Snacking State-by-State: Maryland III - Jollof Rice, How Nice (or Suya wanna cook some rockfish?)

As noted before, Maryland has characteristics that make it both a Southern and a Northern state.  One thing that Maryland has more in common with its neighbors to the North is its patterns of immigration: especially German (where else will you find sauerkraut at the Thanksgiving table?), Irish, Southern and Eastern European in the last century, plus many African American immigrants who both left Maryland for the North and came to Maryland from the South during the Great Migration.  As Maryland and Northern Virginia are also tied inextricably to the DC area, over the last few decades these areas have been quite fortunate to see immigration from all over the world - Latin America, South, East and Southeast Asia, and all over Africa.

Official Name: State of Maryland
State Nicknames: The Free State; The Old Line State; America in Miniature
Admission to the US: April 28, 1788 (#7)
Capital: Annapolis (24th largest city)
Other Important Cities: Baltimore (largest); Columbia (2nd largest); Germantown (3rd largest); Frederick (8th largest)
Region: Mid-Atlantic, South, Northeast; South Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Crabcake; Clambake; Chestnut; Maple Syrup
Bordered by: The Mason-Dixon Line (north and east); Pennsylvania (north); Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean (east), Virginia and the Potomac River (south and southwest); District of Columbia (southwest); West Virginia (west and southwest)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: blue crab (crustacean); rockfish, aka striped bass (fish); Diamondback terrapin (reptile); Smith Island cake (dessert); milk (drink)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: Chesapeake Bay foods, especially based on blue crab, oyster, clam, shrimp & fish; historically, foods of the Upper South (especially fried chicken, stuffed ham, beaten biscuits & Brunswick stew); cuisines that reflect a broad multicultural landscape closer to Baltimore (Italian, Polish, Ukranian, German, etc) and Washington (Latin American, West African, Southeast Asian, Korean, etc)

Take Nigeria for example: Maryland has the largest Nigerian-American immigrant population of any state in the country, not to mention recent immigrants from all over West Africa, bringing their varied culinary traditions to the American landscape.  Sadly, few West African immigrants have opened up restaurants in the area, though a few do exist - mostly in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties with a small handful in the Baltimore area.  Immigrants from Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Liberia and (again) Nigeria are integrating their dishes into the American landscape, but again the lack of restaurants means that if you aren't lucky enough to know someone from Nigeria, you may have to make your own.

One of the most common pan-West African dishes is jollof rice, a dish that, like the crab cake and fried chicken, has many local variants.  According to Ghanaian-born Dorinda Hafner, author of A Taste of Africa, jollof rice likely originated in Mali.  Or Ghana.  Or Nigeria.  Well, okay, it hasn't quite been settled, and probably never will. 

Jollof Rice is among the best known of West African dishes not only because it is delicious and easy to prepare, but because the ingredients are readily available in Western countries! Its origin, however, remains a bone of contention between several West African nations.  There are many regional cooking variations... [Hafner 1993: 43]

Regardless of where it originated, most people who eat jollof rice are probably in Nigeria, the largest country in West Africa.  Another Nigerian dish that goes well with it is a simple take on the shish kebab, known as suya.  This is meat or fish coated in spicy ground peanuts, skewered and broiled or grilled until done.  I had this a few years ago at the FestAfrica in Patterson Park, made out of chicken.  But I thought a more Chesapeake-flavored version of suya would fit this post better: rockfish.

The recipes: Jollof Rice with Rockfish Suya

You could make the suya while the rice is cooking, if you really like multitasking.

The recipe: Jollof Rice

I could have used chicken, beef or fish - Hafner's version is good, as is this one from the Congo Cookbook.  But I wanted something simple and vegetarian, and I settled on a recipe submitted to Sara Moulton's show Sara's Secrets by Simbo Fowora.  No, Fowora is not a trained Food Network personality, or a trained chef like Sara Moulton, but the recipe was featured on the show, and I trust Moulton's judgment.

For this vegetarian jollof rice you will need the following, all of which are simple to track down. 

