Preparing for Milan

The Italians make a lot of fine desserts. Carrot cake is not among them. Even though the Swedes are reputed to have made the first carrot cake, it always feels to me like an American concoction.

There is a long history of using carrots in cake that dates back to medieval times. The first carrot cake was born of necessity in a time when sweeteners were scarce and hard to come by. It is believed that the early Swedes were the first to use carrots to sweeten their cakes, carrots having more natural sugar than most other vegetables.

During the Second World War, when rationing altered the way we cooked, carrot cake rose to prominence in the Western diet, for much the same reason. Easy to grow in the back yard garden, carrots were a readily-available ingredient to sweeten up a cake during limited sugar consumption.

Shortly after WWII, the carrot cake as we know it started appearing in diners in the United States. The mixed spice flavor of nutmeg, cinnamon, clove and allspice and frequent presence of raisins hint back to the alleged Swedish beginnings. But it was the United States that added that divine crown of cream cheese icing that is now ubiquitous to the confection.

It is this version of carrot cake that seems uniquely American. Made with common ingredients that can be found in most kitchens, it comes together quickly and easily without a great deal of fuss. Even a simple cream cheese icing is a pinch. It is very much a non-nonsense, workaday item that really does belong in the same category as other staples of Americana cooking like meatloaf, tuna casserole, and mac and cheese. It can be dressed up with a butter cream icing, but it is really best when you stick to the basic recipe - a spiced batter with grated carrots. And, even the experts who maintain the article at Wikipedia agree with me that nuts, raisins, coconut and the dreaded pineapple are indeed optional.

Case in point is the one time I got carrot cake at Patisserie Poupon. When I was a regular at the European bakery down by the shot tower where I-83 spills into the city, I often inquired about carrot cake, much to the amusement of the staff. (Really, in a shop full of eclairs, tiaramisu, petit fours, etc, why would anyone ask for carrot cake?) When they actually did have some carrot cake -  overage from a wedding order - it was just not the same. The super-sweet icing was replaced with a custard-like cheese filling. It had a distinct raisin flavor that was stronger that both the carrots and the spices. In short, it tasted the way carrot cake would if it was made by the French instead of an American. So, there you have it.

I know complaining about the food options in Italy will not generate any sympathy and in fact makes me sound like a bit of an asshole. I'm sure I'll manage to get by. Tomorrow I will wake up in Europe but today I will have my carrot cake and eat it too.

Carrot Cake a la Gareth from last Christmas

Pumpkin Soup

Today is the first day of October, and while the vernal first day of autumn was a week ago, today it is indeed autumn in earnest at a slightly chilly 50 degrees and just barely sunny. My counterpart and I spent the day in the kitchen working on an appropriately seasonal meal involving pumpkin and game. The game was rabbit in pear reduction with mushrooms and creamed leeks plus pate on the side. The pumpkin was one of the simplest and most satisfying soups ever.

First, you need a fresh pumpkin. 

Go to your local pumpkin patch - there are a lot of them selling this time of year. 

Pumpkins this size will give you enough for soup and still have some left over for pie.

You will also need a 5-pound roasting chicken.

Quarter the chicken and place in it a large pot of water to stock.

Wash the pumpkin, cut it into quarters and remove the seeds.

Roast on the center rack of a 365-degree oven for about 90 minutes. 

Then set aside to cool.

Add some onion and leek to your chicken stock.

When the pumpkin is cool enough to handle, strain your stock.

Return it to the pot and add some curry and white pepper.

Skin half of the pumpkin, cut into large chunks, and add to the seasoned chicken stock.

Add just a little heavy cream - a couple of tablespoons is about enough. 

Use an immersion blender to smooth it out. 

Taste it and add more of whatever you think is missing. 

If you add more pumpkin, use the blender again.

Add a couple of dried chilis - you can find these at Latino, Asian or Indian grocery stores- and let the whole thing simmer for about 45 minutes.

Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche.

Happy Autumn!

The Silver Platter Reopens

Same pit beef, new fries

The Silver Platter reopened this week and introduced their new menu. People are fickle about food, and the business lunch crowd tends to gravitate toward the convenient and immediate. So, The Silver Platter took a serious risk when they closed up shop for a full two weeks to revamp the menu. They are back in business this week, but it is not the same food cart.

The gourmet dishes at ridiculous prices that they built their following on are gone, profit margin being cited as the principle reason. This is understandable as we all wondered how they were able to sell seared scallops and lobster mac and cheese for $12. Gone, too, are the previous chef team - the head chef (who left several weeks before the temporary closing) and his assistant chef who was beginning to roll out items of his own creation. In their place, there are now two short order cooks and a menu that consists primarily of Baltimore's latest culinary trend - sliders.

The hot dog

The current menu offers the original pit beef and pulled pork in the smaller slider size, plus Cajun chicken, barbecue salmon and hot dogs, all served on a Martin's potato roll. The highly popular potato ribbons have been replaced with more standard food service fries, both potato and sweet potato. An order consists of two sliders or dogs with a side of fries and a soda or bottled water, all for $10 (except the hot dog, which was $6).

The small group of us regulars who went back to The Sliver Platter on its grand reopening were left unmoved. We tried the hot dog, the barbecue salmon and the pit beef. While the home made barbecue sauce for the pit beef was also gone (replaced with a super-sweet sauce from a bottle), the meat itself was still just as good as before. I ate it all but left the Martin's rolls behind. The hot dog was a standard hot dog, and, when asked how it was, its consumer merely shrugged. The salmon was first deemed "something I could have made at home". We all agreed that the old artistry was missing. Whether that is the new staff, the new menu, or both remains to be seen.

