Exit 21: MD-129 (Park Heights Ave., to Stevenson Road)

New Year's Eve Edition!

Park Heights Avenue is the yin to Reisterstown Road's yang. I say that because of two factors: the traffic and the number of businesses. Reisterstown Road is congested, crowded and capitalistic, with businesses galore. Park Heights Avenue, however, is about as desolate and suburban as you could want, and the driving reflects this. Not only that, but if you take one wrong turn on Reisterstown Road it's fairly easy to get back to it. It'll take half an hour due to the sheer amount of traffic, but it's still a straight shot. Park Heights Avenue, on the other hand, is a migraine-inducing labyrinth of houses. Make one wrong turn and you'll spend half an hour trying to find your way back. Well, at least you won't have to contend with much traffic.

As I said, the only business I could find on Park Heights Avenue is - okay, I couldn't find a business, especially not going away from the city. Into the city it's not much better. You have to drive way into the city, which is farther than I felt like driving. So I took Park Heights Ave to Stevenson Road, like the sign said. And if you keep on going it will loop around Druid Ridge Cemetery and eventually take you back to Reisterstown Road (like I said, it's difficult to get away from it). En route you have to pass by Dumbarton Square, which is your only real bet for food before hitting Reisterstown Road. I am factoring in the fact that, as long as you drive around the parking lot enough you will make it to the Noodles & Company, the Giant and the Salsa Rita's, chains all. Since I am obsessed with finding non-chains and local chains, I avoided these places and went for the first place in the complex I could get to - Gourmet Again.

The place is one of those fancy, upscale markets, with small $10 bottles of dipping oils and a few different kinds of caviar. It's a great place to shop once in a while. Probably lots of people in the area can afford to shop there often. I cannot. I would quickly go broke if I shopped here on a regular basis. An overview of the great stuff they have:

• a small but upscale bakery section, with chocolate tops, regular and sugar-free mondel bread, rugelach, and dozens of other things to choose from;
• a larger, busy and - again - upscale sandwich counter. Their egg salad is the cheapest thing. It was $4. I must mention it was busy, but that might be due to lots of people ordering lunchmeat and things for their various NYE parties;
• modest salad and antipasto bars - I have never seen an antipasto bar. I got about a pound of it at $7.69/lb, mostly olives, roasted red and yellow bell peppers, and grilled squash;
• large counters of seafood, prepared foods and meat. I saw one thing in the prepped food counter, shrimp stuffed with imperial crab, for about $4 each. I bought one. It was all crab - I mean all crab;
• a lovely catering office - maybe this is where the guy in front of me in line got most of the $330 worth of food he bought (the little old woman behind me, who honest to God smelled exactly like the Museum of Natural History in DC, told me, "I think I'd rather eat at his place!" Funny!);
• a large selection of products by Food Network personalities, particularly Paula Deen. I also got an eyeful of Bubbie Jeanne's

There were only one or two problems I had with Gourmet Again. For one, not all prices are clearly displayed - it took me forever to find someone that could help me find the price of the antipasto bar (that's only because everybody was busy). A bit more irritating was the willingness of most people to just run you down just as soon as say "Excuse me." Honestly, it's like driving in New York City!

So I got out with a pound of antipasti and one crab-stuffed shrimp, ready to meet my family for the New Year's Eve dinner we were supposed to have had for Christmas. You see, my sister and I were planning to make dinner for the family, and we were both too ill to do it. It wasn't going to be very big anyway - just a braciole (she's making that) and some broccolini with toasted pine nuts (I'm making that). So to counterbalance the big-ass Thanksgiving dinner we had this year, we passed up even the modest braciole for a piece of leftover ham and a spoonful of leftover potato salad. The braciole, or braciola recipe is Giada de Laurentiis', and it's here.

Places I visited:

Gourmet Again (grocery store - gourmet) - 3713 Old Court Road, Pikesville, Maryland 21208; Phone: (410) 484-9393

• Would I shop there again? Yeah, I just don't know if I can afford to.
• Would I go out of my way to shop there again? Yeah, though again, money is a factor
  

Other photos:

The antipasto bar at Gourmet Again

One of those lovely crab-covered shrimps went home with me. I ravished him.

Best of 2007 Part II: Other Local Favorites

Favorite places to get crabs - Only in Baltimore would that not immediately be taken the wrong way. Strangely, thinking back over the year I didn't eat that many crabs. I still love them. I just haven't eaten many. I certainly haven't bought many (ah, the benefits of knowing people that can give you crabs they caught and steamed themselves).

I did have some crabcakes, though. I can't say I had a bad crabcake at all this year (even the one I had at the Lansdowne Inn was unexpectedly good). The best one was from:

G&M (crabcakes / American, Linthicum) - There's a reason why theirs is called the best of Baltimore.

Yes I know Faidley's of Lexington Market usually shares that "Best of Baltimore" designation with G&M. And yes I left Faidley's off this list. That's because I never got over there this year. But it's a goal for 2008. Now leave me alone about it.

Favorite guilty pleasures - It's SOOOOO bad for me, but I liked it anyway.

Krispy Kreme (donuts, all over the place) - I eaten about twenty donuts this year (yes, over the course of the entire year). Most of them came from here. Heat them up in the microwave first in case the ditzy kid behind the counter doesn't understand what a "fresh" donut is.

Little Grove (deli, Linthicum) - It's quick and cheap. There are better places, but I would drive way out of my way for their spanakopita (spinach pies).

Panera Bread (sandwiches, various locations) - I gotta admit, I am addicted to the half frontega chicken - half French onion soup deal. Just throw away those nasty croutons (BLEAKHKH)

Quickly (super-cheap Asian, American and Mexican junk food, San Francisco, CA, and all over Taiwan and Southeast Asia) - The first place I stumbled upon in the Castro. Eating there everyday will kill you. I don't think my system can even handle another round of chikuwas.

Favorite places to shop: I mean food, not handbags.

Bakery: SugarBaker's Cakes (Catonsville) - They also sell 'em by the slice, which is more in my budget than their fondant-covered supercakes.

Specialty foods: Rheb's Candies (Violetville and Downtown) - Best. Chocolates. Ever.

Groceries: H-Mart (Catonsville), Trader Joe's (Pikesville and Towson), Wegman's (Hunt Valley) and Whole Foods (Harbor East and Mount Washington)

Beer and Wine: the Wine Source (Hampden) - The only beer tastings I know of in this area, if not frequent. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

A few food things I "discovered" in 07 - Mind you, everybody else knew about this stuff. I was the one who didn't.

