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I made another batch of creme fraiche this weekend.
But instead of letting my jar of cream and buttermilk sit out for 24 hours, I forgot about it and left it out for 36.
Somebody out there knows: is it still good?
Photo by math-hubby
Baltimore has entered a new era of firehouse cuisine.
Engine Company 31 in Waverly has just been equipped with a panini maker.
This exciting culinary/public-safety development came to my attention the other day while I was covering the grand re-opening of a Waverly Firehouse #31.
The place was closed down a year ago because of health- and safety-code violations, including pigeons nesting between the 1970s dropped ceiling and the original tin.
Community volunteers helped raise money for the renovation. And one of them convinced Crate and Barrel of Towson to donate kitchen appliances, including a new blender, coffee maker, Calphalon pans and that panini maker.
“It’s probably the only station in the city that has a panini maker,” Fire Chief James S. Clack told me.
Do any practiced panini-makers out there have some tips for the rookies in the firehouse?
Cuisinart photo
The Baltimore Farmers' Market was a mess of morning-after-Preakness proportions today, according to a regular shopper who just contacted me.
Ankle-deep trash, as she described it. A Dumpster the size of a house blocking the main entrance. It was so bad, my tipster said, that vendors were forced to set up across the street.
She attributed the mess to a nearby bar that had been holding some sort of multi-day "Zombie fest." That was her word for it, but it jibed with all of the people dressed in black, leather and studded dog-collar accessories I'd noticed walking past my office on Calvert Street the past few days.
I've put out a call to a vendor, but haven't heard back yet. Any other vendors or shoppers out there want to share?
Sun file photo of after-Preakness mess
I already gave you the meat-and-potatoes on Grano at Chestnut's expansion.
Now here's the icing on the cake: the restaurant isn't the only thing getting bigger; its dessert menu is growing, too.
Part of the reason for the expansion is to create a space that will serve as a coffee-and-dessert lounge, said Will Bauer, who is overseeing the project for the Hampden restaurant. The hope is that people who dine at the restaurant, or have a meal elsewhere, will linger over dessert in the upstairs lounge area.
To that end, Grano hired pastry chef Simone Martini two months ago. Martini plans to increase the restaurant's dessert offerings from the current four to five a day to eight to 10.
The Florence-born chef will focus on classic Italian desserts, including a ricotta cheese pie with raisins, biscotti, and Zuppa Inglese. He'll also make gelato once the Italian-made gelato machine arrives.
They hope to finish construction by July 11.
Alan Morstein of Regi's isn't about to let a holiday weekend keep him from the farmers' market. Here's his dispatch from Waverly. LV
Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, green and vine ripened from the Eastern Shore. The "Bean Man" has plenty in addition to local baby sweet peas and asparagus.
Local strawberries everywhere, along with leaf lettuce, baby spinach, cooking greens, spring onions, rhubarb and some local herbs.
Making the ride up 95 to Waverly this week: sweet white corn, string beans, broccoli and the debut of cantaloupes.
The flowers and potted plants were a popular buy this morning for the Memorial Day Weekend.
Sun file photo
Having trouble getting your cakes to look like a box of Crayolas, hamburger or race car? Duff Goldman, the extreme cake maker who's put visions of confectionery glory into many a home baker's head, has a fondant for that. In nine colors.
He also has fondant cutters. Texture tiles. "Cake graffiti" color spray. Cake "tattoos." Non-stick pans. Cake mixes, spatulas and other tools.
The Food Network's "Ace of Cakes" star and owner of Baltimore's Charm City Cakes has a new line of baking products. They're available at Michaels stores across the U.S. and Canada.The products should appeal to home bakers who've seen Goldman's elaborate cakes on TV, said Geof Manthorne, executive sous chef at Charm City Cakes.
"I think people are getting much more ambitious," he said, recalling how some have called the bakery, seeking advice.
"We get a lot of people, and they want tips because they're trying to make a replica of their car," he said with a laugh. "What am I gonna tell you?"
Now he can tell them to buy The Duff Goldman Collection, which includes the ready-made, Play-Doh-like fondant icing used for elaborate decorations. Manthorne said Duff-brand fondant has been made to stay pliable for a long time, so it doesn't dry out before the baker gets the shape just right.
"It’s easier to work with than a lot of store-bought fondants," he said. "It's a different form, doesn’t dry out as quickly."
What's in there to make the stuff so workable? You probably don't want to know.
"Sort of a protein that kind of helps thing be elastic," Manthorne said. "It's not vegan."
Harvest Table, a Locust Point lunch-and-breakfast spot that three years ago made EL's list of "Top Ten restaurants you don't know about," seems to have closed.
I have that on the authority of a jogger who passed by last night and noticed it was shut. I just phoned and got no answer, though normally the restaurant would be open at this hour.
"Sad, but not unexpected," my jogger-tipster said in an e-mail.
Harvest Table opened in February 2003.
Here's what EL wrote of the place in July 2007: "A sunny little restaurant -- not much more than an upscale coffee house -- where you can get eclectic salads and sandwiches, homemade soups like roasted red pepper gouda bisque, and delicious brunches on Saturday and Sunday. Free wi-fi is a plus."
Sun photo by Christopher T. Assaf
Grano at Chestnut started work this week on an expansion that will add about 45 seats to the restaurant.
What's known as "Big Grano," as opposed to Pasta Bar, its sister restaurant on The Avenue, is expanding into what used to be an Indian clothing boutique next door.
I have that from Dick Bosstick, who is chef at Pasta Bar but asked me, in a shocking display of humility in the age of the exalted professional cook, not to use that term.
"I don't like the word 'chef,'" he said. "I cook like a little Italian grandmother."
I reached Bosstick because I called "Little Grano" by mistake, but he had the scoop on the Chestnut location, which, incidentally, started serving lunch Wednesdays through Sundays about two months ago. (The place on The Avenue has always served lunch.)
"We are in the process of renovating it now," he said.
UPDATE: Will Bauer, who's overseeing the expansion, tells me they'll add about 25 dining room seats and another 20 seats upstairs for a coffee and dessert lounge.
Big Grano's chocolate flan. Sun photo by Algerina Perna
Something on the menu at Baltimore's new Amish farmers' market caused me to do a double-take: chicken and waffles.
Fried chicken and waffles are a classic, if improbable, soul food combo well known to Baltimoreans.
But the Pennsylvania Dutch version is something else entirely, and not just because it's prepared and served by women in white Amish caps.
This is a stew of shredded chicken, white gravy, peas and carrots ladled over a freshly made waffle. It's more or less chicken pot pie, with the waffle standing in for the crust.
It's on special this week at Marie's Dutch Kitchen, the 90-seat restaurant inside the Patapsco Amish Farmers' Market, which opened two weeks ago at 3321 Annapolis Road, next door to the Patapsco Flea Market.
The chicken and waffle comes with a vegetable, choice of apple crisp or chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, plus ice cream -- all for $7.95.
The chicken-and-waffle special at Marie's Dutch Kitchen. And yes, macaroni salad counts as a vegetable here. Karl Merton Ferron
The Food Network filmed an episode of "Chefs vs. City" at Cinghiale yesterday, according to Baltimore Magazine's In Good Taste blog.
Everybody at Cinghiale was sworn to secrecy, but Baltimore Magazine's Suzanne Loudermilk apparently was in the right place at the right time.
"The show pits Food Network chefs Aaron Sanchez and Chris Cosentino against two local foodies -- in this case, Anne Marie Langton and chef Thomas Looney, both of Helen's Garden -- in a race around a particular location to find the most interesting, challenging food places," she writes.
Stay tuned for more details.
Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum
If you're out of dough in Baltimore, it's probably not because you're spending too much on food.
Baltimore ranked waaay low on a list that compared food spending by city.
The average Baltimore household spent $5,102 on food in 2009, according to the Bundle survey. That sum was about evenly split between groceries ($2,769) and dining out ($2,333).
Austin, Texas, had the nation's biggest food spenders, with the households there shelling out an average of $12,447.
Detroit households spent the least, $2,246.
Bargains galore could be had as the Pigtown Safeway prepared to close earlier this year. Sun photo by Jed Kirshbaum
There's a new Amish farmers' market in Baltimore, in a former bingo hall in Cherry Hill.
Patapsco Dutch Farmers' Market, at 3321 Annapolis Road, opened about two weeks ago with 15 vendors, who travel from Lancaster, Pa., to sell their meats, eggs, cheese, butter and milk, baked goods, soft pretzels and ice cream, and prepared meals like barbecued chicken, ribs and fried chicken.
There is also a sit-down restaurant, called Maria’s Dutch Kitchen. It serves Pennsylvania Dutch specialties, including ham, gravy and mashed potatoes.
Eventually, the restaurant will offer an "Amish-style wedding meal," which consists of creamed celery and roast chicken, filling, corn, mashed potatoes and pie.
I learned all this from Isaac Esh, one of the organizers of the market and owner of Esh's Meats. He sells beef, pork, turkey, veal and lamb, all of it raised on pasture without the routine use of antibiotics.
I haven't been to the market yet, but I plan to head there soon and report back what I find.
Sun file photo of now-closed Amish market in Burtonsville
John Lindner sends this Shallow Thought post, which was inspired by his daughter's college graduation. I post it now, having just returned from my son's preschool graduation. Please tell me, John, that the years in between won't fly by. LV
Daughter Roslyn graduated Friday with a degree in Chinese. In August, she moves to China to teach. What more appropriate way to celebrate than to dine Chinese?*
We chose Seven Seas on Route 1 in (or near) College Park.
Ambience: We picked Seas based on location, not because it’s a special occasion glit magnet. On the contrary, the place is unabashed utilitarian with playful overtones of hole-in-the-wall. Our table for six was draped in mauve linen and rocked like a Tilt-A-Whirl.
The food: Of all the pervasive cuisines I’m unqualified to judge, Chinese positively showcases my ineptitude. Still, I’ll go out on a limb and rank Seas as easily above average. It offers an authentic Chinese menu and an authentic American Chinese menu. The former is replete with duck blood, the latter includes special dishes for weight watchers. Throw in sushi and dim sum, why go anywhere else?
Service: As unpretentious as a cinderblock. Our server seemed like she might be the mom of this apparently family operation. Her face wore an expression of mildly desperate concentration, as if there were something she knew she was forgetting. The place wasn’t packed. But it was busy with several 18%-auto-gratuity tables larger than ours. She appeared harried but in control. She was direct: “You ready to order?” She was fastidious – repeated our orders to make sure she got what we asked for. When she delivered the meals, she made no pretense of having matched orders with faces or seats. “Who get Singapore noodle?”
Given the momentousness of the occasion, Seven Seas might have cut our celebratory buzz. Instead, it served us well with comfortable eccentricities and an amusing lack of polish. A refreshing descent from the cloudy lofts of academe.
Bonus shallow thought: Need to lose some weight? Quit your job.
*rhetorical question
Sun photo by Amy Davis
South Mountain Creamery handed out out free samples of ice cream at the Waverly Farmers' Market Saturday.
Life can't get much better than that, right? Free ice cream. All's right with the world.
Unless you're the ice-cream giver, who's handing the stuff out to make a point, because he' not allowed to sell it in pints and quarts at the market.
