Will there be a run on Berger Cookies now?

Berger Cookies is closed - hopefully only for the time being - due to their not renewing their business license.  Or a family illness.  Who the heck knows?  ABC 2 News notes:

The company’s website, bergercookies.com, was also “closed.” The following message, in dark red, was posted for all to see Friday: 

 “Online order processing is currently unavailable due to family illness. We will update the site and official Facebook page as production and ordering are back online to keep you informed. We appreciate your well wishes and patience during this time.”

Let's hope they can get operations up and going soon. We can ill afford to lose this Bawlmer classic.

Kathy Patterson has a new book!

I know I've done a piss poor job of advertising the ventures of my fellow food bloggers.  That said, I do want to give a shout out to Kathy Wielech Patterson (Minx Eats) and husband Neal Patterson.  If you've been paying attention, my fellow Bawlmer blogger and hubby have a book out on the best food finds in the area! The Food Lover's Guide to Baltimore showcases the best in food that Charm City has to offer.  Plus, Kathy has always been fun to read.  You have seen her Top Chef recaps, yes?  And while I don't have one in my grubby little hands yet, I will be getting one soon.  It's not that pricey on Amazon, so really it's a steal.

Check here for a list of launch events, including signings and such.  Congrats, y'all!

Wait - how the hell are there already used copies available???

The Food Market in Hampden

Last week I finally got to the Food Market, Hampden's popular new restaurant featuring former City Café chef Chad Gauss.  I knew two things about it: one, it was almost impossible to find seating there on a weekend; two, it was supposed to be good - not overhyped but average, but actually good.  So my buddies Eric & Alan confirmed.  I went ahead and made reservations for the three of us for a Wednesday, when the wait wouldn't be so long.

The Food Market is a buzzy, busy space, with so much going on, and a bar to soak it all in while you wait for your table.  The three of us had little wait though on this Wednesday night.  Yes it was jam-packed, but we only had to wait a few minutes.  I sat right next to the kitchen, where I got an appetizing eyeful of a pound tub of crab meat sitting on ice.  Nice.  I'm guessing here, but this is probably Chesapeake crab meat, not the Thai stuff.

I ordered an Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout and my friends a nice wine, and we settled in to order our meals.

First came the appetizers, which we all shared.  Eric ordered the baby iceberg salad ($7).  I've never understood the fascination with eating iceberg lettuce covered in blue cheese dressing.  Hell, I've never understood the fascination with eating iceberg lettuce in any format.  I hate the stuff.  But this was tasty, salty, crunchy and juicy.  The bacon and egg were an extra nice few additions to the dish too.  Alan ordered the salt and pepper tuna ($10), seared and rare inside, firm and attention-grabbing, with cuke and avocado to balance the pepper out.  I eyed up the cracker fried urshters (also $10), in a tasty green hot sauce.  What else can I say?  They were oysters, prepared well.  A satisfying round of appetizers all around.

For the main course, I ordered the lobster roll ($17), which makes a lot of sense considering what part of America we're in.  Seriously though, I don't eat a lot of lobster rolls.  They are an occasional and pricey treat (recalling here the DC lobster roll food truck where these things go for fifteen bucks a pop).  This lobster roll was messy, creamy with "aerated mayo" (I guess that's mayo with extra air whipped into it), on a "griddled" lobster roll bun.  If I were a rich man, or if I lived in Maine, I would be eating these things all the time.  This dish was just beautiful.

My friends also got seafood.  I got to try the scallops with butternut squash risotto ($25).  I love scallops, and like lobster I just don't get many opportunities to eat them.  These things do cost money.  Perfectly made, I thought.  Though I didn't try the salmon with tomato oil ($23), I understand it was pretty good, too.

All in all this was a rare, completely satisfying meal.  I don't have many of these anymore.  I can see why the Food Market is so popular.  But it isn't a place I can afford to visit too often.  It's more of a special occasion place for me.

Cafe Hon, Revisited.

