Blast from the Past: Aunt Sandy, Halloween 07

Somebody put together a video of Sandra Lee's costumes for her 2007 Halloween special. If only someone would do that for all her crazy-ass Halloween shows. I'd love to see a rundown of last year's nuttiness, or her fabled Cher costume.

Sandra Lee's 2007 Halloween Costumes in Under 60 Seconds
by HollyRWuf

Because it's ridiculous

Yes, someone finally came up with a periodic picnic table.

Lunch at Yia Yia's of Essex

I did not realize tht Yia Yia's Bakery on Philadelphia Road had a sandwich special. I usually just go over to the cookie counter. But for $5 you can get a sandwich of the day. Today was Hot Italian, with several Boar's Head meats and some cheeses, warm, on ciabatta bread made at the bakery. Instead of eating in the bright dining room, with the special eating area sectioned off and backed with a mural of Greek pillars, I went ahead and got it as take-out. Along with this came some chocolate meringues (25 cents each). The sandwich was filling, with juicy cold (er, hot) cuts and slightly melted cheeses. All this came with a tangy spread on top and a pickle to finish it off. I just wish they had removed the hard string of skin from one of the cold cuts, but apart from that it was a cheap sandwich I would get again.

Meatless Mondays - one less type of inedible crap in City Schools

Eliza Barclay writes for The Atlantic Magazine website's Food Channel about the recent decision by Baltimore City Public Schools to go meatless on Mondays. That's right - 80,000 schoolchildren in Baltimore City Public Schools will only be eating dried-out hamburgers, little hot dog-shaped pillars of salt or "chicken" "nuggets" Tuesday through Friday. Instead, they get to eat messy meatless pizza, dry and spongy mozzarella dippers and gummy gooey eggplant parmesan. Absolutely yummzh!

It's not the lunch ladies or the principals to blame for all the crap in school cafeterias: if you're given crap, you have to do what you can with it, but it's still crap. I myself don't think it's such a bad idea, though I don't know how effective it'll be. I mean, meat isn't the only problem in the American diet, despite what some will have you believe. But it's not helping, and cutting down a little on something fried or dried isn't going to hurt. For what it's worth, I don't think it's a bad idea.

Believe it or not, the controversy is not so much about "forcing an alternative lifestyle" - vegetarianism - on America's schoolchildren (I'm surprised nobody's complained about that yet). The meat companies that deliver meat products to the school system are the ones complaining. I don't know if they're suffering all that much during this recession, since one of the few things we Americans are loathe to give up is our meat. God knows I love meat! But the meat industry is going about complaining all wrong. They say Baltimore City schools are short-changing students of important nutrients, such as proteins - which, by the way, they get in an inedible format (I've eaten school food recently. Yuck). They still get these proteins in bean and cheese format - again, inedibly. Who says vegetarian food has to be edible?

Instead, they should be upfront about the real reason they're complaining: their bottom line. Who honestly thinks that the "American Meat Institute, ...the Animal Agriculture Alliance, the Missouri Beef Council, and the editors of Pork Magazine" (H/T to Ms. Barclay) are concerned about kids' health? Anyone with at least half a brain cell knows they are concerned about their bottom line. Perhaps that's part of Baltimore City schools' motivation, too: to save a little money on meat?

Also just an observation: why is a Midwestern beef council concerned about what we're feeding kids in the Chesapeake Bay region?

Wait - there's a Pork Magazine?

Notes from the Field

A few things I've been up to this week:

• Apart from calibration, I'm not sure how my mother's bathroom scale says I'm five pounds heavier than my own.

• Went out with friends last night to Grano. I don't drink a lot of wine but the guys brought (Eric, refresh my memory here) a 2007 Languedoc that they were particularly impressed with. I had their lovely puttanesca sauce over linguine. In fact, I think we all ordered linguine, with different sauces. For dessert, I ordered the only one they had for the evening: coconut flan. The idea of picking nasty little bits of shredded coconut out of the flan did not thrill me, but I'm glad I took the waitress's advice. It was more coconut milk and less coconut flakes. Actually, I don't remember any coconut flakes. And the coconut was subtle. It was very good.

• Grano's second location is now open, by the way.

• I found out that the Hippo has Dogfish Head Pumkin Ale until it runs out. The Raison D'Extra is a more permanent fixture.
  

• Been making too many hot milk cakes lately. But I've noticed they take a good week and a half to two weeks to start "turning" so it's a nice, reliable cake.

