Baltimore Restaurant Week: The Wine Market

The winter version of Baltimore Restaurant Week is almost over once again (though several restaurants, including the one below, have extended it for a week!  Check with them for details).  And it's been a while since I've had the pleasure of doing a Restaurant Week post.  So after my meal last night at the Wine Market in Locust Point, I figured I'd hunker down and write one more Restaurant Week post.

The Wine Market is one of those restaurants that I've wanted to go to but just haven't gotten around to going to yet.  My attention often gets diverted to the Harris Teeter when I'm in the McHenry Row area.  I finally got the chance to head in last night, walking through the gauntlet of wines and beers that you can buy and bring in with you.  I got a Loose Cannon ($5) at the bar while waiting for my friends to show, and then joined them at the table when they got there, ready to see what we could get for $30.13 each.

Alan and Eric splurged on a nice red wine that Eric got in the wine store.  I had a sip, and learned how to swirl the stuff around in preparation for sniffing it.  I'm not a wine person, but even with the various tastings I've been to, I've never done this.  It really does change things!

So, unlike our usual practice of each ordering something different and trying the things we have on each others' plates, we pretty much opted for very similar meals.  A few of us ordered the oyster first course.

These were the cornmeal fried oysters in a bacon beurre blanc (normally $10).  Just four juicy, tender oysters in a wonderful crispy breading.  Not much else to say about it.  I was satisfied.

For the second course, we all ordered the Grilled Piedmont steak (locally raised in Maryland, normally $27).  I rarely get steak, so this was a rare treat for me.  I ordered it medium rare, and got treated to a juicy thick (read: thick) steak.  This came with a sprinkle of Brussel sprouts, mushrooms and a sizable slab of root veggie gratin to round it all out.  I couldn't place the vegetables in the gratin, but it tasted fine nonetheless.

For our final course, we once more all ordered the same thing: a pumpkin crème brulée (not sure of the regular price).  I love me some crème brulée and this one was nice, though not the most memorable one I've ever had.  It had a pretty mild pumpkin flavor along with that nice sweet crunchy burnt sugar top.  Still, a lovely little dessert that I would probably order again.

Overall this was a good Restaurant Week experience.  Again, the Wine Market is extending their Restaurant Week menu through to February 10 (hopefully celebrating a possible Ravens win in the Super Bowl maybe??? I'll say no more: I do not want to jinx this).  Make sure you stop by there this week for more delicious food either for lunch or dinner.

Flashback: How to Pack Beer and Wine into Your Luggage (originally published 6/3/09)

State posts start back up next Sunday, Labor Day weekend.  Many people will be traveling and wanting to bring back beer and wine.  True, Maryland's interstate-shipping-of-wine laws are finally changing for the better (slowly), but you still can't really mail yourself beer or wine.  Legally, anyway.  To wit: a primer on what you need to do to smuggle it into the luggage that the folks on the tarmac will almost certainly hurl into the plane as hard as they can.

Also note: since this post, Fat Tire as well as all of New Belgium's beers are now available throughout Maryland, Virginia and the District.  So if you're flying from California or Colorado, please don't bother to pack that Hoptober.  Not sure if Joseph Filippi Wineries out of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, has a Maryland wine shipping license yet.

- - - - -

How to Pack Beer and Wine into Your Luggage (originally published June 3, 2009)



Yesterday was my day to reminisce around the Inland Empire and stock up on groceries that I cannot find Back East. I am surprised that I only spent $14 at the Fresh and Easy on supplies to take back home. I also went to BevMo, the local big box store for beer, wine and liquor, to pick up a 12-pack of Fat Tire Beer. Again, this is the good stuff that we can't get in Maryland or almost anywhere east of the Mississippi River (they sell it in Tennessee, and maybe now North Carolina, but I'm not hedging my bets on that).

If I lived in most other states, this would not be a problem, and I could just ship it back home. But we live in a state with such blaring blue laws that we are not even allowed to mail alcoholic beverages to our own houses. They can also sell alcohol in their supermarkets outside the Old Line State, people. On Sundays. Everywhere. It's true, people.

So my real challenge was to find some way to fit all this beer, along with the two bottles of wine from Rancho Cucamonga's Joseph Filippi Winery, into my luggage while at the same time:

1. making sure they don't break; and
2. making sure they don't push the total weight of the luggage above 50 lbs.

After doing some quick research on the internet, I found some good tips from people who transport or have transported a lot of beer and wine through their luggage. The most common tips I found suggested the following for a case of beer: wrap each bottle in a sock (and/or bubble wrap), and then zip it up in a Ziploc bag. Make sure the beers are all packed as close to the center of your luggage as possible. It's similar for wine: wrap each bottle in a towel and/or bubble wrap, and then wrap it all in a plastic bag. If you have a big enough Ziploc bag, put it in there.

