Blogger Happy Hour at Holy Frijoles

Just a reminder from Danielle and Charissa about the festivities on Friday, at 6ish.

Bel-Loc Diner

I haven't been eating out much lately, which is good because I should be saving the money for other things. But I was up by Joppa Road today and passed by the locally famous Bel-Loc Diner (that's Bel as in Bel Air and Loc as in Loch Raven). I almost drove by, but decided to see how it compared to the Double T Diner, where I recently had a memorably below-average lunch.

Bel-Loc Diner is located at the intersection of Joppa Rd and Loch Raven Blvd, and has a staid and sedate diner decor - they're not trying to live up to some exotic "diner mystique" - they're just a diner. I got there for lunch, and had the benefit of having not just a pleasant waitress but also more than enough cash on hand to order one of their lunch specials - i got the burger with fries and a drink and soup, for all of $7.50 after tax (I thought that price of $7.14 was strange - I guess it's so they can charge an easy to remember seven and a half bucks after tax). I took it home, had a chat with my neighbor and wound up eating it half an hour after I got it.

Hot or warm, it was still one of the best burgers I have had in a long while. Double T's doesn't even get into the same ball park; theirs tasted like it was thawed out before cooking. Bel-Loc's tasted like it was actually made fresh. Damn good, I'd say. Double that for the fries - as rock hard as half of TT's fries was, and soggy as the other half was, these fries had a wonderfully normal texture. Maybe they weren't the best fries I have ever had, but they were the best diner fries I've had in a while. They also gave me a little tub of mayo, which I hardly touched (mayo and fries? Bleh). And I was amazed with the soup, which also tasted fresh. Actual pieces of chicken meat torn off the bone instead of processed and fatty cubes of "chicken" in the soup.

I liked this lunch, I must admit.

UPDATE: Mark writes that the Bel stands for "Beltway" - I wondered why it would be named after Bel Air. Now it makes sense if it wasn't. Thanks!

The Dark Side... of Sandra Lee?

I know I have indulged in the Sandra Lee bashing here lately. So maybe I should feel bad after hearing this interview Michel Martin, host of NPR's Tell Me More program, did on Tuesday with Lee and the Mocha Moms. Here's the link to all 17 minutes of the interview. It's all about her tragic and impoverished upbringing.

Okay, I do feel a little bad. That and it does explain why she uses so much crap in her recipes - use what ya have!

But her recipes still suck.

What we'll see on TV when the zombies rise up and eat us all

Funny prank on a live newscast in Sacramento a day or so ago:



Not food related but too funny I just had to post it!!!

Foodie Blogroll

I just joined this Foodie Blogroll, maintained by the "Left Over Queen" Jenn DiPiazza. I saw it on the Hungover Gourmet website and it seemed like a great idea. This blogroll has food sites of all kinds, from all places. Just look for it somewhere in the column to your right!

Happy Halloween!

Yummy cake I saw at Giant:

Exits 16A-B - I-70 (to Frederick)

Unless you're going to the Park and Ride off Exit 16B, you have to drive a ways to find food off of I-70. But you don't have to go all the way to Carroll or Frederick Counties. Sure, Westminster and Frederick have good enough food. but if you want food, like, now, just stop off the Route 29 exit (towards Columbia, not Washington), leading ultimately to Route 40 and Ellicott City. And yes, you could go to the Historic District (which is always fun), but again, you don't have to go that far either. I went as far as the Normandy Shopping Center for grub this Sunday. I found a lot - enough to have to make a second trip.

Normandy is somewhere between Route 40 and the former Enchanted Forest. The biggest part of the shopping center is a Safeway. Ignore it (supermarkets are a dime a dozen) and head instead for Ganesh Brothers (map). A somewhat nicer Indian grocery store than most I have found. Many Indian grocery stores, oddly, have a wide selection of dusty boxes and cans; at Ganesh, there's not a lot of dust. I found a dizzying array of ready-made spice mixes, frozen foods, flours of all kinds, jars of pickles, bottles of rose syrup, and of course, bags and bags of basmati rice. Apparently the good stuff comes from India; I got a bag of cheaper basmati from Pakistan for $6. Add to that a little box of Shan brand Achaar Gosht (Meat in Pickling Spices) Mix for $1 and I walked out with groceries I hadn't even realized I needed (though I had wanted them, to be sure). The guy before me bought some pretty tasty-looking Indian sweets, but I didn't feel like getting out of line to find them too.

A bevy of restaurants caught my eye for lunch - a very late lunch. Next to Ganesh was Niko Japanese Restaurant (map), but I didn't have the cash for sushi. (I left my card at home, in an ironic attempt to not spend much money. It's worked.) Further down the parking lot was Kelsey's Irish Restaurant and Pub (map). I catalogued it for the possible Hungover Gourmet fish & chips crawl and continued on. I finally settled on Nora Cafe (map), which looked quite promising. Until I found out that the door was locked. You see, I got there about an hour after they closed (3 pm on Sundays). So no Nora Cafe today - have to save it for another time as well.

After passing a nondescript little Chinese place in the same plaza I finally settled on the Ledo's Pizza (map) at the other end of the strip from the Irish place. I don't normally review chains in this Beltway series - and at 80 restaurants this is definitely a chain - but it looks like a local chain. Scattered below the Mason-Dixon Line (as far south as Florida), 50 of the locations are in Maryland - the first Ledo was in Adelphi - and most of the rest are in Virginia. And here's a fun fact - they are a sponsor of the Mid-Atlantic Skateboard Series (not that I know much of anything about skateboarding - I don't know anything about it actually).

I sought out the cheapest item on the menu. Originally I set my sights on a nice calzone, but my stomach gave way to a small personal pizza. I got the small Hawaiian pizza ($6.25), but added anchovies (another 75 cents - yes, I am an anchovy person). About 15 minutes later it was done. I took it home to eat.

