Scrapple, the ultimate mystery meat, turns out to be quite the poetic muse. 

The first annual Dining@Large Scrapple Poetry Contest drew so many hifalutin entries that I brought in a man of letters as judge: John McIntyre.

John is returning to The Sun, but he is not on the payroll yet. So I offered to buy him a pound of Truck Patch Farms scrapple for his trouble.

"I'll do it on the condition that you do NOT give me any scrapple," John replied.

And the winners are:

First place: "The Emperor of Pork" by Voodoo Pork

"The line 'In abattoir vats offalescent orts' alone would make the shade of Wallace Stevens laugh up his sleeve," John wrote.

Second place: "Piedmont Pastoral" by Laura Lee

"The witches, the young lovers, the classical tag -- this one has everything," John said.

I'll be in contact with you both, Voodoo Pork and Laura Lee, to make arrangements for getting your scrapple winnings to you.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. It was great fun.

Here are the winning poems in full.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

When the battle between old-world neighborhood and hip restaurant-lounge finally made it to the liquor board Thursday night, only two Little Italy residents testified against Milan.

One was longtime neighborhood activist Giovanna Blatterman. The other was Michael DiCicco, who was sending complaint letters to the board even before Milan opened. Blatterman said more neighbors had planned to testify, but the hearing dragged on too long and they couldn't stick around.

Even more surprising: Blatterman told me by phone this afternoon that she wasn't all that disappointed that the board voted to renew Milan's liquor license.

"It was not our intent to hurt them, it was not our intent to close them, fine them," she said. "It was our intent to bring it out on the table and say this was going on."

By "this" Blatterman meant Milan's use of professional promoters like Jet Set Mafia, something the restaurant-lounge had explicitly promised not to employ when its liquor license was approved in July. Critics have said the promoters hype Milan as a place to party, drawing crowds that stay later, drink harder and make more noise than traditional Little Italy diners.

In a story in The Sun earlier this month, Milan owner Curlee Smittie Jr. acknowledged breaking that promise.

"We originally were not planning to work with partners, but after the first few weeks of opening, we realized that in order to attract an audience that would respect, value and appreciate the Milan experience and would also be respectful of the Little Italy community, it would be best," Smittie said in an e-mail to The Sun.

But at the hearing, Milan contended it did not go back on any promises. It acknowledged using Jet Set Mafia and GoodLife Productions to promote the place, but characterized their services as marketing. A true promoter, Milan contended, would take over the lounge for a night, run it entirely on its own, and share the proceeds with the owners.

Liquor board chairman Steve Fogleman said the distinction makes a difference.

"We're worried about temporary owners or managers," he said. "We're worried about people renting the club. ... Those are people who don’t know the neighbors, the neighborhood, local liquor laws, don’t know what restrictions might be on the license."

At the same time, Fogleman said he wasn't sure that sort of thing wasn't going on at Milan. But he said the neighbors had failed to prove that was the case.

"We're not convinced, based on the testimony, that they weren't using outside promoters, but based on the record, we didn’t have enough understanding of the difference between promoting and marketing to find by a preponderance [of evidence] that they were, in fact, outside party promoters," Fogleman said. "It was certainly a gray area raised by the licensee and his lawyer."

Blatterman said the distinction between promoters and marketers was news to her, but she is resigned to living with Milan for now.

That doesn't mean that next year at license renewal time she won't be back at the board, she added.

"By then," she said, "we will know the meaning of 'promoter.'"

The lights are still on at Milan. Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

McCabe's, the Hampden institution that closed abruptly in February 2009, is back in business with a new chef-owner.

This is a first venture into restaurant ownership for Patrick Ito, who previously worked at Copra downtown and Ze Mean Bean Cafe in Fells Point.

The restaurant, at 3845 Falls Road, reopened last Friday.

It still has the burgers and crab cakes for which the place was known. But those favorites have been updated.

"We're trying to go as local and organic and humane as possible," Ito said.

Not that going local is a big sacrifice when it comes to the brioche burger buns baked about two blocks away. "They're delicious," he said.

Ito has included several vegetarian items on his menu, including a grilled vegetable lasagna that uses polenta in place of noodles. There's also a fried eggplant sandwich with a harissa-tomato chutney and goat cheese on a Stone Mill baguette.

The restaurant serves lunch from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m., and dinner from 5 p.m. until 10 p.m. An "upscale bar menu," all priced at $10 or less, is available until 1:30 a.m. McCabe's is closed Mondays.

Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

"milan license renewed."

So tweeteth BaltoBeerBaron, also known as liquor board chairman Steve Fogleman.

Details in the story by The Sun's Jessica Anderson.

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

Little Italy residents who have petitioned the city not to renew Milan's liquor license get their hearing before the liquor board today.

The fun should begin within the hour.

The board is expected to rule one way or the other today, since the license is due to expire May 1. 

Predictions, anyone?

Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Here's a side dish of veganism to go with all the scrapple talk we've had around here lately.

One of the nation's most prominent vegans, T. Colin Campbell, will speak Saturday in Catonsville.

Campbell, a Cornell University nutritional biochemistry professor, is author of "The China Study," a book that finds a correlation between animal-based diets and disease.

Campbell will speak at an event put on by Earthsave, an all-volunteer nonprofit that promotes veganism.

The other featured speaker will be Bruce Friedrich, a vice president with People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He will give a talk titled, "Veganism: The Only Diet for a Small Planet."

Both speakers will sell and sign books at the event, which takes place at the Women's Club of Catonsville, 10 St. Timothy's Lane. The evening will begin with complementary light refreshments at 5:30 p.m. Speakers will begin at 5:50 p.m.

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. They are available at Your Prescription for Health in Owings Mills, The Yabba Pot in Baltimore, Natural Brothers Deli, across from Timonium Fairgrounds, Emily’s Café & Desserts in Baltimore, and Breathe Books in Baltimore.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

Chef Michael Costa has shed a little light on his recent departure from Pazo.

He told Baltimore Magazine that co-owner-turned-chef Tony Foreman asked him to resign.

"Tony said it was time to make a change and that was it," Costa told me when I called to follow up. "We didn't discuss it. He didn't say, 'X, Y, Z, these are the reasons.'"

Costa hasn't landed anywhere yet, but he is "exploring possibilities" with the catering company Chef's Expressions.

"We're talking about doing something," he said.

Costa lent Chef's Expressions a hand last week at an event at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel. He called the catering company right after he lost his job because it had done his March 13 wedding.

"They did a fantastic job," he said.

Attention, BaltBabs. Still looking for that wedding caterer? Sounds like a pretty good endorsement.

Michael Costa in his Pazo phase. Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

If you see mermaids rising from the pool while partying at a Canton fitness/nightclub, don't automatically assume you've had too much to drink.

It's probably just a hologram.

A group that is opening a full-service restaurant in Merritt's Downtown Athletic Club, plus a concession stand in the club's Canton location, has some unusual plans for Aqua, the seasonal poolside nightclub at the Canton club.

"We own the rights to do Aqua this year," said Ricardo Espinosa, chief operating officer for Camden View Inc., which operates Luna del Sea downtown and the newly opened Tony's Diner. "We're looking to do something out of the blue and create a different concept with a modern look to it."

How different? Hologram different.

They'd project holograms on the ceiling and water, Espinosa said.

Run that by me again?

"Have mermaids come out of the pool -- something cool, something different, out of the ordinary," he said.

The hologram-club thing is big in Europe, Espinosa said. Maybe they'll take euros.

The club will be open May 22 until Sept. 10.

As for the restaurant, Camden View plans to open a full-service restaurant with a liquor license and seating for 55 to 65 in the downtown club by June 1, Espinosa said.

The restaurant will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., serving breakfast, lunch and early dinner. The menu will offer "a lot of healthy food" that should appeal to fitness club-goers, Espinosa said. "Steaks, pastas, a little bit of everything," is how he described the fare.

They will also operate a concession stand at Merritt's Canton location, offering protein shakes, healthful sandwiches and vegetable platters.

Aqua already had lights. Just wait 'till the holograms hit. Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

I just caught up with Ricardo Espinosa, and I'm not sure where to start. Hologram nightclub concept? Fitness food restaurant? Downtown diner?

I'll start with Tony’s Diner because that one is up and running. (Tune in later here on the blog for hologram and fitness news.)

Located at 8 Park Avenue, next to First Mariner Arena, Tony's had its "soft" opening Monday. It is owned by Luna del Sea proprietor Tony Assadi. Espinosa is chief operating officer for the restaurant group that owns both, Camden View Inc.

"A small diner with a 21st-century touch," is how Espinosa described Tony's. "It's not just, come and eat a bunch of food on a plate. We’re keeping the [traditional diner] value but we’re giving them a gourmet taste on the plate."

Clams casino, "gourmet" hamburgers, pastas, chicken, shellfish and steaks are on chef Michael Castes' menu. Castes had been executive sous chef at Westin and Doubletree hotels.

Espinosa said the cheapest thing on the menu is the $4.99 BLT. The most expensive, the $24 rib eye steak. Breakfast fare is available all day, all night.

The diner is open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 a.m. to midnight. Eventually, Espinosa said, they hope to keep the place open until 4 a.m. on weekends.

Sun photo of Espinosa by Christopher T. Assaf

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Oceanaire just got a shipment of Dover sole Tuesday. So says executive sous chef Jeff Lhotsky, who e-mailed me about it.

"It is an imported fish from Europe, true Danish Dover Sole. Oftentimes it is imitated by the U.S. product such as Lemon Sole," he wrote.

"We prepare it simply pan seared with olive oil, salt and pepper. Tonight the price is $46.95. It is a whole fish, about 1#-1.25#, and served with a Caper Brown Butter sauce.

"It being a delicate whole fish, we fillet it tableside to remove the bones for the guests. It is truly delicious!"

The restaurant won't have the sole later in the spring and summer, when the fish will be too busy spawning to get interested in becoming dinner.

"We won't be getting them in much longer and then not again until early fall," he wrote.

Oceanaire dining room. Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

For anyone who missed it in the comments section of my post about scrap-free scrapple, I'm pleased to announce the First Annual Dining@Large Scrapple Poetry Contest.

Extra points for anyone who includes the words "offal," "apple" and "shrapnel."

Entries are due by noon Friday.

Submissions already made to the other blog item will be considered, so you don't have to post them again here.

First prize: 1 pound Truck Patch Farms scrapple

Runner up: 2 pounds Truck Patch Farms scrapple

Sun photo, from a 2004 Apple-Scrapple Festival, by Kim Hairston

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

Here's another of life's unanswerable questions, to go along with the one about the tree falling in the forest, or the boy becoming a man:

Can you have scrapple without scraps?

There's a reason scrapple rhymes with offal. The Pennsylvania Dutch breakfast treat usually is made with the stuff they won't put into sausage. Think about that.

Truck Patch Farms in Carroll County was raising pigs and letting a butcher turn it into scrapple for the farm. A few months ago, Truck Patch wondered what would happen if it cut out the middleman.

"We were trying to get away from a lot of preservatives that were going into it," said Truck Patch owner Bryan Kerney, who raises the pigs on pasture and feed that he grows on the farm. "If we do it ourselves, it's more of a fresh product."

The result was not just a scrapple free of nitrites and nitrates. It was a scrapple nearly free of scraps.

Truck Patch found it didn't have as many scraps to work with as the butcher, who usually combined trimmings from lots of farmers' pigs in a single batch of scrapple. Truck Patch has found itself using good cuts of pork -- "not the traditional scraps of the pig; it would make a nice roast," Kerney said. The farm has to make a point of getting enough fat in the mix, he said, or "we end up with too much meat."

The meat gets mixed with cornmeal -- organic cornmeal from Woodberry Kitchen, which serves the scrapple at brunch.

You can also buy Truck Patch Farms scrapple at the Baltimore Farmers' Market. It's $3.25 a pound.

Pastured pigs awaiting their chance to become scrapple. Photo courtesy of Truck Patch Farms

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

The Restaurant Association of Maryland gave out its 2010 Stars of the Industry awards last night at Martin's West.

And the winners are ...

Restaurateur of the Year: Dorothy and Richard Mollett, Antrim 1844 (Taneytown)

2010 Chef of the Year: Chef Bryan Voltaggio, VOLT (Frederick)

2010 Favorite Bar or Tavern: The Brewer’s Art (Baltimore)

2010 Pastry Chef of the Year: Chef Maura Radmanesh, Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge (Rockville)

2010 Favorite Caterer: Chef’s Expressions (Timonium)

2010 Wine and Beverage Program of the Year: The Charleston Group (operators of Charleston, Petit Louis, Pazo and Cinghiale in Baltimore)

Maryland’s Favorite New Restaurant 2010: Blue Hill Tavern (Baltimore)

Maryland’s Favorite Restaurant 2010: Jack’s Bistro (Baltimore)

Allied Member of the Year: Saval Foodservice represented by Chef Bryan Bernstein

Green Restaurant of the Year: Woodberry Kitchen (Baltimore)

The McCormick Cornerstone Award: Café 611 (Frederick); The Rose Group (Operators of Applebee’s restaurants across the state); Judi DiGioia of Morton’s the Steakhouse (Baltimore)

Maryland Hall of Honor Inductees: Acme Paper & Supply Company, Inc. ; Bo Brooks Restaurant and Catering (Baltimore); Lewnes’ Steakhouse (Annapolis); Seacrets (Ocean City); Snyder’s Willow Grove

Restaurant Association of Maryland Education Foundation ProStart Teacher of the Year: Bonita Curtis (Fairmont Heights High School)

Bouillabaisse at Antrim 1844. Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The Baltimore Farmers' Market opens under the JFX Sunday, but don't get too excited.

Most of the local produce we've been longing for all winter isn't ready for picking yet. Red-to-the-center local strawberries won't be here for weeks. Juicy peaches are months away.

Still, no one needs to go home empty handed.

Which brings us to this week's list:

Top Ten first-day farmers' market finds 

No. 1: Many Rocks Farm goat meat 

While visiting this Washington County farm last week, I bought a pound of spicy Italian goat sausage. It was delicious browned in a pan and served over a bed of Swiss chard, which I'd sauteed with a little butter and sprinkled with Parmesan. The best part: my family had no clue it was goat.

No. 2: Asparagus

It's one of the few local crops that's ready to go -- the only one Pahl's Farm of Pikesville will have Sunday. "Next thing we'll have is strawberries," Jennifer Pahl tells me. Look for those the end of May or early June.

No. 3: Lettuce

No. 4: Falafel

Don's miss the wrap sandwiches from the falafel guy's booth. Last time I had one, he put grated beets and local strawberries inside. Yum! I assume Sunday's sandwiches will be berry-free, but I'm sure they'll still be great.

No. 5: Bicycle-powered smoothies

I haven't had the chance yet to sample a drink from Wheely Good Smoothies, a new vendor at the downtown market, but I love the concept of making smoothies in a blender powered by a bicycle. Do the pedaling yourself and save 50 cents.

No. 6: Tomato, eggplant and cucumber plants

Really, it's too early to put them in the ground, Tom Albright of Albright Farms tells me. But he'll have the plants there for sale anyway for the eager beavers who just can't wait. I'm one of them. "People want to buy it," he said. "You have it there and you give them a warning." He suggests putting baskets or milk jugs over the plants until the weather really warms up.

