Nak Won

I called up my friends Alan and Eric (Eric has started reading this blog more and more lately) to suggest a night out. I remember Alan suggesting a trip to Nak Won (look at this amazing review), near our most recent excursion to Baltimore's mini-Koreatown, when we went to Jong Kak with another friend. Sadly, he didn't join us. He did not take to Korean food too well. In fact, he couldn't stop freaking out about our visit to Jong Kak. I mean that in a bad way. The rest of us loved it but he freaked out. To each his own. Alan had heard that Nak Won has excellent pajeon, and I was game to try it.

When we got into Nak Won, I noticed that it was perhaps the most sparsely decorated Korean restaurant I have seen here, save for some random soju posters and a pattern of bricks exposed in the wall resembling some little man running around with a bouquet of flowers. Eric was initially deterred by the simplistic English translations for only some of the menu items, and none for the rest. The easiest solution: ask the waitress what some of this stuff was. I wound up asking her what she would recommend. She said that the seafood pajeon was a favorite of the patrons, most of whom were young Korean-Americans, and almost all of whom were speaking English. That is unremarkable, except that I was surprised at the sheer lack of Korean being spoken in the restaurant. Most Korean places I've been in are aflutter with Korean conversations. Not Nak Won.

The barbeque was also highly recommended. So we got two orders of the BBQ ($20 each) to share amongst the three of us (I did suggest just one in case we over-ordered, but noooooooo), and one seafood pajeon ($17 about $15), a large, thick, crispy Korean pancake that's about as large as a large pizza, and feeds as many people. In addition we got two bottles of crisp Hite (hi-tay) beer to share.

Everything was wonderful. The panchan was interesting and the waitress helped us by quizzing us to see if we could figure out what each bowl comprised (she didn't test us on the kimchee, which was fairly obvious). Among the more interesting and surprising ones were green beans in a shrimp paste sauce, gelatin slices topped with chili sauce, and slices of marinated fish cake with carrot slices.

Panchan, panchan everywhere

The BBQ came immediately after that, raw and cooked at the table with a portable table top grill. All the beef was juicy and sweet, a grade-A certified vegan nightmare. There was more than enough, as I feared. Though that would turn into a plus.

OMGWTFKoreanBBQ!

Then came the pajeon, which was indeed crispy without being very greasy. I tried to tear off pieces with my chopsticks but eventually just gave up and dunked the whole thing in the chili soy sauce provided for the purpose. The individual flavors of the seafood sort of blended together, but I did see some octopus. It was a very tasty dish. And there was so much left over that I not only could not finish the soup that came out next (!) but I got to take the rest of the panchan, pajeon and BBQ home (Eric doesn't do leftovers).

The pajeon, surrounded by various fixin's, including lettuce for wrapping the BBQ pieces. They also gave us thin slices of large radish that were as wide as a tennis ball, so you could actually wrap the BBQ pieces in them if you wanted to. The stuff in the bottom left corner: raw jalapeño and raw garlic.

The total came to $80 ($96 after tip). We weren't sure which was better, Nak Won or Jong Kak. Each has its pluses. I will say this: I would happily rush back to Nak Won for their pajeon anyday.

Exit 42 - MD-151 (North Point Blvd, to Sparrows Point)

I've gotten as far as I can on North Point Boulevard, as my travels took me right up to the Sparrows Point Industrial Complex. I've never seen it. In fact, I've never seen anything off this exit. I know it's sad, but I have never been to Sparrows Point, Edgemere or North Point State Park. And don't even ask about Fort Howard. It looks as if I'll never see the Sparrows Point Complex, as it has a great big, inviting sign at the entrance that says:

PRIVATE PROPERTY

It seemed like the perfect excuse to do a U-ee and head into the heart of Edgemere, er, Sparrows Point. Actually, where the heck does Edgemere start and Sparrows Point end?

Anyway, Edgemere and Sparrows Point, in my opinion, are pretty little communities. They're right by the water and the North Point State Park. It's almost like our tiny little slice of the Eastern Shore right here in Bawlmer County, hon. And while some exits have been pretty skimpy on the food worth eating, this one has a few hidden food gems that a boy raised in the southwest part of the county would never have even known about.

Before you even get into Edgemere, you find a few dining options on the way towards Sparrows Point. Keep going along North Point Blvd and you eventually pass by the Pizza Roma (map), which looks like it's moving into a brand new location being constructed nearby. Close to that is Micky's Package Liquor (map), your typical liquor store / deli / hot wings / Maryland Lottery place. Here I got some Western fries ($2), which were okay, though not as good as many I have tasted made from scratch in some gas stations and grocery stores. Back when Eddies had a Lansdowne location, we always got Western fries there. But that was 25 years ago. I think it's an IGA now. Do they still have those fries? Anyway, I only finished about half of the ones from Micky's.

Why we call them "Western fries" I will never know. I know they don't call them that out West.

I finally headed onto the North Point Peninsula - and more Defenders' Day signs - and on to Edgemere and Sparrows Point proper. Here I found more than a few dining options to help me wash down those Western fries. Strangely, most of these businesses looked like they were closed. No cars (not even of employees), no lights, no foot traffic, etc. Maybe things just close early in Sparrows Point?