* white rice (not difficult to track down)
* tomato paste (I also added cherry tomatoes from the garden - I picked them that same day)
* chili peppers (one from the garden, one from Wegman's)
* bell pepper (Fowora's recipe says to use a red bell pepper - I used a green one)
* a few cloves of garlic
* onions (again, mine from the garden - mine were red, which is not typical of jollof rice)
* thyme and white pepper
* olive oil

First, throw all ingredients except the oil (and the rice, of course) into a blender
.

After blending, add the olive oil, and blend a little bit more.

As you do this, boil a few cups of water on the stove.  When boiling, add both your rice and your tomato mixture to the pot.

Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring every fifteen minutes.  I actually found the rice to be undercooked, so I added a cup or two more and let it steam with the heat off for another 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Garnish with parsley or cilantro if you have it available.  I ate mine with the suya.

The recipe: Rockfish Suya

The recipe I used comes from the Congo Cookbook, which you can find online.  Of course, it does not specify rockfish, but it was an easy substitution.

This recipe is also pretty simple:

* rockfish, or whatever fish or meat you prefer (A note on rockfish, aka striped bass: this is the state fish, so it holds a special place in Maryland's seafood pantheon.  I remember when I was much younger and the ban on fishing for rockfish had been lifted, since they were no longer endangered.  Dad and Mom went out and bought one and we had rockfish that night.  Very nice.  Rockfish is pricey - $20 per pound at Wegman's - so I bought a mere quarter pound, just enough to make one serving for dinner)
* roasted/salted peanuts (you will grind these up but don't make peanut butter with them)
* cayenne pepper, paprika (in this case I used smoked paprika) and salt
* garlic powder, onion powder and ginger powder (since I only had chopped dried onion, I threw that into the spice grinder)
* onion and tomatoes (optional, if you want to skewer them)
* skewers (you really do need these)

Take your peanuts and grind them into a powder.  Again, make sure you don't make peanut butter with them.  Mix with the dry spices in a bowl, separate into two portions (one for coating and one for dipping later) and set aside. 

After cutting your rockfish into pieces, coat them in the peanut mixture. Let them sit for half an hour - enough time to soak the skewers and preheat the broiler.

When ready, stick the rockfish onto the skewers, alternating if you want with onion and/or tomato.

Place the skewers in a dish and put them under your broiler, about 3 to 4 inches below the fire, for 4 to 8 minutes.  Other meats or fishes may take longer or shorter to broil.  Or you can just grill them.

And there you have your suya! Serve with any extra peanut mixture that did not come into contact with raw meat or fish.

Jollof rice is similar to jambalaya in that it cooks in a variety of spices (and sometimes meats) on the stove for a while, and is a meal unto itself.  The similarities end there, because this spicy, tomato-y rice dish is tangy more than anything else.  Again, it is very simple to prepare, and I may need to make this again.  It is a very nice accompaniment to the suya, whose peanut mixture would make an excellent coating for any broiled or grilled meat or fish.  Also, the ease of preparation makes this a recipe to come back to.

 Sources:

"Crab Cakes".  Recipe from the author's family.

Fowora, Simbo.  "Jollof Rice".  Featured on the episode "Nigerian Dinner" of the show Sara's Secrets (Sara Moulton, host).  Food Network, 2006.

Gibbon, Ed.  The Congo Cookbook.  1999-2009.  Available as a downloadable book from lulu.com and reprinted on the website http://www.congocookbook.com.

Hafner, Dorinda.  A Taste of Africa.  Ten Speed Press: Berkeley, CA, 1993.

Kitching, Frances.  "Smith Island Ten-Layer Cake-Mrs. Kitching's Original Recipe". Reprinted on the "Fun Stuff" page at the website VisitSomerset.com (website for Somerset County, Maryland).  2007-2010 Somerset County Tourism.

Shields, John. Chesapeake Bay Cooking. Broadway Books: New York, NY, 1998

Shields, John. "Foreward".  In Dishing Up Maryland by Lucie Snodgrass.  Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2010.

Snodgrass, Lucie.  Dishing Up Maryland.  Storey Publishing: North Adams, MA, 2010.

Walter, Eugene.  American Cooking: Southern Style.  From the series Foods of the World.  Time-Life Publications: New York, NY, 1971

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

Co?! Nr Festiwal Polskich!?