No. 7: Chicken

Albright Farms will sell pasture-raised birds through a chicken co-op for the first time this year. Details are kind of complicated, but here's the gist: customers who commit to buying 12 chickens over six months will get a 10 percent off Albright's retail price of $3.75 a pound. Even with the discount, it's not exactly a steal by supermarket standards. But these are pastured birds, raised in Baltimore County without antibiotics or added hormones.

No. 8: Truck Patch Farms scrapple

No. 9: Honey

We like to buy it in great, big jars and use it with abandon -- baked in homemade bread, drizzled on homemade ricotta, mixed in homemade ice cream, etc., etc., etc.

No. 10:  Milk in glass bottles

Just make sure you make the South Mountain Creamery stand your last stop, so you don't have to lug those bottles all around the market.

Also see: The Farmers' Market Challenge and Baltimore-area farmers' markets

Many Rocks Farm goat sausage. Photo by math-hubby

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Former "Top Chef" contestant Jesse Sandlin and Rosina Gourmet owner Jim Lancaster are teaming up with a new restaurant on the edge of Harbor East and Little Italy.

Vino Rosina will be upscale sandwich place by day, wine bar by night. Lancaster will be owner. Sandlin, executive chef.

The restaurant will seat 70. It is expected to open in mid-May in the Bagby Furniture Building at Fleet and South Exeter streets, across from Whole Foods. 

At lunchtime, the restaurant will offer Rosina Gourmet sandwiches as well as flatbreads, salads and a small bar menu, Sandlin told me. The flatbreads and bar menu also will be available in the evening, along with a selection of raw plates -- carpaccio, ceviche, that sort of thing. There will be a lot of small plates designed to be paired with a glass of wine, like olives or charcuterie, plus a "killer cheese selection."

Sandlin hopes to source much of her food locally. She has already hooked up with Gunpowder Bison, is looking into buying beef from a farm near Monkton, and plans to use Maryland-farmed Marvesta Shrimp. She'll be shopping at the Baltimore Farmers' Market.

But Sandlin said the food will not be strictly local. That cheese selection, for instance, will come from American, Italian, French and Spanish cheese makers.

Sandlin also said the restaurant will not be a coat-and-tie kind of place.

"A person like myself, who has all these ridiculous tattoos, I should be able to come eat at the restaurant where I work at and not feel uncomfortable," she said. "It will be focused on the quality of food, quality of wine, quality of service, but in a fun, casual atmosphere."

Before this venture, Sandlin had worked most recently as a line cook at Cinghiale. Her last day there was Saturday. Joining her at the new restaurant are two other former Charleston Restaurant Group employees. Olivia Boru, a former sommelier at Charleston, will be beverage manager. Tiffany Haleamau, an assistant manager at Cinghiale, will be general manager.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

Harbor East Deli is expected to open this weekend in the storefront occupied ever so briefly by Elevation Burger.

Alex Smith, grandson of Harbor East godfather John Paterakis, is opening the restaurant with two partners.

Smith was a partner in Elevation Burger, the grass-fed burger restaurant that came and went in the space of nine months.

"I had a falling out with the franchise company," Smith said of his last venture. Namely, he said, Elevation HQ did not allow him to play background music, sell beer or wine, or have televisions in the dining area.

"When you have a franchise company that's not willing to work with you, not willing to learn, it's time to move on," he said. Smith invoked some McDonald's history, something he's familiar with since Grandpa bakes buns for the chain. "Franchisees proposed the Big Mac, proposed the salad, the wraps."

And so, at Smith's new venture, there will be music, beer, wine and liquor, and 10 plasma TVs. 

The new place will have one thing in common with Elevation: an affordable menu, at least compared to the fine-dining options that dominate that upscale corner of town.

There will be burgers, whole pizzas and pizza by the slice, deli sandwiches, lamb and chicken gyros, streamed and fried shrimp, and nine different types of cheese steak. I don't have all the prices, but the sandwiches start at $6.50.

Because Elevation was a franchise, Smith could not use any of the fixtures from the old restaurant. He said the space has been completely renovated and has 91 seats, up from 41. There will be 40 additional seats on the sidewalk.

"Anybody who ever ate at Elevation Burger will never know it existed," he said. "There is not a spec of Elevation in here."

No spec of Elevation in this deli. Photo courtesy of Alex Smith

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

If, as Andrew Carnegie had it, the first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell, then don't be late to Woodberry Kitchen's oyster festival.

The restaurant celebrates oyster season with an outdoor festival Sunday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

There will be live jazz, local wines and beer, and oysters in lots of incarnations. Raw oysters. Grilled oysters. Oyster fritters. Oyster stew. Even oyster shooters, served in shot glasses with alcohol of some sort. (I'm told Corey Polyoka, Woodberry's lead mixologist, is still thinking up the concoctions.)

Hot dogs and grilled asparagus will be available for non-oyster eaters.

The restaurant had a similar festival in September, another "r" month. Oyster selection starts dropping off in May, and the bivalves disappear from the menu in summer until they become more plentiful again in the fall, said Andy Tzortzinis, who does PR for Woodberry.

"It's sort of, celebrate of another great oyster season and the beginning of a great summer," Tzortzinis said.

Admission is free. All of the food will be offered a la carte, with nothing over $5. 

Rain date is May 16.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

The Food Network show, "The Best Thing I Ever Ate," came to The Ambassador Sunday to film celebrity baker Duff Goldman eating fish.

Binda Singh, who owns the restaurant with his brother, said chef Raman Kanghuta prepared Goa Fish, following a recipe developed by Singh's mother. The dish features a pan-fried fish in a tamarind reduction with garlic, ginger, turmeric and cumin.

"It is very traditional," he said, noting that the dish is common in the Goa region of India.

Except in India, it is made with a type of white fish not commonly found here. The Ambassador uses Rockfish.

Singh is not sure when the episode will air. (He expects to find out in four or five weeks.) But he knows Goldman, the "Ace of Cakes" star who nominated the fish for the show, will give it high praise.

"He loved it," Singh said. "He was just going on and on."

Photo courtesy of The Ambassador

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Here it is Monday, but it feels like a Friday. In one respect, anyway: I've got a fresh Free Market Friday post from Robert of Cross Keys for you. He sent this to me Friday, but I had to be out of the office most of the day and couldn't post it. I tried to make it up to RoCK by crediting him for a frog photo Meekrat took at Asia Market, but that wasn't good enough. He asked me to hold the post until today, when you'd all be back at work, goofing off, reading the blog. So here's RoCK. LV

Last week I went to Tio Pepe’s with a gift certificate . . . from 1982.

It was around 1982 that I first became familiar with Tio Pepe’s. I didn’t go there back then. I was a kid in Aberdeen and at that time my restaurant world was comprised of the Cloverleaf Diner and the Golden Corral. For fancy occasions, I might end up at the Colonel’s Choice. My parents, on the other hand, would go there for dinner parties or business meetings. I can remember asking to go, hearing: “You wouldn’t like it, it's not for kids.”  In my mind, Tio Pepe’s was the adult restaurant.  It was sophisticated and, if you’ll pardon the Ron Burgundy lingo, classy.   

I never did make it there as a kid. I went to Tio Pepe's for the first time a couple of years ago -- last week was the second. I enjoyed both meals, but something was missing. It was not that they were great once, and now they are bad. It wasn’t Rod Stewart with The Faces compared with Rod Stewart solo. We’re not talking about going from the heights of "Stay with Me" to the depths of "Young Turks." No, this was more like the Rolling Stones. You can still get your fill of the old favorites, but that magic you either heard about or experienced won’t be there.

Next up were appetizers. As a traditionalist, I had to explain to the wife that we were definitely getting the garlic shrimp. She wanted the Mediterranean seafood cocktail. Of course we ended up getting both.

The garlic shrimp were very good. The shrimp were generous in number and very tender. The sauce was both rich and full of garlic flavor, while not being too heavy or bitter. If the bread would have been better, I would have finished off all the sauce. When I talked to people familiar with Tio Pepe, they would always rave about the bread. What I had was cold and doughy. Maybe it was an off night. Maybe in comparison to the awful Italian bread and dinner rolls that were, and still are, a mainstay in this town, the bread at Tio Pepe’s was good in a relative sense.

The Mediterranean seafood cocktail was like something out of the 1950’s. Chilled shrimp, lobster and other seafood mixed with cantaloupe and tossed in Russian or French dressing (I say Russian and the wife says French). The seafood was fresh, but I thought the cantaloupe made the dish too sweet. As for the Russo-Franco dressing, it was not that it didn’t taste good, it was more that is hid the flavor of the seafood.

Next up was the main course. The wife started talking about Dover Sole. Look, I like that fish, but that’s not why I went there. I suggested instead we go with the paella for two. I thought for sure she would fight me, as she normally does whenever I suggest anything that is a one pot or pan dish, like cassoulet or jambalaya, where everything is mixed together. Contrary to my assumption, she embraced the idea.

The paella was simply great. Lobster, clams, muscles, shrimp, veal, chorizo, chicken and vegetables all combined with saffron rice. The key to this good paella, outside of quality ingredients, was cooking it in one pan and cooking it in stages. The one pan allowed the flavors to meld, and it produced those delightful, crunchy pieces that stuck to the bottom. The cooking in stages made it possible to avoid the choice of tender shrimp or undercooked chicken. I found all of the individual ingredients to be cooked perfectly.

Dessert was another show down of tradition versus something new that ended with ordering two things. I went with the pine nut roll. I loved how the salty and crunchy pine nuts played off the sweet cream. The wife had a chocolate roll. It was tasty, but I found it to be simply sweet without any of the contrasting flavors the pine nut roll offered.

The décor at Tio Pepe’s reminded me a little of the house I grew up in back in Aberdeen.  My parents were married in the '60’s, and the furniture they bought had quite the Iberian flair. We had wood carvings of conquistadors, wall moldings of sword fighters, and paintings of Spanish senoras. Tio Pepe’s doesn’t have as much style as my old house, but it definitely has some 1960’s charm to it.

As I sat there, my thoughts turned to what Tio Pepe’s was like back in the '60’s, '70’s and '80’s. I imagined it was quite the scene, filled with smoke and people wearing suits and cocktail dresses.  

You won’t see any of that today. Outside of some flambé dishes, there’s no smoke, which is probably a good thing considering the low ceilings in their cellar dining room. There was a good crowd, but it was by no means filled.  The waiters were still clad in the customary red tuxedos, and some of the diners were wearing jackets or dresses, but I saw a lot of them in jeans and even T-shirts. I’m not talking about designer jeans and T-shirts, and I wouldn’t have considered that OK, but one guy was in there wearing a Drexel University Alumni T-shirt. Really? You go to Tio Pepe’s and you opt to wear something from the college bookstore? At one time, the manager would have given him a jacket to wear while dining.  Today, nobody wants to hassle anyone.  The individual comfort of this guy and others like him comes at the expense of the Tio Pepe experience, which is a loss for all of us.  

I was able to experience the food, the drink and the décor of Tio Pepe’s, but I really would have liked to have been a part of its old magic. Then again, I also missed out on the Faces. Unfortunately, time, just like Ronnie Wood, moves on.

Tio Pepe's sangria. Sun photo by Kim Hairston. See RoCK's photos of his trip to Tio Pepe’s.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

I had the chance to tour what were described as Baltimore's "most sustainable" restaurants the other day. So did Spoons, a longtime Dining@Large lurker who sent me this guest post. I didn't actually meet Spoons on the tour, but I welcome her report. Like Spoons, I enjoyed the chance to hear from chefs about their efforts to serve sustainable foods --  not to mention the chance to sample some of those foods. I'll have more to add about the tour in posts of my own later this week. But for now, here's Spoons. LV. 

First Stop: Woodberry Kitchen
Chef-owner Spike Gjerde gave us a tour of the future in sustainable cooking by showing off his almost finished canning and preserving kitchen, which included a walk-in room for the house-made charcuterie. Spike talked excitedly about how he will be able to use house-canned Maryland tomatoes and other local produce in winter dishes. He and his wife, Amy, generously served our group of thirty-five people a sit-down lunch of the following:

Sparkling Wine – Cava
Asparagus with sauce gribiche
Mixed green salad with vinaigrette made from pickling brine
House-corned beef tongue with sauerkraut
Three types of local, farmed oysters
Ham and Cheese mini-sandwiches with Great Kids Farm microgreens 
Cheeses: Firefly Farms goat cheese, Darlington aged cheddar

Second Stop: The Dogwood
Chef Owner Galen Sampson spoke about The Dogwood’s commitment to using locally grown ingredients and somewhat apologized that the growing season is just getting started. He said the temporary closure of The Dogwood on 36th Street allowed them to restructure and refocus their commitment to their social mission of helping ex-offenders learn the cooking trade in his kitchen. He shared that some former participants were now employed at Woodberry, Alizee Boutique Bistro and Wine Bar, and The Black Olive. He expects to open the front house café for lunch very soon. He generously served the group a sit down refreshment of:

Asparagus (grown in VA) prepared with Chapel's Country Creamery cheese and local watercress

Third Stop: Gertrude’s at the BMA
Chef Owner John Shields warmly greeted our group and talked about how he worked for a time as a chef in Berkley, Calif., and how because of the climate there that region is able to eat locally all year round. He shared that it was natural for him to bring that philosophy back home to Maryland when he opened Gertrude’s, named in honor of his grandmother who taught him how to cook.  John prepared appetizers for our group made from Lucie Snodgrass’ cookbook, "Dishing Up Maryland," and explained how Marvesta Shrimp Farm on the Eastern Shore figured out how to offer fresh, healthy, sustainable shrimp through innovative techniques which do not rely on using hormones or antibiotics in the water.  John generously offered the group on the patio of the BMA gardens:

Arugla pesto served with crackers
Asparagus frittata using locally gathered eggs
Shrimp pate (from Marvesta Farms) with crackers
Boordy Petit Cabernet
Boordy Riesling
Lemonade

Fourth Stop: Clementine
Owner-Chef Winston Blick and wife Cristin Dadant seated us Thanksgiving style all in a row. Cristin explained their philosophy for using locally grown foods when they are able and Clementine’s passion for making their own charcuterie, sauces and desserts. She shared that restaurants often struggle to deal with kitchen waste and leftovers and let us know they were solving that problem by recycling it to the neighborhood compost program run by Hamilton Crop Circle.  Cristin also shared with us her excitement about the upcoming Good Life Thursdays taking place at Boordy Vineyards, which will offer organic and locally sustainable products in addition to featuring live music, happy hour, and grilled burgers and will begin June 10. Clementine kindly fed us with:

House-made chicken liver pate infused with honey on fresh bread
House-made dried cured sausage called Sassy Salt with mustard
Fresh green salad featuring Easter Egg Radishes from Real Food Farm

Final Stop: Real Food Farm
Real Food Farm is located at Clifton Park on land owned by the city and is a non-profit supported by Civic Works (Baltimore’s urban service corp.) and Safe Healing Foundation. A representative of Real Food Farm explained the growing methods of the three Hoop Houses currently on site and constructed in October 2009 which are used to educate students by allowing teachers to integrate math, science and English with active lessons on soil and food. They are also used for after-school programs to teach entrepreneurial skills. The program will eventually support itself as they sell the produce to local restaurants and residents in the area.  We were shown the pear, paw paw, and persimmon trees (six to eight of each) that were recently planted as part of a larger vision in which they do not intend to farm in traditional “grid style” but by creating an edible landscape through which the community can stroll.  