• The Edgerock Cafe (map) looks like a fun place to get some food. I can find little about it beyond customers rating it about 4 out of 5 stars. Not a lot of customers either.
  
• JJ & Mina's Cookie Cafe (map) also had no traffic around it, but that's probably due to the time of day. Their new website prominently displays their motto "Glorifying God Through Cookies", which is ironic since their cookies look deliciously sinful. The pineapple upsidedowncake cookie alone is worth investigating, not to mention their many chocolate and chocolate chip creations. They also serve breakfast and lunch.
  
• Capt. Jimmy's Crab House (map) seems to have two very close locations in Sparrows Point, on North Point Road and Chesapeake. It's the second crab house I have found in this area with a $1 crab day. The Salty Dog (Exit 41) has them on Tuesdays, and Capt. Jimmy's - at least the North Point Road location - has 'em on Wednesdays.
• The Edgemere Wok (map) looked closed to me. It seems like another unassuming little Chinese restaurant.
• Then there is Maria's Pizzeria and Carry-Out, which may also be called "Thee Maria's" (map). It's a very unassuming pizzeria and sub shop - but mostly a pizzeria - at the end of a motel. I think it's a motel anyway. I put it in the back of my mind for later.
  

I headed further towards Miller's Island Road and North Point State Park, passing the Bay Shore Bar & Grill (map), a place that touts 1/2 price burgers on Tuesdays (take that, City Café) and $8 shrimp on Wednesdays. I made a stop at the little produce stand on the other side of the intersection, near a small sign that pointed out that Fort Howard was only 3 miles away. They had some expensive fresh food and some very cheap fresh food. I got a humongous tomato for just 75 cents. Just one blemish and the price drops half from $1.50. If it weren't so out of the way for me, I would be there often. The folks are friendly, and the woman was cheerfully apologetic when she saw me there waiting. No skin off of my tomato!

The tomato

I could have gone to Miller's Island, but instead I cut things short and went back into Sparrows Point. After much deliberation, I finally stopped at Maria's. You don't expect it to smell so good, but it did smell wonderful, more so than most pizzerias I've visited. The painted sign has chalkboard strips next to each entry, updated as the price changes or as dishes run out. In fact, at least two menu options had no price but simply said "OUT". Empty pizza boxes were piled out of the way everywhere, while a small little dessert case caught my attention a little too late for me to order any of the cake slices held inside.

For all of less than $5 I got a slice of cheese pizza ($2), a hot dog covered in ketchup, mustard and raw onions (around $1.75) and a can of Diet Coke (less than $1).

The perfect dinner

The hot dog was alright, a little messy with all those onions falling everywhere. The flavor and texture were above average. Of course I happily ate it since I love hot dogs, and only a truly awful hot dog will turn me off. This is by no means a bad hot dog. It's just not a super one. What really shined was the pizza, which was cheesy and had a great flavor and soft, chewy texture. Yes, it was a bit greasy, but that can be overlooked. The crust wasn't overly doughy, something which irritates me about many pizzas I eat. I'll have to go back and try some of the others, though I'll have to buy them whole (only cheese and pepperoni are offered by the slice). The one that intrigued me the most: the anchovy pizza, which sounds like my kinda pizza!

Other photos -

Just about the most popular historical flag in the Baltimore area. It's not the Live Free or Die flag (which I've rarely seen around these parts). It's not the Confederate flag (which I've seen around town more often than you might think). It's the 15-star flag we had during the War of 1812. This one is hung on an overpass around Exit 42 or 41.

En route to the Industrial Complex. Most of that smudginess is not coming from my windshield this time.

The road to Fort Howard, Miller's Island and Scenic North Point State Park

If you can see this view, you are at that produce stand I was talking about.

It looks even fresher when you're right there.

It's Edgemere! It's Sparrows Point! It's Edgemere!! It's Sparrows Point!! AAAAAAAAAAA!

Could someone tell me what this is? I only got the chance to pass by it. It's next to the Food Lion near the middle school. I not only cannot find it online but can't even figure out what it's called!

Places I visited -

Maria's Pizzeria and Carry-Out (pizza / subs / Italian / Greek) - 7111 North Point Road , Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-8174

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Maybe for the pizza, not for the hot dogs

Micky's (deli / liquor store) - 5200 North Point Boulevard, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-1696

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

produce stand at Miller's Island Road - intersection of Miller's Island Road and North Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219

• Would I shop there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to shop there again? It's pretty far out of my way to buy produce, so no. But if I was in the area I would.
  

Places to look up later -

Bay Shore Bar & Grill (crabs / bar & grill) - 8214 North Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-1646

Capt. Jimmy's Crab House (crabs / seafood - with a second location on Chesapeake Avenue) - 7214 North Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-0775

Edgemere Wok (Chinese) - 7120 North Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 388-2003

Edgerock Cafe (American) - 2307 Sparrows Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 388-1060

JJ & Mina's Cookie Café, Inc (cookies / American) - 2400 Sparrows Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-5863

Pizza Roma (pizza / Italian) - 2304 Sparrows Point Road, Sparrows Point, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-1722

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A few loose ends on YouTube and elsewhere

1. I finally got back to Salty Dog's for their $1 heavy crab night, while doing recon for Exit 42 (I had never been to Edgemere so I never realized how pretty it is). I bought $5 worth and ate 'em last night during Project Runway. Gooooooood crabs!