The barbecue salmon

And there is definitely some craftsmanship missing at this juncture. The Lobster Roll - a favorite from the old menu - made an appearance on Day 2 as a special. It was still a generous portion of lobster meat, but the salad was missing some of its former creaminess. And the grilled, buttered bread that it used to be served in was replaced with a Martin's hot dog bun, straight out of the bag. That being said, it takes time for a new kitchen staff to gel. This week, though, The Silver Platter has undeniably been having some growing pains.

Some of the other items from the previous menu will be rotated back through as specials, but, like the Lobster Roll, they may not be the same masterpieces we have come to know and love. Suggestions will also be solicited via their Facebook page. While I secretly wondered how long this would last, I'm hoping The Silver Platter grows beyond the new sliders concept in the weeks to come. The truck is outfitted with a smoker, and the pit beef is still a strong item. We're hoping they make more use of the smoker in their new conception and bring back some variety of ribs.

This week's Lobster Roll

There is no doubt that The Silver Platter will find its crowd. But reinventing yourself is difficult, especially for purveyors of food who rely on a crowd of familiar faces. After this first week, when many regulars shook their heads in bewilderment, their future in the Harbor East neighborhood seems a little uncertain. In an area with an overabundance of eateries, what can you offer the local crowd that others cannot? Previously, we got a gourmet food experience at a non-gourmet price. What will it be now?  With even the wine bar on the block selling sliders, it may be challenging in this neighborhood.

With his promotion of (and I suspect organizational involvement in) The Gathering food truck happy hours, it seems like the owner of The Silver Platter has something to offer the city.I'll be returning as the new menu develops.

An Inconvenient Truth

Today I faced an unfortunate truth that I have been avoiding for weeks. My cupcake habit has gotten out of control. Sure, it started simply enough. A once-a-week visit to the IcedGems truck on Fridays for a superior deviation from my usually low-sugar diet. What's wrong with that? I thought.

Then I burned some vacation time in August by taking Fridays off. Anxiety set in every Friday afternoon, and I began seeking cupcakes close to home. I justified this in the name of research. I am a food blogger, after all, and it would be remiss of me to not be familiar with the local scene. But then, as slippery slopes go, I began frequenting these local bakeries at other times, not just Friday afternoons, especially Flavor Cupcakery which is located next door to our new favorite restaurant, Fiesta Grill . Who doesn't like a little cupcake after an enchilada platter? I reached a peak of sorts when I stopped by for not one, but six cupcakes last weekend, fully planning on premeditated cupcake deviance during the week.

Over the ensuing weeks since the cupcake habit grew in August, my clothing has been getting a little snug. Still, I persisted in the myth that all was well and that I could get away with such behavior. I've been avoiding mirrors. (One of my favorite habits is to look at myself in the mirror and poke my soft spots to jiggle the fat. This may sound absurd and self-loathing to those who have never done it, but as a formerly overweight person and member of Weight Watchers, I know just how out of hand I can get - having gotten there not just once but twice - and this practice, while not endorse by Weight Watchers, actually keeps me in the healthy eating/healthy weight area. When I stop doing it, I am inevitably in Weight Gain Denial, where I can remain for months while accumulating an extra  20, 30 even 40 lbs, so this is a good thing for me to do. Really.) This weekend I pulled on a pair of jeans that fit comfortably about a month ago. And pulled and pulled and pulled. I held my breath to get them zipped and despaired at the muffin top (cupcake top?) that spilled over the waistline.

OK, so it's actually only been 7 lbs. But, supposedly that is a full clothing size. So, today I eat my last cupcake. It is - appropriately enough - carrot cake. And even though it is riddled with coconut, I am savoring every little bite, letting the dense cream cheese frosting melt in my mouth, because I know it will be a while before I can do this again.

 Farewell Flavor Cupcakery and IcedGems. We've had a pretty good run. Please know that my absence is because your products are just too good. I'll see you again when I can fit into those jeans.

What about the farewell cupcake?

Almost Paradise: Harford County is Knocking on Wegman's Door

The Flower Shop: 2 words - holy shit

The conventional wisdom around Harford County is that the opening of a New York-based Wegman's Market out here was long blocked by the Klein family, founders of what was once the largest local chain of grocery stores in the area. There is no supporting evidence that this blogger is privy to, but as the Internet has shown us over the last decade, just because it is unsubstantiated gossip doesn't necessarily mean it is not true. And, adding fuel to this suburban legend is the coincidental fact that shortly after the Kleins went into partnership with Pennsylvania discount grocer Shop Rite and re-branded their grocery empire, ground was broken on a Wegman's in Abingdon.

Pre-cut veggies

One tour through the store will let you know why the Klein family may have been concerned, but will also reveal that Klein's, even in the hay day of its previous generation of owners, is not in the same category as Wegman's - not even close.

I had previously visited the Wegman's in nearby Hunt Valley and had some idea of what we were all in for when the store opened. But nothing prepared me for the sheer pandemonium that has been unfolding over the course of this week. One of my friends was there on Sunday, September 18, when the store first opened and almost lost her mother in the roiling crowd. I arrived on Tuesday and was impressed by the police presence in the parking lot, there to enforce the common sense laws of right-of-way, obeying traffic signs and only parking where indicated that the more excited shoppers had clearly forgotten. Once inside the store, I joined the mob and threw all caution to the wind.

