Snacking State-by-State: Michigan II - I am the Falafel King!!! (not)

As noted in the previous post, Michigan is home to large immigrant populations from Wales, Poland, Russia, and all over the Arab world (and probably a few Canadians that filtered in from Ontario).  Arab-American cuisine - especially brought by Lebanese immigrants among others - enjoys a strong presence in Detroit and nearby Dearborn, the latter of which enjoys the largest Arab-American community in the United States.

Official Name: State of Michigan
State Nicknames:The Wolverine State; The Great Lakes State

Admission to the US: January 26, 1837 (#26)
Capital: Lansing (5th largest)
Other Important Cities: Detroit (largest); Grand Rapids (2nd largest); Ann Arbor (6th largest)
Region: Midwest; Great Lakes; East North Central (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Wild Rice
Bordered by: Lake Michigan (west and southwest); Indiana & Ohio (south); Lakes Erie & Huron (east); Ontario (Canada) (north and east); Lake Superior (north); Wisconsin (northwest)

Official State Foods and Edible Things: brook trout (fish); whitetail deer (game mammal)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: immigrant cuisines, especially German, Irish, Welsh and Middle Eastern/Arabic; Coney Island dog; pasty (in the Upper Peninsula); morel mushrooms

ArabDetroit.com notes the diversity of the Middle Eastern community in the Midwest: 22 nationalities (including Palestine) represent the Detroit area's vast Arab-American community.  Starting in the late 19th century, Syrian and Lebanese Christians flooded into the area looking for work, followed in the early 20th century by Muslim Arabs (specifically Yemenis and Palestinians) and Chaldeans - from what would later become Iraq) who came to work in the burgeoning auto industry.  Over a century later there are anywhere from 400,000 to 500,000 Arab Americans in Michigan, most in the Detroit metropolitan area [ArabDetroit.com 2011]

Middle Eastern food - popular not just in the Arab world but in Israel as well - has become a popular staple in the United States.  Today you can find hummus, falafel, tabbouleh and a host of other Middle Eastern foods in any supermarket in the US - foods that were at best specialty items twenty years ago.  And usually, these recipes are easy to make yourself.

The recipes: Hummus and Falafel

I tried two hummus recipes.  The first one, from Madelain Farah's Lebanese Cuisine, did not turn out so well for me.  The second, recipe #2 of My Cooking Class: Middle Eastern Basics by Marianne Magnier-Moreno, was what really worked.



The recipe: Hummus

* garbanzo beans (i.e., chickpeas - canned is fine for this.  If you want a smoother hummus, try removing the skins.  I learned this while listening to Splendid Table on NPR  Even at Whole Foods, chickpeas aren't that expensive.  Surprisingly, one can of the cheap ones costs about as much as a can of Goya chickpeas at Food Lion - about 85¢ for a can.  If you go with dried, remember that one pound of dried chickpeas eventually yields the equivalent of about four 15 oz cans)
* tahini (this sesame paste is a vital component to your hummus.  I bought Asmar's brand out of Lebanon, which was a little less expensive than the other ones, at about $3.50.  Probably the easiest one to find is Brooklyn-based Joyva's tahini, which is in a lot of supermarkets)
* lemon juice (I used both a fresh lemon and juice from the bottle)
* garlic (had it)
* olive oil (same)
* parsley flakes, paprika and pine nuts (these are garnishes for your hummus - use whatever ones you like)

Also consider eating this with pita bread, tabbouleh and maybe some nice homemade falafel (see below)
 

Using Mangier-Moreno's recipe (each step beautifully photographed by Frédéric Lucano in My Cooking Class: Middle Eastern Basics), you will drain the chickpeas, reserving some of the liquid.

Combine all of the ingredients except for the chickpea liquid and the olive oil.  Just throw them all into your food processor.

When I made the first go-round, using a different recipe in Maria Khalifé's The Middle Eastern Cookbook (page 21 - the Lebanese Hummus bi Tahini), I got what you see above: a lot of tahini dissolved in water and lemon juice.  Maybe I added too much (well duh).  Regardless, hummus soup was not what I was going for.

Round two worked much better (in fact most of the hummus photos are from my second, successful attempt at hummus-making).  Here, add the chickpea liquid a little at a time, until you get the desired consistency.

To wit, the desired consistency.  Mine was a little chunky, but it worked for me.

Even though it was a bit chunky, I liked this hummus more than any store-bought I have had, and about as much as any I've had in a restaurant.  Perhaps it was because making it was so much easier than I had anticipated, or maybe it was the freshness.  I don't know, but it was a nice one.

For a more complete (and, I might add, vegetarian-friendly) Middle Eastern feast, fry up some falafel.

The recipe: Falafel

The falafel is popular in both the Arab world and in Israel, where it is considered a national dish, and both Arab and Jewish immigrants from the Middle East brought the falafel to the United States.  The recipe I used was one of the rare ones I could find that was chickpea-exclusive.  Most if not all falafel recipes call for fava beans - falafels that use them come out with that distinct green hue.  This is especially common in Lebanese recipes.  This one I used, from Madelain Farah and showcased on Sara's Secrets, is different from one I saw in her book Lebanese Cuisine.  That recipe also calls for fava beans and chickpeas.  The fava-free recipe is better if you suffer from favism (which I do not seem to).  Since fava beans are not nearly as easy to find in the US, this one seemed like a no-brainer.