This Ledo pizza was square - this I knew, because the girl behind the counter showed it to me to make sure they got it right. It was also a little greasy, but so are all American pizzas. It was a tasty pizza, and I'd eat it again, but I've had better. It's easy to do pineapple on a pizza right, and Ledo didn't disappoint, though it had an irritating habit of falling off each slice that I picked up. The ham was sufficiently melted into the cheese, and the anchovies just popped out from the cheese too. For what it's worth, I ate five of the nine pieces they cut it into, and saved the rest for lunch the next day.

Places I visited:

Ganesh Brothers (grocery store - Indian / South Asian) - 8450 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, MD 21043; Phone: (410) 203-2525

• Would I shop there again? Certainly
• Would I go out of my way to shop there again? Again, yes.

Ledo Pizza (pizza / Italian) - 8480 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, MD 21043; Phone: (410) 750-7087

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? No
  

Places to look up later:

Kelsey's Irish Pub (Irish / pub) - 8480 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, Maryland 21043; Phone: (410) 418-9076

Niko Japanese Restaurant (Japanese) -8450 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, MD; Phone: (410) 418-8400

Nora Cafe (American) - 8450 Baltimore National Pike, Ellicott City, MD; Phone: (410) 461-6902

Yes, Wednesday, they are made with real Girl Scouts

Someone didn't tell me it was Girl Scout Cookie time already. But I guess that explains why one co-worker has a sign-up sheet on her office door with the words "Yes! I have Girl Scout Cookies!" emblazoned above it. Now I have to figure out how to deftly dodge the little vultures when they inevitably start popping up at the supermarket.

Personally, I think it's great to teach girls and young women these important entrepreneurial skills - they need to know they can do anything they damn well want to (look at Hillary, whatever one thinks about her). But I still don't want to buy the goddamned cookies!

On a related note, I saw the strangest thing today at a gas station on the way to visit the folks: three little girls - or it might have been two little girls and a little boy - dressed as Girl Scout Cookies. Perhaps it was just for Halloween. But not at any time in my 30+ years on this earth have I ever seen a child dressed as a Girl Scout Cookie (the photo above, of the scary little girl being consumed by a Lemonades cookie, is directly linked from the Girl Scout Cookie Program website - I don't think I can ever bring myself to eat another Girl Scout Cookie again after seeing that). Strange. But at least it gives me an excuse to post this:

From The Addams Family Movie (1991):

Girl Scout: Is this made from real lemons?
Wednesday: Yes.
Girl Scout: I only like all-natural foods and beverages, organically grown, with no preservatives. Are you sure they're real lemons?
Pugsley: Yes.
Girl Scout: Well, I'll tell you what. I'll buy a cup if you buy a box of my delicious Girl Scout cookies. Do we have a deal?
Wednesday: Are they made from real Girl Scouts?

I can haz choklit rain?

I swore a few months ago that I would stop posting YouTube mashups of Tay Zonday's "Chocolate Rain". I lied. This one will probably be the last one.



UPDATE: OMFG I am really a chocoholic! I sincerely hope this will be the last one but I have to post this. I just lost it completely when I saw this. Even Tay Zonday commented on it:

Hey, I've (sort of) made it into the Sunpaper!

I was investigating the Baltimore Sun's Dining@Large food blog and noticed their food blogroll. Hey, I'm on it! Most were familiar: Baltimore Restaurant Blog, Hungover Gourmet, Pigtown Pigout, Black Coffee & a Donut, Marginal Foodie, the usual. But there are a few I haven't seen or investigated yet.

Adventures in Baltimore Restaurants - A local educator, Jessica did two things I didn't: she participated in the big blogger night out at Dukem a few weeks back, and she got back to the nice folks at Baltimore Style magazine in time to get into their recent feature on Baltimore food bloggers. Again, I feel dumb.

Dining Dish - Dara recently did the Chinatown special from Bawlmer to New York. I have to try it, though I admit that I prefer the relative "luxury" of Amtrak. Also got back to the Style people in time where I did not.

Mango & Ginger - Yep, Kit made it into Baltimore Style, too! The third review of Rocket to Venus that I have seen, after Fairfax's and yours truly's. I went with Charles, Alan and Eric this past week. We all had a nice dinner, though a bitchy comment or two did come my way (equal parts sweet, nasty and constructive). Ah, the hazards of dining-while-gay!

Minx Eats - This blog looks relatively new. Minx recently reviewed the Bolo tapas restaurant in Manhattan (a definite possibility for my next trip, whenever that is). Will probably make it into Baltimore Style next year. Ooh, and check out this icky recipe for pork and beans cake she linked to!

Again, how do I keep missing these local food blogs?

The other day I stumbled upon Jacob's Food Network Addict blog. It was one of the first posts THE first post that popped up when I Googled the words "I hate Sandra Lee" as y'all might remember. Jacob is down in Alexandria, but that's only an hour away from Bawlmer, so I'd easily call that a local blog.

I am having fun reading about all the fun and frolicy Food Network silliness, especially his not-too-healthy obsession with Ace of Cakes, a show I love, of course. Did you know he's president of the Mary Alice Fan Club? I didn't even know there was a Mary Alice Fan Club! I don't know if I am ready to join, but Mary Alice is very cool, I must admit.

It looks like Jacob does a lot of funny Photoshopping with Food Network images. I really like this one he did:



Neat, huh? Again, I didn't do this. but I wish I had thought of it!

An Poitín Stil

My friend Charles is back in town from London for a few weeks. We decided to meet up at the Maryland Oktoberfest at the state fairgrounds. I thought this was a super idea, especially since he and his partner have also lived in Deutschland and done an actual Oktoberfest. In Germany.

