Random Bites: December Edition

I haven't had a lot of time (damn, do I type that a lot) to write about places I've been eating at lately.  A few brief notes about what I've been eating outside of my kitchen, apart from the quick rush to the local Wawa, Wegman's or Harris Teeter.

* Heavy Seas Ale House (Little Italy) - I love brewpubs.  It's why I head first thing to the Dogfish one every time I hit up Rehoboth Beach.  Baltimore has a few good ones as well.  The Heavy Seas Ale House in Little Italy was able to seat me relatively quickly (then again, I typically go to these places by myself, so I can come and go as I please).  Most every ARRRRRR'-tinged beer that Heavy Seas currently has is on tap.  I had the very nicely hoppy Loose Cannon American Hop3 IPA (7.5% ABV) with my hamburger: the juicy Heavy Seas Burger & Fries ($13) covered in onion straws (or "peg legs").  Somewhat surprising was the Earl Grey Crème Brûlée ($7) with delicious spice cookies.  Hoppy beers, juicy burgers and crème brûlée are three of the things I like to eat / drink the most.  Even more convenient: Heavy Seas is right across from the Little Italy parking garage - the one that costs $3 to park.

* Birroteca (Hampden, hon) - A new but very atypical Italian restaurant in Hampden, along Clipper Mill Road with ample parking, is Birroteca (City Paper story here).  The place touts its "Craft Beer, Wine and Artisan Pizza" and I'm sure it excels in all of these, but it has much more as I found out this past weekend.  Especially of note: Birroteca is a restaurant that features local foods when they can, something I am planning to do more in my kitchen in the new year.  They have lots of craft brews (no Bud or Miller, or at least that I could tell.  I wasn't looking for that), and I got there Friday evening while Evolution Craft Brews were still offered for happy hour prices (score!).  They also have several other area craft brews, including the aforementioned Heavy Seas.  The beer I enjoyed the most was the one that was not offered at happy hour prices, the Evolution Lot #6 DIPA ($7.50, with the rest of the Evolutions half off at just $3).  Again, I like the hoppy beers. Along with that I got a bevy of finger foods: bread with olive oil and sea salt ($2), a bowl of olives ($3) and my main dish, the salumi and cheese plate (three choices for $11 - I had the chef choose).   The best part was that I got there while there was still seating at the bar, so no waiting for a table for me!  That's another plus to flying solo.

* Nando's Peri-Peri (Pentagon Row, Arlington, VA, and various locations in the DC area) - I've not been to Nando's before, though I see it often when I'm in the DC/NoVA area.  The Johannesburg (yes, South Africa)-based Mozambican-Portuguese hot chicken chain has several stores in the DC area, and apparently one is opening near the UB campus up our way (H/T: MinxEats' Kathy Patterson).  I'm not sure if this is the area's first South African chain (probably is),, but it's definitely the first Mozambican-Portuguese-themed restaurant.  For those of us not in the know: Nando's specializes in chicken, ranging from lime to extra hot.  You can order anything from a quarter breast-wing or leg-thigh to a whole chicken, and various sides.  I got the quarter leg-thigh, hot - one shy of their hottest possible temp - plus two sides (about $9), in this case fries with "Nando" spices and garlic bread made from a thick, soft Portuguese roll.  While the chicken was not unbearably hot for me, it was indeed hot, and people who don't like "hot" food will probably want something a bit less picante.

* R&R Taquería (Elkridge/Jessup) - For the recent turning of the b'ak'tun - the alleged End Of The World (TM) that everyone but the Maya were up in arms about (because, of course, the Maya never said the world was going to end) - I wanted cochinita pibil.  Without the time, the mood or the finances to make my own right now, I sought it locally, and found it at R&R Taquería, in a Shell station at the intersection of US 1 and MD 175 in Jessup/Elkridge.  You will wait a while to get your food, simply because the line is long.  It's some good food (they've even been on the Guy Fieri Happy Time Annoying Show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives), and while it's easier to find good Mexican food in the Baltimore area than it used to be, it's still a relative rarity.  You can order whole platters or simple tacos.  I went for the latter - two of their cochinita pibil and one barbacoa lamb taco (yes, I admit I saw it on the little video clip of R&R from the DDD show).  Each was delicious: the barbacoa lamb was juicy and the cochinita pibil was hot.  Actually, the hottest I've ever had it.  Certainly hotter than that Nando's Peri-Peri hot chicken.  And of course they make no secret about why: it's flavored with habanero peppers.  I've lost many a battle with the habanero.  It burned for a while but actually left a nice feeling in the mouth for a while after I was done with the tacos.

