Free burgers? Mmmm...

As we all now know, DEM RAVENS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!  (Ahem, sorry, felt the need to shout that).

To celebrate this, today only, January 21, Z Burger in White Marsh will be giving out free hamburgers (or would these be "Har-burgers"?) from 11 to 2.  As The Sun's Richard Gorelick mentions, they did this last week, too, after the Ravens' thrilling victory over the Broncos.  I actually found that one more exciting, though this one more satisfying.  He mentions that you had to say the magic words "Super Bowl" when ordering, so maybe you have to this time as well?  You can get either a regular or a purple bun.  Ah me.  RAVENSW000000000T!

Exit 31C: MD-43 East (White Marsh Blvd, to White Marsh)

Ah, White Marsh! Or Nottingham, if you go by what the post office says. Land of shopping, shopping and more shopping! Standard mall shopping, upscale shopping and IKEA shopping (and have you tried their cafeteria? I have. Even wrote about it a while back).

Exit 31C only exists in the inner loop, and it's one of those irritating left exits. And once you're there, you have to do some serious driving to get to anything other than half-foreclosed condos, past a Wal-Mart and a storage facility, past Route 1 (coming up next time), and on to White Marsh. First stop: White Marsh Plaza, your typical supermarket-anchored strip mall.

Driving around White Marsh Plaza, I found one mom & pop restaurant, the China Wok (map) next to Giant. They seem to be doing what a lot of Chinese places are doing these days - selling not just Chinese, but also Thai, Korean or (in this case) Japanese. It's worth a look, but I've had my fill of fast Chinese food for one month. So I headed to White Marsh Mall (map). And of course, I found lots and lots of junk, specifically in their food court - the enticingly named "Carousel", appropriate only due to its large carousel in the middle of the food court.

The two most viable dining options were, in fact, sit down places. Lin's China Buffet, with its 100 item buffet (I've had issues with 100 item buffets in my life) was massive but had more employees inside than customers. So no. The other was that old reliable standby known as Friendly's, which I've eaten at many times, though never at the one in White Marsh. I passed it up for other options.

I headed out to the Avenue at White Marsh (map), which has mostly national chains and outlets (Don Pablo's, Starbucks, Chili's, Omaha Steaks - which isn't an eat-in place, and opening soon, a Cold Stone Creamery) and some I have written about before (Kobe Grill, Red Brick). But a few places I did consider:

• The Bayou Café, one and only one location - the Avenue. Packed for lunch on this beautiful day. They look like a bar and grill, and serve what seems like a combo of Chesapeake, Cajun and barbeque. Some interesting items on their menu, which will probably draw me there soon enough, include their Cajun blackened scallops ($10 - I love scallops), their po'boy ($9. It's a sandwich I haven't had this close to the Mason-Dixon Line for a good while - and don't go to Popeye's if they say they've got one), and their "Avenue Alligator" ($9) which features - yes - alligator, wrapped in bacon and done up in a mango barbeque sauce.
• Della Rose's, which has two locations - White Marsh and Canton, their original location which has been around since 1944. When I first saw the place, I naturally assumed (from the name) that it served Italian food, but they do serve more - a combination of Italian, Maryland, and American comfort food. More interesting menu items include their Caesar Bruschetta Salad, chicken parmigiana with spaghetti, Cuban burger, and various menu items tapping into the wonders of the Chesapeake Bay, including the standard Maryland Crab Soup, but also their Grilled Norfolk - Virginia ham and Chesapeake Bay blue crab (good LORD). I found these on the online menu, but alas, I saw no prices next to them.
  

And then there's Zack's Hot Dogs. I went to this last place for a small lunch. It's a compact but colorful hot dog joint with minimal seating - best to just do what I did, and take it outside to eat by the fountain. I've never seen so much variety in hot dogs, except at, say, Jerry D's in Parkville. Orange Julius doesn't even come close to that variety, nor does that hot dog place at Arundel Mills (the one with the lemonade). They also serve sausages and "not dogs" (subs, reubens and the like). Typical dogs (all around $3.50, $6 for a combo) include:

