Post #1,001 - Yeah, somehow it's just not as special, is it?

First off, a shout out to all the commenters, all the emailers* and all the lurkers who never post but just like to read the damn thing. Thanks for all the nice comments and etcetera. And yes, I am indeed still alive, taking a very short break from doing work on a freshly rainy Saturday night. Current snack is this Chobani Greek Yogurt. Protien-ier than normal yogurt, and I think it has either as many calories as normal yogurt or fewer. (* A note to anyone who has emailed me: I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to y'all. You can not imagine how fucking busy and stressed out I have been this past week, or how much more stressed out I plan to be this week. I'll get back to you as soon as I can.)

In the meantime. just to prove I'm still alive, here's something very cool. Flash dancers. Single ladies. Beyoncé. Picadilly Circus. Fascinating.

Post #1,000

As many of my fellow college seniors were fond of saying, "What a long, strange trip it's been." But that was ages ago, back in the mid-90's. Fast forward...

It was Tuesday, September 12, 2006, sometime late evening I think, that I first tipped my toe into the waters of the blogosphere by writing these words (corrected for spelling):

Welcome to the Charm City Snacker. This is just an informal, casual journal about some places I have eaten and whether or not I'd recommend them. Hopefully you'll be encouraged to try some new stuff, or be happy to see ones you have tried.

Hmmm, what next? Well, I'm fairly new to this blogging thing - I haven't even paid much attention to them, except that there seem to be very many on the web! So the next question to ask, therefore, is WHY throw my hat into the ring? Well, I thought about it for a while, and really didn't think there was a reason to start one. I finally decided one day, trying to decide on a place to eat for dinner, that I would write a food blog - hmmm, would this be a flog? No, that sounds stupid.

So that's what I'll be writing about. My name is John, and welcome to my culinary adventures in Charm City!

999 posts, one name change and countless "Hmmm's" later and I'm still going! I've scaled back for now, but that won't be forever - grad school is almost over so I'll have more time to do this in about 3 1/2 weeks. A few other statistics, since I'm on a roll:

• 657 restaurants, markets and festivals visited (or passed by) and blogged about at least once, in eight states (California, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and, of course, Maryland) plus the District of Columbia, and four countries (the UK, the Netherlands, Iceland and, of course, the USA)
  
• 62 recipes I have tried with varying degrees of success
  
• 170 videos linked from various sources, most of them not yet removed due to access violations
• 1,000 comments and counting
• about 1,100 photos and other illustrations posted at least once, not counting those linked from other websites
• My most favorite photo to repost over and over again? This one:

I've posted this one at least four times by my estimation. I'm not going to be catty today.

By some figures, close to 95% of all blogs fail, for various reasons - lack of passion, lack of time, or that it's just too damn monotonous. I admit: I got near to that point a few times, as I'm sure we all have. I don't remember if I did but I vaguely remember looking at another 1,000th post for ideas and inspiration - Adam Roberts (again, the Amateur Gourmet rears his bespectacled foodie head), who discussed the subject of how to start a food blog back in 2005. Adam pretty much has it all covered. I don't have any additional insights, but I will reiterate that you have to choose something you feel empassioned about to go back and write on the subject over and over.

Five of many things I am proud of in regards to this blog:

• All the people I have met over the past few years via this blog, most of them listed in the link list to the right (or left, if I've gone and changed the layout since first writing this). Since I am a spazz and will leave someone out, I am not going to list all y'all. I'll just thank you - you know who you are.
  
• The Beltway Snacking thing (again, link in the sidebar). A high school friend recently mentioned how impressed he was by all that work. I am damn proud of that.
• Taking part in the Great Tastes Baltimore food blogger panel (thanks Dara) was a lovely way to share some ideas with others, and eat some damn good food. Just watch out for that absinthe.
• The fact that it has motivated me to explore so many things that I might not have otherwise explored or done, from area festivals to recipes to miracle fruit (thanks for hosting that, Roopa) to brunching with fellow bloggers to live-blogging ridiculous reality cooking shows to meeting the alpha-food-blogger (?) Adam Roberts during a torrential downpour at the 2008 Baltimore Book Festival (I've made that spaghetti sauce at least four times, Adam. But I still say blue crab is tastier than Dungeness - as anyone raised by the Chesapeake would, no?).
  
• This blog has improved both my writing (and proof-reading) and my photo taking skills. I am professionally trained in neither, but I wrote and took some pretty nice posts and photos, I think.

I'm going to finish this millenial post with a little slide show. It's a video featuring every photo I have posted on this blog since Day 1. It goes a lot faster than you'd think. The toughest part was organizing the photos, but finding music wasn't so easy. I originally wanted to use U2's "Window in the Skies" because it's such a cool song, but the lyrics and that whole copyright thing got in the way. Instead, I use "Trance Taboo" composed by Rick Clarke of RickVanMan Productions, who creates music that he deliberately makes royalty free for the use of YouTubers in their videos. So thanks to Rick for the use of his song. And thanks to all my readers and all of you who got some good food recommendations from the other end of my computer keyboard. I could not have done this without you. That and a whole lot of time at the gym.