* chickpeas - this time I used two cans.  Yes, I should have gone the dried route.  Falafels seem to turn out better when you use the dried stuff, again skinned)
* onion, coarsely chopped
* baking soda (had it)
* cumin, chili flakes and coriander (had them)
* garlic, chopped (also on hand)
* flour (Farah's recipe does not call for much flour, but as I found out, I would need a good bit more just to keep it from falling apart)
* oil for frying

If using dried, soak overnight.  Otherwise, drain the chickpeas, but this time do not save the liquid - you won't need it.  Remove as many of the skins as you can.

This won't be a particularly quick process, but it's worth it if you are using the canned stuff.  If using fava beans, you will need to soak them overnight as well and skin them.

Add the onion and process.

Throw in the rest of the ingredients except for the oil (duh) and process until crumbly and mixed together.

Form into small balls, or patties.  I eventually found patties to work best, though the problems I had probably did not have so much to do with the shape of the falafel so much as the lack of flour.  These little beauties disintegrated as soon as I put them in the oil.  So what I did was use the Google to find out how to stop this.  The answer: flour.  Add more and more flour, which will help to bind the falafels and keep them from being vaporized in the pan.

These much better bound falafels held together better, though there were still some bits boiling off.

Drain and serve, preferably in pitas though this is not necessary.  I may have pulled them out too early, but again, I was afraid of seeing yet another series of falafels disintegrating into chickpea dust in the pan, so I took them out when I could.

Farah also gives a quick recipe for a tahini dipping sauce: smoosh garlic and chop with salt.

Mix with water and tahini, and then slowly add lemon juice.  Eventually it will thicken.

My falafels were a little softer than I would have liked.  Again, this may be due to my pulling them out of the oil sooner, or perhaps because I used canned instead of dried and soaked chickpeas.  I still had a good experience with the falafels that actually did turn out, though I ended up putting the pitas aside and just eating them and these lovely tomatoes with my hands.

With the hummus I made earlier, this turned out to be a most filling meal.

Sources:

ArabDetroit.com.  "Arab Americans".  Much information contributed by Rosina Hassoun, (Arab Americans in Michgan, 2005). Copyright ArabDetroit.com, 2011.  All rights reserved.

Adams, Marcia. Heartland: The Best of the Old and the New from Midwest Kitchens. Clarkson Potter: New York, 1991.

braniac (eHow user).  "How to Make a Detroit-Style Coney Island Hot Dog".  eHow article, post date unknown.  Copyright 1999-2011 eHow.

Dooley, Beth, and Lucia Watson.  Savoring Seasons of the Northern Heartland.  Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1994.

Farah, Madelain. "Falafel: Chickpea Patties".  Featured on the episode "Late Night Sandwiches" of the show Sara's Secrets (Sara Moulton, host).  Food Network, 2004.

Farah, Madelain.  Lebanese Cuisine: More than 200 Simple, Delicious, Authentic Recipes.  Twelfth edition. Self-published: New York, 1997.

Magnier-Moreno, Marianne, with Frédéric Lucano (photographer).  Middle Eastern Basics: 70 Recipes Illustrated Step by Step.  From the series "My Cooking Class".  Firefly Books: Buffalo, NY, 2010.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Michigan" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Michigan".

How to Burn a Pot of Anything

I am officially incapable of cooking anything on the stove in a covered saucepan without burning the hell out of it. I do not know why this happens to me, but it does. I set the fire as low as I can, leave it like the recipe says, then come back and find a charred mess on the bottom.

This happens all the time with rice. Tonight I was trying out Lundberg's Brown Rice Couscous, which I found at the Milk & Honey in Mount Vernon. Now y'all might be wondering "Oh my God, how in the world can anyone burn couscous!?" Well, the instructions say to cook the couscous over a low flame for 15 minutes before removing from heat,so it's not conventional couscous. But still, I had to leave it, and of course, it burned.

I have a theory: my stove hates me. I mean, I can only set the flame so low before I turn it off. And still it's not enough. So screw it: I'm microwaving everything - and if not I'm throwing it in the rice-cooker.

The Atlantic Magazine takes on Egyptian street food

I have never heard of this uniquely Egyptian fast food, kushari, the pasta-rice-garbanzo-lentil with tomato and crispy onion dish. Now I have to figure out a way to make this. As Maggie Schmitt noted about it for The Atlantic Magazine's website, this street food is now becoming posher, as more sit-down restaurants are popping up to sell the stuff:

Instead of disappearing before the onslaught of hamburgers and fried chicken, local street foods are updating their image and presentation, and competing with international fast food on its own terms, targeting a middle class with increasingly urbane tastes. While in the older neighborhoods kushari is still ladled out from wooden street carts and in tiny hole-in-the-wall eateries, in the swankier parts of town you can get your fix at a gleaming new kushari restaurant franchise with formica banquette seating and waiters in uniforms with baseball caps.

Hopefully it'll show the McFalafel who's boss. There are also glorious photos of kushari and some places that serve it with the article. I just ate and it's making me hungry again.

