Fourth Quarter Dining and Such

Everyone agrees that 2016 was a tough year on the grand scale, but on a personal level, for me, it had a lot of high points.

We ate and drank some fantastic things. I tried new places and hung out with food friends as often as possible. We drank tons of Hazanas Rioja. Cooper and I spent an interestingly large chunk of the year inside distilleries, both in the U.S. and in Ireland (one day I'll write about the rest of that trip). Dixon and I started collaborating (those articles are so fun to write). It was a good time.

But now, here it is in 2017 and I haven't written about some of the meals I ate in October. That's embarrassing.

So let's take care of that. Here's a look at some of our end of year highlights:

Towson Tavern

Towson Tavern got a new chef this fall - Josh Vecchiolla, the former sous from Parts & Labor. I've always liked it there, but under Vecchiolla's guidance, the menu has gotten a meaty upgrade that's really strong.

We had dinner there in late October with our friends Will and Karen. The drinks were excellent, as always, but the best parts were the stinging nettle dip and this chicken, which was seasoned perfectly, cooked in a cast iron pan, and just great all around.

Visionary Arts Museum Food Exhibit
The new exhibit at the AVAM is all about food, so we, obviously, had to go. It's pretty cool.

I mean, how could I not love this? A note about celebratory meals, posted right over a book called Muskrat Cookin'. That museum, it is the best.

Henninger's

The last weekend in October, we celebrated Bill's birthday with dinner at Henninger's (always the best - I could go there every night) and after dinner drinks at Cat's Eye Pub.

It was Halloween weekend and the weather was gorgeous, so Fells was wild. We made some friends - including an older guy who was dressed as "half naked" (literally, he was half naked). And I remembered why Cat's Eye is one of the best bars anyplace.

We barely took any pictures, but for whatever reason, I did snap this pre-dinner shot of Cooper and his duck lips. Why? Who knows.

Bar Vasquez
Foreman Wolf's new Argentine spot, Bar Vasquez, opened in the old Pazo space this fall and in early November, I had the chance to try it out with a fun group of food friends. It was so good. So good.

I've been recommending it right and left - it's an absolutely perfect place for a special occasion dinner, or even just to meet up with friends if you're looking for something a little more sophisticated than your average Baltimore evening. It's expensive, but between the food, the space, the drinks and the service, it's well worth it.

These potatoes were spectacular, but then, everything was. The duck I had for dinner might be the best duck I've ever eaten.

Figs
I made fig-rosemary jam! I had to. Our fig crop this year was hilariously large and it hung on until...well, it's January and there are still figs on the tree. I doubt they're good, but they're hanging on.

No Kid Hungry at Food Market
Also in early November, Cooper and I went to a dinner at Food Market, benefiting No Kid Hungry. Charm City Cook Amy organized the event, which involved a bunch of local chefs and raised a boatload of money for the organization.

We were thrilled to be a part of that, but we were also thrilled to be on the receiving end of some incredible food. One thing this city does well is a chef-driven charity dinner. I have heard stories of boring "rubber chicken" fundraiser food. Seems to me, Baltimore has risen above that.

Our table was an absolute blast; whoever did the table assignments was a rock star. And every course was terrific. This, venison lasagna by Bryan Voltaggio, was more like a napolean than like lasagna. Incredible.

Wicked Sisters

Wicked Sisters, the new spot in the old McCabe's space in Hampden, opened earlier this fall. It's the latest effort from Charlie and Lori Gjerde and Carrie Podles, who own several other local spots, including Papi's Tacos.

Cooper and I found ourselves with an unexpected Dixon-free Friday night in mid-November, so we stopped in to see what it was all about. It's casual and fun and we liked the food a lot. We started with Brussels sprouts (solid) and I had an excellent burger.

After dinner, Charlie handed us this glass full of Winecream, and we couldn't say no. I mean, they're a local company. Who doesn't want to support that?

Mock Thanksgiving 

Our annual pre-Thanksgiving party was a small affair this year, with just a few friends and their kids coming over for dinner on the Sunday before the big holiday. I made a mess of the turkey and I might not be ready to talk about that yet (or ever), but the night was an overall success, thanks largely to Piper and Hadley, who came over early and set a mean kids table.

Those two design stars have started their own YouTube channel and Facebook page. If you're a fan of short videos of hilarious girls, I strongly suggest you follow them.

Clavel and WC Harlan
After Thanksgiving, we jumped straight into the busy holiday social season.

The first weekend in December, our friend Stacey came down to visit us from New York. Alicia and Mary and I took her to Clavel and WC Harlan. We knew she'd love them both - who doesn't?

Stacey took this picture!

Carol and Crawl
For the ninth year in a row, we spent the first Saturday of December with our friends, celebrating the holiday season with way, way, way too much booze and a lot of off-key singing. Not caroling - despite the name of the party, there is no caroling. If there's any crawling, it's done after the party has officially ended, when people are trying to make it to their beds. It is a fun party. With lots of mozzarella sticks.

Also, this year, lots of ridiculous outfits:

Buck Buck Moose at Volt
Cooper and I spent one day after the Christmas party licking our wounds, then we got back into it, heading to Frederick for a book signing dinner at Volt. Hank Shaw, the blogger behind Hunter Angler Gardener Cook and the author of several cookbooks that we love, was at the restaurant, and Bryan Voltaggio was in the kitchen, cooking recipes adapted from the book.