• I finally found the Kooper's Chowhound Burger Wagon on Thursday, when it was at 1000 Hull Street, by the Tide Point complex. I need to check this neighborhood out more. I had no idea that the view of the Harbor was so lovely! That and there are a few restaurants that I need to check out in this part of South Baltimore, including but not limited to the Harvest Table (now serving brunch!) and the Whetstone Grill, also on Hull Street, with a dizzying variety of food, wine and beer options. But back to the temporary resident, the Chow Wagon. Their website claims it's the best burger in town. After ordering the Otis Burger ($8) - featuring sautéed mushrooms, red onions, Monterrey jack and cheddar cheeses with tomato, lettuce, all piled on a beef burger and sammiched inside a kaiser roll - well? I must say it really was a very good burger. It wasn't dried out at all. Don't expect it to be one of those monster burgers you get at Alonso's. You will probably be able to finish this one during lunch. I swore I would save half of it for later but I just kept on taking a bite, putting it down, and so on. The burger was well done and was a little juicy - not so much to make a mess, but just enough. It was such a nice day that I had to sit outside and enjoy the burger next to the harbor. Since I don't eat lunch out too often, I won't be seeking it out much. It'll be one of those occasional treats. One thing I should've done was ask if I could substitute one of the other three types of burger: turkey, vegetarian or - gasp! - bison! I don't get to eat a lot of bison, and I'm getting that the next time I hit them up.
  

Otis poses for the camera

• As if my lunch wasn't going to pack enough calories on, I also had to stop by the Baltimore Cupcake Company, since I was, y'know, in the neighborhood.
  

On the lack of food blogger "credentials"

Are we worth reading? Of course we are. And yet, this is the question that seems to have risen in my mind after reading an article by renowned food critic Corby Kummer. Kummer discusses in his article "The Food Critic In the Internet Age" (I swore it had a different title last night) what direction paid food critics are going in this new age of food bloggers and Yelp.com commenters. He comes right out at the beginning to mention that "Of course, paid critics are more reliable!" He then goes on, inadvertently or not, to dismiss anyone who is not a paid food critic - who does not have "credentials" as his friends Tim & Nina Zagat later pointed out to him.

This got into my craw. It is nonsensical to dismiss an entire segment of the online world because we are not "credentialed." And to paint everyone from bloggers such as Adam Roberts and Julie Powell to public food review site commentators such as "Anonymuss" and "FoodGirl1" with the same brush because none of have those ever-elusive "credentials" belies the complexity and, to some extent, self-policing, of the online foodie world.

I urge you to read Kummer's article. It is interesting, but if you are a non-professional, I-work-for-myself-for-free food blogger you may be annoyed by it. Or you may not - perhaps I misinterpreted something.

I am going to post here the two comments I left in response. I thought them out for a while and the first one is pretty long. These are my words, though maybe they are technically the property of The Atlantic Magazine, so they are in quotes. I don't want to plagiarize myself. I did correct one left-out word from my first comment.

- - - - -

As a food blogger, I initially took great umbrage to Mr. Kummer's article. As I read the article over once or twice, I could not move far beyond the words (paraphrased here) "Of course paid critics are more reliable than food bloggers!" I don't believe this is the gist of Mr. Kummer's article, or of the food critiquing philosophy of his friends Nina & Tim Zagat. Still, despite his claim that he is being facetious in saying this, I still feel a need as a food blogger to call bullshit.

I have to defend the food blogger against the Zagats' (and likely Mr. Kummer's) assertions that a food blogger can never really, truly capture the essence of the full-on dining experience. Of course, not all blog posts do this, and for those of us who write for free (that would be most of us), we may be looking to discuss different things. Nevertheless, bloggers still can and do often write thoughtful critiques of restaurants visited.

I confess that it's mildly amusing and mildly annoying to see the assumption (if I interpret his words correctly) that we bloggers are perhaps unreliable due to our peccadilloes about what meal we got for free or which staff member of the local restaurant just broke up with us. I urge Mr. Kummer not to paint us with such a broad brush. Whether the author realizes it or not, his attitude is characteristic of the flippant attitude that many in the print media have demonstrated time and again to those in media that are more strictly online.

One part of the author's discussion that puzzles me - and here he is painting with a broad brush - is how he lumps food bloggers into the same category as posters at sites such as, for example, Yelp.com. I intend no offense to the many posters at that site, but their modus operandi is a bit different than that of a food blogger. For a site such as this, a poster can write a detailed review of his or her experience at "Joe's Burger Barn" that intimately informs the reader as to the experience he or she can expect. Or instead, such a reviewer may be logging on just to leave a short, ten word blurb about how the manager at "Joe's" gave him extra French fries, or how the place has roaches (and he misspelled "roaches"), or something quick and effective like that. A poster may have a history of posting about area restaurants, but his or her body of work is going to be limited.

A blog post is, usually, very different. I don't know about the bloggers Mr. Kummer or the Zagats have run into, but I and my compatriots take a bit more care and invest a bit more effort in what we write than the occasional poster on Yelp.com. More than just writing about our sorry experience at "Joe's Burger Barn," we are investing months, maybe years, in writing about the food, the restaurants and - by extension - the food culture and history of an area. Most of us are not paid, save for an ad on our blog that makes pennies a year. We also have the luxury of abandoning our blog when we feel the desire. But we invest a passion for our subject that a paid reviewer is probably going to show as well, and we do it for free.

Or perhaps I am just as guilty as Mr. Kummer of thumbing my nose at what I perceive to be a lesser art form - his holding up paid critiques over blogs, my holding up blogs over comment boards?

