Pupusas as ballpark food?

I went on a date last night to see the DC United play Colorado (it was a draw - gee, thanks, refs). It was my first visit to a DC United game - nay, my first visit to RFK at all. And since my self-imposed boycott of the O's back from a time when they brought suckitude to a whole new level, I have not been to a major league sporting event of any kind for years (NB: now that they're at a level where they deserve my money, maybe my feet will darken the doors of Camden Yards). The Ravens, as great as they are playing, really aren't an option at the current price. And I still need to get my ass down to the Arena to see the Blast at some point.

The last time I visited a stadium to see a sporting event, the tickets were $25 to see the O's play whomever. Those were nosebleed seats. The edible food was almost as much, and the inedible food was still overpriced. I know they serve a different caliber of ballpark food today - pit beef, crab cakes, real Marylandia - but down in RFK the food that I had was just different. In our section, the food was pleasantly Latin in flavor: Mexican and Salvadoran. Since he bought the tickets, I bought the food. I almost went with the carne asada with beans and rice ($10), though my date chose that for himself. Instead, I forewent that for a few pork & cheese pupusas with curtido (Salvadoran slaw) for $9 - or at least, that's what I should have paid for it, when the guy only charged me $6. Mr. Honesty here tried to point this out to him, but it was no use. And I needed the extra money to buy my date and I some Negra Modelos.

A few more beers later we were back on the Metro to his place (ahem) - and not before watching the many inspiring little league soccer teams in attendance, waving their DC, Maryland, Virginia and DC United flags whenever we almost got a goal (or when we got our one goal). There was also much yelling at the refs, who seemed to really like what the Rapids were doing. Just sayin'.

Snacking State-by-State: District of Columbia II - Wot's the Buzz? Tell me what's Axum-in'

Beyond US Senate Bean Soup, it's difficult to identify DC's cuisine. Is it Chesapeake cuisine? The Potomac does branch off the Chesapeake after all. Is it Southern? Is it Northern? Or is it not even American?

Snacking State-by-State: District of Columbia

Official Name: District of Columbia
Is it a State? Nope - it's a Federal District
District Nicknames: DC, the District
Formation: September 9, 1781 (as the Territory of Columbia). Officially became the District of Columbia on February 27, 1801, carved out of the original Washington County, Maryland; Georgetown, Maryland; and Alexandria County & City, Virginia - the last of which have since retroceded back to Virginia)
Important City: Only one, really: Washington
Region: Mid-Atlantic, South, Northeast; South Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Chestnut, Crabcake
Bordered by: Maryland (northeast, southeast, northwest), Virginia & the Potomac River (southwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: none - not even "American food" or "apple pie"
Some Famous & Typical Foods: also none really - except US Senate Bean Soup; is very easy to find just about any food in DC, from every region of the country and most countries around the world.

On a recent episode of the Kojo Nnamdi Show on Washington's NPR station WAMU, a few guests tried to define the cultural flavor - and along with that, the culinary flavor - of the District. Here Kojo discusses the DC ethnic eats scene with guest Tim Carman, food critic for the Washington Post:

[NNAMDI] And this we got from Lisa in Takoma Park. "One thing that I'm not sure makes D.C. better or worse, just different from other older cities on the East Coast, a lot of our ethnic neighborhoods are most vibrant in the suburbs. It's no secret among foodies, for sure. If you wanna eat great Chinese food, you go to the suburbs in Montgomery County. If you wanna eat Salvadorian food, you can come to my neighborhood, in Takoma Park. In other cities, you can find these ethnic pockets in the inner core of the city." That is an important distinction and, in a way, refutes what our early e-mailer has been saying because people do go in pursuit of those foods all over the region, do they not, Tim Carman?