It was our first time at Volt and we took Cooper's cousin Sarah, who lives in Frederick, with us. Dinner was great - fun and interesting and delicious - and we were especially happy to have another go at the venison lasagna from the No Kid Hungry dinner was just a warm-up. That stuff is so good.

R. House
This fall also marked the opening of R. House, the food hall in Remington.

I've been twice now - once on opening night with Nikki Marks (of Madame BBQ/Mindgrub fame) and again before seeing the Hampden lights with Mike, Alicia, Maggie and Dixon (Cooper was sick, so he stayed home).

They've done a great job over there. It's casual and easy and the food is good. Technically, it's a food court, but it's such a cool one!

I've tried a bunch of different things so far and have liked all of them. The only thing I've photographed, though, is the shawarma from ARBA. It's great.

Clavel at The Charmery
After R. House but before the lights, Dixon, Mike, Alicia, Maggie and I dropped by The Charmery, where they were in the middle of a busy Clavel pop-up. Mexican cinnamon ice cream, wedding cookies, Mexican hot chocolate, lots of other things that were great - unsurprisingly, this was a collab that worked.

McGarvey's
I turned 41 this year, which means I've been celebrating my birthday at McGarvey's for 20 years straight. TWENTY YEARS.

This year was a fun one, even though bad weather and illness meant a lot of people couldn't make it. But still, a bunch of high school friends joined Cooper and me for oysters, crab dip and Aviators at McGarvey's, oyster shooters at Middleton's (pictured), quite a bit of Irishness at Galway Bay and a mildly sloppy close to the evening, featuring good red wine and French whiskey at Harry Browne's.

We always close out the night at Harry Browne's, which is by far the nicest place we go, and we're always a little unruly when we get there (not too unruly, but still). The bartenders there, though, they are fabulous. The one working during my birthday celebration was a total pro - keeping us engaged and put together and having fun. He was the best.

Matisse/Diebenkorn and Parts & Labor
Earlier this year, when word got out about the Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibit at the BMA, my brother and sister and I hatched a plan to meet there while they were in Maryland for Christmas. And we actually made that happen!

The Friday before Christmas, Dixon and I met Tom and Cail and Erin and Clark at the museum. The first thing we did was head to the exhibit itself; I was completely blown away.

I love both Matisse and Diebenkorn; I wrote college papers about both painters (though not about them together). They're two of my favorites, so purely from an aesthetic sense, I enjoyed the exhibit. It's pretty.

But even if I wasn't a particular fan of either of the artists, I would've been impressed. It is so smart and hangs together so well. It reminded me why art history fascinates me. I'm planning to go back again - this time without a 10 year old boy (who was not quite as enamored as I was). I could spend days just soaking it in.

After the exhibit, we wandered through the Cone Collection and the Contemporary Wing; Tom and Erin hadn't been to the museum since they were kids and Cail and Clark had never been. Dixon had a blast in the contemporary collection, taking pictures of the pieces with his iPod and getting really into it. I'm not sure I realized how interactive it is. It's great for kids and I loved watching him have fun with the art.

After all of that, we headed over to a very busy Parts & Labor, where I got their version of a pit beef sandwich and it was killer. Highly recommended!

New Year's Eve
Christmas Eve, Christmas day and the few days after passed in a bit of a blur. Cooper and I both end up working a lot during the week between Christmas and New Year's, but we also always have friends in town, so we're out a lot. This year, that meant seeing people from Denver and Seattle - and also doing a lot of work.

New Year's Eve, we had friends (with kids) over here for a dinner showcasing various cuts of meat from the Jack Straw Farm cow we split with friends. (Oh yeah, we have a freezer that is jam-packed with beef right now.)

The meat was very good, as was the Barefoot Contessa sauce I made with it and the Barefoot Contessa cake Alicia made for dessert. Ina is everywhere these days.

But the highlight of the night wasn't on our plates - it was the kids. Piper, Hadley and Maggie went live on Facebook a couple times and made tons of videos, including one at midnight, when Cooper sabered a magnum of Champagne.

In retrospect, we probably should've opened that big boy earlier. Everybody went home at like 12:15. Because...kids.

Overall, it was a big quarter. On New Year's Day, all we could pull ourselves together to do was order some Chinese food. We're exhausted.

But we're not slowing down. This weekend, we'll be celebrating Kyle's birthday at Bar Vasquez. And after that...who knows. I'm sure it'll be something good.

Crabby

Clockwise from top right: Pool crabs from Conrad's; aftermath of crabs in Delaware; XLs from Seaside; Cail helping Erin put up her hair after her hands are messy, while my dad focuses on picking; Missy's birthday crabs at Higgins in OC; the claw meat salad I made, which wasn't as good as Clementine's, but was still pretty good

Did you read Bill Addison's  love letter to Maryland crabs, published on Eater yesterday? It's excellent - the kind of article that could only be written by a Maryland native - and really, maybe only by a Maryland native who has spent years away from his home state.

(Side note shoutout to City Paper writer/NASA engineer/all-around good guy Ryan Detter for killing it as Addison's co-pilot.)

The article dropped during what feels like the end, but is really the middle, of one of the best crab seasons of my adult life. The Bay is healthier, this year, than it has been in years, the crab yield is up and those crabs are good.

We got a semi-late start on crabs this year, since we were away for most of June. But once we got started, we didn't stop.