Or you're the farmers' market honcho who banned the sales and feels like the give-away was intended to make him out to be the bad guy.
I've tried to reach South Mountain since a Dining@Large reader tipped me off to the Waverly ice cream kerfuffle last weekend, but no one has returned my messages. It is a dairy farm, so they're probably more than a little busy.
I had better luck with Marc Rey, president of the farmers' market board.
"I'm rather angry at the man who owns South Mountain," Rey said when I reached him Tuesday.
Back in February, South Mountain applied to the market's board to sell hand-dipped and bulk ice cream along with its other milk products, Rey said. The board approved the hand-dipped sales, but voted against the pint and quart sales because two other vendors were already lined up to sell ice cream or sorbet in bulk, he said.
The market tries not to have too much duplication in specialty products, otherwise the vendors can't do enough business, Rey said.
"Twelve people can have asparagus and all sell out because there's that much demand," he said. "But there's some commodities that there's not so much demand for."
South Mountain could have appealed that decision to the board, but never did, Rey said. So Rey assumed South Mountain had accepted the verdict -- until Saturday, when people who'd just enjoyed a free ice cream started buttonholing him at the market, asking why he was picking on South Mountain.
"We sent him a formal communication today saying, 'We’ll still give you a chance if you’d like to appeal before the board, but you are not to incense the customers as if you’re being discriminated against,'" Rey said.
South Mountain might be able to make a better case for selling bulk ice cream now, because the guy who was lined up to sell sorbet decided to move back to Trinidad, Rey said. Now there's only one vendor, Brooms Bloom Dairy, sells selling packaged ice cream.
Let's hope South Mountain and the market board can put this behind them and work something out.
And if they can't, let's hope the free ice cream keeps coming.
South Mountain, which makes home milk deliveries, would also like to be in the bulk ice cream business at Waverly Market. Sun photo by Kim Hairston
Language guru John McIntyre has been so busy wading through entries to the Dining@Large book-title contest that he's probably neglected his usual reading. Thank goodness he's come up with the winners so he can get back to Horace. Here's John. LV
Selecting a winner from the 41 entries in this competition is one of the most difficult judgments I have ever had to make, the quality of the entries being impressively high. But there have to be winners:
FIRST PLACE (TIE)
As I Lay Frying
During its final moments of life in the Snopes family's skillet, an egg reflects on the meaninglessness of life and the futility of trying to learn how to spell Yoknapatawpha.
Posted by: Mark Murphy
A Liver Runs Through It - Norman Maclean
This coming of age novella, set during Prohibition, tells the story of two brothers, as they fill their days with fly fishing, religious studies and employment in a foie gras production facility in Missoula, Montana.
Posted by: bob redford
SECOND PLACE
The New Testament - A Foodie's Guide
Izzy Mandelbaum's tasty tour of this Old Testament sequel includes wine-tasting with Jesus at Cana, Jesus catering 5000 with his Filet O-Fish prototype, the perils of being a fig tree, and quick 'n easy one dish manger meals.
Posted by: Owl Meat GinHound
THIRD PLACE
A Child's Garden of Wurst
by Robert Louis Kielbasa
Your child will devour this mouth-watering collection of fables that includes: The Three Little Pigs in a Blanket; Little Orphan Andouille; The Boy Who Cried Wiener; The Enchanted Chorizo; and, Hansel and Gristle.
Posted by: Amanda C
HONORABLE MENTION
Are you there G-d? It's Me, Margarine
Being neither butter nor shortening, Margarine explores self determination, all the while attempting to avoid the pitfalls typical of a product laden with trans fat.
Posted by: judy blume
Rosemary, Baby
In this sequel to his chef d'ouevre, "A Man for All Seasonings," culinary writer Richard Garlic takes the thyme to describes how he spices his succulent leg of lamb.
Posted by: Michael A. Gray
Lemongrass, the Thai restaurant between Baltimore's Little Italy and Harbor East, has closed its doors.
I don't have the full story yet. But the assistant manager I got on the phone just now said the place closed a week ago Saturday.
Its sister restaurant, Diabilita Cantina, continues to operate in the same building, at 1300 Bank Street. But the Diablita owners are no longer interested in operating a second restaurant there, the assistant manager said.
She also said that owners of the building have been showing the space to potential new restaurant tenants.
I believe the restaurants shared a single kitchen. So that could make renting the place a bit of a challenge.
More details to come.
Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby
We're entering prime time for locavores, as more Maryland crops come to market. For people who buy shares in Community Supported Agriculture ventures, it won't be long before the weekly produce pick-ups begin.
And as anyone who's ever belonged to a CSA knows, it's not all strawberries and sweet corn.
There are lots and lots of greens.
Slate had a good name for the situation, described in a funny first-person account of a CSA sufferer last year: "The Locavore's Dilemma."
Which brings me to this week's list:
Top Ten Ways to Solve the Locavore's Dilemma
1. Swiss chard juice
The topic of Swiss chard overabundance somehow came up the other day when I was chatting with Michael Evitts, spokesman for Baltimore's Downtown Partnership. His answer: Swiss chard juice. He combines a bunch of chard with some carrots, apple, lemon zest and a little fresh ginger. "Tastes like someone’s just mowed a lawn, only sweeter, which is actually nice," Evitts assured me. "To me, it tastes like summer."
I tried to give it a go, but we were out of carrots and lemon. The chard-Gala-ginger combo I was left with had surprisingly cinnamon-y flavor to me. I drank it watered down with seltzer. My husband's take was more like Evitts', though not in a good way. He said it was like "licking a lawn mower."
2. Crispy roasted kale
3. Chard with Parmesan and butter
OK, maybe the cheese and butter negate some of the health benefits of the greens, but everything in moderation, right? In "The Art of Simple Food," Alice Waters suggests washing and blanching a bunch of chard in salted water, draining and chopping it, then tossing it back into a heavy pan with 3 tablespoons of butter and a handful of freshly grated Parm. So good, you'll forget it's a vegetable.
4. Chard with pancetta, Parmesan and butter
Add pancetta to the dish above. It will still be good for you. I think.
5. No data returned
6. The redemption dish
Skip the Parm, butter and pancetta. Saute greens in only the tiniest bit of olive oil. Eat a whole bowl and feel virtuous. Then treat yourself to a bowl of ice cream.
7. The next hemp
Another Evitts suggestion: fibrous chard stems could be used to make a chic eco-fabric.
8. Spinach substitute
Chard doesn't bolt like spinach when the weather turns warmer, one reason it keeps coming in those CSA boxes. When the spinach quits, the chard leaves can be used like spinach in quiche or lasagna.
9. Salad
10. Compost
Throwing the stuff away? Unthinkable! Tuck it in the "crisper," let it rot, and then add it to the compost pile in good conscience.
Photo by math-hubby
In case you missed it, Richard Gorelick wrote a fun piece for The Sun about "An Evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert."
I was particularly intrigued by Richard's reference to Bourdain's "gorgeous anecdotes, hardly any of which can be repeated here. (No one in the audience will be able to look at Paula Deen, not to mention Mrs. Butterworth, the same way again.)"
Well, I'm curious.
Apparently the story couldn't be printed in a family newspaper. But what about a newspaper blog? It's a brave, new new-media world. Maybe it'll fly here on Dining@Large.
Anybody out there know the story and care to post it here? (I apologize in advance if it proves too racy and I have to zap it.)
Better yet, let's use this little mystery as inspiration for another Dining@Large contest.
The person who writes the best poem about Mrs. Butterworth, Paula Deen and Anthony Bourdain gets a free bottle of real maple syrup. (Or a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's, if the winner prefers that.)
Deadline is noon Friday.
Sun file photo.
More drama for chef Timothy Dean, and I don't mean the reality TV kind.
The "Top Chef" contestant is in bankruptcy court.
T.D. Bistro Inc., which owned the now-shuttered bistro and T.D. Lounge, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a development the Baltimore Business Journal first reported. Dean is president of T.D. Bistro Inc.
I just reached Dean by phone, but he declined to comment, except to say that the BBJ had "covered it." He told that paper that the recession and winter weather had done him in. "The snowstorm really buried us," he said.
Dean also told the BBJ that the filing would have no impact on Prime Steakhouse, the restaurant he opened in the same Eastern Avenue location in late February, not too long after those whopper snowstorms, come to think of it.
T.D. Bistro first filed for bankruptcy a year earlier, on May 1, 2009, listing both assets and liabilities in the same $50,001 to $100,000 range. But that case was dismissed in June for failure to complete required filings, according to court records.
The new bankruptcy filing lists assets of $0 to $50,000 and liabilities between $100,001 and $500,000. The list of creditors holding the 20 largest unsecured claims starts with Dean himself.
It says MTD Realty LLC is owed $50,000. Dean's bankruptcy attorney, Stephen Prevas, confirmed that Dean controls that LLC, whose address, 1717 Eastern Ave., is the same location as Dean's restaurant and lounge ventures.
Other creditors listed are the state comptroller (owed $41,036), M&T Bank ($29,094), Jessup seafood purveyor E. Goodwin and Sons ($13,000), The Country Vinters ($11,065), BGE ($7,786), Department of Labor ($7,559), Fells Point Wholesale Meats ($5,500), Arlene S. Cristmon ($4,000), Congressional Seafood Company ($3,937), International Gourmet Foods ($2,200), American Express ($1,991), Waste Management ($1,983), Rose Bud Entertainment ($1,775), Byron Del Cid ($1,500), Martin Seafood Company ($1,500), City of Baltimore water department ($1,365), American Express, again ($1,212), Verizon ($1,069) and Silver Spoon Ltd. ($950).
Bravo photo
I finally caught up with one of the owners of Tangier's Bistro Bar and Martini Lounge, which opened Wednesday in Canton, in the spot where Meridian 54 used to be.
Alain Suissa, who worked for Washington's Ritz-Carlton for many years and was food and beverage director for The Jockey Club Restaurant & Lounge in The Fairfax Hotel, said this is his first restaurant venture in Baltimore.
The restaurant has about 200 indoor seats, plus about 60 more on the sidewalk. It serves French Northern Moroccan cuisine.
"It's a tapas menu, small plates, like we have in the south of Spain and all the beaches of Morocco," said Suissa, who was raised in Montreal but was born in Casablanca. His grandmother was born in Tangier.
You can see the menu at idine.com, though Suissa notes that the website got a few things wrong. It describes the restaurant as Greek, for instance. He hopes to get those errors fixed shortly.
He described the atmosphere as "very casual chic -- simple, elegant. Just a fun place to be."
Tangier's photo
It's hard to think of a profession that could keep a gal on her feet more than restaurant work, but Pam Thanaporn has found it.
The longtime owner of Thai Landing has sold the restaurant so she can become a full-time operating room nurse.
For the 13 years she owned the popular Mount Vernon restaurant, Thanaporn worked once a month in the OR.
She decided to go into nursing full time, at Bon Secours, because her husband took early retirement from his job as a commercial artist and they needed the health insurance.
Thanaporn, 58, sold the restaurant a week ago to a group going by the name Siam Spoon Corporation. Thanaporn said the new owners are "four young, energetic women."
The kitchen crew is mostly the same, so fans of Thai Landing need not fret, Thanaporn said.
"The food and the service should be the same," she said.