It's true: The Sun reports that after 40 years there just isn't enough money to fund it this year. Now where'm I get my pierogi fix on? Seriously though, it's a sad sign of how the economy is hitting local governments, as the city, strapped for cash, raised fees for the organizers of this and all other festivals in the "Showcase of Nations" series. FestAfrica also opted out.

But even though all is lost for 2011, there may be a Festival next year - at the Fairgrounds. Hopefully it can come back to Patterson Park and the Pulaski Monument at some point in the future, accordion in tow.

The Fonio Files

As of late, I've become obsessed with finding fonio. Fonio is a grain native to West Africa - in fact it is considered the oldest African domesticate. And people have liked the taste for thousands of years. But outside of West Africa, nobody has really heard of it.

My curiosity about this exceptionally nutritious crop started one Sunday during an episode of The Splendid Table. During one segment, host Lynne Rossetto Kasper interviewed Senegalese-American chef Pierre Thiam about the cuisine of Senegal, his Brooklyn, NY, restaurant Le Grand Dakar, and his new cookbook Yolele! Recipes From the Heart of Senegal. During the interview, they discuss the African miracle grain fonio, which Thiam tells Rossetto Kasper is almost impossible to ruin. It can be cooked somewhat like couscous. It can also be cooked in the microwave. But I was able to ruin my first batch, and after I did so (creating, in essence, a very lovely fonio hockey puck), I decided to find an actual recipe.

In honor of Vancouver 2010, the durable yet tasty fonio hockey puck.

Thiam includes a recipe for sesame fonio in his cookbook. Fortunately, it was sitting right there on the Splendid Table website. Even better, I had all the ingredients (or similar ones).

For sesame fonio (complete recipe is here), you need to stir fry 1/2 cup of black sesame seeds in a few teaspoons of peanut (or in my case, olive) oil.

Taken with the "Food" setting on my new camera. Looks a little like hot asphalt, doesn't it?

To 3 cups of salted boiling water, add the sesame seeds along with a cup of fonio. Reduce the heat - and I mean way down, otherwise you'll have sputtering fonio bubbling up in your face. I found it helpful to stir the whole thing. After a few minutes, it will absorb the water. Make sure you remove it from the heat and fluff it up.


The fonio has a pleasant, slightly nutty flavor, which the sesame complements well. I also found that the fonio absorbed some of the black sesame color, making it look like a big grayish blob with little black specks inside it. But the taste was quite pleasing, a little different from other grains I have eaten, in a good way. I also discovered through experimentation that fonio tastes quite good with soy sauce.

Sesame fonio, plated with stir fried baby lettuce and Nigerian-style deer stew

Now here's the difficult part: how does one find fonio in Baltimore? It's easy if you know where to look. You can only find it in African and African-Caribbean markets. Whole Foods doesn't carry it. Giant certainly doesn't carry it. Not even H-Mart carries it, and they have everything. Lucky for Baltimore, there are a few African markets in and around the city. I got mine from the Afro-Tropical Food Market across from the Senator, in Belvedere Square. I got 500 grams (1/2 a kilo, or about 1.1 lbs) of Deggeh brand fonio, imported from Mali via the Bronx, NY, for $4. The Splendid Table website also gives various mail order sources for fonio under the recipe for sesame fonio.

Festivals of Baltimore: Festafrica

I'm glad I was in town this year for Festafrica, Baltimore's yearly celebration of African cultures and the African immigrant community. I'm usually out of town - at least I was the past two years. This year it moved to Patterson Park, and parking was so scarce I had to park on the exact opposite side of the park from the festival. Not that I mind the walk.

Admission for Festafrica was $5, and since I deliberately left my ATM card and all but $20 in cash at home, I had $15 to get me through the festival. Enough, I reasoned, to sample a few foods and maybe buy a souvenir.

Oh, how silly I was to think that!

Compared to other area festivals, Festafrica is relatively modest - though about as big as most festivals held in Patterson Park. And that is despite the two competing stages of music on either side of the festival. Many vendors sold beautiful African and African-American art, including a handful of Kenyan-American "Barack Obama for President" paintings. As for the food booths, these were a bit lower key than most food booths at Baltimore's ethnic festivals. While a handful had official signs advertising their wares, most just had a piece of paper taped to the front of the wooden kiosk with the name of the vendor scribbled on it in marker. Doesn't mean the food isn't still good, of course.