Since I couldn't really use other people's socks, I had to buy some. This required a trip to the local 99¢ Only (a big and increasingly popular chain in California and much of the Southwest), where I bought two packages of ankle biters for a grand total of $1 each. Add to that a box of 12 Ziploc bags for $1 and two dish towels for $1 each, and I was ready to do my packing (NB: I also found Cadbury Cream Eggs from Easter for 25¢ each; only a few were oozing).

When I found out that a 12 pack of Fat Tire weighs all of 15 pounds (thanks for the use of the scale, Jim), I had the new problem of decreasing the weight in my suitcase. As a result, I am using some of my clothes as packing material for those groceries I bought.

Awww... the world's first beer cozy

My first step was to take the beer out of its box and start wrapping each one in a sock. At first I just slipped it over the beer, but I figured out that by readjusting the sock I could cover top and bottom, and then staple the sock shut. The part of the sock that still exposed some of the bottle got some toilet paper stuffed next to it before I fit it snugly into its gallon-size Ziploc bag.

I felt like a mad scientist

With all of the extra padding I could only fit ten of the bottles into the box. Don't fret, beer fans! I left some for Gil (I would've left some for Jim, but he isn't really a beer person). Even better, after all was said and done the total weight of the box had decreased to 13.5 pounds! That was minus 2.5 pounds for losing two bottles of beer, and adding one pound of packing material (socks, Ziploc bags, newspaper, tape).

The things one will do for beer

The wines, which added another 7 pounds of weight, were a different matter, as they didn't come in their own convenient box. The first step was to wrap each wine bottle in its own towel, and then wrap the towel in a plastic bag.

A nice rosé towels off after a hard day of being a rosé

Voila! The final product. Yes, those are Berger's cookies in the background. I always bring them as gifts. Of course, I've heard no complaints yet.

After sandwiching the 13.5 lb box of Fat Tire and the two Joseph Filippi Wines into my suitcase amidst tennis shoes, travel kit and clothes, I took one final measurement. The final weight: 40 pounds! I had a convenient 10 lb buffer zone just in case I needed to slip something else into my luggage.

I'll let you know tomorrow how well it worked.

- - - - -

NB: As I recall, it worked beautifully

It's almost one month away!

It's coming! namely, the end to Maryland's stupid law that forbids a person from direct-shipping wine from a winery to his or her home. Starting July 1, as everyone else now knows, Marylanders may begin direct-ordering wine from out-of-state wineries. I still cannot benefit from that law during this current trip to Cali, since the law goes into effect a month after I return to Maryland. But at least I can order things from favorite wineries in Rancho Cucamonga or Temecula. That is a start.

Because Passover is coming up...

The Atlantic has quickly become on of my favorite sources for interesting articles about food, drink and such. Take Yoni Appelbaum's brief but thorough history of Manischewitz sweet Concord grape wine. In "The 11th Plague? Why People Drink Sweet Wine on Passover", the author grapples with the history behind the reality that Manischewitz wine isn't all that good, but people love it anyway. From raisin wine to cheap, easily supervised Concord grape production, through Prohibition and into the present day, Appelbaum lays out the history of Passover wine in America, and the uniquely American drink that Manischewitz became. It's even become a fad among hip young Jews and gentiles alike. For instance, as Appelbaum says:

...a modern bistro attracts a trendy crowd with offerings that include the Drunken Pharaoh, a Manischewitz-and-bourbon cocktail. Concord wine, it turns out, has hipster cred. It is also enjoying a boom in exports to Asia, home to the world's fastest-growing wine markets.

Catholic boy here will occasionally buy a canister of kosher macaroons at Giant when he finds them. As for the Manischewitz wine: I haven't tried it, but now I'm gonna have to go out and buy some just to see what Appelbaum is saying.

Snacking State-by-State: California Part 2A - the Northern Half (California Fresh!)

Last week, I reveled in recipes from the Southern half of California, which I know quite well. This week, I try to understand the foods of the Northern half of the state, a place that is strange and unfamiliar to this Southern California boy. Okay, honorary Southern California boy by way of Baltimore, my hometown and current location.