Sun file photo by Kenneth K. Lam
Well, now we know the truck-food trend is really getting out to hand.
There's the cupcake truck. The gourmet hamburger truck. The taco truck. And now ... the slaughterhouse truck.
I refer to an interesting piece in The New York Times Magazine about a new food-systems innovation: the mobile abattoir.
The "Modular Harvest System" brings the killing floor to the farm. A small company in New York started the operation this spring. It's a first in the Northeast, the paper reports.
The aim is to address the slaughterhouse shortage that is making it difficult for farmers to keep up with consumer and restaurant demand for local meats.
The mobile unit seems to be a way around that.
If you want more farm-to-table, maybe slaughterhouse-to-farm is the way to go.
AP photo
It has come my attention that I neglected to set a deadline for entries in the book title contest.
Let's say Monday, high noon.
The sort of tutti fruitti "fashion" martini that I suspect John McIntyre will NOT make the contest winner. Morning Call photo
For those of you striving for homemade pizza perfection, there's an interesting article in The New York Times.
Instead of making crazy oven alterations to approximate torrid brick-oven temperatures, this author suggests you just need a better dough.
And that's achieved, Oliver Strand writes, with a homemade "mother starter," which leavens the dough in place of commercial yeast. The starter is a mixture of flour and liquid that's allowed to ferment, then kept in the fridge and "fed" weekly with more liquid and water.
One method described here starts with mixing the flour with pineapple juice, which is said to counteract harmful bacteria. I've heard of pineapple on pizza, but never in the dough.
I've made lots of pizza dough and bread, but only with commercial yeast. Years ago, I attempted to make a sourdough starter but it went bad.
Now I'm eager to give it another go.
Alan Morstein of Regi's sends news from Waverly. Here's Alan. LV
It was "Strawberry Fields" today at Waverly. Beautiful plump, sweet local strawberries took the center stage today.
Asparagus is still abundant, however the season is coming to a close. Buy them now.
Green local tomatoes were available from "The Bean" man along with baby peas. Local lettuce, flowers, herb and vegetable pots are on display at a reduced price from the previous weeks as the growers make room for the spring and summer crops.
By all appearances, I lead a pretty tame life.
No hang gliding. No drugs. No swingers clubs.
But then there's that little jar of cream sitting out on my kitchen counter for a full day.
I know it's shocking. But I'll say it again: Dairy. Room temperature. Twenty-four hours.
All to sate my mad, passionate desire for creme fraiche.
I took a cup of heavy cream, added a tablespoon of buttermilk, mixed, and let the stuff sit out until it was as thick as sour cream. It's in the fridge now, where it's supposed to stay for at least a day, and up to two weeks, before using.
I know it sounds risky, but Julia Child said it's OK. And yes, if Julia Child told me to jump off a bridge, I'd probably do that, too.
I'm using the creme fraiche Sunday in a brioche tart that's so good, it made Julia cry when she had a bite at the end of a memorable episode of "Baking with Julia." (The creme fraiche recipe above comes from the companion book to that series.)
If somebody out there wants the brioche tart recipe, I'll post that, too. (It's pretty long, so I don't want to do it on spec.) Just let me know.
Photo by math hubby
Public TV bills him as "the man who reinvented American barbecue and gave grilling a college education."
Now's your chance to meet him.
Steven Raichlen, the guy who grills on public television's "Primal Grill" and "BBQ University," will do a book-signing tonight in Columbia.
He'll appear at Borders Books, 6151 Columbia Crossing Circle, at 7 p.m.
An "Iron Chef"-style competition among local chefs comes to Harford County Monday night.
"Battling it out for bragging rights are: Chef Renato from The Tower in Bel Air, Chef Jamie and Sous Chef Shane from MacGregors' in Havre de Grace, Chef Ron and Sous Chef Mark from Looney's in Bel Air, Chef Christina and Sous Chef Abe from Laurrapin Grill in Havre de Grace."
The American Association of University Women is putting on the event as a scholarship fundraiser. "Dicing through barriers," is the group's slogan for it.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for students. It's free for children under five. There are still a few slots left for tasting judges. It costs $25 to be a judge, and you have to reserve a spot via email (AAUW.foodfight@gmail.com).
The event begins at 6:30 p.m. It will take place outside, on the Harford Community College terrace. (Bring a blanket; there's no seating.) The rain date is May 27.
Sun file photo of Looney's steak and cake by Lloyd Fox
Language guru John McIntyre suggests that we have another Dining@Large competition, one that does not involve scrapple. His challenge:
Come up with a food-related book title that includes a literary allusion and write a one-sentence jacket description of it.
Here is a sample, provided by John.
"With Roux My Heart Is Laden"
In a moving memoir, prize-winning Cajun chef Jean-Claude Beausoleil describes his quintuple cardiac bypass surgery and the rigorous vegan diet he adopted in recovery.
If the winner is local, John has offered to mix him or her a martini.
Sun photo by Amy Davis
Towson's Cafe Troia sends news of a wine dinner tonight. The focus is on wines from what was described as the "little-known" Marche region.
If you're interested, here's the menu:
Reception wine:
Passarina Brut, Velenosi
Amuse Bouche:
Fried Stuffed Olives
Antipasto:
Brodetto
Rich seafood broth with mussels, shrimp, crayfish served over a thick slice of Italian bread
Pecorino “Villa Angela,” Velenosi
Primo Piatto:
Ragu di Quàglia Affumicato con Gnocchi
Smoked quail ragout with cloves and nutmeg accompanied by homemade gnocchi
Lacrima di Moro d’Alba
Secondo Piatto:
Arosto di Maiale
Roast fresh pork shoulder with a juniper demi-glace accompanied by herb-infused cauliflower puree and shaved fresh fennel with lemon, truffle oil and pinenuts
Rosso Piceno, “Il Brecciarolo” (Montepulciano & Sangiovese blend)
Dolce:
Hazelnut and plum torte
Vino di Viscole
The dinner is $75, plus tax and tip. It begins at 6:30 p.m. Reservations are required.
Cafe Troia dining room. Sun photo by Kim Hairston
Burgerville is a fast-food chain, but in a very Left Coast sort of way.
The Oregon and Washington restaurants tap into wind power, recycle cooking oil into biofuel, compost kitchen waste, and use local, sustainable, seasonal ingredients.
Now comes another high-minded innovation, one that could make Burgerville fans blanch.
The chain has started to print calorie counts on sales receipts.
Double cheeseburger, large Northwest cherry chocolate shake and small fries? That'll be 1,952 calories.
Yikes!
"This program, first piloted at Burgerville’s restaurant on Northeast Martin Luther King Boulevard in Portland, is the latest initiative that the restaurant chain is taking to help their guests make healthy food choices," the company said in a news release this week. "Nutritional information, including calorie, fiber, fat and carbohydrate counts, is prominently featured on the front of all receipts. ... The nutrition data reflects customized orders from guests, such as no tartar sauce on a halibut sandwich or extra dressing on a salad. The receipts feature a helpful hint, such as 'If you are trying to eat healthier, try holding the chipotle mayo on your sandwich and save 180 calories and 18g of fat.'"
Burgerville president Jeff Harvey is quoted saying, “We want our guests to know exactly what they are getting when they order from us."
I think this is a great way to open people's eyes about just how many calories they're inhaling when they eat out. The question is whether most people really want to know.
But soon they will, and not just at Burgerville. As The Wall Street Journal notes in an item on its health blog, this sort of disclosure is coming on menus if not sales receipts. "[U]nder health-overhaul legislation, the menu labeling that has already hit New York and other areas will be taken national."
Burgerville's Crispy Onion and Spinach Turkey Burger (870 calories) with Golden Fried Asparagus Spears (270 calories). Add 2 ounces of Garlic Aoli for an extra 380 cal. Burgerville photo
Randy Stahl, part owner of the Brass Elephant, would like to get the word out about a fund-raiser for a chef-friend who is fighting cancer.
Before I get a flood of fund-raiser notices, let me note that I can't usually post them. But this is a special case because the cancer-fighter is someone who might be known to area diners and to people in the restaurant industry.
It's Dean Batlas. He has served as executive chef for Harryman House and Jordan's Steakhouse, was food and beverage director for Marriott Hotel in Hanover, and is past president of the Central Chefs and Cooks Association's Baltimore chapter.
The fundraiser is a dinner Friday, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., at the Oregon Ridge Lodge, in Oregon Ridge Park in Baltimore County.
Stahl promises "great food and beer and wine" for $50 per person. "No tax, no gratuity," he adds.
Stahl's e-mail about the fund-raiser also noted that there was no news on the on the sale of the shuttered Mount Vernon landmark.
"I do not have any new news on the Brass purchase," he wrote. "The buyer is still interested, but his financing is still being worked out."
Harryman House Shrimp Chartreuse. Sun photo by Kim Hairston
Shallow Thought Wednesday guru John Lindner offers poetry this week. His inspiration was not scrapple, but Baltimore's new food czarina, Holly Freishtat. Here's John. LV
I was surprised that the Sandbox didn't jump all over news of Baltimore's new "food czar." In preparation for the coming tsunami of culture and access, I'm stocking up on salt, butter and other hazardous materials.
The Bureaucratty
‘Twas bordain, and the cindy loaves
Got drier and rubb’ry in the wabe
All rayon were the ovengloves
And the gumbo fee-layed.
Vino Rosina, the new wine bar venture from the Rosina Gourmet people and former "Top Chef" contestant Jesse Sandlin, had its grand opening last night in Harbor East.
Sandlin described one of the small plates on the menu that night.
"We're doing a really killer bison tartare from Gunpowder Farms," she said. "We're calling it Bison and Eggs. It's very small, finely diced bison, Piave vecchio cheese, minced shallots, chopped parsley, a sauce of Worcestershire, Sriracha and Dijon, and a little poached quail egg.
The price on that dish, which comes with about four ounces of bison and a few crostini, is $12.
"It's really tasty," Sandlin said. "It's gone over really well."
Bravo photo
Just got an e-mail from the PR director at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, and the timing was so funny I called up just to make sure it wasn't a joke. (It wasn't.)
"I have a few press tickets for Saturday Evening and wanted to know if you would like a pair for the Anthony Bourdain/Eric Ripert Hippodrome Foodie Experience," the message read. "Hope to see you Saturday Evening."
Thanks anyway.
So just what will people be eating at the Foodie Experience going on at the Hippodrome Saturday in conjunction with "No Reservations -- An Evening with Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert"?
A number of the restaurants participating aren't saying because of the possibility of last-minute menu changes.
But reviewer Richard Gorelick got the scoop on two of them.
La Scala will be serving Crab alla Regina, jumbo lump crab meat simmered in a tomato cream sauce with shallots and diced red bell peppers, served over a bed of penne pasta.
Aldo’s will offer Seared Tenderloin Bruschetta with Gorgonzola, Arugula and Truffle Oil.
Travel Channel photo of Anthony Bourdain
They say you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you. I'll just bite the hand that wants to feed me but should know better.
While I'm a blogger these days, I'm a blogger for a newspaper, which means I still observe certain old-media conventions that independent bloggers might consider quaint. Like that rule about not taking anything of value from the people you write about.
I can only assume that the average blogger follows a different playbook, based on all the invitations I've received lately. An awful lot of people seem to be giving away food to food bloggers.