[CARMAN] We have a really strong ethnic food culture, and that -- I think that's almost points out like this classist approach to what people think of as good eating. You know, when people judge a city's restaurant scene, they typically, I think, look at the more sophisticated places. You know, is it a white table cloth service? Do they have a four-star chef? Whereas if you take the larger picture, I think D.C., from really different cultural perspectives, has some really fine cuisine, whether it's Chinese or Salvadoran or Ethiopian, Vietnamese, of course. I mean all of this. [Kojo Nnamdi Show, January 3, 2011]

That's one thing I love about the DC region, as does Tyler Cowen and his Ethnic Dining blog (By the way: are you wondering what's the difference between the suburbs in Maryland and Virginia, ethnic food wise? Wonder no more). Washington and the DC suburbs have many ethnic cuisines, and they are just as important a part of the local flavor as any all-American dish. It's what makes the tandoori chickens, pad thais and doro wots of the region "American" - just like the burritos, stromboli and egg rolls that preceded them.

To represent the international diversity of DC's dining scene, I chose a few recipes: a main course and a few sides. The sides come from Korea and El Salvador, two well-represented communities in the area. But first and foremost I swerved towards Ethiopian. Whenever I visit Adams Morgan in DC, it is very difficult for me not to visit one of the several Ethiopian restaurants. And there are many to choose from: DC has the largest Ethiopian community in the world, outside of Africa. To truly represent DC, I found a recipe for the best known (to Americans) Ethiopian dish of all: doro wot. Reprinted in the Washington Post, this recipe comes from Senedu Zewdie, former owner of the now-closed Sodere Restaurant. This is her mother's recipe, and I can only hope I do it justice.

Recipes: Doro Wot (with GamJa Salad and Curtido)

Recipe: Doro Wot (Ethiopian Chicken Stew)

I cut Zewdie's recipe in half, to make it more manageable and less expensive. I am not going to feed an army of twelve here. I also admit that, since this post lands during the Lenten season, it would be more appropriate to make a vegetarian recipe - a lentil dish, for example. But I wanted doro wot, and I actually made the chicken several weeks before this was published. By now I'm probably getting Georgia or Hawaii into the pipeline.

Anyway, this recipe gave me a good opportunity to use up some of the Ethiopian ingredients and supplies that I still had left over from last year's bacon cook-off. If you don't know, this was where I tried (successfully, I think) to cook bacon in an Ethiopian style wot. That may not sound strange to Americans, but bacon is not something you will find easily in Ethiopia: neither Muslims nor Jews nor Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are allowed to eat pork at all.


For this much more traditional doro wot I used the following ingredients

* 5 - 6 onions (about $1.49/lb - about 2 lbs)
* 1/2 small can of tomato paste (about 70 cents)
* 1 cup of nitter kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced butter - I still had some from my recipe in June, and yes, this spiced ghee lasts for a very long time on your shelf. But I needed to make more. Two sticks of butter and the requisite spices, plus some cheesecloth were all I needed to get to a cup. Check out my bacon wot recipe for what I did to make nitter kibbeh in the microwave)
* 3/4 cup berbere (had more than enough left over, but you'll need to make your own or visit one of DC's many Ethiopian markets to buy a tub for about $5-$6)
* 1 clove garlic
* 1 teaspoon ginger (I had none ground, only fresh, and yes this changes the recipe a little bit).
* 3 pieces each chicken thighs and chicken legs, bone-in but skin removed (about $6 to $8 total)
* ground cardamom and black pepper (had it)
* sweet white wine (had it)
* six hard boiled eggs (there go the rest of my eggs - yes, I had enough in the fridge)

Doro wot takes a while to prepare. You need at least 4 1/2 hours to do it, and you have to check in on it constantly. My advice: find things you were planning to do around the house while you make this, unless you find some way to adapt it to the slow cooker.


First, saute over low heat the sliced onions, in nothing but 1/4 cup of water. Yes, just water. You'll need to check in on it frequently because you will be doing this for about 90 minutes (it took me 75).


Next, add the tomato paste for a few minutes, and then the nitter kibbeh, berbere, ginger and garlic for yet another 60 minutes.