Café Kabab

I was in Catonsville for a haircut the other day, and decided to stop in one of the nearby eateries for lunch. Sam's Bagels was a frequent stop of mine, but for some reason it was closed (at noon no less). Among the various other options was a fairly new place selling various types of kababs. The barber had never been to Café Kabab but he said one of his patrons recommended it.

My original intention was to just grab a menu. But the very sparsely decorated Café Kabab had an equally sparse menu. Apart from some beverages, pretty much all they do are kababs, all of which range from about $10 to $12. I ordered the kofta kabab (about $10), which came with complimentary rice, salad, cucumber sauce and flat bread and my choice of spinach or chickpeas (I went with the chickpeas).


There were mostly good things about this meal. I started nibbling the bread in the car. The bread was soft and hot, which may seem unremarkable except for the fact that the flat bread I get from kabab places is usually never hotter than lukewarm. My favorite part of the meal was the rice, which nicely absorbed the juices from the kofta. The chickpeas also had a nice velvety texture and I was sad to finish it so quickly.

The downside to the meal was the main attraction. Like a lead actor eclipsed by his co-stars, the kabab had some good points and some bad points. The extremely strong cumin flavor masked even the spiciness of the kabab. This did not detract from the kabab, because I liked this flavor a lot. What I didn't go for was the softness of the kabab. Kababs I have eaten in the past have usually been more or less firm. Maybe the restaurant (or its supplier) grinds the meat very fine. Maybe that's it, because the meat had an unsettlingly pasty consistency. When I put a piece of kabab inside my flat bread, it got flat almost in the way a lump of polenta might've gotten. I just found myself finishing everything else much faster and more eagerly. I didn't enjoy the kabab as much as I did the sides.

On a tangential note: Yes, I finally got a new camera! I replaced my long-dead Nikon Coolpix 4600 (the screen got crushed somehow) with the slimmer L20 model of the same brand. It must be popular, as it was the cheapest one at Office Depot and nobody in the area was carrying anything other than the floor model. So they let me buy the floor model.

Because it's Eid Ul-Fitr

Remembering the world's biggest bowl of tabbouleh, from a Guinness record-breaking salad made at a school in Ramallah! Sure, it's from June of 2006, but you must admit: it'd be one hell of a way to break a fast! Linked from the Huffington Post website, where you can judge it against 19 other world's largest foods. They left out that crabcake from HonFest, but I emailed them about it so you don't have to (REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel).

From Lebanese to Japanese: Labor Day in DC

Since yesterday was the last day for summer hours at many of the Smithsonian's museums, I decided to race down and take advantage of them. Although I've been going since I was a kid, I just can never get enough of the museums - which are all free, mind you. And I got good use out of my Metro Pass, as I hauled it from Woodley Park to see the National Zoo, down to Metro Center from which I walked a good 20 minutes to the American History Museum.* I always learn something new, no matter how often I see the exhibits. A few new things from yesterday's visit:

• There is a new baby gorilla at the Zoo, born in January.
• No matter how many signs say "The gorillas prefer it if you approach them slowly, backs toward them, and never look them in the eye," almost nobody pays attention to that - or else all those families staring at the gorillas just misunderstood.
  
• The newly-refurbished First Ladies' Exhibit at the Museum of American History is a lot more superficial these days. They've redone it from the most recent version, which chronicled the various roles of the First Lady in American culture - (national hostess, campaigner, mother figure, power wielder, etc), back down to what it used to be: an exhibition of gowns and objects. And it's much smaller now. What they had on display was cool, but the exhibition overall is now very disappointing.
• The Julia Child kitchen exhibit, however, never disappoints.
  
• I had not realized that the events in the Star-Spangled Banner - written, of course, at Fort McHenry - happened 195 years ago this Saturday, September 12.
• Trilobites molted somewhat like blue crabs. I've seen that trilobite exhibit at the Natural History Museum for decades and this is the first time I bothered to read it.
• There is a great new forensic anthropology exhibit. I only saw the back end of it since I entered from the Origins of Western Civilization hall (I have until February of 2011 to go back and enter from the front), so I missed a good bit of it. But the part I did get to see was the lead coffin, skeleton and forensic reconstruction of St. Mary's City resident Anne Wolseley Calvert, the most important woman in the Maryland colony in the 1650's (this page has the current reconstruction of Goody Calvert as seen at the exhibit).
• There is also a brand new soil exhibit. I never knew that soil could be so interesting until yesterday. You think I'm kidding but I'm not.
• And I love the new Ocean Life exhibit. The blue whale and the giant squid are back.
• The Air & Space Museum has a new interactive exhibit that the kids will love: how can things fly? It's nifty. Oh, and they've already relabeled every instance of Pluto to "dwarf planet".

Of course I got hungry while I was down there, but it is easy to spend too much money, and with me on a budget I simply had no choice.

For lunch, I went to the Lebanese Taverna across from the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro. Honestly I had no idea it was a franchise. It was a beautiful day to eat outside - even with the rain, since I was under a canopy. Mondays in September there are low-priced lunch options (I think the Baltimore location has that, too).

The complimentary bread was, to be nice, chewy and tough. Perhaps that's how it was meant to be, but it's not how I like my bread. However, the grape leaves (about $3) that I ordered as my appetizer were quite good. Usually grape leaves have a nice tanginess but that's it. These had something extra that I can't quite place my finger on, perhaps an extra citrusiness. These were good, and made the bread a bit more bearable. It's also strange how filling four grape leaves can be, at least in the short term.