I'm not talking about the nice neighborhood baker who offers the reporter who's come to write about his tiramisu a piece of same. The reporter is supposed to politely decline, or pay for the pastry. But the offer can be taken at face value, as an act of personal generosity, a gracious gesture.
I'm talking about invitations from big, out-of-state PR firms trying to inspire seemingly independent eaters to gush about their restaurant-clients online. You have to wonder what readers would think if they realized the writers were eating on the house -- and sometimes blogging right there, in the presence of their hosts.
Which brings me to this week's list: Top Ten free lunches I've passed on
1. Dine Downtown Baltimore on Charles Street Media Tour
The Downtown Partnership will take media on a three-hour tour of Charles Street restaurants May 25. Each reporter can even take along a guest. The Charm City Circulator will transport participants from restaurant to restaurant. (I'm milking this one for three entries because there are stops at three restaurants and because otherwise -- let's be honest -- I'll never make it to 10.)
First stop: B&O Brasserie, for hand-crafted cocktails and meatball, tomato-basil and duck confit flatbreads.
2. Dine Downtown Baltimore on Charles Street Media Tour, second stop:
Red Maple, for Asian-inspired tapas
3. Dine Downtown Baltimore on Charles Street Media Tour, third stop:
Brewer's Art, for country ham flat bread, steamed mussels, crab dip with toasted pita, artichoke ravioli with lemon buerre blanc, pistachio-mint pesto chilled asparagus soup with house-cured salmon-stuffed profiteroles and house-brewed Belgian-style beers.
4. Phillips Seafood Restaurant Blogger Dinner
The restaurant offered lobsters, clams, mussels, oysters and crabs to food bloggers, who were invited to blog while they ate in April. "While it's often not polite to be tapping on your Blackberry while eating, on this occasion it's welcome," read the invite from Breslow Partners, the Philadelphia PR firm for Phillips. "We just recommend that you swallow before pushing 'send.'"
What a relief. They swallow first. They still have some standards.
5. Another Phillips blogger dinner
"Hey Baltimore Bloggers, finally, your efforts are rewarded!" reads another Breslow invite. "Our first Bloggers' Dinner will be held on Thursday, March 25. And we'd love to have you join us for some sumptuous food, a cocktail or two, and all the while, share your opinions with you readers." Over live music, chilled seafood, "tuna two ways" and "Shirley Phillips' famous crab cakes," participants were invited to "blog away, right there for all of the world wide web to see."
6. Culinary VIP Event at Qdoba
This invite came to a colleague at the Sun's Metromix website. "We invite you to join us for an intimate VIP culinary lesson in fresh, hand-crafted street fare being held on Wednesday, June 2, at the Qdoba Mexican Grill restaurant ... in Ellicott City."
The sender, from Denver-based GroundFloor Media, told me when I inquired that the event would offer "samples" of food, not a full meal. Non-alcoholic and possibly alcoholic drinks would be provided as well.
The invite came with a link to Federal Trade Commission rules governing false or deceptive advertising, like that pesky rule about disclosing payment -- in-kind or otherwise -- made in exchange for endorsements. "[F]ailure to abide by these guidelines may subject you to liability for false or deceptive advertising," it says.
You know the party's going to be fun when the FTC wants to hear all about it!
7. Bob Ehrlich's Rockfish
This dish came my way not as a blogger, but as a columnist back in March 2006. Then-Gov. Ehrlich invited 20 reporters into the Government House kitchen to have a bite of Rockfish. He was trying to put the kibosh on a Washington Post report that 75 percent of the fish caught in the Chesapeake Bay had a disease that caused skin infections in humans. Like most pols, Ehrlich wasn't always crazy about reporters. Was this a scheme to give us all sores and lesions? The gov himself had a bite, so it must have been safe. But I was glad for the excuse The Sun's ethics policy gave me for taking a pass.
8. The Stork Dinner, Howard County General Hospital
As a reporter in The Sun's Howard County bureau, I occasionally wrote about the hospital. I had my first child there seven years ago. By that time, I was out of the bureau and covering City Hall in Baltimore. But a hospital executive who'd heard I was in there as a patient wanted to treat me to the Stork Dinner, a fancy meal offered to new parents. It cost $50 if I remember correctly. I think he was only trying to be nice but I couldn't accept, I told him. He persisted: Couldn't he still treat my husband? Well, no.
(Even more awkward: At the hospital, I received flowers from none other than Sheila Dixon. That was before I was a columnist and before she provided me with all that Jimmy Choo/fur coat material. She was an unindicted City Council president and I was a reporter on reasonably good terms with her, good enough for her to send me flowers that I wasn't really supposed to accept. I phoned an editor to ask what I was supposed to do. He told me: keep the flowers. What was I going to do? Send them back? I'll bet Dixon would gladly take them back now.)
9. Preakness press room spread
There was a table full of food outside Pimlico's auxiliary press room, where I worked Saturday during Preakness. Famished and dehydrated by afternoon, I accepted a bottle of water and a single slice of bread after watching fat cats down sushi and crab cakes in the VIP Preakness Village all day. But I passed on the rest -- and made a bee-line for Atwater's in Belvedere Square for soup and sandwich as soon as I got out of there.
Some sports reporters -- surely not from The Sun! -- have been known to chow down on food provided by the sports team they cover. For that matter, some horse-racing reporters even wager on the races they're writing about -- using betting windows conveniently located in the press box. So the old media has its issues, too.
10. Derry Church Artisan Chocolates
The chocolatier at this Mechanicsburg, Pa., company e-mailed me recently saying he wanted to send me some of his "exquisite French bon bons in exchange for a possible peer review." I'm told it would actually be legit to accept a sample of chocolates if I were doing a product review, but I don't see The Sun running a chocolate review anytime soon. Sigh.
Dinner fit for a blogger at Brewer's Art: seared tuna with potato mousseline, creamed spinach and pinot noir sauce. Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum
The people behind the shuttered Cafe at Bluehouse in Harbor East are planning to open another cafe.
The Charles Village-meets-Remington location, on the ground floor of a residential and office building at 2601 North Howard St., lends itself to a great name: Charmington's.
David Buscher, a partner in the project, said he hopes to open in the next two to three months.
Cafe at Bluehouse was located inside an eco-friendly home goods store that Buscher said fell victim to the recession in February 2009. He still operates another Bluehouse store in Towson.
The new 30-seat cafe will have the same "environmentally oriented" drinks menu, meaning fair-trade coffee. "And probably all organic, too," he said.
David Buscher shows off a glass vase sold in his store in this 2006 photo. Sun photo by Algerina Perna
I pass along an interesting item that popped up recently on the Google group Baltimore Food Makers. The post seeks basic fig-tree info, but it also raises an interesting question: why aren't there any pick-your-own fig farms out there? LV
More a gardening question than a food question, but since we all live in the same region, I was hoping someone would have helpful info. Does anyone have a fig tree? Do you wrap it in the winter? Is it a specific variety that has done well in this area?
Also, are there any varieties that tend to stay on the small side? I'm thinking about putting one in, but don't have a ton of sunny space. Although I assume I could just prune it to keep it from getting too large. I've also considered doing one in a large pot that goes in the basement in the winter, which I hear can work well, but it seems like moving it in and out and finding room in the tiny unheated section of my basement could be a pain in the butt.
Or ... are there any places that do "pick your own" figs? I've never heard of one. I'd really like access to lots of affordable fresh figs to make preserves, but I rarely see them available for sale anywhere.
I guess the perfect solution might be finding a friend who happens to have a tree on their property that they're not interested in harvesting, although that's probably not the case with any of you :)
I'm considering asking on Freecycle as weird as it will sound. Also...what month are figs ripe in Maryland?
Sun file photo
A reader writes to say he's having trouble finding something at the Baltimore Farmers' Market.
"A couple weeks back I read on Dining@Large that there would be goat meat for sale at the Baltimore Farmer's Market but I've been the past three weeks and I haven't seen it. Any word?"
The goat meat, from Washington County's Many Rocks Farm, is for sale in an area of the market created last year for crafters, across Holliday Street from the main market.
Other food vendors that are new to the market this year, including the bicycle-smoothie stand Wheely Good Smoothies, are over there, too.
So those of you who've never taken an interest in the crafts might want to check that area out for the food.
Goats at Many Rocks Farm. Sun photo by Kim Hairston
Sergio Vitale, co-owner of Aldo's, issued a media release about the Preakness after-party. He calls the winning horse "Looking at Lucky" instead of "Lookin at Lucky," but it sounds like there was a lot of wine flowing. And really, shouldn't a horse of that caliber have a grammatically correct name? Here's his report. It goes on for quite a while, but so did the Preakness. LV
After winning the 135th running of the Preakness Stakes, the owners of “Looking at Lucky” celebrated their victory with VIP friends at Aldo’s Ristorante Italiano in Baltimore’s Little Italy.
Hall-of-Famer trainer Bob Baffert was joined by “Looking at Lucky” owners Mike Pegram and partners Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, winning jockey Martin Garcia, NFL Coach Mike Tice, and retired NBA player and independent film producer Matt Othick at a post-win dinner party that included as many as 35 VIP guests and phone calls from around the world -- from people like Oscar-nominated actor Chazz Palminteri -- congratulating the victors.
In keeping with their decade-long post-Preakness tradition, dining at another table was the production team from NBC Sports. Independent producer and director Billy Rapaport joined the “Lucky” party for a champagne toast during which he told the revelers, “Not only do you know how to pick a great horse, but you know how to pick a great restaurant, too. Congratulations!”
The “Lucky” party raided the award-winning wine cellar at Aldo’s, celebrating their victory with rare champagnes and Italian red wines while dining on a multi-course meal that included pan-fried soft shell crabs, crab cakes, veal chop “alla Milanese,” housemade gnocchi with wild boar ragu, Orecchiette pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage, among other dishes.
When Chef/Owner Aldo Vitale personally congratulated the group of diners, NFL Coach Mike Tice told Vitale, “This was one of the top 5 meals I’ve ever had. One of the best restaurants in the country”-- a comment which prompted an spontaneous round of applause.
Preakness Day is traditionally the busiest day of the year at Aldo’s, which has long been Maryland’s unofficial post-Preakness dining venue, attracting horse owners, trainers, jockeys and the sports writers and producers who cover them for over a decade.
Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby
If you're heading to the farmers' market today, keep your eyes out for some of the goodies Alan Morstein of Regi's spotted yesterday at Waverly. Here's Alan. LV
Did not see any Preakness hats, but I did see three new seasonal items. It's time to "eat your peas" -- fresh baby peas from Maryland's Eastern Shore -- along with a limited supply of green tomatoes and red hydroponic vine-ripened tomatoes.
Also in the market: local asparagus, leaf lettuce, cooking greens, mixed field greens, strawberries that are now plump and sweet, rhubarb, along with sweet white corn and crispy string beans from Bainbridge, Ga.
Last week the corn and string beans were from Florida, so the harvest is moving up the coast.
Soft Shell Crabs are following the same pattern since the are becoming available from the Virginia coastline versus North Carolina.
Many farms are winding down on their sale of potted plants, herbs and flowers, which is a good indication that more local produce is on the way.