Just to reiterate the background info:

Snacking State-by-State: California

Official Name: State of California
State Nickname: The Golden State
Admission to the US: September 9, 1850 (#31)
Capital: Sacramento (7th largest city)
Other Important Cities: Los Angeles (largest, & 2nd largest in the USA), San Diego (2nd largest), San Jose (3rd largest), San Francisco (4th largest)
Region: West, Pacific (small sections of the state can be considered Northwest or Southwest in terms of its food and culture); Pacific (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Acorn, Chile Pepper, Pinyon Nut, Salmon
Bordered by: Baja California, Mexico (south), Arizona & Nevada (east), Oregon (north), Pacific Ocean (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: golden trout (fish), California Valley quail (bird), grizzly bear (animal)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: Where to begin? "New California cuisine", diversity of ethnic cuisines, especially Asian, Latin American and Mediterranean (Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Thai, Salvadoran, Korean, Italian), citrus (especially in the south), wine (especially in the center and north), seafood, dates, and so much else

Northern and Central California are perhaps most famous for their wine. As I pointed out last week, California wines have gotten good enough that they now rival wines from France in many competitions. Most famous among the California wines are those from Napa and Sonoma (though again, they aren't the only ones). I never got the chance to take a tour through wine country, though my friends Jim & Gil, also from SoCal, have talked about it. We will, someday. As Eric, one of my much more local friends, pointed out to me over a New Year's Eve dinner (thanks, guys), California grapes played a very important role in rescuing the French wine industry. In the 19th century, vineyards in both England and on the Continent were ravaged by the Phylloxera. Unable to stop their vineyards from dying, European vintners eventually grafted cuttings from North American vines that were more resistant than the completely non-resistant European varietals.

Of course, Northern (and Central) Cali is more than wine. It's also the home of Berkeley-based chef Alice Waters, the executive chef of Chez Panisse and the public face of "California cuisine". California cuisine is not the same thing as "California's cuisine". It's a whole way of looking at, procuring, preparing and eating food, period. It is the use of the freshest, most locally-grown and most in-season ingredients as you can find, and often prepared as simply as you can prepare them. As Waters writes in her book Chez Panisse Vegetables, we can all live "California cuisine" without even coming close to the Golden Coast:

If at all possible, plant a garden yourself, and above all, patronize farmer's markets. Get to know your purveyors and producers and give them feedback... Always explore your garden and go to the market before you decide what to cook. Decide on your menu based on what you find there. Buy products that are fresh, local, and organic. Select produce that looks freshly harvested and at its peak. Look for vegetables that look right back at you! [Waters, p. xix]

In the spirit of Waters and California cuisine, I looked for something simple and in season to prepare. At first I thought a salad would be a great idea, but lettuce isn't exactly in season in Maryland right now. Winter squash is, and I ended up finding one from the farmers' market right on my counter.

The recipe: Oven-Roasted Squash with Garlic and Parsley


This recipe, from Waters' Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook, is a simple and surprisingly sumptuous way to prepare pretty much any winter squash. I found it worked especially well with butternut. It was almost as easy as that date shake I wrote about last week:

* winter squash (mine was a butternut, about 1 lb, which I bought at the farmers' market for a buck)
* olive oil (had it)
* salt and pepper (had those, too)
* garlic (had a few cloves left)
* fresh parsley (had just enough in the fridge)


Peel and seed the squash and dice it into 1" pieces, then toss it with olive oil, salt and pepper. Waters' recipe didn't give exact amounts. I just added enough to my liking. Please, please don't go overboard with the salt and pepper.


Put the pieces on a baking sheet and bake for 375°F for 40 minutes, moving it around with a spatula once in a while to make sure it doesn't burn.


While baking the squash, finely chop a few cloves of garlic (I like garlic, so I chopped about 5 or 6 small cloves) and parsley (a small handful), and then toss with the squash just before serving. That's it.


It sometimes amazes me how such a simple recipe can be so tasty, but Waters' recipe was just that. The butternut just gets nice and sweet in the oven, and stands up so well against all the savory, salty ingredients thrown at it. Please do yourselves a favor and make this sometime. Eat it with a simple salad. Waters recommends a very simple dressing for many of her salads (look in the "lettuce" section of her Chez Panisse Vegetables), based on a finely chopped shallot that sits in wine vinegar and a little salt for about an hour, then mixed with some olive oil, pepper and other items of your choice. I poured a bit of this with chopped garlic over a salad of blood oranges and mixed greens.

Sources:

Lee, Jennifer 8. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Twelve Books: New York, 2008.

Waters, Alice, and the Cooks of Chez Panisse. Chez Panisse Vegetables. HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1996.

Yan, Martin. Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking: The Companion Cookbook to the Public Television Series. William Morrow: New York, 1995.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "California" page and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "California".

A few random bites: January Edition

Yes, once again I've been overwhelmed with work, job apps and extracurricular activities to write about everything I've eaten as of late. Just a few tidbits to keep you all up to date:

1. Sof'ella's Blueberry Muffin with Streusel Mix is pretty damn good. It's not so easy to find here but go to any of the DC-area World Markets and you will find them easily.

2. A week or so ago, my sister and I met up with some friends of hers for a (mostly) girls night out - all the way out in Eldersburg. The County Cork Pub is a very busy place, and for at least half an hour it was standing room only for us while we waited for a table. Once seated I ordered for myself a plate of oysters on the half shell (about $10), with a few tangy sauces to eat them with. So delicious. The burger ($9) with hand-cut fries in garlic were even better, but filled me up too much for any dessert.