So you can understand my disappointment when we got there around 6pm (the earliest either of us could meet up) and weren't admitting anybody else. Nope. Turns out they ran out of beer (!?). Crazy thought, but what kind of Oktoberfest runs out of beer, even as late as 6pm?

So we regrouped and, on my suggestion, headed for the local Irish still. An Poitín Stil* to be exact. An Poitín Stil is pretty close to the fairgrounds, and was a place I wanted to try out (a place I had little success getting to on St. Patrick's Day), so it was a logical choice.

Or at least it would've been on a weeknight. A half hour wait for a table. I told Charles I was fine waiting if he was, so we decided to wait around. In the meanwhile we downed some pints of Guinness (he downed one, I downed two) while we waited. True, the conversation was good, so I didn't mind the wait at all. And although noisy, An Poitín Stil is at least picturesque. The outside is done up like a famous row of Dublin pubs, and the inside is nice and homey - again, Dublin pub-like. Everything is in warm greens, browns and woody colors, with harp images and other Irish things everywhere. Almost like an Irish pub version of Disneyland right in Timonium. And it certainly seemed like enough people were in there to fit into Disneyland - barely room to breathe (again, I am so looking forward to February 1).

After a while we wondered if half an hour had passed, and Charles went and asked (we never heard our beeper go off). He came back with the maitre'd, who was leading us to a table in a for-now quieter section of the Stil. It turns out we had been waiting for an hour, and the six parties after ours had already been seated! Oh well, at least they didn't give us a runaround and seated us immediately.

Charles has been living off of English food for a few years, and doesn't get much opportunity to eat American food, so he ordered a burger - buffalo, to be exact, and some chicken tenders as an appetizer. For my appetizer, I ordered a fried brie, coated in a beer batter and drizzled with a raspberry syrup with dark salad greens on the side (about $7). I could only finish about half before I had to get a box for it. But holy cow was it delicious! The main course was, in contrast, less memorable. It was just a standard fish and chips with tartar sauce and malt vinegar on the side ($11, one of the cheapest entrées that doesn't come in burger form). The fish and chips were tasty enough, though I have had better. The fish was a little less flavorful than I have had elsewhere, either stateside or in England. I also needed a box for that.

The grand total came to a surprisingly low $38 for two people. I'm not sure, but I don't think I put in enough money. Oh well, I still owe Charles a pint :)

* pronounced on pot-CHEEN still.

Post #500!!!

Yes, this is my 500th post! And I would be lauding this milestone a bit more had I not celebrated TBS's one-year anniversary way back at post #450. But since I went ahead and had that celebration, I won't go all balloon-y this time. Instead, I will just show y'all the cutest thing I have seen in ages: my niece's Charlie Brownish Halloween pumpkin!


AwwwwwwwwwwwwWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Those LOLCats can't hold a candle. Nope, not at all.

Further proof that Sandra Lee has lost her mind

Sandra Lee is going all goofy! And I mean more so than usual. After all, it's her Halloween episode! The woman should not be allowed near a television studio during the month of October. Otherwise, Mike and the bots would have a field day. Apparently this isn't her only attempt at holiday cookin' - check out her Kwanzaa Cake - no, I am not in any way making this up (thanks to Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts for the link - I cracked up). Yep, only a matter of time before we go and commercialize Kwanzaa.

I really can't stand the woman, and she seems second only to Rachael Ray in volumes of people who dislike her. Here's Leslie's take at the Southern Social, and a particularly cruel if not hilarous post from the food network addict (and just look at all the sites that pop up when you Google the phrase "I hate Sandra Lee"). But unlike many of her other detractors, I get a sick, Mystery Science Theater 3000 sort of sick pleasure from her show - especially when it's martini time!

Anyway, her strange Halloween episode. Here she's in Scarlett O'Hara drag. Poor Scarlett has suffered many an indignity, but making eyeball meatballs?

Poor Scarlett is bent over a hot electric skillet.

Here's a closeup. Do I hear a "Fiddle-dee-dee" coming on? Oh sweet Jesus, please no.

Here they are, the eyeball meatballs - just meatballs with a pimiento-stuffed green olive sticking out of the middle. It sounds worse than it probably is, but still, if someone tells me they are serving this, to bastardize a quote from the heroine of Tara, I'd rather go hungry again.

It's Liz Taylor as Cleopatra in the Sandra Lee Show! She's plating those confounded meatballs.

You will kneel - on your knees - as I make chocolate spiders!


Wouldn't chocolate scarabs have been more appropriate? Hey wait a minute: spiders have eight eyes!

Oooooooooooh and
I said what about
Spiked Punch at Tiffany's
she said I think I
don't remember that in the film!
(kudos to whomever remembers that song)

I Despise Earthlink

Here's an exercise in futility: for the new apartment, I recently ordered Earthlink's freestanding DSL service. It clearly gives you the impression that you do not need a phone line for it to work. So I thought, "Great! I can save money by just using my cell phone instead of paying for a land line!"

So I get the package. But by the time I get home it's not on my porch. So of course, I assume it is stolen. I report it stolen to UPS and Earthlink and they send another one out.

Fast forward to the following day: it's sitting inside my apartment! Turns out my neighbor received it accidentally and safeguarded it so it wouldn't get stolen (which was very nice of her). She gave it to my landlord who put it in my apartment.

So now I call up Earthlink to cancel the shipment of the second package. And I get their aggravating automated "talk-to-the-fucking-computer" system. Why are all of these agencies using these now? They never are able to answer my nuanced questions, and worse yet, I don't want to talk to a fucking computer! And they've gotten smarter than in the past. Usually I would just say nothing and after 5 minutes of sounding frustrated that I wasn't talking, the computer would just patch me through to a human. Not anymore. They basically give you the automated version of a "Fuck you" and hang up. These telemarketers are desperate to not talk to anyone, ever.

