Exits 1, 2 and 3A-B Revisited

I had serious plans to resume my explorations of the Beltway and its foodie finds. I would revisit places that I originally visited, explore new locations, report on those that have succumbed to the Great Recession, etcetera, etcetera.

That was half a year ago.

Since then, life has happened, and I went on a most restful sabbatical, causing me to put off my return to the Beltway Snacking series. Plus, the first post is always the toughest, since that's the one that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the series.

When I first got the notion to revisit the exits from my first culinary tour around the Baltimore Beltway, I was not quite sure how I would go about it. I thought I might seek out new places I did not even know about the first time, maybe taking note of which places had closed down before. It dawned on me as I was going back into Glen Burnie just how ambitious this project has been and would have to be. Perhaps tackling each exit one at a time takes longer, but it preserves the sanity. Biting off a few at once? Now there's a task. So because I have a desperate need to organize myself (HA!), I'll break down these revisits in a somewhat different way than before.

Restaurants that have shut down - Well this is pretty self-explanatory: places that I visited or wanted to visit, but can't now because they ain't there no more, hons. NB: If something shut down and I missed it, please help me out and let me know what I missed.

Restaurants I didn't get around to the first time - These are the places in my "Places to look up later" section from the first go-round, as well as places that commenters recommended to me that I didn't even think about. These are also places that both I and my commenters just completely missed altogether. As with the first go-round, I will try to avoid places I have blogged about in the past, though I may play hard and fast with this rule if I need to)

Restaurants that have since opened - This one isn't hard, people. Just as the recession has taken out some places, so have others opened up since.

Exits 1, 2 and 3A-B -
Section of the Beltway - the Glen Burnie Section (S. Baltimore City, N. Anne Arundel County)
Towns & neighborhoods along the way - Hawkins Point, Curtis Bay, Pasadena, Brooklyn Park, Glen Burnie
Routes that branch off - MD 173, MD 10, MD 2

Places that have shut down since I last visited

Of the various restaurants I mentioned on the first go round, none have really shut down. One notable location that never made it into the Beltway Snacking series but is now gone speaks volumes about this recession: Krispy Kreme. There used to be a stand-alone Krispy Kreme restaurant right across from the MVA, complete with the ditzy teenage boy who had no idea what "Do you have any hot ones?" meant. Well, young Master Clueless has probably found another job by now, and you have to go to Royal Farms to find any Krispy Kremes around these parts - or the Harris Teeter all the way out in Columbia.

Restaurants that have since opened

In Krispy Kreme's place has opened up Ayubi's Chicken and Kabob (map). This location, which had been open just a few months once I got there, has a mix of foods I hadn't really anticipated: fried chicken (think New York Fried Chicken) and lake trout, ice cream, and a full menu of Afghan and Central Asian kabobs, lawands and pullows (pilafs). Notable is the inclusion of the area-famous kaddo borawni made known to Bawlamorons at the wonderful Helmand restaurant in Mount Vernon. Though I didn't get to try Ayubi's version (I think they were out of pumpkin or something), I did order a typical lamb kabob with an Afghan pullow and bread. Half an hour later I had it at home, and I must say it survived the ride. The kabob was juicy and nicely spiced, while the pullow featured nice bits of raisin , carrot and onion. A nice and memorable addition was the finely chopped cucumber and carrot salad that came with the dinner. All of this came to about $10 before tax and drink, and was quite a change from the donuts that were being served there just twelve months before.

A particularly filling meal from Ayubi's

Restaurants I didn't get around to the first time

When I first hit Exits 1 through 3 (A & B - 4 exits in total), I noted a few restaurants that, for whatever reason, I just did not get around to visiting.

The Olive Tree Italian Restaurant (map) was one that some of my fellow Men's Chorus members suggested to me, and after one performance at a local South Baltimore church, a few of us headed over there. We would've gotten in, too, had it not been for the wait. So the Olive Tree is one that I had to save for another day. Instead, we all met up at Romano's Restaurant (map) for dinner. While others of us got things like spaghetti or crabcakes, I opted for the shish kebab ($15). Extremely filling, and it lasted me a while as a take home dish. Still, I wish I had gotten the crabcake platter instead.