Mmmm. Cheap crabs.

2. It is almost impossible to find pre-made mole poblano in the grocery store. No Latino grocery is conveniently close to me so that will be my next stop. Plus, it's a pain in the ass to make it because of all the different ingredients. I did find two jars at the Hampden Super Fresh of La Costeña brand mole. I got it home and tried to stick the spoon in - and it was as hard as a piedra de chocolate. Que será será, I guess.

3. Off topic, and not at all food-related, but you don't usually think of NPR personalities in terms of their good looks. But damn - Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace is a hottie! See him in the pool filming a clip from a waterproof camera with Kevin Pereira, host of G4TV's Attack of the Show. Kev is telling Kai on yesterday's show about all the latest waterproof gadgets that an NPR-head would ever want to buy.



Sorry. I love Marketplace, the only show that makes economics remotely interesting. I've been trying to figure out a way to mention it for months.

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Ten places to eat before you die, a hundred, and so on...

Did you hear about Dave Freeman, the guy who wrote 100 Things to Do Before You Die? He died. Ironically, in an accident in his home in Venice, California, at the tender, surprisingly young age of 47. Which sucks for him.

Speaking of things to do before you die, look at this that I found recently on Yahoo!, courtesy of Andrew Harper. It lists only ten places - namely, ten places to eat at in the US before you die. Unsurprisingly, Maryland crabs are on the list, and they list Cantler's in Annapolis as their favorite place to do it. Some of this stuff is not cheap (again, Cantler's). others, like the perfect hot dog - theirs is near the corner of 53rd and 5th in Manhattan, New York - aren't that expensive.

Yahoo doesn't keep these up long so I'm just going to print it out for safe keeping.

Just on a related tangent: when Googling "100 Things to Do Before You Die", I came upon lots of 100's and 1000's lists. One of them was an extensive food list from Leigh at the "Tales from Bloggeritaville" blog out of Helena, Alabama. She lists, with help from the Alabama Tourism Website, 100 Alabama dishes that you must eat before you die. I've never been to Alabama (though I'm kinda-sorta dating someone from there). This is definitely a motivator to go. Even more so, this is a motivator to do something like that here - an exploration of 100 Maryland dishes that you must eat before you die. I just do not have the time right now (I'm blissfully looking forward to just making it around the Beltway for Chrissakes). But maybe that is a long-term future project, not so much for me but for, say, all of us in the Maryland blogosphere.

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Not as monumental as dancing around the world for chewing gum, but...

My friend Kurt, who is originally from Richmond but now lives in Redlands, California, emailed me this hilarious video last night. It is a whirlwind tour of the major BBQ styles of the South.



Yes, they make fun of most of them because they're from North Carolina. So they obviously say theirs is best. But since when did Kentucky suddenly morph into the shape of Virginia? And what about that California-shaped Florida?

It's just one of 21 videos put out by these two guys Rhett and Link, going on Alka-Seltzer's Great American Road Trip. They travel around the country, exploring the local food of America, both famous - New York street food, chicken and waffles in LA, and, again, Southern BBQ - to the little-known - I had no idea there was a chili competition in San Bernardino, and what's with this wheat grass juice up in Davis? Notice that they conspicuously skipped Baltimore on the way from DC to Philly. What's up with that, hmmm??? It's not like we have anything notable to eat here (crabs, crabcakes, crabs, crabs).

Another funny one I saw (I'm not going to post all of them) is their Maine song. It's just strange.



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City Paper Reader's Po... Hey, where the hell is it?

Maybe I'm slow, but it took me five minutes to find the City Paper Reader's Poll on their website. I guess they really want you to do it by snail mail after all. Screw that! Save a tree and do it here. But hurry: you only have until tomorrow. There's a whole food section.. There's also a favorite local blog section, but I'm not going to shamelessly plug. Most of you would probably nominate yourselves anyway :D

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Festivals of Baltimore: Baltimore Powwow

I had a lot of work to do for work this weekend, but I found a few hours to stop by Patterson Park for the Baltimore Powwow, held by the Baltimore American Indian Center. I went thinking I would just buy some frybread and that's it. I got that and so much more.

I didn't buy any stuff per se. Oh, I wanted to. My God, I wanted to! Everything from beautifully crafted Native American crafts to dream catcher-shaped crapola to witty red, white and blue bumper stickers such as "My heroes kill cowboys" with a line drawing of a Native American man were all just whispering "Buuuuy meeeee!" Sadly, I only had enough money for food. Actually, I wanted to save my money, though the food cost so much that I just couldn't get out with much, if at all.

Before I headed over to the dance space, I started scoping out the food booths. The BAIC booth didn't seem to be selling fry bread, though it was selling fish, Indian tacos (okay, those are made of fry bread; I should have asked) and hush puppies.