I admit that I'm probably the last food blogger in Baltimore that has not yet seen Gordon Ramsay's epic visit to Cafe Hon - or read about his recent return.  But color me one of the teeming Charm City masses that did give up on the place a while back.  Yes, I admit it was the whole trademark thing and other small business controversies that ultimately did it.  And of course, there were problems with the food.  But with Whiting dealing head on with her Kitchen Nightmares, I thought it was finally time to check out Cafe Hon again, to see what has changed.  And so I did last weekend (Yes, it took this long to write about it.  I have a day job, y'all).

It is more cheerful than it used to be, and not in the annoying "Hey, hon? Hal y'all doin' hon? Hal baot dem O's hon?" kind of way.  Elvis is still there, of course, as well he should be.  A private party was in the bar area and at first it looked like there weren't many patrons in the main section.  But more than a few were tucked into the booths, a good sign for an early weekend night.  I was seated quickly and - thankfully - did not encounter any obnoxious beehive hairdos (revoke my Bawlmer citizenship card, alright?  Everything in moderation, even beehives).

Glancing at the new menu, I noticed a lot of the old standards, including the crab cakes, the meatloaves, the burgers and so on.  This time however I aimed for the specials menu, whose tuna caprese sandwich caught my eye: for about $11, I don't exactly recall, you get two pieces of tuna - small enough for both to fit side by side in the sandwich - covered with mozzarella and sitting on top of chopped olives, on a bun.  The sandwich is served with potato chips on the side (Utz?).

I didn't wait too long for it while sipping on my beer.  My first reaction to the sandwich: it looks good.  Then I tried to pick it up, and the sandwich easily fell apart.  The physics of the sandwich just made it difficult to hold, I guess.  This was a minor annoyance, but I put it back together and held the bun more tightly around the tuna.  It was pleasantly salty - again, the olives - and the tuna was not dry at all.  It was a sandwich I easily could plow through, but I did take it slowly.  I'm glad I did because I bit down almost full force into an olive pit!  No broken teeth, but this I was not expecting.  It does suggest that they're not getting their olives from a can, but using the good ones.  Still, ouchie.

I figured at the end of the meal the only problems with the sandwich were not flavor or texture related but purely logistical, which isn't a bad thing.  Perhaps the tuna caprese would work better as a wrap?  It certainly wouldn't fall apart.  The only other suggestion: let people know there might be olive pits in the sandwich.  Maybe they did offer such a warning and I missed it, but if not there should be one.  But I will note that it was, overall, a good sandwich.

I did order a slice of mile-high devil's food cake after.  I could not finish it, but I did enjoy eating the rest of it the next day.

In all though, I think Ramsay's visit to the House of Whiting worked well.  Would I go back to Cafe Hon, hons?  Well yes, I would go back.  But I'd eat anything with olives a little more carefully.  Advice for any olive dish anywhere, really.  Maybe I'll tiptoe back to the meatloaf next time.

The Baltimore Dog

Many of you have eaten this, I know.

My mother made this all the time after a family trip to Attman's for hot dogs, corned beef, bologna and so on.  And it is ridiculously easy to make:

Take an all-beef (preferably kosher) hot dog and fry it - split it in half if it's a big one - and fry a slice of bologna (again, preferably kosher).

Wrap bologna around hot dog, stick in bun.  Serve with ketchup and/or mustard.

The Baltimore Dog seen here was a kosher (Hebrew National).  The bologna was not (Wegman's).  The result is simple and delicious.  Maybe bacon next time?  Of course, then that's the makings for a Tijuana Dog.

It's no longer Mary Sue season

It's that time of the year again. Easter is over and it's gettin' tougher to find Mary Sues. I was lucky to find some of the individually wrapped ones up at a Royal Farms in Bel Air near Churchville, but by the time you read this they will probably be gone. And since they're Easter candy they've been seriously reduced in price - I got maybe 10 of them for 25¢ each. Ohhhhhh what a find. But I stopped there tonight and there weren't very many left. I should've snagged them before they were all sold out.