This was the first time that Baltimore Green Works and the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance arranged for The Local is as Local does – Food Tour.  The event sold out quickly at $25 per person. The fee covered the cost to pay for the bus but all time, food and beverages were donated by the restaurants. The organizers of the event were thrilled with the turn out and while it was scheduled to coincide with Earth Day recognized that had they scheduled it a few weeks later would have been better able to feature more locally grown foods. The very enthusiastic inaugural group suggested that it be offered at least four times a year to coincide with the seasons. Most likely future tours will feature other restaurants and growing centers that are just as ardent about supporting local grown foods and sustainability.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Alan Morstein of Regi's sends this week's Waverly Farmers' Market report.

"Today at Waverly ... North Carolina plump strawberries in heavy supply. Robin Bartenfelder from Bartenfelder Farms expects her local crop of strawberries to be ready in two weeks from her main farm on the Eastern Shore.

"Local asparagus in thick and thin stalks, plenty of spring onions, leaf greens and rhubarb. The last week or so for watercress according to one local farmer. Flowering, fresh herb and vegetable plants seem to be taking center stage.

"The local growers seem very upbeat today in light of the beautiful weather we've had following the wet winter. Many growers are on their third planting in the field."

He was also looking forward to the opening of the downtown market next Sunday.

"Next week is show time under the JFX! It's not like the opening of baseball or football, but for a foodie it's pretty close."

Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

After writing about sustainable seafood, I got an interesting e-mail from a reader who'd eaten escolar. I'd never heard of the fish before, but I'll steer clear of it now.

It seems the oily fish has a, well, laxative effect on the body.  So much so that it's been banned in Japan and Italy. Relax, it's escolar.

The Ex-Lax Fish shows up on menus as "white tuna," "butterfish," "rudderfish," and "Hawaiian walu," according to a December Mother Jones story. Fishermen only started catching it in recent decades as they began using new deep-water equipment for tuna and swordfish, and sought markets for the "bycatch" they pulled up with it, the article reports.

Here's what the escolar eater writes:

(Note: I removed the name of the restaurant from the following account because I have not had a chance to contact anyone there. I did confirm online that the place has escolar on the menu, but I'd like to give the restaurant a chance to respond before putting the name out there. I hope to follow up with them and update this post at that point.)

"You've been talking about fish ... and right now I'm not sure I'll ever eat another piece.

"On Sunday I had a chance to get out to the Eastern Shore with my parents, who were in town visiting. We stumbled upon a restaurant in Rock Hall called [bleep]. It was delightful. Everything was great. Really. Great service, great wine, fabulous food. Except ... I ordered a fish I had never heard of, and that's when things took a turn toward the negative.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Red Star has a new chef (Ken Plante), new general manager (Joshua Barbour), and new menu (small plates). 

Barbour tells me the Fells Point restaurant is focusing on upscale bar foods and getting away from large plates. 

"We also have a more focused wine list with wines from all major areas instead of just California," he says.

He says they're particularly excited about their new Champagne-and-oyster nights on Thursdays ($5 per glass and $6 1/2 dozen).

Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)
        

When the Baltimore Farmers' Market opens for the season next weekend, a new vendor will be there selling goat meat.

Jeanne Dietz-Band raises the animals on Many Rocks Farm in Washington County. I had the chance to visit her there last week and found a scene out of "Heidi," with a herd of goats grazing on hilly green pastureland.

It was the kind of setting we'd like to think all of our food comes from, though we know better.

At the market, Dietz-Band will sell loin chops ($11.99 a pound), stew cubes ($10.99), ground goat ($7.99). She'll also offer several varieties of goat sausage, all at $10.99 a pound: sweet and hot Italian, chorizo, English-style bangers and onion-garlic brats.

Dietz-Band thinks people will like goat if they give it a try. She describes the meat as having a “much milder, sweeter flavor than lamb, lower in fat than skinless chicken breast and higher in protein and iron than beef.” She'll provide recipes so customers will know how to cook it.

She does not make goat cheese. (She already has three friends in that line of work and figured they didn't need any more competition.) 

But she does make soap with goats' milk, vegetable oils and herbs. She'll be selling that as well at the market. That will set you back $6.50 a bar.

Photo courtesy of Many Rocks Farm

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

A culinary expedition to Catonsville gave Dining@Large reader Meekrat the chance to pass on both Wonder Bread and live frogs. If that's not the center of the foodie universe, I don't know what is. LV

I've been needing an adventure for some time. Not anything grand (read: expensive), just something off the path. My fearless co-conspirator and I decided on Grilled Cheese & Co. for lunch, then Asia Market

First off, don't trust GPS. Common sense is a foreign thing to these devices, so we got a little lost. Walked into Grilled Cheese & Co. (the reports of tight parking are true) and were greeted with a delicious smell, a very full dining room and fairly loud music. My cohort got one look at the price board, noted what he said was Wonder Bread and promptly declared it a no fly zone.

Off to Asia Market.

The first thing you notice walking up is the large 40-lb. bags of rice in the front window. The second is the aroma of something not very grocery store, rather bayou in fact. Apparently, the entire freezer section was on the blink, so that ruled out those selections.

Next up was the refrigerated section with fresh-made packaged noodles, ready-for-lunch sushi, kimchi in various amounts, a shrimp roll that looked like cleaned innards and boiled salted duck eggs. One row in, and I am already suffering from sensory overload, but am highly entertained. 

The rows of pastes, sauces and condiments happily start to merge together in surreal fashion. This is definitely the place if you need a gallon of soy sauce or four different brands of soy sauce in a gallon container. They have every brand i've ever seen domestically and about 100 I've never seen before. My lack of ability to read any Asian language is a bit of a handicap as the English printed contents on most of the packaging is 6-point font.

The noodle aisle produces one of my searched-for things: Cellophane mung bean noodles, looking very much like clear gummy worms. I must have them, and into the basket they go Also, a very good pack of dried mushrooms of unknown sort, the labels unhelpful due to the language barrier. There are two sorts on the end cap, one in green and one in red. We go with the red pack.

There are two produce sections in Asia Market, one is refrigerated. There, near the beginning of the frozen meats, I find my treasure: Durian fruit in a yellow mesh bag with a serious red plastic loop ending. It's surprisingly heavy for its size and the spines are pretty darn sharp for not having actual barbs.

The bayou aroma gets stronger as we proceed to the frozen meats and fish counter. Need a whole cow's tongue? It's here. The fish counter moves from normal to interesting to eeeeeeeeew in six paces. Live blue crabs, stone crabs, eels, crayfish, mussels, two sick-looking but alive buffalo carp, a very crowded tank of tilipia (with a dead fish in the bottom) bull frogs and red eared slider and what looked to be Florida slider turtles (also with a dead turtle in the corner of the tank). The sign mentioned that the red ears were farm raised.

I have the searched-for items. It's time to go.The funk is starting to get to me, and it's about to overcome my cohort. There's a greenish look around the gills, and it's not on any of the fish.
We get into line, and I tell him to go get some air. The Durian is wrapped in a thick layer of newspaper and then bagged, getting a separate one than the rest of our haul.

The Durian, by the way, has a semi crystalline look to it in the sunlight, sort of the resin-like appearance of fresh catnip or sage. Also, the sent easily permeated the paper in the car. Upon arriving home, the poor fruit is banished to the back patio.

Asia Market frogs. Photo by Meekrat

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

A vendor by the name of Wheely Good Smoothies will sell fruit drinks made in bicycle-powered blenders when the Baltimore Farmers' Market opens for the season May 2.

Natan Lawson has three bikes, each rigged up so the wheels drive a shaft that drives a blender.

"It's meant to get your attention," he said of the bike bit. "But if the smoothies weren't good, it would just be all show."

Before launching the business --  it debuted at Artscape and Waverly Market last summer, but is new to the downtown market this year -- Lawson did a lot of research.

"I bought all the smoothie recipe books on Amazon," he said. "I went through them all."

Among the blends he'll be selling: Strawberry Spice, which combines OJ, strawberries and basil; The Fuzz, which has two whole peaches, organic lemonade, and a little chipotle spice; Blueberries and Cream, made with just that, plus some banana and apple juice.

The price for each 16-ounce smoothie is $5.50 -- $5 for customers who do the pedaling themselves.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

"A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs," Mark Twain wrote in "Following the Equator." 

Which explains 70 to 80 pounds of cake, made with 100 eggs and all the fondant frippery that "Ace of Cakes"  sous chef Geof Manthorne could summon. Made to look like Mark Twain's elaborate house in Hartford, Conn., the cake was presented there yesterday to mark the centennial of the author's death.

The Sun's Dave Rosenthal has the details at the Read Street blog. 

As a native of the Hartford area, I've toured the Mark Twain House several times. One of the quirkier aspects are split fireplace flues that allowed windows to be placed directly above fireplaces. (The author wanted to be able to watch the snow fall outside and his fire inside.)

The house is well worth a visit, even without cake.

Photo courtesy of Mark Twain House

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

This Earth Day, let's take a moment to reflect on the changing nature of the restaurant news release.

There was a time when such releases hyped what was on the menu. Now they brag about the menu itself. 

"All of B&O American Brasserie’s menus, kitchen towels, to-go napkins and flatware are made from recycled materials and B&O American Brasserie has an in-house filtration system ... in order to eliminate selling bottled water," reads the news release for the sneaker-dinner deal I wrote about earlier today.

"The restaurant also offers an assortment of organic beverages including organic coffee and wines, is an advocate for environmentally friendly seafood and participates in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, pledging to buy seafood only from sustainable sources."

Elsewhere in the release, chef E. Michael Reidt is quoted saying: “On any given day, I estimate that nearly half of the food we work with and serve at B&O American Brasserie is organic. I fully support the farm-to-table movement and I think it’s an important part of Earth Day."

It's great to see growing environmental awareness, especially when it leads to serving organic, local, sustainable foods.

But I wonder where the trend will take us. Maybe soon those recycled menus will have blurbs about the restaurant's compost pile. 

Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

"As part of its Earth Day festivities, B&O American Brasserie will hand out seed packets to dinner guests and will give a complimentary glass of champagne to dinner guests who wear sneakers and walk to the restaurant," the restaurant says in a news release.

A little note at the bottom explains how B&O will determine who actually hoofs it to the restaurant and who just strolls in from a nearby parking spot. "B&O American Brasserie will moderate participation based on an honor code," it says.

I e-mailed the sender to ask if diners really had to wear sneakers to get in on the deal. How about sensible shoes?

"Asking that people wear sneakers makes it easy for the restaurant to see who is eligible for the promotion," came the reply. "'Sensible shoes' is just too general."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

It was only a matter of time before the cupcake trend and food-truck trend collided.

It happened this week in Baltimore County, when a longtime wedding cake baker climbed into a pink-and-white polka dotted truck and started cruising suburban office parks in search of snack-starved workers.

Christine Richardson, 50, sold all 400 cupcakes on board Wednesday, and nearly sold out Tuesday, the first day she took Icedgems Baking on the road.

She alerts customers to the truck's whereabouts by way of Twitter and Facebook.

Richardson makes a "huge variety" of flavors, offering five or six each day. They include coffee cake cupcakes with coffee frosting, lemon, and the big hit Wednesday, rocky road, made with pecans, marshmallows, dark and light chips and a buttercream frosting with more of those pecans and chips.

The cupcakes are $2.50 each, $12.50 for a half-dozen, $24 a dozen.

Richardson bakes out of commercial kitchen in Security Square Mall, renting space from Clifton and Tracy Spriggs of Honey Biscuits. (The whoopie pie lady rents space from them, too. Who knew Security Square would turn out to be such a hub for hipster foods?)

Richardson will deliver two dozen or more cupcakes within 20 miles of the Reisterstertown area for free, and will travel farther for a small fee. She hopes to work out a regular route, one that eventually takes her into Baltimore City.

But so far, she has found suburban office parks a good to place to troll for treat-seekers. Her truck has already crossed paths there with the Chowhound Burger Wagon.

"They said, 'Follow us 'round,'" Richardson said. "They do the main course and we do dessert."

NOTE: I initially reported that Richardson rented kitchen space from the whoopie pie lady. In fact, the whoopie pie lady and Richardson both rent from Honey Biscuits. Sorry about that.

Photo courtesy of Icedgems Baking

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Rest assured that it really is Thursday, even if yesterday passed without a single shallow thought from John Lindner. 

The regular Wednesday Dining@Large contributor offered a tantalizing explanation for his absence.

"Excuse: The success of my wine smuggling operation," he e-mailed me. "All my time's been devoted to placing orders and keeping delivery drivers (I have openings, btw) stocked. It's a happy nightmare."

Sun file photo of The Wine Market in Locust Point -- or is it Lindner's illicit wine cellar?

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Further proof that American kids need to get more up-close-and-personal with their veggies, courtesy of a cute program I attended at my son's preschool this morning.

A woman who was about to lead the children in a song about planting a garden asked them to name vegetables that go into a salad.

All hands shot up.

"Lettuce," said the first child she called on.

"Croutons," said the second.

Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

One of the more interesting things I ran across while reporting on a story about sustainable seafood, which appears in today's Sun, has to do with Whole Foods.

The supermarket does an excellent job of labeling the fish in its case. It uses color-coded stickers to indicate how the fish is rated by the Blue Ocean Institute.

Green means the fish is relatively abundant and caught in a manner that causes little environmental damage. Yellow indicates serious problems with abundance or fishing methods. Red means problems with that fish are even worse.

i was surprised to see quite a few red- and yellow-flagged fish in the case at the Harbor East Whole Foods, including wild cod (red) and wild Vietnamese yellowfin tuna (yellow).

Teddy Williams, manager of the fish department at that store, said Whole Foods wants to make it easy for customers who care about sustainability to sort out what's what in the fish case. But the store still wants to sell to those who don't give a hoot.

"Some people just want a piece of fish," he said.

Whole Foods is a business -- one that is willing to put warning stickers on some of the stuff it's trying to sell. So I give them points for disclosure.

But it is sort of surprising that the retailer, which won't let anything with artificial coloring, genetically modified ingredients or trans fats in the store, gives unsustainable fish a pass.

Compare that to a restaurant like Woodberry Kitchen. Chef Spike Gjerde employs a full-time fish sourcer to find sustainable seafood for his restaurant. Nobody seems to be leaving Woodberry hungry.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

It's restaurant week in Catonsville, and that means discounts at some fine local restaurants -- and at a lot of ho-hum chains.

The list of participating eateries begins with Applebee's and goes on from there to McDonald's Pizza Hut.

But do not despair. There's also Atwater's, Catonsville Gourmet and Indian Delight.