Said hush puppies

I ordered a bowl of the latter for $3. They were not very crunchy, so I was dissatisfied at first. But they really grew on me: very soft and light and not too oily at all. Lots of them for only $3. Very tasty, even cute (cherry tomato-sized). I polished them off while watching the dance competition, starting with the fancy shawl youth competitors, then the traditional youths and the very adorable tiny tots. One man, who was probably going to compete in a later dance since he was all decked out to do so, went into the dance space, holding a drum mallet in his infant son's hand while the two of them beat a small drum. All the while a drum circle kept going in the background. I stayed to watch one more dance, this one an invitation to all competitors, young and old, male and female, into the space. It was very cool to watch, very powerful and beautiful, and so much fun to watch. But the best part, of course, was that the dancers seemed to enjoy the competition perhaps more than we in the audience did.

But my search for food drove me back towards the Pulaski Monument and the shops and stands nearby. My next stop was next to the BAIC booth, a truck with the seemingly derogatory but quite clever name of the Frybread Queen, who (I think) came from Andrews AFB. Their food was a wee bit pricier, and their proceeds didn't all go to the BAIC. They had fry bread alright, with cinnamon & sugar for $4. Their Indian taco was similarly priced, for $8. But instead, I got the "man burger": 1/2 lb of buffalo, with tomato, chopped onion, shredded lettuce and shredded cheese, in a piece of fry bread.

It'samaaaaaaaaaaanburger! Withamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanlemonade!

It was OK, but you can't really taste the fry bread too much. That and the buffalo wasn't as juicy as I'm used to. Plus, the meat was hidden under all this shredded lettuce and raw onion and tomato. No sauces on the fry bread or the buffalo burger. After all those hush puppies I could hardly even start it, much less finish it. Still, I'd take this over a burger almost any day. It's still sitting in my fridge, waiting to be finished. Maybe it'll be lunch tomorrow. Not saying I didn't like it. But there was already so much in my fridge already that I had to finish first. So lunch, finally.

Other photos -

Cree proverb on the side, er, back of the Frybread Queen truck. Again, that's the name of the business.

I have never seen this innovative contraption at an outdoor summer festival before this one. It sprays a fine mist of water up in front of a simple floor fan, which then blows the water at you. It felt so good that I stood in front of this one for a while, until the next person came by to use it.

This is what it did to my camera for the next few minutes.

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Mmmm. Ghosts.

Another wacky YouTube find! It's the most distress a group of ghosts has encountered since The Others. Are you ready for Pac-Man: the Movie?

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Why the hell is Sandra Lee on the Food Network again?

The Insane One is making apple-brie quesadillas with the Will to her Grace. She's also making cola-glazed ribs, which in and of itself does not sound nasty at all. The quesadillas don't really sound that bad, but they don't look that good - just like apple slices and strips of brie slapped between two flour tortillas and then thrown on the grill. Even off the grill, it doesn't look very appetizing. Maybe it is, but it just doesn't look very good to me.

Ick, and they just licked their fingers! I saw someone do that at Panera Bread once. Ewww.

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Label of the Week: Maryland Products with Pride

I don't know when or if I'll make it up to the State Fair. The very least I can do is put on display posts about stuff from Maryland. So that's my featured Label of the Week. Also this weekend: the Baltimore Powwow in Patterson Park, sponsored by the Baltimore American Indian Center open to all, featuring dance competitions and food vendors selling Native American food and not. The one I went to a few years ago had people coming from as far as Alabama, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

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Exit 41 - Cove Road (to MD-151 and Dundalk)

The search for food along North Point Boulevard continues. This leg of the trip takes me from Cove Road to Wise Avenue, beyond which lies the Sparrows Point Industrial Complex and - yes - another Beltway exit. The next one will take me into the heart of Sparrows Point itself. But for now, I'm still exploring MD-151 for some eats.

A few more notable things that I found past Cove Road:

• The seemingly vacant "Sand Witch" trailer (closed for today). Does anybody know anything about it at all?
• The standard Chinese and Italian places. The Chinese place is the Great Wall Chinese Restaurant (map). The Italian place is Vizzini's Pizza (map), one of several in the Baltimore area (including locations in Pasadena and Baltimore itself). Great Wall and Vizzini's are both in the St. Gregory Shopping Center. It looks like the North Point Mart Shopping Center but make sure you read the part at the top (especially bad to diss St. Greg if you're a singer, a musician or a teacher - or all three).
• Pop's Tavern (map) looks like a clean, bright and crusty old place (neither a good nor a bad thing - it's just a thing). They've got a listing on MDparty.com. From the look of the acts, Pop's seems like a country place. Their MDparty page lists upcoming live country band performances, including seemingly regular performers like the Cumberland Band, Southern Exposure and the David Wayne Band. I think they're all local acts, and are performing alot in the upcoming months.
• The Sparrows Point Restaurant, tiny and compact, so they must be crowded when they're open. Are they still open? I can find nothing about them.

Alright, Google, Yahoo, Urbanspoon - y'all don't believe me that there's a Sparrows Point Restaurant? Here it is! HA!