Baltimore's Artscape and Book Festival - I have lived in this city, what, most of my life? And yet this stuff wasn't even on my radar until this year. Artscape was great, though not necessarily for the food (massive amounts of average, average food). The Book Festival stood out as an unexpectedly good source for some cookbooks, and I got some good soul food towards the end of it.

cappuccino - Had it not been for London I never would've even tried it. Now it is the thing I get whenever I'm in a coffee shop. And I can't stand coffee.

chocolate top cookies - I've been searching for good ones for much of the year. My favorite? The ones at Sion's Bakery in Pikesville (and those were cookies that were sitting around just before closing), followed by Geresbeck's at a close second, and then the New System Bakery's of Hampden in third. Just avoid the ones at Giant unless you are in withdrawal.

fried Twinkies - **shudder** Let's not let that happen again.

Rheb's - I ask myself again: how did I miss this place exactly?

Fave Foodie Show - It's an easy one - Ace of Cakes, with your haomeboy and mahn, hon, Duff Goldman. For the record: number of Charm City Cakes employees/Ace of Cakes stars that I have accidentally seen around town, from afar: two. But to go any further would just come off as creepy.

Coming up... the Worst of the Year (oh, joy!)

Best of 2007 Part I: My Favorite Eats in (and out of) Baltimore

Like last year's best of list (Post #100), this one got a little long. Unlike last year's, I decided to break this up into a few different posts. This first one will be my favorite places in Baltimore. Later I'll mention a few different things - favorite foods on the road, my least favorite places to eat, as well as the most exceedingly average ones I can think of.

Ten favorite restaurants/bars in this or any area (in alphabetical order) - I'd go out of my way to get to these places...

Chiyo Sushi (Japanese, Mount Washington) - There is so much good sushi in and around Baltimore, and it's easy to please me with sushi. But this is my favorite one. Some average reviews in 2005, so maybe it's gotten better since then (see here and here). The service is good, the plates are beautifully arranged, the food is damn good, and when my sister and I went back a second time, the waitress actually remembered what we had ordered a few weeks back. Dang.

Dogwood Restaurant (American / eclectic / local ingredients, Hampden) - I haven't eaten at the deli yet, just the restaurant. And I only ate there once. It impressed me that much. I went with some friends of mine and we sampled each others' food. The best thing about Dogwood? They go out of their way to use locally produced ingredients. They just reopened after being closed, too.

Dukem (Ethiopian, Mount Vernon) - I keep going back for their wots and their mead (honey wine). Except for the last time I went, where they were pretty busy, I like the service, too.

El Salto (Mexican, Brooklyn Park and Parkville) - I have to re-reiterate: THEY ARE NOT CLOSED DOWN!!! Some of the best Mexican food in town.

The Helmand (Afghan, Mount Vernon) - Two words: kaddo borawni. My favorite dish in what is easily my favorite restaurant.

Nasu Blanca (Japanese / Spanish, SoBa) - My favorite dining experience during the last Restaurant Week. I hope they're doing the upcoming one next month. Eclectic and interesting food.

Petit Louis Bistro (French, Roland Park) - And this was a close second to Nasu Blanca. The vichyssoise was sooooooo good.

Rocket to Venus (American / eclectic, Hampden) - This place is difficult to describe. It has everything! Southern food. Midwestern food. Fancy food. Hearty food. Good eclectic American cuisine. Interesting food in an interesting setting. Told you it's difficult to describe.

Suzie's Soba (Korean / Japanese, Hampden) - Suzie's has good sushi, but her Korean dishes are the best thing on the menu. The freshest bibimbap, in a big clear bowl. Yum.

Taneytown Deli (deli, Catonsville) - How did I miss this place growing up so close to Catonsville? Five different kinds of Reubens at this place.

Honorable Mention - Chiu's Sushi (Japanese, Harbor East), Kyodai Rotating Sushi Bar (Japanese, Towson), Regi's American Bistro (American / brunch, Federal Hill), Zodiac (American / eclectic, Station North) - I'd go out of my way to get to these places, too, just not as quickly. I still love 'em

One more honorable mention: Della Notte (Italian, Little Italy) - I never got around to writing about it, but I will mention it here. My sister and I went there last week before we went to see Avenue Q at the Hippodrome. My God, the place is amazing! It's like eating in a Roman villa. And the food was amazing, too: goat cheese ravioli, teeny fried saffron rice balls, rabbit in a tomato sauce that managed to be intense and mellow at the same time, and an amazing creme brulee for dessert. The reason I didn't write about it is that immediately afterwards, I came down with a nasty intestinal virus, and my sister got sick, too (though she just had a cold). So I wanted to wait before I said anything to see if it was in fact the food and not some colossal coincidence. I am happy to report that it was, most likely, the latter, because since then a few other family members came down with it. Perhaps the richness of the food exacerbated the Crohn's and worked with whatever I got to just make me miserable all week. But I'm highly doubtful I'd get sick if I went back to Della Notte.

Lastly, try this place if you find yourself in...

...the Inland Empire (Southern California)? Tokyo Restaurant (Japanese, Yucaipa) - Who would've thought? Tasty, fresh sushi in the desert? And in fucking Yucaipa of all places? (You'd have to have lived in the IE to understand the gravity of that statement.) Café Sevilla (Spanish / tapas, Riverside) is a close second, with wonderful tapas.

...London? Tuk Tuk Thai Noodle Bar (Thai, Charing Cross) - The last place I ate before heading for the airport. Never wrote much about it, but their pad thai was really good. Still hoping to make it to the Pret-A-Manger (sandwiches, various locations) up in...

...New York City? Woorijip (Korean, Manhattan) - Cheap, tasty cafeteria-style Korean. I ate it on the ride home on Amtrak.

...Ocean City? Shenanigan's Irish Pub (Irish / American, Boardwalk) - Those little burgers are filling enough, especially with a good pint of Guinness.

...Philadelphia? Sahara Grill (Middle Eastern / Arabic, Center City) - Just good, hearty Egyptian cuisine.

...Richmond? New York Deli (deli, Carytown) - I admit, I was looking for Chesapeake cuisine here (but I can find that in Baltimore). Who knew I'd like the deli the best? But Farouk's (Indian, Carytown) was about as good.

...San Francisco? Dim sum crawl (Chinese, Chinatown) - I can't recommend any one place - you just have to walk up and down the street and pop in for a piece of dim sum here, a piece there, and a piece somewhere else.

...Washington? Logan Tavern (American, Logan Circle) - Interesting food, and I mean that in a good way.

Well there she goes frying things that ought not be fried again...