Participating restaurants include:  Applebee’s, Atwater’s, Bakers Park, Café on the Grove, Candle Light Inn, Catonsville Gourmet, Dimitri’s International Grill, Duesenberg’s – An American Café, Edible Arrangements - Catonsville, El Nayar Mexican Restaurant, Friendly’s, G.L. Shacks, Indian Delight, Jennings Café, Lucy’s Paradise Café, McDonald’s in Catonsville, Munchies, Opie’s, Pizza Hut, Prime Central Sandwich, Ships Café, Spicy Garden, SugarBakers Cakes, The Rumor Mill and You Scream Ice Cream. 

Restaurant week discounts vary by establishment. Many offer 20 percent off or half of one entree with the purchase of another. 

Atwater's Peasant Wheat bread. Sun photo by Doug Kapustin

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I'm not sure Baltimore needs yet another chain restaurant in the Inner Harbor, what with Cheesecake Factory, Hard RockCafe, ESPN Zone, etc., etc., etc.

But here comes one more place where tourists can have a taste of, well, everywhere else in America.

Noodles & Company opens its first Baltimore location in the Light Street Pavilion a week from Thursday.

At least as chains go, Noodles & Company is a good one, according to a Richard Gorelick review on the blog last summer.

Noodles is opening in a spot once occupied by a women's clothing store in the Light Street Pavilion.

It's in the same building as that other uniquely Baltimorean eatery: Hooters.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I just got an e-mail with "mole" in the subject line, and for a minute there, I thought someone was replying to my cuy reference in today's Top Ten list.

Here's what the Dining@Large reader wrote:

"Do you know of any place in the Baltimore-Washington area that serves authentic mole?"

By this, I believe she means the dark Mexican sauce, not some trendy new rodent entree.

Can you help her out?

A non-traditional take on mole at Diablita near Little Italy, where the sauce is paired with filet mignon, short rib, habanero-sweet potato pancake and braised red cabbage. Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

At the risk of looking like a rube, I'll admit it: I don’t get why truffles are such a big whoop.

I’d like to think it’s a case of truffle tastes, portobello budget. I’ve hardly had the chance to sample the fungal luxury, and when I have, it’s been in the form of a skimpily drizzled truffle oil.

But the problem may be a genetic quirk known as “specific anosmia.”

Some people lack the ability to smell certain odors. Quite a few cannot detect androstenone, the pheromone in truffles that makes epicures swoon like randy pigs.

That’s according to Charles J. Wysocki, a behavioral neuroscientist at Philadelphia’s Monell Chemical Senses Center.

“When a male pig encounters a female, if she’s in heat and he breathes into her nose and she smells this substance, she goes into mating posture,” Wysocki told me in an interview. “Farmers have made use of this, and you can go into any Agway shop and buy some [pheromonal] Boarmate in a can.”

The pheromone works more reliably on porcine subjects than human ones. Which is why not every gourmand assumes mating posture when presented with a plate of truffle risotto.

“Forty to 50 percent get absolutely nothing [from sniffing truffles],” Wysocki said. “Thirty-five percent smell it, and smell it as stale urine or sweat. Fifteen percent can detect … woody or floral [notes].”

I interviewed Wysocki months and months ago for a story on cilantro (more on that later). His comments came to mind this week as I reported news that Wegmans was selling black truffles for $400 a pound.

No. 1: Truffles

No. 2: Cilantro

In the great love-it-or-hate-it cilantro divide, I'm with the herb's lovers. But cilantro is one of those foods that some people just don't get. Wysocki has theorized that specific anosmia is the reason that some insist cilantro tastes like soap, while the rest of us think they're nuts. He believes cilantro haters cannot detect the herb’s pleasing, aromatic notes, but do pick up on a soapy-smelling component that’s normally masked by the good stuff.

No. 3: Milk chocolate

Why ruin the world's most perfect food -- dark chocolate -- with the addition of milk?

No. 4: White chocolate

No. 5: Sea urchin sushi

It’s been 20 years since I’ve tried it, but I still recall thinking it tasted like Magic Markers.

No. 6: Blue cheese

Tasty mold to some, ammonia on a cracker to others.

No. 7: Cuy

I don't care if it "tastes just like guinea pig."

No. 8: Fish

I enjoy fish, but my husband can't believe anything that smells like that could taste good.

No. 9: Any food ordered through a speaker

I know most of America disagrees with me on this one. I'll concede two exceptions: Atwater's (which has a drive-thru in Towson) and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

No. 10: Chinese-farmed anything

All-you-can-eat shrimp scarfers will disagree, but once I read about it, I lost my appetite.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (41)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

The Wine Market is offering a wine-tasting Tuesday that includes some nice-sounding bites to eat.

Christopher Spann, owner of The Wine Market, writes:

"On Tuesday April 20, we will be hosting our Annual Spring WineD Up! We will feature over 30 amazing wines from around the world, as well as special culinary creations from Chef Jason Lear. 

"The event will be held from 6 p.m. til 8:30 p.m.

"Tickets are $35, and tasting attendees will be given a 20% discount on all wine purchased that evening @ the tasting."

"A sampling of the menu: wrapped medjool dates with goat cheese mousse, lamb lollipops with curried carrot relish, cured salmon on ice box crackers with dill creme fraiche, braised short rib on pumpernickel crostini with smoked boursin cheese."

Shelves of vino at The Wine Market. Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here's an eye-popping dollar figure you don't see on the average supermarket shelf: $399.99.

That's the pricetag on the truffles Wegmans is selling in Hunt Valley.

My colleague Julie Scharper was so shocked she snapped a picture and sent it my way.

Shane Andy, a produce manager at the store -- and yes, it really is Shane Andy, not Andy Shane -- tells me that's the price per pound. The average truffle weighs about an ounce, so customers can take one home for about $25.

Even so, the black truffles are kept under lock and key in the produce section. They are displayed on a bed of uncooked risotto.

"A lot of people ask for rice they've been in," Andy said.

The truffles came from Phillips Mushroom Farms in Pennsylvania, but Andy was not sure if they were actually grown there. (I would have expected the provenance of such a high-priced item to be clearer than that, but what do I know?)

Andy also said it's been a while since the store has had them in stock.

"This is the first we've had them in for a while because of [limited] availability," he said. He expects them to sell out in the next week and a half.

Sun photo by Julie Scharper

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

My colleague Rob Kasper wrote back in January about the shortage of Angostura bitters, which he described as "a secret combination of herbs, alcohol, gentian and vegetable flavorings" that gives certain cocktails their aromatic je ne sais quoi.

Well, it seems the shortage is over. Dining@Large reader Hal Laurent wrote me over the weekend to report that he'd scored a bottle.

"Today, for the first time in a couple of months, I was able to buy a bottle of Angostura bitters," his e-mail said.

I asked if he'd give up his source. He gladly did so, not -- he explained -- because he's exceedingly selfless, but because a man only needs so much bitters.

"I don't need to hide my source (the Canton Safeway), as now that I have a bottle it will last for months or years.

"Besides, if the Canton Safeway has it, it must be readily available all over."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I pass along news of a wine dinner coming up Wednesday at Cinghiale.

If nothing else, I offer it as proof that maybe, just maybe, we're out of this recession.

How else could anyone spend $249 per person on a Wednesday night dinner? (That's $249 inclusive of tax and tip, but still!)

Here's the menu from executive chef Julian Marucci and wine director Tony Foreman:

Chilled Maine Lobster Mâche, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes Chive Vinaigrette
Bolgheri, Le Macchiole “Paleo Bianco” 2007

Primi:

House Made Pappardelle Pasta Duck Ragu, Pecorino
Bolgheri Rosso, Le Macchiole 2007 Bolgheri, Le Macchiole “Scrio” 2006

Secondi:

Grilled Creekstone Farm NY Strip Porcini Mushrooms, Potato Purée Rosemary Oil Bolgheri, Le Macchiole “Paleo Rosso” 2006 Bolgheri, Le Macchiole “Paleo Rosso” 2002
Bolgheri, Le Macchiole “Messorio” 2006 Bolgheri, Le Macchiole “Messorio” 2002

Formaggi:

Forteto Pecorino Toscano

Dolci:

Rhubarb Crostata

Sour Cherry & Clove Gelato

Served w/ Freshly Ground & Brewed Coffee & Decaf

Cinghiale's formal dining room. Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

Here's your chance to poke your nose into the kitchens of some of Baltimore's "most sustainable" restaurants, chat with the chefs and their farmer-suppliers about their locavore menus, and sample some food.

A group called Baltimore Green Works has declared this Baltimore Green Week. One of several events they're putting on is a restaurant tour that begins at 11:45 a.m. Friday.

Participants will start out at Real Food Farms, the Civic Works project in Clifton Park. Then they'll make their way to Clementine, Red Canoe, Chameleon Cafe, Gertrude's and Woodberry Kitchen. 

The cost is $25.

Reservations are required. Contact bgw@baltimoregreenworks.com or call 410/952-0334.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

The price of salmon is going the way of volcanic ash -- up, up, up -- and the reason is the Icelandic eruption.

That's according to Alan Morstein of Regi's American Bistro, who writes:

"The volcano in Iceland does not only have an impact on Euro travelers. We are now seeing the results. Seizing on an opportunity and realizing that Iceland cannot export salmon to the west for at least two weeks, Canadian and U.S. Fisheries have taken it upon themselves to raise the price of salmon 25-30%.

"They are now the only game in town. The news was received from my supplier Friday, who distributes in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Washington. This increase is immediate and should hit supermarkets on their next purchase. Unfortunately we will have to absorb the increase similar to the one we just experienced with tomatoes and vegetables out of Florida."

Morstein, who has become my unofficial Waverly Farmers' Market correspondent, had better news to report on that front Saturday.

"Today at Waverly the local features were: Kale, Collard Greens, Spinach, Leaf Lettuce, Asparagus -- now 2.00-3.00 per bunch, a little lower than last week -- and the debut of rhubarb. We will be making rhubarb and strawberry cobbler today for sure.

"Many herb plants are available for home gardens. Local tulips were also shown that make the ones I've been buying at Trader Joe's look sick."

Sun photo by Lloyd Fox

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

I drove by Catonsville's Grilled Cheese & Co. around lunch today. It looked mobbed.

It's looked crowded just about every time I've passed by since the place opened nearly two weeks ago.

So, if you've been there, fill us in.

Just how good is it? 

Veggie Delight at Grilled Cheese & Co., made with Havarti cheese, roasted vegetables, sauteed wild mushrooms and olive spread. Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

A Dining@Large reader writes in search of an offbeat burger.

"My physical therapist once told me about a restaurant in downtown Baltimore which serves unusual burgers -- he mentioned buffalo and ostrich burgers. I am unable to contact him and I cannot find the name of the establishment he told me about. I wonder if you or some of your readers might have an idea."

Ostrich burger?

That was a new to me, but I checked out the online menu of a likely suspect, The Abbey Burger Bistro in Federal Hill.

And there it was: "Ostrich Burger -- lean ostrich, onion ring, Point Reyes blue cheese, bib lettuce, tomato and mayo on a bun. $12."

When Elizabeth Large reviewed Abbey in January 2009, she noted the bison burgers, grass-fed beef burgers, lamb burgers, even peanut butter burgers (beef with a dollop of PB on the bun). But EL made no mention of ostrich -- something she surely could not have overlooked.

I just called the restaurant and learned from a manager that the ostrich burger was added to the menu last summer.

Has anybody out there tried it?

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 1:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Benjamin Erjavec, chef and operating partner at Oceanaire, writes:

"Soft shell crabs are back! Right now, I have Whales in from Florida, and they are amazing! I can cook them any way you would like, and they should be running strong for quite a while.

"Also, don’t forget, I have Local Rockfish & Wild Alaskan Halibut, along with the 1st of the season Wild Columbia River King Salmon."

Erjavec also sends word of some changes in management at the Harbor East restaurant, changes that have created what he called a "reunion tour."

"For those of you that know her, Donna Seal is back as our General Manager! Donna has been with Oceanaire for almost ten years, with stints in Minneapolis, D.C., Baltimore, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, San Diego, and now back to Baltimore. 

"Andrew Cecil is back as our Assistant General Manager. Andrew has also been with the company for quite a few years, with stints in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston and now back to Baltimore."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

If you're wondering what the new guy over at Pazo is cooking up, here is tonight's menu.

(In case you missed it earlier this week, Tony Foreman, Pazo's co-owner and wine director, has taken over as executive chef.)

A LA PLANCHA-sea salt, Arbequina olive oil, meyer lemon

Calamari - $7

Sea Scallops - $8

Blue Shrimp - $8

ARROZ LA BOMBA-Estate grown rice from the North of Spain Classic (pricing is for an individual or 6-8 guests)

Wood grilled chicken & chorizo seafood $18/$79

Heads on shrimp, mussels, octopus, monkfish with lobster stock, saffron, vegetable $23/$115

Mushroom confit, artichoke, tomato $17/$73

Farm Asparagus, Grilled Porcini Vinaigrette $8

Photo courtesy of Pazo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Robert of Cross Keys sheds his preconceptions about North Avenue in this week's Free Market Friday post. Full disclosure: When RoCK ate at Joe Squared, I was not present. And I didn't put him up to the Sheila Dixon reference either. Honest. As for Rob Kasper ... Looks fishy. He'll have to account for himself. Here's RoCK. LV

So last week I said that this week I would be talking about how I was wrong about North Avenue. It was probably pretty obvious that I intended to talk about Joe Squared.

Anyway, what do I see in the paper this week? A review of Joe Squared by Rob Kasper.

See, this is why I need to start getting invites to the staff meetings. Now people are going to see two stories about Joe Squared in the same week. It's going to look like when all those hack bloggers write a slew of rave “reviews” about Milan.

Well, I’m still going to write about Joe Squared as well, because I can’t see myself coming up with two ideas in one week. Also, I think it is a really great place, a place that I really should have visited years ago.

I lived in Mount Vernon for years, but I normally wouldn’t venture past Tapas Teatro. The exception was the one time my car was towed to some part of North Avenue that seemed more like Northern Ireland or Beirut than America. That experience, plus all the talk I would hear about the dangers, allowed me to dismiss Joe Squared. Sure I heard they had good pizza, but I figured I could get good pizza in another neighborhood.

A few months ago -- and years after I moved away from Mount Vernon -- I finally got over myself and went to Joe Squared. Yes, the pizza is really good there: a thin, sourdough crust with loads of fresh toppings that run from the familiar to the unique is cooked in a coal oven. I wish the crust could be a little crisper, but that is a small quibble. The important thing with a pizza is that quality ingredients work together to produce good flavor, and that’s what I’ve found, from a basic Margarita with fresh, buffalo mozzarella to a mushroom pizza that I augmented with some seasonal morels.

This attention to flavor is also present in other items I’ve tried, including a carrot, fennel and sausage risotto and an avocado and shrimp salad. I expect an avocado and shrimp salad to taste good if the shrimp is fresh and the avocado is ripe, but I didn’t have a good feeling about the carrot risotto. I thought it might be too sweet, but it ended up being well balanced and quite tasty.

As far as beverages, the bar features an extensive rum selection. Rum, how cool is that? Scotch is for snobs. Vodka is for tools. Rum, however, is for swashbucklers.