A nice selection of bread

This will be tested at a later date

I stopped in to pick up a couple of things to do a little price checking against Wal-Mart and also get the lay of the land. Which I did accomplish. However, there was just so much stuff, and good stuff that I actually want, and without my counterpart there to anchor me, I honestly got a little silly. In addition to the couple of items we actually needed, I came out of there with things I never find anywhere - red bean ice cream, shumai, Earl Grey tea with bergemont (the oil, not the flavoring) - you get the picture. While in my gut I was sure I had saved a ton of money (and my heart went along with this), a receipt-to-receipt bottom-line comparison was out of the question.

Of the regular items I bought, some where more expensive (Simply Lemonade - $0.50 more), some were less expensive (Barbara's Organic Peanut Butter Puffins - $2.00 cheaper with the shopper card) and some were about the same (Wegman's coffee - $0.25 more but also a larger bag). Plus they have all my favorite things - coconut water, Red Zinger tea,  and a very nice bakery to say the least. I picked up a Red Velvet cake roll that was a little roll of heaven and will naturally be going back for the carrot cake.

The iPhone takes a tumble

I returned on Thursday night after my workout to pick up a little dinner from their highly reputable cafe section. Located directly across the street from the Y I frequent, this could easily spell disaster for my recalcitrant waistline if only they were a little more impressive in this area. I hit the sushi and the dim sum with fairly mediocre results. The selection was amazing, as was the presentation (pictured below). But the actual flavor was lacking - it really did taste like Chinese buffet food sitting under heat lamps on a steam table. Which is exactly what it is. If that's what you're looking for - great. But at $8.49/lb there are certainly better deals in town. And with Wok To Go just a few miles away, there is much better quality.

While I can see myself going down this path fairly often while Gareth is in his certification class on Thursdays, it will be out of a mixture of convenience and laziness and not out of any real desire for their food. In all fairness, I will try it a few more times as they also have Indian, American comfort, and soup. I'll write back if these are any better.

Overall, I am very happy to have a Wegman's in the neighborhood. With recipe planners and cooking technique videos on their website, plus the amazing variety of their grocery offerings, I am a convert and a true fan. There are also deals to be found and an awesome selection of grocery items and produce. I'll leave the hot bars for the harried hoi poloi. With so much fresh food in the offerings, why bother with anything else?

Sushi bar

Dim Sum Go-Go

Mmmm Mmmm Good

Probably my greatest flaw as a foodie and would-be expert on what to eat is my undying love of Campbell's condensed tomato soup, especially in the autumn. As soon as the temperature dips below 70, soup's on. I'm more reliable with the season's first can of soup than I am with getting the furnace serviced. It's the first sign that summer is over, and I feel it in my core.

Here's how I make it:

• Reconstitute the soup with half water, half milk (or 3/4 water, 1/4 cream)
• Dice up some fresh tomatoes and onion or leek. Simmer these with the soup and add some pepper (white, red or both).
• Mince some fresh herbs, or muddle dried herbs with a mortar and pestle and add to the soup as it approaches done-ness.
• Grate some cheese directly into the bottom of your soup bowl.
• Ladle the soup on top of the cheese, and add a dollop of sour cream if you like.
• Serve with a crust of crusty French or sourdough bread.

My So-Called Lunch

When you get used to eating lunch at the same place, enjoying the same menu of favorites, and then suddenly they are closed, it's like losing your best friend or something, you know?

Brian Krakow

This week the whole social order was thrust into full upheaval when The Silver Platter shut down to redo their menu. When the familiar silver truck was missing from the lot on Central Street, we panicked. At lunch time, we wandered aimlessly through Harbor East looking for something good to eat for a reasonable price. Many people gave up and brown bagged it. I decided to return to some of my old haunts. Here is a rundown of my lunches this week.

Monday: Whole Foods Salad Bar

Healthy and not too expensive, this has remained a staple of my weekly lunch routine even with more tempting options. It is sensible and reliable and, at $7.99/lb, not too expensive if you avoid the heavier items. The bar offers spinach, chopped romaine, and mixed greens. One side has staples like cut vegetables and assorted dressings. The other side has pre-made combos like artichoke and tomatoes, Asian slaw, and marinated root vegetables. This week, I got the fried chicken salad over spinach with cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, celery and bleu cheese. It came out to about $6.50, mostly due to the chicken salad, made up of breaded chicken breast cut into bite-sized chunks, cheddar cheese and tomatoes in a creamy dressing. I felt like I had made a responsible choice, both dietarily and fiscally.

Rickie Vasquez

Tuesday: Curbside Cafe 

This relatively new addition to my lunch routine is parked outside my building every Tuesday and draws a reliable crowd who just fall short of chanting "Taco Tuesday" once breakfast has worn off in anticipation of lunch. The menu has a definite Latino influence with a standard selection of burritos and sides like beans and rice or fried plantains. But these gals play it a little funky by adding a corn and mango salsa and my new favorite - the curried chickpea and potato burrito. I get mine in a bowl with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, the aforementioned corn mango salsa and sour cream (this is what one of them recommended, and she was right). The curry is spicy and works with the slightly sweet mango salsa. And even with the lack of meat, it is very filling and keeps me satisfied through the afternoon without feeling like a boulder. This week I also got a side of plantains with salt and pepper (they also come with Adobo or curry) for a total of $6.50.