Los Angeles Times photo
Here's the ultimate for the Baltimore County locavore: a new farmers' market with strictly county-raised products for sale.
So no, that Baltimore County guy with the olive grove in Greece can't sell his oil at this market.
More than 20 county farmers have come together to create the market, which starting next month will sell local produce, chicken, beef and bison, honey, baked goods, flowers and other products on Wednesdays, from 2 p.m. 6 p.m., at the North Gate of the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
Vendors include Albright Farms, Atwater’s Bakery, Calvert’s Gift Farm, Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company, Hills Forest Fruit Farm, Hope Ridge Farm, Nick’s “Backfire” Brands Spices and Rubs, One Straw Farm, Pahl’s Farm, Simmer Rock Farm, Springfield Farm and Warns Produce Farm.
The market will offer a "sneak preview" on June 2, followed by a grand opening and Ribbon Cutting ceremony June 9. The grand opening will feature local dignitaries, live entertainment and a local strawberry preparation demo by Chef Carole Brosso from Patrick’s in Cockeysville.
Sun file photo of Gunpowder Bison & Trading Company bison
I've gotten a couple e-mails from Dining@Large readers in recent days wondering what's going on at Meridian 54.
Beats me -- though not for lack of trying. I haven't been able to reach anyone over there.
So for now, I'll settle for passing along what the readers are reporting.
"I live in Canton and noticed late last week that Meridian 54 finally closed," one reader wrote me a couple days ago. "The banner outside the building says it will reopen soon under new ownership. It looks like they are working on things inside – painting, etc."
"Just wondering if you have any scoop on who the new owner(s) are, what type of restaurant it will be."
If you're out there, new owners, please let us know what you're up to.
Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor
I'll be at Preakness today. I'll be there for work, which means I won't be drinking lots of Black-eyed Susans. But for those of you who don't have to keep your wits about you, here's a new twist on the classic drink from Grand Cru.
If an appearance on "Top Chef" can raise a chef's profile, why shouldn't it also lower his liquor board fines?
That seems to be the reasoning behind a letter that Timothy Dean's lawyer wrote to the Board of Liquor License Commissioners this week.
In a letter dated May 11 -- days before Bravo announced the names of next season's contestants -- Attorney Peter Prevas asked the board to consider halving the $3,100 fine imposed on Dean last year.
Dean has been appealing the fine, imposed after the board found in January 2009 that security guards at Dean's now-shuttered TD Lounge manhandled one of the board's inspectors in late 2008. The board also found that the lounge had a live disc jockey and dancing without the proper entertainment license.
Prevas wrote that Dean would drop his appeal if the fine were cut to $1,550. The lawyer argued that the compromise would make sense because Dean had converted the lounge into a steakhouse that does not have space for a DJ.
And then Prevas capped all that with this seeming non sequitur:
"Mr. Dean has been chosen to appear on the national television series 'Top Chef' and is currently taping the show."
And Dean's reality TV appearance relates to a matter of liquor board compliance because ... ? I'm not quite following you, Pete.
Unless Prevas is suggesting, "Hey, my client is gonna be famous. How about cutting him some slack?"
Maybe there's another explanation. I've put in a call to Prevas and hope to hear back from him.
In any case, the liquor board didn't swallow it -- not completely anyway.
At its meeting Thursday, the board voted to make a counter offer to Dean. They'd cut the fine to $2,100 if Dean dropped his appeal. Board chairman Steve Fogleman said the board would be willing to make that deal -- it's not clear yet if Dean will take it -- in order to rid itself of the appeal.
But Fogleman said the "Top Chef" appearance didn't factor into the decision.
Bravo photo
In this week's Free Market Friday post, Robert of Cross Keys takes up that age-old question that nags many a Baltimorean: are we Southerners or Yankees? RoCK's grits supply suggests the former. But his grits consumption, not so much. Here's RoCK. LV
I try and pass myself off as a Southerner. While I have some of the attributes, ranging from a weakness for bourbon and country ham to a crazy, great-great-great-grandfather who spent the first month of the Civil War in the Tennessee Calvary and the next four years in northern POW camps, one thing marks me as a Yankee: I didn’t grow up with grits.
As a kid, I thought grits were either guys with jean jackets and feathered mullets who listened to Def Leppard and drove Camaros, or some part of Flo’s anatomy that Mel had to kiss. Later on in my childhood, during a trip to South Carolina, I saw grits on the menu for the first time. I asked my mom if I could try them. She said I wouldn’t like them, but I insisted. She was right. I was served a bowl of soupy mush that had a flavor somewhere between bad and bland.
Many years would pass before I tried grits again, including the years that I spent living in the South attending college at Hampden-Sydney, which culturally was so Southern that it made Ole Miss feel like UMass. It was my wife, who is nonetheless from Chicago and whose ancestors were in Ukrainian shtetls at the time of the unpleasantries in the South, who got me to try grits again. What I didn’t know as a kid was that grits, like most everything, are better with cheese.
Now I like grits, but I’m not sure I would say that I love them. I seem to buy a lot of grits. I just never actually get around to cooking them.
Last week, as part of my ongoing effort to act Southern, I was at Stratford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. There is a mill on the grounds of the plantation, and you can buy grits produced there at the gift shop. Well, of course I needed to buy a bag of grits from the Lee house -- even though I knew I had several bags of grits back home, as well many similar products like spoon bread and dried corn.
While I was standing there with the bag of grits in my hand, the wife was looking at grit cookbooks. This seemed like a good complementary purchase. My increasing grit supply was overwhelming my grit recipes, which really only consists of cheesy grits and cheesy grit cakes.
Unfortunately, the wife put down the grit cookbook and instead opted to pick up a book on decorative napkin folding. I guess if we ever entertain, our guests can be seated at a table with a napkin in the shape of a boat and big bowl of cheesy grits.
For more information and photos on RoCK's trip to Stratford Hall and the Northern Neck of Virginia, check out his wife's travel write-up.
Photo courtesy of RoCK
The Inner Harbor is getting yet another chain restaurant.
The good news: it's a relatively obscure chain, called Elephant & Castle.
The bad news: it serves British food.
Didn't Baltimore fight off the Brits in 1814 to rid the land of bangers and mash?
Judging by the online menu, however, it looks a whole lot like standard American pub fare: steak sandwiches, chicken Caesar salads and the like. Mixed in are a few English classics like fish and chips and the aforementioned bangers and mash.
More British flavor can be had in the restaurant's slogan, "Bang on!" The menu goes to the trouble of translating for Americans: "adj. British Slang. Excellent. Exact. Right On."
Sounds like the perfect complement to the city's new tourism slogan, "Find Your Happy Place in Baltimore."
The chain has more than 20 locations in the U.S. and Canada, including Boston, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco and Toronto. There are two in Washington.
Let's hope it's good because the place will be plenty big and prominent. It will seat 278 at 1 Pratt Street, according to plans submitted to the liquor board, which approved its liquor license Thursday.
Elephant & Castle photo
Dining@Large readers are an erudite bunch. You can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and then turn the whole thing into poetry.
So I pass along news that John McIntyre's language blog, "You Don't Say," has returned to The Sun's website.
His post this morning happens to be full of local food references. So if you don't want his take on the new "Find Your Happy Place" tourism slogan, you'll at least appreciate his nods to Big Bad Wolf Barbecue, the Hamilton Tavern, the Waverly farmers' market, The Prime Rib, Dogwood, Woodberry Kitchen and Donna's.
Sun file photo
People do all sorts of things to get on reality TV shows. Crash state dinners. Pretend their kid is inside a runaway hot air balloon.
And maybe, just maybe, open a restaurant.
Back when Timothy Dean opened Prime Steakhouse, rumor had it that he was doing it to help him land a spot on "Top Chef." I asked his lawyer, Peter Prevas, about it at the time. He gave me one of those non-denial denials, along the lines of, "I can't talk about that."
Well, come to find out, Bravo has just announced the Dean has made the cut for next season's "Top Chef," which is being filmed in Washington.
As Sarah Kickler Kelber notes on her blog, Reality Check, Dean is listed on the Bravo website as the chef/owner of Prime Steakhouse. You'll recall that he declared himself to be neither when the place opened.
Just goes to show, truth is stranger than reality TV.
Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr.
Groupon is offering a great deal for The Dogwood today: pay $20 and receive a coupon good for $40's worth of "sustainable American fare" at the Hampden restaurant.
I know, I know, sounds like a Ponzi scheme. I'd be skeptical, too, if a co-worker hadn't clued me into the Groupon thing a few weeks ago.
She paid $5 for a $10 Trinacria coupon and generously gave it to me. I headed straight for the West Side Italian deli and bought my fill of fresh mozzarella, mascarpone and prosciutto bread. The clerk took the coupon without blinking.
The Dogwood coupon is good for a year. But as of this writing, there are only 11 hours left to get one.
Parmesan-crusted Maine sea scallops at The Dogwood. Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam
The Philadelphia Inquirer had a fun story recently about a guy who's obsessed with making great pizza at home.
Lacking a wood-burning over, Dave Ravanesi turned to the next-best tool: a hacksaw.
He used it to cut off the locking mechanism on his electric range, "enabling him to bake at the incinerating temperatures of the oven's cleaning cycle," The Inquirer's Rick Nichols wrote. "The cleaning cycle, in the event you have never stuck your head in to check, can hover easily upwards of 1,000 degrees."
Ravenesi aims for 810 degrees, which bakes his pies to char-speckled perfection in a minute and 40 seconds, Nichols wrote.
As someone who is forever trying to improve upon her homemade pizza, I appreciate an extreme culinary striver like Ravanesi.
I wouldn't have the nerve to hack off my oven's locking mechanism. I'm quite sure it would end with my house burning down. But I'm glad there are people out there like that.
The real, wood- and gas-burning deal at Pazo. Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum
John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, turned up at Cinghiale for dinner Tuesday night.
I hear it was all lasagna and tagliatelli at his table.
Fox photo
In this week's Shallow Thought Wednesday post, John Lindner gives mixed reviews to local Singapore noodles offerings. Here's John. LV
Last week I “discovered” Singapore noodles and since that first taste, ordered them two more times at two other places.
Most of the American Chinese joints convenient to me specialize in blah. I feel really good if I can find one decent dish on the menu. To avoid disappointment, I don’t stray much from my one selection. When I do, I’m usually disappointed.
Last week, I strayed. Checking out the Forbidden City menu online, I saw the Singapore noodles, did a little more checking online, and decided to risk it. And I’m glad I did: I liked them. Not love, just like. But that beats the heck out of disappointment.
Disappointment, however, was lurking.
There's an interesting Google group out there called Baltimore Food Makers where the discussion is mostly about ambitious home-cooking projects.
There was a guy on there a while back explaining how he made duck breast prosciutto. During the blizzards, when someone asked, "What's everybody cooking?," one member replied that he had Vietnamese pork chops marinating, French bread rising and some sort of celery salad waiting in the fridge.
These are people who make their own crackers -- even grow their own luffa sponges.
A topic that came up yesterday was a little more pedestrian, but one that I think Dining@Large readers might have an interest in. It concerns local honey.
