Baltimore Restaurant Week: The Wine Market

The winter version of Baltimore Restaurant Week is almost over once again (though several restaurants, including the one below, have extended it for a week!  Check with them for details).  And it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of doing a Restaurant Week post.  So after my meal last night at the Wine Market in Locust Point, I figured I'd hunker down and write one more Restaurant Week post.

The Wine Market is one of those restaurants that I've wanted to go to but just haven't gotten around to going to yet.  My attention often gets diverted to the Harris Teeter when I'm in the McHenry Row area.  I finally got the chance to head in last night, walking through the gauntlet of wines and beers that you can buy and bring in with you.  I got a Loose Cannon ($5) at the bar while waiting for my friends to show, and then joined them at the table when they got there, ready to see what we could get for $30.13 each.

Alan and Eric splurged on a nice red wine that Eric got in the wine store.  I had a sip, and learned how to swirl the stuff around in preparation for sniffing it.  I'm not a wine person, but even with the various tastings I've been to, I've never done this.  It really does change things!

So, unlike our usual practice of each ordering something different and trying the things we have on each others' plates, we pretty much opted for very similar meals.  A few of us ordered the oyster first course.

These were the cornmeal fried oysters in a bacon beurre blanc (normally $10).  Just four juicy, tender oysters in a wonderful crispy breading.  Not much else to say about it.  I was satisfied.

For the second course, we all ordered the Grilled Piedmont steak (locally raised in Maryland, normally $27).  I rarely get steak, so this was a rare treat for me.  I ordered it medium rare, and got treated to a juicy thick (read: thick) steak.  This came with a sprinkle of Brussel sprouts, mushrooms and a sizable slab of root veggie gratin to round it all out.  I couldn't place the vegetables in the gratin, but it tasted fine nonetheless.

For our final course, we once more all ordered the same thing: a pumpkin crème brulée (not sure of the regular price).  I love me some crème brulée and this one was nice, though not the most memorable one I've ever had.  It had a pretty mild pumpkin flavor along with that nice sweet crunchy burnt sugar top.  Still, a lovely little dessert that I would probably order again.

Overall this was a good Restaurant Week experience.  Again, the Wine Market is extending their Restaurant Week menu through to February 10 (hopefully celebrating a possible Ravens win in the Super Bowl maybe??? I'll say no more: I do not want to jinx this).  Make sure you stop by there this week for more delicious food either for lunch or dinner.

Harris Teeter Part II - the Pre-Opening

I just spent too much money on car repairs today, but I got my car back in a much better shape than before!  To celebrate, I took myself, with printed out ticket in hand, to the nicest free dinner in town on Tuesday night: the grand pre-opening of the new Harris Teeter.  I just cannot get over the fact that this is a TWO-STORY supermarket.

TWO STORIES!!!

I've never seen the tops of the food aisles before.  Even besides that, it was about as big as a Wegman's, and bigger than any of the other Harris Teeters I have visited before.  Plus there was a strange person walking around in an alligator costume (the store mascot?)

I know you probably are getting sick of me writing about Harris Teeter by now, but I do have to say that I had a few tasty things there, and it was just enough to fill me up:

* their store brand of ice cream is surprisingly good.  I also overheard one woman saying "I haven't seen Blue Bell ice cream up here before!" (Harris Teeter, based around Charlotte, sells a lot of Southern-based products that are otherwise difficult to find here)
* I've had a few opportunities to try their hot food bars in Columbia and around DC, but I never bothered to try their pot roast.  Very good pot roast.
* They have a large cake ready to slice tomorrow morning.  I am avoiding that mayhem like the Plague, but if you go tomorrow you can probably snag some opening day cake (they open, I think, around 7 or 8 tomorrow morning)
* There were some different things I've never seen at a Harris Teeter before: a crunchy shrimp sushi roll, a savory sweet potato (or butternut squash - they alternated) patty, and Carolina-style salsa (salsa with slaw in it).
* And to my surprise, they do indeed sell beer and wine!  But not in the store proper - it's in a not so small alcove near the sodas (you may not bring groceries in there).  There is even a set up for wine and beer tastings.  They did, at least, have several wine kiosks set up throughout the store tonight, plus some sparkling cider.