My occasional vocation is not perfect, nor are those of us who have chosen it. Yes, there are bloggers who cannot string a sentence together, much less an entire blog post. Additionally, the lack of pay for most food bloggers turns the food blog into a hobby for some, a passion for others - and both for many. For only a handful of us does it turn into an opportunity to be offered free food. I certainly don't get those offers (and if I did I probably would not get around to following through on them). And the few people I know who do get them are creating their own recipes, not reviewing restaurants.

In fairness, I admit that I have not addressed Mr. Kummer's assertion of the alleged reliability of the paid reviewer over the blogger. To be honest, I can't say that I have considered whether or not a paid critic is necessarily more trustworthy than a food blogger. Where do I go for a trustworthy critique of a restaurant? I do search blogs to see if they have said something positive, negative or otherwise. I sometimes explore the restaurant review section of my local paper or magazine, but only as a second resort because many of the paid reviews I have read are of restaurants I am unable to afford. A site such as Yelp.com is a reference of last resort - many posters there have valid opinions, but again you must weed out the fans and haters from those genuinely trying to give advice on where to eat.

One question that I have for Mr. Kummer: how beholden to some editorial bottom line is the typical paid critic? Does someone such as Corby Kummer have the freedom to eat where he pleases and then write about it? Or is there more pressure from above to choose specific spots to critique? I imagine there is more pressure in choice of restaurant than I have heard. One advantage that the food blogger has over the paid reviewer is that he or she can choose whichever location he or she likes, so long as it is accessible and affordable. I do not assert that this is a guarantee of complete and total reliability, or of any proof that the blogger will only choose the places he or she likes. I myself try to remain truthful about my experiences, including ambiance and service as well as the food itself. Most bloggers that I have encountered seem to be doing the same. As to what Frank Bruni recently called "more exacting standards": perhaps a paid reviewer has to meet said standards. I admit food bloggers do not have to hold ourselves up to a higher standard for something we do merely for the joy of it, but many of us try to hold ourselves up to some standard. I hold myself up to a fairly high standard of personal honesty in what I write. Again, I certainly hope that others in my position do as well.

Perhaps we food bloggers are more reliable than a paid reviewer who may or may not have to eat where his bosses tell him (if that happens)? Perhaps not, since we won't get fired for not meeting a higher standard? That is not a question I am equipped to answer. All I can say is that a food blog is not to be easily dismissed as lacking in standards, trustworthiness or impartiality altogether. Those of us who write blogs in our spare time do have something important to say, and our words certainly can be trusted, more often than Mr. Kummer or the Zagats might realize!

- - - - -

One commenter had a response to me, basically that the difference between persons such as Mr. Kummer and persons such as myself is, in a word, "CREDENTIALS." He or she did assert that our lack of credentials gave no promise that we knew what we were talking about - just as if he or she decided to give out free medical advice on a blog, even though he or she has no medical training.

I'm sorry, it isn't the same thing, as I posted in a second comment. As of right now it is still pending approval. But I saved a copy and will re-post it here. Again, adding a word or two that was left out during proofreading.

- - - - -

In other words, by your estimation what I and what every other food blogger says is, by its very nature, untrustworthy. You could go to the logical extreme of that argument and assume that food bloggers must never be read, because none of them have any credentials and therefore must be talking nonsense. I don't think you are saying that, though it certainly is implied. You are making a seemingly sound though still illogical assumption.

A similarly illogical assumption could go in the opposite direction, questioning even the value of credentials (which you did not have to scream, I might add). How do I know that a paid food critic is not being forced to give a favorable or unfavorable review for such-and-such a restaurant by his or her employer? A blogger, who does not have to even write the review, does not have the threat of losing his or her job by writing a review that is more critical or more praiseworthy - or even more "average" - than the credentialed food critic. Standing among peers, yes, but not his or her livelihood. Therefore, the food critic must obviously be a corporate shill whose words - and credentials - cannot be trusted, since I can not ever know how much influence his or her employer has over that review.

But I am not foolish enough to make that equally illogical assumption. Certainly, there are food critics whose credentials should be questioned. Before you make another assumption, I am not meaning Mr. Kummer or the Zagats, the latter being among the most respected and trusted credentialed persons in the food critiquing business (and yes, it is a business). And certainly there are bloggers who write nonsense. But to dismiss us all because we have no, ahem, CREDENTIALS, is to somewhat arrogantly dismiss an entire medium on account of the those of us who really shouldn't be typing on a keyboard at all.

My advice for figuring out which bloggers are the most trustworthy is to read through different blogs and comments, and to see which bloggers are most respected among their peers. If they are writing nonsense then you can bet that they are being called to the carpet for it. If they are not, chances are they will be talked up by fellow bloggers and perhaps even some of those same credentialed food critics. This is perhaps the closest thing unpaid bloggers such as myself have to "credentials."

I admit we don't always have the "credentials" that paid food critics have. That doesn't mean we are not worth reading. You may not have meant it that way, but you certainly implied it.

I'm not intending to speak up my own blog, so I won't add a link to it. But to keep from being completely anonymous I will note that I write the "Baltimore Snacker" blog in, of course, Baltimore.

- - - - -

So what do you think? Are non-paid bloggers as a rule less trustworthy than any paid food critic? Can food critics be trusted not to shill for "the man"? My answers, of course, are "no" and "yes" respectively. But I've talked too much about this. Y'all: it's your turn.