The biggest surprise about the place was how much I like the vibe of the place. I was expecting a rough neighborhood on the outside with a bunch of aloof hipsters on the inside. Instead I found a neighborhood that has more to offer than I thought, and an atmosphere that was devoid of attitude and pretention.

I’m struggling with how to describe the scene without sounding pejorative, but it is the kind of a place where it is OK to be a dork. Where else can you find events like an art show featuring works about Sheila Dixon, a drunk spelling bee competition, and a mustache and mini-skirt costume party? Now, wouldn’t you rather be sporting a mustache, eating some pizza, drinking some rum and spelling some words than say sitting at a table in a Ed Hardy t-shirt with a bottle of overpriced vodka and some cans of Red Bull?

Hawaiian Pizza with crushed tomato, bacon, Canadian bacon, coppa, mozzarella, provolone, cilantro and pineapple at Joe Squared. Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

I caught up with W. Greg Nalley yesterday. 

He's been executive chef at Nick's Fish House in South Baltimore for about two months. Nalley was once chef-owner of Harvest Table in Locust Point, but he sold it and took about a year and a half off.

What was he up to all that time?

"I kind of fished and got in my wife's way," he told me. "My jokes stopped going over with my wife so I figured it was time to go to work. This deal came about and it really enticed me. This place has so much potential."

Nalley said he hasn't done a big overhaul of Nick's menu, but he has added several fish item. "Fresh fish of the day -- three or four fresh fish of the day -- five different kinds of oysters," he said.

He's focused on bringing in higher-quality purveyors and on "cross-training" his staff. He also said he'd like to increase the number of catered events the waterfront restaurant does.

Along the way, he's found he very much enjoys being the chef, rather than the chef-owner.

"I don't have to worry about payroll," he said. "I don't have to worry about insurance. I forgot how easy it was."

W. Greg Nalley, in his days as executive chef of Maryland Turf Caterers, injects strawberries with Grand Marnier for the Preakness Corporate Village in 1997. Sun photo by Kim Hairston

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

A friend of mine spotted this sign on a chain-link fence, next to some waterfront condos, not far from the foot of Thames Street in Fells Point.

There must be a good story here.

I've put in a call to Red Star, but no one was immediately available to talk about whatever it is that's going on.

When I hear something, I'll pass it along.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Richard Gorelick reported in yesterday's Sun that Tony Foreman was taking over as executive chef at Pazo.

That got me wondering: where is outgoing executive chef Michael Costa going?

Gorelick tells me that Costa has not landed anywhere yet.

But Costa promised to keep him posted on his next move.

UPDATE:

I just reached Costa myself. Here's what he had to say:

"I haven't made a decision about what's next for me. I'll keep you posted."

Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Darker Than Blue Cafe and Pete's Grill will offer free food samplings Saturday.

Pete's is well known as Michael Phelps' favorite breakfast haunt. But lately, the area around both restaurants has gotten more attention for crime.

Saturday's event is intended to showcase the positive side of the Greenmount/Waverly area, Darker Than Blue Cafe's chef/owner Casey Jenkins writes in an e-mail.

"I am the Chef/owner of Darker Than Blue Cafe Casey Jenkins and I am located on Greenmount Ave., which has been the area plagued by crime over the last few weeks: 18 burglaries, and two murders -- neither one common since I've been here for three years," he writes. "Our community is middle class working folk that are getting a bad [rap] in the media because of a few outsiders."

City leaders plan to have a press conference at 2 p.m. Saturday in front of his cafe. But from noon to 4 p.m., the community will have a sidewalk sale that will include free food and music.

"Darker Than Blue Cafe, Pete's Grill (Also on Greenmount) and a host of other merchants are getting together to show the great side of Greenmount/Waverly," he writes. "We are giving away free food, gifts, and a sidewalk sale. Come and see the side of restaurants that DON'T get mentioned."

Pete's Grill omelet. Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

Amer's Cafe was, in the words of a Jewish Times reviewer, "the most exotic thing ever to happen to Fullerton."

Egyptian pizza, falafel, kebabs, even belly dancing on weekends, in a shopping center of all things.

And now, it seems to be gone.

"I'm wondering if they are going into a different space. (There was no sign on the door," a fan of the place wrote me. "Or are they another casualty of the recession?"

I've tried reaching the owners, but the phone has been disconnected and they have not responded to my e-mails.

If you're out there, let us know your plans. And know that you are missed.

UPDATE: I just  received an e-mail from Gretchen Amer. She writes:

"After 9 years in business [there] comes a time when you have to close," she said. "We are not planing to reopen."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Having trouble deciding what to order at the fish counter? There's an app for that.

Sea Food Watch, a program of California's Monterey Bay Aquarium, developed a free iPhone application that allows people to check its latest advice on which fish should be avoided.

But even with that high-tech help, sorting out which fish is a good choice for environmental or health reasons can still be complicated.

I'm writing a story on this topic for next week's Taste section.

Anybody out there want to weigh in?

Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Shallow Thought Wednesday guru John Lindner can't get enough of food-related tattoos. But Michael Pollan? It seems Lindner has had his fill. Here's John. LV

It’ll take a lot for me to think (even shallowly) for another moment about tattoos, even those with a food angle.

Even when I’m desperate for shallowness. (Tattoos, like all things in the eye of the shallow beholder, are, after all, only skin deep.)

If I’m going to obsess about something it’ll be the fact that Mother Maryland won’t allow her adult children to ship wine into the state. And I’m not going to obsess about that. I’m simply going to ignore it 'till it goes away.

But because of Laura’s Jesse Sandlin tattoo post, followed by my own tattoo as living décor encounter, stumbling across this food tattoo popularity article in the Globe and Mail was too spooky coincidental to resist. 

I do not recommend, by the way, actually reading it. Rather, I place a marker to it here, today, as a fussy coda to a rash of … of … what the hell was I talking about?
 
Oh, right: Michael Pollan. I checked out his appearance last night at Goucher. I thought he stopped short of saying anything interesting. Even the woodchuck story seemed borrowed. I was disappointed.

Did you attend? Have a different reaction?
 
Photo by Brian Lary, courtesy Stock Xchng

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Woodberry Kitchen sends news of an interesting-sounding dinner next week.

It involves organic Austrian wines and a variety of pork dishes made from Mangalitsa pig, an heirloom breed. 

I'll confess I had to turn to a Food Network cooking glossary to figure out what they meant by "speck" in the first course. (My people hailed from Southern Italy. They weren't eating any fancy-pants Alto Adigean ham.)

Here are the details:
 

"On April 19, at 7 PM, Woodberry Kitchen will be hosting a food and wine pairing supper, featuring the spectacular organic wines of Austrian winemaker Wimmer Czerny. To make this event even more special, the wines will be paired with dishes highlighting pork from the highly-coveted Mangalitsa heirloom breed of pig (which, coincidentally, also originates in Austria).  At a cost of $89.50 per person, this dinner experience is an excellent value for lovers of great food and great wine. Seating is limited to 36 spots.
 
"Wimmer Czerny is located in the Wagram region of Austria, along the Danube, approximately 50 miles to the west of Vienna. Czerny’s home village of Fels am Wagram is on the northern bank of the Danube, an area known for its almost pure loess soil (a soil comprised primarily of clay and sand, rich in organic matter).  The resulting microclimate produces world-class grapes for a well-crafted wine.
 
"The increasingly noted Mangalitsa breed of pig is valued for its rich fat content, making it  particularly excellent for cured meats. Originally bred in Austria and Hungary, Mangalitsa pigs are currently bred by one farmer in the United States. Mosefund Farm is located in Branchville, New Jersey and the pigs are raised with a level of care rarely seen in modern farming practices. Only a few of the best restaurants in the United States feature dishes and charcuterie from this breed.
 
The menu:
 
First Course:          Gruner Veltliner  Fumberg 2008
                            Mangalitsa speck "board"
 
 
Second Course:     Roter Veltliner  Fel am Wagram 2008
                           Oysters iced, stew, pretzel, jowl, lime leaf
 
 
Third Course:        Gruner Veltliner  Weelfel 2008
                           Gruner Veltliner  Felser Berg Reserve  2006
                           Rabbit, apple-lard dumplings, carrot and celery root in cast-iron
 
 
Fourth Course:     Traminer Trio  2007
                          Mangalitsa shoulder, cabbage, sunchoke, grain mustard
 
 
Dessert Course:    Eiswein
                          House-baked apple pie

For Reservations call: 410.464.8000 

Alto Adige in Northern Italy, ancestral home of speck. Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Ullswater, the East Fort Avenue Italian restaurant that opened just last fall, appears to have closed.

At least that's the report from several Dining@Large readers and others who've e-mailed me. I've been unable to reach anyone at the restaurant by phone or e-mail, another ominous sign.

One reader writes: "Thursday the doors were shuttered with a closed sign. Sign down Friday but it has not reopened."

The reader held out hope that the place would reopen.

"Can you update in the Sun whether they closed for some emergency or whether they are truly done, which would be a shame?"

Ullswater is owned by Nicholas and Saundra Batey. They'd owned Bicycle in South Baltimore before that closed abruptly last summer.

If I hear back from the Bateys and get a fuller story, I'll pass that right along.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Goucher College has solved the Michael Pollan dilemma.

Not the dilemma having to do with too many corn-fed cows crammed into industrial feedlots.

It's the one having to do with too many people wanting to cram into a Goucher auditorium to hear the Omnivore's Dilemma author speak tonight at 8.

Goucher has decided to live stream the sold-out speech.

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

Donna Beth Joy Shapiro tried out Spro's $13 cup of java. Her take in this guest review. Thanks, DBJS! LV 

UPDATE

Full disclosure: I don't drink coffee. Not much anyway. Life is stimulating enough.

But I thought a $13 cup of coffee could not be ignored. I asked Donna Beth Joy Shapiro, a former cafe owner who knows coffee better than I, to have a cup with me. DBJS, who sometimes freelances for The Sun, volunteered to do a guest review, so I took her up on it.

So it's her review, but I was along for the ride. As were my kids, who probably splashed $4 out of DBJS's cup by jiggling that jiggly table. Don't worry. That'll come straight out of their 529 funds, reducing them by half.

If you really want my two cents, here it is. As a non-coffee drinker, not to mention non-synesthete, I can report that the coffee tasted like coffee. No rusting girders on my part. Nor did I pick up on condescension on the part of Spro's barista. I thought he was perfectly pleasant. There were some awkward moments, however, stemming from the fact that Spro believes cream and sugar dispensing should be left to the pros, and DBJS believes, as I suspect many customers do, that they're up to the task. 

Now, finally, here's DBJS's review. LV

My calculator shows Spro's $13 tab for a 12 ounce cup of Aida's Grand Reserve coffee isn't unreasonable considering the beans cost four times as much as regular joe. Still, it's not a casual cup of coffee, so I was delighted to be someone's guest.

Spro is so serious about coffee that I was confused to learn, in answer to my query, that the beans for the $13 cup were roasted at the end of January and then frozen - though, I was assured, in a special manner (cryogenically?). But coffee is at its best for about three days after roasting and never after being frozen.

With milk, sugar, etc., conspicuously absent, I asked of their availability and was greeted by a few seconds of silence, then "I'm sure we can work something out" from the male barista.

We placed our order for two cups of the Aida's Grand Reserve, requesting their choice of the most appropriate of their seven brewing methods; one regular $2.50 cup of coffee for my friend's husband; and pastries for their two tots, which were delivered quickly.

Though Spro was empty but for us, things took a pause at that point, so I will, too, to say that I owned a cafe for 13 years and have definite ideas about how to serve customers and make them feel welcome. Also, as a cheesemaker, I approached this tasting with the benefit of much sensory evaluation training; coincidentally, my sensory mentor, a professor of food science, was formerly a professional coffee taster. While I am not, I have been a serious coffee maven for more than 30 years and am confident in my tasting abilities. It's important to note, however, that there's nothing right or wrong about likes or dislikes.

After a bit, the husband was served and when our coffees didn't arrive, we asked him to go ahead before his got cold. More than 10 minutes later, coffee was placed in front of me, but not my companion. I requested sweetner; its method of delivery was a heaping demitasse spoonful (enough for several mugs) of unidentified white stuff carried the length of the cafe with the barista's free hand cupped underneath. I declined to accept it as he offered to dump it into my cup. My coffee cooled considerably as we waited and waited for my friend to be served, during which time the unsteady table caused jolts of at least a dollar's worth of java from my cup.

Feeling incredibly rude, but not wanting to miss at least the lukewarm taste of this coffee, I took a sip and experienced a lot of cherry, some lemon, and a little chocolate. As a synesthete (Google it), I always look forward to tasting new things, and in that way this coffee did not disappoint, as the numbers 5 and 9 and the image of a horizontal rusting steel girder rushed about my head with each ever-more citrusy and chilly sip.But mostly what I experienced was coffee that tasted annoyingly of cherry.

Verdict: I'm glad the $13 didn't come from my pocket, and for reasons more than just the coffee. My friend's coffee finally arrived (she tasted what I tasted - minus the numbers, colours, and shapes) and next we overheard the male barista's f-word-laden conversation from his perch at the counter.

Even without children present, that's not acceptable. Not using a tray to serve customers is unprofessional. Making customers ask for cream, sugar, etc. in a coffee shop and then dispensing it (oh, excuse me - dosing it) with attitude or condensation is not acceptable. Not serving coffee to all members of a party at the same time, and worse, serving it at 10-15 minute intervals - not acceptable. And wobbly tables in a coffee shop?

I am thrilled to support locally-owned coffee bars and cafes. Baltimore City desperately needs more of them. I give Spro credit for offering this $13 coffee experience, though for that price, the beans' roasting date and storage method should be disclosed up front. But unless Spro's service becomes customer-friendly and more professional, all the intriguing brewing methods in the world (which it seems they have) probably won't make this a go-to place for regular folks and coffee geeks alike.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (86)
        

I suspect every avid cook has a bunch of gadgets that are well loved but not well used.

There are lots of things in my kitchen that collect dust yet will never get the heave-ho.

Some aren't that useful but have sentimental value. Others come in very handy, but only every once in a long while.

In honor of them all, I present this week's Top Ten Tuesday list:

Top Ten most loved, least used kitchen tools

My simple Atlas pasta maker is forgotten for months on end. Then we rediscover it, make delicious fettuccine and wonder, "Why don't we use this more often?" The answer lies in the flour-y mess on the counters and floor. But every now and then, it's so worth it.

No. 2: Monroe "Is Your Car Safe?" coffee maker

My late great-Uncle Donald loved anything free or on sale, which accounts for why he painted his house a discounted shade of purple one time, an electric everything-must-go green another. He picked up a coffee maker -- who knows why or when -- that must have been made for a shock-absorber showroom. In blue and yellow, it reads, "Monroe -- Let us check your shock absorbers now!" If also inquires, creepily, "Is your car safe?" The thing still works. And though I rarely need its 30-cup capacity, I proudly display the coffee maker on my kitchen counter in tribute to one of my wackiest relatives. 

No. 3.: Grandma's ravioli cutters

The art of ravioli has eluded me. The last time I gave it a shot was five years ago, as an insanely ambitious Thanksgiving appetizer. (I'd moved into a new house less than a month earlier, was six months pregnant, had a not-quite 2-year-old and was hosting my first big family holiday. Pumpkin ravioli? No sweat!) Even if I never get the hang of filled pasta, I'll never part with those wood-handled cutters.

