Food Truck Fight!!!!!

At first I didn't think I would make it to A Taste of Two Cities, the Baltimore-Washington food truck rally at Westport Waterfront.  I was able to get there right at the start of it, and was a little surprised (only a little) to see so many people there already!

With the large circle of trucks from Baltimore and Washington (almost complete list of competitorshere) I had to pace myself accordingly, deciding to hit up an equal number of food trucks from each area.  I started with entrées, then appetizers and finally dessert.

My first choice was DC's El Floridiano (Twitter: @ElFloridianoDC), which proudly announces that it is the only solar powered food truck on the East Coast.  El Floridiano, obviously, is bringing some Miami heat (not that Miami Heat) to the Nation's Capitol.  And on Saturday they brought some to Westport too.  I got the small version of their Pan de Lechón ($4): juicy pork on a roll with a creamy spicy sauce.  El Floridiano also has a little tent covering a table of other hot sauces for all your heat needs.

Next it was food from the hometown.  I followed up my pan de lechón with sushi.  Noodlerolla (Twitter: @noodlerolla) has Japanese and Korean favorites, from bibimbap to miso soup to several types of maki rolls.  I got their simple, fresh and juicy salmon avocado roll for all of five bucks.  The little packet of soy sauce decided to explode all over me, but that's not the food truck's fault.

Quite full already and worrying that I would not get the chance to try anything else. I got something to drink instead.  I chose a Maine Root Soda from the Red Hook Lobster Pound Truck (Twitter: @RedHookLobsterTruckDC).  I've eaten there before, getting the buttery Connecticut version of their wondrous lobster roll ($15 when I got it).  But due to lack of money, time and room in my belly - plus a desire to try as many new things as possible - I held off on the lobster.  They have a self-serve soda dispenser with various Maine Root Soda products.  I got the standard root berr, which is rich and tingly and has none of that weird "fountain drink funk".  One root beer was just $2.

Again it was Baltimore's turn.  I crossed the food truck pavilion and after deliberating over many Charm City food trucks peddling everything from South Carolina barbecue to chicken and waffles to grilled cheese to all of the Gypsy Queen's offerings (the eventual winner of the day's festivities), I finally made it over to Miss Shirley's (Twitter: @MissShirleys) which I have never visited before (honest, just haven't been able).  Among the many offerings on their menu was a seemingly simple dollop of mascarpone grits with bacon and tomato bits.  Probably this was my favorite thing to eat in a day where I enjoyed everything ate or drank.

To finish off, I had dessert.  There were many choices in this category as well, with lots of trucks peddling ice cream, cupcakes, even popcorn.  I decided to go for two cupcakes.  The first came from Curbside Cupcakes (Twitter: @CurbsideCupcake), DC's first mobile cupcake truck.  The variety from this gleaming pink truck included one that sounded particularly interesting: the H Street cupcake, a swirl of marble cake and marble-ized frosting for all of three bucks.  It was a soft cupcake with rich frosting that capped off a good morning of eating.

But this wasn't all: I had to make a stop at Icedgems Baking cupcake truck (Twitter: @IcedGemsBaking), a truck I visit when I can.  This time I chose their Jubilee cupcake, made in honor of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee: a yellow cupcake with raspberry jelly under the top, flecked throughout with bits of orange rind, and topped with a pink rosewater frosting.  I was too full to eat this at Westport, so I just took it with me in the hopes that I would have room for it soon.  I found some.

My final assessment of the Taste of Two Cities: I've only been to Baltimore's first food truck rally, which was, honestly, a mess: food ran out and people (read: me) stood in line for the better part of half an hour just find this out.  I'm sure these events have improved since then.  This food truck event is proof of that, as this was quite an orderly and well-organized event.  Granted, I got there early, but for me at least it went well.  And hopefully for all of our local and visiting food trucks the case was the same.  But I just couldn't tell who had the best food truck.  The only way to actually figure this out: have another one of these events.  In fact, they should probably do this a few times a year, alternating between either ends of the BW Parkway.  I mean, that's the only way we'll truly find out whose food trucks are better.  And if not, at least we get to eat at them more often.

The Great Food Truck Thing

In case you missed it, Dan Rodricks had a whole episode last week on his Midday Show on WYPR on the whole food truck phenomenon. Among others, he talked to Heather Shouse, author of Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels. Shouse goes all over the country to examine local food trucks and the local adaptations to them. For example, Portland, Oregon, has a whole section of town devoted just to food trucks! Rodricks also interviewed several local food truck entrepreneurs, including the good people who bring us the food trucks from Gypsy Queen Café, Iced Gems Baking, Creperie Breizh, and Kooper's Chowhound, as well as the former owner of Juana Burrito who now runs the food truck consulting business Mobile Food Products. The food truck trend is starting to really rocket here, as it has in DC too - surprisingly since DC has such arcane laws that regulate food trucks in such a way that they may not park unless they have a queue of people waiting for them (I found this out a few weeks ago on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU). It's a trend I hope we see continue to flourish in Baltimore in the future.