Kitchen of India

Last week I was set on trying out the Kooper's Chowhound Burger Wagon - who claim the best burgers in Baltimore (of course, I'll be the judge of that) - as it stationed itself in Hampden. About 12:30 I parked, walked, then got back in the car and drove around in the rain looking for this burger wagon, to no avail (perhaps the Chowhounders were sick, as "tweets" over the weekend seem to suggest).

So with no hope of burgers, I headed around town to finish other errands. Said errands took me out to Essex, and on the way back I avoided an accident and hit Joppa Road. It had dawned on me that an Indian restaurant I even missed during my Beltway Snacking series had been sitting on Joppa Road, beckoning to me from the Beltway.

Why does the phrase "COMMMMME to Butthead" rattle around in my brain right now? Oh well...

Kitchen of India is, maybe, one of the last Indian restaurants in the area that I hadn't gotten around to trying out. So with time and a hankering for South Asian cooking, I pulled into the parking lot. The $7.95 price tag didn't hurt either.

After ordering a water, I set to the buffet, a slightly smaller than average one. But most of the standards were there, with varying, though generally better than not, results:

• The onion relish and tamarind & coriander chutneys were good, and complemented the food well. I stuffed a lot of the onion relish into the naan bread that the waitress delivered to me about five minutes into the meal.
• Oh, the naan was soft and warm.
• The basmati rice and pulao did not feel like they had been sitting around all day, which shows that they're paying attention to their product.
  
• The generic chicken curry was not terribly spicy, and the chicken was particularly dry - odd since the chicken curry was in a sauce. It was extremely forgettable.
  
• In contrast, the chicken tikka masala was one of the better ones I've had at a buffet, in a nice, slightly buttery masala sauce. And I don't know what happened but this chicken was as moist and tender as the chicken in that curry was dry and stringy.
• Likewise, the tandoori chicken, a must-try, was much better than most I have eaten. Typically you will find buffets filled with somewhat bland tandoori chicken that tastes underseasoned and feels overcooked. This is why I rarely even bother with tandoori chicken when I eat at Indian buffets. But the tandoori chicken here was quite good, with a nice tangy, smoky flavor, a tasty spice blend and a tender and moist texture. Has my faith in tandoori chicken been restored?
• The kheer rice pudding was more liquidy than most I have had - and they usually are liquidy. Not a favorite.

Overall, despite the lack in variety, Kitchen of India offered some good standard dishes, particularly their tandoori chicken. Just save yourself the trouble and don't bother with the chicken curry. There are better things to eat there.

Baltimore Beer Week: More from the Tasting Section

I didn't go to many tastings over the past few days. Again, I chose the Wine Source (again, you may have chosen your own), and again they had some interesting and delicious wines available for sampling the other day. I went Thursday when Stoudt's Brewing Company and the always-favorite Southern Tier came down to Bawlmer to let us sample their wares.

Stoudt's, out of Adamstown, PA, in Lancaster County (yes, Amish country), is the creation of Ed & Carol Stoudt, the latter being one of the first women in America to found a brewery. Stoudt's also has a restaurant attached to it, which may necessitate a trip of its own. The Stoudt's presenter was a mellow young dude, one of the few brewery employees who are not kith & kin to the Stoudt clan. He brought a bevy of seven beers. My favorite was their Belgian beer, the Triple Abbey Style. Dude said this was their least popular in terms of sales, though that didn't mean people did not like it. I was not alone: a few people that I talked to (so easy to talk to people at a beer tasting) liked the Belgian best. Though all good, a few of the most notable included their Scarlet Lady Ale, one of their most popular, and their "we invented this style of beer" Smooth Hoperator. Alas, Dude didn't bring their darker and heavier Fat Dog with them, which is among their most popular beers.

I cannot say enough good things about Southern Tier Brewing Company. Though I liked all the beers I tasted this week, Southern Tier is, perhaps, the first one I tasted where I really, truly got enthusiastic about everything I drank. They make that raved-over Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout, one of my favorite specialty brews of all time. They are based in Lakewood, NY - "out in the middle of nowhere" as one person said to me. The presenter was a true Southern gentleman. Really! He's from Alabama, and occasionally needles his colleagues as to how truly not Southern they are. Unlike the dude from Stoudt's, who encouraged me to go in a certain order (albeit not the one laid out in front of us), the gentleman from Southern Tier encouraged us all to go in any order we darn well pleased. I more or less stuck with the order he laid out the beers in, and started with their specialty Cuvée series, one French oak aged, the other American oak aged. Again, there is something faintly scotch-like about these beers, and they pack a nice, gentle wallop. Of course, he also brought the Crème Brûlée stout, but I saved that for last. Before that was their Mokah Stout (y'all can tell I like stouts), a nice mixture of coffee and chocolate. I don't remember him bringing Southern Tier's Choklat Stout, but I would advise you to look for it in your local wine or beer store.

