What will he do next???

Look here on Tuesday for some news about what I'm doing next with The Baltimore Snacker!  I've live-blogged about food competition shows, driven around 695 in search of local food, sought out area festivals, and learned about the foods of America and various cultures right in mah own kitchen, hon.  Hmmm, what'll he think of next?

In the meantime, look for a State-by-State post tomorrow about that most American of foods, Chinese take out (I'm serious: that stuff does not exist in China).  To tide you all over, here's a Sandra Lee classic: another cocktail, this time, um...mango lassi???

Another brief break...

Just a head's up, y'all: I'll be taking a short break from the state-by-state posts, and the blog in general, for about two weeks to help my mother recover from surgery.  She'll be fine, but needs some extra attention right now.  Tennessee posts will be up on a Sunday in early to mid September, and Texas posts will follow. In the meantime, I will be running some favorite posts from the past once every few days, and I'm hoping to get a Baltimore Restaurant Week post up in early August.

Brilliant stuff you had! Great!

The title of this post is the most recent moderated comment that I received from some online academic paper writing website (if you don't know my opinions of the proprietors of those sites: they deserve the wrath of a thousand infernos.  Okay, maybe just a hundred).

Do spammers REALLY think I'm so dumb or desperate for comments that I will deliberately publish de-contextualized comments that lead to spam sites?  I'm not, though the brazenness is actually becoming amusing.

In Memoriam

My father passed away quietly this morning, after being disconnected from life support yesterday afternoon.  He is now resting peacefully.

The blog is going dark for a month (okay, not literally - I just won't be posting anymore this month).  I will resume posting in December.  Thanks for your support as my family goes through this difficult time.

Thank you, Baltimore Magazine!!!

Baltimore Magazine has named this blog one of the top ten blogs of the year! In their own words...

The Baltimore Snacker: Not just recipes, but reports on local markets, road-trip food, and videos—some food related, some not—all presented with a heaping helping of spot-on humor. [Baltimore Magazine 2011]

I'm smiling here :) But as I tweeted and emailed before, I want to extend sincere apologies to the intern who emailed me and tried to get some info about the blog, but didn't because I was lazy and hadn't checked my messages until after the deadline. Egg on my face here.

But back to Baltimore Magazine: thank you again. This means very much after a difficult year that saw me shut it all down for a few weeks, only then to get a similar compliment from the City Paper (note the headline currently at the top of the page) and then for me to start a whole new project (look for posts about Louisiana this week and next), and try to restart another (yes, gas prices helped bring the Back to the Beltway series to a halt).

I am, as always, humbly touched that I have fans, even more that they like the blog!

In the pipeline...

Of course, blogging has been light due to the recent family emergency. However, some things are indeed in the works:

* Find out in a few weeks why I went all the way to Starbucks just to get a straw. And how this relates to the sheer overload of mint I have in my garden.

* Gas prices have finally gotten below $3.50. Hanover, Elkridge and Linthicum await my next trip Back to the Beltway.

* They sell alligator meat at Lexington Market, don't they?

* With Dad in the hospital, it's time to examine another local hospital's cafeteria and its food offerings: cheap for what you are getting, but worth that equally cheap price.

Updates...

Blogging has, of course, been sparse of late. My father is in the hospital again, stable but he may be there for a while until he gets better. For now posting will be light, except for some auto-posts from the "State-by-State" series that are in the pipeline.

Blogger Down

Please be patient with this and all other Blogger blogs right now. As many of you know Blogger was down for a good chunk of time over the last few days. I've been spending today fixing up the mess leftover from that escapade, recreating a blog post or two (rrrrrrrrrrrr), even contemplating a move to WordPress (I didn't like how it reformatted every single left or right justified photo). But things should be more or less back to where they're supposed to be. Until the next crash. Rrrrrrrrrrrr.

He's BAAAAAAAAAAACK...

The sabbatical is over! It's going to be strangely difficult to get the juices flowing again. So why not just start with a few random, food-related observations that I have had over the last two months:

1) One actually hits oneself in the head when one goes on sabbatical just before the Baltimore City Paper informs one of one's blog's "Best of Baltimore" status. But one still feels very groovy.

2) When you spend four years writing a food blog and then suddenly stop, you start feeling the need to just start writing about your recipes and restaurant visits, only to remember that you're not writing it right now.