I did the rounds around the Pulaski Monument, mind-boggled at the prices for food, which typically ran around $10 to $12 per plate. Buying just one thing meant I could try nothing else, so I had to hunt for cheap things where I could. But with little exception, most everything I could eat was about $10, so I went ahead and made my first selection. This was a choice between the following:

• a $12 plate of plantain, fish or goat ($10 with chicken) and my choice of plain or jollof rice at the booth of Olangela's Authentic African Kitchen (Is this the same Olangela's?); or
• the three suya plate for $10, courtesy of the Suya Stop.

A nice couple tried to help me figure out what to choose, but to no avail, since one got the suya and the other got the chicken and jollof rice platter. And, of course, each was duly impressed with his or her meal. I finally went on impulse and went with the suya, a Nigerian shish kebab of beef, chicken or some other meat, covered in a spicy peanut rub. The gentleman at the kiosk gave me a plate of three hot, steaming suyas with some chopped-up raw onion.


As far as kebabs go, I really like the suya. The meat is nice and thin, and not at all gristly or even very fatty. Plus, the flavors of the peanut rub - some of just sloughed off onto the plate - were sweet and spicy (picante) at the same time. I would eat this again.


If I don't make it myself, at least I can get it at Olangela's in Waverly, or Peju's in Woodlawn (The latter was recommended to me by one foodie at the Great Tastes exhibition at the beginning of the year, but since I am incompetent with all directions, I have yet to find it).

Since I still had $5 burning a hole in my pocket I went in search of something cheaper. Between a man selling fresh roasted corn, and a yoga and meditation booth (?), I found the Divine Kitchen's booth, selling a cornucopia of Nigerian and West African dishes. Among the standard dishes such as jollof rice ($10), fried fish ($10), grilled chicken (dang, is everything $10) was something I could afford: the moi moi (steamed black eyed pea cake) for $2.50. A Nigerian dish usually wrapped in banana leaves, mine came in a little empanada-shaped aluminum foil pouch. Handy if you can't find banana leaves.


It had a nice, savory, beany flavor, with the consistency of a light but thick bread pudding (if anything can be light and thick at the same time). After having the suya (and eating before I came, so really I was quite full), I knew I wouldn't finish this, so I carried it waaaaaaaaay back to my car. Maybe it'll be breakfast tomorrow.

Other photos:

The concourse facing the African arts. The main stage is out of the range of this photo, to our right. Note the Pulaski Monument on the left side of the photo to orient yourself.

The stage toward the back - the main stage - featured several groups. Here is the Kenyan group Jabali Afrika.

Even as I contemplated the Suya Spot, I was swooning over Olangela's myriad offerings.

When I left, I had to go completely around the festival. On the way, I heard some drumming and was able to get one last photo.

Exit 36: MD-702 (Southeast Blvd)

After Philadelphia Road and Pulaski Highway, the Beltway shoots off into MD Route 702 (Southeast Blvd). This was supposed to be the beginning of the fabled Windlass Freeway. This legendarily unfinished part of 695 was supposed to continue on to I-95, ultimately connecting Moravia Road to Perry Hall. Instead, the powers-that-were officially gave up on it sometime in July 1978 - exactly 30 years ago this month (according to MDRoads.com)! So 702 ended up as a 4.5 mile long offshoot of 695. This also explains the ghost signs directing travelers to no place in particular, and it explains why there is no Exit 37: they held off, in case they did decide to finish the Windlass Freeway.

It also explains why I won't be visiting Exit 37.

The first exit off of 702 is MD-150 - Eastern Blvd, which I have already visited once before (Exit 33A). This leads off towards Essex, and then Chase by way of Middle River. I'm a bit more familiar with the Middle River side of 150, but I headed off towards Essex first.