Tidbits: Boys of Summer Edition

Ah, summer.  Filthy, shameful summer.  Seriously though, whether you work in some sort of educational profession or not, you usually feel down about it coming to an end.  And while this one was probably one of the hottest I can recall, fraught with more Grand Prix construction, it was not without its high points food wise.

Chiapparelli's, Little Italy, Baltimore

I headed here for Restaurant Week (yes, I really am taking that long to write this), and Chiapparelli's, a place my family had gone several times before, was one of the few places that did a prix fixe dinner for only $20 instead of $30.  True, with beer, tax and tip (yes I drank beer with Italian food, okay?  Sue me.  And it wasn't even Peroni) it came closer to $35 but imagine what it would have been otherwise.  I had a lovely salad and a minestrone soup that made me love minestrone again.  I had grown tired of it, but Chiapparelli's was a nice change.  The main course was the hearty, luscious shrimp nicola that I could just sit there and eat again and again if I had no bottom to my stomach.  A cannolo for dessert topped off a fine, relatively iinexpensive (before drinks, tax and tip) gut-busting Italian meal.

Toss, North Baltimore

I went with friends Eric & Alan for pizza at Toss, a newly opened upscale BYOB pizza place on York Road.  Long story short: cheap but good pizza and salad.  Each of us spent about $10 - 15.  The Greek salad is more than enough to fill you up before you get the pizza, which had a nice crispy crust underneath all that melted cheese.  We got the Toss Special, covered in mozzarella, ham, Italian sausage, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers - hoo, Lawdy, is it hot in here?

Sláinte Pub, Fells Point, Baltimore

I've written about Sláinte a few times, and visited many, but I do have to give a shout out about the Irish bibimbap.  You read that right.  It's a Celtic take on the Korean classic, swapping out Korean style beef for Irish corned beef.  Try it.  It's good.

Aladdin Kabob, Mt. Vernon, Baltimore

This is one of those places you constantly pass by and never bother to go into because it's neatly tucked away where you cannot find it.  Next to Mari Luna and across from the Meyerhoff, Aladdin Kabob (their sign is "Aladdin Kabob" but their website is spelled "Alladin Kabob", so please note) is a quite unassuming and, unfortunately, pretty sparsely populated Pakistani restaurant.  At least it was when I went in on the Friday night of Artscape weekend.  I didn't really see much of Artscape myself, but I did feel this place pulling men, and I left absolutely stuffed and with leftovers!  Better yet, I was stuffed with food that was delicious: samosas, their wonderful chapli kabob for only $7, not to mention the free bread (the biggest naan I have ever seen) and a chickpea side dish.  Your dollar will go a long way here.

Mission Inn, Riverside, CA

I didn't write anything about my recent trip to SoCal, but I have to note the beautiful, historic Mission Inn in Riverside.  I note it for a few reasons: it is on the California Register of Historic Places, it's absolutely gorgeous both inside and out - done in an eye-popping Mission style (hence the name), and in all the years I've lived in and (since moving back home) re-visited the Inland Empire - 15 years I've known about this place - I've never been in.  All that changed this month, as I decided to treat myself to a lunch that I knew was going to be a little pricier than I'm used to spending.

If you go to the Mission Inn to eat, note that there are several restaurants inside, including: Las Campanas (a Mexican restaurant), Bella Trattoria (an Italian restaurant), 54° at Duane's (a super upscale wine bar), the Presidential Lounge (ten US presidents have passed through the Mission Inn, including Ronald Reagan who honeymooned here with Nancy; this cocktail bar and lounge gives a nod to all of them), Duane's Prime Steaks & Seafood (steak, seafood, pricey), and Casey's Cupcakes, featured on that cupcake challenge TV show (Casey was a winner!)

I went for the Mission Inn Restaurant itself, and was pleasantly surprised when the waitress told me about their lunch buffet.  Surprised not only that such a nice place would have a buffet in the first place, but that it was all of $18 (less than I would have otherwise spent), with a nice selection (quality wise, and to some extent quantity, too).  When I was there, they served up (among other things) Korean short ribs, chicken, fish, and everything was delicious.  Usually chicken and fish can and should be avoided with aplomb at these buffets, but the Mission Inn knows better than that.  You get your money's worth.  And please get some of the dessert as well.  Their bread pudding is was the single best thing I ate the whole time I was out there.