Grape leaves

For my entrée, I had a dizzying array of choices, but I finally chose the riz bel djaje ($7 on Mondays in September, more on other days of the week), which the Lebanese Taverna describes as "boneless chicken breast served on a bed of spiced rice, almonds and pine nuts and yogurt salad".

Riz Bel Djaje

The phrase "boneless chicken breast" should have been my clue to not order it, because I rarely have good experiences with chicken breast. It is usually some degree of tough and chewy on the outside, dry and stringy on the inside. Sadly, this is what this chicken breast was. It was better than many chicken breasts I have eaten, but it was still not great: the outside was mildly tough and chewy, except where it was directly touching the rice. It was moist in those spots. Inside it was a little dry and stringy. I ended up picking through the chicken breast and leaving about half of it on my plate. The rice pilaf upon which it sat was what salvaged this meal. It had a wonderful flavor and texture, fluffy and moist. Had I just eaten the grape leaves and the rice, sans chicken breast, I would have been happy.

The service was also frustrating, as the waiters actually forgot about me after I sat at my table, twiddling my thumbs while three different waiters that had come to my table during my meal passed by and helped others. One waiter apologized, but this is the kind of thing that keeps me from going back, or recommending a place to others. I hope this doesn't reflect on Baltimore's branch of the Lebanese Taverna. If I go there, I won't be ordering the riz bel djaje.

Dinner was at my perennial Chinatown favorite Wok N' Roll, in the famous Mary Surratt House where John Wilkes Booth colluded with others to assassinate Lincoln and his Cabinet (only Booth succeeded, and we know what happened to him. Surratt was hanged for treason). No doubt, Surratt didn't serve her houseguests the satisfying crunchy salmon roll or nigiri sushi I ordered last night. I forget the name of the roll, but it was only $7 and it consisted of salmon and avocado on the inside and crunchy on the outside. For another $3 I ordered two pieces of mackerel sushi, of which both the mackerel and the sushi rice were perfectly warmed to room temperature, and the mackerel was nicely velvety. Another $2 for soda amounted to $12 before tax and tip. The service was better than the Lebanese Taverna, too, so they got a 20% tip instead of a 15% one.

Other photos:

For a sec, I thought it said "Elevator Outrage". That might not be too far from the truth if you want to use the elevator.

Hey, orangutans gotta eat, too. The male on the left was monopolizing the hay in the feeder, and his "friend" was not liking it.

Julia Child's kitchen. No butter offerings left by random food bloggers that day.

Goody Anne Wolseley Calvert, wife and First Lady of the colonial governor of Maryland of Philip Calvert, ca. 1650's - before...

...and after

* Yes I know there's a Smithsonian station right on the Mall, but I didn't want to bother with transferring from the Red to the Blue/Yellow Line, and I don't mind walking.


for Lebanese Taverna (Woodley Park location)


for Wok N' Roll (Chinatown)

Exit 32A: US-1 South (Belair Road, to Overlea)

It's taken me a while to get back on the Beltway since I still haven't been able to shake my jetlag from Cali. So I sadly woke up around 10ish on this past Monday morning (my body thinks it's 7am but my clock doesn't). Out doing errands I finally worked my way around to Route 1 (Bel Air Road at this end). This is the second time I have hit US Route 1 on the Beltway - qv Exit 12A towards Arbutus. The third if you count US-1 Alt around Exit 10 (in Lansdowne, feeding into Arbutus), and is the first. It's also the first of several routes that bisect the Beltway that I have hit the other way around (just wait for I-95 and US-40).

I'm a useless stats geek, alright? You should've seen me in high school, glued every week to American Top 40. I was all addicted to the never-ending stream of useless statistics Casey Kasem threw out about such-and-such an artist. DON'T JUDGE ME!

I drove a good ways looking for food into Overlea - aka Nottingham, aka Fullerton, all depending on which part you are in (and what internet map engine you use). The trees in Overlea are all abloom right now. It's really very lovely to drive around, particularly along the side streets, which I got to do when I needed made a U-turn. I admit that this is the first time I've ever taken this exit, in my entire life (Exit 32B? I know it well). I never have a reason to go to Overlea, so...

Anyway, it was a nice learning experience for me. And in just the first few miles of Bel Air Road I saw quite a few places I catalogued in the back of my mind, apart from mega chains such as Carrabba's Italian Grill and, well, McDonald's:

• Schooner's Restaurant and Lounge (map) is the first restaurant you come by, and it was one of the last I stopped at. I would've gone in but, even around 1PM there were only about four cars in the relatively large parking lot. So I guessed it just wasn't open and pressed on.
• Amer's Cafe - one of several eateries I considered in the Beltway Plaza (map). From the parking lot you can't really tell that it has a Middle Eastern theme. You also can't tell that it's closed on Mondays from that far away. I found out when I peered in and thought, "Hey, it looks pretty sparse." Prices for entrées ran around $7 to $12, a bit more than I wanted to pay that day. And get this: Amer's was voted Best Kid Friendly Restaurant from 2002 through 2008, though by whom I'm not sure.
  