3. This past Friday night I stopped by 13.5% Wine Bar. Again, it was all good: bread with olive oil and roasted garlic ($6) was a little messy, as far as squeezing out the garlic, but still very comforting. The pulled duck confit tacos ($8) were new for me: rich duck confit with an onion jam and sprigs of cilantro inside soft tortillas were an odd combination, but one I will have to come back to sometime soon. And I must pair it with their four shots of draft beef ($7), which gives someone like me, who can't make a decision, a nice variety of beers to try out. The Clipper City stood out for me, but all were good.

4. That chocolate gravy-turned-mousse that I made a few weeks ago was still good in the refrigerator yesterday. Still not sick! Oh what one will pull out of the fridge if it has no fuzz or weird colors on it.

5. Oh what useless junk one will find in Giant: who really needs a "small appliance caddy" to slide small appliances that just-are-not-small-enough back under your cabinet? Really?

Pombe Ya N'Dizi: the Final Product

January 23, 2010, was the first day I set out to make pombe ya n'dizi, the Tanzanian banana wine that Dorinda Hafner showcases in her cookbook A Taste of Africa. Six months later I have it in front of me, bottled and in a glass. Out of the original six liters (about six quarts) of liquid I eventually got two wine bottles' worth of wine. I was never able to strain the clouds of dead yeast at the bottom of the bottle, and I worried about what this would do to the wine.


The result of my first winemaking experiment: the banana wine is definitely a dessert wine. It's a bit thicker than most other wines I have drunk. What else can I say? It's a thick and extremely sweet banana wine that drinks more like a banana liqueur than a banana wine. Be prepared for that if you make it. And again, set aside six months for the process.

A few tidbits: Start of May edition

1. Found some potatoes and peas vindaloo in the freezer (recipe from Julie Sahni's Moghul Microwave). Tastes as fresh as ever. Score!

2. I just love Fat Tire. When are they coming out to Maryland!? I have to go all the way to North Carolina to get it. Though for a very limited time, it's being sold somewhere in DC, at the Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan. But just temporarily. By the time I can get down there it'll probably be gone.

3. A few things I've eaten recently that have caught me off guard because of their tastiness:

• Trader Joe's French Vanilla ice cream has an extremely luxurious richness to it. Really, it has to be the best commercially available (that is, not farm made) vanilla ice cream I've eaten in ages.
• The Helmand's vegetarian platter ($14). I don't often eat meatless when I eat out, but this past Saturday I made the choice and it was a winner!
• Dietz & Watson hot dog - I had one at Bon Bon's Ice Cream in Belvedere Square today and I was very impressed. Didn't even feel bad about the $2.85 I spent on it and the sauerkraut that came with it (I actually saw the caraway seeds).
• The cute little mini-cakes that you can get at City Café for a mere $3. I had a cup-sized red velvet cake that had two different layers of icing - a whipped one and a much denser cheesy one. The carrot cupcake I had today was almost as good.
  

4. Went to a sake tasting at Honeygo Wines - not in my neck of the woods so I had to go out of the way for it. The one I left with, after snarfing down three pieces of free nigiri sushi (What kind of fool passes up free sushi?): Gekkeikan's Haiku brand. The woman said the rice is polished. Gekkeikan says: "Slow fermentation at low temperatures gives this sake a slightly dry flavor with a light aroma reminiscent of orchard apples." I didn't taste apples. But I still liked it.

5. And finally, something that has nothing to do with food. As I've hinted once or twice on here and Twitter, I can sing! I'm a member of the Baltimore Men's Chorus, and I've got a plug to make. Our big spring concert and silent auction is coming up on Saturday, May 22, 8:00pm at the University of Baltimore Auditorium. Yes, I know that's the same night as the big Anthony Bourdain-Eric Ripert event at the Hippodrome. Yes, I know many foodies will be going there. But if you weren't planning to go see Bourdain and you wanted to listen to more than a few talented gay men singing some great music, you have your chance! Tickets are only $15!

Drunken Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce (Post #1,250)

I wanted to make some spaghetti sauce this week, using Lidia Bastianich's very-easy 20 minute pasta sauce. I decided to get creative, and not bother with the usual pasta, but instead go for something a bit different.

Not too long ago, I heard about a somewhat exotic-sounding method of boiling pasta in which you just replace the pasta water with red wine. The end result is a pasta that is fully infused with the flavor and color of red wine. Not only did this method of pasta prep intrigue me, but it also seemed like a good way to use up some of those half-drunk bottles of red wine I had sitting around long enough to not really be drinkable anymore, but not long enough to simply dump out.

