Post #1,000

As many of my fellow college seniors were fond of saying, "What a long, strange trip it's been." But that was ages ago, back in the mid-90's. Fast forward...

It was Tuesday, September 12, 2006, sometime late evening I think, that I first tipped my toe into the waters of the blogosphere by writing these words (corrected for spelling):

Welcome to the Charm City Snacker. This is just an informal, casual journal about some places I have eaten and whether or not I'd recommend them. Hopefully you'll be encouraged to try some new stuff, or be happy to see ones you have tried.

Hmmm, what next? Well, I'm fairly new to this blogging thing - I haven't even paid much attention to them, except that there seem to be very many on the web! So the next question to ask, therefore, is WHY throw my hat into the ring? Well, I thought about it for a while, and really didn't think there was a reason to start one. I finally decided one day, trying to decide on a place to eat for dinner, that I would write a food blog - hmmm, would this be a flog? No, that sounds stupid.

So that's what I'll be writing about. My name is John, and welcome to my culinary adventures in Charm City!

999 posts, one name change and countless "Hmmm's" later and I'm still going! I've scaled back for now, but that won't be forever - grad school is almost over so I'll have more time to do this in about 3 1/2 weeks. A few other statistics, since I'm on a roll:

• 657 restaurants, markets and festivals visited (or passed by) and blogged about at least once, in eight states (California, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and, of course, Maryland) plus the District of Columbia, and four countries (the UK, the Netherlands, Iceland and, of course, the USA)
  
• 62 recipes I have tried with varying degrees of success
  
• 170 videos linked from various sources, most of them not yet removed due to access violations
• 1,000 comments and counting
• about 1,100 photos and other illustrations posted at least once, not counting those linked from other websites
• My most favorite photo to repost over and over again? This one:

I've posted this one at least four times by my estimation. I'm not going to be catty today.

By some figures, close to 95% of all blogs fail, for various reasons - lack of passion, lack of time, or that it's just too damn monotonous. I admit: I got near to that point a few times, as I'm sure we all have. I don't remember if I did but I vaguely remember looking at another 1,000th post for ideas and inspiration - Adam Roberts (again, the Amateur Gourmet rears his bespectacled foodie head), who discussed the subject of how to start a food blog back in 2005. Adam pretty much has it all covered. I don't have any additional insights, but I will reiterate that you have to choose something you feel empassioned about to go back and write on the subject over and over.

Five of many things I am proud of in regards to this blog:

• All the people I have met over the past few years via this blog, most of them listed in the link list to the right (or left, if I've gone and changed the layout since first writing this). Since I am a spazz and will leave someone out, I am not going to list all y'all. I'll just thank you - you know who you are.
  
• The Beltway Snacking thing (again, link in the sidebar). A high school friend recently mentioned how impressed he was by all that work. I am damn proud of that.
• Taking part in the Great Tastes Baltimore food blogger panel (thanks Dara) was a lovely way to share some ideas with others, and eat some damn good food. Just watch out for that absinthe.
• The fact that it has motivated me to explore so many things that I might not have otherwise explored or done, from area festivals to recipes to miracle fruit (thanks for hosting that, Roopa) to brunching with fellow bloggers to live-blogging ridiculous reality cooking shows to meeting the alpha-food-blogger (?) Adam Roberts during a torrential downpour at the 2008 Baltimore Book Festival (I've made that spaghetti sauce at least four times, Adam. But I still say blue crab is tastier than Dungeness - as anyone raised by the Chesapeake would, no?).
  
• This blog has improved both my writing (and proof-reading) and my photo taking skills. I am professionally trained in neither, but I wrote and took some pretty nice posts and photos, I think.

I'm going to finish this millenial post with a little slide show. It's a video featuring every photo I have posted on this blog since Day 1. It goes a lot faster than you'd think. The toughest part was organizing the photos, but finding music wasn't so easy. I originally wanted to use U2's "Window in the Skies" because it's such a cool song, but the lyrics and that whole copyright thing got in the way. Instead, I use "Trance Taboo" composed by Rick Clarke of RickVanMan Productions, who creates music that he deliberately makes royalty free for the use of YouTubers in their videos. So thanks to Rick for the use of his song. And thanks to all my readers and all of you who got some good food recommendations from the other end of my computer keyboard. I could not have done this without you. That and a whole lot of time at the gym.

And of course, some video acknowledgements -

All photos of television programs are photos of the television screen taken by me. Photos of "Paula's Home Cooking." "Paula's Party" and "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" from the Food Network. Photos of "The Soup" from E! Entertainment Television. Photos of "Steakdar" commercial from Golden Corral. Graphic of "Write to Marry Day - No on Prop 8" from blog "Mombian: Sustenance for Lesbian Moms." Art photographed at Artscape 2007 attributed to the artists in the post "Artscape - in Haiku."

Song "Trance Taboo" created by Rick Clarke.
Credit:
Free Music from:
Music4YourVids.co.uk.

Anniversary Trip: Tapas Teatro

My very first restaurant review was for the hip and always-crowded Tapas Teatro, next to the Charles Theatre. During that review, I raved about tempura veggies:

A little bit about these veggies: the chefs take onions, eggplant and asparagus and fry it in what seems like a tempura-like batter. The chefs at Tapas Teatro then serve it up hot with a spicy, smooth mango-jalapeño salsa (actually, it's more like a jelly), with pieces of red pepper on the sides. The presentation on a square white plate is also gorgeous.

I'm gettin' all sweaty just thinkin' about it.