MD-150 towards Essex:

The first thing you notice going towards Essex is the Middlesex Shopping Center on your right. Not only can you renew your driver's license and get a library card here (the MVA and Baltimore County Public Library each has a location here), but you can get a few quick bites to eat: Italian at the Pasta Blitz of Middlesex (map) - notice that dazzling neo-Disney lettering on the sign, and is it related to the ones in Timonium or on Carroll Island Road? - and Chinese at the New China Express Inn (map). I guess if you work at the MVA or, more likely, wait in line for a few hours there, you have probably sampled the fare. If you want to expand your pizza-and-orange-chicken horizons beyond Middlesex, try the Essex franchise of Delaware-based Seasons Pizza (map) further down the road, or the Lucky Dragon (map) across the street.

Despite these and a Latin American mercado/restaurante (map), this stretch of Eastern Blvd, about a mile either way from the intersection of Eastern and Old Eastern, is "bar-and-grill" territory, such as the Fatties Bar & Grill (map).

Hey, wasn't there a Friendly's here? Yes? Well there isn't anymore.


MD-150 towards Middle River and Chase:

Going the other direction will take you into Middle River towards Bowley's Quarters and Chase, past Martin State Airport, Lockheed Martin, and eventually Bengie's Drive In and Gunpowder Falls. Go this far and you'll find a few good seafood places and (again) more bar-and-grill establishments, crab and crabcake joints, and pit beef stands. Go far enough and you'll even find a small fish & chips joint - Original Fish & Chips (map), whose fish & chips I have had once or twice. Very greasy, but that's what makes them original, right? You'd have to wrap it in the Mirror to make it any more original. Sure, it's greasy, but it is tasty and crispy. And you get wonderful, wonderful hush puppies - more Southern than English, but an absolute necessity with fried fish in these parts. And yes, like all other seafood establishments in these parts, they have all manner of crab offerings.

It's pretty tough to get away from the crabs in these parts. Family, friends and acquaintances have been giving us crabs here for years. Um, let me re-phrase: they've been giving us steamed crabs for years. Not as many this year as last. My sister went out with her father-in-law the other weekend to go crabbin'. They came back with two crabs. Not two traps worth of crabs. Not two pots full of crabs. Not even two pounds of crabs. Two crabs. The harvest is bare, very bare indeed.

You don't need to go as far as Bengie's to find good food in these parts. In fact, right off the exit to Chase is the locally famous Al's Seafood (map, which puts it right on the off-ramp instead of just past it where it should be). Whether coming from Eastern Blvd. or Stemmers Run Road, it's impossible to miss the large blue crab sign and the big white letters that say "AL'S SEAFOOD". They do both take-out and eat-in. I've only ever done take-out, once. I had a crab cake sandwich a while back. It wasn't the best, but I would go back for other things. Far more memorable was a good batch of steamed crabs that a friend got once for a backyard party. Goooooood crabs.

Yep. Tough to miss.

A further ways up, between a non-descript chicken & fish place and the Middle River (the river, not the town) is the Mars shopping center, which has (whoopdee doo) a Ruby Tuesday's. It also is the home of the Bacoli Delight Italian Restaurant (map), whose patrons suggest that the quality of the food and service have certainly improved in the past year. Just as notable are the Hollywood Video that closed down, and the bank that was all set to open up until the "recession-that-isn't-a-recession" hit.

On past the scenic Middle River (again, the waterway not the town) is the Hawthorne Shopping Plaza, home of Geresbeck's and many a "Manic Monday" outing on the Don & Marty morning show on WJZ. A few "restaurant & carry-out' options here:

• Jilliano's (map), with pizza, subs, and the usual sub shop fare. I haven't eaten here yet.
• Little China (map), which is pretty tasty as far as "Mom-&-Pop" Chinese restaurants go. Unlike most Chinese restaurants, this is a free-standing restaurant in its own little building. I haven't eaten here in a while, but I haven't found anything negative about it. One recent reviewer loved the fried rice.
• And of course there is the traditional Baltimore snowball stand sitting right next to it in the parking lot. This time of year there's always a line.