We had crabs from Conrad's at the pool. Crabs for Missy's birthday at Higgins North in Ocean City. Crabs from a spot in Ocean View at Jeff and Christine's house in Delaware. Winston's claw meat and fennel salad during an awesome dinner at Star Bright Farm (and my own version at home, a couple days later). And crabs from Seaside at my parent's house, with my whole family.

This, of course, doesn't even include all the crab cakes I've eaten in that time.

Every crab I've eaten this year has been really good, too. It's hard to pick a favorite batch, but if pressed,I'd give that award to the ones from Seaside. They were huge, heavy and just really great all around. Plus, we ate them on a Saturday afternoon on my parents' screened in porch, after sailing trip up and down the Severn and swimming at my parents' beach. Start to finish, that day was pretty close to perfect. (More wind would've made it better, but you can't change the weather. And we never have any wind when I'm on the boat.)

That's the thing about crabs. They're so social and for people from Maryland, eating crabs is so often infused with all sorts of blurry memories from childhood and adolescence.

I've seen a lot of people joke this year that when you're from Maryland, crab pictures on Instagram or Facebook get about as many likes as, say, pictures of newborn babies. It's funny because it's true. And to me, it totally makes sense.

I don't remember my first crab - I was very young - and we ate crabs all the time when I was a kid and a teenager, so my memories sort of blend together. But they are, overwhelmingly, good ones.

When you have all sorts of memories and they mesh together, all hazy but happy, isn't that the best? Yes, yes it is. Especially when they're covered in Old Bay.

(This is a long way of saying you should read that Eater article. It's good.)

To Read: Oysters, Bloodies, Bourbon

Just a few of the oysters we ate in Ireland.

Busy times chez Pollard - the combination of work and no school tends to  make things hectic around these parts. Hence, no post last week.

I have been doing some reading and writing, though. So here are a few things you might enjoy:

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I very much enjoyed researching and writing this article tied to National Oyster Day. I spoke with some of Baltimore's best oyster people about how to get the most enjoyment out of eating oysters. It made me hungry.

***

Speaking of oysters, one of the things I learned from this article about Bloody Marys is that the drink's predecessor was, essentially, a supersized, warm oyster shooter. As much as I love oysters - and Bloodies - even just typing that makes my stomach turn. The article overall is fantastic, tracing the drink from those humble (blech) origins through the prep years, to the DIY bar years and, finally, ending up with today's how-many-ingredients-can-we-stick-on-a-skewer years.

***

I haven't been a huge bourbon drinking since college (largely because I was a huge bourbon drinker in college), but I can't resist stories about the history of the spirit. They're just so...American. Right now, I'm totally taken with what the crew behind Jefferson's Bourbon is doing with their "Fantastic Voyage." The bourbon was made this past January then barreled for 6 months. When that time was up, it was placed on a raft in Kentucky and shipped off down the Mississippi, bound for New Orleans.

As this Alcohol Professor article explains, the journey is designed to mimic the path bourbon barrels followed over a century ago. It'll be interesting to see how the travels impact the bourbon's flavor.

(As an aside, with a name like Jefferson's Bourbon, how couldn't I like this? When it comes to all things booze and food and college-related, TJ was the best. He made great choices.)

Global Is the New Black

What's more global than candy sushi made by my friends' kids?

Restaurant menu trends come and go, though for the past few years, Baltimore has been on a pretty significant Southern Flavors/Regional American kick.

Over the past month or so, though, I've noticed a slight shift away from strictly American influences to a more global approach to cuisine.

I'm not talking about a largely American dish with, say,  harissa worked into the mix. What's happening now is less subtle than that. It's not about fusion - it's about whole dishes drawn from specific cuisines. And multiple cuisines being represented on one menu.

At Gunther and Co., we ate duck lumpia and a Thai hot pot - both Asian dishes with specific flavor profiles, included on a menu that also had ravioli and a truly impressive selection of oysters.

Last night, at The Elephant - which is in its pre-opening week and is gorgeous - we saw wide bowls of ramen at one table and a lamb tagine for two at another.

If I was going to write a college paper about this trend, I'd posit that because we are living in such interesting times - times of global turmoil, if you want to be more dramatic about it - chefs are gravitating to more classic interpretations of dishes. Global is interesting, but the straightforward approach is familiar and comforting.

And if I was writing that paper, I'm sure I'd find a way to tie in the NY Post's recent article about the return of fine dining. Grown-up restaurants embracing a more serious approach to dining out - it also fits with the "in times of turmoil we seek stability" theory.

This theory was the backbone of about half of my art history papers on college. And, of course, food is the new art.

If I do say so myself.

Observations from Abroad

We have just started the second half of a 2-week trip to Ireland and Scotland - right now I'm in the Edinburgh airport, after a weekend in the city, about to head back to Athy, Ireland, which has been out home base.

I'm on my phone, which is not super conducive to blogging, but I did want to share a couple quick observations about food in these countries.

First, the whole Irish love potatoes thing...it's more real than I even imagined. Sides of chips or mashed potatoes come with everything. Even some dishes that already include potatoes.

That's why I'm sorry to say that to me, Scottish chips are better than Irish. They're somewhat skinnier and seem to have spent more time in the fryer. We've had some really good ones.

Speaking of Scotland, I am an unabashed fan of haggis - I'm such a scrapple girl that of course I love its Scottish cousin.

What I didn't expect in Scotland, though, was the best Indian food I've eaten. It makes sense - the Empire and all - but I was pleasantly surprised, anyway, to find that Mother India's, where we went on the recommendation of our AirBNB host, was outrageously good.