I didn't get back on Friday (saw Paranormal Activity - not so much scary to me as fun and freaky, but you will be freaked out the next time you go to bed) or Saturday. But I had tried most of the beers being tasted and had liked them anyway. Too bad I missed our own hometown's Clipper City based right out of Baltimore (technically Halethorpe). I'll use most any reason to sample their MarzHon.

Because it's Diwali (or Dipavali)

My experience with making Indian food started with the microwave (again, praise to Julie Sahni). Why don't I use it to make more Indian food? Because I make so much of everything these days. And I'll never work my way through the whole cookbook.

I have not bothered to make Indian sweets. YET. Enter Aai's Kitchen: From 2007, how to make the very sweet rava ladoo in the microwave. Since the Hindu Festival of Lights has lots of sweets, why not make some?

Baltimore Beer Week Continues...

Just a note from tonight's foray into beer deliciousness. As y'all have figured out, I've been officially celebrating Baltimore Beer Week at the Wine Source in Hampden, with the occasional Dogfish Head Pumkin Ale at the Hippo. Right now I'm continuing my zombiethon with dinner and a glass of Stone Brewery Smoked Porter, purchased last week, as I watch George Romero's Day of the Dead, the third movie in his zombie quadrilogy.

The beer tasting of the evening was of a fine selection from the Ommegang Brewing Company out of Cooperstown, NY, which the presenter was quick to remind us was also the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. This was a different kind of tasting than I've experienced at the Wine Source or at any beer or wine tasting I have been to. Instead of pouring on demand as tasters arrived, the presenter started a group of tasters altogether and poured the same selections for all of us as he explained the stories behind the beers, the bottling process and the brewery. It was more interesting and engaging than most beer or wine tastings usually turn out to be.

We tried a series of five beers, ranging from ales to darker beers with higher alcohol contents. Pretty much every one was brewed with orange peels and coriander. Of the five beers - Witte, Hennepin, Rare Vos, Abbey Ale and Three Philosophers - the guy from Ommegang said that most people get excited about the Rare Vos. Though good, I liked the Hennepin ale much better. It's brewed with coriander, orange peels and ginger. And I'm a fan of the darker beers! I'll be buying one of these in a future trip to the Wine Source or another local wine store. Their Three Philosophers and Abbey Ale were also very interesting and worth a try. The Witte was alright, definitely drinkable.

Most of Ommegang's year round line are sold in the Baltimore area. The Wine Source carries their beers in 22 oz bottles for $9 or 4 packs for $11.

And no, nobody paid me or gave me anything to say that. Will I have to add that as a tag line from now on, do you think?

Thairish

I don't know why I haven't stopped in Thairish before. It's not easy to miss, but it is easy to notice in passing while you're on the way to bigger, more fabulous establishments - it's neighbor is the Helmand, one of Baltimore's (and my) favorite restaurants, plus with My Thai, Indigma and Akbar all in a stone's throw from it, plus a dozen other restaurants, clubs and gay bars just a block or two northward on Charles Street, you're probably not going to be stopping in.

Well, you should save yourself a few bucks and stop in. I did last night. It was quite by accident, really. I had originally planned to go to Dukem, but there was no parking and I didn't feel like walking, so I circled Mount Vernon a dozen or so times and finally landed a space, right across from Thairish. It was fate.

Perhaps one thing that deters people is the supertiny space Thairish occupies - literally, three tables and a counter on the side wall with stools. Really, I've seen "restaurants" in the Towsontown food court that are bigger than Thairish seems to be. But despite the late hour - 9PM, an hour before closing - there was a never-ending stream of people coming in for food. Not out the door, but it didn't exactly seem like business was bad on a Saturday night. Note, of course, that a good portion of their business is take-out.

I skipped the entrée and ordered a few appetizers, not realizing how much food I would be getting (but still for such a low price). I missed trying what some reviewers on the Web seem to say is a pretty good pad thai and an even better masaman curry

I ordered the tom kha gai soup ($2.25), fried shrimp satay ($3.75), vegetarian spring roll ($1.95) and the Thai iced tea ($1.50) Most everything I had was very good, and I'm already looking forward to going back for more of it and then some.

The Tom kha gai soup was, well, different than I've had elsewhere. Every other order of it in every other Thai restaurant has been rich, creamy, especially coconutty and tangy, with mushrooms, little bits of chicken and pieces of bamboo shoots and (for flavor) lemongrass. If those are all the "cream of tom kha gai" version, then Thairish's is the consommé version of the dish. The broth is pretty light but distinct on the coconut flavor, but I really couldn't taste any lemongrass at all. The veggies tasted especially fresh, and the chicken, though a little stringy like most chicken I have had most everywhere (it's just not my favorite bird, alright?) was not in little pieces but in a large chunk. You could interpret that either of two ways: "Wow, nice, crisp veggies and a big ass hunk of chicken!" or "Wow, they kind of threw these in at the last minute, didn't they?" The veggies didn't really absorb any of the flavor of the broth, which is what gives that impression. But note: this will be both the biggest and cheapest tom kha gai soup you will probably find in Baltimore. This isn't the itty bitty Dixie cup size portion that usually costs about $4. Just remember the pluses and minuses of Thairish's tom kha gai. I probably won't order it again, but I won't dissuade y'all from ordering it for yourselves.