A few random bites: late March edition

In like a lion and out like a cold, wet lamb: that's March for you. Just a few items as we ease slowly into spring.

1) I recently boiled peanuts (you'll read about it in a few weeks). It's hard to find raw peanuts in this area, though you can find them at Giant. I have decided to try growing them myself. I've rented a second garden plot in the city, which I hope to start clearing this weekend. Most of it will be for straightforward vegetable and herb planting, while a section of it will be purely experimental. We are about as far north as one can go and still hope for some success in growing peanuts. Let's see how it goes.

2a) I spent this past weekend in Rehoboth with a large group of friends (Some of you are reading - thank you again for a fun weekend! I'm already looking forward to next year). I ate out at a few places. One place where the cupcake trend hopefully continues is the Cake Break on First Street. For $6 (each for $3) I got two fascinating cupcakes.


My favorite one was their Guinness cupcake: a cupcake with Guinness Stout baked into the batter, and topped with frosting infused with Bailey's Irish Cream. This was evil. Evil, I tell you. And so good. The other cupcake was their Rehoboth Beach cupcake which I must only describe as "adorable" (oh God, I hate myself for saying that). It was made to look like a crab crawling out of the surf onto the sand. The crab tasted good too.

2b) While the best food was that which my friends made (again, kudos on the gumbo, Jim & Ralf), the best restaurant food I had came on my way out of Reho. La Tonalteca (note: their website is less than impressive) is a southern Delaware franchise of Mexican restaurants that had some pretty good Mexican food, some of the best I have had this side of the Mississippi. I got one of many of their lunch specials, an enchiladas poblanas, two enchiladas covered in mole poblano.


Everything about the enchiladas was delicious - these were no warmed over sorry excuses for enchiladas. As for the rice and beans: even in California, it is rare for me to find rice and beans that are worth eating, much less finishing. The rice was fluffy and soft and the beans were smooth, and neither was too salty. This may be a go-to stop on my way out of Rehoboth the next time I head down, especially at $6 for the whole thing.

3) A few weeks ago I saw the cleverly named Naanwich from Sukhi's, at Whole Foods. The one I got was a simple helping of tandoori chicken inside a folded-over piece of naan bread. While I wouldn't buy this all the time, it is convenient and tasty, the chicken soft and flavorful enough to not be a waste of time, and the naan pleasantly soft and chewy.


4) And finally, this from Churchville, Harford County:


And remember: Haste makes Waste Waist... get bigger!

Oh What a Cake!

I stopped by Oh What a Cake today after work. This cake catering business in Columbia also has ready-to-buy cupcakes, which is what I was hoping for. The best part is the price: many of them are just a dollar, and the really fancy ones are $1.25 (like their red velvet cupcake). I got three of their dollar cupcakes - chocolate with vanilla buttercream, yellow (butter?) cake with lemon frosting, and "butter with buttercream frosting". This last one was my favorite and I ate it in the car on the way to my next destination. The others were also delicious, and all three are soft, sugary and simple. Very good cupcakes. I'll have to go back again soon.

Cupcakes!

I just have to give another shout out to Graul's, who makes some of the moistest cupcakes I have eaten in ages. My current favorite: their yellow cake cupcake with orange icing. And I'm not even a big fan of fruit-flavored icings! Now if I could only get out of Graul's without stuffing my face with free samples...

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.

Graul's Cupcakes

While the rest of Baltimore's foodie world was enjoying the foodie stylings of Anthony Bourdain & Eric Ripert, I was singing my little diaphragm out with the Baltimore Men's Chorus (when we have some video up on YouTube I will post a link). Nothing inherently food-related about that. But I do have to comment on the substantial cupcakes we and our audience had during intermission. These were from Graul's, and they came in two versions, both in a yellow pound cake sort of cake: thick vanilla frosting which also tasted a little cream cheesy (whether there was cream cheese in it or not I don't know, but it was rich enough it might as well have been), and an equally rich chocolate fudge icing. I've rarely had edible cupcakes from a supermarket. That's Graul's for you!

Iced Gems Baking

I had the chance to go for a bison burger at the Kooper's Chowhound Burger Wagon yesterday at 222 Schilling Circle in Hunt Valley. As I found out on Twitter (it's showing itself to be such a useful tool), the Iced Gems Baking company was also going to have their cupcake truck nearby. I'm guessing the two got together to coordinate this, but if not it was a good bit of luck. After ordering my bison burger with spicy Cuban sauce and blue cheese ($8 today), I walked over to the cupcake truck and saw a small but nice variety of cupcakes ($2.50 each): peanut butter, red velvet, vanilla, chocolate and - get this - Vanilla² and Chocolate² (vanilla frosting on vanilla cupcake and chocolate frosting on chocolate cupcake, respectively). I thought I'd keep my first exposure to the self-described "boutique bakery" and its goodies to those Vanilla² and Chocolate² creations.