Sharon Cherski

Wednesday: Harbor East Deli

By mid-week, I was really feeling kind of lost and turned to an old comfort food from my childhood - the bologna and mayonnaise sandwich. Harbor East Deli does make a good sandwich, and I've had this one from them in the past - bologna on white with lettuce, tomato, mayo and Swiss. It's a little pricey at $6.50 but is a quite the meaty sandwich, so I always feel like I'm getting what I pay for. I ate half for lunch with a sadly over priced Cesar salad ($5.99 for chopped romaine, grated Parmesan, and a packet of Ken's Steakhouse dressing), making for a total of $14.50. When the 3:30 doldrums rolled around, I ate the second half and was well-fueled for the evening's cardio workout. Even though bologna isn't really part of my current dietary regimen, I retain a certain weakness for it, and when I choose to indulge, I rarely regret it.

Jordan Catalano

Thursday: Legg Mason Cafeteria

The Legg Mason Cafeteria is open to the public, and for this we are eternally grateful. They entertain the international financial crowd, so you know the on-site dining is better than at most offices. This week they had a duck lunch on the menu - roasted duck breast with sage risotto, garlic green beans and a fig compote. I saw that item listed for Thursday's lunch when I checked their menu earlier in the week and was gastronomically counting down the days. As good as it was to think about eating duck for lunch, the reality fell just slightly short. The duck had a nice irony taste, and the green beans were cooked to perfection. The risotto, though.....It was strongly flavored and salty and just no good on its own. Even when I mixed in some of the fig compote, the risotto was still overpowering. Which only goes to show that sometimes the thought of something is better than the reality. Other than that, it was a lovely lunch. Coming in at $9.50, it was the deal of the week.

Rayanne Graff

Friday: Ra Sushi

I can't remember the first time I had a Bento box, but I do know that it has always felt natural for me. My particular eating habits are well-suited for it. I gravitate toward eating my food in sections - first the veg, then the meat, etc. And even though I know there is something a little overt about Ra Sushi - a little trendy and less than authentic - I really like their bento box. It's one of the most genuine items on a menu that features things like the Viva Las Vegas roll ("Kani kama crab and cream cheese rolled in rice and seaweed, lightly tempura battered and topped with spicy tuna, kani kama crab mix & sliced lotus root; finished with a sweet eel sauce and spinach tempura bits"). Yeah. My bento came with an egg roll, a gyoza, slaw in one corner and a green salad in the other, and four shrimp tempura on a bed of rice. Even with the presence of so many deep-fried items, it was not greasy. Plus the rice was sticky enough to eat with chopsticks. It wasn't outstanding, but it felt familiar and good and just what I wanted. And that's a lot of food for $9.00.

And, of course there was a cupcake from IcedGems . Today I tried their new Hot Chocolate, and it tasted true to its namesake - a light chocolate flavor topped with a marshmallow icing that gave me heart palpitations. Despite my cupcake dalliances in August, I remain loyal to IcedGems for creations like this.

A Little Taste of History

The Dallam family has been dairy farming since the 1700's, making Broom's Bloom one of those wonderful historical artifacts of Harford County that predate the American Revolution. The dairy has been modernized as times have changed over the last three centuries. The most recent addition consists of large solar panels on the barn and over the farm store where they sell local meats and cheeses along with their milk and home made ice cream. They also serve the best lunches in the area.

Broom's Bloom serves a standard variety of soups, sandwiches and quiches that are all made fresh out of real (and usually local) ingredients. Their cream of crab soup is the best in the state, including much fancier bisques I've had at more upscale establishments. Leave it to 9th-generation dairy farmers to understand a cream soup, it is consistently perfect - never scalded or scorched or separated and always seasoned with a light hand to let the flavor of blue crab dominate.

They also offer three lunch specials that are variations on soup/salad/sandwich combos that include a very small ice cream for desert. My favorite is The Dairymaid's Delight: a cup of soup, a plate of cheese and seasonal fruit, and a choice of a cornbread muffin or buttermilk biscuit. I'm usually partial to the cornbread, which is moist with a golden crust and just a touch of sweetness.

Tonight they were out of the cream of crab, which provided me with the opportunity to try something new. One of tonight's soups was the intriguing Southern Comfort - tomato soup with peppers, shrimp and sausage served over grits. The tomato stock was smooth and a little creamy and tasted like fresh tomatoes. The peppers and sausage were sparse which prevented them from overpowering the tomato. My cup had two nice-sized shrimp and about two fingers of grits at the bottom. I ate the shrimp first and then scooped the grits up from the bottom through the stock. While it seems like an unlikely combination, it was actually quite delicious and made me glad that they were out of my usual..

This was my first visit in the evening, and my cheese cubes were served with pineapple chunks instead of the usual orchard-fresh apples, peaches, pears, and berries that have accompanied my many lunches.

Gareth ordered The Cowman's Repast: A bowl of soup, half a sandwich, and a very small ice cream. He got his usual Maryland crab soup and paired it with half a tuna salad sandwich. The nice thing about a sandwich at Broom's Bloom is the unmistakable freshness of a tomato that was allowed to ripen on the vine before it was picked and then only traveled a few hundred feet before it was sliced for the sandwich. It is worth pulling the thick slices out of your sandwich and eating them plain. The tuna salad is also better than most with a light touch on the mayonnaise and a little hard-boiled egg mixed in.

We both ordered Andes Mint ice cream, mine in a bowl, his in a sugar cone. They also offer regular cake cones and waffle cones. You can upgrade to a sundae for just a little bit more. All their ice creams are very smooth and creamy, even flavors like graham cracker and cake batter. Their variety runs the gamut from these kid-friendly flavors to more traditional vanilla and caramel cashew. Flavors change daily and can be found on their Facebook page .