• New York Dog, covered in chili and NYC-style "street cart" onions;
• Chicago Dog (those Chicagoans love their hot dogs, don't they?), covered in chopped tomato and onion, with spicy mustard, relish, peppers and a pickle wedge on top (always difficult to eat, always tasty, wherever you go to get it;
• Southern Dog, basically a Carolina Dog, covered in cole slaw and chili;
• Southwestern Chipotle Dog - a sausage with salsa, jalapeño, cheddar cheese and chipotle mustard on it. That one sounds like a mess - I'm avoiding it;
• And here's a nice surprise: the Baltimore Dog! I thought it would be something silly, like a hot dog topped with crab or something. (I love hot dogs, I love crab. Still, ick.) But no: it's a kosher dog wrapped in a piece of fried bologna. My mother made this for me every time we went to Attman's for kosher dogs, bologna and whitefish. I don't know why she did that, but I guess it is a Baltimore thing after all!

Despite the allure of a hometown hot dog, I stuck with the Southern Dog. But I will go back at some point for the Baltimore Dog. I ordered the combo, with fries (can also get cole slaw, potato or pasta salad, mac and cheese, or beanies and weenies) and a 20 oz drink for $6.

The Southern Dog Combo ($6 exactly, before tax that is), with curly fries and a Diet Pepsi

I liked the hot dog, including the roll, which seemed like a moist and tasty potato roll. The cole slaw is crunchy and better than I had expected it to be, while the chili is pretty standard. The fries were a throw away item, even after I smothered them in Old Bay and various other spices lined up along their wall. I would certainly go back, but probably just for the hot dogs. I love those frankfurter sandwiches.

Other photos:

Okay, I know it's a buyer's market. Oh hey, is Giant for sale?

I really don't know how to follow that one.

Ummm, hello?

You just know they're heading for that last copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Mmmm. MSG and hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup an other preservatives.

Places I visited:

Friendly's (over 500 locations in sixteen states up and down the Eastern seaboard - not on this trip but many times in the past. I don't eat there much anymore.) - White Marsh Mall, 8200 Perry Hall Blvd., White Marsh, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 931-7216

• Would I eat there again? If I had to
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? No

Zack's Hot Dogs (hot dogs - four locations in the Baltimore area, including Carney, Bel Air and the Inner Harbor) - The Avenue at White Marsh, 8137 Honeygo Blvd. (next to the movie theater), White Marsh, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 931-1234

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

Places to look up later:

Bayou Café / Blues Bar (Cajun / Chesapeake / American) - The Avenue at White Marsh, 8133 #A Honeygo Blvd., White Marsh, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 931-2583

China Wok (Chinese / Japanese) - 7916 Honeygo Blvd., Nottingham, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 931-3586

Della Rose's (Italian / American / Chesapeake - with two locations in the Baltimore area) - The Avenue at White Marsh, 8153 #A, Honeygo Blvd., White Marsh, MD 21236; Phone: 410-933-8861

Lin's China Buffet (Chinese / Japanese) - White Marsh Mall, 8200 Perry Hall Blvd., White Marsh, MD 21236; Phone: (410) 933-8878

Red Brick Station

Dang, I spent so much money this weekend on furniture for the new place - furniture that isn't falling apart, that is. Even so I lowballed it. I went to IKEA and found a pretty inexpensive table and chairs set for $260 Lovely, black and glass, with black metal chairs with wicker seats. But even $260 is more than I want to spend.

Before that, I got good and filled up at White Marsh Town Center. Wasn't in the mood for Japanese.* Nope, not Mexican.* Or Italian. I was in the mood for burgers and my sister suggested the Red Brick Station. She and my brother-in-law just love the place. They have - some lovely microbrews of all kinds: ales, stouts, ambers, the whole schlemiel. They even have a sampler of their best microbrews - 28 oz. total of seven different beers (you do the math)!

As we are wont to do, Cathy and I over-ordered. After a hearty helping of crab dip with crusty bread I got a delicious bison burger with bacon and Swiss ($11). Granted, the bison-ness wasn't remarkable - I've had better bison. This tasted like beef, but it was a tasty burger anyway. Cathy is trying to eat vegetarian and fish more often. I forget what she had - some kind of fish dish. I had a little taste and it was good. But I was too wrapped up in my burger to notice.

Well, the burger and the beer.