Finally, another big surprise: the Irish have figured out how to always - ALWAYS - serve food steaming hot. It's kind of fascinating.

More on all of this when I return!

Food in June

We are just about to head out of town on a pretty great trip (Ireland!) - and while I probably should've spent the last two weeks packing, instead, I spent it eating. It's been great.

Here's what I've been up to:

On one gorgeous Thursday night, Cooper and I went to The French Kitchen, at the Lord Baltimore Hotel, to check out their new spring/summer menu. We especially liked the fried green tomato starter, which had a spicy remoulade that was excellent. Shrimp and corn bisque, crab cakes (very traditional! In a good way!) and wild rockfish served with stewed tomatoes were other high points.

The French Kitchen's space, with its high ceilings and Eiffel Tower centerpiece, is a fun interpretation of fancy. But the hotel's real star attraction is the rooftop bar, LB Skybar. It has a killer view and we had a couple very nice cocktails. The weather was gorgeous and I left thinking that if I still worked nearby, I'd be up there every night.

The Brewer's Hill area is just blowing up lately. Last week, I went to a fun media preview at Gnocco, the new spot from Brian Lavin, formerly of Salt and Fork and Wrench. The food - Mediterranean - was excellent and the space is super cute.

And I was especially happy to see that Gilles, who worked with the chef at Salt, will be working the front of house. He's great - that he's a part of the team definitely bodes well for service!

Gnocco officially opens next week. Everyone should go!

Gunther + Co. is another recent opening, right around the corner from Gnocco. It's been open for close to a month now. We went about two weeks after it opened and already, both the service and food was in great shape.

We were especially impressed by the service; our waiter knew the menu backwards and forwards. The food was very good, too - the duck confit lumpia was probably my favorite dish - and the space is gorgeous. It's a great spot for drinks and oysters - both menus are solid - or for a full meal.

With so many places opening all the time, it's often tough to revisit restaurants, even if they're always good. Like Woodberry. I love it and don't go nearly enough.

This past weekend, I found myself there for brunch with a bunch of other moms. It was the kind of meal that is so fun to attend but, I'm sure, a nightmare to handle from a service end because everyone is so chatty, it takes a million years to turn the table.

But it was really fun - and a great reminder that Woodberry just gets it right. My meal was straightforward - a bloody mary that was exactly the right amount of spicy and a perfectly, perfectly seasoned asparagus and goat cheese flatbread. Just great all around. I should go there more, especially now that it's nice out, so the patio is open.

Finally, and also last weekend, Cooper and I attended Feastival, an afternoon on the harbor, with food from some awesome restaurants, all benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Maryland.

The cause is such a good one and it warms my heart to see how the city's chefs rally behind it. It is also super fun. The day was a little breezy, but sunny, and Cooper and I arrived right when the party started so we could make the most of our time there.

Here's what I remember eating: tacos from Clavel, shrimp with pineapple foam from The Food Market, oysters from Loch Bar, salmon sashimi from Azumi, a spicy banh mi from Gunther + Co., sticky and sweet sesame wings from Hersh's, a gorgeous gruyere gougere from Colette (OK, three of them - they were so good), sausage and peppers from Wit + Wisdom, squid ink pasta from Aggio and raw carrot cake from Encantada.

I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, too! Everything was good (for real), but those gougeres...I could've eaten about forty of them and still gone back for more.

I washed everything down with an herbaceous vodka lemonade that was ideal for outdoor day drinking. It would have been easy to have about forty of those, too.

This actually isn't even everything. We've also had some fun pool cookouts and last night, we went to an amazing dinner at Boordy Vineyard, catered by The Food Market and featuring their new line of wines, Sweetland Cellars. More to come on that - the drinks, the food and the space all blew me away and I remembered just how much I love it up there.

It's been a good month so far, no doubt. Good...and full!

Pool Season

I love pool season. When I was little, it meant long days, starting with early morning swim team and ending much, much later, at the pond in Ben Oaks, where I grew up. My parents would sit underneath a big willow tree (which is, sadly, no longer), drinking beer and hanging out with their friends. It was pretty great - for me and for them.

When I was teenager, I was the lifeguard there and I spent my days off laying out on the little strip of land that separates the pond from the Severn River - always on my stomach, trying to even out my tan. (Or, rather, "tan." I am pasty or pink, but never quite golden.)

As an adult, I miss Ben Oaks, but the Stoneleigh Pool - even though it's not next to the river - meets all of my summertime social needs. We log a lot of evening hours there in the summertime. It's a good time.

Since there's a very strict no-glass rule at the pool, summertime, for us, is all about plastic and cans. This year, that means lots of LBLL's (schlepped back from Keuka Lake), Leinenkugel grapefruit shandies (finally, this year, available in cans), and Union Craft Old Pro (how can you resist that can?).

I've also developed a recent obsession with the salsa and guacamole made by the people who work at our local Giant. They are so good - especially the salsa, which is very slightly spicy and just a little bit sweet. I eat an embarrassing amount of it when I'm home alone.

But that's what summer is all about, right? Eating salsa instead of dinner and drinking citrusy beers while your kid wears himself out messing around with friends in the pool.

Now, if school would just end, we'd really be in business.

Spring 2016 Recap

Now that Memorial Day has come and gone and everyone at my house is 100% over school (despite the fact that school itself is not actually over), it's time for a big, long recap of all the things I've neglected to write about over the past couple months.