And of course, some video acknowledgements -

All photos of television programs are photos of the television screen taken by me. Photos of "Paula's Home Cooking." "Paula's Party" and "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" from the Food Network. Photos of "The Soup" from E! Entertainment Television. Photos of "Steakdar" commercial from Golden Corral. Graphic of "Write to Marry Day - No on Prop 8" from blog "Mombian: Sustenance for Lesbian Moms." Art photographed at Artscape 2007 attributed to the artists in the post "Artscape - in Haiku."

Song "Trance Taboo" created by Rick Clarke.
Credit:
Free Music from:
Music4YourVids.co.uk.

Sake, Sake Everywhere (Post #999)

I enjoyed a variety of sakes (brewed like a beer but drunk like a wine) and distilled rice drinks (shochu, the Japanese cousin of Korean soju) this evening at the Wine Source. It was packed - even bigger than most wine tastings I have seen there. It was also great to see the Wine Source finally stocking soju, though I preferred the shochu this evening. A few other things that took me by surprise:

• It's more difficult to find good cheap sakes than good cheap wines. I define "cheap" for wines (and in this case, sakes) as $15 or less for a full-size bottle. Unless you want a teensy widdle bottle, expect to shell out at least $20, more likely $30.
• They've got a good variety of sakes, including a small line of sparkling sakes produced in the US
• The first sake I tasted had a very faint egg taste, but I mean that in a good way. I know it sounds strange but that's the best way I can put it.

I did leave with one of the cheaper large bottles. Ty Ku is a "super premium" Junmai Ginjo sake, which according to its makers is "hand crafted in the traditional Japanese method, produced for the palate and cuisine of the modern consumer." It's also $5 off this week, normally $25 but selling at $20 for the time being. I have to admit that the sleek shape and look of the bottle was also a factor in my purchase.

Oooooh. Ty ku, ty ku?

Dollar Pasta Day at Sotto Sopra (Post #998)

Dara asked me to spread the news: Sotto Sopra is alleviating tax day for its patrons with $1 pasta night on Wednesday night, April 15. You can buy any of nine different pastas for a dollar if you make a charitable donation to either the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and/or Our Daily Bread that evening. Reservations are being taken from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., call 410 625-0534.

Because it's Easter Sunday (Western Calendar) (Post #997)

Oh just watch the damn thing.

I tried to give it a pretty pastel border. Cuz it's Easter. Didn't work.

Oh, here are the eggs in my sister's house. Deviled:



And encapsulated in a potato salad:

Reminds me faintly of the jamón y huevos ($4.99) I had at Tapas Teatro last night - three half hard boiled eggs covered in crispy Serrano ham, caper oil and "cracked pepper corns" (that's upwardly mobile for "freshly ground pepper" - which is upwardly mobile for "pepper").

Oh, and just one more thing to afflict y'all with this Easter. Just by accident, I stumbled upon this on YouTube while looking for an awful Finnish music video. One thing led to another and before I knew it, my sister and I were too familiar with the varied works of limo driver-turned-"rock" "musician" Jan Terri (and to the sometimes witty, sometimes stupid, usually badly misspelled comments posted by YouTubers). She was recently on The Daily Show from what I hear. Anyway, forthwith, the worst music video ever, which will henceforth always remind me of Easter:

Oh, and check out Jan's brief foray into country! Awful. Funny and awful.

Padma and the Western Bacon Messburger (Post #996)

There are all sorts of reasons to not buy this burger (or anything, really) from Hardee's, now a subsidiary of West Coast-based Carl's Jr. The mess in your arteries is one of them. The mess outside is yet another. Of course, sex sells. Here's Top Chef hostess Padma Lakshmi gettin' down and, er, bacon-y. If you're into that sort of thing.



So the fry cooks at Hardee's don't have to pack their knives and go?

Note; I'm slowly inching towards post #1,000. I'll start to keep track over the next few posts, as I make them.

UPDATE: This is so COOL - if you want to watch the video upside-down, click on the video to watch it on YouTube's site, and then add the following to the URL:

&flip=1

Now, not only will you see Padma eating her hamburger upside-down, you'll see all the text upside-down, too! But it's each individual letter, not the whole word or sentence. It's trippy. Look! Hint taken from SMP Films, home of "The Mean Kitty."

Vito's Pizza

As I just Tweeted (damn, Twitter is addictive), I didn't feel like cooking tonight, so I stopped by Vito's Pizza. It's just down from Wells Liquors and the local Fractured Prune on York Road near the Lake Walker and Cedarcroft neighborhoods. I got two slices - big slices, so I just cut them in half - of pizza, one Hawaiian and one Margherita (basil, tomato slices, mozzarella). The two together were just under $7 after tax. They went great with some leftover onion rings from dinner Monday night at the Stable (BTW, thanks Scott). That was after drinks at the Central. As I found out Monday, Full Moon on tap does not agree with me. Most beers do, even after three pints, but not that one. Not dogging Blue Moon - most of their beers agree with me. Just not Full Moon. Abita Amber, on the other hand? That goes well.

Beer Mapping Project

I love this. It's a site about beer in the United States and many parts of the world. My favorite feature is an interactive map of major (and many minor) cities in the US, and where you can find all kinds of beer: brew pubs, breweries, beer bars, beer stores, even home brew stores. Somehow, we've been lumped in with Washington. And of course, when you click on the "Baltimore/Washington Area Map" it centers on Washington (so I re-centered it in my link). But hey, we've got the Brewer's Art, so there.