This time I just eyeballed it instead of following a specific recipe. I used approximately 1/3 bottle each of Carro Tinto 2006 and Ergi Bikavér (Bulls Blood) 2005, two reds that I had laying around and liked but never got around to finishing (yes, I am a beer person). Also added about 1 cup of water to it to add some volume. I found that it didn't hurt the flavor.

It looks ominous if you don't know it's wine.

I also used half a package of pasta - in this case capellini from Trader Joe's. I boiled the red wine as I would have water for the pasta. I may have boiled it a little longer than I wanted to, as it was a little more than al dente. However, the pasta did not clump as it can occasionally do when boiled in just plain old water if you're not watching (yes, it has happened to me once in a while, when I'm distracted).

Yes, it's red wine pasta.

The flavor was unbelievably tangy and slightly sweet. It paired well with the pasta sauce, which incorporates 1 1/2 cups of the red wine pasta water. However this is a pasta that you can probably just eat without any sauce, in order to get that red wine flavor.

The finished pasta, with the sauce

Pombe Ya N'Dizi, 3rd Straining

I am supposed to strain that Tanzanian banana wine four times. Did it the third time last week, about a week and a half too late (thanks again, Snowpocalypse 2010).


But it's now thrice-strained! I'll strain it again in three weeks, weather permitting.

Europe's Alcohol Belts

This comes from Strangemaps via Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish at the Atlantic. I love maps, especially food-related ones. To wit:


The "Wine Belt" is in red (burgundy?), the "Beer Belt" is in a sort of golden color, and the "Vodka Belt" is in blue.

Pombe Ya N'Dizi - Day 7

Stay tuned for a Restaurant Week post on Sascha's 527, where my sister and I went the other night, as well as another food ethnography post on some Tanzanian banana fritters. But to tide y'all over, here are some photos of the Pombe Ya N'Dizi project, day 7.

I am getting ready to strain the banana wine. I have to put it back into the jar, so I need to strain it first into this iced tea jug at left. It almost filled it twice.

Since I had never before made wine, I was kind of surprised by its really strong fermented scent. I was also wondering if it should be cleared up at all yet.

And here's the strained wine, jug cleaned out and refilled. Since it must be airtight, I sealed the rim of the lid with duct tape (yet another use for this versatile wonder of Home Depot).

Super Bowl Sunday holds little interest for me, since the Ravens didn't make it. So it officially become "Straining Day #3" and Day 14 of the Pombe Ya N'Dizi experiment.

Food Ethnography on a Budget: Tanzania II: Pombe Ya N'Dizi

After a very busy few weeks, I was able to return to my Tanzanian banana recipe project. True, Tanzanians don't put bananas or plantains in everything. That said, Dorinda Hafner, author of A Taste of Africa, puts it right out there in regards to the cuisine of Tanzania: "You can make an entire meal out of bananas!" That includes appetizers, entrées, side dishes, soups, desserts and beverages. The beverage she offers: banana wine.

Yes, I am currently making wine out of bananas.

To get another perspective on winemaking, I looked up "banana wine" elsewhere on the internet, and got hit in the face with a lot of items specific to homemade winemaking, including Campden tablets, wine nutrients and special "wine yeast." Hafner mentions none of these things - there is yeast, as you will see, but it is simply spread on toast. So honestly, I don't know if this recipe is going to work. And I won't know this for a while. You see, the entire process takes at least three months, though Hafner recommends six in order to get a more flavorful wine. And I'm doing it the way Hafner recommends, which worked for her.

The beverage: Pombe Ya N'Dizi (Banana Wine)

That measuring cup full of water? You'll need five more of those.

For this project, I had already bought most of the ingredients for the previous project. This includes several unripe bananas. But this project calls for the opposite: very ripe bananas (no standard, plain old "ripe" bananas for me). So really, I had to wait a while to start on this wine after I made the N'Dizi Ya Na Nyama. In addition to the seven thinly sliced overripe bananas, I needed a few other things:

• about 6 liters of water (right out of the tap)
• one slice of soft toast (just a piece of white bread I snagged at the parents' house - I actually don't have any white bread, which is strange)
• one cake of fresh yeast (not active dried - you need it to spread on the toast - this you can find at Giant for about $1.50)
• 4 lb sugar (one bag was about $2.50)
  

In addition, I needed a fairly large container in which to hold the wine. Since I don't have amphorae or wine barrels just laying around, I needed to buy this new. The 2.5 gallon air-tight jar I got at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $20 was easily the most expensive item I have put out for this or any Food Ethnography project thus far. On the plus side, I can use the jar for other things when the wine is finished. I also needed a piece of muslin to stretch over the opening for the first week. Jo-Ann Fabrics is currently selling cheap muslin for $2 per yard. I don't need to strain the wine with it, just cover it. This is also the first time I have gone to a fabric store to get something for a recipe.