"i loooooove the honey i buy for us, but it's $15/qt -- and i tend to buy 4 qts/time," Food Maker writes. "this is locally produced really really good honey, but i'm facing some let's just call them sudden unexpected financial challenges and am looking for alternate sources. ... or, i dunno, maybe $15/qt is just what local honey costs? anyway, i'm wondering what everyone else does for honey, if you buy locally then where/from whom, and what yours costs."
Frankly, I'm surprised there's a Food Maker out there who doesn't keep her own bees. Slacker!
Does anybody know if there's less expensive local honey to be had?
Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor
One of the great things about being a reporter is that occasionally, you get paid to go to an event that other people have shelled out big bucks to attend.
Last night, for instance, I was dispatched to cover some Ravens playing celebrity waiter at a $250-a-head charity dinner at Morton's The Steakhouse.
Of course, as a mere observer, I didn't get in on the food. And as someone who doesn't follow football, I had a hard time not looking dumb. "Is that spelled, F-L-A-C-C-O?"
After filing my story, I went home with a nagging sense that I'd failed to summon the requisite sports puns. And wouldn't you know it, the first commenter on the Sun's website had a line better than any in my story.
It read: "I hope they didn't let Ray Lewis handle the table knives!"
If you can't make it to the Baltimore Farmers' Market under the JFX, or can't bear the thought of driving downtown on a Sunday, here's another option.
Today is opening day for the University Farmers' Market in the first block of South Paca Street, in the park across the street from the University of Maryland Medical Center.
The market, open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., will feature fresh fruits and vegetables, herbs, eggs, poultry, seafood, meat, baked goods and cut flowers.
Local author Lucie L. Snodgrass will be at the market from noon to 2 p.m. today to sign copies of her cookbook, “Dishing Up Maryland.”
This is the second year for the market, which will be held weekly on Tuesdays from May through mid-November.
Sun photo by Amy Davis
A Dining@Large reader sends news of a new venue at old scenic spot, which reopened back in March. The tip actually came my way a few weeks ago, but somehow I forgot to post it. Here's the scoop. LV
The restaurant spot on Belair Road in Kingsville at the Gunpowder Falls has opened again under new ownership. For my lady friend and I this is the fourth or fifth resurrection on this spot that we have patronized.
There was Timber Creek Tavern under three owners (including the people who used to run the old Valu Food Markets who tried to turn it into a fancy restaurant with cloth tablecloths) and Hemingways that didn't even bother to change the old Timber Creek sign and only lasted a few weeks.
I've been told The Gunpowder Lodge is run by the people who operate Dead Freddies on Harford Road and in Bel Air. It has new furniture (including a new bar) and is really sun lit. Gone are the deer heads of Timber Creek vintage, but the fireplace remains for comfort on chilly evenings.
Their initial menu is heavy on burgers, pizza, and wraps with only a half dozen entrees. (Don't miss the mac and cheese as an appetizer or side!) They have a good list of brews on tap, too.
A real attraction now that the weather has warmed is the deck and the horseshoe pits down in the hollow "out back."
I sure hope they make it because it seems they're really trying.
Sun photo by Amy Davis
How's this for dinner theater?
A high-powered air cannon blasts potatoes toward a screen of steel mesh. The mesh slices the airborne spuds, which get cooked up and served as french fries.
No, the frying doesn't happen mid-air. That part takes place in Beaker's Cafe at the Maryland Science Center.
"Fryzooka," maker of what's been billed as the world's fastest french fries, is part of an exhibit coming to the science center May 22.
The Wonder Warehouse exhibit will explore "basic concepts of physics, chemistry and engineering as objects are launched through the air, musical instruments spout fire, and science goop reacts to deep sound waves," according to the museum.
Fryzooka will "illustrate principles of compression."
To say nothing of principles of expansion, in those who eat too many fries.
Sun file photo by Gene Sweeney Jr.
Saturday morning my kids started pulling wild onions out of our lawn, a many-weed wonder that's both a model of biodiversity and a drag on curb appeal. They combined the white bulbs with parsley, peppercorns, freshly grated nutmeg, fresh ginger and water and declared it soup.
It tasted as good it sounds. Maybe worse.
Luckily, dad was in charge of Mother's Day breakfast this morning. He whipped up Eggs Benedict, which were delicious even though we didn't have English muffins in the house and he had to use mini-bagels for the base. He served this to me in bed with fresh strawberries and a cup of tea.
I pushed my luck by asking for milk in my tea.
My husband was game to go downstairs and get me some, but finding and filling a little pitcher was a bridge too far. He returned with a gallon jug and set it on the bedroom floor.
Still a pretty good way to start a Sunday from my perspective.
How'd the other moms out there fare?
Photo by math-hubby
Ravens center Matt Birk, some unidentified teammates and their "celebrity friends" will play waiter for a night Monday at a $250-a-head, four-course dinner at Morton's The Steakhouse.
The sold-out event will raise money for Birk's HIKE Foundation, which provides at-risk Baltimore-area children with educational opportunities and support.
I think it could do good for another cause if the players would dress up like Hooters girls. That'd make some of us feel a whole lot better about that lingerie football nonsense.
Matt Birk will juggle footballs and steak orders Monday at Morton's. Morton's photo
Alan Morstein of Regi's sends this week's dispatch from Waverly Market. Here's Alan. LV
No window shoppers today at Waverly. Everyone is carrying bags and the lot was full when I left at 7:30.
Today's features included local strawberries, rhubarb, all varieties of lettuce, asparagus (which has dropped in price as yields increase), plenty of fresh-cut flowers, potted flowers, potted vegetables and herbs.
New on the scene this week: green beans from Georgia and, just in time for that Mother's Day cook-out, sweet white corn from Florida (2 ears for 1.00). It's worth the trip to the market for the sweet corn alone.
Next week Martin Farms predicts arrival of local mixed field greens, a popular salad lettuce.
Farmers' market lettuce photo by Anna Rosina
If you turn up empty handed this Mother's Day, mom will surely understand. We all know those White Castle hamburger-scented candles sold out in a flash.
Introduced just days ago to mark National Hamburger Month, the $10 "Slyder-scented" candle can make home-sweet-home smell like a fast-food joint. It sold out online less that 48 hours after it went on sale Monday.
"White Castle has teamed up with Laura Slatkin, often called the 'queen' of home fragrances, to introduce a candle with the steam-grilled-on-a-bed-of-onions scent of America's first fast-food hamburger," the company said in its announcement.
The burger candles are shaped to look like the cardboard sleeve of the White Castle Slyder. (And yes, White Castle really does spell it with a "y.") Proceeds from sales of the candle will benefit an autism charity called Autism Speaks.
The candles can be had in White Castle stores, but the chain doesn't have any Maryland locations. (The burgers, at least, are available in the freezer section of many a Maryland supermarket.) There is a waiting list for candles online.
If mom's a fast-food burger lover, get her name on the list and it'll be a happy Mother's Day.
White Castle photo
I always knew Natty Boh was too good for that girl.
The Utz Girl came from the wrong side of the tracks, the Pennsylvania side. She had that shady gun-running operation out of her Lexington Market stall. Behind that sweet-pea expression, the gal was more Crips than chips.
Yet Baltimore embraced her. Natty embraced her, proposed to her on that Smyth billboard.
And then she ups and leaves Natty -- leaves us! -- for the New York Yankees, of all things.
"Official snack food of the New York Yankees," reads the limited edition Utz potato chip bag.
Baltimore magazine, which brought this treachery to my attention, said it best: "You're dead to Utz."
Yeah, sure, a new life in a big city with 27-time world champs might seem more exciting than Baltimore and its hapless Orioles. But whatever happened to "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health"?
Demand your ring back, Natty. It's time to Snack On with a higher class chippy.
Utz Quality Foods, Inc. photo
Mother's Day is the biggest day of the year for dining out. Reason enough to dine in, if you ask me.
But for those willing to brave the crowds, there are lots of Mother's Day specials out there.
Rather than attempt to list them all, I offer a smattering of deals aimed at different sorts of moms. If there are any restaurateurs out there who want to plug specials here, feel free.
For the mom who could use some caffeine: Baltimore Coffee & Tea offers a free medium-sized coffee to all moms Sunday at its Timonium, Frederick and Annapolis stores.
For the mom who could use a drink: Fiore Winery in Northern Harford County invites you to pack a picnic, lounge in the vineyard fro 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., listen to covers of the Eagles and Doobie Brothers by Blind Owl, and enjoy a $5 wine tasting.
For the mom who could use a drink but not a picnic: Red Springs Cafe, 353 North Calvert St., offers an all-you-can-eat soul food brunch for $20 and bottomless mimosas for $3 more. Sammy's Trattoria, 1200 North Charles, will have half-price Bellini and mimosas for moms.
For the mom who's had it with family restaurants: Pazo has a tapas buffet menu from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.; $39 per person, $25 for kids 12 and under. There's Pizza Napoletana for kids who can't be convinced to try Sea Scallops a la Plancha with Fava Bean Puree. But really, for $25, let's hope you can twist the little ones' arms to at least try something swanky.
For the mom who's had it with foreign fare: Sotto Sopra will serve brunch (starting at 10 a.m.) and dinner. "To appeal to more tastes the menu items will be more 'American,'" says the promotional e-mail. I realize that as someone whose last name ends in "ella" I might be biased, but is the regular Italian menu really that exotic?
Mimosa: breakfast of champion mothers. Los Angeles Times photo
Robert of Cross Keys gives up a lazy Sunday for good Chinese in this Free Market Friday post. Here's RoCK. LV
Normally, Sunday mornings are me time. The wife sleeps in, and I walk the dog around Cross Keys. I get a coffee and dwell on the demise of various things: western civilization, country music, the Orioles, etc. ... Mr. Jefferson lays territorial claims throughout the neighborhood, making particular efforts at those evil complexes that forbid dogs.
Every now and again, however, the wife makes an effort to wake up early to go to the Target in Timonium, which is where we went a couple of Sundays ago. Afterward, we went looking for brunch. There’s not much in the way of brunch options up that way, and after a rather lackluster meal at the Nautilus Diner on a previous Sunday morning Target trip that featured cold eggs and tasteless chipped beef, we really weren’t looking to stick around the York Road corridor.
I was thinking either Asian Court in Ellicott City for dim sum or Red Springs Café downtown on Calvert Street for soul food. I had never been to Red Springs, but I knew they put on a brunch special featuring all the BBQ and catfish one could eat, so I suggested we go there. Unfortunately, there was no brunch being served. I’m not sure if they stopped serving brunch all together or just that particular Sunday.
Well, with this revelation the wife started pressing for the other option of Asian Court. It was one thing to go from Timonium to Ellicott City, but my mental block wouldn’t allow me to go from Baltimore to Ellicott City.
Years ago I remembered a dim sum place in what passes as Baltimore’s Chinatown over on Park Avenue, but I thought that place closed down. Still, we decided Park Avenue was only a few minutes away, so it wouldn’t hurt to see what was over there. It turned out that a restaurant called ZhongShan was in the spot of the old restaurant, which I think was called the Chinatown Cafe. When I walked in I saw two good signs: a fish tank for culinary not aesthetic purposes and ducks hanging from hooks.
Dim sum was offered, but not via carts. After conversing with several of the ladies working there, all of whom were very helpful albeit with limited English skills, we ordered steamed pork sao mai, steamed Shanghai juicy buns, beef tripe with ginger and scallions, sticky rice in lotus leaf, and short ribs in black pepper sauce. Each dish is about $3.