Nitter kibbeh, (mostly) freshly made

While that's cooking, you need to poach the chicken. Cook it in boiling water for about 15 minutes.

Like so

When the onions have been cooking for an hour, add the chicken - I also added just a little bit of water, not from the pot the chicken was just in. Cook this for yet another hour. I covered it to avoid splatter.


In the last 30 minutes of cooking, add 3 1/4 cups of water and simmer for 15 minutes, then add everything else - cardamon, pepper and eggs - for 15 final minutes.


Serve the whole thing on injera bread.

This doro wot is very much the opposite of the US Senate Bean Soup. It's thick not soupy, it's richly colored not pale, and it's exciting not bland. It's also somewhat spicy, so be prepared for that. Except for some bits of cardamom that I did not grind up well enough, this was a wonderful thing for me to eat, my first actual Ethiopian stew that could actually be eaten by someone from Ethiopia.


The sides I made are very much not Ethiopian, and probably never before have been served on injera bread. But they further reflect the cultural diversity of the DC region. And they work well in cutting the heat of the doro wot.

Recipe: Korean GamJa (Potato) Salad

I first tried a somewhat similar mashed potato dish at Joong Kak with my friends the last time or two we had Korean BBQ. It was one of the many panchan side dishes served before and during the meat. I thought this potato salad version would be a good idea to make my own. However, I made the mistake of doing the entire recipe, leaving me with more potato salad than I will ever want or be able to eat.

I don't even need to explain this recipe. Just watch this video by YouTube user tamar1973, née Tammy Quackenbush. I followed what she did.

As for my ingredients, I bought a 3 lb bag of potatoes ($3 on sale), thinking I would have some left over. These were only medium potatoes, but after about 8 or 9 of them I found the bag almost empty. Also going in were the aforementioned Gala apple (70 cents), a Korean pear ($3 at H Mart), two stalks of celery (expensive these days at $2.75), salt and white pepper.


After cooking the cubed potatoes for 10 minutes, cool them off in the fridge and add the chopped fruits & vegetables to it, and then add the dressing.


You should use Kewpie mayonnaise (500 grams sells at H Mart for $5!!!), as well as sugar (I went with Tammy's brown sugar), more salt and white pepper, and sesame seeds.


Mix it all up and there you go! A most unusual side dish for your doro wot.


To finish off the presentation I went with a unique and favorite cole slaw, again not a usual one for Americans, since this Salvadoran cole slaw has no mayo in it at all.

Recipe: Curtido (Salvadoran Cole Slaw)

This recipe I halved. I used this one from Epicurious.com to make my curtido.


You will need 1/2 a small head of cabbage (about a dollar tops), 1/2 a large carrot (had one already), 1/8 cup minced onion (I used 1/2 a small onion) and 1/4 cup cider vinegar (had it). Just thinly shred the cabbage and carrot, slice and chop the onion, and mix everything together. Let it sit for at least two hours. Ready to eat with any pupusa or arepa.


The very diverse sides really did complement the doro wot in different ways. The potato salad was sweeter than your average one, and the curtido was not sweet at all. Each added a beautiful variety of flavors to the plate that I will look forward to over the next week as I work through all my leftovers. I just need more injera bread (if you run out of that, make some couscous).


Now I finally head down 95 - or US-1. They both lead to the same place: the Gulf, the Keys and everything in between. From boiled peanuts and Gulf shrimp to pan cubano and Key Lime pie: it's the Sunshine State, Florida.

Sources:

Cowen, Tyler. "How do Maryland and Virginia differ?" Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide, February 7, 2011.

Hensperger, Beth, and Julie Kaufmann. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. Harvard Common Press: Boston, 2005.

Kojo Nnamdi Show, The. "The D.C. Area's Unique (?) Cultural Identity". WAMU 88.5 American University Radio, originally aired January 3, 2011.

