Not, of course, from our friend Frank Roylance, but scroll down to the end of his post yesterday and read under "Subject: Early Friday Scoop."

(AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (81)
        

I thought you would enjoy that headline.

I stole the phrase from a story that ran yesterday in the Wall Street Journal on new restaurant design trends turning up the volume.

We've discussed restaurant noise ad nauseum on this blog, and I wrote a story about it a decade ago. So I was a little surprised to see the subject pop up in the WSJ as if it were a new phenomenon. ...

But on closer look it was interesting to consider some specific current design trends about what makes for a noisy restaurant:

Besides "cavernous spaces with wood floors, linen-free tables, high ceilings and lots of windows," the article goes on to say, "Upscale restaurants have done away with carpeting, heavy curtains, tablecloths, and plush banquettes gradually over the decade, and then at a faster pace during the recession, saying such touches telegraph a fine-dining message out of sync with today's cost-conscious, informal diner." In other words, it's our fault.

Even trendy open kitchens can be significant contributors of noise.

All these are factors, but probably the worst culprit is the restaurateur's perception that noise equates with high energy and a "good vibe."

This article does go a step farther than others I've read, though. The reporter tries to come up with some things you can do if you find yourself in a restaurant and can't hear yourself think.

The one that works best, in my opinion, is to ask that the music be turned down. It's amazing how agreeable most restaurants are about this. And if the music is lower, other customers won't have to shout to be heard, which will lower the noise level even more.

If you do find a restaurant you like except that it's just too noisy, it's well worth mentioning the fact to the manager or owner. If he or she gets enough complaints, they might just do something about it.

I think this may have happened at the famously noisy Petit Louis in Roland Park. It seems to me that some soundproofing was eventually put up around the ceiling.

(Colby Ware/Special to the Sun)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

I just got an e-mail from Ryan, the general manager at the Wine Market, saying that the Locust Point restaurant is offering its Restaurant Weeks menu through Saturday, Feb. 13 because the bad weather this weekend kept many folks away.

I hate to break it to you, Ryan, but they're calling for four feet of White Death this weekend.

Ha, ha. Just kidding. ...

I'm actually impressed that the prix fixe is being extended through Saturday, because it's a good deal for couples deciding to celebrate Valentine's Saturday night instead of Sunday. (And I'm sure there will be plenty of them.)

This is the first restaurant I've heard of extending the promotion, but I'm sure it won't be the last. I'll update this entry if I find out about others, or you can post below.

Update: I got this e-mail from Sotto Sopra -- "Since numerous guests have had to cancel and will cancel due to snow storms, Sotto Sopra is extending Restaurant Week through Valentines Day, Sunday, February 14th." They've upped the ante, folks: Through Valentine's Day! 

Caesar's Den: "In response to your blog regarding Restaurant Week and due to the horrid weather we have been contending with throughout the regularly scheduled Restaurant Week, we at Caesar's Den are extending our Restaurant Week menu through Saturday Feb.13." 

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

I wish I had a better illustration for this excellent Shallow Thought Wednesday guest post. It's the only photo of the Crush bar we have. You have to admit it's a fascinating picture, though. Here's our Shallow Thought guru John Lindner. EL

I visited Crush last Friday evening with a friend who’d recently lost a dear friend. We went to mourn, laud and remember over martinis. ...

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

OK, today I'm going along, doing a couple of work chores, checking my e-mail, hum-de-dum, and then I read the following and something snaps.

You have to understand that I usually answer my e-mails with a measured, adult, calm response, no matter how irritated I am. It's amazing how often that causes the other person to be reasonable, we end up friends, he starts sending me great tips, etc. etc.

Not this time.

Here's the e-mail:

Your name came up a dinner party the other night. Why? Because we were talking about Alizee and I personally have been there four times...never a good experience. How can you mess up a shrimp cocktail for $12.00?  They were not fresh, very refrigerated and tough.
Nevertheless, the other times were worse but I want this place to succeed...it's a lovely setting. The bartender is great so if I do go back, I will sit in the bar and have a hamburger!

My concern is, I want to think you are reputable and honest...but you can't continue to be the only one who LOVES this place. One person at the party commented..."Well, Elizabeth Large is getting "something" for all her raves". I'd hate to believe this, but it's obvious to me you are doing someone a nice favor by writing they are so great.

Now I wonder about all your other reviews.   Signed....."my Opinion"

First I sent him (or her) this very grown-up response:

Well, gee, don't you think if you're accusing me of taking bribes you ought to at least have the courage to use your own name?

Not content with that, I next fired off: 

Anyway, why would you go four times if you had a bad experience each time? How dumb is that?

Note to self: Probably the higher ups aren't going to be happy with your calling your readers dumb.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

Under an earlier post there was a discussion about regulars getting special treatment at restaurants.

As one commenter pointed out, it's great if you're a regular, and not if you're not.