So here it is: the parties and drinks and meals that made Spring 2016 fun (but that haven't made it onto the blog until now):


Way back in March, I helped my brother and sister throw a 70th birthday party for my dad. We ate oysters and Boston cream pie and drank a ginomrous bottle of French wine. We decorated my parents' screened in porch with old photos (my sister's idea) and about 10 million of those poms you have to manually fluff.

We also, at the last minute, thought it would be fun to have a photographer come to take some family photos. Rachel Rock came to the house and took some awesome pictures of all of us - and she was very fun while she did it. Most of the pictures below are hers:

Also back in March, Cooper and I went to Cellar Sessions, a wine class with Wit + Wisdom's sommelier Julie Dalton. She is so smart and good at her job.

The class was no joke - she walked us through how to blind taste wines like a sommelier. Walking into the class, we both thought we knew some things about wine - this was not the first tasting class we've taken. But it was definitely the most intense in terms of knowledge. As a result, Cooper's wine vocabulary and ability to pinpoint specific aromas and flavors has increased significantly. (I still mostly smell fruit and booze when I stick my nose in a glass...his palate continues to put mine to shame.)

In April, I was a judge at the Taste of Pikesville, which was hectic and fun and full of surprises, like an excellent bread pudding from FutureCare, pretty sushi from Wegmans and a smorgasboard of Uzbek specialties from the guys I love at Silk Road.

I also left with this gorgeous collection of chocolates from Raimondi's. They tasted even better than they looked.

After a couple years of not being able to make it for one reason or another, Cooper and Dixon and I finally made it to The Emporiyum, the big, roving food festival.

I spent the first few minutes feeling totally overwhelmed, but once I got acclimated, I loved every second of of the experience. Some of my favorite food people were there, like the crew from Clavel and Nick from The Local Oyster, and I had my first taste of an Ekiben steam bun. It totally lived up to the hype. And there was a lot of hype.

One sunny Saturday afternoon, Cooper and Dixon and I drove up to John Brown General and Butchery, which met all of my very high expectations. Not only is the place adorable, it's also filled with incredible meat, cheese, wine and other things I didn't even know I needed in my life, like a fistful of ramps (later grilled) and a plastic tub of creamy fresh ricotta.

One quiet Monday night, after a hellish day of writing, I had drinks with Charm City Cook at WC Harlan, followed by queso fundido (and more drinks) at Clavel. It was my first trip to WC Harlan, which was, as I expected, very cool and the drinks were thoughtful and creative and completely delicious.

The whole experience improved my day (and week) considerably. "Monday night drinks" sounds risky, but in this case, it was nothing but smart.

One good way to justify Sunday afternoon drinks and apps is to present it in class form. That's how I found myself drinking and eating my way through an afternoon at Bookmakers (again with Charm City Cook). CCC and behind-the-bar master Ryan Sparks teamed up for an Instagram class that genuinely helped me with my crappy picture-taking skills.

Also, it helped me enjoy my Sunday. Because, how couldn't I?

Baltimore's food scene has been exploding over the past couple years - and that's especially noticeable right in the middle of the city, near Hampden/Remington/Clipper Mill, where new restaurants and food-centric mixed use real estate projects are popping up every day.

I checked out one of those developments, Whitehall Mill, during a fun event organized by Baltimore magazine and CCC (she gets around). Whitehall Mill will include a pretty massive food hall and a restaurant, which is great  news for anyone who likes to eat.

At the end of April, I met college friends in New York and had brunch at Hudson Clearwater and drinks at Grand Banks (it's a bar on a sailboat!) and dinner at The Greenwich Project.

The weather was gorgeous, we drank a boatload of rose and prosecco, and it was so much fun. We hadn't all been together in twenty years, so the weekend could have, theoretically, been awkward. It wasn't. It was great.

Also, I want to give a special shoutout to the staff at The Greenwich Project.There was a seating mixup while we were there - something annoying but that could've been fixed with a single round of drinks. Instead, they bought all of our drinks and dessert - and encouraged us to keep ordering more. They went above and beyond to make sure we had a good time. So we did.

In mid-May, I went to Black-Eyed Susan Day, where we ran into Bowtie Bob, did not win any money, had our picture taken by an ESPN photographer, and were reminded that hats can seriously impede peripheral vision. Also, they make my head hot. But they're so cute!

Black-Eyed Susan Day, the day of races before Preakness, is billed as a ladies' day (though there are lots of guys there, too). Mostly, it's known as a more manageable, more grown-up Preakness for locals. There's still some great people-watching, but BESD does not involve the sort of infield antics that Preakness is known for. It's a good time!

Finally, we spent Memorial Day on Keuka Lake with Mike, Alicia and Maggie, watching Dixon learn to SUP while eating and drinking our faces off - including a trip to McGregor (my favorite Keuka winery) and two trips to The Olney Place, where Cider Creek's Cran-Mango Saison became my new favorite thing.

This isn't it, of course. There have been little girls' birthday parties and back porch dinners and a mother-son Oriole's game and two museum-heavy DC visits and a whole bunch of other fun things. It's been a great spring...and all signs are pointing to a summer that's just as eventful.

Recently(ish) Visited Restaurants: B+O American Brasserie and Cosima

It's been a busy couple months around here. We've been getting out and about quite a bit, which means my "stuff to write" list is painfully long.

Here's a quick recap of two of the best dinners we've had over the past month:

B+O American Brasserie

Just yesterday, I learned, via Facebook, that B+O chef Michael Ransom is leaving town, heading to Detroit to open a place of his own. Great news for him, sad news for us. Ransom's food is thoughtful and lovely - and he's such a nice guy.