No. 4: Juicer

A yard-sale find, my juicer gets used about once a year, in winter, when clementines are on sale. The clean-up -- you need a toothbrush to scrub the pulp out of the machine -- is a pain. But I'll hang onto that machine for my annual clementine-carrot juice fix.

No. 5: Accusharp knife sharpener

It only comes out of the drawer when the knives get dull, and it sharpens almost too well, judging by all the steel shavings that result. Best part: it was under $10.

No. 6: Immersion blender

I only recently overcame my fear of this gadget. I'm just a little too easily distracted (read: flaky) and the blade is just a little to available for slicing off flesh. I used to summon my husband if I wanted a pot of soup pureed with it. Not very liberated of me, but what's more important to keep intact: feminist standards or fingertips? I started using it myself only a few months ago, when our regular blender died and math-hubby desired not to be brought in on my every fruit smoothie.

No. 7: Henckels meat cleaver

Another tool I fear. And for good reason. It's heavy enough to hack off a hand. I only use it when I make stock, which is often in winter, not so much the rest of the year.

No. 8: The family quote book

This spiral-bound notebook has nothing at all to do with the official business of preparing food and everything to do with recording what else goes on in the kitchen. Like the game of catch that prompted my daughter to exclaim, "Gravity is awesome!" The book can languish in the cabinet for weeks, but sooner or later a kid says something so funny("How fast does the current in a toilet go?")  or a grown-up says something so dorky ("Amending soil is my favorite part of gardening") that it must be recorded for posterity.

No. 9: Ice cream maker

With the weather warming, this gizmo is about to come out of hibernation. One of our favorite flavors: Honey Lavender-Ricotta. Yum!

No. 10: PIzzelle Maker 

At Easter, my husband's aunt gave me a beautiful antique pizzelle maker that goes directly on a stove-top flame. (She can't use it anymore because she just got a new stove with a glass top.) I can't imagine we'll give it a regular workout, but we're already wondering if we can use it to make ice cream cones.

Sun photo by Kim Hairston

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
Categories: Top Ten Tuesdays
        

Is it a sandwich or a controlled substance?

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says the new KFC Double Down, the bunless fried-on-fried wonder that started shortening American lifespans today, should be treated like the latter. 

The committee has asked KFC to market the Double Down as if it were tobacco or alcohol, which means not advertising it within 500 yards of a school or otherwise promoting it to kids.

"Just as many young people don't understand the risks of tobacco, they often do not realize that high-fat, meat-heavy meals greatly increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and some types of cancer," Susan Levin, the committee's director of nutrition education, wrote in a letter to David C. Novak, chairman of Yum! Brands, Inc.,  KFC's parent company.

The Double Down is a bacon-and-cheese sandwich that uses two fried chicken fillets in place of bread. It has 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and 1,380 milligrams of sodium.

"Kids," Levin writes, "shouldn't be exposed to such recklessness."

KFC photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

Luca's Cafe in Locust Point has closed -- at least for the time being.

I just got off the phone with Orlando Orsino, father of Luca's owner Lando Orsino.

He confirmed that the restaurant, which opened in February 2008, closed its doors Sunday.

"We just can’t seem to get the people who love this place to come in often enough," he said.

"With this economy, everything’s going down the tubes. I’m going to put a sign on the door, 'Thank Obama for closing this place.'"

By that, Orlando Orsino said he means that the president hasn't done enough to help small businesses like his son's. "All he talks about is his health-care plan."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (136)
        

For anyone out there who hasn't had your fill of Little Italy and Milan, I have a story on the subject in today's Sun.

A few of the more interesting points:

Milan's owner, Curlee Smittie Jr. acknowledged using outside promoters, something the restaurant-lounge had explicitly agreed not to do when the liquor board granted its license in July.

Nothing illegal about that. But the board has yanked liquor licenses from establishments for breaking that sort of promise, most recently in September with the Canton dance club Phantom.

At the same time, the Little Italy residents petitioning the board to pull the club's license have been surprisingly reticent. Only one spoke to me, and all he'd say was, "Whatever happens in the liquor board, we'll find out." 

And several people who did not sign the petition but live just a block away from the Eastern Avenue club told me they were not bothered by it.

Stay tuned. The liquor board hearing is April 29.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (32)
        

Alan Morstein of Regi's American Bistro sends exciting spring food news.

"Just an FYI," he e-mailed me over the weekend, "local asparagus made its debut @ the Waverly Farms Market today. Selling for 3.00 a bunch. Moderately thin but not pencil thin.

"Many herb plants seem to have also sprouted up. Carolina strawberries were also available, superior to what I've been getting from Caly & Fla."

But Morstein is still waiting for one springtime favorite to really come into season.  

"The Soft Shell Crabs I received [last week] were from Florida were 85.00 a dozen wholesale and average," he wrote. "I'm holding out for the Big Boys from the Bay. When they hit you'll know from me, since I've got to be the first kid on the block serving them."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

A classic American junk food turned 80 last week, and in honor of the occasion, I'd like to share my proudest Twinkie moment.

Back in January, my daughter came home from school and mentioned that one of her first-grade classmates had brought in treats for the class to celebrate his birthday. What was it?

"A winkie," she said.

"What's that?"

"Bread with whipped cream inside."

I was less than thrilled to think of her consuming one of those Yellow No. 5, partially hydrogenated, high-fructose corn syrup confections.

But what a joy to know she hadn't even heard of Twinkies until the age of 7. 

Hostess photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

An urgent, if improbable, need for vacuum-packed chestnuts first led me to DiPasquale's Italian Market, a happy discovery that came to mind yesterday when I passed along news of the coming Highlandtown Wine Festival.

I was making a batch of chestnut soup to be photographed for The Sun's food section just before Christmas, following a recipe from Cindy Wolf.

The recipe was simple enough, but the Charleston chef clearly had access to better fresh chestnuts than I.

Wolf had warned me that if the chestnuts weren't fresh, they'd turn hard during roasting and wouldn't puree properly in the soup. Sure enough, the ones I'd bought -- at Whole Foods, no less -- came out of the oven like rocks.

Turns out that as much as we associate chestnuts with Christmas, they're reaching the tail end of their season by then. And most retailers don't store them in refrigerated cases, even though that's recommended. Wolf had suggested buying canned or vacuum-packed chestnuts if I couldn't find really fresh ones.

The catch was that the deli was in Highlandtown, a pretty good hike from my house in Southwest Baltimore. (I've since learned they have a location in Towson.) Worried about getting that soup done on time, I was annoyed by the long schlep.

That faded once I walked in the door. DiPasquale's had all kinds of olive oils, breads, olives, produce, prepared foods and -- oh, yeah! -- vacuum-packed chestnuts. There was so much to look at, I could have forgotten the nuts. I purchased an eggplant Parmesan sub along with my chestnuts.

I'd meant to eat the sub at home, but I wanted to try just a bite when I got in the car. It was gone before I started my engine.

Funny, but the drive back home didn't seem that long.

DiPasquale's Towson location. Sun photo by Amy Davis

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Here's news of an interesting brunch option that will be offered tomorrow by a vendor at Mill Valley Garden Center and Farmers' Market, 2800 Sisson St., in Remington.

The vendor is Hanne Blank, who said she has been studying Chinese cuisine for about 10 years. 

She describes the fare as Chinese street food and calls the spread "Double Happiness" brunch.

I e-mailed her about it, and here's what she wrote back:

"The brunch is called 'Double Happiness' because it involves my two most favorite Chinese breakfast foods. One is congee (Cantonese call it jook), a rice porridge that's served with various savory toppings to stir in. This Sunday I'll be serving it with a number of options to choose from: stir-fried minced pork with garlic and wine, stir-fried snow pea sprouts, red-cooked egg or tofu, fried peanuts, scallion, cilantro, and bean sprouts. Diners can also opt for a dollop of ground brown bean sauce or my house-made chili-garlic paste for their congee.

"The other dish is called jian bing. It's a northern specialty, originally from Beijing, though it's made in a lot of places nowadays. It's a large pancake or crepe, made from a mix of rice and wheat flours, stuffed with egg, scallions, cilantro, and on Sunday, will also include some of the mushrooms the Chinese call 'chicken legs' that have been previously braised with garlic and wine. The jian bing also typically get a smear of either the ground brown bean sauce or the chili-garlic paste or both, depending on the eater's tastes.

"A bowl of congee with your choice of toppings is $6, a jian bing is also $6. I'll be serving from 9-1.

"Zensations by Jen (a Mill Valley vendor) sells hand-blended tea by the cup during brunch, or bottled beverages or Zeke's coffee by the cup can be had from the main counter.

She also sent news of another brunch planned for later this month.

"On April 25, there will be the second Dumplings Take Over The World brunch at Mill Valley, in conjunction with Whiskey Island Pirate Shop. (Heather Hulsey wrote a review of the first Dumplings Take Over The World brunch."

(That article references Blank's other job, that of writer. But I know how Dining@Large readers hate topic drift, so I won't get into that.)

The menu for Dumplings Take Over The World:

A Bowl of Soul

Throughout China, a bowl of huntun -- the Cantonese call them wonton -- is a favorite food. Our fresh handmade huntun come in a traditional pork and water chestnut filling or a vegan Buddhist version with seitan. Try them northern style, with diabolically tasty Chengdu ma la oil infused with chiles, Sichuan pepper, and spices. Or, for those who "pa la" (fear chiles), the southern version with Cantonese ginger-scallion oil is sublime.

Gunpowder Pearls

The Chinese invented gunpowder, but it took Maryland to produce Gunpowder Bison. Coated with glistening glutinous rice and fragrant with Mongolian spices, these steamed balls of minced bison are our shout-out to Asian cowboys everywhere.

Sweet Bao

Traditional dim sum menus include sweet items alongside the savory so eaters can enjoy alternating tastes. Filled with sweet and delicate lotus seed or comforting red bean paste, these homestyle steamed buns will bring you a sweet and happy Year of the Tiger!"

There are two seatings for the April 25 brunch, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Reservations are recommended and can be made by emailing micktpirate@aol.com.

Prices aren't set yet for the dumpling brunch, but Blank said it will be about $6 for the huntun, $2 for the Gunpowder Pearls and $2 to $3 for the bao.

Photo by Hanne Blank

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

For those of you planning ahead for next weekend: The 7th Annual Highlandtown Wine Festival takes place Sunday, April 18.

Expanded food offerings include DiPasquale's meatball subs, sausage and peppers, pasta, cannoli, pizzelle and arancini (fried rice balls filled with tomato sauce, meat or cheese). Dangerously Delicious Pies will have pies for sale.

The star attraction is the amateur winemakers' competition. And there's still time to enter your homemade vino. There is no entry fee. Deadline is Thursday.

Admission to the festival includes free tastings of five homemade wines. Annabel Lee Tavern and The Laughing Pint will offer beer for sale.

Admission is $25 ($20 in advance through Web site above) for those 21 and older. It is free to those below drinking age. 

City Councilman Jim Kraft pours wine at the Highlandtown Wine Festival in 2005. Sun photo by Algerina Perna.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

One of my colleagues here at The Sun always has something interesting to say about food.

One day it's a tip on using up Passover leftovers by making matzo panzanella. Another it's word of a new food coop. Or an account of the Primanti Brothers' Strip Sandwich -- a cornedbeef-and-French-fries concoction -- he'd just enjoyed in Pittsburgh.

So I asked what he ate for dinner last night. He'd had a great meal, naturally. More surprisingly, he hadn't been to a restaurant or cooked for himself. 

He got his tasty meal at a meeting of the Roland Park Civic League.

Please note, my colleague was there as a resident of Roland Park, not as a reporter. So he was free to enjoy the spread. And it was quite a spread.

It included chicken tikka masala served over rice, Asian chicken wings, pizza, brownies and strawberries.

All free. Not that those of us from other parts of town could stop in for dinner or anything. But it's nice to know how the other half eats.

Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

In this week's Free Market Friday post, Robert of Cross Keys finds out there's more than Utz potato chips and Snyder pretzels north of the Mason-Dixon line. LV

Sometimes I am wrong. Yes, it is true. A few years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined that I would be a fan of NPR, Lyle Lovett, and Joe Lieberman, but they all turned out to be great. Last month I found a couple of restaurants that confounded my expectations about Pennslytucky and North Avenue. This week I’ll discuss the former and next week the latter.
 
Pennslytucky is the land in between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that James Carville once described as Alabama. When it comes to food, it is the home such fine products as Lebanon bologna, shoe fly pie and Owl Meat Gravy. Sure, everyone loves them, but they’re hardly gourmet.
 
Well, I found gourmet in Pennslytucky at the Sheppard Mansion in Hanover, which is about an hour north of Baltimore. Not only did I find gourmet, but I had one of the finest meals of my life. I’ve been to the Inn at Little Washington a couple of times, and I’m putting the food at the Sheppard Mansion in the same class.

I went with the Chef’s tasting menu for $70 and the wine pairings for $45. At many places, this price would translate into three or four plates and maybe three glasses of wine. Here I ended up with about ten plates and around seven glasses of wine. 
 
Now, I don’t want to make this about quantity. The quality is why you need to drive up there. The dishes of Chef Andrew Little embrace the regional ingredients from both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. From the northern side, I had local morel mushrooms stuffed with bone marrow. From the southern side, there was Virginia Rockfish wrapped in country ham served over greens. These dishes were well designed and the flavors really worked well together.
 
He also uses a lot of ingredients that challenge both the chef and the eater. In addition to the bone marrow, I also had rabbit prepared sous-vide with crispy gnocchi and baby vegetables, veal cheeks over langoustine risotto, and a fried baby frog’s leg with Serrano ham. These are the kinds of meat where technique is very important, as it is quite easy to end with tough rabbit, greasy cheeks and gamey frog. This wasn’t the case, as I was served some of the most tender, most succulent, most flavorful meat that I’ve ever had.         
 
The dishes that I was expecting to be a little more routine had some great touches and surprises.  The seared tuna wasn’t served with some insipid wasabi sauce; instead, it came with pickled mushrooms. Cheddar gougieres -- light cheese biscuits -- had a subtle cucumber flavor. The cheese course of Stilton was served alongside a red wine-shallot marmalade. The bread was house-made pretzel rolls. The peanut butter mousse cup came with salted caramel and banana ice cream (why isn’t Reeses doing this?). Even the cookies that came with the check were unique, with the most interesting one being white chocolate-dipped pork rinds.

For those who like looking a pictures of food, and who doesn’t, here are some photos the wife took of the dinner.     
 
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent service and the beautiful mansion, but the reason I’m going to return is the food. Hanover has shown itself to be much more than Utz Potato Chips and Synder Pretzels. Now, if only those Pennslytuckians could learn how to drive, we would really have something north of the line.  

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

Starting with today's season opener and continuing throughout the baseball season, RA Sushi is offering the O's Roll.

It is an eight-piece spicy lobster roll, topped with fresh salmon and avocado, and drizzled with an orange spicy mayo sauce ($11.00).