But I think the best restaurants manage to make their regular customers feel special without neglected the new diners. ...

I'm not sure how they do this. (Of course, the very best restaurants make the new diners feel like they want to be a regular as quickly as possible.)

I've eaten in a lot of restaurants over the years, and I don't think there's anything more annoying than  -- say -- seeing your server chatting with her favorite customers when you've asked for the soup spoon she's holding in her hand and your soup is getting cold in front of you.

But I also think people ought to be particularly understanding right now that restaurants are having to work extra hard to keep those regulars coming back during a recession.

It's a delicate balance for the staff, but it can be done.

I'm also beginning to see moderately priced restaurants reward their regulars in ways that don't affect the occasional diner. For instance, some give discounts for neighborhood folks during the week.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 6:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

Several readers have pointed out to me that CakeLove in Canton's Can Company has closed its doors for good.

It opened with great promise two years ago, but I have to say no one has told me how much they loved the cakes themselves. ...

Still, I'm not sure why it couldn't survive here if it's survived elsewhere. I'd like to hear from you about that.

I also wonder what it and other closings say about the Can Company and food-related businesses, if anything. And why.

(Sun archives)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (63)
        

OK, this is big news. Normally I wouldn't use the Gilroy Dispatch as my primary source, but as we all know, Gilroy, Calif. bills itself as the Garlic Capital of the World.

It turns out it's the Garlic Capital of the Free World.

The Dispatch is reporting that Chinese consumers believe that garlic will ward off the swine flu, so they've been stockpiling it. Now when the Chinese stockpile something, they make a difference in the world economy. ...

The result is skyrocketing international demand. This year China, which supplies about 70 percent of the world's garlic, exported only about half of its usual 200 million pounds. Blame H1N1 but also a smaller crop because of bad weather and fewer government subsidies. In any case, the price has tripled.

As Bucky said in response to this news:

I had developed personal contingency plans for just about every conceivable catastrophe:  a major, paralyzing snow storm; a double-dip recession; the Colts winning the Super Bowl; developing that form of dementia where Lady Gaga starts to make sense.
 
But a garlic shortage?  I'm just going to throw in the towel.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

The Consuming Interests blog has linked to a list of 23 ways (many underhanded) that restaurants are saving money during the recesssion.

Reading the list, though, I wonder if it's painting with too broad brush. I'd like to hear from some people in the business about it.

Some, like the upselling, aren't new. ...

It didn't take a recession for the server to recommend the more expensive entree to increase the size of the check and therefore his tip. The bread basket disappeared with the popularity of low-carb diets.

Some are so questionable I doubt that many places would feel they were worth doing, given the negative feedback if they were discovered (substituting pork for veal without telling the customer).

In short, it's an interesting list, but how many of these are actually happening?

(Amy Davis/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

dr numbers asked a question under the earlier entry on Restaurant Week that I thought was well worth addressing in a separate post. I'll give you my thoughts off the top of my head, but I hope you'll weigh in as well:

Just for the record, I wanna know what is an "acceptable" price reduction for restaurant week.. a $40 bill for $35 is like 13% off, assuming portions are the same and all that.

So what for you (general you) is acceptable? Do you genuinely factor that in when deciding on a place?

Posted by: dr numbers | February 2, 2010 5:01 AM ...

It seems to me that this isn't something diners should be expected to be rational about, in the sense that if their meal is 13 percent less, they shouldn't complain.

For several years running, Restaurant Week dinners cost roughly $30. Then in the middle of the recession they jumped to $35. That seemed counterintuitive. Even if it's still a bargain, the jump makes it less than acceptable in a lot of cases.

It's a matter of perception. People expect a bargain because Restaurant Week is being sold as a way to fill tables during slow periods and introduce diners to restaurants they might not otherwise try. If they end up feeling the meal wasn't a bargain, whatever they paid, the place is in trouble.

Many diners are trying the restaurant for the first time, so they can't really compare portion size. From what I'm hearing, though, portions in general seem to be smaller with the fixed-price menu.

Also, $35 doesn't seem like a bargain at bistros and such, even though the reality is that most people will end up spending more than that per person on dinner if they have more than one course. Again, a matter of perception.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

We've discussed romantic restaurants before, and last-minute places for Valentine's Day.

Last year I made up a Top 10 around this time of romantic restaurants for the budget-minded.

The problem is that those restaurants traditionally thought of as most romantic are also the ones most likely to be crowded, with rushed servers and an overworked kitchen.

Not romantic. ...

My advice if you have to go out on Valentine's Eve (Saturday) or Day (Sunday) is to make an offbeat choice. There may not be quite the atmosphere; but you probably won't spend as much and no one will mind if you linger, gazing longingly into each other's eyes.

I have, however, included a couple of destination places in case you do feel like spending a little money.

Thanks to all who helped me make up this list: 

* If you want to make a splash, Antrim 1844 in Taneytown has Winter Getaway Packages for as little as $119 a person that sound good: They include a room in the mansion, afternoon tea, six-course meal, breakfast and more. To get that price, though, you'll have to plan your visit the Thursday before or the Monday after.