Martínez, Rubén. "Salvadoran Coleslaw". Gourmet (reprinted through Epicurious.com's "Gourmet on Epi"), September 2007.

Nelson, Ben. "Senate Bean Soup: A Nebraska Favorite". Official website for Ben Nelson, US Senator for Nebraska, January 3, 2006.

Quackenbush, Tammy (Tamar1973). "Korean potato salad". Posted on YouTube, May 3, 2009.

Zewdie, Senedu, with Stephanie Sedgwick. "Doro Wat". Washington Post, May 18, 2005.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "District of Columbia" page and other pages. Regrettably, the Food Timeline State Foods webpage has little to say about the District. Sigh. Still no representation.

A few random bites: February Edition

Just a few things I've missed saying...

1) In doing research for my next "Back to the Beltway" post (coming up at some point in the next few weeks, just with the gas prices and expense and all), I was surprised, shocked and dismayed at all the eateries in Linthicum that have seemingly shut down. One hot dog place, Duncan's Famous, hasn't been there for a while. Granted, they once gave me the creamiest hot dog that I have had in ages, not since the Soda Pop Shop near Baltimore Highlands, late 80's.

2) Lunch on Friday was at the House of India in Columbia. I had to get in and out, which I did with ease. It was quite good: some of the least bony chunks of goat I have eaten in a while. plus tasty and toothsome ras malai and various chicken, chickpea and rice dishes. One dish I was not so hot on was the dhabha chicken, which tasted and had a texture like warmed over day-old Chinese takeout, and I don't mean from a good place. And yet there it is smack dab in the middle, piled up as if to say "Taaaaaake meeeeeee. You KNOW you waaaaaant meeeeee." Next time I go back I'll just get everything else. Though at $12 for the weekday buffet, it is a wee pricier than some other buffets that are just as good. I guess you're paying for the "Columbia" experience.

3) The latest beer tasting I did at the Wine Source was of R.J. Rockers out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Most of their beers were lovely though I was particularly captivated by their winter seasonal, The First Snow Ale. Billed as a "malt beverage brewed with honey and spices", the beer's nicest quality is its gingery punch. I rarely leave with a whole six pack ($9) but I did this time.

4) A gas station in Glen Burnie sells Pepsi from Mexico, made with actual cane sugar. Not as sweet as the HFCS stuff.

5) Along those lines, I have been quite good at drinking less soda. I've been averaging 1.5 cans a day - down from about 3. Let's see how much more I can cut back.

6) Try and figure out why I spent the past week making doro wot (Ethiopian chicken stew), GamJa salad (Korean potato salad) and curtido (Salvadoran cole slaw) - and ate it all at once. Go on.

Exits 1, 2 and 3A-B Revisited

I had serious plans to resume my explorations of the Beltway and its foodie finds. I would revisit places that I originally visited, explore new locations, report on those that have succumbed to the Great Recession, etcetera, etcetera.

That was half a year ago.

Since then, life has happened, and I went on a most restful sabbatical, causing me to put off my return to the Beltway Snacking series. Plus, the first post is always the toughest, since that's the one that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the series.

When I first got the notion to revisit the exits from my first culinary tour around the Baltimore Beltway, I was not quite sure how I would go about it. I thought I might seek out new places I did not even know about the first time, maybe taking note of which places had closed down before. It dawned on me as I was going back into Glen Burnie just how ambitious this project has been and would have to be. Perhaps tackling each exit one at a time takes longer, but it preserves the sanity. Biting off a few at once? Now there's a task. So because I have a desperate need to organize myself (HA!), I'll break down these revisits in a somewhat different way than before.

Restaurants that have shut down - Well this is pretty self-explanatory: places that I visited or wanted to visit, but can't now because they ain't there no more, hons. NB: If something shut down and I missed it, please help me out and let me know what I missed.