The procedure that Hafner lays out is roughly as follows. First, boil the water. I used my crab pot to do this - too big is better than too little for these sorts of projects. After a good long while, the water will have started to boil. Thinly slice the bananas and add them to the water, boiling them for 20 minutes.

A beautiful bunch o' sliced banana!

Strain into a large vessel, add the sugar, and allow to cool. I let mine sit overnight.

THIS was a pain in the ass.

Banana wiiiiiine...

Seeeee-venteen...
The cold January moon...
Saw everything...

Once cool, cut the toast into four equal strips, and spread 1/4 of the yeast cake over the front and back of each strip of toast. Drop the yeasty toast strips (mmmm, yeasty toast strips) into the banana-sugar solution, cover with muslin and let sit for a week.

It places the yeast on the bread or else it gets the knife.

It's been two days since I did this. For now, it sits and waits. But just two days later, it looks really frightening. I love kitchen science!

Pombe Ya N'Dizi: Day 1...

...and Day 2

Really, this is all I have to report on the banana wine project for now. The wine gets strained next week, at which point it gets to sit in an air-tight container for another week before being strained again and left to sit for three more weeks, then left to sit for a month before being strained for the fourth and final time. It then can be bottled and corked until at least three months are up.

So that's it for now. Check back in for the weekly "Pombe Ya N'Dizi" report.

UPDATE JULY 25, 2010 - The wine is done! Read about it in this final update post.

13.5% Wine Bar

Sorry about the sparse posting lately. I have been job hunting because the job market for my chosen field (education - have I ever mentioned that before?) is, well, a helluva lot sparser than I was ever led to believe it would be. Figures. So I have been more focused on sending out applications, both to use my current degree and my previous one. I'm a career changer. Great time to change, huh? At least I have some part-time work that seems relatively reliable, but until I find something to supplement it, I won't be eating out too much.

That is the attitude I took into the tail end of Baltimore Restaurant Week for dinner on a rain-soaked Saturday night. But as I said, times are tough and I can't really spring the $30 price tag right now. So I looked for a cheaper meal, and found it in Hampden, hon. I have been to many of the restaurants there, and they seem to fall into the general categories of "good but a little pricey," "good but overrated" and "not-so-good and overrated." Only a handful of Hampden restaurants and eateries are really in that "good and cheap" category, so long as you don't go crazy. I've been meaning to stop by 13.5%, the new wine bar on the Avenue, and food-wise it falls into that last category - "good and cheap so long as you don't go crazy."

13.5% has been open for almost two months now, and apparently they do some bang-up business throughout the week, even during this recession. It looks very upscale, and of course (being a wine bar) it seems that way, but as busy as the staff seem to be (especially around the kitchen), it is fairly casual in terms of its patrons. There is a large wall of wines to choose from in addition to 13.5%'s extensive wine selection. In addition, there is a fairly deep selection of beers and cocktails. Usually a beer person myself, I opted to start off my evening with a wine - it is a wine bar, after all. Just about any wine on their menu can be ordered by the glass or the bottle. If you aim to buy a bottle to take home, you get a discount off the bottle price! My glass of Prosecco cost me $7; the whole bottle would've run me about $25. Had I gotten a bottle and taken it home instead, I'd have been looking at prices I might find at the Wine Source down the street.

Food wise, 13.5% is an Italian small plates type of establishment. Again, it is easy to run up a big tab: an antipasto here, a panino there, a few bottles of wine and a dessert and you're looking at a $50 price tag. So you have to be careful, as I was. 13.5% has a hearty selection of appetizers, panini and small plates, with everything ranging from about $8 to $11. A few dishes that caught my attention, such as

• the "Grilled Cheese of the Moment" panino ($8) that one could say is the panini version of a grilled cheese, using both domestic and imported cheeses;
• the "Antipasti Plate" ($10) that had enough cured meats, olives and cheeses that I could have made a meal out of that;
• the cheese cart that goes around to patrons, offering select cheeses to eat with your wine for $3.50 a piece, or 3 for $10 (if I remember correctly)

I settled for the dish that first brought me in out of the rain: the Spicy Napoleon ($9), which looked too interesting with its list of components: eggplant, roasted red peppers, zucchini and whipped potatoes with sriracha sauce mixed in, layered in between "pasta crisps" - pasta that is baked so that the edges become a little crispy, though soft in the middle. I had imagined it was just pasta dough fried or baked like crackers or papadums. In the midst of all the activity in the kitchen, my Spicy Napoleon emerged. I had commented that it looked too nice to eat, so I wasn't quite sure how to eat it. So I just dug in and ate it layer by layer. The potatoes were amazingly good, buttery but spicy and tangy. It might not be the best choice for someone who can't stand any heat at all, but I like heat, and I found it refreshing. The other veggies and the pasta were tasty as well, though I still liked those potatoes the best. It was a good choice.