Next door, just past the McDonald's (ick) is the Eastern Plaza, and there are two food options here. One is the Looni's Pizza & Subs (map), which looked closed, except for the wide-open door. It's probably open. Again, it serves pizza and subs. The other is a small market, All African Delights (same map as Looni's). A few years ago, I checked out this tiny West African / Caribbean market for some injera bread, hoping they might have stuff from all over Africa. No such luck - if you need it, just call Dukem and order it to save yourself the trip to DC. I did try my luck again recently, stopping in the other day to ask about banana leaves. The clerk had to call the proprietor to find out if they did - "Nobody' ever asked before," she said. While she did the banana leaf recon, one little girl playing there started quizzing about foods that "you guys" don't eat. It was actually too funny. I didn't know the one large, cassava-on-steroids African tuber she showed me but the onions and coconuts I was quite familiar with. She kept chatting and chatting and chatting with me, which seemed to bother the clerk a little. As for myself, once I found out there were no banana leaves, I just tried to figure a way to end the conversation with this talkative child and go on my way. It's a very small market, but it's the only African market I know of in this part of town.

One final place to mention: if you do take the turn off onto Martin's Blvd (MD-700), you'll quickly run into the Baker's Tavern and Pit Beef (map). I avoided the tavern altogether and just made a beeline for the pit beef stand, a bit nicer than most I've been to. The proprietor had several bags of water hanging on the walls - he said it was to keep the flies away. While there were a couple, it made me wonder if there might actually be more had he not done that.

Baker's has pit beef and fries, among other things. I came for pit beef, as did a line of people waiting for their pit beef sandwiches. I ordered mine with raw onion, and fries - total: a little under $7. There were squeeze bottles of ketchup, mayo, vinegar (for the fries of course) and different BBQ sauces. The horseradish (not sauce but the actual horseradish mash you find at pit beef stands) is just inside the window to the kitchen. I put on some BBQ sauce there, and shoveled a little horseradish sauce into a clear little plastic cup with a lid


I ate a fry in the car before heading out, and quickly burned myself - these were some hot fries, unlike many you get at restaurants. Literally, fresh out of the oil - so yes, a little oily, but the heat was much appreciated. When I got the pit beef home I did have to heat it up a little. Very juicy and good, and I liked the crunch provided by the onion. Again, the fries were hot, though oily enough that I didn't finish them all. Maybe I'll just get them with gravy next time, provided I'm in the area.


Off to Exit 37 - oh wait, there IS no Exit 37. Off to Exit 38...

Other photos:

Needs no explanation whatsoever.

Hey, when you got Geresbeck's, who needs Charm City Cakes anyway!?

This used to be a Friendly's.

Another shot of Middle River - no, the river, not the town.

Places I visited:

All African Delights (market - West African /Caribbean) - 2201 Eastern Boulevard, Middle River, MD 21220; Phone: (410) 780-9323

• Would I shop there again? I don't know - I haven't had much of a chance to explore it.
• Would I go out of my way to shop there again? Again, can't say for certain.
  

Al's Seafood (crabs / seafood) - 1551 Eastern Boulevard, Essex, MD 21221; Phone: (410) 682-4828

• Would I eat there again? Yes, but moreover for the crabs.
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Sure, but again, mostly for the crabs.
  

Baker's Tavern and Pit Beef (pit beef / American) - 2233 Old Eastern Avenue, Middle River, MD 21220; Phone: (410) 687-9419

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? No need with all the pit beef stands around, but I might
  

Little China Restaurant & Carry-Out (Chinese) - 2117 Eastern Avenue, Middle River, MD 21220; Phone: (410) 686-1922

• Would I eat there again? It's been a while, so I really need to visit it again to answer that question.
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? See above.
  

Original Fish & Chips (English / fish & chips / seafood) - 105 Carroll Island Road, Suite B, Middle River, Md 21220; Phone: 410-335-0004

• Would I eat there again? Maybe
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? You kind of have to. Probably would.
  

Places to look up later:

Bacoli Delight Italian Restaurant (Italian) - 151 Orville Road, Essex, MD 21221; Phone: (410) 238-1922

Fattie's Bar & Grill (bar & grill) - 1030 Old Eastern Avenue, Essex, MD 21221; Phone: (410) 686-9111

Jilliano's Restaurant Carry-Out (pizza and subs) - 2105 Eastern Boulevard, Middle River, MD 21220; Phone: (410) 391-5222

Latin American Market / Restaurante (Latin American) - 1009 Old Eastern Avenue, Essex, MD 21221; cannot find phone number