One location that I had passed often but never ventured to try was Martitha's Restaurant (map). This restaurant offers up a combination of Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran offerings that will pleasantly fill you up. One day I ordered some take out, waiting with a major soccer game on the flat panel TV hovering behind the bar, tuned in to Univision. Martitha's is an unassuming, homey little restaurant, with the various flags of Latin America hanging around the counter. Don't let that unassuming atmosphere daunt you. Order away! I ordered a breakfast dish of three bean and scrambled egg tacos ($10 - UPDATE: this is known as a baleada) that came with Salvadoran slaw, lettuce and tomato, and what seemed like enough slices for a quarter of an avocado. I had to order a nice thick pupusa along with it. This was gone before I even got home. I'm a sucker for a good pupusa.

These are not pupusas.

When I first visited Glen Burnie, I got about as far as the intersection of Crain and Ritchie Highways, where you can and must visit the likes of Pho Miss Saigon (which I reviewed the first time around), and Thai Café (which I did not - the sister and I headed there the other day after I helped her find a dress for a big anniversary dinner). Ann's Dari Creme (map) is much further down Ritchie Highway, nestled right in front of Marley Station Mall (looking much better inside, I might add), and across from the Plaza Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant (map) which I still have not ventured to. It had been a while since I first visited Ann's. I'm talking decades here. The place is an area institution, and after listening to a little blurb about it on the Midday with Dan Rodricks show on WYPR (NB: please continue doing that County by County segment) I was reminded of this comment from commenter TW on my original Beltway Snacking post about Exit 3:

You definitely should hit Ann's again. Cheeseburger sub or a footlong or get someone to split with you and get half of each. Banana milkshake to go with.

It was settled. I had to go back. The folks at Ann's are quite efficient. They've been doing this for years, and they know how to get you in and out and get you your food fast. I did order the foot long, but opted merely for the vanilla shake. Hey, I like vanilla. I should have eaten it there while it was still warm, but even 45 minutes later in the comfort of my apartment, the foot long was still pretty good. It would've been excellent had I eaten it right away. As for the milkshake: oh good Lord, I haven't had a milkshake as good since my last visit to In N Out when I last visited California. Thick, very strong of vanilla, very cold. It's a memorable milkshake. All this for about $5.

That's a lotta milkshakes...

So, what did I miss?

Perhaps there will be yet another future installment of the Beltway Snacking series. If so, there will always be places that I fail to get to the first or second time around. I could write a whole series just on the restaurants I have missed. But I'm not doing that. I will just let y'all give me some suggestions. So: what else did I miss in Curtis Bay? Pasadena? Glen Burnie and around Marley Station?

Places I got back to

Ann's Dari Creme (ice cream/hot dogs/fast food) - 7918 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-1231

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? If I was in the mood
  

Ayubi's Chicken and Kabob (Afghan/lake trout/fast food) - 6604 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 766-9585

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

Romano's Restaurant (Italian/Greek/American/family-style) - 6905 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Maybe, but only if there is no wait

Martitha's Restaurant (Salvadoran/Guatemalan/Honduran/Mexican) - 602 Crain Hwy N, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 424-3974

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

Thai Café, (formerly Thai Gour Café; Thai) - 7477 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd #1, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-8399

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

A few places to look up later

Olive Tree Italian Restaurant (Italian) - 7005 Ritchie Hwy; Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-8237

Plaza Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant (Mexican) - 7917 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-2447

A few tidbits: Start of May edition

1. Found some potatoes and peas vindaloo in the freezer (recipe from Julie Sahni's Moghul Microwave). Tastes as fresh as ever. Score!