Food Truck Gathering (and why I wound up eating at Max's Empanadas instead)

Last night's food truck rally was, by most accounts, a big success - especially if you were one of the many food trucks that showed up to non-stop patrons drooling over burritos (Curbside Café - Twitter: @Curbside_Cafe), cupcakes (my favorite: Iced Gems Baking - Twitter: @icedgemsbaking), crepes (Creperie Breizh - Twitter: @creperiebreizh), lobster rolls and pulled pork (Silver Platter), haute Southern (Miss Shirley's - Twitter: @missshirleys) and so much more. If you were a food truck operator, you got a LOT of revenue and publicity last night.

You also probably got a lot of people early on that you had to send away because you ran out of food. This was the one failing of the Food Truck Gathering, and it was a big one. The event was supposed to last from 5 to 10pm, so understandably many people - myself included - came at a more leisurely pace, say 7ish, when we found this:


As popular as food trucks are, I have to say the sheer volume of patrons did, in fact, surprise me. What did not go through my head at the time I snapped that photo was, "Gee, I hope they don't run out before I can get something to eat!" But as I stood in the line for Creperie Breizh, exactly that happened: in line for 45 minutes, the woman in the window let the group of women right in front of me know that they had just run out of batter for their crepes. This was about 8:30.

So near, and yet soooooooo far...

Needless to say, I was frustrated. But I knew there was no reason to take this out on them or on anyone, for that matter. It wasn't the food trucks' fault, nor the patrons, nor even the organizers: nobody could have foreseen just how big this was going to be. And please note that Creperie Breizh was one of the later food trucks to run out of food - a few had run out by 7, only two hours into the event! Plus, the few remaining lines of still-functioning trucks, such as the Gypsy Queen Café (Twitter: @thegypsytruck) and Dangerously Delicious Pies trucks, had experienced a massive growth in their lines just as I found out that I had waited in line for nothing.

So instead, I cut my losses and tapped the massive array of restaurants awaiting me in Little Italy. Thanks to my new Android phone, which now has this Urbanspoon app, I was able to price some restaurants and just how well liked they were if I wasn't familiar. I walked right into the priciest part of Little Italy - Sabatino's and Aldo's? Love them but cannot afford them right now. But then I saw Max's Empanadas, an Argentinian restaurant, grocery and wine store in the heart of the neighborhood (Argentina has a sizable Italian population anyway, so in a way Max's is, technically, sort of Italian). So I figured I would think outside the box and head in there instead.

Not a food truck.

Max's is small and brightly lit, but with warm earthy colors in its dining area. Its big thing is empanadas, and they have a wide variety, from chicken to beef to ham & cheese, from chorizo to the delicious sweet beef empanada that I eventually bought as part of a $10 combo with a second chorizo empanada (your choice of empanadas, though a few special ones cost 40 cents extra) and Argentinian potato salad, with parsley, olive oil and lemon juice. If you get a chance, please stop in Max's and get some empanadas. You can buy them individually, take them with you, eat in their dining area - and mine came out fast, before I even sat down. With the thirst-quenching Quilmes cerveza (about $4 or $5), it was a filling meal. And I was so appreciative of the fact that I actually got to eat last night, too!


As an addendum to the Food Truck Gathering: they have to do this differently next time. Though I was fortunate in that the experience forced me to find a new place to eat in Little Italy, it shouldn't have come to that. And again, nobody could have foreseen the sheer volume of patrons, lest most of the food trucks wouldn't have run out of food by 8:30 (or well before in some cases). So some thoughts to make sure that most if not all of the food truck aficionados get to eat next time (both from me and from other things I have read on Twitter):

1. For the organizers: Put it in a larger place if you can, to alleviate the ridiculously large and often confusing lines (this was some advice a Twitter user wrote to Richard Gorelick at the Sun). Some cities - Los Angeles, Washington - often experience a lunch rush where literally a dozen food trucks will be lined up over a long stretch. Portland, Oregon, has a dedicated space just for food trucks! As for Baltimore: I am not quite sure where this could happen. Perhaps the Inner Harbor? Under the Jones Falls? It should be somewhere downtown or near there, so as many people can access this as possible.

2. Also for the organizers: Shorten the time, so that latecomers who show up three hours before the event is supposed to end (or only two hours after it started) will actually be able to find food. Waiting for almost an hour to leave empty handed is not fun.

3. For the patrons: Come early if you are eating, and expect lines.

4. For the food trucks: This may be easier said than done, since I have never run a food truck, but bring more than you expect to sell! Again, most of the food trucks had completely run out of food well before the event ended, which led to some very apologetic vendors. Now that we all know just how big the next one is going to be, you know how much to bring now!

