1000yregg

Last week, I went to the Don't Know Tavern in Federal Hill for drinks and some food. The place is a sister bar to No Idea also in the neighborhood. My only beef is that it prides itself in being a Red Sox & Patriots bar - in Baltimore of all places! Anyways, my friends had heard some good things about the food at the bar. It was good- a bit too greasy, but a little bit better than your usual bar food in South Baltimore. My friend got the warm spinach salad- they liked it, but felt there was a little too much bacon dressing. I got the cream of crab and asparagus soup- this was really good- a ton of crabmeat, and a nice blend with the asparagus. For entrees, I got the grilled cheese- 4 cheeses, tomato and bacon- pretty yummy. My tablemates got the kobe beef sliders which were pretty good as well, and the meat pizza- with capicola, bacon, sausage, filet mignon, goat cheese and parmesan. The pizza's crust could have been better, but it wasn't too bad. We also tried the duck fat fries that were tasty, but so greasy. Overall, the food was pretty inexpensive- nothing over $10- not to shabby for a place i can walk to from my house.

I just happened into the Canopy branch in Glen Burnie off Ritchie Highway- it actually has a half dozen or so tables you can sit at to enjoy your meal. The quality of beef is the same as Ellicott City's branch- had me a medium rare sandwich, gravy fry and a birch beer before watching The Wire finale tonight.

Interesting breakdown of local B-more crabcakes in this week's city paper- includes discussion of local vs imported crabmeat at some local crabcake places. Link

This weekend, I went to Birches Restaurant in Canton with some friend from out of town. While parking is somewhat of a pain there, I found a tight space and we walked by the Greek Orthodox church to get to the restaurant. The food there was very good- a take on comfort food items like mac & cheese, burgers, but also with some upscale items. For starters, most of the table got the delicious baby spinach salad with chili oil popped popcorn, avocado, tomato and halloumi cheese. I got the Pizzialo Grilled Steak- a flank steak with tomato sauce and cheese on top of garlic polenta. Tasty. I also tried the Mac & Cheese- a little runnier than I thought it would be, but really nice- not too sharp. Birches runs a comfort food contest every year- On the menu that night was corn fritters with venison chili. For dessert, we shared a really good blueberry cobbler with ice cream. The clientele definitely had a neighborhood feel, and all in all, it was a nice place to go for casual dining on a cold night.

found out- they are Taiwanese. not enough Japanese in Baltimore for real Japanese food.

I don't think they're halal anymore as I had pork meatballs.

Noticed no posting on this Chinese restaurant in Gaithersburg. I just went there this weekend after not being there for about a year- food is good. The specialty has to be the large sesame seed pancake. You need to order it as soon as you get there, but it's delicious. It's like a scallion pancake meets foccacia bread with sesame seeds all over. sesame pancake I also love their pipa tofu- like nuggets of delicious tofu in a tasty sauce. pic They also have pretty good Lion's head pork meatballs, a great fried chive dumpling, celery with lily bulbs, and diced flounder with pinenuts. 617 S. Fredrick Ave. Gaithersburg, MD Tel: (301) 963-1426

drove by here after work last week- it looked closed and the inside was a mess. according to the baltimore sun blog, they are closed for renovations, but i'll believe it when i see it.

I'm a fanatic of ketchup potato chips. There were impossible to find when I lived out west. First had these in Canada- Humpty Dumpty's and Lay's carried the flavor. Last I was in Canada, found some Ketchup pringles. Locally, Herr's makes one with Heinz Ketchup- I just bought 3 bags I found at a gas station in White Marsh not a few hours ago.

My cousin went to Hawaii and came back raving about malasadas, a portuguese doughnut-like pastry that's deep fried. She described them as more eggy than donuts. Anyone know if you can get these in the region?

Is the chef Japanese? I am biased against the idea of eating sushi in the Baltimore made by Korean or Chinese sushi chefs.