2. I just love Fat Tire. When are they coming out to Maryland!? I have to go all the way to North Carolina to get it. Though for a very limited time, it's being sold somewhere in DC, at the Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan. But just temporarily. By the time I can get down there it'll probably be gone.

3. A few things I've eaten recently that have caught me off guard because of their tastiness:

• Trader Joe's French Vanilla ice cream has an extremely luxurious richness to it. Really, it has to be the best commercially available (that is, not farm made) vanilla ice cream I've eaten in ages.
• The Helmand's vegetarian platter ($14). I don't often eat meatless when I eat out, but this past Saturday I made the choice and it was a winner!
• Dietz & Watson hot dog - I had one at Bon Bon's Ice Cream in Belvedere Square today and I was very impressed. Didn't even feel bad about the $2.85 I spent on it and the sauerkraut that came with it (I actually saw the caraway seeds).
• The cute little mini-cakes that you can get at City Café for a mere $3. I had a cup-sized red velvet cake that had two different layers of icing - a whipped one and a much denser cheesy one. The carrot cupcake I had today was almost as good.
  

4. Went to a sake tasting at Honeygo Wines - not in my neck of the woods so I had to go out of the way for it. The one I left with, after snarfing down three pieces of free nigiri sushi (What kind of fool passes up free sushi?): Gekkeikan's Haiku brand. The woman said the rice is polished. Gekkeikan says: "Slow fermentation at low temperatures gives this sake a slightly dry flavor with a light aroma reminiscent of orchard apples." I didn't taste apples. But I still liked it.

5. And finally, something that has nothing to do with food. As I've hinted once or twice on here and Twitter, I can sing! I'm a member of the Baltimore Men's Chorus, and I've got a plug to make. Our big spring concert and silent auction is coming up on Saturday, May 22, 8:00pm at the University of Baltimore Auditorium. Yes, I know that's the same night as the big Anthony Bourdain-Eric Ripert event at the Hippodrome. Yes, I know many foodies will be going there. But if you weren't planning to go see Bourdain and you wanted to listen to more than a few talented gay men singing some great music, you have your chance! Tickets are only $15!

The Other Helmand

Many of you know that the proprietor of the Helmand (see earlier posts here and here), Mahmood Karzai (little bro of Hamid), owns more than one Helmand. Only one of 'em is here. Here's a take I just accidentally stumbled on about the one up in Cambridge, Massachusetts (from the Record, the Harvard Law School newspaper - better mention that, or else I could get sued). It's five years old though, so I don't know how relevant it is, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Back to the Helmand!

Went to the Helmand again. The wait wasn't as long as I thought it might be. The owner at first said I would have to wait 20 minutes but he was able to pull a table apart and let me have that (and another couple have the other half). I waited only about five when all was said and done.

Man, I just can't get over that kaddo borawni. I have to find a recipe for it. Also had a dish called kabuli for my main course. This is a pullow of basmati rice, with raisins, julienne carrots and chunks of lamb, more tender than I have had in a long time, anywhere. Very good stuff, especially with the coriander sauce for the lamb (the other sauce they gave for the rice was pretty take-it-or-leave-it).

Here's one thing that was most amusing about the evening: the table of three next to me, including what seemed like one somewhat attractive gay man that I could swear I've seen before, eating out with an equally attractive straight couple. He was talking about some friends of his that sounded like real jerks - hell, I'd dropkick people from my life that treated me that way. And I'm a nice guy! Also mentioned his new boyfriend. Maybe rude to listen in on the conversation going on right next to me, but it was interesting.

I felt sorry for the guy. But he inadvertently gave me a good idea: I heard him say he crosses out his credit card number after he gets the receipt. Truth be told, it is not a good idea to let your card number just lying around, and you really have no control over that in a restaurant. Man, I wish they would just print X's and the last four numbers. And crossing it out so nobody can see it won't stop them from charging you because, hell, the restaurant already has your card number! So everybody but the card thief wins out in the end. I hope.