Yes, after all that's come out this past year, I still like Paula Deen. I don't love the woman like I used to, but she still manages to not grate on my nerves like some other Food Network personalities (or lack of personality there - Amy Finely anyone?). Still, I don't know how the woman has managed to get this far on in years without having a heart attack.

As I have commented elsewhere (I think on Dan's blog), I don't know any Southerner, or anybody else for that matter, that eats anything remotely resembling fried macaroni and cheese wrapped in bacon.

Crabs for Christmas

Happy 6th day of Christmas. Let's celebrate with crabs, hon. Ain't dem faoks at Geppi's weird?



Yes I know it came and went. But you HAVE to admit the video is funny.

My Thai

Sadly, I didn't make it to the Blogger Mini-Happy Hour. But I did get out at some point last night, after a week-long intestinal flu - bleeeh - to get some food. After finding, by chance, an awesome parking space right in front of the Hippo, I took that as a sign and went in for a pint of Guinness (should I really be drinking beer yet? Oh well). BTW: look who's coming back to Charm City in January. Nope, it's Varla Jean Merman. Anyway, to avoid losing the great parking space, I walked to one of the local places to eat. My mind was on Ethiopian but I found myself uncontrollably drawn to the Washington Monument. Before I knew it I was walking into My Thai.

I've heard mixed reviews about this place, but one thing seems to be certain: the more distance it puts between now and opening night, the better it gets. Things weren't too great when it first opened, but they are better now (Christine, who stopped updating her page in August, gave some mixed early reviews of My Thai - the City Paper and the Baltimore Sun give it better reviews). So I wanted to try it out for myself, now that we were almost 6 months from opening night.

The restaurant looks just like Minato with some Thai statues planted here and there. Of course this makes perfect sense, what with Minato having moved from here to its new location (I liked this location better anyway). The food, I am happy to say, was satisfying. One word of caution, though: go with an empty stomach. I got a lot of food for my dollar, for the most part:

• Their tom kha gai soup - I have to try this at every Thai restaurant I go to, and any Thai place worth its nam pla will have at least two good entrées: their pad thai and their tom kha gai soup. For just $4, you get a huge bowl of the stuff - a quantity that would normally cost twice that at most Thai restaurants. And everything about it was superb (I don't use that word often) - it was tangier, lemongrass-ier, coconut-tier, galangal-lier than most I have eaten. Two only two gripes I had were the undercookedness of the mushrooms (which seemed like they were cut up and thrown in just before they brought it to me) and the amount of chicken, but even that was at least adequate. And no irritating chewy pieces of lemongrass to pick out of your teeth.
• Their selection of sushi - It is also cheaper than I am used to, especially their rolls. For $5 I got three large slices of flounder sashimi, arranged tastefully in front of me.
• Their goong pik kaur - This was one of many entrées that, considering the neighborhood, was relatively cheap. At $14 ($10 if you get it for lunch) it was one of the most expensive things on the menu (though I avoided the House specialties, which generally start at that price and just go up). This was breaded and deep-fried shrimp in a sweet-spicy-tangy sauce that makes the breading easily fall off (oh well). These were good-sized shrimp - I could only finish five of them. They're not super jumbo ones, but they're not salad shrimp either. And all were nestled inside an arrangement of slightly steamed broccoli, and came with a separate bowl of rice. One thought did run through my mind: you could easily find this at Friday's, but it's much better here. I got this and the soup in a to-go bag.
• Their hot sake - The one big exception, pricewise, is their alcohol, and this must be where they make their money. For about $8.50, I got a large carafe of hot sake that seemed not as large as other larges I have drunk before. I usually get a small, for about $4.50 at most Japanese restaurants. I guess there are no smalls here. So if you want red, white or rice wine, or any other alcohol at My Thai, expect to pay a lot for it. It was pretty good sake, and I still had trouble finishing it (I didn't say it was a small, just that it was smaller than other small sakes I've had in the past), but I wouldn't have gotten it had I known. BTW: their sakes are not on their wine list. You have to ask to see their hand-written sake menu, and it only contains the cold sakes, which start at $9.
  

Had it not been for the sake I would have gotten out having paid just $25 for my meal, before tip. The sake brought it up to $33. I left a $5 tip and headed out, tired, full, and wet. Yep, forgot my umbrella.

Photos:

Tom kha gai soup - serving as big-as-ya-head!

The goong pik kaur - looks deceptively small but it's more filling than it looks.

Obama A-butter

This is in no way a repudiation or an endorsement of anyone. All I'm sayin' is he'd at least make a tasty president

Merry (First Day of) Christmas!

And happy holidays to y'all! Speaking of which, I thought it'd be a happier holiday for Jesus, but you can see how the Good Lord's party went:



I thought Jesus would have more friends coming over.

You might see some more holiday festivities up on this website as late as January 6th. I liked the British habit of celebrating the other 11 days of Christmas, instead of just stopping on December 25. So December 30th will be "the 6th day of Christmas" here on BS, instead of it just being "Sunday" like it will be everywhere else in the US.

One more holiday video: proof that supermodels shouldn't be allowed to sing. Not that she's particularly bad or anything, but the Klummeister isn't particularly good either.. And the song itself? Well, judge for yourself, and Happy Christmas, Day 1

Sigh, it's that time of year again...

Specifically, it's that time of the year when you start hearing the silly "news" reports about Christmas-related things that either are not important:

• How much would those 12 days of Christmas gifts cost? ($78,100, or a little over £100*)
  

or astronomically impossible to figure out:

• Was the Star of Bethlehem a supernova? (possibly) And when did it appear exactly? (most think 6 BC - yes, Christ was born 6 years before Christ) -

or surprisingly have not been tackled yet

• Exactly how much oil would you need to keep a lamp burning for eight nights? (Beats me)

Well here's a new one:

• Exactly what disease did Tiny Tim (the Dickens character, not the singer) have that could've been cured by an infusion of money?

Doctors in-the-know suggest it was either kidney disease, which could have been treated with mid-nineteenth century medicines even though they didn't know exactly what the disease was, or rickets, which could've been alleviated with a stark increase in Vitamin D-rich foods into Tiny Tim's diet. This would've been made possible with a nice infusion of cash from Mr. Scrooge. Granted, they didn't know what Vitamin D actually was back then, but the English had access to foods containing it if there was money to buy it.

Well, I think I' off to have a glass of milk.

*Yes, I'm kidding - it's actually £39, 481.78 (by today's exchange rate of $1.97813 to the pound) - but the way the dollar is faring it sure seems like it, doesn't it?