So I frustratedly talk to the stupid computer, and after about 10 minutes get funneled to one of Earthlink's offshore help centers. Another bugaboo. Now I truly have nothing against the nice folks in general on the other end. I feel sorry for those folks in the outsource shops - Earthlink didn't hire operators in India and Pakistan because they wanted to pay them more, after all. But over the course of two or three hours I managed to talk to three different people who understood more than enough English to understand the basic questions I asked, but not enough to understand the more complex questions: "I was under the impression that I needed no phone line but now it turns out I do!" "That is right, sir, you always need a phone line for DSL." "But your website specifically says I don't!" "That is right, you always need a telephone line for your DSL service." "Could I talk to a supervisor?" (This is where I was put on hold for half an hour - I'm not kidding - hung up, and tried again.)

These folks may speak better English than I ever will speak of Hindi, or Bengali, or Punjabi, or whatever other languages they might know. And sure, it'd be fun to learn any of those languages. But if they are going to use underpaid laborers (which hurts them as well as American workers), I wish they would find folks that understand the most complex nuances of the languages being spoken. O tal vez debo hablar con la operadora española. Aunque mi español es en nivel similar con el inglés de los operadores indianos y paquistanis. ¡Ay caray!

I finally get to talk to somebody about canceling my service, and am told that I will not be charged once I send back my modem. Of course, since they sent no return shipping label with the modem they have to send one of those to me, too. But now I am having my packages sent to my parents' house, which is secluded enough that packages are never swiped off the porch (there's actually a little too much junk on the porch for a would-be thief to even think something worth taking was there, but I digress).

Fast forward to today, when I get an invoice for my Earthlink service! AAAAAAAAAUGH!

At least I don't have to work this morning (I teach a morning college class; unlike most Saturday mornings, I gave my students off today), otherwise I would be late. And, at least I'm meeting a friend from out of town at the Timonium Oktoberfest! I can drown my frustrations in some beer that actually has flavor, unlike the stuff the most popular American beers. Oops, did I say that? (I'm talkin' bout you, Coors!)

Exit 15B: US-40 West (to Ellicott City)

I haven't been eating out much lately, but I did get out to Route 40 for some lunch. Actually, I'm no stranger to Route 40 West. My parents dragged this willing boy and his sisters out to the Enchanted Forest all the time when I was young. Here's what it looked like then; it's now a business park, though the nice folks at Clark's Elioak Farm have carted off lots of Enchanted Forest booty and refurbished it for modern kiddies.

Today there's lots of good eatin' out along Route 40, and lots of so-so eatin' as well. There are the typical fast food joints: the McDonald'ses, the Arby'ses, the Wendy'ses, the Starbuckses, the ToreOres. Wait, what's that last one? ToreOre (all in Korean, but the song is cutesy and infectious, whatever it means), from which I got a free sample the last time I was free-sample hunting at the H-Mart. They deal in fried chicken pieces. And unlike most fast food, theirs is pretty juicy and actually tasty. Most of their locations are in South Korea, but there are five state-side. Two are in Georgia (Johns Creek and Riverdale, both around Atlanta), and one each in Ridgefield, New Jersey; Fairfax, Virginia; and - you guessed it - Bawlmer (map). Look for it past the Korean / sushi cafeteria-style seating, near the kimchi. Next door to the H-Mart is the Cham Mat, the seemingly re-christened food court of the Be-Se-To (BEjeing-SEoul-TOkyo) Department store, which has Korean food served cafeteria-style that is just a wee bit more expensive than I would like to pay. Most of the dishes were around $10 - $13. Okay, I could've paid for it, but for some reason I thought it'd be cheaper. I'll try it out sometime.

For lunch today, I went elsewhere. I entertained the thought of CiCi's Pizza (map) and the Pho Nam (map) next door. But I couldn't help coming back to the ever-famous Double T Diner (map). It's a local chain with diners in Annapolis, Ellicott City, Pasadena, etc. and so forth. I had always liked Double T and was looking forward to a nice cheeseburger, which I ordered as take-out with some fries. What concerned me when I was looking for the phone number to call 'em was the dearth of very good user reviews over the past year floating around in cyberspace. Overall, there were some pretty mixed reviews (note here for a glowing review, here for some mixed ones, and here for some pretty average ratings, and here's a mixed review of the one in Pasadena).

Initially deterred, I forged ahead and decided for myself if Double T was still worth the effort. The place was packed, as it usually is (24 hours a day). Service was brusque but relatively quick for the lunch rush. I paid about $7.50 for my cheeseburger and fries, and went back to work.

Sadly, my suspicions were confirmed, as I was indeed disappointed with the food. The burger was the bright spot of the meal, though it really was your average burger. The cheese glued the roll to the meat, which isn't such a bad thing until you stop to consider that the lettuce, tomato and condiments are put on the side and not on the burger - so when you open up the burger to put them on, half the bun stays on the burger! It was juicy enough, and had a good flavor, but was not something I'd order again. To Double T's credit, they certainly have enough on their encyclopaedic menu. But I've had better burgers, and out of all the things a diner serves, they should at least get that right.

Part of the reason that the burger was the best thing about the meal were the fries. Inconsistent and flavorless all around, half of them were hard and dry as rocks (and tasted freezer burned), and half of them were soggy (not just soft but soggy) and smooshed. Truly a throwaway item (which is what I did with half of them). Don't even ask about the little tub of cole slaw. At least the pickle was good.

I don't see myself going back to Double T for a while. At least there's the ToreOre!