* Belmont in Elkridge isn't a restaurant as such, but it has wine dinners throughout the year, including Feb. 12 and 13 in honor of Valentine's Day. The food is contemporary American; and the prix fixe menu is $75 a person, with wines paired with four of the five courses.

* B & O American Brasserie downtown is new enough that people may not be thinking of it as a place for a romantic date. The special menus, which I wrote about before, sound intriguing.

* Baba's Mediterranean Kitchen between Federal Hill and Locust Point, voted Best Mediterranean Restaurant in Baltimore by the City Paper, will be taking reservations for Valentine's Day (it's usually first come, first served) and will have some specials. It's BYOB.

* Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant in Mount Vernon. As Baltofoodie points out, you can feed each other by hand, it's very cheap and it's vegetarian-friendly. Also per her recommendation, don't order the honey wine, even though it sounds romantic.

* Gertrude's in the BMA. Take part in the museum's Night of Romance or Couples Yoga first, then indulge in Gertrude's Valentine Aphrodisiac Dinner.

* Hunan Taste in Catonsville is a relatively new Chinese restaurant that's getting rave reviews. Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year coincide this year, so you could celebrate both holidays with one meal.

* Mari Luna Latin Grille in Pikesville is offering a three-course Valentine's dinner for $60 a couple or a four- course dinner with two glasses of sparkling dessert wine for $72 a couple.

* Slainte Irish Pub in Fells Point has a delicious-sounding menu for $70 a couple, with choices like oysters to start and pork tenderloin stuffed with Boursin, apples and raisins with a port reduction.

* Ze Mean Bean in Fells Point, a cozy bar with a fireplace, will have Valentine's specials. They just couldn't tell me what they'll be when I called.

(Doug Kapustin/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 4:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

I was reading Robert Crais' latest, the First Rule, at lunchtime today. In it his action hero, Joe Pike, who's a vegetarian, made red beans and rice with grilled corn and eggplant for dinner.

Wow. That sounds fabulous. I haven't craved anything but Nina's spicy egg ramen soup for a week.

Now I just have to find a restaurant that serves grilled corn and eggplant.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I'm sure the weather hurt Restaurant Weeks this weekend.

But if you did manage to make it out through the White Death, this is the place to tell us about your experience, good or bad. Please post below.

While I'm at it, I want to tell you about two RW tidbits that deserve mention: ...

I felt bad that I forgot to say in an earlier post that during Restaurant Weeks Todd Conner's in Fells Point is offering all its entrees half price, which is quite a deal.

Also the Prime Rib called to say that this year there isn't an up charge for the prime rib on the Restaurant Weeks menu because the price was raised $5 across the board, which covers it.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (42)
        

One morning I woke up at 4 and didn't have anything better to do, so I got down one of my Julia Child cookbooks and made boeuf bourguignon.

We had it for dinner that night and it was fabulous, so we had the leftovers the next night and it was even more fabulous.

The third night we went reviewing, and what should be on the specials menu at Linwoods but "Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon." How weird was that?

Of course, I assumed Julia was Julia Child; but now that I think about it, it could have been Linwood Dame's sous chef for all I know. I didn't order it, but I did have a better-than-usual yardstick to measure the dish against when one of my companions did.

Sorry, I realize I should have a photo of the boeuf bourguignon, but one wasn't taken. This dessert will have to do.

(Algerina Perna/Sun photographer)

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Monday Morning Quarterbacking
        

Some of you may have read Rob Kasper's column awhile back about the "miracle fruit," Synsepalum dulcificum. The West African berry temporarily alters tastebuds, so bitter and sour taste sweet.

Intriguing, but like many intriguing things, not quite worth the cost. The fruit is hard to get, takes special handling and is expensive.

But it's also extremely popular. It's no surprise, then, that someone has decided to freeze-dry the fruit, make it into a table that isn't so perishable and give it a catchy name (mberry). ...

Apparently the company sent me some samples while I was on vacation, but they never made it to my desk. So I can't tell you from first-hand experience whether, as Charles Lee, founder and CEO of mberry said, "Tabasco turned to hot donut glaze, strawberries tasted as though they were coated in powdered sugar, and of course lemons turned to lemonade. The experience was surreal to say the least."

Of course, Tabasco and strawberries are two of my favorite things, while powdered sugar isn't. But whatever. 

If this stuff is as trendy as everyone seems to think it is, some of you must have tried it. Maybe you've even bought mberry tablets or the fruit itself. If so, please post below.

On the plus side, it seems safer than artificial sweeteners if you're diabetic and craving sweets. And according to company claims, it can help counteract the bland or metallic taste left by chemotherapy, so it may be of use to cancer patients. But I think its main use is for "flavor tripping" parties.

Posted by Elizabeth Large at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)