Has Paula Deen sold her soul to those ham people?

I love this picture.

Forgive me for getting political here, because I try to make it happen as little as possible, but something has been itching at me. Jacob (the Food Network Addict) has brought up a controversy I have only been aware of over the last few weeks. If you didn't know, Paula Deen is a national spokeswoman for Smithfield Ham, a backbone - hambone? - of the nation's ham and pork industry. Smithfield, it turns out, has been having union troubles. This is specifically at its plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina (an appropriately named town, like Crab Cake, Maryland). The controversy, to simplify, is over whether or not there are unsafe workplace conditions (the website Smithfield Justice talks about this in great depth; I tried to find a website that spouses the opposite viewpoint, but all I've found so far is the actual Smithfield site itself). Much of what Smithfield has done is, well, this (from the New York Times):

Smithfield, for example, has run a flood of television advertisements boasting that the company is a good, safe place to work. The advertisements aim to persuade [North and South] Carolinians to apply for jobs and to counter arguments made by a union trying to organize the plant that Smithfield jobs are high stress and unsafe, with stingy benefits.

They've also had immigration crackdowns after hiring illegal immigrants to work there, leading to 21 arrests and an outflux of Hispanic laborers (from the same article, leading to a spike in wages, as well as a turnover rate among legal immigrant and non-immigrant laborers that is over twice that of illegal immigrant laborers, according to this article).

Amid all this controversy comes Smithfield spokeswoman Paula Deen. She is starting to irritate people for other reasons, and even I admit, that whole fried stuffing thing was a shark-jumping moment for her. So I was curious to hear what she had to say about this controversy when I found out about it. I must be dense or something - there were protesters outside the recent Metro Cooking Show in DC, but I did not see them. I don't know where they were, or maybe I thought they were somebody else. There must be something wrong with me because I did not see them. But I did hear Paula on NPR's Diane Rehm Show. After talking about her life story, Paula got smacked by callers about her relationship with Smithfield. The typical comment to Paula Deen was "You are compassionate, so why aren't you showing compassion for the union workers? / Why won't you meet with them or listen to their grievances?" Paula's typical response is the same one she gave on a recent interview on a Savannah TV station (quoted frm Food Network Addict):

You wouldn't come to me if you had a brain tumor and said please, operate on my tumor, cut it out. No, you wouldn't come to me for that. I wouldn't come to a union organizer to help me develop recipes in my kitchen or to help me come in and cook. I want people who know what they're doing and I have no knowledge of those kind of issues.

Now, I do like Paula Deen (despite the fried cake thing), and I think she's a sincere woman. At least she seems like it to me. So I hope her critics are wrong. But if you're a spokesperson for a company that has some issues, you're going to be the face of those issues whether you want to be or not. It truly seems as if Paula is just dodging the issue altogether. True, on NPR she did say that she met with a small group of workers from the Tar Heel plant and they seemed to be happy with no union at all. But does that explain the letter sent by pro-union folks at the plant? (Or are they even from the plant in the first place?) I admit, union support and membership has run in my family for several generations, so my opinions on the Tar Heel controversy are going to be skewed. But what is the spokesperson's role in all this? My take, in a comment on Jacob's blog, sums up where my thoughts are on the Paula Deen issue:

...She strikes me as sincere, but part naive [in wanting to believe what Smithfield is saying] and part "better not piss off the overlords at Smithfield". If you're a celebrity profiting off a big company with serious questions about how it treats its staff, you should indeed be held accountable. She likes to play the dumbass, but I doubt she's as stupid as she claims to be. Either she needs to come right out and say, "I have no problem with how Smithfield treats its employees and they should thank their lucky stars they even have jobs" or admit, "Yep, I admit Smithfield is really hurting its workers at its Tar Heel, NC, plant, and I must sadly part company with them until they treat them with the dignity they deserve." This "Oh-I-don't-know-nuthin'-I'm-just-a-simple-girl-from-Savannah [correction, Albany, Georgia]" schtick is not working.

In truth, Paula does try to portray herself as not-too-bright - she very literally did that at the Metro Cooking Show, for example - "Michael's the smart one!" However, I get the impression she's very smart - you have to be at least a little savvy to keep your family off the streets, start your own business and become a major television star, all with a clinical diagnosis of agoraphobia. So I do think Paula knows what she's doing. She may be in a difficult place to do anything about it. If I were in the same boat, I'd hope I'd take a hike from Smithfield. But who can say if we're not in that situation? Still, trying to take no side at all? Come on, Paula, you have to have some opinion. Thoughts?

Hop's Out, Pop: The International Hop Crisis

Just read this on the DC Foodies website: this is disturbing for all those who love beer.

Christmas Lights, Christmas Nights

NB: One last post from the road - I wrote this Friday morning before check-out. I've made some edits since.

Just caught CBS's Early Show - yes, I am one of the 753 people around the country that watches it instead of Today or GMA (it's a Don-and-Marty lead in; Richmond's Don-and-Marty (Virginia This Morning)? A bit more "sedate" - like WJZ on weekend mornings). They interviewed this fella Bruce Littlefield (absolutely adorable man*) who put out this book Merry Christmas, America! about THE most over-the-top Christmas lights. Here's the link to the full 6-and-a-quarter minute video (on CBS News' website).

He specifically mentioned Baltimore's lights (not by street, but they showed 34th Street) and Richmond's (which I got a gander at last night). He said they do "Tacky Light Tours" in Richmond. I wish I had known that, because I would've been all over that. I am sure there are some lovely lights in this city. Unfortunately, I mostly just saw some eye-poppingly SloPpY ones. At least three literally looked like they just took whole strings of Christmas lights, closed their eyes and just threw them on to the front of the building. Again, I wish I had hooked up with one of these tours and seen some good ones - unless, of course, the tacky lights in question ARE the bad ones I saw last night!

On a different tangent: OMG I am watching this white woman perform the most HIDEOUS interpretive hip-hop-esque dance to various songs, including Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas", on Richmond's Virginia This Morning right this second. It's about 8:55, and it's part-embarrassing, part-MST3K-worthy, and part-godawful. I hope and pray someone puts this on YouTube. In lieu of that, here's a clip of Bruce showing you how to quickly and tastefully decorate your home for the holidays, this time on Today:



* I doubt you'll ever read this, Bruce, but yes - I am flirting just a wee bit

Virginia Road Trip Part IV: New York Deli

I went back to Carytown for some lunch and a little bit of shopping. And again I was going on Kurt's recommendations. His one big suggestion for lunch would not have been an obvious one to me in the former Capital of the Confederacy. But in the end, I went to the New York Deli and had a lovely lunch.