Places I visited:

Double-T Diner (diner / American / Greek) - 6300 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (410) 744-4151

• Would I eat there again? Only because of the variety
  
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? No
  

ToreOre (chicken / Korean fast food) - Located in the H-Mart, next to the kimchi case, 800 N Rolling Rd, Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (443) 612-9020

• Would I eat there again? Sure
  
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Maybe
  

Places to look up later:

Cham Mat (Korean, formerly the Be-Se-To food court) - Located in Be-Se-To Department Store, 822 N. Rolling Rd., Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (410) 744-3027

CiCi's Pizza (pizza) - 6473 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (410) 719-1001

Pho Nam (Vietnamese) - 6 Get Directions477 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (410) 455-6000

Other photos:

The one thing all reviewers in cyberland agreed on was the ambience - Double T does not hurt in this category.

Catfish Stir Fry with Bean Threads

While at Geresbeck's yesterday (see previous post), I decided to shop for ingredients for dinner. I haven't had a chance to use my wok since unpacking it and decided to put it to work. Tonight: a stir fry with whatever vegetables seemed good, and some sort of seafood base. I had considered reusing meatloaf stocked away in the freezer, but what person would actually stir fry meatloaf? (Google it - you find nothing but pages where the words "meatloaf stir fry" are coincidentally next to each other.) I found my answer at Geresbeck's: catfish. At about $4.80 a pound.

Catfish Stir Fry with Bean Threads

Ingredients:

for the dipping sauce:
2 T. fish sauce (Vietnamese is the best - try to find one with no corn syrup in it)
2 small Thai chilies, chopped, not seeded (unless, of course, you're a wuss)
about 1 T shavings from carrot (julienned or shaved with the vegetable peeler)

for the wok:
1 T vegetable oil, for frying
2 cloves garlic, smooshed and chopped
2 - 3 Thai chilies, chopped, not seeded (again, note the wuss comment above)
1 cm. cube fresh ginger, sliced into strips (yes, I went metric on you)
1 small yellow onion, sliced or chopped
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 carrot, peeled and julienned or shaved with vegetable peeler
2 handfuls snow peas, in pouches
1 handful Thai basil
fish sauce to taste
1 lb. catfish fillets, cut into 1" pieces and marinated in:
2 T fish sauce,
1 chopped Thai chili,
juice of 1 - 2 limes, and
3 c. apple juice

for the bean threads:
1 small pot's worth of boiling water
2 nests of bean threads

Serves three to four

Prep:
Combine the ingredients for the dipping sauce in a small bowl and let sit until you're ready to eat.

Put the catfish into a glass or other non-reactive container with the fish sauce, apple juice and chilis, and let sit at least 20 minutes.

Boil water. Add bean threads once boiling, remove from heat, and cover for 15 minutes.

Coat the wok with the oil, dumping out excess oil if necessary, and fry the ginger, garlic, chilis and onion over low heat (or else they will burn). Throw in the red pepper, carrots and snow peas and stir fry over low heat, adding fish sauce as desired...

A note about the fish sauce: there's a lot more available these days in the US, and at least in a large metro area, you don't need to travel far to find some. There is some junk out there, but some good stuff as well. The "nuoc-mam-miers" (fish sauce snobs) recommend the fish sauce from Vietnam. Even so, look for the kind with sugar instead of corn syrup. Okay, back to the recipe.

Take the catfish and add that to the wok, stirring occasionally. Cover the wok and let cook until catfish breaks easily and is not transparent.

Drain the bean threads. Put a small amount of the transparent bean threads on plate (as much or as little as desired), and put stir-fry on top. Serve with dipping sauce. I liked to dip my fish in the carrot-chili-tinged fish sauce instead of sauce (ooh, note to self: buy soy sauce). It's some tasty catfish!

A Dangerous Love Affair with Geresbeck's Bakery

I love Geresbeck's.* Their bakery has become a dangerous stop on my way from work to home, diet-wise at least. On an tangential note, I thought I had been gaining weight recently. I'm not overweight, though I do have a wee gut. Anyway, I returned to they gym after a few weeks away. Turns out I've actually lost weight! Woo-hoo! Now to try fitting into those 31" waist jeans. But that'll only happen if I lay off Geresbeck's wonderful chocolate-top tea cookies. They are light years ahead of Giant's. The cookie is butterier, and their chocolate is cholocatey-er. I can' bring myself to go back to Giant for their cookies again. I have yet to try Geresbeck's smearcake (or is it "smearcase"?) But if I lose anymore willpower I will. My waistline won't be happy, but my mouth probably won't mind.

* pronounced "GURSH-becks"

Solid Gold!

From the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. Hardly food-related. It's just funny. My favorite line? From the mouth of guest host Lebron James:

Hi I'm Alexamder. I'm 6 foot 7 and weigh 240 lbs I like roasted whole turkeys. >>Tough guy look abruptly appears on face<<

Did you get the host's name?

UPDATE (October 26) - Stupid fucking NBC pulled the clip from YouTube - which wouldn't be so bad if they had bothered to put it on their own website. No Penelope there either!

Baltimore Style promotes area bloggers (or, Well I Feel Dumb)

Baltimore Style magazine has a nice write-up of local food bloggers in the area! I have to admit: they did contact me. But I am a procrastinator (I'm surprised I am not still waiting to start this blog actually). I didn't get my info back to the nice person from Baltimore Style in time. So that's why I'm not in here. At least most of my fellow bloggers are in there. Oh well, maybe next time.

Eight Wannabe Iron Chefs and a Gourmet Next Door Walk Into a Bar...

I caught the last ten minutes of Amy "Winner of Next Food Network Star #3" Finley's series premiere today. Yes, I have only seen 1/3 of her show Gourmet Next Door, and yes, she's just starting out. But I hate to admit: it was kinda dull. Maybe I wouldn't be able to do any better. But I found myself reaching over to my Playstation 2 (which doubles as my DVD player) and finishing up an ep of Six Feet Under. Have you seen this 6FU? I just discovered it. Very cool show. As for GND: hopefully it'll find its groove. 'Cuz it ain't found it yet.