I am usually a bigger fan of vanilla than of chocolate, but you have to try their Chocolate² cupcake. The moist and tender cake part was so intensely chocolaty, much more than any chocolate cake I have ever eaten. The frosting on top was thick and rich, and had a relatively large, soft chocolate candy on top. It was a simple and perfect cupcake. The Vanilla² was also delicious, and I especially loved the white frosting crowning the delicate vanilla cake, though I was more impressed with the chocolate. I would still buy either.

One thing I've noticed with most cupcakes these days applies to Iced Gems' gems: you probably need a fork to eat them. It's too big for me to bite into unless I nibble here and there. It's not one of those cupcakes with a big ol' pile of frosting reaching higher than a hon with a beehive, but it's still tall. This is not a complaint so much as a practical observation for you to keep in mind when you are eating it.

The Internet Food Association hates those galldarned fancy cupcakes

I had no idea there even was a blog called the Internet Food Association, authored by people from all walks of the web-osphere (from educators to political pundits). It's kinda smart-assed. Funny enough that I'd sure hate to be a "faincy" cupcake caught in their crosshairs.

Mmmm. Cupcake.

Notes from the Field

A few things I've been up to this week:

• Apart from calibration, I'm not sure how my mother's bathroom scale says I'm five pounds heavier than my own.

• Went out with friends last night to Grano. I don't drink a lot of wine but the guys brought (Eric, refresh my memory here) a 2007 Languedoc that they were particularly impressed with. I had their lovely puttanesca sauce over linguine. In fact, I think we all ordered linguine, with different sauces. For dessert, I ordered the only one they had for the evening: coconut flan. The idea of picking nasty little bits of shredded coconut out of the flan did not thrill me, but I'm glad I took the waitress's advice. It was more coconut milk and less coconut flakes. Actually, I don't remember any coconut flakes. And the coconut was subtle. It was very good.

• Grano's second location is now open, by the way.

• I found out that the Hippo has Dogfish Head Pumkin Ale until it runs out. The Raison D'Extra is a more permanent fixture.
  

• Been making too many hot milk cakes lately. But I've noticed they take a good week and a half to two weeks to start "turning" so it's a nice, reliable cake.

• I finally found the Kooper's Chowhound Burger Wagon on Thursday, when it was at 1000 Hull Street, by the Tide Point complex. I need to check this neighborhood out more. I had no idea that the view of the Harbor was so lovely! That and there are a few restaurants that I need to check out in this part of South Baltimore, including but not limited to the Harvest Table (now serving brunch!) and the Whetstone Grill, also on Hull Street, with a dizzying variety of food, wine and beer options. But back to the temporary resident, the Chow Wagon. Their website claims it's the best burger in town. After ordering the Otis Burger ($8) - featuring sautéed mushrooms, red onions, Monterrey jack and cheddar cheeses with tomato, lettuce, all piled on a beef burger and sammiched inside a kaiser roll - well? I must say it really was a very good burger. It wasn't dried out at all. Don't expect it to be one of those monster burgers you get at Alonso's. You will probably be able to finish this one during lunch. I swore I would save half of it for later but I just kept on taking a bite, putting it down, and so on. The burger was well done and was a little juicy - not so much to make a mess, but just enough. It was such a nice day that I had to sit outside and enjoy the burger next to the harbor. Since I don't eat lunch out too often, I won't be seeking it out much. It'll be one of those occasional treats. One thing I should've done was ask if I could substitute one of the other three types of burger: turkey, vegetarian or - gasp! - bison! I don't get to eat a lot of bison, and I'm getting that the next time I hit them up.
  

Otis poses for the camera

• As if my lunch wasn't going to pack enough calories on, I also had to stop by the Baltimore Cupcake Company, since I was, y'know, in the neighborhood.
  

Fight Cancer with... Cupcakes!?!?

I saw this post about Cupcakes for a Cause on Adventures in Baltimore Restaurants. Stop in any participating bakery in the nation this week (October 20 through 26). A portion of each cupcake sold will benefit CancerCare for Kids. This isn't limited to Maryland - there are hundreds of bakeries taking part. Still, only one in Baltimore (that would be the Baltimore Cupcake Company), and three altogether in Maryland (CakeLove in Silver Spring and Couture Cupcakes in Potomac). In more ways than one, it's a good cause to buy cupcakes.