Obrycki's is closing, hon*

Yes, Obrycki's is closing its doors (as reported by the Sun's Richard Gorelick):

Obrycki's will open again in March. But when the crab season concludes in November, the family's Fells Point restaurant will close for good, according to Robert M. "Rob" Cernak, who operates the business with two sisters. Cernak said the family decided to close "for quality of life" reasons. The Cernaks expect to open a smaller crab house soon at the planned slots parlor near Arundel Mills mall.

As you just read, fortunately they are opening a smaller place at the Arundel Mills slots parlor (couldn't have done that without Anne Arundel County voters). Still, 2011 is the year to enjoy a Baltimore tradition one last time. I remember people in grad school in Riverside, California, who mail-ordered Obrycki's crabs across the continent. Yes, it is a sad day. God speed to the Cernak family.

* Apologies to Café Hon

Disembodied comment!

I recently got a comment asking about a local snack food that sounded in description like the "coddie" - the little codfish cake that is sometimes eaten between or on crackers with mustard. I myself hate the damn things but many Baltimoreans love them. Not sure where the comment is but I don't see it with any recent posts. Please let me know which post you're commenting to, folks, unless it's one of the newer ones! Otherwise I will never find it :(

Mary Sues for New Year's!?!?

I went to Giant this morning to buy some bacon. I turned around and saw this. On New Year's Day. Which is not anywhere close to Easter.


I love Mary Sues as much as the next Bawlamoron, but January 1? But I'm more positive about this than I sound. I mean on the plus side, at least we don't have to wait until Lent.

Baltimore Magazine's Best Restaurant of 2010 Poll

Baltimore Magazine has its poll up for the Best Restaurants for 2010. I'm voting now but y'all have until 11:59PM on January 15 to vote. So vote!

And stay tuned for my annual wrap-up of the year in food and restaurants, from my little neck of the woods.

Soft Shell Crab Tacos

I decided to pull some frozen softs out of the freezer today. I dredged 'em up almost the way my mother remembers her mother doing it - with flour and that's it. I added corn meal and Old Bay to the dredging, then fried 'em up 2 minutes to a side in a buttered pan. Man, that's tasty food.

Since I had no white bread around - how Mom ate them when she was young, with either mayonnaise or mustard - I got innovative. Why not a warm corn tortilla with some sliced raw green onions?

Before...

Simple, quick, delicious.

...and after.

Right now on Mid-Day w/ Dan Rodricks

Henry Hong is talking about local summer food traditions. Listen live here. Listen after the fact here (or ask for a CD of the broadcast if it's been a month since broadcast).

Because it's Memorial Day

Did Guy Fieri actually call Baltimore "historic"? Um, exactly what does that mean? Sure, we have lots of history here, but, um... This is why I usually ignore Guy Fieri. Except when he's hangin' with the Duffman, in this spot about that tasty concoction that's not quite BBQ but not quite not, that most Baltimoronic of red meats - pit beef. (And no, it's not an "East Cost" thing. It's a "Baltimore" thing.)



Yes, we grill pit beef (so if it is in the BBQ family, it's the black sheep. And a distant cousin). But wait! Most of us buy our pit beef. I've never made my own. So why put it here on Memorial Day, when most of us are grillin' hamburgers and such? Because so many people are talking about grilling burgers today, I just wanted to do something different. That and I'm burger'd out.

I admit: I've never been to Chaps Pit Beef. I can't believe I passed it by on my Beltway Snacking tour (but hey, you're bound to miss a few things, even some biggies). As far as pit beef goes, I usually stray not far from what's familiar, so i usually find myself at the pit beef stands in the southwest when I do get it. I like the one in Lansdowne, but there are probably scores of good ones all over the area. Still, this is a trip I should make soon.

