Multimedia Editor Emeritus John Lindner (I've got to get a sexier name for him) has come up with what he calls a Sloppy Thought Wednesday for us today. He also included this URL for Bucky and those who can't see the video directly because of foolish work safeguards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGiv1t3Reg8 ...
Props to Retired in Elkridge for trying out this item in the weird food category.
Normally I wouldn't put any produce in the weird food category because at least it's real food. But the color of this corn freaks me out. Here's what he had to say:
I'm in a better mood this morning after my own breakfast of toast made from bread from the farmers market (which I had frozen) and a pot of Irish breakfast tea with a lot of milk and a little bit of sugar.
The best breakfast I had in Illinois was at Manny's in the airport yesterday. How weird is that? Well, not as weird as the fact that because I had a little time I also got a flu shot while I was waiting for my plane.
I think the woman was insulted when I asked her if she was a nurse, but you never know. What a great scam that could be.
Midway really is your full-service airport. ...
This week's Top 10 takes a little more in the way of explanation than usual. These are Old Baltimore restaurants that haven't reached the status of Institution, Icon or Landmark yet, and maybe never will. But they are part of the area's eating-out history.
You've maybe forgotten about them if you've lived around here a long time. Then someone mentions one and you think, "Oh, yeah, we used to eat there with Uncle Larry."
It doesn't count if the cuisine is something new-fangled like Asian, so we can't include the Orient in Towson, in spite of Anonymous' compelling argument.
These are places where the spiced apple ring garnish is not out of place.
There were other good suggestions that had the right feel to them but are too much on our radar to be considered "forgotten" restaurants, such as Suburban House, G & M, and even Ikaros. I've left off crab houses, too, because that's a whole different category.
I thought dcdiva's description really captured what we're looking for here:
I think of the Candle Light Inn in Catonsville as the ultimate old restaurant. It's been around since 1925 and is one of those places your prom date will take you for beef wellington and 80 year olds go for their anniversary parties.
Many of these I haven't been to in years, so if some of you argued that they have gone downhill, or been sold and changed (I know Angelina's is going for more fine dining than in the past), I didn't include them.
Other suggestions welcome. Here's my list: ...
Continue reading "Top 10 Old Baltimore restaurants that aren't institutions...yet" »
Back to work tomorrow, and instead of planning future stories and such I'm thinking, "What am I going to do about lunch?"
I used to go out every day for lunch, but what with being busier these days, wanting to save money and just the fact that there's not a lot within quick walking distance of the Sun, I was bringing my lunch this summer.
Actually, I do the hybrid thing. ...
Yesterday I reviewed Tapabar, the new tapas restaurant in Little Italy.
If you have something you want to say about the review, this is the place to do it. Or if you've been and want to tell us about your meal there, feel free.
I got an e-mail from someone recently complaining about the concept of tapas. He said the portions were so small what was the point of spending $10 each for three dishes when he could spend $30 for one entree at a more traditional restaurant.
I pointed out that this way you have some choice about how much you want to eat without having to ask for a doggie bag, and the mix-and-match variety is appealing, but I don't think my arguments convinced him.
(Gene Sweeney Jr./Sun photographer)
Someone, I don't know who, said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It was my mother, or maybe the American Egg Board. Anyway, I'm beginning to feel it's true, at least when I'm traveling.
I ask for so little. A decent cup of tea with milk and sugar. Some toast. Real butter. But it's hard to find. If you go to a coffee house that has excellent tea service, the best you can usually do is a muffin or croissant, and not always today's croissant. ...
Yesterday we headed for Oak Park, Il., the suburb of Chicago that has the largest number of architect Frank Lloyd Wright-designed residences in the world, Wright's own first house and studio, and the birthplace and museum of writer Ernest Hemingway.
This last is such a joke. Gailor asked what we would see for our $8, and was told his manuscripts. Not the original manuscripts, surely. They're elsewhere. No. Copies of his works. Yes, well, I have copies of his works too. On my bookshelves.
Am I being too cynical here?
So forget the Hemingway museum if you go. But do purchase your tickets for the Wright house and studio tour in advance if you can. Even in October you could be disappointed, and we had to wait at Penny's Noodle Shop a few blocks away (where we had pho for lunch) for a couple of hours before we could take the tour. ...
For me one of the small pleasures of being on vacation in another city is going out quite early, say at 6 a.m., and having a cup of tea in a coffee house. Evanston is a particularly good place to do this, because there are more coffee houses per block than anywhere I've ever been, both local (Kaffeine, Argo Tea House, and my favorite, Unicorn Cafe) and chains (Starbucks, Peet's Coffee & Tea). They all offer something different in the way of tea service (various tea bags and loose teas, teapots, mugs, French press etc.)