I got this delicious, almost chocolatey stout (about $4.50). My sister recommended it because her husband loves this stuff. Now I do too! It was only 4.5% alcohol. It also came in their sampler ($4.50 as well). Their beers were a mixed bag, but nothing bad in the bunch, and a few stand-outs. There were some excellent ones, particularly their stouts (the 4.5% and 10%; the former was better-tasting). Also good were their Avenue Ale, which was nice and spicy to me, with a lovely aroma, and their Honeygo Lite, which was, well, meady.

I am so ready for a beer tasting! That would be more my thing than some little old wine tasting.

The total cost was about $50. We left a $10 tip. Well, Cathy did. She was paying me back for some Indian food I paid for the other day. Although now that I think about it, she put in a little for that, too.

The question now is, can I afford to pay her back after all that I spent at IKEA? Oh well, she makes more than I do anyway :)

* Link comes with annoying, irritating, computer-slowing extraneous stuff.

Kobe Steak House

I went with my sister and her husband - in town from Augusta because he is off for the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend - to White Marsh for dinner last night. She and I wanted sushi; he wanted steak. So instead of Chiu's, Minato or even the much-lauded Matsuri on S. Charles, we went to Kobe Steak House in White Marsh . This place has those fun and flashy "teppanyaki" shows, where several parties (who usually do not know each other) sit around three sides of a table with a large cooking surface in the middle of it, and a chef comes by to cook everyone's food with a lot of flash and flair. I ate at one of these when I visited my cousin in Augusta in 2003, so I kind of knew what to expect.

When we showed up, there was a party of what seemed like twenty in front of us, but we only had three, so we more easily seated. And there weren't lots of people there - you didn't have to wait long, unless, maybe, you had twenty people in your party! We were seated at a table with two other people. This would multiply into three or four more parties.

A few notes about dinner:

1) It's not cheap. One appetizer plus a drink and entrée can run you $30 to $40, depending on what you order. My portion of the meal managed to come in at about $25, counting tip.

2) Expect an interactive show, even if you ordered nothing that was cooked in front of you. Everyone at the table got hibachi'd steak, lobster and shrimp except for me. I wasn't being a stick-in-the-mud; I just came for sushi!

3) As for the sushi and sashimi: an $8 sashimi appetizer plate gives you six pieces of fish. Chiu's sashimi appetizer is easily twice as big for just a few bucks more.

4) The service was, on the whole, pretty good. Being a klutz, I (of course) knocked over my little carafe of sake all over the floor. One of the busboys looked at me and smirked (I called him an asshole under my breath). But the busboy that was with him immediately came to help me out, and I thanked him even as I tried to overcome my embarrassment. Then our waitress came and not only cleaned up the mess but offered me a new napkin and set of chopsticks (not a bizarre thing), and brought me out a new sake free of charge (now that's cool)!

5) Oh, sake is about $8 for a large carafe. A small one is, probably, $5. They don't put the prices for alcoholic drinks on their menu. I think we lucked out because they forgot to put our drinks on our bill. Don't expect them to do that. I feel like I should go back and pay for it now...

6) The food was very good. My sister had hibachi shrimp and my brother-in-law had the hibachi steak and lobster. The steak was cubed, much like at Saigon Remembered, but of course with a different set of flavorings. And most people at the table had lots of fried rice and veggies (one woman had veggies cooked separately). My sister and I also ordered the sashimi appetizer (again, skimpy, but tasty), and instead of hibachi-style food I opted for more sushi and sashimi. I got their French roll - a tempura shrimp in a large sushi roll - which was tasty but which easily fell apart. And I also got a small tempura shrimp plate, which I meant as an appetizer for all of us, but I wound up eating most of it. Oh, just to let you know, even though the appetizers aren't that large (but really, are they supposed to be?), the entrées are a lot of food! My sister and her husband had to take home a doggie bag!

7) The show was also quite good. The chef put on a show for us, as is customary in many of these teppanyaki restaurants. He played around with the egg, flipped utensils in the air, and even threw little pieces of shrimp at each of us at the table, trying to land it in our mouths! Very fun, and it's so fun to see your food - or even someone else's food - being cooked right in front of you.

8) On a different note: I found a hair on my plate, but I'm pretty sure now it was mine. So don't let that deter you.

9) And lastly, nobody even needed to ask for take-out containers. It's not that they weren't needed - they desperately were! But our waitress came out with a stack of them before anybody even had to ask! Now that's some excellent service.