Soft Shell Crab Week

I recently got an email from the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore touting "Soft Shell Crab Week." I had no idea it was "Soft Shell Crab Week." Here's what the DPB says in its email:

Downtown Baltimore restaurants are celebrating Memorial Day Weekend with the kick off of the Downtown Baltimore Soft Shell Crab Week. The Chesapeake Bay is famous for its blue crabs, which is the main catch for local watermen. The shedding cycle of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab runs from late May through September and produces the delicious soft shell crab. Considered a true delicacy, renowned the world over, the soft crab is prized by those who are first to sample a season's catch.

It seems like a good idea. Even though I don't see any low, low "Baltimore Restaurant Week"-esque prices, there are still a few locations that are either promoting their soft shell choices or offering new ones, including Brass Elephant, The Charleston, Donna's, Eden West, Grille 700, Ixia, La Scala, Mother's Grille, Nick's Fish House and Sotto Sopra.

I love soft shells as much as the next Bawlamoron. I remember a bachelor's party I went on in Old Town Alexandria for an old college buddy. He and all of his friends were from Upstate New York - Somers to be specific - where they apparently do not have soft shell crabs (poor souls), and I was the only one of his friends that was in any way familiar with the DC area. Everyone else was very interested in drinking (and at least one of them threw up). I would have been interested in drinking too, had I not been driving, and had I not seen the soft shell crab sandwich on the menu. The only thing these guys could say was, "Now I think I'm going to throw up!" It looked like a big batter-fried bug in a sandwich. I guess it's a Chesapeake thing.

I. Hate. Verizon.

I fondly remember the conversation I had with the DirecTV lady about signing up for Verizon's stand-alone wireless internet that doesn't require an active phone line to use (I just use my cell phone). She told me it would only take 48 hours for Verizon to get back to me to confirm that my connection was active.

That was 288 hours ago.

One of those most recent hours (I think it was #287) I spent talking to a very apologetic woman from India who referred to herself as "Beverly" trying to get in touch with the tech support people, only to keep me on hold for 20 minutes, have to hang up, and call me back 10 minutes later just to tell me that they closed at 5. But she couldn't give me their direct number because - and these were her own words, y'all - "They are really 'customer unfriendly **GIGGLE GIGGLE**'." I'm glad I'm not a violent person, or these tech support people would know what "customer unfriendly" really means.

So that's why, at hour #288, I'm sitting in my car in the parking lot at Towson University, hoping that all the rain-soaked people running to and from the gym don't think I'm a pervert just because I'm on my laptop, in my car in the parking lot at Towson University.

Too bad I didn't have internet access in my place (The neighbor's unsecured wireless connection? "Limited Connectivity"). I was reading Adam Roberts' summary of his demo at the Book Festival and I saw that he gave a quick review of his pasta sauce recipe. I tried it out tonight. It didn't go the way I had planned (I'll write about it tomorrow, when I can find a proper internet connection that doesn't require sitting in my car). He also has his review of Obrycki's, which Elizabeth, Julie and I all recommended that he try out on Saturday. Plus, you'll get to find out which he liked better: blue or Dungeness (he liked both, but I'll let you find out for yourself).

Thoughts on the Great Tastes Show - in Introverted Quatrain

Again, it was great fun Saturday at the Great Tastes Show at the Tremont Grand. My sister was surprised when I told her that she had a comp ticket waiting for her. So the both of us went! (a fellow blogger told me she almost feels like she knows my sister because of how much I talk about her. Damn Swiss cheese for brains, who was it!?!?) I took photos of just about everything I ate and drank. I could discuss SO much so, as I often do in this situation, I am going to limit myself by speaking in poetry. No haiku this time - my slightly larger waistline (due to Saturday's festivities, I mean) requires something bigger - a quatrain analysis in abba format.

I've never seen this parking place before.
How did the Tremont Grand so well hide it?
The sis and I we drove around a bit,
And soon we found a spot right by a door!