The Dallams are as much a part of Harford County as our historic Quaker meeting houses, stone walls and embankments, and Revolutionary War battle sites. They participate in several local farmer's markets and sell the meat, eggs and breads produced by other local farms. Their country store and lunch counter are the latest in a long history of community involvement as the Dallams continue to help shape Harford County. Broom's Bloom is located on Rt 543 less than a mile off of 1-95 between Riverside and Bel Air.

Mary Cooks: Salad Nicoise

Salad Niciose is a bit of a trick. There's a lot of bitter in there and not much opportunity to introduce anything sweet to balance it out. And, unlike tossed or chopped salads, it is made of a number of separate pieces that are then assembled on the plate providing little opportunity to taste the whole until it is on the table. With power restored and my counterpart working on the larger task of tree removal, I knew it was my turn in the kitchen, and Salad Nicoise came out.

There is some variation in Salad Nicoise, but it is important to remember the key ingredients are fresh (not canned) tuna, hard boiled egg, marinated potatoes, and a vinaigrette dressing. After that, there are choices: green beans or asparagus, olives or capers, hard cheese or bleu cheese. I've also seen tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and even palm and artichoke hearts.

I went for a more fundamental approach. Honestly, I haven't had to cook in about five years, so I felt that simple would be better and did not try for anything fancy like mushrooms or artichoke. Also, there was no fresh tuna available. As the culinary odds are typically against me, I did not want to make matters worse with canned tuna, so I substituted another firm, somewhat oily fish in its place. In the end, my Salad Nicoise consisted of:

• Romaine lettuce
• Asparagus sauteed in butter and lemon juice
• Goya Spanish olives, sliced
• Hard boiled egg, sliced
• Red potatoes lightly marinaded in Champagne vinegar, sliced
• Soft goat cheese crumbles
• Oven baked trout
• Vinaigrette consisting of lemon juice, grape seed oil, Champagne vinegar, basil, oregano, celery seed, garlic powder, white and red pepper, mustard seed, and a little honey

Overall, it was fairly well-received. Despite performing hard labor for several hours, Gareth is not one to drop a compliment where it doesn't belong. Each of the parts were well-executed, and the trout was a workable substitute for the tuna. Even so, I fell into the two traps cited above and received suggestions in avoiding them in the future:

A Little Sugar Goes a Long Way: Recommendations for improvement included repeated mention of this adage. The question is - how? What opportunities present itself in a salad? One suggestion was to use orange juice and sugar in the dressing instead of lemon juice and honey. A little red bell pepper also adds some sweetness, more so than the tomatoes I purchased and intended to add.

The Sum of the Parts Do Not Always Equal a Whole Without Proper Seasoning: While each of the required components was well prepared on its own, they did not have the required commonality to make them truly feel like a single dish. This is a more complicated issue for me as I thought my approach would address this. I used similar seasonings on everything - white pepper, Kosher salt, Champagne vinegar, lemon juice. I left the hard boiled egg and the marinated potatoes unseasoned, though. This may have left an unintended gap that prevented this dish from coming together. A little mustard seed and paprika on the eggs and some salt on the potatoes will definitely be in play the next go round.

How Much Take Out Can One Foodie Take?

We felt it as much as we heard it. The thunderous cracking of ancient limbs as the oak tree landed with enough force to shake the yard. Lights that had been flickering since the wind rose  blinked out, and all the electronic whines and hums and blinks were cut off. Silence and darkness fell across the neighborhood, and all we could hear was the wind and the rain beating against the house.

We awoke on Sunday with the sun. Power was out throughout the area, right along Churchville Road and into Bel Air. Nothing was open between the Aberdeen Wawa on Rt 40 and the Bel Air Double T Diner about 10 miles due west on Rt 24. We got breakfast across the street from the Double T at Einstein Bros Bagels, a young but highly efficient staff (the oldest looking no more than 25) handling the overflow from the Double T with a cheerful professionalism that was greatly appreciated and eased some of the initial dread of a potentially long power outage. Thus began our week of dining out.

Don't get me wrong. I do count myself among the lucky.  This summer's roof repairs held fast throughout the hurricane. There was no need for FEMA or the Red Cross where I live. There was no flooding in my area, no structural damage, at least nothing that extended beyond my own home. When that big oak tree came down, we knew it took a wire down with it. We called BGE on Sunday, and they had a crew there on Monday to assess the damages. The downed wire was attached to a utility pole, which the oak tree had snapped in two. That's all anyone could agree on, though. BGE replaced the pole but labeled it "Private" and claimed they could not work on the damaged line running from the pole underground to my home. A private electrician came out and said that the set up was not in compliance with current county regulations and they would need a permit to perform any work. And so on, until, after several calls to BGE, an older technical appeared late Friday night and hooked us back up.

As our week of take out progressed, each day began with the hope that this would be the day that everyone figured out how to turn our lights back on but ended in a restaurant eating burgers, tacos, any variety of things but nothing that actually felt like dinner.

We hit the newly discovered Fiesta Grill a couple of times. These were the best meals we had, and they appear to be consistently above the bar, not only for Mexican food, but for restaurants in the area as a whole. We also hit the Five Guys, a favorite that by week's end had lost all of its appeal. When left to my own devices on Tuesday night, I wandered into the Rogers House Tavern in Havre de Grace, a little hole-in-the-wall that looks to mostly cater to a loyal crowd of regulars. They welcomed me in and served me the best grilled ham and cheese I've had in a long time. And, of course, there was a lunch at the Laurrapin Grille and a special thanks to Chris Gengenbach who continues to make the place feel warm and inviting. When he saw me wander in, dazed and baffled and unwashed, he greeted me with a genuine smile and offered me a drink.