• Much more open was the Overlea Café (see the Beltway Plaza map), but I didn't go in. Anyone been here? It doesn't even seem to be online. I Googled it and all I got was Amer's Cafe.
• One more notable spot includes Waterman's Pride Seafood (again, see Beltway Plaza map). It's this exit's token seafood market. Again, I've found little to no info about it. All I do know? DEY GOTS 'EM MURLIN CRABS, HON!
  
• A short ways down from the Plaza is the Overlea Diner (map), the City Paper's Best Diner of 2004. I will make a note to stop by soon. At least when the CP people stopped by, the employees dressed in 50's-style gas station attendant get-ups! (Whatever they wear, it cannot be as bad as what the kids have to wear* at Hot Dog on a Stick).
  

Among a few other pizza-and-sub joints (Philly's Best Subs and Pizza, map) and Chinese greasy woks (Fun Wok, map), I came across the unimposing Midori (map). Midori is part of a growing pan-East Asian phenomenon in Baltimore Chinese restaurants now serving food from Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam or a combination of the above. Midori is a Sino-Japanese place, and it has gotten rave reviews. Midori does not let you forget this fact - it's plastered in big white sticky letters on their windows. Apart from the free advertising, the decor looks like they took a stucco Mexican restaurant, stripped it of everything Mexican, and painted Japanese motifs on the walls, then put lots of Chinese and another sprinkling of Japanese decorations on the walls and ceiling. Even the five mascots for the Beijing 2008 Olympics are happily, "cuddly-ly" standing over the entrance to the kitchen, waiting to be adored. And except for the booths (your standard booths), the tables and chairs were straight off of a Motels' album cover from the 1980's. For once, I sat down to eat, alone in the restaurant, avoiding the lunch rush. I chose to sit in the booths, just to keep "Only the Lonely Can Play" from echoing over and over again in my head while I ate.

Midori's Chinese menu has a great variety of entrées, appetizers (inlcuding highly recommended dim sum), and for lunch it was all a reasonable price. Its Japanese menu was only a little pricier, and equally varied. All the typical culprits were there - orange chicken, beef and broccoli, something, anything in lobster sauce, with egg rolls, pork fried rice and so on on the Chinese side; tempura, sashimi, sushi, miso soup, shumai and gyoza on the Japanese side. I went mostly for the Chinese orange chicken with pork fried rice and hot and sour soup (all of $5.95), plus a side of tuna sashimi ($3.95).

STOP!!! Chicken time...

Going off of past experiences with take-out Chinese food, I expected the orange chicken to not be very good - gummy, chewy, and filling enough to force me to request a take home bag. But Oh My Word. It had to be the best Chinese food I have eaten on the East Side of the county! Crispy and crunchy without that nasty processed flavor. Maybe that's because I ate in, but still, they've gotten raves from others. Everything - the pork fried rice, the coating, the chicken and its orange sauce, even the scallions and orange peels - tasted so good and fresh to me! The one lowlight was the broccoli, which was a little undercooked. But I'd rather have undercooked broccoli than overcooked, gummy orange chicken (bleeeekh). The hot and sour soup was the throwaway item and I hardly touched it, but honestly I almost finished the rice. There was nothing left to take home (not the biggest portion, which is awesome I think). As for the tuna sashimi - three pieces instead of the typical two, for about the same price - it was a little fatty (fine with me) and tasty, though a bit grainy in texture. Not the best sashimi I have had, and it clearly got outshone by the orange chicken. I can't vouch for the tempura or rolls, but if you consider Chinese dishes with sides of sashimi, just stick with the Chinese.

The total for my dining experience was $10.50 before tip, $12.50 after. It is one of the few area Chinese restaurants that I would go out of my way to visit again.

Other Photos:

Told you it was all abloom

Yeah, hons! We got crabs, hons!

And 257 blue-haired little old ladies go through the nic fits of their lives

Places I visited:

Midori (Chinese / Japanese) - 7407 Belair Road, Nottingham, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 882-8750

• Would I eat there again? Definitely (but only for the Chinese)
  
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? For the Chinese, yes. For the sashimi, no.
  

Places to look up later:

Amer's Cafe (Middle Eastern / Egyptian / American) - 7624 Belair Road, in Belair Beltway Plaza, Nottingham, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 668-5100

Fun Wok (Chinese) - 7400 Belair Road, Nottingham, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 668-0001

Overlea Cafe (American) - Help me out here. I can't find the information. In Belair Beltway Plaza, Nottingham, MD 21236

Overlea Diner (diner) - 6652 Belair Road, Overlea, MD 21206; Phone: (410) 254-8356

Philly's Best Subs and Pizza (subs and pizza) - 6701 Belair Road, Overlea, MD 21206; Phone: (410) 661-6611

Schooner's Restaurant and Lounge (American) - 7703 Belair Road, Nottingham, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 668-5053

Waterman's Pride Seafood (seafood / crabs) - 7692 Belair Road, in Belair Beltway Plaza, Nottingham, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 665-5555



* Linked photo courtesy of MR38 from Flickr, all rights reserved.

Amsterdam Trip Part Drie: Little Bites Here and There

I've had very little time to report in, but two things are for certain. One: it's very difficult to not find a different cuisine to sample every night. Two: it's fairly easy to spend €15 to €20 (that's $23 to $30) on a meal. At least I get a free breakfast. Unfortunately, it's godawful, so I just go to the local Albert Heijn supermarket and buy a croissant for €0.50.