Also a good choice was the slice of cake that the couple next to me had ordered. This cake ($6.50) was one of many that 13.5% orders from the Puffs & Pastries down the street. It looked so good that I had to order a piece myself. I was mistaken in thinking that the whipped cream all over it was actually frosting, but it was good all the same. I'm not quite sure what type of cake it was - it looked a little like a carrot cake but tasted more like some sort of spice cake. The eye-popping bunch of champagne grapes that came with it was a nice addition. I have to figure out where to find these, because I'm not a fan of grapes, but I liked these. I could eat these all day.

So with my Prosecco, my small plate and my cake, my grand total came to about $22 before tax & tip (about $24.50 after tax). That's still $8 less than the typical Baltimore Restaurant Week menu, and that includes a glass of wine! I still urge people to support Restaurant Week, but for those of us who can't indulge in it as often as we'd like, there are some nice options. You just have to make sure you budget your wallet. 13.5% is a good place to do that.

Did the beer and wine make it?

Just an update on how well the 10 bottles of Fat Tire Beer and the two bottles of wine from Joseph Filippi Winery that I sent home yesterday in my checked luggage: everything made it fine! One advisory, though: A bottle of wine is supposed to be wrapped in bubble wrap if you send it in your checked luggage. Southwest almost charged me $5 per wine bottle for the trouble (no need for the beer, since the taped-up box was secure enough to keep beer from broken bottles from leaking everywhere). But the counter people decided that my bottle-inside-towel-inside-plastic-bag was probably secure enough that nothing further was needed.

How to Pack Beer and Wine into Your Luggage

Yesterday was my day to reminisce around the Inland Empire and stock up on groceries that I cannot find Back East. I am surprised that I only spent $14 at the Fresh and Easy on supplies to take back home. I also went to BevMo, the local big box store for beer, wine and liquor, to pick up a 12-pack of Fat Tire Beer. Again, this is the good stuff that we can't get in Maryland or almost anywhere east of the Mississippi River (they sell it in Tennessee, and maybe now North Carolina, but I'm not hedging my bets on that).

If I lived in most other states, this would not be a problem, and I could just ship it back home. But we live in a state with such blaring blue laws that we are not even allowed to mail alcoholic beverages to our own houses. They can also sell alcohol in their supermarkets outside the Old Line State, people. On Sundays. Everywhere. It's true, people.

So my real challenge was to find some way to fit all this beer, along with the two bottles of wine from Rancho Cucamonga's Joseph Filippi Winery, into my luggage while at the same time:

1. making sure they don't break; and
2. making sure they don't push the total weight of the luggage above 50 lbs.

After doing some quick research on the internet, I found some good tips from people who transport or have transported a lot of beer and wine through their luggage. The most common tips I found suggested the following for a case of beer: wrap each bottle in a sock (and/or bubble wrap), and then zip it up in a Ziploc bag. Make sure the beers are all packed as close to the center of your luggage as possible. It's similar for wine: wrap each bottle in a towel and/or bubble wrap, and then wrap it all in a plastic bag. If you have a big enough Ziploc bag, put it in there.

Since I couldn't really use other people's socks, I had to buy some. This required a trip to the local 99¢ Only (a big and increasingly popular chain in California and much of the Southwest), where I bought two packages of ankle biters for a grand total of $1 each. Add to that a box of 12 Ziploc bags for $1 and two dish towels for $1 each, and I was ready to do my packing (NB: I also found Cadbury Cream Eggs from Easter for 25¢ each; only a few were oozing).

When I found out that a 12 pack of Fat Tire weighs all of 15 pounds (thanks for the use of the scale, Jim), I had the new problem of decreasing the weight in my suitcase. As a result, I am using some of my clothes as packing material for those groceries I bought.

Awww... the world's first beer cozy

My first step was to take the beer out of its box and start wrapping each one in a sock. At first I just slipped it over the beer, but I figured out that by readjusting the sock I could cover top and bottom, and then staple the sock shut. The part of the sock that still exposed some of the bottle got some toilet paper stuffed next to it before I fit it snugly into its gallon-size Ziploc bag.

I felt like a mad scientist

With all of the extra padding I could only fit ten of the bottles into the box. Don't fret, beer fans! I left some for Gil (I would've left some for Jim, but he isn't really a beer person). Even better, after all was said and done the total weight of the box had decreased to 13.5 pounds! That was minus 2.5 pounds for losing two bottles of beer, and adding one pound of packing material (socks, Ziploc bags, newspaper, tape).

