Amateur Gourmet Community Blog

From the one and only writer of the Amateur Gourmet blog: Adam Roberts has set up a new community blog for his readers to make posts on! A great idea, I think. I may have to post something, but don't expect me (or any other blogger) to cross-post. As Adam notes in his FAQ, readers who are bloggers should not be copying posts from their blogs and reposting them on the AGCB. It's meant to give readers a taste of the kind of stuff you write on your own. And readers who are not bloggers are highly encouraged to post stuff.

Please do check it out!

Hamburger Mary's

One quick note about dinner last night: I headed out to Palm Springs, as I always do when I visit SoCal. I love that whole desert-meets-mid-century aesthetic. Really, it's almost as you'll turn a corner and Elizabeth Taylor or Bob Hope will be putzing around on vacation.

Out of all the establishments I could've chosen, this time I went to that relatively small, gay-friendly chain known as Hamburger Mary's. The restaurant has a large plaster statue of a smiling Mary, winking as she holds up a massive hamburger - think Bob's Big Boy in drag. Inside, tables of mostly gay male patrons of various ages will sit amongst movie posters of various movies with "Mary" in the title, all while dance mixes of contemporary music videos play on TV's in the background (the bar has a fairly large one).

Mary's has various offerings, but why the hell would you order anything but a hamburger? Besides, they have a massive list of hamburgers from which to choose (price range; around $12 - $17), including the Surf & Turf Burger (topped with popcorn shrimp), the Blue Boy Burger (bacon and lots and lots of bleu cheese), and the one eye-popping Mac and Cheese Burger topped with exactly what you'd think (because Americans just aren't fat enough).

There were also several "exotic meat" burgers (each set at $17), including kobe beef, ostrich, wild boar, Texas antelope, buffalo (which isn't all that exotic anymore) and - get this - kangaroo. I was going to order that the second I saw it but the waitress said they just didn't have any kangaroo meat. The way she put it, it sounded as if they hadn't had kangaroo for a very long time. Oh well. The one time I ate it - in 1998 at a nondescript, probably defunct All-American BBQ in Yucca Valley or Joshua Tree - I loved it. My waitress compared the flavor to ostrich, but I find them to be somewhat different. I'm not a big fan of ostrich meat.

So instead of kangaroo, I opted for the "Buffy the Hamburger Slayer" burger ($12): a half-pound of beef covered in red wine, Swiss cheese and Caesar dressing, and speared throughout with garlic cloves (pickles are complementary but you have to ask for them). I opted for the fries, instead of the cole slaw or potato salad, and I don't think I made a wise choice. I hardly touched the fries, which were a little shriveled and pretty much a throwaway item, but the slaw would've been very refreshing.

but I didn't come to eat fries - I came for a hamburger. And I really liked this burger. The first bite was so mellow. Even though I've eaten a lot of roasted garlic, I couldn't put my finger on the taste at first. The combination of the garlic and various toppings made this hamburger a flavorful pleasure. Yes, it kept falling apart, and yes, I eventually had to resort to eating it with a fork, but it was truly a deliciously moist and flavorful hamburger! I will likely have to seek out other burgers, if not specifically this one, the next time I am in PS or for that matter any other city that sports a Hamburger Mary's (NB: the closest one to Baltimore is in Cincinatti. I figured they would've opened one in Rehoboth by now, but I guess not)

From Bulgogi Tacos to Avocado Salsa: A Day of Eating in LA

In my first full day in California this time around, I hit LA, primarily to see a taping of Web Soup (the episode is on tonight; you might hear me guffawing in the studio audience). Oh that I lived closer so that I could go more often! And host Chris Hardwick is a hoot, as is his on-set producer. Before the taping I hung out at the La Brea Tar Pits, right across the street. You have to pay $7 to get in, but lots of it can be seen for free. You could even bring a picnic lunch and eat next to the Tar Pits. No worries about falling in - there's a fence, with fake mammoths in distress and everything. The gas bubbles in the tar pits themselves are a fascinating site to see.

Of course, I had to eat while I was in Los Angeles. In general the food was memorable, though some of it was more memorable than the rest:

Bite (West Hollywood) - I stopped in here, despite a recommendation for a few burger places, some of which also sold wonderful carne asada and burritos. I went into the sleek, skylight-illuminated Bite instead, since I didn't feel like walking all that way to the burger joint (also wasn't too in the mood for a burger). Bite's service is a wee bit on the slow side - even when they have just a handful of customers - but they are attentive when they do show up, even offering bread (I turned it down) and free, homemade tortilla chips (I didn't turn it down). They had a variety of small and large plates, and I opted for a few of the small plates.