While I wouldn't call the soup a low point, it was the lowest point of an overall delicious meal. Maybe it's my propensity for fried things, but the spring roll and satay were just wonderful. Though a tad greasy the vegetable spring roll came out wonderfully crispy and flavorful. It was filled with carrots, celery and bean thread noodles - lots and lots of bean thread noodles, which made it especially filling. I would go back for it. The sweet and sour sauce that went with it was a nice complement.

Same with the shrimp satay. On my plate were four fried shrimp with tomato slices, a little lettuce and a peanut butter curry sauce. I don't think there was any coconut in the dish, but the flavor still seemed a little coconutty to me. Maybe I still had a little left in my mouth from the soup? Anyway, the fried shrimp were hardly greasy and wonderfully crunchy, with a nice overall flavor that I liked both with and without the sauce. Hopefully I can find a recipe for a similar sauce online. For a change, I wrapped up one of the shrimp in the lettuce with a tomato slice and some sauce. This was the piece I enjoyed the most.

I can't forget to mention the Thai iced tea. Not overly sweet like most Thai iced teas I've had, but sweet enough and a little more than that. Very refreshing, although it wasn't exactly warm out last night.

Overall I paid almost exactly $10 for my meal before tip - that would've been more had I gotten an entrée and a drink, since veggie and tofu entrées cost $8 and meat or seafood entrées cost $9. Still, unless you over-order you probably will have a difficult time going much over that $10 limit per person. It's a cheap eats establishment with food that doesn't taste all that cheap. And it's doubtful that I will just be passing it by all the time again.

Notes from Baltimore Beer Week Days 2 & 3

Just a quick note about my run-ins with beer this weekend. Yesterday I headed back to my favorite wine store (And no the Wine Source is definitely NOT in any way paying me for that. Am I going too overboard with this new FTC ruling?). I urge you to explore your own local wine stores to see if they have some beer tastings in store. Anyhoo, yesterday I got to try some of Frederick's famous Flying Dog - again, since I went to their recent tasting - and Stone Brewing Company out of Escondido, CA (just north of San Diego). I've seen their Ruination Ale before, but never before had the chance to try their fascinating Smoked Ale, which would indeed go well with something grilled (as it was pointed out to me). I bought a 22 oz bottle for $5. Flying Dog had their usual tasty selections, including their seasonal Dogtoberfest beer and their 8.5% ABV Kerberos.

Today yet another tasting presented itself - Sierra Nevada and the Mid-Atlantic fave Dogfish Head were at the Wine Source. But since I've tried and liked both beers, I figured I didn't need to go to this one, and instead went to a matinee of Zombieland. Oh my God, that movie kicked ASS!

Notes from Baltimore Beer Week Day 1

Don't let the post title fool you. I don't intend to spend every day of Baltimore Beer Week drinking. I have neither the time nor the tolerance for that sort of thing. But I do have to share some beer notes from the first day of Baltimore Beer Week, and some suggestions for the last day of it.

• As I am sure several wine/beer/liquor stores are doing for Baltimore Beer Week, the Wine Source is having tastings throughout the next week and a half. Tonight I got totry several good varieties from Fordham and Dominion Breweries. Originally from Annapolis and Ashburn, VA, respectively, both are now based in Dover, DE, and have a few good lines out in the Mid-Atlantic region. I liked everything I had tonight, but notable ones I tried tonight included Fordham's Centennial Ale, which several people had good things to say about, and Dominion's Pale Ale and Millenium. They had a not-for-sale oak-aged version of the Millenium line that was warm and slightly Scotch-y (that oak thing again).
• If you are interested in trying more of Dominion's line, Max's Taphouse on Broadway in Fells Point will be featuring many of Dominion's beers on tap at the tail end of Baltimore Beer Week, Sunday, October 18. I rarely make it to Fells (the parking is enough to keep me away, I admit), but I may have to make a trip down for this.
• I ran into a friend afterwards at the Hippo, and had some more of Dogfish Head's lovely Pumkin Ale. Y'all should try it. The Hippo has two lines of Dogfish Head on tap right now, both the Pumkin Ale and the Raison D'Etre lines.
  

Zombie Food Pyramid

Courtesy of Slashfood.com (from 2008), what might the Food Pyramid look like for our fine fetid friends? Wonder no more: the Zombie Food Pyramid is below:


In the spirit of all things zombified, I am trying to watch George Romero's zombie oeuvre this month, plus a few other standouts that came along the way. If you're curious or want to watch along, a list is below. Dates are not set in stone for you; this is just how it best fits into my calendar. Oh, and has anyone seen the new Zombieland movie that's out right now? I'm hoping to see it this weekend.

I know this isn't quite food-related, but this is too much for Twitter, so it goes here. And I'm sure the occasional non-foodie post can be forgiven. But hey, I did add a food pyramid!