I might take a book, newspaper or computer; but if I'm in full vacation mode, I just sit and drink my tea and stare into space. The appeal is the unusualness of it. ...
I did my infrequent checking of work e-mail this morning and found this from Dave in Perry Hall. I think the world is divided into people who think if crab soup is on the menu, why order clam chowder, and people who think if clam chowder is on the menu why order crab soup, and all of the first category live in Maryland.
And I'm no help. I'd just send him to a place like Oceannaire Seafood Room in Harbor East or McCormick & Schmick's in the Inner Harbor, and I think he would prefer a local neighborhood restaurant.
Elizabeth-EVERYONE around here has cream of crab soup, so enough already. But for what should be a shell fish mecca, there seems to be a dearth of clam chowder – New England or, God forbid, New York in our area.
The best of the few that I’ve found is Carried Away Gourmet in Bel Air, which unfortunately only has it on an infrequent basis. Nominations please.
I got an e-mail bringing up the subject of whether you should tip on takeout orders, and if so, how much. It's something I don't do, not on any principle but just because I never have so I don't think about it.
I don't put anything in the tip jar on the counter when I get a coffee drink, either, unless it's the change from some bills and I happen to like the person behind the counter. ...
Continue reading "Tipping on takeout orders: Is it a good thing?" »
I have now totally embraced the Zen of the El, putting aside my innate distrust of anything unfamiliar until it gets familiar. I love the el now. The trick is to move from thinking rapid transit means, you know, rapid transit and actually caring how quickly you get somewhere (beginning vacation mode) to living in the present moment and not thinking about the when so much (mid-vacation mode).
Yesterday was warm by Chicago standards, by which I mean it was 52 degrees with a brisk wind, so I decided to take the architectural cruise on the Chicago River. ...
Most successful families have rules. In our case, Rule No. 1 goes something like this: "No one is allowed to turn on the garbage disposal except Elizabeth/Mom."
This has actually supplanted the old Rule No. 1, which was, "No accusing." As in, "Why didn't you throw out the last of the milk? You knew it was sour."
Why, you may ask, is the garbage disposal now Rule No. 1? ...
In case you missed it, Hmpstd asked this in a comment:
Speaking of which, yesterday came and went without a new Funtastic Thursday post from Owl Meat. What gives? ...
I wasn't sure I would ever get to Chicago this whole trip, but yesterday was a little warmer with a little more sun and a little less wind. My daughter had classes straight through from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
So I got on the el (shudder) and after an hour arrived at the Monroe stop and Millennium Park.
Let me say it was worth every minute of the el ride. Thanks for the encouragement, those who told me Chicago was actually a great city.
I did what I always do to prepare for a sightseeing trip, which is to say nothing, so I knew nothing about Millennium Park or what I was looking at. I can't wait to read up on it, now that it's too late if I missed something.
And, yes, there is food in this post. I actually ate in a Chicago restaurant. ...
...unfortunately, by me. In an earlier post I linked to an announcement of the public auction of the building in Little Italy that houses India Rasoi, and yesterday I mentioned it in my Table Talk column. I shouldn't have assumed that meant the restaurant itself was closed, and apparently it isn't.
I not only want to apologize for the incorrect assumption, I want to encourage everyone who likes this nice restaurant but maybe hasn't been recently, to go have dinner there and give them some support. They certainly didn't need this kind of negative publicity; it can't be easy being a non-Italian restaurant in Little Italy.
I'll be flying back to Baltimore Monday, which is when I'd usually be working on my Top 10 Tuesday, so I thought I would use the idea we were talking about in an earlier post on Michael's Steak & Seafood House in Bayview.
These are Old Baltimore restaurants like the Sunset in Glen Burnie, whose shortcake is pictured to the right, which haven't yet been elevated to the status of Baltimore Institution or Baltimore Landmark the way Haussner's was.
They don't get much press. (I had a heck of a time finding art for this idea.) But when you're in the mood for this kind of food, it's nice to know they're still around.
I got some good suggestions from that earlier post, but I hope you'll have more restaurants for my Top 10. If so, please post below.
(Christopher T. Assaf/Sun photographer)
I didn't try to remember. I went to my fridge and poked around. Along with all the usual stuff, in the meat compartment I had the sugar peep-show Easter eggs from Gailor's childhood. I save them from year to year for the holiday table decorations. On a shelf on the door is a small bottle of Caron's Bellodgia, which I last wore about, oh, a decade ago. I have no idea what it would smell like if I sprayed it on it now.
Everything else is kind of ordinary; but if I had to come up with three more, I guess they would be Asian sesame oil, a jar of Raffetto's Melba Sauce, so old it's crystallized (why do I keep these things?), and in my freezer some kind of cooked mystery meat that I was too lazy to label and now should probably be thrown out.
Remember, don't guess. Check first before you answer.