Here is hoping that I get something to eat next time this happens!

Food Truck Rally in Baltimore!

Get ready to rrrrrrrrrrresauraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant!

(Okay that was stupid. Anywho...)

Charm City is finally hitting the foodie big leagues, as several of her food trucks are clamoring together in Harbor East on Friday, July 8 (that's this Friday, y'all) for a Food Truck Rally. It will be at the more-than-occasional venue of the Silver Platter truck (421 Central Avenue). Attendees so far, according to the above-linked page at the Baltimore Sun website, should include:

* GrrChe (Twitter: @grrche - gourmet grilled cheeses)
* Gypsy Queen (Twitter: @thegypsytruck - As their website says, they join "inventive cuisine with cheeky-smart ass street food". Smart ass food sounds enticing to me.)
* Iced Gems (Twitter: @icedgemsbaking - The gourmet cupcake truck and bakery that I have oft raved about here and on Twitter)
* Miss Shirley's (Twitter: @missshirleys - I didn't realize one of the city's favorite brunch locales now comes to you!)
* Souper Freak (Twitter: @souperfreaky - delicious soups and sandwiches. Oh sweet Jesus, I caught myself almost saying "sammies")

I assume the Silver Platter truck, with its blue crab tostadas, buttermilk calamari and New England lobster rolls, will be there too, but I saw no word in the Sun. One can hope. I haven't gotten a chance to try it yet.

A Spray of Hons

Oh God my feet hurt. After roaming around Baltimore today, seeking out Italian food at the St. Anthony Festival in Little Italy, Greek pastries at the Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Greektown* and hons galore (and my friends) at Day 2 of HonFest in Hampden, I am so glad to be sitting down. Again, y'all will see the photos later this week.

I asked "the girls" (our somewhat sizeable circle of gay male friends) if they knew of a collective noun for "hons" - like a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese, a congress of baboons (fitting, no?) or an abomination of monks (that's what it's called).

Eric came up with one. I wish I could take the credit, but this goes to him. Youse listenin' at Cafe Hon? Okay:

More than one hon is a spray of hons (from all dat hairspray holding 'em bee-hahvs togevver, hon).

A pride of lions (photo courtesy of The Sun (UK))

An abomination of monks (artwork courtesy of St. Joseph's Monastery of Benedictine Monks in Natchez, Mississippi)

A spray of hons (courtesy o' dem hons what let us took 'eir pixchure today. Ain't dey just a fab'liss spray of hons, hons?)

Has a nice ring to it, no?

* I actually did not get to visit the Greek Festival, but I did get to drive around Greektown for fifteen minutes looking for parking, only to give up. Now I'm sad :(

Also, this is my very first post using SuSE Linux instead of Windows of any kind. Yippie!

Trekkin' around Little Italy and Corned Beef Row

I am spending more on groceries than I should. However, much of that was spent at two places in Little Italy that people don't regularly shop for groceries.

Vaccaro's

After parking at Whole Foods, buying some mesclun (in bulk!) and getting validated, I wandered into the neighborhood my great-grandparents first lived after they came from Napoli to New York, and then made the big trek down to Baltimore. I noticed not only a second Indian restuarant in Little Italy, but a Spanish tapas bar as well. But of course, there were the umpteen fancy and not-so-fancy Italian spots in our little Little Italy. I passed buy a guy singing Italian songs on a stage, not exactly sure where I was going. But my feet (working with my stomach) knew where they wanted to go: Vaccaro's. I saw the 2006 World Cup Final - and the infamous head butt - in Vaccaro's second floor.

I am always flabbergasted with the selections in any pastry shop, but things with the word "butter", "chocolate" and "vanilla" always come to the head of the line (things with "coconut" usually go to the end). I got about $9 worth of cookies, including lemon coolers, butter chocolate, butter almond and an Italian cookie with a gooey raisin filling. I hate that I forgot the name.



Attman's

Leaving Whole Foods, I didn't go straight home. I had wanted to stop at Attman's for a while now. The most famous institution on Corned Beef Row, I had not actually stopped in since I was a child. A favorite (though occasional) Sunday lunch was a bunch of Attman's famous kosher hot dogs wrapped in fried bologna. I got neither of these things, though I did get a half pound of hot corned beef (about $8) and an order of Western fries ($3). I had forgotten just how extensive "the line" really was, but at least it gave this indecisive shopper enough time to figure out what he wanted.