The avocado salad ($5.50) had a lot less avocado than I had expected, but still had lots of chunky tomato, onion and corn that made it the best thing on the table. The tortilla chips, fresh and hot from the fryer, made for an excellent complement and I should have eaten that alone. Instead, I also ordered a turkey and cheese empanada ($3.50) which was good at first, but quickly became heavy and a little on the mystery meat side. The crust, at least, was flaky and tender. Maybe I should've ordered the beef empanada instead. The final small plate I ordered was a plate of fried calamari rings ($8), breaded not in the typical crispy and flaky breading but instead in a dark colored Italian herb coating. It was a different coating than I am used to but it was good for what it was. The chunky tomato sauce and ranch or blue cheese (?) dip that came with it went nicely with the calamari for dipping. The squid was tender though a little bland, mostly serving as a base for the breading. All the while I wished I had gotten the Greek salad, which the guy at the next table was simply raving about.

Bool BBQ Truck (various locations throughout LA; at the Miracle Mile / Comcast Studios on Wilshire Blvd yesterday - follow them on their Twitter feed for today's location) - For about a tenth of what I spent for lunch at Bite, I got a much more memorable taco in LA proper. The hook: it was from the popular Bool BBQ Truck, which makes a mixture of Korean and Korean-style Mexican food (there were also Chinese and Brazilian versions parked just a few feet away). Since I had a mere few dollars on me, I went for the one thing under $4, a $2.50 bulgogi soft taco in two small corn tortillas. This was just a fun and different way to eat both Korean and Mexican food, and I wish we had one of these in Baltimore sitting next to the Kooper's Chowhound Wagon and the Iced Gems cupcake truck. Sweet chunks of bulgogi (Korean BBQ) mixed with crunchy cabbage, not quite yet kimchi (though they have that too), onion bits and cilantro. all in two warm corn tortillas. It was a little bit of impressiveness to presage my foray into the tar pits and the G4TV studios.


The folks at G4 know about this place, yes?

BCD Tofu House (Koreatown and various locations throughout LA and the country) - After the taping I headed further through Koreatown to get to one of the local gay bars for a beer (side note: I still got it, by the way, wink wink). There was a bevy of establishments, and blocks upon blocks of buildings with signs written neither in English nor in Spanish but in Korean. Enough of them had some English that I could find my way towards the restaurants. A few looked inviting but had two or three persons seated - the employees, for the most part. But one place, in one of those IHOP-shaped buildings (only much bigger and homier) not only was not empty but was filled with Korean-American diners. If the Korean community is coming here for its Korean food, the safe assumption is that it's probably a mistake to pass it up. BCD Tofu House is not confined to Koreatown but is spread throughout the LA Basin, with additional locations in Seattle, Korea and Japan (a pre-recorded new report also suggested there was on in Manhattan but their website does not mention it). The customer base at BCD hustles and bustles almost as much as the waitstaff, enjoying its food all the while sipping little more than water. Seriously, nobody was drinking anything but water.


Like many good Korean establishments, BCD Tofu House is no-nonsense about getting you your food quickly and efficiently (Bite: take note). It gives you various choices in what to order: you can order lunch and dinner combos for between $13-$18 - it's all the same combos but just a few dollars less for lunch - or you can order a hot (to the touch) stone bowl of tofu with various ingredients, spicy or mild (and they don't kid around about the spicy part), plus a separate stone bowl of rice and various plates of panchan. My panchan included a few types of kimchi, plus a whole little fried fish that I made quick work of with gleaming stainless steel chopsticks. There was also an egg that I made little notice of, not realizing that it was raw and was meant to be cracked into the boiling bowl of tofu that was delivered to my table.


I ordered the #3, the Seafood Premium Tofu ($9), which included oysters, clams and shrimp with humongous bits of tofu in an extremely spicy broth. If I get back - and I may have to the next time I'm in town - I'll crack the egg in the tofu like I am supposed to.

Other photos -

Owwee.

This is as far as I got with using my camera at G4. I didn't even bother to whip it out but I should have asked Chris Hardwick for a photo. I think he would've been alright with it.


I don't think this ended well.

It's remarkable that with all the creatures that have perished in the Tar Pits, only one member of our own species suffered that same fate: a rather clumsy woman in her mid-to-late 20's from around 10,000 BC.