"I like this getting in for free" I said.
The swag we got was paltry but still free!
A nice wine glass to drink from and to be
Inebriated, not sober instead.

We sampled fare from restaurants galore -
Ones that I, for mere lack of funding, don't
Have much experience with - so I won't
just whine - I'll tell y'all about 'em some more!!!

Of many places with bad food, 'twere not.
Nope. Mostly I ate well on Saturday.
Although I had some rice dishes I'd say
Weren't worth feeding to your dog or, um, cot?

It doesn't look crowded, does it? Oh, it got crowded. Three floors of crowded!

I ought not bitch - I mean the food was free!
The samples, anyway. The liquor, too.
Yes, lots of wine and beer and vodka - ooooh!
I almost got too drunk to go and speak.

This is just sooooo wrong - but sooooo good!

They had absinthe! Most int'resting of all.
It's licorice-y. I could drink but half
Of one. Though Rachel told me she did quaff,
With husband Matt, two cups, as she'd recall.

I haven't had vodka in a while. I'm glad I didn't finish the absinthe after I had this.

I'm surprised that I did not get too wasted!
So many wines and beers from California,
as well as here, Argentina, Australia.
That Aussie vodka was good that I tasted.

I've never understood the allure of a place where you have to pay $75 to cook your own food. But it's tasty, and it's working, so why question it?

Reviews: Liked Sascha's. Pazza Luna good.
The Melting Pot was a yummy surprise,
The ladies lovely, (Too bad I like guys.)
And yes, in line too long for Vīn I stood.

Mmmm. Hummus.

We tried Velleggia's, but were left quite listless.
The guy was gone, no food, plates sat unused.
Plus, the Taverna's ran out! So I cruised
To Velleggia's for plates, just to get hummus!

You wanna know where the lines really got seized up? Promise two hundred hungry Baltimoreans free cake samples. That'll get a crowd.

Still more to (mostly) rave about. Tusk? Pretty.
Caroline's Cakes and Ryleigh's Oysters pleased.
The promise of some orange chicken teased,
but PF Chang's, though flavorful, was gritty.

These were some tasty dips, yessirree...

Also a lot of items there to buy, man.
Some dip mixes from Gourmet Creations.
But I bought no more. Oh, wait - one more station.
The Wicked Natural guys came from Rhode Island!

Here are Kit (Mango & Ginger), Jake (Unique Culinary Adventures) and Andrea (Kitchen Goddess) next to Rachel (Coconut & Lime), who holds the mike. My sister did get lots of photos, but most of them were blurrier than this. Not her fault. I should've showed her where the flash was. And it isn't like I haven't taken a bad picture or two. Or seven. Or ninety-three.

The time for our blog panel came. We had
Eleven blogs, and some technical glitches.
Kit had a Pow'r Point, but they had to ditch it.
No visuals, but, hell, we speakers were rad.

Rachel (Coconut & Lime/ Food Maven) and Xani and Erin (Black Coffee & a Donut) field questions.

I don't look good in photos. Roopa (Raspberry Eggplant) and Margo (Pigtown Pigout & Design) are on either side. Actually, the blurrier I am the better!

So up came Xani, Erin, Dara, Roopa,
And Rachel with fresh marshmallows she brought us!
Dan with HG zines, and the Kitchen Goddess,
Jake, Margo, Kit, Liz Large's blurb, and (oops) moi.

So 'bout the show? Not much more to say 'bout it.
Thanks for your hard work, Dara! Nice meeting everyone.
Still, there's one thing more Great Tastes' folks ought to have redone.
I wish the show had not been so damn crowded!!!

It doesn't look bad, but now picture four times as many people. The camera belies the crowd.

That was fun. Do you realize how difficult it was to rhyme anything with "Rhode Island"?

Rheb's Candies

I had to do it, I just had to. I stopped by Rheb's today. To be honest, I am not sure why I never did. Whenever I mention Rheb's, my mother always brings up the fact that her mother (God rest her soul) used to work there, but that was sometime in the early 1950's. And yet, we always wind up buying Whitman's instead.