The post mentions Ichiza- this was a favorite amongst my late-night places to go to when I lived in town- It's an izakaya, and while I've heard it's not as good as a few years back, I love their kushi-tan (tongue on a stick), the agedashi tofu, kimchi fried rice, deep fried baby octopus, and coffee jelly. It reminds me of another favorite late night dive in town- Ocha thai restaurant - it's open to like 3 am- always got their green curry or pad thai with a huge thai iced tea- cheap and yummy. I would also suggents, in the off the beaten path vein: Bob Taylor's Ranch House- old Vegas steak place around since the 50's- great atmosphere. decent steaks- beware of the ribs Hugo's Cellar- old school steak place at the Four Queens- everyone sits in a booth, ladies get roses. you get a salad guy who makes your salad from the salad cart, huge martini's, large slabs of meat.

Some reports from my trip to Vegas: I had lunch one day at Mexican restaurant Bonito Michoacan that I mentioned earlier in this thread- still good. Pics While in town, we stayed at Caesar's Palace, so for pretty much every breakfast, we ate at Payard, the French bakery from NYC/Paris. We spotted Guy Savoy himself grabbing morning coffee and croissant there two different days. The croissants were good. Particular highlights for breakfast were the eggs benedict on top of a croissant, the chocolate waffles with bananas & Nutella, and the granola yogurt parfait. Pics One night for dinner, we ate at Italian restaurant, Rao's, inside Caesar's, right next to Payard. It was basically family style Italian food. Not great, but good. I liked the linguini with clams with a spicy tomato and garlic broth. The Veal Parmesan was a massive piece of meat serve with the bone on it, and the salmon on black lentils was nice. Pics We had lunch at Hyakumi in Caesar's as well- a caution- this is actually a Chinese restaurant. The best dishes were the congee and the soup noodles- not the teriyaki or the sushi. The other Chinese place, Empress Court was pretty bad compared to 4 years ago- my cousin couldn't even eat the shark fin soup. I went to Bradley Ogden and while the food was good (bison tenderloin, yum), the service this year was pretty terrible compared to year's past. They made an error in our reservation, and then acted like it was our fault that our party of 8 was not a party of 2. A stark contrast to our night at Guy Savoy, which I'll post on when I get the pictures together.

Ok, so in addition to LA, I was in Vegas this past week for the Chinese New year- serious eating was had. I want to first note that after having been a Vegas resident in 2000-2005, Lotus of Siam is overrated. The place for Thai in Vegas is Archi's Thai Kitchen. It opened around 2004-5 out of some old fast food location on W. Flamingo- you could get drive through here! The place is better tasting and fresher than LOS- no lousy buffet lunch here. When I went back to Vegas this last week, I found out that they are doing so well that they opened Archi's Thai Bistro- a more roomier upscale location on S. Rainbow.

Yeah, the place is great and not very expensive either considering the quality of the fish. Was it monkfish liver that you had? That's good stuff.

Some more dispatches from LA (pics and addresses are linked): One afternoon, my friend and I were on Sawtelle, in the Japanese area, and we happened to have lunch at Chabuya Tokyo Noodle Bar [Closed in Sep, 2014 and became Beni-Tora]. I must confess, the ramen was really authentic and delicious. It was with a nice clear light pork stock, and I elected to get everything in it like pork char-siu, fried garlic, sprouts, nori, and hard boiled egg. My friend got their charbroiled garlic noodles with shrimp - the garlic flavor was pretty great as well. Another lunch I has was at the Farmer's Market near the Grove, at a stand called Singapore's Banana Leaf. I was introduced to this place a few years ago by a friend who was good friend with the family that runs the place. The cuisine is Singapore/Malaysian/Indonesian food. All the ingredients are really fresh and it's not at all expensive. Everything is also served on a banana leaf. I got the Rojak salad, a fresh salad with cucumber, sprouts, apple, pineapple, fried tofu, and peanut-tamarind dressing- awesome. We got the paratha - like a fried dough that is ripped apart and dipped in curry sauce. For entrees we had the Me goreng, a fried noodle dish, and the Beef Rendang, a slow cooked beef with coconut/ginger. A great lunch. The last place I ate in LA was Azami Sushi cafe [Closed in Jul, 2009] on Melrose. This place is one of my favorite sushi places around- their fish selection is outstanding. It's also unique in that the sushi chefs are women [Ownership change in Jul, 2008 ended this]. I really enjoyed their creamy blue crab hand roll as well as an anchovy tempura with curry salt. Of course, the sushi was spectacular. --- Azami Sushi Cafe (ulysses)