As for right now, I'm trying to get through the Next Iron Chef. Not a bad show, but (as Dan pointed this out a little while ago) Alton is getting a bit irritating. He seems so, well, bitchy. That's the best way I can describe him. Bitchy and bullying. As for the contestants: nobody jumps out as sensational yet. But Chef Morou Outtara would be a nice addition. This guy, an Ivorian-American who now calls Bowie of all places home, mixes the spices and flavors of West Africa (a culinary region we just never hear about on Food TV) with techniques and flavors of France and the US. To be honest, with the region's burgeoning West African immigrant population I am not sure why we don't see more African restaurants in the US. I would love to see some Nigerian restaurants outside of DC! There is, at least, the Tam Tam Restaurant, this Senegalese place near the Senator that I've been meaning to try. But apart from that there's nothing I can think of in the Baltimore area.

So I may stick with Next Iron Chef. But even if I lose my interest in this program, at least I can check out the Amateur Gourmet's high-larious NIC blog at the Food Network website. While the show is on, I'll put it on my blogroll at least.

Hey Dude - IT'S A MANTAGE!

Barats and Bereta, those guys from Gonzaga, are showing that Jesuit edumacation didn't make these rugged Northwesterners all soft like. WATCH 'EM EAT MEAT RIGHT OFF THE BONE!!! Get ready folks: IT'SAMANTAGE!!!



I feel all testosteroney now. I CAN WRESTLE A MOUNTAIN GOAT NOW!!!

Octovember Blogger Happy Hour!

Danielle posted about this a few days ago. I'm linking and spreadin' the love. She and Charissa are the hosts. It'll be at Holy Frijoles on Friday, November 2 at 6 pm. Some of my favorite bloggers will be out of town, sadly, but a few others will be around. And I get the impression from reading Danielle's blog that quite a few folks should be showing up. I mean lots of people. It looks like:

• it's Johnny Dollar's birthday that weekend
• Rachel and her hubby, with his new blog, will both be there also
• I've been chatting with Leslie (Atlanta Social) at the Southern Social, who should be in College Park visiting her hubby that weekend; she's hoping to come up too! She is hoping to bring her friend Alyssa from Jersey (Fairfax designed her header BTW - Alyssa's, not Leslie's)

And the best part for me? For the first time, it looks like I will actually be able to go that weekend!!! Followed by Paula Deen* in DC on Sunday, this will be a fun weekend.

*Forgot to mention: My sister and I are going to Washington on Sunday 11/4 to see Paula Deen in action at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show. We bought the tickets in May. We are obsessive. Okay, at least I am - Cathy just wanted to see Paula Deen. I on the other hand have to plan months and months in advance, or else I will wait until the last nanosecond to act.

UPDATE 10/15 - I was misinformed: Leslie may instead be bringing her husband along. Sorry for my mistake!

Make Your Meatloaf Even SWELLER, Er, MORE Swell!

I made a meatloaf the other night. I've been living off of it for the past few days and it's still a LOT of food. So I may still be eating it for a few more.

I didn't feel like getting all experimental and faincy, so I just used the recipe off the back of a box of America's Choice (Super Fresh brand) Onion Soup Mix. I did zhuzh it up but only a wee bit: to the following:

• 2 c. meat (I used mixed beef and pork from Geresbeck's)
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. bread crumbs (I used Italian, of some other brand)
• 1 1/2 c. ketchup (I used reduced sugar)
  
• and of course, 1 packet of onion soup mix

...and, I think, one or two other things (I don't have the recipe in front of me, alright?), I added two roasted jalapeños. I found one a few red ones along with the typical green (same fruit - they're just riper and milder, that's all), and used one of each. I deveined and seeded them, chopped them up and threw them into the mix. Then I mixed it all up, put it into a loaf pan and baked it all for 1 hour at 350°F. An hour later and it was done. Very moist, but the bottom crust was a little harder than I expected. It wasn't bad though.

Along with that I had some salad and some mashed potatoes. It's amazing how you can gussy up some boring old instant potatoes. I would have made them fresh, but I was tired. I had some fresh cilantro chopped up and in the freezer, and threw a few pinches into a pot of newly made, steaming mashed potatoes. Pretty tasty!

So that's what I will be eating for the next few days. Spicy meatloaf and cilantro potatoes. I'll think of some ways to redo it (salsa or spaghetti sauce on the meatloaf for example, or mashed sweet potatoes). We'll see.

Blogger Dinner at Dukem - Wait, I MISSED It!

Several bloggers, including Marginal Foodie - heck it was organized by her - trucked off to Dukem last night for a food blogger dinner. Unfortunately I had a class last night, so I could not go. But as bloggers start talking about it, I will link to their reviews. I hope y'all took my advice and ordered the honey wine!

Get Out!

Please forgive the exceedingly homo-tastic post, folks. Thursday, October 11 is National Coming Out Day. If y'all have been paying attention the last 13 months or so, you've probably figured this out anyway. But in the spirit of the day, here goes: I'm gay.

Alright now everybody, 1, 2, 3: Duuuuh.

I try to be as apolitical as possible on this blog. But this sort of thing is, in and of itself, a sort of political act. But for what it's worth, there you go.

Now that that's out of the way, on to more fun stuff for my straight and queer readers (thank you for sticking with me BTW)! I thought I'd look at a few of my fellow foodies from "the tribe" in the world of cooking and in general, in the spirit of the day:

A Few Favorite LGBT Foodies, in No Particular Order

Adam Roberts, the Amateur Gourmet. Have you caught Adam's book yet? Maybe most of us bloggers don't aspire to such heights. But good for you, Adam.

Ted Allen, he of the Queer Eye group and so much more. Hey, doesn't he have a book, too?

Carlos Fernández, a reject from Top Chef season 2. A little slapdash towards the end of his stay at TC. But the man is adorable, so there he goes. Oh, did you know he has a Spanish language blog over at Telemundo? No book though.