Looni's Pizza & Subs (pizza & subs) - 2201 Eastern Boulevard, Middle River, MD; Phone: (410) 391-6162

Lucky Dragon (Chinese) - 1221 Eastern Boulevard, Essex, MD 21221; Phone: (410) 391-3337

New China Express Inn (Chinese) - 1338 Eastern Boulevard, Essex, MD 21221; Phone: (410) 238-1858

Pasta Blitz of Carroll Island (Italian) - 154 Carroll Island Road, Middle River, MD 21220; Phone: (410) 335-3433

Pasta Blitz of Middlesex (Italian) - 1328 Eastern Boulevard, Essex, MD 21221; Phone: (410) 238-0604

Seasons Pizza (pizza, with nineteen locations in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey) - 1004 Eastern Boulevard, Essex, Maryland 21221; Phone: (410) 780-7005

snowball stand next to Little China (snowballs) - open seasonally; in the Hawthorne Shopping Center, 2117 Eastern Avenue, Middle River, MD 21220

Miracle Fruit Party!

Many local food bloggers were able to get together at Roopa's place in Mount Vernon for a miracle fruit tasting party. This sounded strange when I first heard about it, but that's only because I had never heard of the miracle fruit before. Thanks to the New York Times (and Wikipedia), we know a bit more about it in the US than we ever have.

Native to West Africa, miracle fruit (or Synsepalum dulcificum) has been eaten there for a very long time (think centuries), used to make sour foods taste sweet, and bitter foods taste, well, bitter and sweet at the same time. Saltiness and umami are also unaffected. It's the sourness that is taken away, replaced by sweet. There are no known, observed or complained-about negative side effects, so it is indeed safe (despite what the FDA says). And it's not hallucinogenic, so it's completely legal as well.

I could go into a long-winded explanation of how it works. But why do that when Roopa can explain it instead? She also mentions the great pains she took in tracking it down, and how she divided it up for all of us.



It worked for everyone, but sadly, much better for others than for me. Yes it did indeed work for me, but the effects were kind of muted. That was not everyone else's experience - they tasted some serious sweetness in things as sour as lemon (it worked best with lemon), grapefuit , various vinegars, unsweetened strawberries and rhubarb, etc. Roopa took suggestions beforehand and made sure various things were there:

• Dill pickles, which then tasted like bread n' butter ones!
  
• Balsamic vinegar tasted like the reduced kind you find in Italian desserts!
  
• Tamarind pulp tasted sweet, like you get with tandoori chicken!
• Guinness tasted like Baileys!
  
• Unsweetened tea tasted sweetened!
• Water with lemon juice in it tasted like lemonade!
• Cream cheese and goat cheese tasted like cheesecake!
• Plus, Roopa made this great coconut gel thing using only coconut milk and a little gelatin. She did it just to make it, but it tasted sweet!
  

Again, it worked great for most people, but only a little for me. Either I was doing it wrong or I am some kind of genetic freak, with some recessive gene that makes him less susceptible to the wonders of miraculin. Which bums me out because I really wanted to taste lemons like they were candy!

Here's what I did with my three rounds of miraculin:

Round 1 - I volunteered to take one of the pits, but I go no effect from it at all, after working it around my tongue and mouth for about 20 to 30 seconds. So Roopa let me have a second piece. This time (just my luck) it got stuck between my teeth after I chewed it up for about four or five seconds. Had I gotten it around my tongue more I know I would've tasted much more sweetness. As it was, the sour gummy bears were the sweetest thing I could taste. Orange slices, strawberry and the coconut gels also worked well for me. and while the lemons and limes didn't taste sweet to me, they were tolerably sour (no wincing), so I did indeed get some effect.

Round 2 - This is where I got the most effect from the miracle fruit. This time I carefully coated my tongue with it for about half a minute before chewing it up and swallowing. The effects lasted for about 20 minutes for me. Again, the miraculin made things much less sweet for me than for everyone else, but it did make balsamic vinegar and tamarind pulp taste sweeter, all citrus fruits taste more like candy, and dills taste like bread and butter pickles. Fiery pickled green beans were also a little sweet! And canned artichoke juice - ick - tasted like iced tea. As with Round 1, I saved the fatty things - cheeses, unsweetened chocolate and cocoa-covered peanuts - for last.