They also had a lot of cheese.

I think I am going to stay away from the new Harris Teeter for the first week or so. Again, I imagine it will be crowded.  But it is an impressive big piece of McHenry Row, and I will be back.

Okay, no more Harris Teeter talk for a while.

Harris Teeter Baltimore coming soon!

Tomorrow morning, the Locust Point branch of Charlotte-based Harris Teeter finally opens on McHenry Row.  Apparently this evening there will be a "Taste of Teeter" event for the local community, so people can get a taste of what has just opened up in their neighborhood.  I have said before how much I like Harris Teeter, having shopped at their Columbia store and (when I am down that way, which I am often these days) their Kalorama (DC) and Pentagon Row (Arlington) locations.  But it will be nice to finally have access to it in my own home town, the northernmost Harris Teeter location.

Their press release about the grand opening explains more about the supermarket chain.  Alas, they will not (as of yet) be selling liquor or wine.  But one thing I am really loving: IT'S TWO FRIGGIN' STORIES!  That alone merits a visit.  Plus, they sell a lot of South-specific brands that are difficult-to-impossible to find this close to the Mason-Dixon Line (White Lily flour, for example, though I am starting to see it in more strictly Mid-Atlantic supermarket chains, and even Wegman's).  Regardless, I am liking this, and plan to visit the new Harris Teeter soon.

From Dogwood to Kumari: Birthday Weekend Blowout!

Monday was my thirty-somethingth birthday.* And I ate. And I ate. And now I feel like I'm starting my new year of life with a few extra pounds (note to self: look into Towson's alumni gym membership, which is relatively cheaper than the local gyms). I have to say I had good meals all around! I don't eat out that often anymore, so I was playing catch up. But half of these meals were gifts, so it kind of evened out. A few tidbits about the tidbits I bit:

Chiu's Sushi (Harbor East)

Cathy and I went here on Friday for sashimi. A few years ago Chiu's was her first taste of sushi, and she never looked back.


Their deluxe sashimi plate ($25) is loaded with salmon, tuna and yellowtail. But unlike most deluxe sashimi plates, that's all it had. Still luscious but not as much variety as I have gotten used to in a sashimi plate. There is more variety in a larger sushi-sashimi boat, but that would have provided too much food for us to finish. We accompanied that with two of their current special rolls, the Pretty Angel Roll and the Osaka Roll. My favorite roll was covered in crab meat and red and white tobiko, with tempura flakes inside. I should've noted which was which. I think the one I am describing was the Pretty Angel Roll. I paired that with a nice cold 300 mL bottle of Hakushika sake. Cathy tells me I said some embarrassing stuff in the elevator in the parking garage. I guess she can't take me anywhere after I down a bottle of sake.


And as usual, we each finished our meals with a generous helping of tempura ice cream.



Dogwood Restaurant (Hampden)

The following night I went out with friends to the new and improved Dogwood Restaurant. It had been a while since I was there. Dogwood did not fail to amaze me the first time I went, way before their remodeling, but they impressed me more this time. The guys told to me to get what I wanted. I still try to restrain myself in these situations, but I did get some great food, not to mention the Phoenix cocktail ($9), a fizzy and smooth Prosecco-based cocktail that kept me quite happy for much of the evening.

I started off my meal with the Dogwood Baked Oysters ($16), though that big roasted head of garlic ($4) did intrigue me. The oysters - stuffed with such treats like lump crabmeat, spinach, fennel and parmigiano-reggiano (or "reggianito") - were plump and juicy, and went all too fast. As bold as some of these flavors tend to be, they still managed to take a backseat to the oyster (as they should).


While Eric and Alan each went for delicious red meat dishes (hey, it's not a frequent thing for them), I ordered the special stuffed bronzini (I don't know what it cost - I didn't pay, I didn't ask). Both Eric and our waitress recommended this highly and I am glad I took their advice. This meaty, tender Mediterranean fish was served whole, stuffed with all manner of goodies: bread, olives, tomato, onions, and green beans. The flavors blended together wonderfully in this dish. It held up as leftovers the next day, when I got into the head. I don't eat many fish heads so I was not sure what all was edible and what was not.