Again, I have no access to my photos at this point. Yep, stupid hotel's wireless just is untappable with my computer. So photos will come later. I must say that, apart from the hotel kitchen, everything I´ve eaten has been quite good. To wit, a few cuisines and their attached restaurants:

Dutch - already addressed this in my previous post. But I am desperately looking around for stroopwaffels to bring back. Man, I love those things. You can get them for a little more money at Trader Joe's for about $5 (at Albert Heijn they are €1.50, or around $2.25). Lovely things. Also bought some syrup, which is far less sweet and far more molasses-y than our own. Also bought some sambal oelek, a very hot spice which is...

Indonesian - My friends and I all had some nasi goreng and Bojo, as well as a few other things. RE: Indonesian food is like Chinese food in the US. It. Is. Everywhere. That's due to Dutch colonialism in Indonesia. I had a very hot mackerel. Jim had lamb satay. I can´t recall what Gil had. I have to ask him. Total cost for me was about €15.

Surinamese - Most Americans have never heard of Suriname. And though I tried to find a purely Surinamese restuarant in Amsterdam, all I could find was a Surinamese-Chinese one. That´s the Wok to Walk, a popular franchise here. I got the Balinese bami with pork for about €5.

Italian - O Sole Mio is pretty close to Bojo, and for that matter it´s close to a few good eet-huisen. I got the pizza napoletana (anchovies, tomato sauce and mozzarella) for about €11. €4 more and I was in tiramisú heaven.

Sweets - Australian is not an Australian place. Instead, it has waffles, crepes and lots and lots of chocolate. My crepe with nutella, chocolate sauce and whipped cream was €4. The crepe was not soft at all, but that turned out to be a good thing, as I needed it to be hard so everything would not fall out.

Irish - Hoopman's is one of many, many Irish pubs in Amsterdam, again near the street with the aforementioned O Sole Mio and Bojo. I had a hearty salmon chowder for lunch today, their Galway Bay Chowder, for €10. Very good idea, considering the ridiculous amounts of snow, little styrofoam ball-sized pellets of hail, and more snow that we have been getting here. No problem, though: it's supposed to get much sunnier on the day I leave. Wat yammer.

Middle Eastern - Crystal on Leidestraat, one of the main thoroughfares through the city, serves up a mean hummus and falafel platter. My friends got lamb shaorma and something else - I forget what exactly. Mine cost about €11.

Indian - Bollywood ain't just the biggest movie industry in the world, it's also a cozy two-story restaurant across from Bojo. Most of their entrées run about €20, but we each got the chicken table meal for €14: pappadam, chicken soup (the only part I wasn't too crazy about - lots of grains of chicken), chicken curry, the tastiest and tenderest chicken tandoori I have had in a very long time, and naan.

Chinese - Two Chinese places to talk about, both on Zeedijk near the Red Light District. Nam Kee has been mentioned in various travel guides, and no wonder: they get you in very quick if they can, and will seat you sometimes with someone at a partially full table if there is nowhere else to put you. It´s Chinese but serves many Vietnamese and Indonesian dishes. In fact, many Chinese offerings had typically Indonesian names, such as the Chinese lumpia (spring rolls, €3), which were tasty if greasy. I ordered the nasi goreng, another Indonesian favorite, for €11. Heeeeeel lekker. Jim got the salt and pepper squid (€12). I don´t know what Gil got, because he went off to the small town of Arnhem to visit a friend. That´s the last I´m seeing of him this trip.
The second Chinese place, which all three of us went to a few days ago, was the Good Fortune Dim Sum restaurant. Many good pieces of dim sum there, and the proprietress and waitresses were able to talk to us and others in English, Dutch and several other languages. She commended me on my at least attempting to talk to her in Dutch, even if my friends gave me a ribbing for it. Total cost: €60, or €20 each.

Not sure if I will be checking in again tomorrow or before my flight. I will try. But the photos will be going up later this week, after I´m back in the US. I haven´t had any time to comment, by the way, but thanks to all of you who have given me suggestions and tips and input. I´m still looking for some Belgian chocolate, but it´ll have to be obtained here in Amsterdam. A train ticket to Antwerp, the nearest Belgian city is €58! YIKES!

San Francisco #5: Japantown and Hummus in the Castro

Japantown has a longstanding monument to the tragedy of Japanese internment during WWII, when whole neighborhoods of Japanese-Americans were “evacuated” from their homes and sent to camps, for the alleged safety of the country (this was chronicled in Come See the Paradise, a great little flick from 1990 starring Dennis Quaid and Tamilyn Tomita; it takes place in LA but the same thing happened in SF). A disgraceful, tragic event in our nation's history, and not something that should be forgotten.

In the Japanese Mall on the Peace Plaza, with the large Peace Pagoda sticking up in the middle of the square, there are lots of sushi joints. I mean lots. But stuffed with chorizo and rosewater ice cream (I’m still belching roses), I had no room for sushi. So I just had to wander around and look. I did buy gifts for home, though: two large samplers of mochi and some roasted green tea. And I got a bag of Okinawan brown sugar cookies to boot. And you should see the Japanese grocery stores in this mall. Lots of cool Japanese products!