Fans who come in with their ticket stubs will get $2 off on game days. For those without tickets, the restaurant will have big-screen HD-TVs tuned to games in the bar area.

“The O’s Roll was a crowd favorite last year as Baltimoreans showed their support for the hometown team,” said Scott Bernas, general manager of the restaurant, at 1390 Lancaster St. in Harbor East. “We’re excited to bring it back for the 2010 season.” 

The O's Roll. Photo courtesy of RA Sushi

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

There's been more rain than rainbows for the Orioles for 12 straight seasons. Not this year. Not with Roy G. Biv in the lineup.

Rainbow Cake is coming to Camden Yards.

No matter what happens on the field, Attman's Deli will serve the multi-colored confection out of the restaurant it opens tomorrow in Oriole Park.

Seedless raspberry jam is sandwiched between layers of yellow cake and covered with a dark chocolate icing. (Another version swaps out the jam for more icing.) It looks like an oversized petit four.

It is not for the feint of food coloring. Each layer of cake is a different hue -- nearly, but not quite, one for every color of the rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green and blue. No indigo, no violet, and the red looks more like pink.

Close enough, perhaps, to bring a little sunshine to the Birds.

Attman's buys the cake from Baltimore wholesaler Gourmet Bakery Inc. Bakery owner Allan Taylor said the cake is a Charm City specialty associated with the city's kosher bakeries. He thinks it was created about 40 years ago, but he didn't know whom to credit with the invention.

Rainbow Cake is one of the bakery's most popular items, said Taylor, who supplies delis, bagel shops, hospitals and hotels.

"It appeals to everybody," he said.

Including baseball fans? It's not exactly finger food. 

Even Taylor wonders how it will fly with fans who, instead of sitting down in Attman's, opt to eat in their stadium seats.

"It certainly is an extremely popular item in Baltimore," he said. "Whether people are going to want to eat a piece of Rainbow Cake versus peanuts or Cracker Jack or cotton candy, we'll see."

His suggestion: "I would think you should definitely use a fork."

Photo courtesy of Gourmet Bakery

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
        

Finally, you can get a ballpark frank the way a ballpark frank should come in Baltimore: wrapped in bologna.

Attman's Deli will have a big presence at Oriole Park this year, and it is bringing with it the classic meat-on-meat delicacy that was the invention of some Baltimore Jewish deli. (Some credit Nathan Ballow, others Attman’s. I'm not getting in the middle of that one.)

In addition to bologna dogs, Attman's will serve chicken soup, salads, knishes and coddies. Deli sandwiches on the menu include corned beef, pastrami, Reuben and the Cloak & Dagger, a corned-beef-coleslaw-Russian-dressing concoction.

Attman's will run a 200-seat restaurant in Oriole Park, in the spot once occupied by Pastimes Cafe. Attman’s will be open at the park during every home game, as well as Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this month. Starting in May, the plan is to serve breakfast and lunch seven days a week, year round.

Camden Yards will also offer food from the Greene Turtle, including cheeseburger sliders and “Turtle Bites,” which are basically chicken nuggets. Hightopps Backstage Grille will have a booth with wrap sandwiches, mac-n-cheese and cheese steaks.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

Further proof that Starbucks serves over-roasted coffee:

I pulled my well-seasoned (read: burned) pizza stone out of the oven this morning so I could bake some cookies for a co-worker's birthday. My 7-year-old daughter came across the stone, which I'd stuck in the sink.

"That pizza stone," she said, "smells like Starbucks."

Business Wire photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Maybe Olive Garden in Tuscany is crazy but true.

But Olive Garden in Baltimore's Little Italy? Turns out that's crazy and untrue.

A Dining@Large reader asked me yesterday to look into rumors that the restaurant chain was coming to that part of Charm City.

I contacted Colleen Hart, who does PR for Olive Garden. She checked into it and reported back: "I confirmed with Olive Garden that there are no new expansion plans, as of now, for the restaurant in the Baltimore area."

Not the next Olive Garden. Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

More Tax Day food news.

MaggieMoo's Ice Cream is offering free treats to help make taxpayers feel better April 15.

"MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream and Treatery has announced an 'E-cone-omic' Relief Package for its customers this Tax Day, April 15," reads the promotion. "Participating U.S. treateries will give away free slices of its new, one-of-a-kind MaggieMia’s Ice Cream Pizza from 3 to 7p.m."

Ice cream pizza?

Sounds like dinner and dessert rolled into one, but it's really just a thin ice cream cake sprinkled with various toppings and served in slices.

There are several flavors.

Chocolate Lover’s, made with chocolate ice cream cake, white chocolate curls, M&M's and chocolate sprinkles.

Cheese, made with chocolate ice cream cake and white chocolate curls.

Supreme, made with chocolate ice cream cake, white chocolate curls, crushed Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and cherry disks.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

John Lindner swears he thought up this Shallow Thought Wednesday post before I wrote about Jesse Sandlin's butter tattoo. A likely story! LV

A friend and I met for drinks at the handsome B&O American Brasserie lounge where, along with beers, we had an interesting decor moment that prodded me to revisit the role of servers in creating ambiance.

Restaurant interiors work inward toward one of two extremes: either to confirm what we are (animals) or remind us of what we might be (angels). We sense, consciously or not, which it will be the moment we enter a place. The current default urges, “Be yourself.” It’s harder to find settings that assure, “You can do better than that.”

Near as I can tell, B&O strives to remind and assure. Adults sensitive to surroundings feel not so much encouraged as welcomed to act their age. Which is why I raised an eyebrow when I noticed our waitress carrying an armload of tattooage. But I raised it not, heaven forfend, because I disapproved. On the contrary, I was surprised at how well her etchings fit into the environment, even carried the mood of the lounge, like a grace note lifting a slightly ponderous movement.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Sotto Sopra and P.F. Chang's, two restaurants with little in common, both have Tax Day specials planned for April 15.

First, the Sotto Sopra "Dollar Pasta Night."

Make a donation to the Kennedy Krieger Institute and dine on one of nine pastas for just $1. The deal is for dinner only and reservations are required. (Call 410-625-0534.)

Some of the pastas sound pretty interesting.

They are:

Spaghetti alla Bolognese

Penne with Salmon and Pernod

Rigatoni with Eggplant and Mozzarella

Cappellini al Pomodoro

Fettucine with Mint and Pistachio

Penne Zucchine

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Spaghetti all'Amatriciana

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

Sotto Sopra will offer a limited menu of salads, entrees and desserts that night. But sorry, those will cost you more than a buck.

Now, the P.F. Chang's "Tax Relief" deal.

The restaurant chain will give guests a 15 percent discount on Tax Day. The deal doesn't apply to Happy Hour specials or alcoholic drinks.

Sotto Sopra in Mount Vernon. Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I'd call it murder on a bun, except there is no bun.

Two pieces of fried chicken stand in for the staff of life in the KFC Double Down, a new sandwich that puts bacon, cheese and "the Colonel's Sauce" between two golden boneless fillets.

"It's here -- and with this much chicken, there's no room for the bun!" KFC proclaims.

The Colonel has gotten a little ahead of himself. The bun-free phenom doesn't land at KFC restaurants until April 12. The price hasn't even been announced yet.

That gives an already obese nation six whole days to save up for this nutritional splurge of a sandwich, which has 540 calories, 32 grams of fat and 1380 milligrams of sodium.

Just so you know the Colonel's heart is in the right place, he is using the launch of this nutritional abomination as an opportunity to do good.

"When introducing a bunless sandwich, the obvious question is: what happens to all the buns?" KFC says in a press release. "To celebrate the launch of the Double Down, KFC will do some good by donating the 'unneeded' sandwich buns to feed the hungry. The brand will donate both buns and funds to food banks across the country, starting with the Dare to Care Food Bank in KFC's hometown of Louisville, Ky."

Touching, really. Let them eat buns! And I'd feared this culinary innovation would cause a spike in bun homelessness.

But what about that even more obvious question: Why didn't they call it the KFC Double Over?
 

The Colonel ponders his latest gift to a great -- and getting greater all the time -- nation. KFC photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
        

It's been a long, long time since I've eaten at an Olive Garden.

Maybe it's more authentically Italian than I remember -- and I shouldn't be surprised to learn that the restaurant chain has its own culinary institute in Tuscany.

In any case, some lucky Olive Garden eaters will win the chance to check out what Olive Garden is up to in Tuscany.

Even if the highlight is all-you-can-eat breadsticks, it's still a free trip to Italy.

"Now through May 9th, Olive Garden is offering Italian food lovers a chance to win a culinary tour of Italy and an insider’s look at Olive Garden’s Culinary Institute of Tuscany," the promotion says. "The sweepstakes will reward four grand-prize winners with an eight-day guided trip for two to explore and discover the sights, sounds and tastes of Italian culture. 500 first prize winners will be awarded a $25 Olive Garden gift card."

Olive Garden's Culinary Institute of Tuscany. Photo courtesy of Olive Garden

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

A chicken roasting in the oven. A pot of stock simmering for hours. A brioche dough beaten so long that the sturdiest KitchenAid threatens to melt.

Slow food is a beautiful thing.

But some foods are especially challenging, even for people who pride themselves on snubbing convenience foods, because they are difficult to find, prepare or eat.

Some of these foods are still worth the effort. Others, not so much.

Which brings us to this week's list: Top Ten inconvenience foods

No. 1: Lunch Punch sandwich cutters

These little sandwich cutters are cute as a kindergartener, but can you make and assemble an edible puzzle before the school bus arrives?

No. 2: Crab, lobster, black walnuts and other delicacies that have to be pried out of small crevices

Worth the effort for the crustaceans, but I'm not working that hard for nuts.

No. 3: Grapefruit

Ruby Reds would be the perfect workplace snack if my keyboard didn't get so sticky.

No. 4: Pomegranates

Another fruit I eat only at home.

No. 5: Pick-your-own anything

Charming family outing or biggest free-labor scam since Tom Sawyer had that fence to whitewash? I'm still not sure.

No. 6: Homemade mozzarella 

No question: Waste of a weekend. Several weekends. Don't try this at home.

No. 7: Homemade duck prosciutto

I haven't attempted this yet. I just want to. And yes, I pretend to learn from other overly ambitious kitchen projects. (See: Homemade mozzarella.) But i never do. Besides, I know I can do this one. I'm sure of it.

No. 8: Natural food

I'm not even talking organic or local food. I'm talking about what really should just be called "food": edible items free of fake colorings, fake flavorings, trans fats or high-fructose corn syrup. Even with store-brand organics and "natural food" aisles in conventional supermarkets, you still have to whip out the bifocals and read the list of ingredients to make sure that stuff doesn't sneak into your cart. The big "no trans fats" on the front of the package? Doesn't really mean no trans fats. It means no trans fats per puny serving.  And "whole wheat" doesn't mean 100 percent whole wheat. It means some whole wheat -- even in Whole Foods.

No. 9: Backyard eggs

I love the idea of having my own flock. I also love not having to tend chickens as I'm racing out the door with two kids in the morning.

No. 10: Local grass-fed beef

I've driven all the way to Buckeystown from Southwest Baltimore for hamburger meat. I'm not sure that did much for my carbon footprint. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not sure I liked the flavor. Having read lots of scary stuff about factory-farmed ground beef, I want to enjoy the grass-fed stuff. Sometimes I do. And sometimes I think it tastes like liver. Is it just me? 

Photo by Lunch Punch

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

The Orioles just announced their food lineup for the season. It includes fare from several local restaurants.

Greene Turtle – serving Turtle Bites and sliders on the lower concourse

Attman’s Deli – located in the first floor of the Warehouse in the space formerly occupied by Pastimes Café

Pickles Pub – offering local microbrews from a stand on Eutaw Street

Hightopps Backstage Grille – featuring food and drinks on the lower concourse

I'll get back to you when someone at Greene Turtle or the team can tell me what "Turtle Bites" are.

The team also announced that the former Diamond Bistro on the Club Level has become the All-Star Café, a "marketplace-style food court featuring a rotating menu of cooked to order entrees and an extensive dessert station.        

Also new:

Two stands on the lower concourse will offer double cheeseburgers and fries

All FanFare locations on the lower level will serve grilled-to-order hot dogs

Carvel Ice Cream will be served throughout the ballpark

Increased Gluten-Free and vegetarian options at Charm City Market, located behind home plate on the lower concourse

Chicken Bistro Sandwiches

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Prime Steakhouse came on the Baltimore restaurant scene last month like the gang that couldn't shoot straight, with constantly changing stories about who owned the place.

I figured that didn't bode well for the restaurant's operation as a whole.

But Richard Gorelick has just reviewed Prime Steakhouse and found a lot to like. 

Richard wrote that diners might find some things that were a bit off, "not necessarily something amiss but maybe just unfinished, or that doesn't add up."

But he found the food -- with the exception of a "lame" lobster mac-n-cheese and a less-than-fresh shrimp cocktail --  "superb" to "very good."

Can a good kitchen overcome front-of-the-house confusion? Stay tuned.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

Just heard back from the Dining@Large reader who two weeks ago asked for advice on where to take his wife for a vegetarian birthday dinner.

The big event was delayed a week because the wife had the stomach flu. They ate out Friday night and today I got his report.

"My wife loved Charleston," Vegetarian e-mailed me. "But sorry,  $370 (including tip) was ridiculous. And I didn’t do the wine pairings (she did), which would’ve kicked it up over $400."

I asked if he'd frittered away one of his courses on the grilled cheese, as my husband once did to my eternal amusement.

"No grilled cheese, but we had a cheese course, only $28, a mere pittance," he wrote.

"Both: vodka gimlet

"Both: cauliflower, leek and potato soup

"Her: White Asparagus salad with quail egg (and probably some other stuff), Mushroom Tart (not on the menu)

"Me: chopped something salad (not memorable) and a polenta with vegetables that wasn’t on the menu

"Both: cheese plate -- I don't remember which cheeses they selected -- I think it was 4 pieces; there was a cheddar, a goat cheese, a sheep's milk cheese, and a brie-looking cheese (it wasn't brie or camembert, though -- it was much better, I thought.)

"Both: chocolate & coffee napoleon with salted caramel ice cream

"Both: espresso

"Her comments: great wines, best ever vodka gimlet

"My comments: Incredibly small servings. Wonderful service. Grrrr . . . "

Vegetarian adds: "I also have this uneasy feeling that the food was great and I’m not just that much of a foodie to appreciate it.  . . .  nah."

A Charleston dining room. Sun photo by Lloyd Fox

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

More good news on the Catonsville dining scene. 

Sean T. Dunworth, co-owner of Catonsville Gourmet, said he and chef/co-owner Rob Rehmert plan to open another restaurant in town, in the spot once occupied by Catonsville Village Bakery and Coffee Junction (803-805 Frederick Road). 

The name is Regions. 

Here are the details from an e-mail Dunworth sent me:

"We are shooting to open in May. It will seat 38 people. Be open for dinner service only. Reservations will be required, and we will be using 'Open Table' off of our website to take care of the reservations @ Regions.

"It will have a bit more hip-contemporary design, where Catonsville Gourmet is bright and beachy. (The same designer Bennett Cummings as CG. )

"Now to the food !!!