3) Drinking more water before you drink soda (which is not something you ought to be drinking anyway) really does cut down your overall desire to drink the caffeinated stuff. I'm drinking less soda now, which is always good.

4) Dad spent a weekend a few months ago in St. Joseph's Medical Center. They don't have many patients (I guess they all went next door to GBMC). In fact, they don't have many of anyone - doctors, nurses, patients or visitors. It's like one of those abandoned hospitals in the Silent Hill game series, only without the monsters and gore on the walls.

4a) I mention St. Joseph's because they do something I've never seen a hospital do: room service for visitors! Yes, you too can order stuff off the menu to eat right alongside dear old Dad, Uncle Bob or Mee-Maw, anything at all for just $5. Even more surprising: it's actually not half-bad. For hospital food, it's quite good. For hospital food.

4b) You do not, however, want to eat the food at your local hospice care facility. Nasty as sin. They want these people to actually eat, right?

5) Graul's Market actually sells bags of pre-baked Maryland Beaten Biscuits! Maybe it's just my bag, but they taste a wee bit freezer-burnt. Must make my own.

6) Over the last few months, my sister tried to put my niece, who has autism, on a gluten-free diet. It didn't work very well, but one plus came out of it: my notoriously picky eater of a niece actually started eating new and different foods. Note that she did not finish all of them. I picked up some gluten-free cupcakes from the Sweet Sin Bakery. Their cupcakes are lovely. I like them a lot and plan to get more for myself. None for my niece, however. You should have seen the face she made when she bit into her gluten-free chocolate cupcake: anticipatory, then immediately plummeting into equal parts confused and none-too-pleased. I felt bad. Oh well. More for me.

7) Marie Louise Bistro has been getting better every time I visit. But remember: if you order their crème brûlée, just keep in mind that it isn't actual crème brûlée.

8) Look what I just made!


Plus, I made a lobster roll for the first time, from a lobster I steamed just a little while before. I was tempted to use my wasabi mayonnaise, but I wanted to do my first one "authentically", the way they do up in New England.

9) My gardening has gotten more adventurous, and next year I am planning to take up a second plot! Some of my successes this year: lettuce galore, lots of Roma tomatoes (grown from seed - so proud of that), chilies out the wazoo, potatoes, kale greens, herbs (basil, rue, sage, rosemary, cilantro that bolted, and more oregano and mint than I will ever be able to use). Failures: garlic, strawberries (a total of four edible berries, and right over an ant nest too), and cauliflower. Don't ask me about it.

10) My friend Eric has fallen in love with the New York Times recipe section. Loved a lamb in parchment recipe he made for a few of us recently. But I will still needle him for not reading ahead to where it said the lamb must stay in the oven for 2 1/2 hours. (Not going to discuss that one time that I did the same thing...)

11) The next time you go to see a friend in a play, make sure you reserve tickets ahead of time.

12) Recent food finds that have become an even more important part of my culinary landscape: the nut-free brownies at Graul's; home-strained, Greekified yogurt; the English Rose and Key Lime flavored cupcakes from Iced Gems Baking; just about anything at the Haute Dog Carte; and at least one beer from each brewery that came to the Wine Source for Baltimore Beer Week 2010.

That is it for now. Over the next week or so I am rolling out my return to the Beltway Snacking series. And stay tuned for a brand new long-term project.

Let Snacking Commence...

Oh God, it's baaaaaack!!!

My brain is well-rested, my kitchen has been busy as always, and things have (relatively) calmed down. I'm bringing back the blog, as silly, tasty and edumuhcational as ever. Look for the first new original post in a while around the first weekend of November...

(Still on Hiatus, but...) The City Paper likes me, it really likes me!

Yes, I'm still on a very necessary sabbatical. But I just found out today (thanks, Brett) that the City Paper really seems to like this blog. From their website:

Most food blogs just annoy us—we already know how awesome bacon is, thanks. The Baltimore Snacker appears to have concocted a good recipe for not only not annoying us, but for keeping us clicking back. It goes something like this: one part personable, never-precious reviews of local restaurants and other places that have food; one part links to interesting food news and think pieces from all over, usually with his own even-handed yet drily witty two cents folded in; the occasional recipe that seems designed to share a (hopefully tasty) experiment, not to audition for Top Chef or Man vs. Food; and random personal (but not too personal) posts and funny bits that don’t test our patience. We are entertained, we learn stuff, and we don’t want to smack him. Winner.