The place has character - lots of art deco and bar-style decorations with a counter directly facing a large mirror and well-stocked bar. There were also tables, but after some confusion I just sat at the counter. The woman behind it immediately came to my aid with a menu (talk about service). For a drink I settled on unsweetened iced tea (about $1.50) - this way I could sweeten it with as much sugar-free stuff as possible (sugary drinks do not like my system, sadly). The refills were free (an uncommon thing these days). I had two of these while I waited for my main course, for about, oh, twenty minutes.

For that main course, I ordered one of their oft-requested Reubens (about $8.00) with some fries (again, the waitress' recommendation). I could see why it took so long to make - OMG, it was huge! I doubted that I could finish it! This Reuben had sauerkraut, Swiss cheese on top, cheddar cheese sandwiched in between two kinds of meat, corned beef and pastrami, all on rye bread with crispy, crusty fries and a large pickle wedge. And except for a stray strand of dried-out pastrami, it was delicious. If you find yourself in Richmond for whatever reason, get thee to Carytown and head straight for the New York Deli.

Afterwards I headed back to Baltimore, getting stuck in hhhoooorrrrrrible rush hour traffic about half an hour south of Alexandria. Once in Maryland, though, it was pretty smooth sailing. At least I had these purchases to reflect upon:

• A lemon zester from the Compleat Gourmet for $3. It was certainly a steal because: 1) this place jacks up most of its other prices; and 2) Bed, Bath and Beyond AND Williams-Sonoma have the EXACT SAME THING for $8 and $20 respectively. I also got a vanilla bean for $1.50 and another item that is a Christmas present for my sister, who is probably reading this right now so I can't tell her what it is;
• exploding "bath bombs" from Soak (3 small ones for $12);
• Two old CDs of Crowded House and the Mavericks for $3 each, as well as a DVD of one of my favorite MST3K'd movies, Parts: the CLONUS Horror, ($10, but it's the original movie so no bitchy commentary), at Plan 9 Music;
• And some ice cream to finish my trip at Bev's Ice Cream - Bev's Brownie sundae, with two large scoops of any particular ice cream, whipped cream and two other toppings (one of your choice) all on top of a brownie, goes for $5.50 before tax, just over $6 after (it's the cheapest thing you can buy in order to use a debit or credit card).

And that's it! This whole Jamestown-Richmond trip was a very long time in coming, but it's finally happened, and it was quite nifty. Pictures of Jamestown will follow, but I'll throw in some of Carytown, night and day, here:

This is the delicious and HOT lamb vindaloo from my dinner at Farouk's House of India the night before. The hottest stuff, according to the menu, "will bring you tears". Is it that bad?

Perhaps the most appropriately-named business on the street.

The interior of the New York Deli. That clock advertises A&P.

So... ya got a public restroom?

And there's this last one, with these cute doggies just lounging around, waiting for their owner (No, I refuse to call them "pet parents" - I loves me kitty, and I'd put him on the rescue boat before I got in. But I am his owner! Get over it!)

Virginia Road Trip Part III: Museum-a-Go-Go

Yet another reason to avoid the Comfort Inn Executive Center: their absolutely free continental breakfast ends at 9 AM - 15 minutes after I was packed and out of my room >:( On the plus side: at least there was a Waffle House next door. On the minus side: it was either that or the Taco Bell.

So I was out of Der Waffle Housen by 9:45 and on my way into Richmond. I stopped by a few museums before I hit Carytown again for lunch. First stop: the Museum of the Confederacy. This building is seemingly being engulfed on all sides by the VCU Medical Center, which offers parking so it wasn't so bad. Richmond was the Confederate capital, and the Confederate White House is right next door. The MOC is the source for all your Confederate memorabilia and history. Well okay, not all of it, but every Civil War battle, shot and bit of bloodshed (including the Baltimore Riots in April 1861) is documented in maps, and all the major battles have artifacts behind glass. Some interesting things I found out:

• There's a big statue of a rockfish (Mmmm. Rockfish.) painted in Confederate designs on the porch of the MOC. Rockfish are big in Virginia, too;
  
• The two-story entrance room has every Confederate flag you can imagine, plus the flags of all the states that either seceded or considered doing so. Wouldn't ya' know, Maryland's flag is nestled in with the rest (NB: we considered secession until Abraham Lincoln prevented it - not a good idea to have Washington engulfed in Confederate territory);
  
• The regent at the desk, a pleasant woman, told me that the legend about Jefferson Davis being captured in a dress is simply not true, contra the misconceptions of some of their Northern visitors. I myself have never heard that; neither has my father, who is a big Civil War buff;
• They made a reconstruction of Gen. Lee's tent, but you can't go inside it - it's behind glass;
• There were quite a few African-Americans, free and enslaved, who served on the sidelines in the Confederate army (some by choice, others not) - not allowed to fully join as soldiers until the last few weeks. Some blacks joined the army if they could "pass" as white;
• Because this is Virginia, there is an entire floor chronicling the Dominion's role in the Civil War;
• There is more about Maryland in the MOC than I expected, including not just our flag and relevant artifacts from Antietam, but also artwork by artist Allen Christian Redwood, a Virginia soldier who got injured, recovered, and joined Maryland's 1st Confederate Cavalry (he later became a celebrated writer and illustrator for the New York-based Harper's Magazine). There are also a few CD's of Civil War songs, several of which feature renditions of our own state song, "Maryland, My Maryland" - about those same Bawlmer Riots. Plus, the women who sewed the prototype for the Confederate flag? They were from Baltimore (Everything seems to stem from Baltimore);
  
• Admission to the WHOC is just as expensive as the MOC ($8), and it's tour-guide-guided only, so I opted out. Who needs a tour guide?
  

After buying a commemorative Stonewall Jackson pin (Christmas present) I headed to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which my friend Kurt highly recommended to me. It's not on par with, say, the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the National Gallery of Art in DC - this is more of a Walters Art Museum or BMA-quality place. One problem: half of it was closed. And it wasn't just one whole wing, but a room here, a room there - everywhere I turned there was a shuttered gate blocking my easy passage into "Chinese and Japanese Art", for example. And the half that was closed was all the stuff I would've found interesting! But at least it was free (more than I can say for the MOC). I still managed to see some interesting things:

• Of what I did see, it was a standard fine art museum: about 3/5 of it is devoted to European art of the last 500 years, another 1/10 to American art done in the same style, and the rest dedicated to European art of the Renaissance and before (not counting the sprinkling of objects here and there from Burma and Gabon);
• The one exception was a special exhibit on "Mystery" which featured art, furniture and costume from around the world all dedicated to the idea of hiding behind masks;
  
• The largest collection of Fabergé eggs outside of Russia is in the VMFA, including some gaudy fakes;
• A large collection of English silver is also featured, though I found this a bit less interesting than the eggs;
• A small collection of Medieval sculptures and such, including a macabre sculpture of St. Denis carrying his head (Oh, those wacky medieval artists!);

I was done with museums after that. I headed back to Carytown for some lunch.