The sao mai and the juicy buns both had nice pork flavor, and neither was dried out. On their own they may have been a little flat, but the accompanying hot vinegar and chili oil provided the necessary snap and heat. The dumpling on the sao mai was maybe a touch gummy. The bun on Shanghai, however, was excellent. It was soft, but not too doughy.
Beef tripe is not normally one of my favorites, but I enjoyed this one. It was relatively tender, but not pot roast tender. It was more cooked rhubarb tender, whereby it is tender but still a little crunchy. The ginger and scallion sauce provided a little bit of sweetness with a little bit of punch.
The lotus leaf rice was somewhat of a disappointment, and not nearly as good as Asian Court's. The texture of the rice was fine, but just not much in the way of flavor. The fillings were mostly pieces of bland, dark meat chicken. I think may have seen a mushroom, but I know I didn’t get a nugget of Chinese sausage.
The short ribs were clearly my favorite of the dim sum. They were very tender with just enough fat to make them flavorful without being flabby. The black pepper sauce did a nice job of cutting through the richness of the ribs.
At that point we were not yet full, and we were in agreement that we really should try the duck. The wife wanted crispy duck, but I figured I could get that at the neighborhood Chinese place. I wanted one of those ducks hanging from the hooks. I wanted the Peking. We decided to let one our waitresses pick. Without hesitation they all said to go for the Peking, and I’m so glad we listed to them.
We went with the half duck for $15, which was carved tableside and then assembled into a pancake roll-up with bean sauce and scallions. It was absolutely delicious with all different types of flavors and textures coming together. The duck meat was savory and succulent without being greasy. The duck skin was sweet and salty with a texture that was crispy with just a little bit of chew. The bite of the scallions was complimented by the sweetness of the bean sauce. It was one of those happy mouth experiences.
I want to go back and try some of the other menu items, particularly the ones from the Mandarin or Beijing tradition, like lamb casseroles that you really won’t see at any of the other Chinese restaurants in Baltimore. Actually, until seeing it on their menu, I never even thought of lamb in Chinese cooking. Then again, it wasn’t that long ago that I would have thought going out for Chinese food would entail entrails like beef tripe.
ZhongShan dim sum. Sun photo by Kim Hairston. Photos from RoCK's meal available here.
Another "Top Chef' sighting at the Silver Spring Whole Foods.
A shopper tells The Sun he saw contestants from the reality TV cooking competition buying meat at the store Wednesday night.
Maybe they were just filming another one of those Whole Foods commercials.
Stay tuned.
Bravo photo of the brothers Voltaggio in last season's "Top Chef."
Laura Lee, who bagged second place in the Dining@Large scrapple poetry contest with "Piedmont Pastoral," has claimed and cooked up her winnings: 2 pounds of Truck Patch Farms scrapple. After unseemly arm twisting on my part, the poetess agreed to write up this guest scrapple review. Here's the other Laura. LV
This past Sunday, I collected my prize winnings through a clandestine arrangement wherein LV arrived early in the morning at the JFX Farmers’ Market to pay for the scrapple. She had disappeared from the scene by the time I got there and made my way to the Truck Patch Farms people, who graciously handed over the merch, no questions asked.
Finally got around to cooking it up last evening. It certainly held well in its tin foil loaf pan, and I was able to easily slice it. The consistency was very tender and fresh, and it emitted that unmistakable scrapple aroma as the slices browned in a hot, dry skillet.
I served my family a morsel of this cornmeal-encrusted delicacy as part of a tasting menu which included a single hash brown wrapped in a slender strip of sautéed onion alongside a tiny plover egg, sunny side up, with ketchup dipping dots.
No, not really. Plentiful portions of scrambled eggs, potatoes, and onions accompanied the hearty slices of scrapple. My kids ate them all greedily, though the nine-year old found the scrapple to be particularly peppery. It was, but it had a meatier taste than commercial scrapple, was less salty, and tasted healthy.
This Pennsylvania pate may not win over the legions of scrapple haters, but Truck Patch Farms will definitely be getting another visit from me.
Sun photo by Kim Hairston
Just got the word on who played chef-judge when Bobby Flay came to town for a quiche throwdown with Rodney Henry of Dangerously Delicious Pies:
Cindy Wolf of Charleston.
I also learned the episode will air on Wednesday, June 16th at 9 p.m. on the Food Network.
The title of the episode: Quiche.
Sun photo by Lloyd Fox
Some sort of mysterious cupcake coup appears to have taken place in Locust Point.
The Baltimore Cupcake Company is out at 1433 East Fort Avenue, and Caroline's Cupcakery is in.
The Baltimore Cupcake Company's website says that the company is offering free delivery in Baltimore "while we relocate." It doesn't say where it's relocating, and no one from there has called me back to say, so I can't tell you more than that.
Caroline's Cupcakery, which opened today, is owned by Caroline Jones, 33, who decided to chuck her career selling medical devices to open a bakery.
Eventually she'd like to offer coffee, cakes, breads and fine chocolates. But on opening day, she was sticking strictly to cupcakes, several flavors of them.
There's a Margarita cupcake in honor of Cinco de Mayo; PB&Joy, which is a peanut butter cupcake with peanut butter icing; PB&Chocolate, that's peanut butter cupcake with chocolate icing; and Death by Chocolate.
"Jumbo" cupcakes are $3 each, or $33 dozen. Mini-sized are $1.25 each, or $13 a dozen.
Jones is offering half-price cupcakes for real estate agents on Open House Wednesdays. She's hoping that they'll want to offer the treats at their open houses. (And no, they don't have to come in with their gold Century 21 blazers to prove they're agents. A business card will do.)
She's also offering a buy one, get one half price special for Locust Point residents on Thursdays.
Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Sun photo by Christopher T. Assaf
After a painfully long two-week absence, John Lindner is back with shallow thoughts about ... celery! Here's John. LV
I learned a new trick that got me thinking about celery.
Celery has one and only one thing going for it: nothing. Eat a ton of it, nothing of any consequence happens. No weight gain, no pleasant taste, no charmingly dangerous fat, no addictive qualities whatsoever. It’s not even disappointing, like Canadian bacon or turkey franks.
No one setting out a feast to impress in-laws or sniffy clients ever exclaimed, “Oh no! I’ve forgotten the celery!” Celery suggests that evolution can sometimes grow bored, that natural selection can simply forget to kill off its mid-era experiments.
Sure, celery can be used to convey wonderful things like peanut butter and assorted dips, but so can straws convey milk shakes, soft drinks and ice tea. Neither celery nor straws are necessary. They’re just tools we use to avoid getting sticky fingers or wet lips.
Celery is culinary cannon fodder. We use it out of pity. And how does celery reward our generosity? With pulpy tendons that take longer to chew than a stick of Juicy Fruit. Nature’s dental floss. Eating celery is like doing nothing and ending up with strings in your mouth.
Until now. Because now I know how to debone celery.
Here’s how you do it. Take a stalk of celery. Pinch one end with your thumb and forefinger and snap it back. Now, ideally, you have about an eighth to a quarter inch of celery hanging as on a hinge of stringy stuff. Pull the broken piece toward the other end of the stalk. Ha! Ain’t it grand how those cords pull right off the back of the celery stick? It’s actually fun. Go ahead, try it again. Deboning celery is on par with popping packing bubbles.
And when you’ve stripped a good half pound of the stuff, had your fill of cheap thrills, this pathetic little veggie offers one more seldom recognized benefit: you can safely chuck it all in the compost heap.
It is, after all, celery.
Photo by John Lindner
A Dining@Large reader wants to know what's up with the hours at Alice's Cafe on Main Street in Reisterstown.
"We ate there several times when they first opened and the food was always top notch with decent prices and awesome service," the reader writes. "Yesterday, when I passed them by I thought I read the sign to say that they are now only opened on Sundays and Tuesdays? Is that right?"
No, turns out that's not right.
I reached owner Cindy Meneses, who said the cafe is open Tuesdays through Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. At the end of May through summer, she'll be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
Meneses experimented for a while with Monday hours, but found she didn't get that much business -- and she didn't especially like working seven days a week.
Chicago Tribune photo
We are gathered here today to pay our last respects to Bossy the Cow, who led a happy life of grazing before giving it all up to become Naturally Raised Beef Filet Mignon with Cippolini-Potato Puree and Local Carrots.
Yes, we have a new dining trend here: entree as eulogy.
At least that's what I take away from a press release trumpeting chef Mark Knipp's work at Easton’s Peacock Restaurant.
"For the past few months," the release reads, "Chef Knipp has been creating menus that express his approach towards food which is based upon the fact that 'since living things have given their lives to us without choice, the essence of those lives must be respected and presented with grace.'"
I'm not sure that will make Bossy or PETA feel any better. But how can carnivores lose with a chef feeling that extra pressure to get the most out of every dearly departed protein?
Knipp came to Peacock, located at the Inn at 202 Dover, in January from Wheatleigh in Lenox, Mass., where he was executive sous chef. He worked previously as a chef de partie at The Inn at Little Washington.
Here's a little more about Knipp from the press release:
"It is his goal to be known for maintaining the integrity of seasonal offerings, and to bolster the appreciation of the area's local farmers and fishermen, and the collective spirit of the Easton Restaurant Community.
"Chef Knipp menus are driven by the bounty of the season and local ingredients figure prominently on his new Spring menu which features dishes such as Candy-striped Beet Salad with Whipped Chevre, Heart of Palm & Candied Pecans; Natural Raised Beef Filet Mignon with Cippiolini Potato Puree & Local Carrots, Cremini & Baby French Horn Mushrooms; Angolotti of Foragers’ Fêtes with Favas, Morels, Ramps, Asparagus, Sundried Tomato & Sheep’s Milk Cheese; Strawberry Rhubarb Jalousie with Candied Blood Orange."
Photo courtesy of Inn at 202 Dover, final resting place for many a selfless entree
Thirty-two chefs will duke it out in an "Iron Chef"-style competition that begins next week at the Belvedere Hotel.
Chefs from Baltimore will go up against their Washington counterparts in the Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament, which will be held Monday and Tuesday nights for the next four months.
First up this Monday: Stephen Carey of Milan in Baltimore versus Mark Ricker of Morsel in Washington.
I think the Baltimore-Washington rivalry is fun to play up, but if the tournament organizers really wanted to see sparks, they should have pitted Milan's chef against one from some other Little Italy restaurant. Say, Cafe Gia.
The audience gets to eat a four-course dinner while watching the chefs compete.
Tickets are $55 per person, $75 for those who want to be assured a spot as guest judge. Some general admission ticket holders will be randomly selected to get in on the "Judging Experience," too, but it's the luck of the draw.
Ten percent of proceeds benefit Moveable Feast.
Carey could try to wow the judges with grilled swordfish, cannellini beans, asparagus, butternut squash, mushrooms and herbs. Sun photo by Algerina Perna
I had the chance to eat a 21-course meal in the kitchen at Volt Sunday, the night before chef Bryan Voltaggio lost out on that James Beard award.And that extraordinary personal splurge -- i was there not on the Baltimore Sun's dime, but as a civilian eater with my husband and two dear friends -- produced this theory about why Voltaggio lost out to some guy in Philly for Best Chef -- Mid-Atlantic.