The things one will do for beer

The wines, which added another 7 pounds of weight, were a different matter, as they didn't come in their own convenient box. The first step was to wrap each wine bottle in its own towel, and then wrap the towel in a plastic bag.

A nice rosé towels off after a hard day of being a rosé

Voila! The final product. Yes, those are Berger's cookies in the background. I always bring them as gifts. Of course, I've heard no complaints yet.

After sandwiching the 13.5 lb box of Fat Tire and the two Joseph Filippi Wines into my suitcase amidst tennis shoes, travel kit and clothes, I took one final measurement. The final weight: 40 pounds! I had a convenient 10 lb buffer zone just in case I needed to slip something else into my luggage.

I'll let you know tomorrow how well it worked.

Random Photos around SoCal

Today we went for glorious, glorious dim sum at the Ocean Star in Monterey Park, followed by random grocery shopping at the 99 Ranch (the Chinese-American answer to H-Mart). Before finishing, we had a little time to stop off at the Joseph Filippi Winery in Rancho Cucamonga for some wine tasting and purchasing. Since it's late, I'll just let the photos do the talking.

Scenic Atlantic Avenue in Monterey Park

Hmmm, I guess the Ocean Star doesn't have much to worry about in this economy.

Yes, I should have taken the picture before I finished the dim sum. I wish there were more dim sum places in the Baltimore area.

This is only a simulated lobster ball. In the event of an actual lobster ball you will be given further instructions through your local Emergency Response System.

Insert your own line here.

They also had live fish, both swimming in tanks and laying in bins of crushed ice. The big-eyed cod was a bit disconcerting. There was one with very big, glazed-over eyes that was definitely not alive at all. but prodding its neighbor with tongs showed me that it was very much alive.

Perhaps the most descriptive name for a food item I have seen since those "Round Cookies" I bought last year.

Home of Christians. Not sure which ones. Probably just some random Christians.

Five wines tasted for five dollars. I bought two, a rosé and a chocolately dessert wine. You should have seen the guy stocking the shelves. Damn he fine!

Sake, Sake Everywhere (Post #999)

I enjoyed a variety of sakes (brewed like a beer but drunk like a wine) and distilled rice drinks (shochu, the Japanese cousin of Korean soju) this evening at the Wine Source. It was packed - even bigger than most wine tastings I have seen there. It was also great to see the Wine Source finally stocking soju, though I preferred the shochu this evening. A few other things that took me by surprise:

• It's more difficult to find good cheap sakes than good cheap wines. I define "cheap" for wines (and in this case, sakes) as $15 or less for a full-size bottle. Unless you want a teensy widdle bottle, expect to shell out at least $20, more likely $30.
• They've got a good variety of sakes, including a small line of sparkling sakes produced in the US
• The first sake I tasted had a very faint egg taste, but I mean that in a good way. I know it sounds strange but that's the best way I can put it.

I did leave with one of the cheaper large bottles. Ty Ku is a "super premium" Junmai Ginjo sake, which according to its makers is "hand crafted in the traditional Japanese method, produced for the palate and cuisine of the modern consumer." It's also $5 off this week, normally $25 but selling at $20 for the time being. I have to admit that the sleek shape and look of the bottle was also a factor in my purchase.

Oooooh. Ty ku, ty ku?

Notes from the Wine Source

• I've been noticing over the months that a few select beer companies are putting out a line of sodas. Saranac, from out of upstate New York, is selling a ginger beer. In fact, they say they've been selling soft drinks (root beer, ginger beer, cream soda) since 1888, putting about two years younger than Coke, and five shy of the oldest soft drink in America, Dr. Pepper. And Abita out of New Orleans is making a root beer. I just bought the Abita root beer; I'll drink it tomorrow.
• Southern Tier Brewing Company sells a fairly large $10 bottle of its Choklit Stout. This should go quite well with the mild Amish bleu cheese I bought.
• I saw a bright white wine for $8 (all I remember was the word "YOUNG" on the gleaming yellow label), and then the Brewer's Art's latest concoction, their Green Peppercorn Tripel for $9. I would've bought both had I the money.
  
• And then I saw Bud may technically no longer be an American beer, but it still prides itself on being "America's lager." Which, I guess, is why there's a picture of three superstars from the (extremely English) Manchester United FC right behind it? Ah yes, Bud: Wayne Rooney's cheap American beer of choice.
  
• Oh yeah, I need to get some Bailey's soon, don't I?
  

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Remember, those of you who live in or near Baltimore City. For the next few Sundays, beer, wine and liquor stores will be open for business! I'm not sure how long they will be, or if many people know this. The Wine Source was dead today, and they're only doing this one more Sunday and that's it. And you probably don't even care if you live in Howard County where you can buy this stuff on Sundays anyway. But for those of us in town, it's a nice, if brief, change.