After Japantown I realized that I only had time to see one more thing before heading to the B&B for my things. I gave up on the Golden Gate Bridge (which, coincidentally, melted in another flick co-starring Dennis Quaid and Tamilyn Tomita, the eco-disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow), which was too far anyway, and hopped on a bus for Golden Gate Park. When I got there I headed past the majestic de Young Museum and (sticking with the Japanese theme) went for the Japanese Tea Garden. It was gorgeous and breathtaking, and very peaceful. Less peaceful were the people drinking tea. I didn’t get any myself.

Long story short: it was late, I hopped on the taxi, made it back to the Castro, fetched my things and sought some food. My last meal in San Fran could’ve been fish, burgers, sushi, but instead I got Mediterranean food at La Méditeranée Café. There I watched the people pass by while sipping a crisp Greek beer, sipping very lemony avgolemono soup (steam was still blowing off of it when I got it) and savoring curried Egyptian chicken on a bed of rice. The chicken was moist and tasty, the veggies retained their own flavors even as they had been stewed together, and the hummus it all came with made it even better. Total cost: $22 after tax and tip.

Done with dinner, I grabbed my mess of stuff and headed for the Muni, ready to wend my way back to Oakland Airport. And wouldn’t ya know it: cheapy airline Southwest (which I used) is going to start up service directly into San Francisco Airport at the end of the month – after I needed it!

Dips and Spreads from Africa, Asia and Europe

I spent way too much today. Most of it was at Jiffy Lube - $20 for a new air filter (it was pretty disgusting), $40 for an oil change, $90 for a radiator flush! And an extra $30 to fill my not-so-large gas tank down the street.

Today I happened to choose the Elkridge Jiffy Lube to get my car serviced. Hey, if I'm driving it to OC, Jamestown and all over the Baltimore area this summer, I'd better damn well make sure it's in top working order. Yes, I know I should take it to a mechanic for that, but I don't have a lot of money to work with here.

I was hungry, and my family was going to this cookout in Essex (two hours after they were supposed to even leave, there they are, still waiting in the house). So I didn't want to eat too much. I took a walk (it's healthy) past the KFC, past the Taco Bell, even past the Subway, to the little strip mall across from the Super Fresh shopping center at the corner of Montgomery Rd and US Route 1. Famous mostly as the location of a now-shut-down "massage" parlor, it now houses some spas and beauty parlors, as well as a Chinese take-out place, a deli and an international market. The deli was closed, the Chinese take-out place had nowhere to sit, and the market had no food ready to eat. But I went in there anyway to see what I could find.

This market is an "African-Caribbean-Latino" market. I'd say it's about 50% Caribbean, 30% Latino and 20% African, but I may be way off on those figures. As much as I like food from all those areas, I went for the one least known to me - African. There are not many African groceries or restaurants in the Bawlmer area. You have to go to Washington for a better selection. And this one, like all other African groceries I have set foot in, smelled like dried prawn (baby shrimp). And there it was aplenty! Also close by were some jarred African spreads. One, from Ghana, didn't really catch my eye. But the one next to it, Olga's Liberian Hot Fried Pepper ($4.49), did. I haven't tried this yet. Frankly, I'm a little scared to, due to the prominence of habanero chilis in the list of ingredients. But I can tolerate the spicy stuff better than most people in my family (even with the Crohn's - I didn't say I ate a lot of it), so I'll be the sport. Interestingly, it's not from Liberia; instead, it's a Liberian-American product, and the entrepreneuses are Liberian Americans sharing an old family recipe. Olga's is even based right in Elkridge!

After paying the lube guys* and filling up on gas, I ran some errands and eventually found my way up at Whole Foods - the one at the Inner Harbor. God, I love that place. Their free samples are why I love it so much. On a mission to buy some hummus (Asmar's Mediterranean Hommus, Original and Extra Garlic, $2.99 for each 8 oz. tub) with little pitas for the cookout - my sister now owes me $12, by the way - I passed by this table by the cheese section that had the most divine spread made of fig spread and Italian-style mascarpone cheese. I usually avoid the impulse buy, but this tasted too good not to buy. And it helped me avoid the cake I would've inevitably picked up. This was a mixture of, it seemed, 60% mascarpone cheese (this from the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company, $4.99) and 40% fig spread (Whole Foods Organic Adriatic Fig Spread, $4.99 for an 8.5 oz jar - which, for Whole Foods, is pretty damn cheap; I figured it'd be $8, $12 easily).

I wonder how the Liberian fried pepper would taste with the fig spread? Stranger things have been mixed together...

UPDATE: No, I haven't mixed the fried pepper and the fig spread. But I did try just a little bit of the fried pepper - not even the pepper, just the liquid it was sitting in - on a boneless steak. It is hot! Also found out that, as much as I love cake, the cake they sell at Geresbeck's in Middle River is too damn sugary for my tastes.

* That didn't come out right, especially after passing that ex-"massage" parlor.

On the Road #4: Street Fairs and Central Park

After a quick jog around Jackie-O Reservoir in Central Park, I decided to fix my hunger with some food. Because I was planning to check out the human evolution exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, and it was only sixteen blocks, I decided to forgo the subway and just hoof it.