Restaurants I didn't get around to the first time - These are the places in my "Places to look up later" section from the first go-round, as well as places that commenters recommended to me that I didn't even think about. These are also places that both I and my commenters just completely missed altogether. As with the first go-round, I will try to avoid places I have blogged about in the past, though I may play hard and fast with this rule if I need to)

Restaurants that have since opened - This one isn't hard, people. Just as the recession has taken out some places, so have others opened up since.

Exits 1, 2 and 3A-B -
Section of the Beltway - the Glen Burnie Section (S. Baltimore City, N. Anne Arundel County)
Towns & neighborhoods along the way - Hawkins Point, Curtis Bay, Pasadena, Brooklyn Park, Glen Burnie
Routes that branch off - MD 173, MD 10, MD 2

Places that have shut down since I last visited

Of the various restaurants I mentioned on the first go round, none have really shut down. One notable location that never made it into the Beltway Snacking series but is now gone speaks volumes about this recession: Krispy Kreme. There used to be a stand-alone Krispy Kreme restaurant right across from the MVA, complete with the ditzy teenage boy who had no idea what "Do you have any hot ones?" meant. Well, young Master Clueless has probably found another job by now, and you have to go to Royal Farms to find any Krispy Kremes around these parts - or the Harris Teeter all the way out in Columbia.

Restaurants that have since opened

In Krispy Kreme's place has opened up Ayubi's Chicken and Kabob (map). This location, which had been open just a few months once I got there, has a mix of foods I hadn't really anticipated: fried chicken (think New York Fried Chicken) and lake trout, ice cream, and a full menu of Afghan and Central Asian kabobs, lawands and pullows (pilafs). Notable is the inclusion of the area-famous kaddo borawni made known to Bawlamorons at the wonderful Helmand restaurant in Mount Vernon. Though I didn't get to try Ayubi's version (I think they were out of pumpkin or something), I did order a typical lamb kabob with an Afghan pullow and bread. Half an hour later I had it at home, and I must say it survived the ride. The kabob was juicy and nicely spiced, while the pullow featured nice bits of raisin , carrot and onion. A nice and memorable addition was the finely chopped cucumber and carrot salad that came with the dinner. All of this came to about $10 before tax and drink, and was quite a change from the donuts that were being served there just twelve months before.

A particularly filling meal from Ayubi's

Restaurants I didn't get around to the first time

When I first hit Exits 1 through 3 (A & B - 4 exits in total), I noted a few restaurants that, for whatever reason, I just did not get around to visiting.

The Olive Tree Italian Restaurant (map) was one that some of my fellow Men's Chorus members suggested to me, and after one performance at a local South Baltimore church, a few of us headed over there. We would've gotten in, too, had it not been for the wait. So the Olive Tree is one that I had to save for another day. Instead, we all met up at Romano's Restaurant (map) for dinner. While others of us got things like spaghetti or crabcakes, I opted for the shish kebab ($15). Extremely filling, and it lasted me a while as a take home dish. Still, I wish I had gotten the crabcake platter instead.

One location that I had passed often but never ventured to try was Martitha's Restaurant (map). This restaurant offers up a combination of Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran offerings that will pleasantly fill you up. One day I ordered some take out, waiting with a major soccer game on the flat panel TV hovering behind the bar, tuned in to Univision. Martitha's is an unassuming, homey little restaurant, with the various flags of Latin America hanging around the counter. Don't let that unassuming atmosphere daunt you. Order away! I ordered a breakfast dish of three bean and scrambled egg tacos ($10 - UPDATE: this is known as a baleada) that came with Salvadoran slaw, lettuce and tomato, and what seemed like enough slices for a quarter of an avocado. I had to order a nice thick pupusa along with it. This was gone before I even got home. I'm a sucker for a good pupusa.

These are not pupusas.