Eric got this lovely 12 oz. beef tenderloin ($23). I didn't try it but he liked it. I did get a taste of the celery root-sweet potato gratin. I didn't realize the two flavors melded together so well.


Alan got this big ol' New York strip ($31). He was quite pleased with it.



Ledo's Pizza (Locust Point)

On Sunday night I went to Ledo's Pizza with quite a few of the guys in the chorus I sing in. It was just a nice meal after rehearsal. I ordered the fried calamari ($5), a little rubbery but still worth ordering again. I was pleasantly surprised with the waffle fries, sprinkled with a dash of Old Bay. It came with a not terribly spicy dipping sauce. My main course was their small (personal-size) Hawaiian pizza ($6.50). The ham was juicy and the pineapple wasn't too juicy (both pluses). The thin crust on this square pizza was flaky, not soggy or rubbery on the edges like it is in many chains.



Kumari (Mount Vernon)

Monday night I visited my family for two egg yellow cake (a classic from our Sunbeam stand mixer cookbook from 1950) with chocolate buttercream frosting. Then on the way home, it was a brief stop in the Grand Central for a beer. I wasn't going to stop for dinner, but I figured it was my birthday. So why not? I initially headed down to the Mount Vernon Stable, whose service I have found to be wonderful on some nights and unkind on others. Despite there only being four customers in the restaurant, the staff still couldn't be bothered to at least say "We'll be with you in a minute", so up to Kumari it was. They had no customers, and greeted me immediately.

I keep forgetting how good the food is at Kumari. I was pleasantly reminded the other night. I kept it simple, and just ordered a main dish. First they gave me a complimentary papadum with a three-chutney sampler of, which they seemed all too eager to clear out of my way (I like the chutneys. Why do you want to take them away?). The onion chutney was my favorite, though their tamarind chutney was deeper and thicker than most I have had, which tend to be thin and runny. It was actually a little smoky, if tamarind chutneys can be.


My main dish was the Nepali Bhojan ($16). This is their non-vegetarian "typical Nepalese everyday meal" (I had their vegetarian dahl bhat set on a previous visit a while back). I can't identify everything on the platter, and I didn't get a chance to copy it from the menu (the online menu is a bit briefer) but it was all good. One favorite items include the soft and extremely buttery naan. I used it for dipping into everything, including the chutneys, which it seemed I had to almost wrest from the waiters who wanted to just clear it out of my way. Other highlights of the meal include the juicy and somewhat spicy lamb curry and a filling bowl of dahl. Their potato pickle is not a typical pickle, as it isn't a pickled raw vegetable. Instead, it's a tasty cooked potato in what I think is Nepalese pickling spices. It's not what you would normally expect in a pickle.



That's it for my birthday weekend. I've eaten out too much these past few days and it's time to stay in for a while and fix some food.

* If you missed it on Twitter then I'm not telling.

LP Steamers... and several local food bloggers

Tonight, a lot of Baltimore food bloggers got together at LP Steamers. I want to thank everyone who could come. Nine of us were there - eight bloggers and a blog-spouse! We got a lot of jumbo crabs ($5.50 each - they had run out of the smaller ones), plus a few of us got fish sandwiches, chicken strips or oysters. I had the oysters - 3 of them ($9!?!?), and 3 jumbo crabs, which more than filled me up. The total for all of us: about $150.

Just a rundown of who was there: Meg (Pigtown Pigout and Pigtown Design), Julie (Kitchenography), Dara (Dining Dish), Liz (What's to Eat Baltimore?), Kathy (Minxeats and so many others) and husband, Mary (Sweet Mary) and Wendi (Exit 51). Those of you who could not come were, of course, very missed, but we look forward to seeing you the next time!

Which pub is the best pub?

I had a flood of comments and recommends about places other than An Poitín Stil for Irish pubbing. Two popular ones seem to be J. Patrick's of Locust Point and Mick O'Shea's on N. Charles St. And it looks as if O'Shea's is the most popular with posters to this blog. Here's a review from Dan at the Hungry Gourmet.