Tiffani Faison. Yeah, I thought our favorite bisexual contestant-we-love-to-hate was irritating. But I have to hand it to the Tiffster: she takes no prisoners. Remember when she made poor Dave "I'm not ya bitch, bitch" Allen Martin quiver like a bowl full of jellied eel? Yep, me too.

Nobody else from TC, gay, bi or straight is really worth mentioning otherwise. The first season is still by far the best. Though (out of the LGBT contestants at least) I hate to have seen Sandee from season three get kicked out so fast. Hated Hung. Arrogant and irritating.

Dan Smith and Steve MacDonagh, first winners of Food Network's Net Food Network Star. I have to admit, I was very surprised to see a gay couple actually win the competition. But they did it! Love the show. They do make a cute couple. Why can't Guy Fieri be less irritating like the Hearty Boys? I hope season 3 winner Amy Finley isn't an irritating type. Like Guy. Or particularly like Rachael Ray. But more Raybashing for another day.

Susan Feniger, the rainbow-ier half of Too Hot Tamales. I had no idea, mind you. 2HT is a show I wish I could see more of :(

And two more:

Bayard Rustin, who marched with Dr. King. It was tough enough being African American during the Civil Rights struggle, even tougher being African American and gay.

John Barrowman. Nope, not food related in any way. I just think he really rocks (here's a recent interview in Out Magazine). Check him out on Torchwood on BBC America Saturday nights at 9 (or On Demand if you have digital cable, unlike me). That's also if you missed him on Doctor Who recently.

Plants Doin' It For Themselves

From the Way-Too-Cool Science Department: Strawberries and some other plants have a self-defense network that can sense when a caterpillar starts chewing on a leaf. Via a network of interconnected stems and vines, after they sense this is happening to them they make the other leaves in their network tough and inedible to the other bugs, so they tend to go to a previously uneaten plant. Isn't evolution fascinating? Unfortunately this same network encourages the spread of floral viruses, much like a computer virus network. And it still hasn't developed a self-defense network from those murderous vegans! :)

Breast Cancer Awareness at the Grocery Store

Y'all may have noticed all the pink in the air, and on the blog for the next few days (no longer, I know how you folks feel about balloons). Nope, it's not the new butch color. It's the national movement to support breast cancer awareness. Even on WJZ they're raising awareness for all women (and the occasional man) to get checked. (Speaking of cancer awareness: I totally missed WJZ's prostate cancer awareness run - so much to be mindful of...).

I went grocery shopping for the new place this week. I wanted to see how much I could get with just $20 (I ended up spending twice that). But among the things I found were a few cans of Campbell's delicious cans of salt tomato soup with very pink labels. A portion of all proceeds from these special cans goes to fund research for... you guessed it! Go look for some other things in the supermarket. Every little bit helps.

If you find more over the next few days please feel free to mention them here!

They-uh stoppin' that naked lunch up in Maine

Would I actually skinny dip for a free lunch? In Maine? Where it's cold? I don't think I'd do that. Unless it was really good. And really expensive otherwise.

Food haiku:

This boy "from away"*
Might strip down for lobstah** - but
First I'd drive apiece.***

All Mainese terms taken from the About.com page "Speak like a Mainer":
* from away: not from Maine
** lobstah: lobster, but pronounced like they'd say it in Maine
*** apiece: a long, undetermined distance, like the distance between, oh, Baltimore and Portland (big city in Maine) or Augusta (the capital of the Northeastern most state in the US)

Exit 15A: US-40 East (to Baltimore)

US Route 40 is one of the oldest cross-country highways in the nation. Dating to the 1920's, it extends all the way from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Park City, Utah (originally going as far west as San Fran). Like I-95, Route 40 - Baltimore's own slice of the National Pike - cuts the Beltway in half, going through Baltimore City. On the west side of the beltway, you can get to Route 40 by Exits 15A (into the city) and B (to Ellicott City).

I wanted a quick, cheap dinner this evening, and this time I had a good idea of where I wanted to go. I passed on the former IHOP-turned-"Shirley's Family Diner" (map, Google Earth still thinks it's an IHOP), which sounds fun enough that I may go there next time. Also passed by the Pho 1 Restaurant (map and review) in the Westview Mall. Instead I decided on Mr. G's Hamburgers (map), a small little place that is quite familiar to me, because I ate there all the time in high school. My high school girlfriend (neither of us knew, okay?) even worked there. My favorite thing to get was the foot-long hot dog, though the hamburgers, onion rings and milkshakes were always a safe and satisfying bet. So unlike many of the places I am visiting for this series, I already know Mr. G's.

Or at least, I thought I knew Mr. G's. After the place got gutted by fire a few years ago, it seems to have expanded, a lot. Gone was the little waiting room where you sat while they made your food. Now there's a small clutch of tables, complete with blob of condiments and flies on top (ick). Still, most of Mr. G's is behind-the-counter space, as before. And behind those counters lie a dizzying array of soft-serve ice creams, burgers, fried chicken, trout, ribs, breakfast foods, spaghetti (or as it was billed by Mr. G's, "SPAGETY"), Western fries (for the uninitiated, the best description I can find is here, on the Royal Farms web site) and mammoth onion rings.

I got a bit buggy-eyed when I saw the prices for the combo platters - especially the half-cheeseburger for $8! It did dawn on me that this wasn't just a cheeseburger but a cheeseburger sub, but I did notice the glaring lack of prices for most items. Not a great way to prepare your change. The young woman behind the counter told me the cheeseburger was $3.50 (or so). To that I ordered some Western fries (mmmm), for a grand total of $5.80. Only later did it hit me to order some of their delicious-looking onion rings (nope, no flies in this case). I would have, but there was a fairly long line at the counter.