"Regions kitchen will be overseen by Rob Rehmert. He will be supported by Chefs Jon Cooke (Catonsville Gourmet - Sous) & Rick Valdares (The Grove Market - Bishopville).

"Regions will have a weekly menu, focusing on seven regions of cuisine. These regions will be Classic MD., Asian, Cajun, French, Southwest, Italian & Mom's Comfort Food.

"We will have (daily) a soup du jour, a few signature salads & a flatbread. Then we will offer a small plate & big plate from each of the seven regions.

"For example: (besides the soup & salads)

"Asian - Small Plate: Fresh Spring Rolls - Big Plate: Wasabi Pea Crusted Tuna

"Classic MD - Small Plate: Crabmeat St Micheals - Big Plate: Fresh Soft Crabs

"Cajun - Small Plate: Blackened Scallops Mango - Big Plate: Etouphee

"French - Small Plate: Seafood Bouchess - Big Plate: Angus Beef Bearnaise

"Southwest - Small Plate: Fresh Salsa Fresca & Guac - Chips - Big: Chicken Mole

"Italian - Small: Scampi Shrimp over Puff Pastry - Big: Spaghetti & Meatballs

"Comfort: Things your Grandma & Mom made you with a gourmet twist! - Small: Hush Puppies - Fried Pickles - Big: Chicken Pot Pie & meatloaf." 

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

So here I am, finally getting hip to the whole pho phonetics scene, when somebody brings news of a T-shirt for sale at a Vietnamese noodle shop in Catonsviille.

"I (heart) Phobama," reads the shirt sold at Pho 1, at 5764 Baltimore National Pike (in the shopping center that once housed Value City).

Cute pun, but one that works best if you pronounce "pho" like "foe." It's more like "fuh," a fact I only recently clued into. 

No matter. Customers seem to love "fuh-bama."

The shirts cost $14.95, or $20 for two.  Liz Kay,  one of The Baltimore Sun's Consuming Interests bloggers, brought the shirts to my attention.

Liz was really after the pho, which she said was tasty if not quite as good as what's sold at Mekong Delta downtown.

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Here it is, Easter morning, the perfect time for new beginnings. The restaurant/lounge Milan has picked this day to start offering brunch.

"Milan, the new Italian/Mediterranean restaurant on the edge of Little Italy and Harbor East, has announced that it will be offering brunch service on Sundays beginning April 4, Easter Sunday," reads the announcement. "Brunch will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include an à la carte menu prepared by Executive Chef Stephen Carey."

I'm not sure what the menu is -- it didn't appear to be posted yet online -- but I have to say I'm amused by the idea of brunch as late as 3 p.m.

Maybe three in the afternoon feels like the crack of dawn to Milan's late-night lounge crowd, whom Little Italy residents complained about last week to the Baltimore Liquor Board.  

To me, a meal at that hour isn't a cross between breakfast and lunch. It's more like lunch and supper. Call it lupper. Or the early-bird special.

If the loungers and the early birds start crossing paths in Little Italy in the late afternoon, who knows? Maybe they can work out their differences.

Chef Stephen Carey with grilled swordfish, cannellini beans, asparagus, butternut squash, mushrooms and herbs. Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

I caught up with former Top Chef competitor Jesse Sandlin recently and asked about -- you guessed it -- her butter tattoo.

"I did it because I love butter," she said. "And I also have a meat tattoo on my leg, on the opposite side of the butter one. ... It's sort of my homage to my favorite ingredients."

Sandlin got the butter tattoo two weeks ago from a friend, Grady Spades, who has a by-appointment-only studio in Locust Point. It shows a stick of butter with the wrapper partially peeled back and a banner that reads: "Buttah!"

Sandlin already had several tattoos.

"I have a chicken and pig on the tops of my feet," she said. "There's an old story that goes, when sailors would sail away back in very olden times, they would store all the livestock in the boat in wooden crates. If they ever shipwrecked, they would try to grab onto an animal crate. Then you would not only have been saved, but have food to sustain you."

Sandlin hasn't been stranded on any desert islands, but she hoped a chicken and pig would buoy her spirits after she was voted off a reality TV island.

"I got them [the chicken and pig tattoos] after being kicked off 'Top Chef,'" she said. "I felt like I was drowning."

I asked Sandlin what it is about chefs and tattoos these days. It must be more than their power to sustain reality show refugees. "Top Chef" Michael Voltaggio was covered in them.

"It’s sort of more acceptable to have tattoos, as opposed to when it was taboo years ago and only bikers and outlaws kind of had tattoos," she said.

Besides, who knows what chefs looks like, unless they're on TV?

"We wear long sleeves and generally we’re out of the public eye," she said. "It’s more, 'I don't really have to necessarily impresses anyone with the way I look.'"

Photo courtesy of Jesse Sandlin

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (25)
        

A reliable Dining@Large source sends BBQ good news, bad news. He writes:

"Have discovered the first place I know of in the region that serves ribs to compete with Andy Nelson’s. Also a pretty decent pulled pig. The ribs met my test of not needing sauce, but the pulled pig benefited from a good East Carolina sauce. Made the discovery at a catered affair nearby, but haven’t been to the restaurant yet. Wide choice of other bar-food type dishes, according to its brochure. Will also smoke whole turkey, duck, pig, etc. with 48 hours notice."

He adds: "Bad news for many of your readers is that it’s deep in Howard County. Kloby’s Smokehouse, 7500 Montpelier Road, West Laurel. (MapQuest calls it Laurel.).  It’s at Johns Hopkins Road west of U.S. 29, just south of the Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. Worth a detour."

FYI: I called the restaurant and learned it used to be located in Woodlawn.

Kloby's prize-winning St. Louis Pork Ribs. Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

When I was a kid, it wasn't Easter morning unless there was cheese pie for breakfast.

The traditional Sicilian dessert, made with a cookie-like crust and ricotta filling, is creamy and not too sweet, so it can pass for the most important meal of the day. At least on a holiday.

I'll do my best to give you the recipe. I'm hedging here because my mom has given me a recipe, but I'm not sure it's the recipe.

My mother learned how to make the pie from her mother-in-law, then had the nerve to improve on it. Years ago, I asked for the recipe. The pies I've made since have been good, but not nearly as good as mom's.

Could be my inferior baking skills. Could also be the fact that my mother bakes in triplicate and doesn't follow her own recipe. She usually makes three pies at a time, tripling the filling but only doubling the crust because she can stretch it to fit three pans. That leaves her with extra egg yolks that she tosses into the filling.

I suspect that mom is holding out, that there's a secret ingredient she's not giving up.

When you're ready, mom, I'm all ears.

There's an old saying in journalism: if your mother says she loves you, check it out.

I did my best to find out on the phone this afternoon how many eggs my mother uses per pie. It took quite a bit of grilling -- mom's slipperier than an indicted mayor -- but I finally pinned her down to the version below, which has one less egg white in the filling than the last time she gave me the recipe.

Can't wait to check it out.

Italian Ricotta Cheese Pie

Crust

Mix in a bowl:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

Dash of allspice 

Cut in 1/2 cup butter.

Combine and mix into the above mixture: 

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling

1 pound ricotta cheese*

1/2 cup sugar

Pinch of allspice

2 egg whites plus one whole egg

Roll out half of dough between waxed paper and place in an 8- or 9-inch pie pan. Pour in filling. Roll out top crust, place on top, trim and crimp edge. 

Brush top with egg yolk glaze (1 yolk slightly beaten with a fork with 1 teaspoon milk).

Bake at 350 until filling is set and crust is nicely browned. (About 45 minutes.)

*A couple years ago, I tried using fancy fresh ricotta. Don't. It makes the pie soupy. You probably could drain fresh ricotta until it is as dry as the ordinary supermarket ricotta, but the supermarket stuff works just fine in this pie. At least when mom's making it.

Photo by math-hubby

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

It's neighbor against neighbor in Little Italy -- again.

This time the battle is not over bocce court lighting, or hip-hop parties at Velleggia's.

Details are fuzzy, but this much is known: it's old-timers against a hipster newcomer.

The Little Italy Community Organization is asking the city not to renew Milan's liquor license.

Once a year, neighbors have the opportunity to protest liquor-license renewals. All it takes is signatures from 10 people who live or work near a licensee, and the Baltimore Liquor Board will schedule a hearing.

The board hold these hearings in April, and the deadline for requesting them was the other day. The board got petitions related to at least 10 nightclubs, but only one restaurant: Milan.

There will be a hearing April 15 on whether to revoke Milan's license. It's not clear what the neighbors' gripe is.  I left messages for the Little Italy Community Organization, which led the petition effort, but no one called me back.

Peter Mooradian, Milan's general manager, said this via e-mail:

"I received notice this afternoon of the Little Italy community’s concerns regarding Milan. As you may know, we have made significant efforts since our December opening to be a valued addition to the Little Italy area. We take concerns raised by the community very seriously and have worked diligently with them over the past several months to respond to their feedback and advice. We will continue to work as closely as we can with the residents and businesses to strike an appropriate balance between their needs and ours."

I asked him what the group's complaint was, but he did not reply.

Just a guess here, but maybe the old-timers are ticked off because Milan takes euros, not lire. Or maybe it's because the restaurant serves sushi, not red sauce and meatballs

Milan's Scottish Salmon with Lemon Caper Aioli, Yellowfin Tuna with Red Pepper Oil and Sea Salt; White Tuna with Lemon Oil and Pine Nuts. Sun photo by Algerina Perna

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (158)
        

In this week's Free Market Friday post, Robert of Cross Keys contemplates a mixed marriage -- and a mixed cupboard. Here's RoCK. LV

So here we are in Holy Week.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m in a mixed marriage in more ways than one. About 10 years ago when I just started dating my future wife, I went to services with her. I was talking to one of the members and mentioned that I wasn’t Jewish. She responded that was OK, but asked if I was a “D” or an “R.”

Thinking that she was asking about my denomination, I responded that I was an “L” for Lutheran. My future wife said: “Robbie, she’s asking if you are a Republican or Democrat.” When I told her that I was an “R” she was quite saddened. I guess it’s acceptable to date outside the faith, but quite the shonda to date outside the party.

A few months after those services, I experienced my first Passover Seder. In those days, the wife would clean out her kitchen beforehand and send a box of traif over to my parents' house.

Now that we share a home, it is not quite as ... uh … kosher for Passover. This year, as we were preparing the meal we eat during half-time of the Seder, I noticed that in the refrigerator next to the matzo ball soup, the charoset and the gefilte fish mousse was that hardware store ham that has taken up permanent residence in my kitchen. The matzos were kept on a shelf with Irish scone mix, White Lily Flour and Milk-Bones.

I should say that even though there is all this temporarily forbidden food in the house, neither one of us has eaten it. Well, the wife hasn’t eaten it at all. I’ve just abstained from eating what is in the house. All of my lunches this week were at the American Legion, where I’ve ordered ham salad sandwiches, crab soup and shrimp Alfredo.

I do have my own forbidden foods to worry about this week. As I mentioned, I’m Lutheran, albeit a lapsed one. I didn’t grow up with a lot of religious traditions, but my family would abstain from eating red meat on Good Friday. What this meant was that we would all go to McDonald's for Filet-O-Fishes and Chicken McNuggets.

Now, I won’t be having any Filet-O’s or McNuggets, but I will try to steer clear of steer today.

Great, my writing is sinking to the level of puns. All of this food depravity is taking a toll. I’m going to need a week of bacon to recover my wit.

Mr. Jefferson at Passover. Photo courtesy of RoCK

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Alan Morstein of Regi's American Bistro sends word of matzoh brei, a scrambled-eggs-and-crackers concoction enjoyed at Passover.

"During this week thru the weekend we will be offering for lunch/brunch what we call the DelMar Matzoh Brei," he writes. "Matzoh brei is a popular breakfast and lunch Passover dish consisting of scrambled eggs, matzoh and any additional twist you would like to include.

"We include smoked salmon, melted cream cheese and fried onions. Some prefer to finish off the matzoh brei with cinnamon and or apple sauce. Either way it is unique and you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy our DelMar fried matzoh. It has been a favorite for years here and don't think that any type of matzoh brei is available in Federal Hill or maybe even downtown."

It's available $8.95 for the cinnamon version, $10.95 for the one with smoked salmon. No religious conversion or long schlep necessary.

Sun file photo

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

I like marshmallows as much as the next gal, but only toasted over a campfire.

Crispy, caramelized outside, gooey inside -- that, I get. What I don't get is eating marshmallows "raw," particularly at this time of year, when they're shaped into baby chicks, coated with Day-Glo coloring and tucked inside Easter baskets. Blech!

Which is why I find the idea of Peeps sushi so appealing.

Devised by the people at SeriousEats.com, "Peepshi" could pass for fish rolls served in a Japanese restaurant. Rice Krispie Treats stand in for the rice, fruit leather replaces the seaweed, and Peeps play the role of protein.

The best part: the project involves beheading those inedible little chicks.

"Don't let silent Peeps screams deter you from your task," the site warns. "You're a professional."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Who knows if the baseball will be any better this season at Camden Yards, but they say the food will be.

ARAMARK, which provides food at 14 Major League parks, has "spent the off-season fine-tuning its food and beverage offerings." So says the press release.

"Increasing demand for vegetarian and gluten-free fare has led to greater variety and expanded availability throughout ballparks, while combo meals and value packages continue to grow in popularity," the release says. "Various ballparks will also unveil their very own fully-loaded, signature hot dog."

So what will the Orioles' "fully-loaded, signature hot dog" consist of?

Nobody's saying. In fact, nobody's even saying if Baltimore is one of the teams that will offer a "fully-loaded, signature hot dog."

As for the gluten-free and vegetarian offerings, also unclear.

The Baltimore Business Journal has reported that Attman's deli sandwiches and Greene Turtle sliders will be on the menu. Barlow said this much about the report: "We have not officially sent that information out yet. BBJ got ahold of it."

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)
        

Way to tick off MARC commuters: promise free caffeine; don't deliver.

"MARC Train and McDonald's invite you to a Spring McCafe promotion. MARC train riders at four stations will receive free samples of McDonald's frappes, mochas and hot chocolate as they arrive for morning departure."

That good news was followed by bad. "The McDonald's McCafe promotion scheduled for several MARC stations has been canceled."

No mochas. No free morning sugar-caffeine buzz. No explanation. 

My MARC-riding tipster offered his take: "judging by the girth of the bureaucrats who board the train at Odenton, they don't need any more McFrappes, especially with the new cramped seats."

I called the Maryland Transit Administration to find out what happened. It seems Ronald McDonald and the MTA couldn't quite come to terms.

The Golden Arches doesn't have to pay anything to give drinks away at MARC stations, but the restaurant does have to sign a right-of-entry agreement that includes provisions for insurance in case of, say, a freak frappe accident. Or a multi-million-dollar scalding.

The MTA and McDonald's have come to terms before, but for some reason, the paperwork couldn't get finished in time for this promotion, Maryland Transit Administration spokeswoman Cheron Victoria Wicker said.

They'll probably be able to work out another giveaway down the line. "We did it last fall and it was hugely successful," she said.

Jilted MARC train riders want their free coffee. Sun photo by Amy Davis

Posted by Laura Vozzella at 5:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)