The Helmand

It seems as if just about every review of the Helmand starts out with some blurb about how it is the worst date place in Baltimore - not because it's a horrible place (which it is not), but because there is just so much to see and sample there that you and your date will never get to schmoozing over each other!

Well, I've never gone on a date there, but they're probably right anyway.

There is a reason why Baltimore Magazine and Baltimore's City Paper keep gushing about the Helmand. Heck, the City Paper just named it Blatimore's Best Middle Eastern Restaurant of 2006 (even though Afghanistan is in South Asia). The food is yummy. What can I say? It just is! And with Afghan food on my mind, I headed downtown to Baltimore's premier Afghan restaurant. Oh, I forgot to mention: the Helmand is an Afghan restaurant, run by the brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai, no less!

Mind you, the Helmand is not Baltimore's only Afghan restaurant. The Afghan Kabob, further south on Charles Street, is a favorite lunch place for many office- and cubicle-dwellers downtown. Their aushak (a kind of meaty ravioli in a yogurt-garlic sauce) is tasty, and the place is cheaper than most.

First I went to buy some tickets for a performance (more on that when it happens), then I trudged on over to the Helmand. I was not immediately seated - the place is pretty busy at 9:00 on a Friday night. The owner asked me if I would like to wait at the bar while a table was readied for me (so now there are only two degrees of separation between Hamid Karzai and myself!). As I sat down at the bar, gazing at all the liquors, beers and wines, one thing started to puzzle me, as it always dows: if this is an Afghan restaurant, and if Afghanistan is a Muslim country, exactly why do they serve alcohol here? Just something I have frequently wondered, because there really is no national wine or beer of Afghanistan. Who could drink it?

As I was ushered to my table, I took in the scenery, again. There are lots of Afghan textiles, pictures and assorted tchotchkes decking the walls of this dimly lit restaurant, and there were so many people there! A waitress still came by forthwith and asked if I would like something to drink. Feeling a little funny ordering beer in, again, a restaurant that serves a Muslim cuisine, I ordered the iced tea. I'm just like that, and I guess only I am like that, because the wine was certaqinly flowing at all the other tables. Ah well, I would have a Guinness later, somewhere else...

Not to break the checkbook, I ordered one appetizer and one cheaper entrée with my iced tea - the kaddo borawni for my appetizer and the mantwo for my main course. As I waited for my food to come, the waiter brought some flat bread - usually hot, but this one time it was not - and some butter. It is a tasty way to wait for your meal, but don't fill up on it. Your meal will not be small.

Next came the kaddo borawni, which I have eaten a few times here. A note about this aperitif: it is steamed pumpkin in a yogurt-garlic sauce, and it is the rave of much of Baltimore. I bit into it, and rememberd why: the pumpkin is soft and sweet, and the yogurt sauce is tangy. I eat this slowly so it'll last longer (a picture of it is on this link to the Helmand's page. Note the pumpkin covered in a tangy yogurt-garlic sauce). The price was right, too, at under $4.

Soon enough, my mantwo came out. I wasn't as crazy about this, but that's just my taste, because it is still good. This is a pasta-like pastry (okay, it's a pasta - another dumpling). The Helmand's official description is:

Homemade pastry shell filled with onions and beef. Served on yogurt and topped with carrots, yellow split peas and beef sauce.

But I still think it's a pasta. The ground beef filling was tasty, and there was a scant yogurt sauce. I got more of my fill of yellow split peas, which I guess I'm not completely crazy for. But I still enjoyed the dish, don't get me wrong. The price of it was good, too - a mere $11.95. Next time, though, I may just order their wonderful dwopiaza, a lamb dish with onions and rice (I woould not be surprised if pallow and pilaf share the same linguistic origin).

With the iced tea (I got two, but was only charged one, I think that was intentional, or else I would have said something), plus tax, my total came to about $18. With tip, it came to around $21.50. And that's after the waitress accidentally gave me the wrong change - when I brought it up, she gave me the right change, with no hassle. The folks here are friendly and happy to please you. As you will find out when you go there, as I trust you will!