Some of the food on display looked wonderful - the ribs and mac and cheese were tempting, and again, there were those onion rings. There were some pretty average-looking items as well, specifically their fried chicken, and some stuff that looked downright inedible. To wit: there were some green beans that had a very unnatural hue; and a large, gummy and dried-out blob of angel-hair "spagety" is hopefully never going near anyone's mouth.

I took my burger and fries to the parents' house and ate it there. The burger, which had provolone, onion, lettuce and pickle (toppings of my choice, instead of a pre-set selection), was juicy and set between two halves of a soft, not-so-thick kaiser roll (I hate the thick ones - I don't eat sandwiches for the bread, after all). I have had tastier, and much thicker burgers than this one, but for what it was worth it was quite satisfying. The dog and cat thought so too, as I threw little shards of meat and roll at them (those two, they are a pair). Along with that were some satisfyingly salty Western fries. They could've been a little crispier on the outside, but you don't really order Western fries for the crispiness of the coating anyway - it's all about the thickness of the fry and the flavor of the coating. And for a small order, it was a pretty large sample of fries that they gave me - easily a whole potato in that bag.

One thing that hits me now: no more foot-long hot dogs on the menu? That much is disappointing. Well, at least they still have those intimidating onion rings.

Gorgeous onion rings, with a gummy lump of SPAGETY in the background

Places I visited:

Mr. G's Fast Lane Hamburgers (American / hamburgers / ice cream) - 5600 Johnnycake Rd

Gwynn Oak, MD 21207; Phone: (410) 744-0011

• Would I eat there again? Depends on what I'd order - at least for the onion rings
  
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Again, to try the onion rings
  

Places to look up later:

Pho 1 (Vietnamese) - 5764 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (410) 719-7500

Shirley's Family Diner (diner / American) -5600 Baltimore National Pike, Catonsville, MD 21228; Phone: (410) 788-9270

What the World Eats

This from Time magazine: a photo essay on how folks around the world get and eat their grub. Mmmm.

Brand-new Booze Blog - 'Bout Buh, er, Time

I got the info from Dan at Hungover Gourmet (thanks for the head's up about this) - Five O'Clock Shakes, a new Charm-City blog dedicated to mixed drinks and the like. Yum! Too bad I can only tolerate beer and sake but maybe this'll get me experimenting again.

Preggers? Wait on the fish (STILL)

I hate the CBS Evening News. They are airing a new story right now, echoed in the Washington Post, about a recent report saying that pregnant women should eat more than the 12 oz. of fish that the government and many scientists have warned them against before. This is according to a group called Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies

What I hate about this is that I heard on National Public Radio's All Things Considered just two hours beforehand that the group that came out with this report

1. is in the minority on this issue; and
2. got a big grant from the National Fisheries Institute, an industry-funded group - just coincidence, I'm sure.

Does CBS mention this at all? Nope. This is why I listen to NPR and not CBS News. NPR actually bothers to investigate.

Cookbooks I Found at the Bawlmer Book Festival

I haven’t had any time to write about the delicious food I had or the many books I bought at the Baltimore Book Festival. I went mainly to see Tim Gunn, he of Project Runway and Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style. Doofus boy only realized as he got in the looooooong line to see him that I needed a copy of his new book! And they were out of them at his table. So I just went into a nearby booth and snapped a photo (a little tacky, but oh well). After that I went book huntin', and then sought out some sustenance, finding it at adjacent wine and soul food booths (fried fish, greens and sweet potatoes? Hush my mouth, that's good!)

Between giving up on Il Gunn and similarly giving up on a walk to the top of Mt. Vernon’s Washington Monument, I bought myself some cookbooks, among several other books. Also that day: a 2005 Frommer’s travel guide to Atlanta (20 cents) in case I can scrounge up the moolah, the book Dry by Augusten Burroughs (same price), and a fake travel guide to the mystical country of Phaic Tan (get it?) for $4.

Among my neat new cookbooks:

The New York Cabbie Cookbook by Mary Ellen Winston and Holly Garrison (Philadelphia: 2003, Running Press). Cost to me: $3

What a good way to cram an international, multicultural array of recipes into one cookbook: ask New York cabbies for their favorite recipes from their homelands (including the United States). Over 120 recipes from Greek avgolemono to Egyptian fried porgy to Senegalese egg and beef stew with veggies.

Food Editors’ Hometown Favorites Cookbook edited by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Baker ( USA: 1984, Dial Publishing Co.). Cost to me: $3

Just like the cabbie book does for international recipes, so this book does for regional US cuisine. And like that book, it is organized not by locale but by type of dish – meat, veggie, soup, dessert, etc. Collected from newspapers and food reviewers all over America.

The Onion Book: Bounty of Culture, Cultivation and Cuisine by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger (Loveland, CO: 1996, Interweave Press). Cost to me: 20¢

Tons of onion recipes, both showcasing them as the main ingredient and as a key background player in another dish. Not much more to it than that. NB: this copy is signed by Susan Belsinger! In ink!

All New Sophie Leavitt’s Penny Pincher’s Cookbook by Sophie Leavitt (Hanover, PA: 1978, published by the author). Cost to me: 20¢

Tons of recipes, laid out not with ingredients followed by procedures, but all mixed together. Presumably, it is written specifically to save y’all (and me) money!

One more y’all should get: Adam Roberts’ The Amateur Gourmet book. Not quite a cookbook, more like a book-length version of his blog. Funny. I bought this at Books-A-Million, not the Book Fair.

Other photos:

The Elegance gave me wine - and left a not-so-subtle hint about a tip (I wasn't going to leave one because I wasn't too thrilled about their service, but the reaction to my stiffing them on the tip was so funny that I gave in). The "FRIED FISH - FRIED SHRIMP" folks gave me, well, fried fish. And greens and sweet t'paters. Mmmm.

Books for everybody!

This was the beginning of the line for Tim Gunn. And these people remembered to bring books!