Lemongrass

I haven't been to Lemongrass. But a guy I've recently started dating did swing by there to pick up two orders of chicken fried rice before he brought it up to my place to munch on while we curled up on the couch watching TV. I've seen the mixed reviews of this place. Elizabeth Large thinks it's decent - "a very nice place to be" as she put it. The City Paper is less impressed - style over substance is basically what they said. But user reviews are generally positive. My friend likes it. I can't vouch for most of their food but I have to agree with him: the chicken fried rice, at least, is pretty tasty. And it did survive a car trip from Little Italy to Towson, which most Chinese (and in this case, Thai) food tends not to do. I'll have to meet him down there for dinner one of these nights if I'm free.

Listen to this post as an MP3

Luck o' the Italians (or Amicci's)

My big plans to go Irish pubbing just never came to fruition. My plans for St. Patrick's Day would have taken me to An Poitín Stil (an pot-CHEEN still), the big Irish pub up in Timonium. Well, I drove a good distance to get there. And I drove by to see one end of the parking lot blocked off with cones and the other end shut by a gate (I think that's the parking lot). So, scratching my head, with the Garth Brooks song Ireland churning on my MP3 player, I called An Poitín Stil to ask if there was any seating:

Maitre d': It's first come first serve seating tonight, sir.

Me: Okay, and is there any parking?

Maitre d': Well, there's a shuttle that picks people up from the...

I sort of tuned out after she said "shuttle."

Giving up on An Poitín Stil, I set my next destination for the James Joyce Pub, on the outskirts of Little Italy (it's hilarious, there's an Irish pub practically in Little Italy). Parking by Whole Foods - the meters there absurdly run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just to warn you - I walked over toward James Joyce. I stopped when I saw the loooong line out the door, and decided, "Hell, I'm Irish - okay, Irish-American - year-round! Let the silly people in the shiny green shamrock necklaces have their fun for one night, I'll go some other time when there's breathing room."

So, with Little Italy, like, right next to me, I decided to finally try out Amicci's, which was only about 10 minutes from my car and about 5 minutes away from me.

Amicci's is a lovely place. It's not the Ritz, and compared to places like Villeggia's or Sabatino's it's pretty Spartan. But I think the decor is charming in a country kitchen sort of way, but if that kitchen had lots of Italian and Italian-American movie posters all over the place (I had Joe Pesci staring at me from his GoodFellas poster all night). Amicci's seemed not to be that busy. This makes sense, since everybody in the area was stuffed into James Joyce! There was no shortage of tables, and I even got a table immediately, a big round one that seats five. When I got my menu my eyes went immediately to the mussels, for only $12 and 9/10 (Amicci's lists its prices as mixed fractions). Adding calamari for $8 more and (yes) a Guinness - the tall bottle is served here - for about $4 brought my total to around $25. But more on that near the end.

If I was seated quickly, I certainly didn't give my order quickly. My waitress admitted that she actually didn't see me (I was in a corner, after all). Whatever, but most people did get served faster than I did, so maybe. But I was still a little irritated. The waitress did bring me a basket of bread - very soft inside with a chewy crust, which wasn't too easy to spread the rock-hard cold butter patties onto - and my Guinness in sort of a hurry and then went off.

It's strange, really, how well the Guinness went with the calamari, served on a big plate with a dish of chunky marinara sauce in the middle. I thought this was an easier presentation than at Sammy's Trattoria, who gives you a separate plate of tomatoes. These calamari were about as good as it gets. The squid was not chewy and the breading was crispy, light and tasty. Topped with the tomatoes and washed down with the Guinness it was filling and almost a meal in itself.

Then the mussels came out. OMG, way too much food! But they were good, about, oh, 30 or so mussels bathing in butter, sitting on top of a hearty pasta. Not sure what pasta it was, just long and thick. I could not finish these mussels so I got the rest to go. I left about a $4 tip for a total of $30 - the service, again, wasn't that great, but the women behind me did get served by the same waitress much faster than I did, so again, maybe a one-time fluke. But I am definitely looking forward to my next trip!

From there I went searching for more Irish beer, not too much more lest I get arrested. Knowing I would never get into an Irish pub that night I looked for any non-Irish bar I could find, - neighborhood, cantina, dance, gay, whatever. I wound up at the Eagle, where the bartender recommended yet another Irish pub the next time I went looking, Mick O'Shea's on Charles Street (that I will look into). And of course, all this information was delivered over - duh - a Guinness.