When I first visited Glen Burnie, I got about as far as the intersection of Crain and Ritchie Highways, where you can and must visit the likes of Pho Miss Saigon (which I reviewed the first time around), and Thai Café (which I did not - the sister and I headed there the other day after I helped her find a dress for a big anniversary dinner). Ann's Dari Creme (map) is much further down Ritchie Highway, nestled right in front of Marley Station Mall (looking much better inside, I might add), and across from the Plaza Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant (map) which I still have not ventured to. It had been a while since I first visited Ann's. I'm talking decades here. The place is an area institution, and after listening to a little blurb about it on the Midday with Dan Rodricks show on WYPR (NB: please continue doing that County by County segment) I was reminded of this comment from commenter TW on my original Beltway Snacking post about Exit 3:

You definitely should hit Ann's again. Cheeseburger sub or a footlong or get someone to split with you and get half of each. Banana milkshake to go with.

It was settled. I had to go back. The folks at Ann's are quite efficient. They've been doing this for years, and they know how to get you in and out and get you your food fast. I did order the foot long, but opted merely for the vanilla shake. Hey, I like vanilla. I should have eaten it there while it was still warm, but even 45 minutes later in the comfort of my apartment, the foot long was still pretty good. It would've been excellent had I eaten it right away. As for the milkshake: oh good Lord, I haven't had a milkshake as good since my last visit to In N Out when I last visited California. Thick, very strong of vanilla, very cold. It's a memorable milkshake. All this for about $5.

That's a lotta milkshakes...

So, what did I miss?

Perhaps there will be yet another future installment of the Beltway Snacking series. If so, there will always be places that I fail to get to the first or second time around. I could write a whole series just on the restaurants I have missed. But I'm not doing that. I will just let y'all give me some suggestions. So: what else did I miss in Curtis Bay? Pasadena? Glen Burnie and around Marley Station?

Places I got back to

Ann's Dari Creme (ice cream/hot dogs/fast food) - 7918 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-1231

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? If I was in the mood
  

Ayubi's Chicken and Kabob (Afghan/lake trout/fast food) - 6604 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 766-9585

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Maybe

Romano's Restaurant (Italian/Greek/American/family-style) - 6905 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Maybe, but only if there is no wait

Martitha's Restaurant (Salvadoran/Guatemalan/Honduran/Mexican) - 602 Crain Hwy N, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 424-3974

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Maybe

Thai Café, (formerly Thai Gour Café; Thai) - 7477 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd #1, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-8399

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Probably

A few places to look up later

Olive Tree Italian Restaurant (Italian) - 7005 Ritchie Hwy; Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-8237

Plaza Garibaldi Mexican Restaurant (Mexican) - 7917 Ritchie Hwy, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 761-2447

Loose ends, December 8

From the "Duuuuuh" Files

• Guess who made a delicious meal of mini penne pasta with two parts homemade tomato sauce to one part homemade vindaloo sauce, plus a small chunk of frozen spinach and a generous sprinkling of feta cheese to bring with me for lunch today? Yup. Guess who also left it sitting on his kitchen table all day and didn't realize it until he was halfway between Towson and Essex? Yup, right again.
  

From the "It's a Sunshiney Day!!!:)!!!" Files

• Damn those folks at the Lansdowne Chick-Fil-A are perky. But I guess they're paid to be that way, and I'm not criticizing or anything. Plus, at least they have a job, unlike a lot of people.
  

From the "Speaking of which..." or "Really Hard-Up for a Job, Are You?" Files

• Oscar Meyer is seeking drivers for their Weiner Mobile (courtesy Boston Globe and G4TV's The Feed segment. Oh, and Kevin Pereira needs to grow his hair out again.)

From the "Ay, ¡no sabía que la crema agria en espagueti es muy sabrosa!" Files

• My sister and a friend of hers took the time a few days ago to show me just how tasty spaghetti is with... sour cream!?!? It sounds odd, disgusting and vaguely Midwestern, but apparently Cathy's friend, who is from El Salvador, says that lots of people back home eat it like this: top spaghetti that's already covered with meat sauce or any standard spaghetti sauce, with a dollop of sour cream, mix it all together, and there you go. I was suspicious, but I'll try anything once. Ahem, I'll try anything to eat once. It was tangy and - counterintutive though it may seem - it tasted surprisingly good.
  