Lots of these little fellas fell into the Tar Pits: a wall of wolf skulls

I have to start eating healthier

As my laptop battery was dying on the plane, it dawned on me that I was finally in the unique position of being able to blog about what I eat from 30,000 feet in the air! This is courtesy of AirTran, whose internet access is not free despite what their flight attendants might suggest. Were that AirTran one of those small percentages of airlines that offers anything more than little itty bitty cookies or a small bag of pretzels. Too bad I didn't bring in my greasy, salty, and not altogether appetizing breakfast sandwich from the Quizno's in D Terminal next to my gate.

At least I got filled up on a Tacos Del Carbón meal at Del Taco w/ crinkle fries and a Diet Coke. That's because my friends whom I am staying with are starting NutriSystem in order to lose a few pounds.

Man, I need to eat better. I really do.

California Here I Come...

I'm flying out very early in the morning. Not sure why I am still awake. Just hope I can eke out as much life from my battery as humanly possible.

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!

Grilled Cheese & Co.

Ah, Twitter. It's turning out to be much more useful than I had ever imagined. Thanks to Twitter, I found out about the wonderful Iced Gems Baking. And also thanks to Twitter, I found out about a much-needed restaurant right off of Exit 14, that I will have to add to my Back to the Beltway series, starting in June. The catch: this place specializes in all manners of grilled cheese. Wonderful, gooey, filling grilled cheese. And a grilled cheese was exactly what I needed on an unusually cold and damp day in the middle of May.

Obviously, I have come to the Grilled Cheese & Co dance late. The place has only been open for two months, and already it's so popular it was packed - I mean packed - around lunch time. Grilled Cheese & Co's many offerings are written in big, colorful chalk letters all across one wall in the extremely cozy establishment. It's not easy to hear because the place is buzzing with lunchgoers having loud, grilled-cheese-addled conversations. Who knew grilled cheese could be so exciting?

I'm not quite sure if Grilled Cheese & Co is a franchise or not. There is but one location, in Catonsville, but the website gives the impression that they're all over the place. Perhaps it'll spread?

Grilled Cheese & Co definitely puts a new spin on this old American classic. If you want just the standard American cheese sandwich, it'll cost you $5. You will probably want something a bit more fascinating, and this place can accommodate you handily. Just a few of their offerings include: the Blue Ox Crumbled Sandwich ($7), the first grilled blue cheese sandwich I have ever heard of, and also with grilled steak and horseradish sauce; the Crabby Melt ($7.50) with both Monterey Jack, cheese and - gasp! - blue crab; and the Sweetest Thing sandwich ($7.50), a sinful combination of brie, raspberry mascarpone and chocolate chips. This was what originally enticed me into the place, but it seemed too sweet and sugary for lunch.


I went for the more savory Fresco ($7), a grilled cheese with two types of mozzarella, as well as roasted peppers, pesto and a balsamic glaze and olive oil. For just $2 more I also got sweet potato fries and a 22 oz drink. The sandwich was absolutely luscious. The blend of the sweet peppers with the hearty mozzarella and the pesto all melded well in this sandwich that I had never even thought of before. Although greasy on the outside - I mean, it is a grilled cheese sandwich - the bread remained crispy and crunchy while the mozzarella filling was substantive and gooey. I had planned to save half of the sandwich for later, but I just couldn't. I ate the whole thing at once. It was that good. I cannot say as much for the sweet potato fries. I've had more interesting ones. These were pretty average as sweet potato fries go. But you probably won't go there for the fries.

It's about damn well time somebody opened a restaurant that specialized in grilled cheeses! If you just want the standard with American cheese and nothing else, it'll probably be much better than those nasty ones you got in grade school that were heated in their plastic wrap and somehow managed to be both tough and gummy at the same time. The age of that grilled cheese is gone.

Time to hit the Beltway,,,

It's been a while since I last went around the Beltway to sample foods from Glen Burnie to Catonsville, Pikesville to Towson, Essex to Dundalk. And a good bit has changed since then: some places have closed, others have opened, yet others were pointed out to me that I didn't even see the first time! So I'm going back in, people.

This time I won't be hitting every single exit on its own. Instead, I'll be hitting a few at a time: the Glen Burnie area, the Catonsville area, etcetera. It will give me a chance to get through this more quickly, and to spend less money on gas and food (always helpful). I will also get the chance to stop at some of the places I only passed by the first time, and again to comb the comments for places I missed.

Look for it starting around June. First stop: is there anything around Exit 1 that I haven't seen yet? I've hit Cookie's already.

Well here's one Food Network host that won't be coming back, like, ever

Juan Carlos-Cruz, the cheflebrity from the Food Network's long-since canceled Calorie Commando, is in custody for trying to get homeless people in LA to do a hitjob on somebody. I'm guessing we probably won't see much of Mr. Carlos-Cruz anymore, not that we've seen his show much lately as it is.

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.