I suspect Voltaggio gave the James Beard judges a case of "blue buds."
That's how one of my dining companions described what we were all suffering from after dinner. Plate after teensy-weensy plate of mostly delicious, beautifully presented, expertly served food had gotten us all excited. But there was no, you know, climax.
We were put off by some of the molecular gastronomy frippery. The tomato-fennel "dipping dots," little savory ice cream pebbles that accompanied a playful take on chicken parm, quite literally left us cold. Some sort of strawberry "noodles" evoked Gummi Worms.
But mostly we loved the food. There just wasn't enough of it - or rather, not enough of any one thing.
That is not to say that after 21 courses we left hungry. Rather, that 21 courses is simply too many. The sheer number demands that each one be tiny. And by tiny, I mean pieces of protein that never exceeded the width or depth of a Wheat Thin. A scoop of spectacular Granny Smith apple sorbet the size of a marble. A single, thumbnail-sized goat cheese raviolo.
When was the last time a sentence demanded the singular for "ravioli"?
I realize that this sort of small-bite tasting menu is all the rage. And I'm not looking for a big bowl of those ravioli. OK, wait, that's a lie. I do want a big bowl of those ravioli. Right now, in fact. But in the context of a tasting menu, I'd settle for, say, four ravioli, even two. Ten, two-ravioli-equivalent courses would do it for me.
I simply need more than a bite to savor each dish -- and to ward off gastronomic ADD.
if I had it to do over again -- and I don't, at least not with my current husband, who downed the kids' leftover mac-n-cheese when we returned home from the most expensive dinner of our lives -- I'd order off Volt's regular menu and get more than a tease.
Which brings me to this week's list: Top Ten reasons Volt will give you 'blue buds'
No. 1: Prosciutto Chips, Potato Dip
The portion size here would have been totally appropriate for an opening course -- if the frothy Yukon Gold puree hadn't been so fantastic. I would have licked the bowl if the lights had been lower.
No. 2: Lobster, Sunchoke, Fennel, Olive Oil
Think lovely Jerusalem artichoke soup -- about spoonful of it. There were two or three pieces of what the server called lobster gnocchi, each about the size and consistency of a piece of puffed rice.
No. 3: Soy Air
A dab of this molecular gastronomy fluff topped a tiny slab of Toro. As filling as it sounds.No. 4: Celeriac Macaroon, Vanilla, Foie Gras
I found this single, savory, foie gras-filled macaroon delightful, even after one of my companions noted that it tasted a whole lot like Pirate's Booty. Like any snack food, you can't have just one.
No. 5: Cherry Glen Farm Goat Cheese Ravioli, Celeriac, Maitake Mushrooms, Sage
The keepsake menu says ravioli, but I'll never forget, it was a single raviolo. I needed more, plus bread to sop up the luscious creamy sauce.
No. 6: Softshell Crab, English Pea, Trumpet Mushroom, Kumquat
I had an advantage here. My husband is not fond of seafood, so he gave me his crab, which, like mine, was about the size of a quarter. That gave me two bites.
No. 7: Tuscorora Beets, Upland Cress, Beet Mergingue
Another delicious course that left us wanting more.
No. 8: Hudson Valley Duck Liver, Seckel Pear, Pistachio, Vanilla Brioche
Don't stop! Don't stop! Don't stop!
No. 9: Longnecker Farm Rabbit, Summer Truffles, Asparagus, Polenta
I'm good with a bite of rabbit, but how about a whole plate of that polenta?
No. 10: Textures of Chocolate, Caramel, Ice Cream
I'll take that in a triple-decker cone, please.
Volt beets, supersized for the regular dinner menu for $12. Sun photo by Algerina Perna
Well, those meanies at The James Beard Foundation Awards have cheated Maryland out of its chance for glory.At an awards ceremony in New York tonight, they picked Jeff Michaud of Philadelphia's Osteria as Best Chef -- Mid-Atlantic over Bryan Voltaggio of Volt.
Hmph!
SOTA dzine photo
I posted something the other day about Chef's Expressions, the catering company that's been talking to the owners of Silo Point about putting a wine bar and gourmet market in the Locust Point condo development.
That prompted somebody out there to send me a copy of the federal tax lien listings in Friday's Baltimore Business Journal. Turns out there's a $31,402 federal tax lien on Chef's Expressions.
Chef's Expressions owner Jerry Edwards told me that he and the IRS have different interpretations of something that took place in 2006. (He wasn't more specific than that.)
Edwards said that his lawyer and accountant have been trying to straighten out the matter for a long time, but that the IRS keeps reassigning the case to different agents, so it hasn't gotten resolved.
In any case, Edwards said that the problem has no bearing on his catering operations or on any plans for Silo Point.
Sun file photo
When we last tuned in to the Brass Elephant chronicles, a group of out-of-state investors interested in buying the shuttered Mount Vernon landmark had failed to meet a deadline for putting down a deposit. The investors said they needed 30 more days.
That was back at the end of March. So I checked in with Randy Stahl, part owner of the Brass Elephant and its longtime chef.
He told me nothing had been finalized, but he was hopeful the deal would go through this week or next.
"I got a very promising phone call and e-mail," he said. "They have tenants all lined up and financing is 98 percent complete. I believe there's going to be money exchanged [this week] or a week from Monday."
Sun file photo
Woodberry Kitchen offers a five-course wine dinner this week featuring wines from Burgundy.
The cost is $120 per person.
Here are the details from the restaurant:
"On Thursday, May 6, starting a 7 p.m., Woodberry Kitchen will welcome Burgundian winemaker Thierry Matrot to a five-course dinner featuring his wines.
"Thierry Matrot is a third-generation winemaker hailing from Meursault, in the region of Burgundy in France. His family's vineyard holdings are among the most extensive and oldest in the region. Thierry and his wife Pascale employ traditional winemaking techniques to produce benchmark Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in an environmentally sensitive manner.
"Spike and his team have composed a menu of seasonal, local flavors intended to complement this extraordinary collection of wines."
The menu:
Reception:
Meursault Villages 2008
Gougeres, organic pecans
1.
Meursault Chevaliere 2008
Meursault Charmes 2008
West Va. rainbow trout, brown butter, radish
2.
Puligny Montrachet Chalumeaux 2008
Chesapeake soft crab, brioche, vanilla, peas
3.
Volnay Santenots 2007
Volnay Santenots
Frederick Co. rabbit ballotine, rhubarb, nettles
4.
Blagny Rouge 2007
Blagny Rouge 1999
St. Brigid's veal loin & leg, foraged mushrooms, burdock
5.
Strawberry gallette
Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor
Just got back from the Baltimore Farmers' Market.
I bought strawberries (from Virginia), asparagus, rhubarb, mushrooms, fresh ginger, a cinnamon brioche bun for my 7-year-old daughter (who tagged along while my son and husband slept in), a mango Wheely Good Smoothie (also for my daughter, even though she got stage fright and made me to the pedaling), a falafel wrap (for me), and a bunch of plants for the garden: jalapeno and bell peppers, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon and corn.
I have no idea what I spent. I don't think I want to know.
The corn plants were kind of a lark. I haven't tried corn in the garden for years. I'll be satisfied if we get one ear out of them.
I'm hoping to make strawberry-rhubarb pie and asparagus soup later today. If the heat gets to me, maybe I'll just keep eating those strawberries fresh. Not a bad backup plan.
What did everyone else buy? And who can tell me how to get the most out of those corn plants?
Photo by Anna Rosina
A friend of a friend is sure she saw "Top Chef" contestants -- I'm all for made up words, but I think "cheftestants" is dorky -- at the Silver Spring Whole Foods.
Season 7 of the reality cooking show is reportedly filming in Washington.
My spy didn't see a bunch of chefs running around, filling grocery carts with camera crew in tow. She got there too late for that.
What she did see was a whole bunch of people, and a whole bunch of camera equipment, getting loaded into three long vans outside the grocery store a few weeks ago.
Which, come to think of it, could have been any number of things. But she was convinced.
So the friend-of-friend ran inside and grilled one of the store managers, with whom she is friendly.
"Was that 'Top Chef?'" she asked excitedly.
He refused to answer, but his ear-to-ear grin seemed to confirm her suspicions.
I called the store myself to try to confirm it.
"It's a commercial," said the manager I got on the phone.
Hmmm. When was the last time you saw a Whole Foods commercial?
Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi, judges on TV's "Top Chef." Bravo photo
Alan Morstein of Regi's graciously provides today's Waverly Farmer's Market report. Think of it as a road map for the market under the JFX if you're heading there for opening day tomorrow. Here's Alan. LV
Today @ Waverly:
Gunpowder Bison Trading Company features great for the grill Buffalo Burgers (cook to med-rare) no fat and will over cook quickly. Italian, Sage and Sweet Buffalo sausage look like a good idea for this weekend.
Local produce today: mint, spring onions, red and green leaf lettuce, parsley, spinach, Swiss chard, chives, scallions, spring onions, Boston lettuce, rhubarb and plenty of local asparagus in all sizes, although you have to ask since some asparagus on display is from New Jersey.
Tom McCartney, a.k.a. "The Bean Man," was the only vendor to present local strawberries from the Eastern Shore. He called them "Sweet Charlie's." They are smaller than the North Carolina strawberries, however much sweeter and more fragrant.
All the other produce is on rental from Florida.
Sun photo by Kim Hairston
Something interesting could be in the works for Silo Point and chef Michael Costa.
Jerry Edwards, owner of the catering company Chef's Expressions, said he's been talking to the owners of Silo Point, the luxury condo development built around a former grain elevator in Locust Point, about taking over two spaces there.
One would become a wine bar restaurant. The other, a gourmet market. Costa, late of Pazo, would be executive chef.
It is not a done deal, however.
But here's the idea.
The restaurant would offer small plates and an "ever-changing entree menu, almost daily, very seasonal," Edwards said. "it will really focus on wines, though. Lots of sustainably grown, biodynamic, organic and really world-class wines that are very unusual for people to find in this town. ... Every item will have a wine match paired with it. The wines will lead. We'll pick a wine and develop a dish around the wine."
Price-wise, he said it would be "mid-range, very reasonable. it's not going to be fine dining, but it will be fine food, a lot of it being prepared right in front of you."
The place would seat 40 to 60 people, plus another 40 under cover outside in season. Live music is a possibility.
The gourmet market would be in another building, a parking lot away, in the Silo Point complex. The focus would be on prepared entrees. "You might get a stuffed tenderloin or roasted free-range chicken, potato-crusted halibut," Edwards said.
The market would sell some local cheeses and maybe a few essentials like eggs and dairy, all from local farms. It might even become a CSA drop point, where people could pick up weekly produce deliveries from local farms. But it would not aim to become a mini-Whole Foods, Edwards said.
Both restaurant and market -- neither has a name yet -- would tap into the "farm-to-table concept," Edwards said. But he said his priority would be sustainable ingredients, not strictly local ones.
"Kind of like Woodberry Kitchen meets Silo Point -- not as strict as my buddy Spike is, not having limes in your bar," Edwards said. "We're not going to be pushing the local part in the wine bar as much as sustainability. if we bring in a fish from Alaska, it's because it's sustainable."
Sun photo by Amy Davis
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