One important find for the drooling crab lover: dueling crab joints, across the Boulevard from each other. At least one makes it onto Elizabeth Large's top ten crab houses in the Baltimore area, and the other gets raved about by commenters.

On one side is the Costas Crab House/Inn, (map), voted the 2003's Best Crab House by the City Paper. Costas has also made its way into Zagat, where most reviewers loved the place (a few hated it big time). Costas serves "crabs all year round, hon". But of course, it doesn't stop there: they've got crab cakes, pit beef, even their own seafood seasoning. And yes, they do cater. It's a big, sit-down place where you can get your hands and arms covered in Old Bay and little crab shell-induced cuts right quick. It's one of those places that I really should have known about, but I don't. So I will have to get to know it when I have the time and the money.

On the other side is the Salty Dog's Crab House (map). This is not so much a crab house as a seafood shop. No, it looks like you can't sit down and eat, well, anything in Salty Dog's. This seems to be a carry-out place, so I assume carry-out is the only way to meet your seafood needs here. This place was packed - but considering that it was relatively the size of an outhouse (okay maybe not that tiny), it would have to be. Still, there were about as many people there as at the Costas Inn (maybe 10 5 times as big) across the street. They sell urshters, soft shells, etc. And here's what REALLY caught my attention: Tuesdays are $1 crab days! Get crabs for $1 each. That is my price range! I love what one reviewer said: "The crabs are not the absolute best but definitely are worth the money".

Yes, you too can get delicious steamed crabs for only a buck a piece! Too bad it's Wednesday...

I HAVE to venture back to the Salty Dog, maybe on my way back from Exit 42 when I get around to it. And I would've come here had I not already been to Tommy's Charcoal Express (map), a small little diner with all the feel of a Waffle House without any of the glitz. And like WH, Tommy's sells just about everything here. Their specialty, of course, is not waffles but all manner of pit meat: pit beef, pit chicken, pit sausage, pulled pork, etc. So much to choose from!

I stuck with the specials to save myself the trouble. For my meal I quickly settled on the pulled pork slider special with French fries and a 16 oz drink ($6). I got my meal in under ten minutes, all the while I was perusing the local Dundalk paper at one of the stools set up by a counter-away-from-the-counter, with booths and old video arcade games behind me. I'm not sure what he was doing, but one older gentleman (who obviously was familiar with the staff) took a butter knife from one of the tables and fidgeted with the side of one of the video machines for a second. Then he put it back down, which puzzled me.


The sliders were too hot and messy to even attempt to sample in the car, but I did get some fries: very fresh-tasting, like they had been cut not long before. I don't know if they had been just cut, but they sort of tasted like it. I ate the sliders later at home: three perfect little sweet blobs of pulled pork, each on its own soft mini-hamburger bun. Actually, I didn't eat them all. Instead I just cut each in half, saving the rest of them for later. It all microwaved well (even the fries) for about 45 seconds. Some of the tastiest pulled pork I've had as of late.

Other photos -

Just how many Louisville Sluggers have come in contact with headlights in Pop's parking lot? Did it make a difference?

Do you really want to argue with the man-sized crab? I mean he looks pretty steamed.

Onward and outward, back to the Beltway, hon

Places I visited

Tommy's Charcoal Express (American) - 3950 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 477-6900

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

Places to look up later

Costas Crab House & Inn (crabs / American) - 4100 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 477-1975

Great Wall Chinese Restaurant (Chinese) - 4045 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 477-4605

Pop's Tavern (bar / American) - 4343 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21219; Phone: (410) 477-0270

Salty Dog's Crab House (crabs / seafood) - 4011 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 388-0515

Sand Witch trailer (sandwiches) - can find no information

Sparrows Point Restaurant - can find no information

Vizzini's Pizza (pizza) - 4051 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 477-1200



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Talkr Text-to-Speech

I admit: I don't bother to read my own feeds. I mean, why would I? But for some reason I subscribe to it anyway. Recently, I clicked on the FeedBlitz message I got for my feed, and I noticed this little volume icon. It reads your blog feeds out to you, in the form of text-to-speech. I probably should be irritated, but I think it's really cool. And unintentionally funny. Listen to this recent post I made about the Baltimore Cupcake Company (click here to listen).

You can also download that MP3. Go ahead. Put it on your MP3 player if you feel like it. I won't sue you like the RIAA will.

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Varla's Visit with Nelly Frittata

Every gay man's favorite, self-professed "Southern Ann-Margret...on steroids" is on the TV this week! Yes, Varla Jean Merman - né Jeffrey Roberson, who once in a long while performs at the Hippo when in town - is one of several guest models on this week's ep of Project Runway. It's a drag queen challenge! How surprising is it that they haven't had such a challenge yet?

In anticipation, here's Varla's latest attempt to pull a Jolene Sugarbaker, as she has a fascinating conversation with a frittata. NB: some risqué drag queen humor in this segment. Don't watch if you're easily offended. Not safe for work. Remember: y'all have been warned!

Aaron McCargo: Belated Review

Once Next Food Network Star 4 ended I pretty much tuned out, and never got around to watching Aaron McCargo's new show Big Daddy's House (all manner of NFNS4-related fun can be found at Food Network Addict). So now that I'm finally catching an episode, here are a few observations as I watch. Think of this as a "semi-live-blog".