So, my experience with Hurricane Irene resulted in minor inconvenience for about a week with some residual headache still to come. Sure, I wanted the lights back. I wanted a hot shower and running water. But mostly what I wanted was a home-cooked meal, and to eat in my own dining room. Something about the inability to do these simple things created a greater sense of dislocation than not having any lights. Without the nightly ritual of cooking dinner, eating together (whether in animated chatter, irritable bickering or comfortable silence) and then cleaning up the kitchen, I felt lost, frustrated, depressed. And then the acid reflux kicked in.

By Friday, after a late lunch at Five Guys, I decided I was done. Confident that we would have at least a temporary hook up within 24 hours, I popped a multi-vitamin and did not mention food again. And The Fates smiled down upon us, sending us a technician knowledgeable in old farm electrical systems who firmly believed that the utility company is responsible for getting the power to the home, even if some farmer put up his own private pole 70-some odd years ago.

The power is back on. The refrigerator is cleaned out and ready to be restocked. While Gareth is cutting up the tree today and may be too tired to cook tonight, just knowing that we can fend for ourselves again is a comfort.

Additional thanks go to Juan for letting us use his shower, to my in-laws in Aberdeen for the same and for joining us for dinner, to Jim for helping us remove the big ass tree, to anyone who worked directly with me on Wednesday when I felt that all hope was lost, and to my employer for allowing me time off to get this mess sorted out.

Mexican Food Comes to Harford County

Today, at the recommendation of a trusted source, I tried Fiesta Grill Mexican restaurant. Located in the mini-mall on Tollgate Road adjacent to The Harford Mall, it's an unlikely place to find authentic Mexican food. But, at long last, the real thing has arrived in Harford County. For a little background information, here is a brief history of Mexican food in Harford County. And I can assure you it will be brief as there is not much to tell.

We arrived in the area after spending a couple of years in the city. This was before the stretch of Broadway between Johns Hopkins and the Broadway Market became Spanish Town. Still there were a couple of really good places, like the late and much lamented La Rotisseria, purveyor of the best rotisserie chicken, green sauce, and (if you were really lucky), hand-made pupusas. We did not know how good we had it.

When we moved to Edgewood, our choices were quite suddenly reduced to the Taco Bell on Route 40, and the Bel Air ChiChi's. With a commute that ended at White Marsh, any hopes for a decent taco for lunch were also dashed.

Shortly after moving to Havre de Grace, the clouds parted, and we saw the arrival of La Tolteca, a regional chain in the DelMarVa area. Suddenly, we had tamales, stuffed poblanos, chorizo, and bean dip (!) within a 10-minute drive of home. We became regulars and blew through the menu in a few months. Shortly thereafter, we realized that everything actually tastes the same and is really just the same fillings and sauces in your choice of packaging. Which is one of the drawbacks of a chain. Still, the Churchville location provides live mariachi music, and some semblance of authenticity is maintained.

Now, after just over a decade in the area, we have all kinds of chain Mexican food, from the palatable (if not entirely authentic) Baja Fresh to the deplorable Chipotle Grill, the one place I walked out of based simply on the smell of the food.

This is what a taco looks like

And, just around the corner from them, the surprising Fiesta Grill. The take out menu they gave me has the tagline "Authentic Mexican and Salvadorean Cuisine", and it certainly appears to be so. The menu in the restaurant is a mixture of Spanish and English and did not include the more Anglo-sounding items I found on the take out menu, like the Surf and Turf burrito, a combination of grilled steak and crab. They also serve America's favorite items - nachos and taco salad.

The rest of the menu has a variety of burritos, tacos and quesadillas with everything from chorizo to grilled fish. I went for one of these more traditional selections and ordered the Taco de Lengua and yucca fries with a mandarin Jarritos, Mexico's ubiquitous bottled soda.

The kitchen is an open area immediately behind the counter, similar to the places I have visited in Spanish Town. You can watch them prepare your meal if the two TVs are not of interest. On my visit they were showing a Latino novella and not the usual football, so I watched the action in the kitchen.

Yucca perfection

After a brief wait, my yucca fries were delivered. Thick, tender, and steaming hot, they were lightly dusted with paprika and, despite being deep fried, were not greasy. They came with a cream-based dipping sauce that had a hint of egg similar to the aiollis I get at home.

The tacos arrived shortly afterward. The meat had been prepared in a savory brown sauce with chunks of green pepper that was flavorful without being hot. It was served on two soft corn tortillas that had that bread-like quality of freshly made tortillas and reminded me of the tortillaria on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore. There are none of the usual heavy trappings of American tacos - no cheese or sour cream - just fresh cilantro leaves and chopped onions in generous quantity, plus a thick lime wedge. I abandoned the yucca and proceeded to eat the tacos without stopping until they were both gone. And I took the yucca home with me to finish later.

Flavor Cupcakery lives up to its name

Which brings me to Friday's cupcake - this week from

Flavor Cupcakery

,  located just a couple of doors down. I stayed with the Latino theme and got the Tres Leches to go. Even in the superior packaging, it barely survived the drive home in today's pre-hurricane humidity. What I thought was icing turned out to be a very lightly sweetened whipped creme, a highly appropriate topping for the rich vanilla cake. The cake itself felt and tasted like it had indeed been soaked in cream. It was a very well executed novelty variety and a strong showing on their part. While I'm not going to throw over

IcedGems

anytime soon, it's nice to know I can get my cupcake fix locally and not just on Fridays. I fear for my waistline.