Other photos:

Flags (and Woulda-Been Flags) of the Confederacy - Find Maryland's

Because sometimes, ya just gotta use flash...

On Jefferson Davis' front lawn

The purtiest of all those Fabergé boxes, in my opinion

Excuse me, can I check this?

An Egungun costume from the Yoruba culture, no mask - but do you need one?

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) painted this. It's called "Tropical Landscape - An American Indian Struggling with a Gorilla" (1910). Um, does anybody know what's wrong with this picture?

Dude, is it cold in here?

Virginia Roadtrip Part II: Farouk's House of India

NB: I wrote this post this morning in my hotel room. Photos to follow.

Just one note for your travel planning: if internet access is a big thing for you in booking a motel, avoid the Comfort Inn Executive Center. Despite what they advertise, it doesn't work.

Tourists to Richmond usually head to the Shockoe Slip area. I don't know why, because I've never seen it. All recommendations, however, were for the Carytown section of town. This is where the locals prefer to go. It's got lots of fun shops and restaurants, kind of like Richmond's version of Federal Hill or Hampden's Avenue (perhaps a better analogy is Georgetown). It's also not too far from the Virginia Commonwealth University, making it a hip place for college students to go. I went there for dinner; it's no surprise that I intend to go back today.

There was a large handful of dining options available to me last night, and me, Mr. I-Can't-Make-a-Decision-to-Save-My-Life, had to walk up and down Cary Street to find where I wanted to eat. My friend suggested a place, but I'm holding off on it until lunch (more on that in the next post). Some of the stores I did see (also more on those in the next post) just dazzled me - a lot of window shopping opportunities. But the restaurants ranged from McDonald's (bleeaaahhh) to the super-fancy Acacia, a locally popular restaurant that offers regional cuisine. I hardly opened the door before I stopped, saw how everyone was dressed, and realized that it would probably cost me just to sniff the wine cork. I went elsewhere.

Passing various Thai places, French restaurants, sushi bars, ice cream parlors, delis and BBQ joints, I finally made a decision and went for Indian. And I made a good choice this time. Farouk's House of India has been around for over 30 years, and I'm not surprised that they're still around. It was small and sparsely settled, but many places are like that on a Thursday night. The waitress gave me some water as I perused the menu. Since I was unfamiliar with the place, I decided to just order some standbys. This time, that meant vindaloo. I got the lamb version for $14 (they have three heat levels; I got the second one, their "sweat" level). To go with that I ordered some garlic naan ($3) and veggie samosas ($4).

The samosas came out first. These were delicious - some of the better ones I have had. The crust was buttery and the filling was not all filler; the potatoes were also buttery, though the peas were an afterthought. Even better was the coriander chutney that went with it; I also used the onion salsa that came with the papadums the brought out first - these were on the house.

Then came the vindaloo. Not the hottest I've tasted, but it did make me sweat, that's for damn sure. It was hot and tangy, with okay-sized pieces of lamb. I had to order some lassi ($3) to cut the heat. The vindaloo came with a heaping plate of tender basmati rice. Just at many Indian restaurants, the rice was separate from the vindaloo, each of which I had to scoop together onto my plate. What else can I say? The vindaloo was quite tasty, though the tanginess and sourness of the tomatoes took over at the end. And the garlic naan was perhaps the best I have had in a very long time. It sounds absurd to say "Oh, the garlic naan was so garlicky!" But relative to most that I have had, it was. Intense garlic and butter flavor, and not in the least bit dried out.

All of this northwest Indian goodness was for all of $25 - for the same amount, I could've gotten an entrée and nothing else at that faincy Acacia Restaurant I passed on earlier. After tip that came to $29 - more than I wanted to pay, but less than I could have paid, and about as much as I have paid for a nice dinner out. It is, however, motivating me to not head down to Der local Waffle Housen for breakfast but to save my money and hit the complimentary buffet they have here (which is in a separate building - don't stay at this hotel if that's a problem, people; just don't).

Virginia Roadtrip Part I: Jamestown

NB: I wrote this last night in my hotel room that proved to be internet-proof. Photos to follow.

Here I am writing from my motel-with-alleged-wireless-access in Richmond, having just drove from Jamestown - the national historic site, not the nifty recreation. The drive was eventless enough, and I got some excellent gas mileage, too - 33 mpg in my little old Ford with 123K+ miles on it (instead of the usual 23 mpg). Though I did manage to get almost to Jamestown without stopping. I saw a place called the Jamestown Pie Company (you can also order online) and did a U-ee. I had to try it, and I hadn't had lunch.

There are tables outside, and you order just by going to a rustic, charming little take-out window surrounded by country wallpaper, old signs advertising sugar and flour and, well, pies. My, they have lots of stuff there. They sell three types of things: dessert pies, which you can order whole or in slices (less variety in the slices), pot pies, which come in individual and family-size, and pizzas, which come in small (12"), large (14") and slices (again, little variety in the slices). There was LOTS of variety in the whole pies, and lots of them were heavy on the crab (it IS right off the James River, branching off that same Chesapeake Bay that we call home). The young lady behind the counter, probably a student at William & Mary (the nearest college) recommended the inappropriately-named Au Gratin pot pie ($7.50), chock full of crab meat, scallops and shrimp. Along with that I ordered their locally famous pecan pie ($13) to take home, of which they had lots of little bite-size samples in sealed off condiment containers. I snuck two while they weren't looking. I mean, c'mon, it was free!

As for the pot pie: very good at first, though it wasn't as good in retrospect. Still, it was filling, crustless on the top and literally piled out of the open pie crust. The crust was a little dry but mildly buttery. Still, I wasn't ordering it for the crust. The scallops and crab were delicious and SO meaty. It was a pie that was otherwise bland (though I think it was filled with that fifth "umami" (meaty) taste the Western scientists are now talking about). I'd probably get it again.