Great Zombie Marathon

October 7 - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

October 11 - Dawn of the Dead (1978)

October 12 - Day of the Dead (1985)

October 14 - Return of the Living Dead (1985)

October 17 - Night of the Living Dead (1990)

October 18 - Land of the Dead (2005)

October 19 - 28 Days Later (2002)

October 21 - Resident Evil (2002 - just this one; the others suuuuucked)

October 24 - Dawn of the Dead (2004)

October 25 - Shaun of the Dead (2004)

October 28 - Diary of the Dead (2008)

Deer Stir Fry

I just finished stir-frying some deer that family cooked on the grill at a picnic this weekend. I absconded with about a pound of deer, sliced, and still a little too rare to eat, as well as some raw veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, green pepper, radish - the usual suspects.

For the stir fry, I mostly improvised. I started with a tablespoon of vegetable oil in the skillet, and added one small minced onion and a little kosher salt. After letting that get soft, I added the deer, cut up into small pieces. After a few more minutes, I added about 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and some veggies: the raw veggies from the picnic, along with two cloves of garlic thinly sliced and one small cubed green tomato (red will work too, but the green one stays firmer). I lightly salted the veggies and stir fried the whole mess for another five minutes. The deer was nice and tender and the veggies just crunchy enough. I could've made some rice, but instead I sliced up a sweet potato and am baking that in the oven with some rosemary and kosher salt.

I need a working camera again to take photos of this stuff.

Oh Boy Oh Boy, It's **HIC** Coming!

Baltimore Beer Week (-and-a-Half) starts tomorrow! There are hundreds of events going on around town from October 8 through 18. And nobody paid me to say that. Check out your local beer, wine or liquor store. They may have some tastings - for example, The Wine Source will definitely be featuring beer tastings all week. (If you know of others, please post them in comments).

Image linked from the Wine Source web site.

Surgeon turned chef for Susan G. Komen

Courtesy of Dara at Dining Dish: This Thursday you can eat at Sotto Sopra and donate to breast cancer research at the same time! The text of the press release is as follows:

For one night only, Thursday, October 8, Dr. Dean Kane, the well-renowned plastic surgeon, will be putting down his scalpel and picking up a chefs knife. Under the guidance of Sotto Sopra’s executive chef, Bill Crouse, Dr. Kane will be preparing a five course gourmet Italian dinner (menu below) of which a portion of the proceeds will go to the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. It is an evening of seasonal dishes, wine selections from The Wine Merchant and camaraderie as guests dine at communal tables in Sotto Sopra’s beautiful 19th century building located at 405 N. Charles Street. The evening’s festivities kick off at 6:30 p.m. with entertainment by Tony Sciuto throughout the evening.

Along with sharing his culinary talent, Dr. Kane will be selling a selection of his original pop photo art with 100% of the proceeds going to this worthy cause. Cost per person is $70, which includes the five course dinner, wine and entertainment.* Advanced reservations are required; call Sotto Sopra Restaurant at 410 625 0534.

- more-

Chef-for-the-Day

Dean P. Kane, MD

Thursday, October 8, 2009 – 6:30 p.m.

MENU

1st Course

Forest Mushroom Soup with Pine Nut Gratin

&

Arugula Salad

with goat cheese, dried cherries and Dijon mustard vinaigrette

2nd Course

Lobster Ravioli with Americana Sauce

topped with caviar

3rd Course

Lemon Basil Sorbetto

4th Course

Duetto

Grilled Lamb Chop

with minted eggplant caponata

&

Seared Halibut

on parsnip puree with lemon butter sauce

5th Course

Pumpkin Soufflé

with balsamic soaked fig

Cost $70.00 per person includes food, wine and entertainment

*Tax, gratuity and alcoholic beverages are not included in the cost. No other discounts or promotions are applicable to this special event.

(Sotto Sopra will be donating 10% of the evening’s proceeds to

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation/Maryland Affiliate)

Event Sponsor

The Wine Merchant
10741 Falls Rd.
Lutherville, MD 21093
Ph: 410-321-6500
www.yourwinemerchant.com

# # #

- more -

Dean P. Kane, MD, FACS: Dr. Dean and Lauri Kane have a husband and wife cosmetic surgical practice which allows them to provide a warm and caring approach. What makes their practice so unique is that you get Lauri’s female perspective on beauty, but Dr. Kane’s talented surgical skill. While Dr. Kane tends to be a serious surgeon, he is also is a very creative out of the box thinker. He always puts the patient first does not sway away from performing the correct procedure for the right patient. Dr. Kane always puts the safety of the patient first and foremost.

( www.DrDeanKane.com )

Susan B Komen Breast Cancer Foundation: More than 100,000 volunteers and activists work through 125 Komen Affiliates to mobilize more than one million friends and neighbors every year through events like the Komen Race for the Cure - the world's largest and most successful awareness and fundraising event for breast cancer.( http://ww5.komen.org/ )

Sotto Sopra Restaurant: Sotto Sopra Restaurant (www.sottosopra.us ) is located at 405 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 at the gateway to the Mt. Vernon cultural district of Baltimore City. The restaurant is recognized for their contemporary Italian cuisine, 19th century venue, excellent service and spirited personality.

Tony Sciuto: An international musician and song writer, Sciuto was with Banging Rush, Bonehead, The Little River Band, Never Never and enjoys his solo career as a performer and song writer.