Exit 20: MD-140 (to Pikesville and Garrison)

Have you ever noticed how irritating Reisterstown Road is? Driving-wise, I mean. I went there around 1:30 on Friday looking for some food. The line of traffic extended out of the exit ramp and onto the Beltway. At 1:30 in the afternoon. And it's a pretty long exit ramp, too. Of course, that's not the worst of it. You still have to contend with traffic on Reisterstown Road itself. It took me 15 minutes to drive from the exit to just past the library. I do not know why this stretch of road is so horrible to drive, but you should bring a book or something. You're going to be stuck immobile in traffic that long. Imagine how irritated I got when I realized I left my debit card and all my money in my apartment which was 20 minutes in the other direction, prompting me to drive all the way home to get it and start over.

By the time got back to Pikesville, it was about 2:30. I figured I had to hustle, because in just a few short hours it would be sundown. And in Pikesville - a center of Baltimore County's (and City's) Jewish community - many of the delis, bagel places and kosher markets and close down shop as of Friday night, staying closed through Saturday as Jewish observance requires. Being Catholic and hungry, it did not hit me that the businesses would actually close a few hours ahead so they could finish cleaning up after closing - not just shuttering the business just before sundown and walking home (you can tell I've never run a business). This hadn't hit me when I finally pulled into Liebe's New York Delicatessen (map), a place I have gone just once or twice before, and not too recently. The doors and windows were shuttered and a real estate sign was in the window. My first thought: "Oh, I guess it's shuttered down for good." So I drove off to find the Goldberg's New York Bagels (map - their website links to Google Maps, too) - also closed. It still did not click - it just seemed like I had run into a string of closed-down delis and bagelerias. My next stop was another deli, Shlomo's Kosher Meats (map) about 2:45, and got out to find - yep - it was closed. So was the place next door, the Knish Shop (map - check out a very recent review here from the KosherCritic; if it's the same one, they also sell subs). I was quickly figuring out the pattern: everyone closes early on Friday - I mean early, to make sure they aren't even around the store when it hits sundown.

I got to one last kosher business, this one open until 3 (pretty late on Friday). Sion's Bakery (map) is your standard small bakery, with cakes and tons of cookies. There were probably other things on display but, of course, it was certainly put away by the time I got there. I opened the door just as the gentleman came out of the kitchen ready to lock the front door. I asked the "stupid sign" question - "You're closed, huh?" They were about to, but the nice guy let me buy some cookies! I got one chocolate top ($6.49/lb) and two raspberry butter cookie sandwiches. Fortunately I had just enough change to pay for that (I asked the nice man to put the other cookie away). My verdict on the chocolate top? OMG. This was the best chocolate top cookie I have eaten all year, period. Better than Geresbeck's, and y'all know how much I love their chocolate tops. They tell me they're their most popular cookie (Geresbeck's, not Sion's). And now I have to wait until Sunday or even Monday to go back and get more :( The flavor was just so wonderful, all buttery and chocolatey. The raspberry cookies were okay, but I usually like more jelly in mine.

Reconciled to the fact that any kosher food would have to wait until after Saturday, I sought out other cuisines. I had passed by many places, all surrounding the legendary but now-defunct Backfin Restaurant. Among others: the Pikes Diner (map - too much traffic to stop), Mr. Chan's Szechuan Restaurant (map), and the Sunfresh Produce Market (can't find a map - hey I can't even find an address) that opened up since the last time I passed through. I might have stopped in, but I wanted ready-made food and if I went in the market I'd come out with about $50 worth of organic things that I could get for $17 inorganically at Giant (or $32 at the Trader Joe's in the opposite direction). But I eventually stopped at the Mari Luna Mexican Grill (map). I ate here once a few years ago. I got some pork pupusas there but got sick off of them (or the cole slaw they gave me, I don't know). Enough time had passed, and I reasoned it was just a fluke.

