Henry

Hi cham101, sorry for the delayed response. Sigh, I actually do have some decent images from my foraging last year, but they're on my FUBAR lappy. However, I will try to get a reader to pull them off the HDD tomorrow. When I was foraging, it was well into fall, and perilla (or beefsteak plant) was right at the limit for picking. Once the seed pod bursts, apparently, the leaves no longer taste as good. Now this is info via my mom, so take it as you will. Right now you may still be able to find some ramps, but I haven't had time to go out and check the patch I know about. I know for sure that there are wild strawberries to be found, on the footpath at Lake Roland for one, along some of the paths at Prettyboy as well. I do have some pics of perilla I just found on my email, which I've attached. You can see there was a ton of it growing along Dulaney Valley Road. Epazote grows all over the place, and I'll keep my cam on me tomorrow in case I come across some. Finally, there is wild asparagus, which should be ready to harvest right now, but I have yet to find any around here. I've heard that it grows along Rtes. 40 and 70, west of the beltway. Speaking of which, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" by Euell Gibbons is more or less the bible of foraging. And then of course there's Steve Brill, who I think was profiled in the Sun a few years ago. I plan on exploring the Korean side of found food more this year. I just think it's a crazy coincidence that such parallel ingredients exist so far apart. Well, maybe not so crazy, since we're talking about parts of the world that are both covered in deciduous forest (the best kind!), and people tend to emigrate to places with climates and geographical features similar to home. But I digress.... -Henry

Edible Chesapeake did a brief profile on Berger Cookies in their Winter '07 edition. It's this free quarterly focused on local foods and such. Waaay to focused on the local thing, if you ask me, but the writing is pretty good and they do cover lots of cool MD food topics. They can usually be found at Whole Foods-type stores and such, so perhaps a Saveur contributor/editor was "inspired" by this little periodical after grocery shopping? I worked with a woman named Amy who was irredeemably obsessed with Berger's cookies. She ate at least a two-pack every single day, which by my rough calculation would be 500 cookies a year. Personally, I can definitely appreciate the blatant over-the-top-ness of them, but after one I'm off sugar for at least a couple days. But then my savory tooth has always eclipsed my sweet tooth in terms of influence. Someone needs to invent a steak-topped cookie.

I miss Tony Cheng's! I remember back in the day it was actually a special occasion destination when the fam was jonesing for Szechuan. I seem to recall that after a long period of vacancy, the space was occupied by a Chinese carry-out briefly, before its current incarnation as a Mexican joint, El Patron. Which imo is really quite crappy in terms of both food and service. Now of course we have to trek out to Hunan Manor in Columbia, which since the tragic demise of Szechuan Best in Randallstown is the best option within a half hour drive of Baltimore I think. As far as dim sum, there used to be Grand Palace in Glen Burnie, which provided a sturdy if slightly dingy option. Every several months I get wind of a rumor that it'll re-open. Other than that I guess it's Jesse Wong in Columbia, which my dining colleagues (heh how's that for pretentious) seem to enjoy, but I find almost everything to be overly sweet. Weird. The last time I had dim sum at Chinatown was probably 3-4 years ago, when they seemed to be getting a lot of local press. I remember it being OK. Lastly I thought the guy who runs Matsuri was Vietnamese?

I highly recommend trying the lengua tacos - succulent, enormously beefy. I know what you mean about the res and pollo, they can be a bit dry, but I've always found them pretty well seasoned. Also the guac is thinner and blander than I like, but this place still makes the best tacos in Baltimore imo. Sunday mornings, around 11, seems to be the best time to go both for fresh tortillas and meat.

Hello all just a quick heads up - the Superfresh on 40th St. in Roland Park has an interesting deal on crab meat. First, it's from Venezuela but is NOT swimmer crab, it is actually marked as "Callinectes Sapidus", which is the blue crab we are all familiar with here in Maryland. I bought some and it does indeed look and taste like domestic. More importantly, the price is listed as $28.99 under a "Sale" banner, but the tubs themselves are labeled as $13.99! This is of course absurdly cheap for jumbo lump, particularly meat of such high quality. On another note, someone from the Eastern commented on my article at citypaper.com indicating that where she lives, they tend to add a little baking powder to their crab cakes to puff them up a bit. I prefer dense cakes, but I plan on trying her way this week. -Henry

There are a couple places in Canton that may fit the bill, though I wouldn't characterize the food as "great". But then I am a bit of a hard sell. I recently ate at Helen's Garden - excellent, interesting starters, but the entrees were a bit stodgy and merely ok. There's alway Pazo, which though not as good as it once was imo, is still reliably high-quality and certainly visually impressive. I had very good pho and pretty good other Viet food and An Loi in Columbia recently, though this of course would be a longer drive for you. I must say that I have never been impressed with the food at Bicycle, and the fervor of its very loyal fololwing utterly baffles me. Many dishes seem gratuitously "interesting", and though the food is pretty good most of the time, I don't think its a very good value. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the helpful and knowledgeable notes Dave. I'm considering making the drive up there from Baltimore to try it. You may or may not know the we in Central MD suffer from a plague of subpar, downright fake bbq. -Henry

@Dmnkly- Hey there I know you! Though the topic seems to have faded away a bit, I am still planning a trip to Hudson Valley Foie Gras next month to see the operation for myself. I was lucky enough to visit Korea every summer as a kid, where I would spend at least a few weeks at my aunt's farm in the mountainous countryside. Long story short, I've slaughtered poultry, so I am under no pretension that even the most progressive livestock farm is anything other than a place of death. I merely want to evaluate to my own satisfaction whether it is a place of gratuitous suffering. Whew, heavy stuff for a Sunday morning. Anyway cool to see you here Dmnkly - I've been meaning to ask you, what do you have against vowels? Haha and thanks. -Henry

@1000yregg- Thanks so much! It still astounds me that anyone actually made it through that beast of an article. So many words, so many words. Hey quick tip for anyone living in the Hampden/Charles Village/Roland Park area - the Superfresh on 40th has Jumbo Lump crab meat on sale, it is Venezuelan but the tub indicates the meat from Callinectes Sapidus, i.e. our very own blue crab - and I can confirm it tastes like domestic. I've never seen this before, Venezuelan meat is almost always from swimmer crab. And the best, super-secret part is although the sign says the price is $28.99, the label on the tub has it marked for $13.99! As of Friday, they had lots left. Thanks again 1000yregg. Oh and Call USA-1000!!! -Henry

Jamie thanks so much! Sorry for the extended delay in replying, it's just been one of those weeks - both equipment and staff meltdowns at the restaurant, plus, PLUSPLUSPLUS! I had the incredible luck to be interviewed on WYPR this past Thursday by Dan Rodricks. Somehow we managed to fill an entire hour with crab cake related yammering. Here's a link to the show: http://www.wypr.org/mid_day.html In any case, I shall do my best to broadcast my pent up food nerdiness in a helpful manner on this very cool forum. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but boo Chowhound! Ahem, sorry for that lil outburst. Thanks again Jamie for your kind welcome, and of course Don you rock, and Baltimore DR.com regulars - please feel free to knock my a$$ back in line if I screw up. -Henry