And for those of you who don't know what exactly was in my tacos, you'll have to Google it.

Sweet Devotion Cupcake and Creperie Cafe

Today I cheated on IcedGems. I was lured in by the carrot cake, blantantly on display and listed as, not a specialty flavor, but a standard right along side vanilla, chocolate, caramel and Red Velvet. Regret was soon to follow.

Mmmmmmmm cupcakes

I entered Sweet Devotion Cupcake and Creperie Cafe with lunch intentions and because I feel a genuine need to support anyone in Harford County who wants to reach beyond pizza, pit beef and Chinese take-out. I must first admit that I am spoiled when it comes to crepes. My counterpart makes a savory crepe that is somehow both hearty and light. He makes a perfect bechemel sauce and is a firm believer in the whole "everything is better with cheese" philosophy that is a cornerstone of my formative years in Wisconsin. That being said, I am no stranger to restaurant crepes. When I worked in midtown Baltimore, I was quite familiar with the devine wilted spinach crepe on Sotto Sopra's lunch menu.

Sweet Devotion's savory crepes seem to lean closer to the American palate with combos that you could also package in a nice roll - The Classic Ham and Swiss, The Caprese and even Chicken Cordon Bleu. Their complete menu is posted on their website . Being an avid seafood fan, I went with The Norwegian - smoked salom, tomatoes, Boursin cheese in lieu of the traditional bechemel, and a surprise sprinkling of capers.

Each crepe is made to order on large flat irons right behind the counter. The crepe itself is broad in diameter and thin in weight and is folded around the filling. It is a light and delicate creation that melted in my mouth but was a little bland. I tend to be more partial to the heartier rustic crepes and missed the added body you get with a pinch of buckwheat in the mix.

Real food on real dishes

The crepe is served on a bed of mixed greens on an actual china plate with real cutlery, giving Sweet Devotion some serious bonus points. The salmon worked well in this setting. The Boursin cheese, however, felt a bit too salty to go along with the already salty smoked fish. The sliced tomatoes counter balanced this somewhat but were not evenly distributed throughout the crepe for consistency in this area. This particular combo might be best eaten at home with a nice Pilsner.

And then there was the matter of the cupcake. The fellow behind the counter seemed a tad curt when I asked if the cupcakes were baked on premesis. He assured me that they are baked fresh every day and that there was a batch coming up at that very moment. Imagine my joy at seeing carrot cake on the menu! While I am an unrepentent IcedGems junkie, if I'm jonesing for the earthy spicy goodness of carrot cake (which is quite honestly most of the time), I'm SOL as they do not make the stuff, not even for special occaisions. So, even though I was planning on sampling both a savory and a sweet crepe, I ended up with a cupcake that was sadly inferior to my usual Friday cupcake experience.

The cake itself was light and moist but surprisingly lacking in flavor. Any flavor. It wasn't very sweet. It wasn't very spicy. It wasn't much of anything. And the texture was odd, not just because of the presence of the dreaded pineapple. This adds nothing to carrot cake and invariably gets stuck between my teeth. Really what is the point?  I've gotten used to the gourmet cupcakes I've been eating in town, and this one reminded me more of a grocery store counterfeit. And the icing was an over-whipped version of the traditional cream cheese icing. The flavor was just OK, but much like the cake, the texture was also somewhat troubling.

It sure looks tempting........

.........but the pineapple cannot be ignored

Overall, this was a pretty decent crepe experience. In addition to providing Harford County with something that resembles what our forebears would recognize as food, these guys seem to be taking a more mindful approach to their business. In addition to the real dishes for my eat-in order, I was asked if I wanted my credit card receipt (I said no as they just clog up my pocketbook until I can't close the thing anymore and I have to do a grand mal purge of them). This gives them some environmental cred, which I consider important in our local businesses. In addition to a counter and the usual table and chairs, Sweet Devotion has a sitting room with a sofa and chairs around a giant set of checkers (pictured below). I'll be visiting them again for a sweet crepe and another shot at their cupcakes. They also serve coffee and scones.

The Sitting Room

Pit Beef

The mid-week visit to The Silver Platter resulted in a perfect pit beef sandwich. And this time I got the highly recommended potato ribbons. Today was definitely a clean-plate day.

The Gathering

The professional food truck vendors in Baltimore are organizing. Last month they all came together in the first collective event that they dubbed The Gathering. I missed that first event but made it to the second Gathering yesterday evening.

And it is fairly well organized. A large parking lot at the end of Wolfe Street provided enough space for about a dozen or so food trucks, some seating, the requisite line of Johnny-on-the-Spots, plus a wine and beer table and a small live band. Located on the water, this seemed a superior location that the first Gathering, which was held on Central Avenue in a vacant lot with little shade and no cross breeze.

It was a beautiful evening, coming after a couple of weeks of fairly incessant heat and temperatures in the city regularly reaching triple-digits. There was a good-sized crown of happy food truck enthusiasts, and we all managed to form respectful lines at each truck without the need for corrals. Really, we all just cooperated and no one cut the line or pushed through the crowd. IT was a shining moment for civility. The whole thing had the air of a neighborhood block party and Baltimore felt like a community instead of the uneasy mix of white-collar well-to-do's bumping up against the downtrodden and potentially dangerous.