Getting into Historic Jamestown was difficult, mostly because I ignored the street signs and paid attention instead to my usually-accurate-but-occasionally-misinformed GPS. It picks the most irritating times to misdirect me, and this was one of them. But I made it with 2 and a half hours before closing! I will follow with pictures, but it's beyond words. I saw, among other things:

• the main church inside the reconstructed James Fort, itself a reconstruction from 1907 to commemorate the tricentennial of Jamestown;
• numerous archaoelogical units all over the smallish area, including a very deep . These guys have so much left to uncover, and are getting precious little money from the feds. The happy-fun Jamestown Settlement, a family-fun reconstruction with its own little Powhatan village (named for the local chiefdom-confederacy of the same name, which also shared its name with the powerful leader Powhatan, father of Pocahontas), gets the lionshare of the funds, leaving the archaeologists out in the cold (the archaeologist I overheard seemed a little miffed over this - hell, I would be too);
• two museums, including the introductory one that gives a brief overview of what you will see in Jamestown (also including a very cool timeline of Jamestown history, from 10,000 BC's Clovis tools to the settlement in 1607 to the current 400th anniversary), and the "Archaearium" (they ought to change that idiotic name) - a modernish glass-and-copper (the latter in homage to the local Indians who prized copper) structure that houses many newly-found artifacts, two skeletons and a computer simulation that superimposes the colonial buildings in their various forms onto the current site (my friend Kurt - the same one that gave me all those recommendations - knows the guy who made that multimedia presentation - he stressed that I should go see that);
• many, many ruins, many of which were of the "still-standing foundations" variety, low enough that I could just step over them to get from "room" to grassy "room"
• the Ambler House, which was lived in in some form until the 19th century, unlike everything else which saw its sun set around 1699, when the colonial capital moved from Jamestown to nearby Williamsburg (those bastards)
• the bucolic drive around the Island upon which Jamestown's ruins rest.
• and the Glasshouse of 1608, which shows excavated kilns nestled snugly in the woods. It seems that 400 years ago, wood was what they used to heat the furnaces in the glassmakers' houses, and there was plenty of it in Virginia in 1607. I bought an "amethyst" beer mug ($20!!!) made by the glassblower on site, though not made at that specific location but about 12 miles down the road. It is still pretty cool, although it MUST be hand-washed, cannot be microwaved and can NEVER be used for hot beverages, as heat will help to release all the lead that goes into the mug. They assure me, however, that it is perfectly safe to drink cold beverages in - you can even freeze it! I'll remember that.
  

So I ended right at closing, around 5 PM, and took the scenic route (VA-5 instead of I-64) back to Richmond. It would've made more sense to do that during the daytime, when I could've seen everything better. Oh well, dinner beckons. So do photos, which will come later.

Road Trip: Jamestown and Richmond

I leave tomorrow for an overnight to Richmond with a stopover in Jamestown, currently celebrating its 400th anniversary. I will try to write when I can. I'm lucky that my friend Kurt in Redlands, CA, who was born and raised just outside of Richmond, gave me lots of good tips on what to see and where to eat, plus the most scenic route between Jamestown and Richmond. He even advised me on what to see at Jamestown: the re-creation or the "island" (he strongly suggested the "island", which is much more up my alley anyway). Right now I'm staying at my parents' house, because they are half an hour closer to Virginia than is my lowly apartment.

On the other hand, I have this nagging feeling that I left the computer on.

Damn, now I'm going to have to go and see if I did. Stupid OCD >:(

UPDATE - Yep, dummy did leave the monitor on, though not the computer. Great, 48 extra hours worth of money for damn BG&E

The Fresh Market

I took a shortcut home via Exit 22 (nope, not reporting on it yet), and ran across this place called The Fresh Market. This chain covers just about every state below the Mason-Dixon Line (sans West Virginia), as well as Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes. It looks like what would happen if Whole Foods and Trader Joe's had a love child and then moved to a more upscale neighborhood. And the prices match. Just about everything is more expensive there. I found myself muttering, "Damn, Whole Foods is actually cheaper than this place!" But WF also looks more trailer trashy after setting foot in TFM.

So imagine my surprise when I find that the one thing that is cheaper than most other places would have it is their ready-to-eat sushi. I picked up a smoked salmon Philly roll covered in tiny red fish eggs for $5.50. Of course, when I looked at the ingredients to see what kind of fish laid those eggs, all my eyes noticed was "high fructose corn syrup" nestled in with the rest of the ingredients (bleeeah). So much for sushi being healthy.

It was probably still healthier than the little petit four I got of the little white chocolate snowman in seated position, for $1.50.

Firefly!?!?

Thanks to our Neighborhood Librarian for this quiz. I've never watched the show Firefly, but it looked interesting and lo and behold:

Which Firefly character are you?

You are Captain Malcolm Reynolds, aka. Mal or Captain Tightpants. You saw most of your men die in a war you lost and now you seek solitude with a small crew that you are fiercely devoted to. You have no problems being naked. Take this quiz! Damn I'm gorgeous.

Gummy Bear Dance Party

I could swear I saw this on the TVs at the Hippo. It sure sounds like something they'd play.

Ah, Sweet, Sweet Rest!

Well, everything is done work and schoolwise, FINALLY! Now I can start decorating, er, putting up the tree, well, perpare the much-smaller-than-Thanksgiving menu... oy, I've got some work ahead of me. Too bad we don't stretch Christmas out over twelve whole days like they do in the UK, so I could procrastinate for, oh, eleven more days.

Speaking of which, my favorite Christmas song ever, performed by little Lego people...



That's my favorite one, but it doesn't come close in weirdness to the varied assortment of videos made for this song from the bits and pieces of various Japanimation cartoons. It's like a whole sub-genre. Here's one where the person hobbled parts of different cartoons together and did something with them, I don't know. They made the characters' mouths all move as if they were saying the actual words in the song. Nifty!

Exit 20: MD-140 (to Pikesville and Garrison)

Have you ever noticed how irritating Reisterstown Road is? Driving-wise, I mean. I went there around 1:30 on Friday looking for some food. The line of traffic extended out of the exit ramp and onto the Beltway. At 1:30 in the afternoon. And it's a pretty long exit ramp, too. Of course, that's not the worst of it. You still have to contend with traffic on Reisterstown Road itself. It took me 15 minutes to drive from the exit to just past the library. I do not know why this stretch of road is so horrible to drive, but you should bring a book or something. You're going to be stuck immobile in traffic that long. Imagine how irritated I got when I realized I left my debit card and all my money in my apartment which was 20 minutes in the other direction, prompting me to drive all the way home to get it and start over.