• Aaron is re-doing family recipes like fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. I like the explanations of things. I know other chefs do it but it seems so new when Aaron does it.
• Aaron's father has more hair than either of his sons. Doesn't that usually work the other way?
  
• Why rinse off that raw meat? That E. coli can be fun!
  
• "I'M Big Daddy!" Yes, sure you are.
  
• He's not scared of that big camera-shaped object anymore. That's a nice start.
• I'e neer seen anyone on the Food Network cook with soda. Nope, not even Paula Deen. Wait - I stand corrected. Does remind me of my copy of Classic Cooking with Coca-Cola, which I lent to a friend of mine, Jeffrey. He was from Atlanta - the story goes that his family had stock in the Coca-Cola corporation. The first time it came up I told him I was a much bigger fan of Pepsi. He was too good natured to be annoyed, but I think he liked my lending him the cookbook. His family has much more money than mine (which is why he had a beach house in Huntington Beach), so he could buy his own damn copy. Jeff recently got married. He didn't invite me - bastard - but in fairness, he had no way to contact me, so I doubt it was personal.
  
• Mmmm. Fried chicken. Who says people from Jersey don't eat this stuff?
• Mmmm. Macaroni salad.
• Mmmm. Flour and hot grease. Hmmm - a good technique for telling how grease is hot by sticking a wooden spoon in (if the oil bubbles, it's ready). "Don't stick your finger in". God, Aaron, I'm not stupid. I discovered that out a few years ago.
• That chicken reminds me of a batch of Maryland Fried Chicken I made a few years ago in California. Was good. I could go for some right now.
• The onions are getting to him. Good time to cut to another scene!
• Way to get your hands covered with mayo. Another clue he gives the wary cook: use cold noodles for mayo-based salads.
• Whoa! It's (the macaroni salad's) MISSING something!? That's the first time I've heard that come out of any Food Network personality's mouth. Of course, the thing it was missing was the fried chicken.
• Aaaaah, a day at the beach. Erm, um, in the back yard.
• Apple cider-buttermilk sauce? I am intrigued. It's for...
  
• The ribs do look good. Listen to him - he's giving instructions on how to remove the bone.
• Aaron has now stolen La Paula's "Butter Queen" crown with his use of four sticks of butter for that corn.
• Raw chicken they ate at the beach as kids... ew.
• Curse you, damnéd Rachael Ray! I knew it had to end.
  

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Baltimore Cupcake Company

Yes I made it over to the Baltimore Cupcake Company this weekend. I've been meaning to make it out to the various area cupcake shops because, hell, I like cupcakes. Just as BMore Sweet puts it, "It's pink, it's cute, it's pretty girlie". And inside you find a few trays of lots of cupcakes in a modest amount of varieties. The selection changes from day to day.

Various area bloggers have had mixed experiences with BCC. Before fleeing for San Fran, Xiao Zhu at Curiously Ravenous had a not-so-satisfying time with their cupcakes, since she got there after the selection had been seriously weeded down and because of the $3 per cupcake price tag.

There are pros and cons. The pros to BCC: the cupcakes that I got - both from their "truffle" line - were very good. I got two ($6 total), one with chocolate icing with a dollop of peanut butter frosting on top of that, and one of pink vanilla icing. Again, the cupcakes I had were delicious, and not dry. I also like the changing variety in cupcakes - chocolate, raspberry, vanilla, key lime, etc. On the con side: $3 for a cupcake? I could get a much fancier (though somewhat drier one) at Whole Foods for that much, though Whole Foods' frosting, while fancier, is arguably denser and more sugar-shock-inducing. And even though I didn't experience this, I've read a few comments and posts elsewhere that suggest that they run out of some of their best cupcakes fairly quickly. So all in all, I did like it. It is a tasty cupcake, though a fairly plain one. No it doesn't have to be fancy. But at $3, you expect it to be a little more zhuzh'd up. Oh, they also had tiny coconut cupcakes for about $1.50 or so. I would go back, though I tend to buy a few cupcakes at once. At $3 a pop, I probably will just go back once in a while.

Next stop, when I have the time: Charm City Cupcakes. Want some insight into the place? Check out Meg's post from Pigtown Pigout the June before last.



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Fantasmagorie

This is hardly food-related, but I just saw this on CBS's Sunday Morning show. Animated cartoons are 100 years old this week, thanks to the below film, the 75-second long Fantasmagorie, sketched
by French artist Émile Cohl. It was released to the Follies-going public on August 17, 1908. It was done with black chalk on white paper, then filmed in negative to look like white chalk on a chalkboard.



Just wanted to share this tidbit, that's all. I love how the bottle eats the little cartoon man before it blossoms open.

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I Live, Like, IN the Mall!

I don't know how I missed this. A happy couple up in Providence, Rhode Island battled the local Providence Place Mall in a most unusual way: by moving into it. And so performance artist Adriana Yoto and her scholar husband Michael Townsend lived in a forgotten storage unit for four years. And there weren't even any zombies rampaging outside either. They did it as a form of protest, but it quickly turned into a fascinating sociological study of mall culture and why people go to them.

