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!

Greg's Bagels

I just got back from Greg's Bagels at Belvedere Square, raved about in the Sun, the City Paper and the Examiner (though apparently not Baltimore Magazine - I guess it's not expensive enough to get in there). Whichever commenter told me about it: you were right. They have a fabulous array of smoked salmon, larger than most in Manhattan (NYC's) Upper West Side. To eat them you must either order it on a bagel with or without cream cheese for $6.75 (the bagel by itself is just $1, up from 80¢), or order it by the 1/4, 1/2 or whole pound, starting at about $8.50 per 1/4 lb. And oh my, the variety. Among the Nova, Moroccan, Scottish, Royal Scottish, Alaskan, Norwegian, Thai and literally a dozen other varieties, I ordered the Balti-lox. This isn't "Balti-as-in-Baltimore", but "Balti-as-in-Balti-curry": salmon smoked with honey, ginger and cayenne. Very tasty on top of one of Greg's thin, filling but not heavy vidalia onion bagels with cream cheese. Granted, the small iced tea ($1) could almost easily fit in a child's play tea cup, but Greg's was refreshingly upfront about the need to raise prices. Right at the counter they explain all about rising food prices to their loyal customers, or as they put it (to paraphrase), "or maybe once you read this, soon-to-be-ex-customers". Any restaurant that can keep that much humor in this age of rising food prices has got my patronage. Just not that often - the bagel was good but I've got to conserve my money here!

This Chinese food really DOES taste better the second day...

...or the fourth day! I'm watching this crazy Shear Genius show - yet another knock off of my favorite among its kind, Project Runway, only focusing on the hair (cooking, hair, interior design - what next, a makeup show called Project Pancake?). And I really want to hate this show, because conventional wisdom says it is supposed to suck. But I begrudgingly admit that, while it's no Top Chef, it isn't that bad (Top Design, now that was a boring show).

This ep of Shear Genius is the episode where the stylists had to do period hairstyles with full costume! There's this 80's punk woman next to a model in Victorian costume and a flapper from the 1920's. It's like some bizarre Doctor Who episode where women from different eras in Earth's past (okay, Britain's past) were kidnapped and all placed in the same room. I'm halfway expecting the Cybermen to come out and start killing everyone. Love the costumes, though.

And I am watching this strange show (I think my fave look is the Elizabethan one) while eating Chinese food that has lasted in my fridge not for one or two days, but four whole days. Of course, this is no ordinary Chinese food. What I'm munching on is the A&M crispy beef (their "candy beef") I got at Cafe Zen on Saturday night with a friend. I have had some naaaaasty leftover Chinese food before, all of the "greasy wok" variety. But Cafe Zen, to be sure, is a cut above the typical hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant (Szechuan Hot Wok by BWI? New Asia in Arbutus? Any restaurant or carryout with Happy in the name?). Theirs is just a bit higher in quality. Perhaps that explains it.

The one problem I have with this candy beef is that I can't taste the beef. It's all just crunch and honey. That's it! I took home my friend's lemon almond chicken, too (he never finishes Chinese leftovers, so he just said "Take it"). That was better. I finished that on Monday night.

Yep, some good food at Cafe Zen. Just wonder if anyone will come out in an American Revolution-era get up.

Senator II: Dreamgirls

After my delicious lunch at Atwater's I shuffled over to the Senator. Walking over all the sidewalk panels displaying various movies premiered (for our town, if not the world) at the Senator, I snapped a photo or two. Okay, I had done that earlier in the day when I bought my ticket, but one or two more never hurt.

I walked in and noticed only a few people milling about. Maybe this was because most people were done with Dreamgirls, so only a few had come to see it again. There was a short mix-up with my ticket, which was easily exchanged - not a long line for tickets (another odd thing, I thought), but again perhaps this was due to most people having already seen the movie. Even my friends that I saw it with before said they were pretty much done with Dreamgirls. They headed to the Charles to see Venus instead.

I wanted to get a photo of the concession stand. Neither that I took turned out very well, but I did get some of the inside of the actual viewing room. No, not during the movie. I was still waiting for it. Nobody tried to stop me, which was odd - or perhaps it was because nobody saw me. To be sure, few people seemed to give a damn tonight. They didn't even do the obligatory announcement before the show started. You may know the one: they thank you for coming to "the Historic Senator Theatre" and whatnot. Tonight they just weren't into it enough. And the audience wasn't as inspired either. That really stuck with me. I figured that, if anything, there would be more people there tonight. But no, and when the movie hit that critical Jennifer Hudson piece that won her all those awards (hopefully one more), one person applauded. That is different from the first time I saw the film, when many people were getting into it. I even almost applauded. I didn't, though - I mean, it's not like she could hear me.

Forgive me for saying, and I doubt the owner feels this way (he's spoken passionately on WYPR about saving the Senator), but it honestly seemed for a little while as if the Senator herself was ready to give up the ghost. Just for a little while, like she had gotten despondent.

The popcorn was pretty average, too. It was cold, unlike what I usually get at the Rotunda (that other Senator-related theatre). And the extra butter wasn't terribly buttery. It was almost on par with the buckets that pass for small popcorn at most megaloplexes, and a bit less the cost, but it didn't seem like anyone cared to make it hot. Still, it was a hell of a deal, with a small soda totaling $6 for the soda and the popcorn. I can spend $9 or $10 getting much the same thing at Arundel Mills.

I stuck around for most of the credits for Dreamgirls - they show production sketches at the end, which is fun if you want to get into the crew's minds. At the end I snapped a photo or two more (yes, in the lobby and outside the theatre), and headed to my car. Perhaps it will be the last photo I take of the Senator all lit up, hopefully not. And if the Senator is despondent, I hope she gets out of it quickly.

Senator I: Ploughboy Soups by Atwater

Well, I went to the Senator for what hopefully isn't one last time. I got there early to buy a ticket for the 4:00 show - but too early. The ticket they printed was for the 1:00 show! This I did not notice until later, but that's for my next post. Anyway, I ran some errands and came back - less than an hour until showtime! I wanted some popcorn so I went for a light lunch - to not fill up.

I meandered over to Belvedere Square in search of something light. Somehow I made a beeline to Atwater's, where I often go for a quick meal. Atwater's Ploughboy Soups serves sandwiches, soups and salads. As the cashier noted, if you're in a hurry, the soups are a much better choice. And with a large crowd I got my bowl of soup in about five minutes.

Out of several options, vegetarian, veg dairy and meaty, I got a tomato and saffron soup that had lots of great stuff peeking out from the creamy yellow broth. It had orzo. It had olives. It had shrimp and lump crab meat and eggplant. Wonderful stuff. With it, as is Atwater's custom, was some hearty bread, a stupendously crunchy crust with a soft, dunkable inside. Ooh, this is wonderful stuff! And a relatively cheap eat, considering this bowl was $6.85. I got nothing to drink with it, though their selection of bottled drinks was certainly wide enough.

I walked back on over to the Senator, camera in hand, ready to photograph the hell out of the place. After all, I might not get another chance.