Along the way I stopped in one of the many, many kosher delis that Manhattan has to offer. And when I stepped into Murray’s, the smell reminded me of Attman’s. The prices, well, I confess I haven’t been to Attman’s in a while, so I don’t quite know how expensive kippered salmon is these days. But $8.50 for a quarter pound seemed a little steep for me. But I was dinged on the price anyway, when I got a nova salmon sandwich on rye with cream cheese for $8.50. The salmon tasted about as good as any I can find for less per pound, or per sandwich. That and a water came to around $9.50.

I was not disappointed, but not thrilled either – like, sadly, most of the food I have had here this weekend. I just keep making the bad food choices, I guess.

But things looked up as I came across a street faire they were having along Broadway in the Upper West Side. I bought a freshly grilled corn on the cob for $3 and two crispy, warm falafels (no bread to put them in, I didn’t want any) for $1. Two things came to mind with the falafels: 1) Well, there goes all the running I did this morning; and 2) Mmmm, this is damn tasty falafel! Now, falafel can be good, or it can be nasty. I have never found an in-between. If it’s cold or sometimes even lukewarm, and especially if it isn’t crispy, it usually swings decidedly over into the nasty category. But when it’s hot and crispy, it’s usually wonderful. This one was in that latter category. As for the corn, it was spicy and sweet, but I tasted none of the butter that the gentleman put on it.

Swerving around in a sea of Yankees caps and jerseys (***grrrrrr***) and, what apparently is now the latest in men’s fashion in New York, European and English premier league soccer jerseys, I made my way down to the entrance of the museum, where I encountered a ridiculously long wait.

Kabob Hut

Left work early today and headed to Timonium to take care of some business. Then I swung by Towson and the Kabob Hut. A minute walk from the York Rd. traffic circle (I'll let you figure out which direction), Kabob Hut serves some decent Middle Eastern (specifically Persian) food. This place specializes in lots and lots of kabobs - of beef, chicken, lamb, etc. You can get these kabobs in both platter and sandwich form. There are also traditional dishes of chicken, lamb, salmon, eggplant.

I didn't have much time so I just stuck with a tried and true favorite, their beef kabob (kebab-e kubideh) platter. This is specially spiced ground beef kebab, served with a generous helping of basmati rice. Kabob Hut's rice is very light, fluffy and flavorful. They sprinkle it with some of a spice that I cannot identify, but it is also in its own little shaker at each table.

Not too long after I ordered, I got my beef kabob. Along with the flavorful beef and rice came a little tub of freshly chopped tomato, onion and cucumber (not terribly stylish, and a little skimpy to be honest). There was another little tub of yogurt (not enough for my taste) and a little paper container (the kind you usually get filled with French fries) of pita. The pita was not soft, and I hardly touched it. But the kebab and rice were more than enough food to make up for the lacking condiments. Good stuff for $7.99, though they either overcharged for the fountain drink, or grossly overpriced it at around $2 - pushing the bill just over $10. Almost a cheap eat, but not close enough in my book.

Sahara Grill

After my visit to Chinatown, I explored the city a little bit, eventually finding my way back to the Franklin Institute to catch that great Tutankhamun exhibit. It was fabulous! The only thing that disappointed me was that, from the stuff that was posted outside the exhibit, it led me to believe that the actual mummy, or at least physical reconstructions of the ancient boy-king, would be featured in the exhibit. Nope. Just a brief blurb at the end of the exhibit. But it was not a disappointing exhibition at all. There were so many great things shown from Tut's tomb, as well as those of his parents (Akhenaten and Tiye, according to one genealogy and this exhibition), stepparents (Nefertiti) and grandparents. There were canopic jars, chairs, staffs, shabti, busts and so many other great things out the wazoo. At $34, the price can be a wee bit prohibitive, but it will be worth it. It's there until September, so start saving now and go sometime in the next few months.

It seemed only fitting that such an exhibit be followed with some delicious Middle Eastern cuisine. So I headed back to Walnut St. and found the Sahara Grill. In the heart of Philly's "gayborhood" (the gay neighborhood of the city), I had accidentally stumbled upon this place once before. I've never mentioned it before because, well, I couldn't think of the name! Pretty sad, especially for food that was pretty memorable. All I knew was that it was in that area somewhere, so I started roaming around and luckily I found it.

It wasn't too obvious to me that I could seat myself, as the waitresses and all the staff are at the back of this small but lovely restaurant. I got seated by the window and was given a menu. Of course, it took me a while to figure out exactly what to eat. I finally settled on the lamb and beef shawerma, in this case chopped up and laid on top of a flavorful rice with some red onion and grilled vegetables (not many), and accompanied by some yogurt. I ordered a separate order of thick yogurt, labneh, which was covered with a little bit of olive oil and spices.

I had no idea just how much food I had ordered.

First came the labneh, a medium-sized bowl which came either with or at the same time as my salad (just lettuce and tomatoes, but at least none of that nasty iceberg lettuce) and pita. Then came my massive plate of shawerma about five minutes later. It took a while to eat this stuff and about halfway through I just gave up and boxed the rest. I also passed on dessert (they have baklava if you want dessert). I figured the food would survive a two hour drive home in the cold February weather. It must have, because I just finished eating it for lunch, and so far, I am feeling fine and groovy.