You want to find out more? Try their own website, as well as the Salon.com article about them. Good for them!

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Lemongrass

I haven't been to Lemongrass. But a guy I've recently started dating did swing by there to pick up two orders of chicken fried rice before he brought it up to my place to munch on while we curled up on the couch watching TV. I've seen the mixed reviews of this place. Elizabeth Large thinks it's decent - "a very nice place to be" as she put it. The City Paper is less impressed - style over substance is basically what they said. But user reviews are generally positive. My friend likes it. I can't vouch for most of their food but I have to agree with him: the chicken fried rice, at least, is pretty tasty. And it did survive a car trip from Little Italy to Towson, which most Chinese (and in this case, Thai) food tends not to do. I'll have to meet him down there for dinner one of these nights if I'm free.

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Spam Update #3

This should be the last feed-related post for a while. I am sending out the full feed still, but I have set it up to tack on a feed signature:

Post taken directly from the Baltimore Snacker website. If you're not reading this on a feed then you KNOW the "person" who put up this spam site didn't write it!

Why am I doing this? Well, I can't stop the spambots that skim the blogs and repost them as their own material. So instead I'm including a link directly back to my own page in this feed signature. So if I'm going to get screwed, at least I'm screwing back. Please let me know if it works, folks, as I'm sure y'all will.

In the meantime, here's a happy video from those strange folks at BlendTec, seeing if a can of Spam - yes, including the can - will blend.



Ick.

As we saw in that "Pork and Beans" video, Lauren Caitlin Upton - Miss Teen South Carolina - probably would be a more attractive spokeswoman than Tom Dickson. Mind you, Tom's buddy George is more my type than either Miss Teen SC or Tom Dickson himself. I just hope he spat out that Spam can and egg goop.

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Teavana

Teavana is finally open in Towsontown Center. I was wandering around yesterday clothes shopping and saw the little store next to the massive third floor food court and thought it was about time to go in and experience "tea-vana".

Teavana is based in Atlanta and numbers almost 80 locations around the country and seven locations in Mexico. As the fella behind the counter noted, it sells anything you need to make tea. If you have a match, you can even heat it on one of the more expensive tea sets (we're talkin' hundreds of dollars here, complete with teapot, cups and saucers, tray and burner). Most of their tea sets tend to be in the three figure range than not, but most of them are pretty fancy. We're not talking the cheap stuff you'd find at K-Mart.

The place smells lovely, like tea (duh). And you can get some free samples of a few select teas. Their wall of tea canisters behind the counter ranges from white to green, black, oolong and herbal, and so many more. And of course there are their blends, all loose leaf. The cheapest teas are in the neighborhood of $3 per 2 oz, with many priced far higher ($10 or $15 per 2 oz). You can buy buy the 2 oz bag, or by the 1/4-pound or more. They will open each canister for you and flash their tea know-how while waving the canister lid around to get the smell of the tea wafting out to you faster.


After having a few lids waved near my face, I decided to go with one tea that was part of a featured blend, the MatéVana a choclately/coffeeish blend with milk, nuts and herbs in it. This is one of their cheaper teas, at $5.80. For another $5 I bought some self-fill tea bags. The tea tastes, to me, somewhat chocolatey, again due to the chocolate in it. I didn't put any sugar in - yet - since I wanted to taste it straight up. If you want, they have that, too. It looked as if they sold little lumps of crystallized sugar ready to plunk into your tea. I fear that it is also pretty not-cheap.

Full Feed is back for now

In response to the overwhelming cry out for full feeds to come back, I've restored it. Now: if anyone has any suggestions for stopping the spam bots from stealing my posts, I'd really appreciate 'em!

Update: Full to Short Feed

Damn, I didn't realize so many people read my blog via feed! On the one hand, I hate the idea of computerized spambots plagiarizing my hard-written work and slapping some weird name on it like "Thai Happy Kitchen" or "T0m Br€nd@n0U812". On the other hand, I don't want to screw my happy readers. I'll consider bringing it back and just gritting my teeth about the evil spammers, but let me think about it for a bit.

Exit 40 - MD-151 (North Point Blvd)

As I've mentioned before, this part of 695 is one of those corners of the Beltway where the exits all take you to more or less the same place (see: Exits 2 - 4, Exits 8 - 10, Exits 20 - 21, Exits 34 - 35). Driving around looking for places to eat, usually the first step in the journey that is this post, I found very few places off of Exit 40 that I didn't already find off of 39. What's worse, You only have to drive about a mile before you run into Exit 41 (Cove Road). So for this post, I am looking at everything along southbound North Point Boulevard (MD-151), including the side streets, stopping at Cove, where the next post picks up.

This is also where the Maryland Transportation Authority starts messing with your mind. No simple relationship between the inner and outer loop exits here! The inner loop Exit 40 takes you to southbound North Point Boulevard. The outer loop, however, off of which the exit numbers go down (easy mnemonic device to tell them apart: the outer loop makes you feel "down and out"), takes you to two places: northbound North Point Boulevard (MD-151), and westbound Eastern Boulevard (MD-150). To make matters worse, there is no Exit 38A or B - but Exit 38E is there to take you eastbound on Eastern. Got all that?