Mari Luna, right across from the Safeway and next to a Dominican hair place, sells delicious Mexican dishes (and the occasional Salvadoran dish - to with, their delish pupusas). And the decor is bright and colorful, with deep yellow walls and a rich blue ceiling. The awning over the window into their kitchen has a tile awning over it with some stuffed roosters and chili lights strung across the edge. There was even a mini chili Christmas tree up by their front "desk" thing.

Perusing the menu I found lots of familiar offerings, as well as various dishes named after places in Western Mexico - Jalisco (the state where Guadalajara and all those mariachis come from), Uruapan (a small city in Michoacán state). And I saw those pupusas again ($7). But I wanted more, so I eyed the appetizer platter ($14). I would've gotten it, too, had my eyes not landed on the torta de milanesa (Milanese-style "sub sandwich," $9). Tortas are popular in Mexico, but the milanesa was something I hadn't seen since I left Morelia seven years ago. I was a student at a language school, and the mother of the house often made milanesa de res (beef Milanese). This was basically a tender breaded and fried steak of beef. I was so struck by nostalgia that I forewent the sampler and ordered the torta and a side of the pupusas. The torta came with Mexican waffle fries an two types of salsa. After 20 minutes it was done.

I broke out the torta and found it cut conveniently into three sections. At around 3:30, in my car in the Mari Luna parking lot, I took one of those torta sections, wrapped it in a napkin and had my very belated lunch. Again, a delicious eating experience. The torta had hot cheese stringing off of it, and two layers of juicy breaded beef covered in tomato, lettuce, mayo and that cheese (mozzarella, I think). I had more a few hours later when I got home (I took a scenic route and got lost, alright?) and dipped it and the fries into both of those delicious salsas, a very mild tomatillo dressing and a smooth toasty and spicy red pepper sauce, in a different league than your typical sour tangy hot sauce.

So I did luck out after all, by finding that torta. But I must come back and visit all those delis again, sometime outside of Friday afternoon or Saturday. Especially to get those cookies.

Other photos:

Here are the leftovers from Mari Luna - the pupusa (not so great the second day), the torta de milanesa (still good, though soggy out of a microwave) and Mexican fries, all with those two lovely salsas.

It's kind of falling apart, innit?

I take many of these photos from my car - mostly because I'm too lazy to get out, and people might think it's weird that some guy just pulls up and begins to snap photos of their business. When I got to Shlomo's I didn't bother to leave my car, because I had already assumed they were closed before I even turned it off.

Not food-related - I just like the photo, which I took from my car in the Druid Ridge Cemetery, which serves as a handy shortcut from Reisterstown Road all the way to Exit 21 (Yes, I used it. Sue me.)

And of course, the famous Backfin, as the sun sets on thirty-plus years of crabs, hon

Places I visited:

Mari Luna Mexican Grill (Mexican) -102 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 486-9910

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? ¡Sí, es cierto!

Sion's Bakery (kosher / bakery) - 302 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (443) 548 0370

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Heck yeah!
  

Places to look up later:

Goldberg's New York Bagels (kosher / bagels) - 1498 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 415-7001

Liebe's New York Delicatessen (kosher / deli) -607 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 653-1977

Mr. Chan's Szechuan Restaurant (Chinese / Szechuan) - 1000 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 484-1100

The Knish Shop (kosher / subs) - 508 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 484-5850

Pikes Diner (diner) - 921 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 653-5545

Shlomo's Kosher Meat and Fish Market (market - kosher / seafood) - 506 Reisterstown Road, Baltimore, MD 21208; Phone: (410) 415-6602

Sunfresh Produce Market (market - produce) - can't find the address. Could somebody help me out here?


For Mari Luna Mexican Grill