At  the end of April, we tasted a selection from B&O's new spring menu and, across the board, it was excellent. There was rockfish and steak, a beautiful charcuterie plate, and charred calamari that was really special.

But our favorite dish was definitely the lamb relleno. The pepper was stuffed with dirty rice and pulled lamb - and it was so, so good. Spicy, but not overly so, and genuinely interesting.

Dinner also included several cocktails created by the incomparable Brendan Dorr, one of Baltimore's best bartenders. His drinks are creative and smart - and delicious.

Our favorite was the Purple Rain (created and named just before Prince's passing). Lavender-infused cachaca, lemon and honey apple shrub. It was light, but potent, and it came with a lesson on shrubs that vastly expanded my knowledge. As is so often the case, I thought I had a handle on the subject, but discovered that what I knew was only a tiny tip of the iceberg.

Overall, the meal was really nice - and a good reminder that B+O does it right. The space is fantastic, the service prompt and both the food and drinks very good. If you haven't been in a while, go.

***

Cosima

Cosima, in Mill No. 1, opened earlier this year to seriously fabulous reviews - the kind every restaurant hopes for - praising both the space and the food. It's been on our short list since then, though because it feels somewhat like a special occasion place (in part because it's on the pricier side), it took us a few months.

Ultimately, the special occasion that finally got us to Cosima was nothing more than a standard Thursday night. When we arrived, the restaurant was fairly busy. We took Richard's advice, finding a couple seats at the bar and ordering several smaller plates and one pizza, all to share.

The pizza crust was terrific and we loved both the basket filled with fried seafood (whole sardines!) and the grilled baby octopus. But my favorite dish - and it came as a surprise, since it was a late, somewhat random addition to our order - was the involtini. Ricotta-stuffed eggplant, placed in a small cast iron dish and surrounded by a simmering red sauce, was seasoned absolutely perfectly - a feat that happens less frequently than you might think. (We are super judgey about appropriate seasoning.)

I'd also like to give a shoutout to the bartenders, who were completely on top of things and knew the wine list backwards and forwards. They took turns offering me wines they thought I might like - and impressed me repeatedly.

Sitting at the bar, for just the two of us on a random Thursday, was absolutely the right call. Though the people sharing tables looked happy, too - and the space is gorgeous.

***

The city has seen a bunch of high profile openings recently and there are more new openings announced every day. Plus, the restaurants that have been around for a while have seriously been stepping up their games. It's a great time to be a restaurant lover in Baltimore.

My restaurants-to-visit list keeps getting longer and longer - but it's one to-do list that can grow and grow. I don't mind a bit.

This and That

This Tampa Bay Times article, about the fiction that is "farm to table" claims in many restaurants, is astoundingly good - and astoundingly disturbing. I can't quite wrap my head around how much work it must have been to research and write and how gutsy the publication is to put it all out there, especially in a smaller market - they have their i's dotted, for sure, otherwise they'd get some serious pushback.

And I'm shaken by the article's revelations. I'm not totally naive - I realize there's misrepresentation, at a minimum, in the restaurant industry. But this is so widespread. As I said in a comment on Facebook, I like to think that people are mostly good. This kind of lying - and lying is what we're talking about here - about food, a subject that can bring so much light to life, is profoundly disturbing to me.

*****

In happier news, this Hemingwayish Lucky Peach article made me happy. Oysters are both one of my favorite foods and my favorite subjects, and I will never shy away from a good East Coast vs. West Coast debate. (I am East Coast all the way, obvs., but I do like a melon-y West Coast oyster. Not as much as I like salty East Coasters, but still.)

Writing about oysters is writing about everything, as far as I can tell. Land and money and history and big stuff, but also - because I grew up in an oyster-loving family - relationships and small, specific memories.

Possibly my favorite part of the article was this revelation: "There's something you need to understand...In the Northeast, the oysters are at their best on the winter solstice."

The winter solstice falls, about half the time, on my birthday. I celebrate, obviously, with oysters.

Meals I Have Enjoyed of Late

Clockwise from far left: Colette menu and frothy drink; Limoncello granita oysters at Clementine; Gnocchi with crab and saffron sauce, topped with fried arugula at Cafe Gia; Bone broth at The Food Market; Doughnuts at Parts and Labor.

For the past two months, I've been collecting pictures (and memories) of restaurants around town, planning to write about each of them when I have time to do them justice.

Last week, my computer started slowly dying, so I got a new one. Though I thought I transferred all my photos from the old computer to the new one, turns out, I didn't. The thought of firing up the old laptop right now, just to find those pictures, fills me with dread. But I did take all of this as a sign that I need to stop procrastinating and start writing.

So...past two months, some meals I have loved (illustrated by pics I shared on Facebook and Instagram):

Win-Ryn Pop-Up at Clementine
Way back in January, Winston, Cristin and Ryn, all from Clementine, decided to host a pop-up dinner in the old restaurant space. The original dinner was scheduled for the night of that huge blizzard. Then a makeup date, slated for a week later, also had to be rescheduled, since there was no parking. And then, when the stars semi-aligned and people got into the restaurant, things were a little crazy and hectic. We had a fun night, with good food, but it was really hectic.