By the time got back to Pikesville, it was about 2:30. I figured I had to hustle, because in just a few short hours it would be sundown. And in Pikesville - a center of Baltimore County's (and City's) Jewish community - many of the delis, bagel places and kosher markets and close down shop as of Friday night, staying closed through Saturday as Jewish observance requires. Being Catholic and hungry, it did not hit me that the businesses would actually close a few hours ahead so they could finish cleaning up after closing - not just shuttering the business just before sundown and walking home (you can tell I've never run a business). This hadn't hit me when I finally pulled into Liebe's New York Delicatessen (map), a place I have gone just once or twice before, and not too recently. The doors and windows were shuttered and a real estate sign was in the window. My first thought: "Oh, I guess it's shuttered down for good." So I drove off to find the Goldberg's New York Bagels (map - their website links to Google Maps, too) - also closed. It still did not click - it just seemed like I had run into a string of closed-down delis and bagelerias. My next stop was another deli, Shlomo's Kosher Meats (map) about 2:45, and got out to find - yep - it was closed. So was the place next door, the Knish Shop (map - check out a very recent review here from the KosherCritic; if it's the same one, they also sell subs). I was quickly figuring out the pattern: everyone closes early on Friday - I mean early, to make sure they aren't even around the store when it hits sundown.

I got to one last kosher business, this one open until 3 (pretty late on Friday). Sion's Bakery (map) is your standard small bakery, with cakes and tons of cookies. There were probably other things on display but, of course, it was certainly put away by the time I got there. I opened the door just as the gentleman came out of the kitchen ready to lock the front door. I asked the "stupid sign" question - "You're closed, huh?" They were about to, but the nice guy let me buy some cookies! I got one chocolate top ($6.49/lb) and two raspberry butter cookie sandwiches. Fortunately I had just enough change to pay for that (I asked the nice man to put the other cookie away). My verdict on the chocolate top? OMG. This was the best chocolate top cookie I have eaten all year, period. Better than Geresbeck's, and y'all know how much I love their chocolate tops. They tell me they're their most popular cookie (Geresbeck's, not Sion's). And now I have to wait until Sunday or even Monday to go back and get more :( The flavor was just so wonderful, all buttery and chocolatey. The raspberry cookies were okay, but I usually like more jelly in mine.

Reconciled to the fact that any kosher food would have to wait until after Saturday, I sought out other cuisines. I had passed by many places, all surrounding the legendary but now-defunct Backfin Restaurant. Among others: the Pikes Diner (map - too much traffic to stop), Mr. Chan's Szechuan Restaurant (map), and the Sunfresh Produce Market (can't find a map - hey I can't even find an address) that opened up since the last time I passed through. I might have stopped in, but I wanted ready-made food and if I went in the market I'd come out with about $50 worth of organic things that I could get for $17 inorganically at Giant (or $32 at the Trader Joe's in the opposite direction). But I eventually stopped at the Mari Luna Mexican Grill (map). I ate here once a few years ago. I got some pork pupusas there but got sick off of them (or the cole slaw they gave me, I don't know). Enough time had passed, and I reasoned it was just a fluke.

Mari Luna, right across from the Safeway and next to a Dominican hair place, sells delicious Mexican dishes (and the occasional Salvadoran dish - to with, their delish pupusas). And the decor is bright and colorful, with deep yellow walls and a rich blue ceiling. The awning over the window into their kitchen has a tile awning over it with some stuffed roosters and chili lights strung across the edge. There was even a mini chili Christmas tree up by their front "desk" thing.

Perusing the menu I found lots of familiar offerings, as well as various dishes named after places in Western Mexico - Jalisco (the state where Guadalajara and all those mariachis come from), Uruapan (a small city in Michoacán state). And I saw those pupusas again ($7). But I wanted more, so I eyed the appetizer platter ($14). I would've gotten it, too, had my eyes not landed on the torta de milanesa (Milanese-style "sub sandwich," $9). Tortas are popular in Mexico, but the milanesa was something I hadn't seen since I left Morelia seven years ago. I was a student at a language school, and the mother of the house often made milanesa de res (beef Milanese). This was basically a tender breaded and fried steak of beef. I was so struck by nostalgia that I forewent the sampler and ordered the torta and a side of the pupusas. The torta came with Mexican waffle fries an two types of salsa. After 20 minutes it was done.

I broke out the torta and found it cut conveniently into three sections. At around 3:30, in my car in the Mari Luna parking lot, I took one of those torta sections, wrapped it in a napkin and had my very belated lunch. Again, a delicious eating experience. The torta had hot cheese stringing off of it, and two layers of juicy breaded beef covered in tomato, lettuce, mayo and that cheese (mozzarella, I think). I had more a few hours later when I got home (I took a scenic route and got lost, alright?) and dipped it and the fries into both of those delicious salsas, a very mild tomatillo dressing and a smooth toasty and spicy red pepper sauce, in a different league than your typical sour tangy hot sauce.

So I did luck out after all, by finding that torta. But I must come back and visit all those delis again, sometime outside of Friday afternoon or Saturday. Especially to get those cookies.

Other photos:

Here are the leftovers from Mari Luna - the pupusa (not so great the second day), the torta de milanesa (still good, though soggy out of a microwave) and Mexican fries, all with those two lovely salsas.

It's kind of falling apart, innit?

I take many of these photos from my car - mostly because I'm too lazy to get out, and people might think it's weird that some guy just pulls up and begins to snap photos of their business. When I got to Shlomo's I didn't bother to leave my car, because I had already assumed they were closed before I even turned it off.

Not food-related - I just like the photo, which I took from my car in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, which serves as a handy shortcut from Reisterstown Road all the way to Exit 21 (Yes, I used it. Sue me.)

And of course, the famous Backfin, as the sun sets on thirty-plus years of crabs, hon

Places I visited:

Mari Luna Mexican Grill (Mexican) -102 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 486-9910

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? ¡Sí, es cierto!

Sion's Bakery (kosher / bakery) - 302 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (443) 548 0370

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Heck yeah!
  

Places to look up later:

Goldberg's New York Bagels (kosher / bagels) - 1498 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 415-7001

Liebe's New York Delicatessen (kosher / deli) -607 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 653-1977

Mr. Chan's Szechuan Restaurant (Chinese / Szechuan) - 1000 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 484-1100

The Knish Shop (kosher / subs) - 508 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 484-5850

Pikes Diner (diner) - 921 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 653-5545

Shlomo's Kosher Meat and Fish Market (market - kosher / seafood) - 506 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 415-6602

Sunfresh Produce Market (market - produce) - can't find the address. Could somebody help me out here?


For Mari Luna Mexican Grill