( www.tonysciuto.net/ )

For further information on this event or Sotto Sopra Restaurant please contact Dara Bunjon at 410-486-0339 / email dara@dara-does-it.com or contact Monika Pawlak-Bosio at the restaurant at 410.625.0534

Photographs are available upon request.

A little bummed about these Mobbies

Okay, I was flattered and honored that my peensy blog was nominated for a Mobbie award (you can still vote up to Friday evening by going to the link at right, and you can only vote once per day in each category). but I'm not doing so well. Out of 21 food blogs, I'm, um, #19. A weeeeee bit demoralizing. I feel like Chicago 2016 - with high hopes but out in the first round. Or perhaps one of those cities that didn't even make it to the final four - like Doha. (BTW: of course I'm sad for Chicago but hey, the Olympics are goin' to South America for the first time ever! Way to go, Rio!)

Anyway, just like Arianna Huffington when she ran for California governor along with 150 other people during that crazy recall election in 2003 (I know - I lived in Cali at the time, before it "fell apart"), I'm going to ask my readers to send their votes to other blogs. Alas, there is no hope for me. But thank you all who voted for me! Maybe I'll get nominated again next year?

Of course, if you really still want to vote for me, there's no one stopping you :)

Moon Pie vs Whoopie Pie: The Taste Test

Last weekend I bought a relatively new product in the Giant Foods universe: a whoopie pie. I had never seen one at Giant until September. I never bothered to try one of theirs, but whoopie pies and Baltimore have had an extremely brief courtship (unless they've been around all along and only now has someone let me in on the joke). I am starting to like these things: soft mound of cake on top of another one, with a sweet, lardy frosting in the middle that is clearly on the buttercream side of the buttercream-Bettercreme spectrum, thankfully as far away from "Bettercreme" as you could hope for. Man, I hate that stuff.

Not long before this, I decided to put to test which was better, the moon pie or the whoopie pie. Although moon pies can be found all over the country (to my knowledge), they originate in Chattanooga and are common throughout the South. The relative shape is the only thing it really shares in common with the whoopie pie, made up of very different components: two soft graham craker cookies (more if you have the double decker variety) sandwiching a thick layer of marshmallow, and dipped in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or banana (the banana tastes like death. It's not a favorite). Whoopie pies are specifically found in New England and the Pennsylvania Dutch communities, but are spreading to other parts of the country. Still they proudly remain a quintessentially Yankee dessert. Until recently, Maryland was solidly part of the "Moon Pie Belt." I grew up with moon pies. I had never heard of whoopie pies until a few years ago, and had never even seen much less eaten one until this summer. Before that, I thought it was just some sort of moon pie. But whoopie pies are becoming much more common in Maryland, and so the time is now right to test one against the other.

So, I bought a chocolate cake whoopie pie from Whole Foods (I like Trader Joe's better but you can only buy six at a time) and a chocolate-covered moon pie from Mars. [UPDATE 3/8/2013: The moon pie and whoopie pie pictured below are not the ones used in the experiment.]

Moon pie vs whoopie pie: the taste test -

I quartered each pie, and taste tested a 1/4 moon pie vs a 1/4 whoopie pie.

Moon pie -

The moon pie was, as usual, a bit crumbly, though the flavor of the graham cracker crust and the surrounding robe of chocolate made up for that. As I realized, one of the best things about a moon pie is the contrast in textures between the brittle soft crumbliness of the graham crackers and the thick soft sponginess of the marshmallow (wow, that sounds pretentious). That, for me, is my favorite part of the moon pie. It's not the most natural thing you can find in the stores - the high fructose corn syrup is a good reason to not eat too many of them. Perhaps there's a way to make a healthier version, if there is such a thing as a "healthy" moon pie?
 
Whoopie pie -

Whole Foods' spongy whoopie is only one of three different types of whoopie pie I have eaten - the other being the thick and cakey devil's food Trader Joe's brand and the soft, "average and dependable just like everything else their bakery makes" kind from Giant. Each type tastes and feels fundamentally different from the others. Although Whole Foods' pie is probably the healthiest (or least unhealthy) of the three, it doesn't fare well in my opinion against the moon pie. While the creme filling of each kind is wonderful, the cake part of the Whole Foods variety leaves a funny taste in my mouth, and actually manages to make a typically messy dessert even messier. It so thoroughly coats the fingers that I found myself eating the Whole Foods' whoopie pie with a fork. The moon pie doesn't do that.

Verdict - Although I am really loving these whoopie pies, I liked the moon pie just a little better. Granted, it might be different had I used a Trader Joe's or even a Giant Foods whoopie pie, both of which I liked a lot better than the Whole Foods kind. I'm still not sure which tastes closer to the traditional whoopie pie as most New Englanders and Amish know them. As for the marshmallowy chewiness of the moon pie, it does hold up well against the Whole Foods whoopie pie. Perhaps the moon pie would not do too well against the TJ or Giant ones, but that's for another taste test.

So the final verdict: moon pie by a nose, though that totally hinges on the type of whoopie pie it is compared against.