No more, betch.

I heard that about two weeks before Christmas it gets crazy-packed. Maybe that's the Lexington Market location they're talking about. I went to the Violetville one - that's where my Grandmom worked. It's the one just a hop, skip and a jump from Cardinal Gibbons High School and right across the street from St. Agnes Hospital (perfectly situated for that inevitable heart attack after finishing off that third pound of Rheb's candies).

When I went in it wasn't too crowded. I got a number and waited, but it turns out I didn't need one after all. This is the type of place where everyone still says "Sir" and "Ma'am" - which makes sense, as I was almost the youngest person in there and despite a few other folks in their 30's and 40's the median age seemed to be about 60. It is indeed a Bawlmer institution, no?

Their regular candies go for about $13 per pound, their sugar free ones for about $15. Since most of my family is staring down diabetes, but I am not, I got half a pound of each. I got a pre-assortment of the sugar-free, and the woman behind the counter helped me pick the rest:

• vanilla butter creams
• chocolate butter creams
• sponges (actually very hard, but it looks spongy in the middle, more like coral)
• almond paste candies
• pecan turtles
• coconut bon-bon
• etc.

There were so many others I forgot to ask about. Oh well. I guess it just means I have to go back. Poor me (my poor waistline, at least).

Wouldn't you know it? I broke into the neatly-wrapped package (not the sugar-free - the other one) and sampled a vanilla butter cream.


Holy butter creams, Batman! I have a friend, Jim, that I stay with out in Yucaipa, CA, when I visit SoCal. We went to this French restaurant once (stay with me here - I'm coming back to the candies). Jim acted all pretentious while we ate, saying his French onion soup was (molto sotto voce) "Exquisite!" His quail was "To DIE for!" He stopped before I dumped his creme brulee on his head. But the point I am making is this: those irritating things he said (just to rile me up, mind you) was exactly what was going through my head when I ate that vanilla butter cream. I could hardly keep myself from eating three more on the way back to the parents' house. Even their sugar-free candies tasted good, not odd like most sugar-free candies.

My word, I now have a reason to go back! Thanks, Grandmom - maybe you told me, from beyond the grave, to go there today!

It's here! It's here!

The most wonderful week in Baltimore's culinary calendar is HERE! Tomorrow through Sunday is Baltimore Restaurant Week. Fairfax gently nudged me to get off my duff when she said, simply:

But where are YOU going for Restaurant week? And don't say you weren't warned!

I've been reminding everybody else, so I guess I needed that :)

Tentative plans, because I have a trip to save for, are one restaurant by day, and two by night. For now, it looks like I will hit one place I've been wanting to try, and some my friends want to. And to my friends in Hampden: yes, everything I eat will be posted, but I'll change your names and identities to protect the innocent. And if I can scrounge together $20 to $30 extra bucks, I'll hit somewhere else, but I don't know yet what that'll be.

Don't forget...

We're now half a month away from Baltimore Restaurant Week! Lots of good restaurants are taking part, and a few that some of y'all don't particularly like.

Too bad the Charleston isn't participating. I've been wanting to try out this haute Southern restaurant but I don't feel like plunking down a car payment's worth of money to eat there. Probably the only reason they're not taking part is they don't want to be forced to charge $30 for an entire meal, when they're used to charging that much for an entrée. Three courses alone usually go for $69! I can only hope they join in the festivities.

Oh okay, you forced me!

First I got a disembodied email - almost of the type that I just delete before I even open it - from Baltimore's Office of Events, no less! It was touting what Fairfax later informed me about (thanks BTW): Baltimore Restaurant Week is coming up at the end of July! Mark your calendars for prix fixe three-course dinners for $30, and three-course lunches for $20. It is a good way to sample an otherwise-prohibitively-priced restaurant's food for what I sometimes (less so these days) pay for a meal at a cheaper place. I'll be marking my calendar.