But after all of that, they decided to throw another dinner - this one the weekend of Valentine's Day. Cooper and I went, just the two of us. the Friday of that weekend, and we had such a spectacular meal. Gorgeous beet bisque with lump crab. Avocado and pickled watermelon "ceviche." Rabbit cassoulet (which took us way back, to the rabbit pot pie that used to be on the Clem menu...and that Dixon was in love with when he was just a toddler). Duck in a sauce of blood orange and ginger. Prigel ice cream. Charlottetown panna cotta.

Our favorite dish of that night was the oysters with limoncello granita. Totally simple, but crazy good. The kind of thing you taste, then can't figure out why nobody has ever fed you that before because it makes so much sense.

Just being back at Clementine felt great. I wish we could do that every night.

Private Kitchen at The Food Market
The week after Valentine's Day, I had the very exciting opportunity to have dinner in The Private Kitchen at The Food Market. I was with a fun group of people who love food - which is the best way to eat every meal - and it was a blast.

The Private Kitchen is in the basement of the restaurant. The team there used to use it as a prep kitchen, but it's recently been turned into a space for private events - dinners for up to 12 guests.

It's a cute space and still a working kitchen - two chefs (in our case, Chad and Todd) cook and plate your meals for you right there.

Because it's The Food Market, it should be no surprise that our dinner was awesome. The photo above was one of the standouts - chicken broth with prosciutto and housemade pasta, among other things. It was cold outside, cozy inside and the soup was so well-seasoned. Just right all around.

After that dinner, all I wanted to do was think of a reason to throw a dinner party in that space. So fun, so good.

Brunch at Parts and Labor
Earlier this year, Parts and Labor joined big sister Woodberry Kitchen on the Bmore brunch scene. Really, I can't believe that didn't happen sooner. PL is the kind of place that's made for brunch. Great location. Good, straightforward food. Butcher shop so you can shop for dinner on your way out. It's a no-brainer.

In late February, I met Xani and Erin there to eat, catch up on our lives and to talk about how much we love parties and how hosting them is the best. (Seriously, when we see each other, that's all we can talk about. Parties.)

Because it's Parts and Labor, I couldn't help but order scrapple...it's like I'm compelled. It never disappoints. Also, grits. Also, eggs. And of course, because you can't start a Foodshed restaurant group brunch without sweet breakfast apps, we had doughnuts.

Simple food, really. But totally good. The Bloody I had...a spicy one...was also delightful. As was, of course, the company.

Colette
Colette is getting all kinds of buzz these days. The Station North restaurant, which is from the same crew as Bottega, is racking up good reviews for its charming atmosphere and totally good food. It deserves the love.

Cooper and I went on a kind of gross Wednesday in early March, two or three weeks after they opened, and it was already packed. Like Bottega, it's a smallish space that's very cute. Unlike Bottega, which is an Italian BYOB, Colette is French - and it feels completely Parisian, in the best way - and it has a liquor license.

Just this week, they started offering a couple cocktails on tap. They weren't available when we visited, but we did love our drinks - a Gin Fizz for Cooper and a Bee's Knees for me. Old school and well-made, both.

I also really, really loved the goat cheese beignet appetizer. I could've eaten about 40 of them, they were so good. Everything we ate was nice, but those were just fantastic. Airy and tangy - and a perfect hors d'oeuvres, since they whetted our appetites, but didn't fill us up.

Cafe Gia
Last Sunday, I dragged Cooper and Dixon downtown to go to Light City (they complained,but in the end, they both loved it and were happy I made them leave the basement to go). Before we headed over to the festival, we had an early dinner at Cafe Gia in Little Italy.

I had been to Pane e Vino, the wine bar attached to the restaurant, but never to Cafe Gia itself. It's so cute - and our food was great. Cooper and I both had specials - his a lamb dish and mine gnocchi in a creamy-ish sauce with saffron and crab and fried arugula. Interesting and really nicely done.

We also had a lovely glass of limoncello after dinner (Cooper and I did, I mean, while Dixon was housing Nutella bread pudding). It put us in exactly the right frame of mind for a little stroll down to the harbor to check out the lights.

Which we also loved...even if they weren't edible.

Culture Shopping: Findings from the Field

Last April or May, I got an email from Kris Henry who was, at the time, the editor of the Taste section of the Sun. She had an idea for a series about local shops that carry products from different international cuisines and she wanted to know if I was interested in writing it. Oh, was I ever.

Over the course of the next ten or so months, I wrote eight stories, covering cuisines from Afro-Caribbean to Italian. For each, I researched the cuisines themselves, talking to bloggers, shop-owners and restaurateurs, I tracked down recipes, and I visited anywhere from 5 to 20 shops specializing in the food of a specific culture.

If that sounds like a lot of work, well, it was. But it was so worth it. I learned an incredible amount. So much more than I expected.

Overall, the biggest thing I learned was that if you ask people in Baltimore to talk to you about the food of their heritage, they will be thrilled to do just that.

If you smile at them and ask questions, they won't be offended that you don't already know all about their shop or their cuisine. They'll share what they know, they'll cut you bits of cheese and force candy into your hands, and they'll send you recipes their aunts and dads and mother's coworkers used to make.

And when all the research has been done and the article runs in the paper, they'll call to say thank you.

*********

As with any subject with this rich, I had to pick and choose what to include in each article. There just wasn't room for absolutely everything and because of the nature of the articles, including my opinions wouldn't have been appropriate.

So, in order of appearance of the original articles, here are a few extra bits and pieces, including some of my more random observations and opinions. (Original articles are linked in the titles.)