Round 3 - This round went much like the first, even though I spread it around my tongue pretty well. This time I chewed it up a little more during the spreading. Again, maybe I'm just a genetic freak, unable to get the full benefits of miracle fruit :(

I still intend to try it again to see what I was doing wrong. It's not easy to find in this area. Actually, it's pretty damn difficult. I may try buying it online freeze-dried as well as fresh - and I cannot vouch for any of the sellers (contact Roopa if you want to know where she got hers from). Good luck growing it anywhere north of Miami, though. And I may have had more of an effect with a whole berry, but with a limited supply, it made much more sense to cut it up and parcel it out. But again, great idea for a party, Roopa, and I enjoyed it a bunch!

That also includes the evil Old Bay-covered Cheetos (qv Pigtown Pigout) that Roopa and her boyfriend whipped up for us. I kept on saying "No - yes - no - yes!" to them. Yes won out in the end, of course.

DC Restaurant Week? It'll have to wait...

Sad to report that I didn't make it down to Washington today - family emergency, and of course family is much more important than some restaurant. So I'm not able to try Butterfield 9 until the next Food Week. Instead, I'm perusing the list on the DC Foodies' website that shows more than a few restaurants are extending the Winter Restaurant Week thing through the end of January. Unfortunately, B9 isn't one of them, so next week I'll just go to one of the others. I've narrowed it down to

• Oya , a chi-chi Mediterranean in Downtown (DCRW prices until January 31), and
  
• Farrah Olivia in Alexandria (dinner offered the same dates as Oya, though the $20.08 prix fixe lunch is available for the entire year).
  

BTW: Farrah Olivia is the restaurant run by Ivorian former Next Iron Chef also-ran Morou Outtara, who combines American, African (specifically West African) and French cuisines. I've been drooling to try chef Outtara's foods. But since Farrah Olivia offers its prix fixe lunch year round, I think I'll go to Oya, which does not.

As for y'all, try to make it down there this week if you can. If not, there are other options.

Eight Wannabe Iron Chefs and a Gourmet Next Door Walk Into a Bar...

I caught the last ten minutes of Amy "Winner of Next Food Network Star #3" Finley's series premiere today. Yes, I have only seen 1/3 of her show Gourmet Next Door, and yes, she's just starting out. But I hate to admit: it was kinda dull. Maybe I wouldn't be able to do any better. But I found myself reaching over to my Playstation 2 (which doubles as my DVD player) and finishing up an ep of Six Feet Under. Have you seen this 6FU? I just discovered it. Very cool show. As for GND: hopefully it'll find its groove. 'Cuz it ain't found it yet.

As for right now, I'm trying to get through the Next Iron Chef. Not a bad show, but (as Dan pointed this out a little while ago) Alton is getting a bit irritating. He seems so, well, bitchy. That's the best way I can describe him. Bitchy and bullying. As for the contestants: nobody jumps out as sensational yet. But Chef Morou Outtara would be a nice addition. This guy, an Ivorian-American who now calls Bowie of all places home, mixes the spices and flavors of West Africa (a culinary region we just never hear about on Food TV) with techniques and flavors of France and the US. To be honest, with the region's burgeoning West African immigrant population I am not sure why we don't see more African restaurants in the US. I would love to see some Nigerian restaurants outside of DC! There is, at least, the Tam Tam Restaurant, this Senegalese place near the Senator that I've been meaning to try. But apart from that there's nothing I can think of in the Baltimore area.

So I may stick with Next Iron Chef. But even if I lose my interest in this program, at least I can check out the Amateur Gourmet's high-larious NIC blog at the Food Network website. While the show is on, I'll put it on my blogroll at least.

Festivals of Baltimore: Nigerian Festival

Just a reminder to get out this weekend and check out this year's Nigerian Festival, sponsored by the Nigerian Youth Association of Maryland. They've been holding the festival since 2001. I've only known about it these past two years, and I have been out of town both times!

So as I sit here, doing my own thing in sunny, sweltering Southern California, I am (this time) living vicariously through y'all. Go have some jollof rice and other great Nigerian food in Patterson Park this weekend. I hear it's free!

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.