It's difficult to be witty here. I'm welling up. Thank you, City Paper. I am unbelievably flattered :)

What a time to go on sabbatical, huh?

And now for a brief snack...

Ladies and gentlemen, I have decided to take a hiatus from the blog. Posting has been extremely light as of late, and to be honest my heart just isn't in it right now. There are lots of things going on with the family and with work - both what I have and what I'm trying to get - that just have to be my first priority.

I will still be checking comments for the time being. I'm not sure how long this is going to last, but I want to be able to come back to The Baltimore Snacker with the same excitement and enthusiasm that I did four years ago today. I still anticipate the blog being around for its fifth blogiversary, but for now both it and I need a break. In the meantime, thanks to all y'all for reading (especially keeping the sorghum thread alive and, ahem, popping). When I'm ready to fire up the blog again, I'll let you know on Twitter and Facebook. But for now, the pots and pans are being put to rest.

It's TBS' Fourth Blogiversary

Yes, this blog started four years ago today. The blog has had its ups and downs as of late. Life has happened, and I've been having less time to devote to it, as my readership can see.

I went out last night with friends. I wasn't doing it to celebrate the blog's birthday, but I guess it counts anyway. Eric, Alan, Jim, Ralph and I to Rub in South Baltimore. There we enjoyed various meat plates. Mine was the delicious combination of smoked turkey (seriously, turkey usually bores me but not this juicy and beautifully-flavored bird) and ribs (which are still beckoning to me in my fridge). The sweet potato fries are among the best of its kind in the area, and the Texas corn pudding is among the only of its kind in the area. For drinks, Ralph and I each got one of the Rub beers on tap. I can't place the name, but it was one of the darker beers (not the stout), and it was not good. But the waiter generously replaced them with a Blue Moon and a Rub IPA respectively. Everybody else got wine. We all also shared some fried okra that was tasty and tender yet still a wee bit slimy, as okra tends to be.

We had hoped to take ourselves to the Rowan Tree afterwards, but with no parking anywhere near the bar, that wasn't an option. Looks like they're not hurting for our business.

Note about posting

Posting will be sparse over the next week or so, due to non-food things on my plate. I hope to resume soon with some posts about the delicious food I found in Rehoboth, my World Cup final meal, and the still-impending revisit to the Beltway Snacking series.

Disembodied comment!

I recently got a comment asking about a local snack food that sounded in description like the "coddie" - the little codfish cake that is sometimes eaten between or on crackers with mustard. I myself hate the damn things but many Baltimoreans love them. Not sure where the comment is but I don't see it with any recent posts. Please let me know which post you're commenting to, folks, unless it's one of the newer ones! Otherwise I will never find it :(

Photo Issues

I have a few posts entering the pipeline, but Blogger issues prevent me from adding any photos! So I'm waiting for now until i can add them. If it takes too long I;ll just post without the photos, and add them later.

The Baltimore Snacker is, yes, now on Facebook

This blog now has a Facebook fan page!

I feel as if I'm now in league with the devil. But no, it's Facebook. Those of you who are much more familiar with Facebook may have to talk me through this. I am good with tech but when it comes to this I am an absolute Luddite. I will be joining the Baltimore Food Bloggers page when I figure out how to!

A Blue Christmas Message

The blog is going dark for a few days. My sister's dog has passed after 12 1/2 years of eating, running, playing in the snow and smelling the cat's behind. Rudy was my sister's dog, but the whole family loved him. I'll miss giving him the occasional piece of bacon whenever I was visiting in the morning, and I will miss shooing him away from the cat when he was feeling a little too friendly. He lived a very long life for a dog, and was surrounded by loving faces when he went. It's comforting to think that he's not gone - he's just everywhere. Rest in peace, big dog.

Comments are now pop-ups!

So if anybody has any technical difficulties leaving comments because they're not in pop-up box format, let me know. I can change it back. I'm easy like that.

PS - I just realized: you can't let me know by comment, now can you? If it doesn't work, then let me know by email, which is linked to in the "About Me" section, posted on the right hand side of the page near the bottom.

Blogging will be back up soon...

If you've been paying attention to the Twitter feed in the sidebar, y'all know I've been having a very rough weekend. A grand on a new catalytic converter, followed by a major engine malfunction (why does it pour when it rains?) that will cost more money than I have. But I will be posting again soon. Thanks, Cathy, for helping me out. I will be careful, I promise.