Asian
Holy smokes, Howard County is lucky when it comes to the Asian/international grocery store scene.

This was the first article I wrote and, for a variety of reasons, the most daunting. "Asian cuisine" is almost comically broad and many of the grocery stores I visited were enormous, filled with more ingredients than I could ever hope to catalog. The biggest bags of rice. The most varieties of mushrooms. So many fish and crustaceans. Jellyfish. JELLYFISH.

While this category is filled with incredible shopping options, for my money, Great Wall offers the single best international shopping experience of the entire series. I can't imagine that there's anything you can't buy there. It's overwhelming in the most fabulous way.

Latin American

Latin American markets have the most inexpensive limes. I visited these shops last spring, during that weird lime crisis, when the Mexican cartels were holding American ladies' margaritas hostage (or something like that?) and at regular grocery stores, lime costs were through the roof.

That wasn't happening at the Latin American shops, though, where I was buying up all the citrus I could see.

During these excursions, I also fell in love with Cinco de Mayo in Highlandtown (it's so busy and fun!) and Jalapenos in Glen Burnie, which is probably the area's biggest Latin American market.

At Jalapenos, I bought a couple flavors of homemade salsa in little plastic containers...and then promptly scorched my taste buds. The flavors were great and the heat index...that was the real deal.

Afro-Caribbean
Before I started this story, I thought I knew some things about Afro-Caribbean cuisine. I was wrong. Well, not completely. I'd eaten Ethiopian food and island food and I was familiar with a lot of the flavors, but as it turns out, I didn't really know much about the ingredients that go into those dishes.

Fortunately, the people in these shops were super sweet. I especially liked the people and selection at All in One on Harford Road, and the extremely sweet and helpful lady behind the counter at Island Food Market on Park Heights Avenue.

Greek
There aren't a lot of Greek markets in Baltimore, but the ones we have are good. (And, I should note, a lot of the markets I visited during the Middle Eastern market research also carried Greek products.)

Dmitri's in Mount Vernon is fancy, but wow does it smell good. Seriously, I was starving about ten seconds after walking in. It's exactly the right place to buy someone who loves food a really nice hostess gift.

And Prima. I absolutely cannot say enough great things about Prima Foods. I spent an hour there, tasting feta, learning about domestic vs. European products and generally getting a deep education on all things Greece. If you have a question, they will answer it - and they could not be nicer.

Indian
I mentioned, just above, that there were a lot of Greek products at Middle Eastern shops. The same is true of Indian goods. Though I did visit a handful of stores that catered more to Indian food than other cuisines, there were also plenty of Indian ingredients available both at Middle Eastern and Asian stores.

But what I found at Indian stores, maybe more so than at Asian or Middle Eastern shops, was that the proprietors were super friendly. They were more than happy to walk me up and down the aisles, explaining every spice and bean.

Italian
If you ever have the opportunity to write about Italian markets, especially during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, do it. It's so fun.

This was the cuisine I was most familiar with already. I'd been to most of the shops I visited for the article. It was not a hardship to visit them again. The atmospheres are festive, the people happy and the food so, so good. Ceriello in Belvedere Square and Mastellone's are the two shops I hit most frequently - because they are closest to my house. But on a Thursday morning, my senses were overwhelmed at DiPasquale's and both Pastore's. And during my Saturday morning visit to Trinacria, other shoppers were coming up to me while I looked around, anxious to tell me their favorite products and about their long family histories of visiting the store.

I didn't leave any of the stores empty-handed - how could I?

Middle Eastern
Before writing this article, I had no idea just how many Middle Eastern shops are around the area. This is driven at least in part, I think, by the religious need for halal butchers; most of the shops I went to were butchers that also carried some other products.

This article was challenging not just from a time management standpoint - it involved a lot of driving! - but also because the cuisine of the Middle East is quite varied. The region is huge, but  learned that many of the stores focus on Persian cuisine, with a bit of Turkish thrown in.

I did have the loveliest time at Caspian Market, where the Iranian owner chatted with me forever, pointing out ingredients, explaining how they differ from similar American products and, at one point, slicing open a sweet lemon for me to taste right there in the middle of the store.

Also, if you're ever at Orchard Market and Cafe (a Towson restaurant, not actually a market), ask the owner about saffron. He should really write a book.

Eastern European
The final article in the series was something of a catch-all, including shops carrying products from Russia, Poland, Germany and, in the case of Old World in Randallstown, beers and sweets from all over the Continent. By the end of my research, I was thinking of this as the sausage-and-pickled-things category.

Wow, all that sausage was impressive. At Krakus in Fells, the air was thick with the scent of sausages smoking in the back. At Binkert in Rosedale, I got lucky, showing up when the shop was closed but the staff was there, making sausages for delivery the next day, so I ended up with an up-close tour of, literally, how the sausage gets made.

I also really loved Sophia's, the Polish place in Broadway Market, and Mueller's, the old school German deli on Harford Road.

And then there were the Russians. Who knew they were so into sweets? Seriously, candy everywhere. Everywhere. (And now, as a result of that, in my house, too.)

*********

As it turns out, the story of Russians and their collective sweet tooth was a great note to go out on.

This project was, no doubt, a massive amount of work. But what a pleasure it was, from start to finish. I have learned so much about food, about culture and - maybe most importantly - about how kind and open the people of Baltimore are when it comes to talking about food. Like a great book or a very special movie, I'm a little sad that it's over, but I know that it'll stay with me for a long time.