Since then I've been a few times, but I haven't been lately. So I decided to go this past weekend. There were some seats outside, but even more people waiting to be seated, so I figured I wasn't going to sit outside. I eventually ponied up to the bar and looked at the menu.

Maybe it's been a while, but some of the prices seem to have risen since the last time I went! Only by about a dollar or two, but it caught me by surprise. So I ordered the requisite Guinness (about $4) and decided on a meal. I got a little more than I usually do:

• lamb albóndigas (meatballs) in a tangy tomato sauce with cilantro (about $8)
  
• dried tomato on hearty bread slices, with a little tomato sauce underneath (about $4)
  

These were good tapas, with the beer coming to about $17 after tax. I left $20 and headed out for the next part of my night. I didn't go far. In fact, I went to the other side of the Charles. Sofi's Crepes offers crepes - just crepes, dinner crepes, dessert crepes, fancy veggie, cheese and meat crepes and simple crepes with butterscotch or chocolate. And they always serve them up hot. The best part is that you can create your own. Instead I took a pre-existing one and added to it. I wanted dessert and I wanted cheap. So I went for the simplest and cheapest dessert crepe I could find, their homemade butterscotch crepe. The kicker is that it's the butterscotch that's homemade. To this decadent crepe I added nutella for an extra buck. Total cost: $5, for a hot, steaming, fattening, wonderful crepe. I also got an iced tea. It wasn't remarkable - just your standard iced tea. I doubt people go to Sofi's for the tea anyway.

All in all, I'd say this was an extremely satisfying anniversary meal. I don't know why I had never gone into Sofi's Crepes after the Charles. Glad I did this time.

Top Ten Posts with Casey Kasem

Okay, no Casey Kasem. But I've combed through the past twelve months of posts and found about 80 that I really liked to go back and read over and over again, at least for a little while. I winnowed that list down to a final 10 - kind of like American Top 40, but with posts from this insignificant little blog. They are in chronological order (in other words, I was too damn lazy to decide which of these I liked the best):

1. One of my earliest reviews, about one of many trips to one of my favorite restaurants, hands down - the Helmand. (9/23/06)

2. Vanilla. Chocolate. Several pounds of butter, milk and powdered sugar. No, get your mind out of the gutter - it was just my all-night fudge-a-thon. (12/06/06)

3. More fudge, from Jolene Sugarbaker the Trailer Park Queen. My first exposure to La Jolene was her pinto bean fudge. (12/10/06)

4. A funny (to me at least), bitchy look back at one of my, er, less favorite eating experiences, the Grill Art Cafe. (01/06/07)

5. Spa-ghe-e-tti Toooowwwwnnn! (the original poster took down this YouTube gem, but it's now up on Comedy Central's website. Watch it before it's gone!!!) (02/23/07)

6. I must like Les Stroud, Survivorman, now in its second season. I suddenly have a hankerin' for campfire-roasted Kalahari scorpion. (04/26/07)

7. Okay, upon reflection it's not very good, but I still liked Cafe Hon enough (dissents noted). At least it's better than Grill Art. Which doesn't say a lot. (05/06/07)

8. Any readers who haven't been here yet? This is Baltimore. This is madness! This...Is...HONFEST!!!!! (say that like Gerard Butler in 300) (06/10/07)

9. My own reflections on the blogger-induced whinings of one onion-skinned Mario Batali. (06/28/07)

10.
Artscape in haiku -
Because Artscape moved me, man.
Read it for yourself.
(07/25/07)

Baltimore Snacker is One Year Old!!!

It was one year ago today, September 12, 2006 at 11:03 PM, that I sat down in front of my computer to start my first blog, the Charm City Snacker, later changed to the Baltimore Snacker (it does roll off the tongue more easily, and it's easier to type, too). And the blog has come quite a long way from this wee introduction:

Welcome to the Charm City Snacker. This is just an informal, casual journal about some places I have eaten and whether or not I'd recommend them. Hopefully you'll be encouraged to try some new stuff, or be happy to see ones you have tried.

Hmmm, what next? Well, I'm fairly new to this blogging thing - I haven't even paid much attentino [sic] to them, except that there seem to be very many on the web! So the next question to ask, therefore, is WHY throw my hat into the ring? Well, I thoguht [sic] about it for a while, and really didn't think there was a reason to start one. I finally decided one day, trying to decide on a place to eat for dinner, that I would write a food blog - hmmm, would this be a flog? No, that sounds stupid.

So that's what I'll be writing about. My name is John, and welcome to my culinary adventures in Charm City!

Since then, I've made 450 posts (including this one), containing 227 restaurant / take-out stand and festival reviews, 42 videos, 17 recipes and one "blog event." It's interesting that I've been able to keep it going so long, considering so many blogs die out over a few months (so notes Nate Whitehall). I even had one die out, a photo blog rendered totally obsolete by Flickr and a lack of interest.

I have to say that I put down some pretty teacherly "classroom rules" (so to speak) at the beginning. Thankfully, I've thrown some of them out the window - No "non-foodie" comments? Oy! I'm glad I got rid of that one. I won't meet anyone? Same (what a strange thing to say), though to be fair, I had no idea if there were any weirdos out in the blogosphere. I was trying to avoid that. And no, while I haven't met any of you guys yet, I am sure I will at some point.

I get sentimental easily, which is when I need some sense smacked back into me. But just to warn y'all: I will be posting some special "birthday posts" over the next few days - some favorite posts, visits to early places I visited, things like that.

Until that comes, I want to thank everybody who has stopped by, and especially everybody who has commented all over the country and back. I hope you're enjoying things. There's more to come!