I think I'm insane now.

Apart from that, outer loop Exit 40 takes you to Eastpoint Mall and pretty much the same places that Exit 38A off the inner loop takes you. The one different place I can mention is the Best Buffet (map), one of the only non-chain buffets I know of in the area. It looked pretty full about the time I passed by there.

Back to the inner loop: Whereas Exit 39 yields an embarrassment of riches (food-wise), Exit 40 doesn't yield very much at all. Truth be told, you are the one who has to yield, since the exit turns into a merge from the left into oncoming traffic. Cut across too fast and you may get hit before you get to the Wal-Mart/Aldi's shopping center - just across from the big sign commemorating the Battle of North Point, which occurred around here in September of 1814, during the War of 1812. This is the same shopping center with the North Point / Plaza Flea Market complex (map), that also includes Charlie & Lena's Seafood & Produce and an Amish Farmers Market. I stumbled upon it on Sunday, just as it had shut down for the day. Also recall, as I found off Exit 39 as well, that Caldarazzo's Pizzeria (map) is much easier to get to from this exit. It's next to the Aldi's.

Cruising down North Point Boulevard you find little else before you hit Cove Road. Turning down the side streets just takes you to North Point (or Old North Point) Road - at Cove Road you can make a sharp right turn from North Point Boulevard onto North Point Road. Along the journey from North Point to North Point, you find a small handful of non-McDonald's eating establishments. Perhaps your best bets along North Point Road are the aptly-named North Point Diner (map), and Papa Leone's Spaghetti House (map). The former is a small diner in a red brick building that's pretty easy to miss if you pass by too fast. The latter was pretty empty when I got to it. I don't know much else about it. Another establishment, the Left Field Pub (map), borders both North Point Boulevard and North Point Road. So does the North Point Flea Market, which will inevitably come up on your right.

Much of what you can find to eat, or drink, is along the more well-traveled North Point Boulevard, including Journey's (map) and Michael's Halfway House (map), two taverns that the internet has precious little information about, except that they are places to find karaoke. For lunch and dinner, more promising establishments can be found on the other side of Cove Road (again, see Exit 41).

On the Boulevard side of Left Field Pub lies the Little Village Pizzeria (map). This unassuming little place is your standard pizza and sub shop, bright and clean inside with a television currently tuned into the Olympics (event on screen: men's water polo. Damn those guys can fill out a Speedo). The Little Village was also empty at the end of this lunch hour - a few more cars at the Left Field next door. Less of a wait for me I suppose. A few of Little Village's offerings, as I perused their take-out menu for a while: no slices of pizza but you can get a 12" cheese-only pizza for $7. most specialty pizzas cost just a few dollars more. Also on the menu are stromboli (between $10 and $11 each), subs in three different sizes (the smallest, 8" one will be about $7), salads, fish and gyro platters, shakes in three flavors, and desserts ranging from baklava to cake. I finally settled on the 8" pizza sub ($7) with small onion rings ($3) and a can of Diet Pepsi, which I was surprised to hear referred to as "pop". This must have been a lunch special as my bill totaled just under $10, and I know they added the soda. In ten minutes, as I was told, my order was ready.

The 8" sub is too much food for me. Another thing to point out: they sure know how to keep it hot, wrapping it (as you should) in paper and then foil. It was still hot half an hour later when I got it home (The onion rings? not so much). So the roll was, understandably, soggy when I got it home - and no, it would not have been soggy had I eaten it there.


The chopped meat was juicy and pretty tasty, the cheese was gooey, and the tomato sauce was mostly on the roll. I can't say I enjoyed the onion rings, which tasted like your standard frozen onion rings just out of the fryer. They should change the brand because it's not a very good onion ring.

All in all, Little Village is worth going to, though I wouldn't drive half an hour to get to it.

Other photos:

The memorial sign pointing out that you are driving by history here - the Battle of North Point happened near these parts

This is the photo I had up on the Exit 39 post. Not much more activity at the tail end of the Sunday shopping festivities.

Walk past the Aldi's from the farmers market and you can get pizza! Though it's probably cheaper frozen at Aldi's.

No I don't need any. But it's still good to know it's here, alright? And yes, I know I need to wash my windows!

Places I visited:

Little Village Pizzeria (pizza and subs) - 3819 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 284-9488

• Would I eat there again? Probably
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Probably not
  

Places to look up later:

Caldarazzo's Pizzeria (pizza / Italian) - 2315 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 284-3354

Journey's (pub) - 2701 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 282-0699

Left Field Pub (pub) - 3813 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 285-1691

Michael's Halfway House Tavern (pub) - 3814 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 288-9573

North Point Diner (diner / American) - 2701 North Point Road, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 477-1000

North Point / Plaza Flea Market (market - local foods) - 2401 North Point Boulevard, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 285-4504

Papa Leone's Spaghetti House (Italian) - 2713 North Point Road, Dundalk, MD 21222; Phone: (410) 284-9770