Well I am currently in LA and my friend and I went to Mozza a couple days ago for lunch. Around 1-1:30 on a weekday, it's a little slower, but still filled with various LA types with iPhones. We sat at the pizza bar with glasses of Barbera and had a pretty great meal. We started with the mozza caprese - a splooge of amazing soft mozzarella served with small plum tomatoes on the vine. The cheese was soft and runny. We also had bruschetta with mashed white beans. For pizza - we had two to share - I ordered one with white anchovy, tomato and hot chiles and my friend got one with Prosciutto di Parma, rucola, tomato & mozzarella. The crust was pretty great - it reminded me more of fried dough or a light scallion pancake - it was thin, crispy and a little chewy. We were told the pizzas are made in an oven using almond wood, and dashed with olive oil before cooking. My white anchovy pizza was delicious - spicy, too. The prosciutto pizza was pretty great. Having been to pizzeria bianco in Phoenix, this place is definitely comparable. Pictures

that's what i meant- basically it's like fried chickened smothered in a brown gravy. i've had it that way at soul food places in NYC.

I am a fan of soul food, and have been trying to try Oohhs and Aahhs whenever I am around U street to see a show. Finally, this past friday, before seeing Cornelius at 9:30, I caught them when they were open. I ordered the Fried Chicken breast with collard greens, yams, and mac & cheese. The servings were massive. I loved the spices in the fried chicken- it was also not greasy at all. The greens were good, but needed some hot sauce. The yams were sweet and also very taste. I liked the gooey nature of their mac & cheese as well. We dined upstairs which was pretty much empty the whole time we were there. I would go back, but anyone know anyplace that has dishes like smothered chicken?

Recently after watching season 4 of the Wire on dvd with my dad, I realized that I had never had Faidley's crabcake So this Saturday, I went to Lexington market, resisted the Berger cookie stand, and ordered one lump crabcake, fried. It was really nice- I liked that they mixed in some of the crab "mustard" into the cake to make it a little more creamy. Most crabcakes are just meat and spices, but the "mustard" flavor was a nice surprise. I would definitely go back.

Some of the Amish groceries with butcher shops closer up around Baltimore and PA have natural casing sausages and hot dogs. Might be a bit out of the way for DC/VA folk.

Last time for RW, Bicycle was pretty darn good - They stayed close to their regular menu which was nice.

Surprised there is not regular forum on his show, so decided to start one. The new season started last night- Singapore -it looked pretty great. My favorites were the Chicken and white rice preceded by the scene of the audience boo-ing him and the insane Bone soup.

Checked with my cousin, whose parents are in Newark, DE. Sorry no Thai There is a great Chinese place- Bamboo House worth checking out. There is a good sized Chinese community thanks to UD, and my aunt and uncle often take me to this place when they are not up for cooking.

Went here last night with some friend's back in town for the holidays. The last time I went here was shad roe season in the spring- that was delicious by the way. Last night, we indulged in some oysters- had some Blue Point and Chincoteque- both tasty- liked the Blue Point's salt water flavor a lot. My friends ended up getting appetizers as entrees- a gigantic serving of mussels, some crab soup, crab dip, and quesadilla. I had even more oysters with the fried oyster platter. All in all, this place has simple straightforward seafood and reasonable prices. On nice days, the view of the hanover street bridge (made famous in Ice Cube's XXX:State of the Union boat jump stunt) is really pleasant to have a meal to.