Represented at The Gathering were:

The Silver Platter

Miss Shriley's

Iced Gems

The Haute Dog

The Gypsy Queen Cafe

Flippin Pizza

GrrChe

Souper Freaks

Fojol Brothers Ethiopian

Curbside Cafe

Chasin Cafe

Dangerously Delicious Pies

And several others whose names I could not determine. I had the company of a couple of fellow foodies from work. We just couldn't try everything, so we did a couple of circuits and determined what we wanted to eat.

Our first stop was Flippin Pizza for two slices and a free mini stromboli. The portions were generous, but the slices were thin. I did not indulge in this, and my colleague offered little feedback, leaving me with the impression that this was fairly average.

Our next stop was The Gypsy Queen Cafe, famous for bacon - chocolate covered bacon, caramel bacon donuts, and the cone of grilled cheese with bacon. We had to try it. Served in a waffle cone and covered with barbecue sauce, this concept item was good only until the sauce was gone. The bacon was sparse and could have been more crisp. And without the sauce, the mac and cheese was bland and flat. The waffle cone was avoided altogether.

Our third stop was a cart that I've wanted to try for some time but have been thwarted by geography as they never come down to Harbor East - the Haute Dog. They did not disappoint. They serve large all-beef franks stuffed into a  small baguette of really good bread that has been skewered rather than sliced so the dog fits snugly into the hole. I'm not entirely sure what it was dressed with as one of my colleagues purchased it. We tasted sweet relish and tomatoes, but she said it also had dijon and "something-something-something" that sounded good to her so she said OK. Overall this was was winner. The dog was well seasoned and not too salty. The bread had a nice crust and good texture that was chewy without being a jaw-breaker. And the toppings - whatever they were - complemented the meat without overpowering it.

Our last stop was the Dangerously Delicious Pies where we got a little something to take home. More on that later.

Overall, it seems like Baltimore's food truck vendors are proving themselves to be a serious force in the restaurant community. This Gathering was deemed better than the first by my colleagues. There was a shortage of seating - which we did not mind - and a shortage of garbage cans - which we did. Also, while we avoided the adult beverages, we heard someone in the crowd say that in addition to paying for your drinks, you also have to pay for your over-21 bracelet. I'll be there for the third Gathering, though, as Baltimore's burgeoning food cart community is worthy of our support.

Iced Gems Baking - over 30 varieties of cupcakes

Chasin Cafe - sandwiches

The Silver Platter, where they can now recognize me in a crowd

GrrChe Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Dangerously Delicious Pies - sweet and savory

A Flippin Pizza employee

Flippin Pizza - two slices and a mini stromboli

Souper Freak, featuring soups inspired by Maryland, including a watermelon gazpacho that I almost tried

Chocolate covered bacon. With Teddy Grahams. Nirvana.

The Caramel Bacon donut

Fun for the whole family

The Haute Dog

The Gypsy Queen Cafe Mac and Cheese cone

Housefire

Today I learned from a childhood friend from the old neighborhood that the house I grew up in burned down. She sent me a note on Facebook and included a memory of eating my mother's home made rosettes - a traditional Scandinavian holiday cookie - in our kitchen with my youngest sister. Indeed many of my own best memories of that house are in the kitchen. While I jokingly say now that in the battlefield of my parents' marriage, my mother's weapon of choice was often dinner, I still have many recollections of her doing wonderful things in the kitchen.

When I was a young child, my mother was at home with me and my two younger sisters while my other brother and sister were in school all day and my father worked. During those early years, she made a lot of things from scratch. I remember picking fruit that grew wild in the back yard for jams and jellies and being allowed to eat the foam she skimmed from the top of the large simmering pot. She made egg noodles that she hung around the kitchen to dry. She also baked her own bread and let me and my sisters take turns punching down the dough after it had been allowed to rise. The smell of baking bread still reminds me of this time and I always find time to bake when I miss my mother.

Even thought she gained a reputation for culinary atrocities like oatmeal tomato and cheese casserole (this was the  thermo-nuclear bomb in her arsenal), she was especially good on special occasions. There was one birthday when, at my request, she produced battered fried chicken and baked Alaska. She could also make custard-filled cream puffs that melted in my mouth and the best Door County cherry pie ever - despite the pits that my father invariably bit into with the stubborn hope that this time the pie would be pitless.

My mother really shone at Christmas. To to express her appreciation of friends and neighbors, she gave them cookies. She made refrigerator pinwheels, traditional cut sugar cookies, and a variety of treats from our Scandinavian heritage, including the aforementioned rosettes, krumkake, lefse, and a holiday braided bread of sweet dough and dried fruit. All this, she packaged carefully in aluminum pie plates wrapped with saran wrap that she hand-delivered in those last weeks of December.

Mostly when I think about the old house on Quincy Street, I remember the 1980's that had a lot of hollering and ruined dinner as my mother served meals of resentment and despair that my father washed down with frustration and incomprehension. Even though this rough patch in their marriage remains prominent, it is tempered with other better times. I also remember bringing friends home after school and getting home made cookies. I remember birthday parties with whatever I wanted being magically created by my mother. I remember the German apple pancake she used to cook on Sundays in a large cast-iron skillet on the stovetop. I remember good smells of home made pickles and tomatoes being canned and me sitting under the kitchen table while she used her considerable (if under appreciated) skills to make sure we had good food in the house.

Now the house is gone. Fire seems an appropriate end. With the passing of my father a few years ago and now the destruction of my childhood home, it feels like the early chapters of my life are now closed.

327 South Quincy Street, Green Bay WI 54301

Gourmet

So I've tried gourmet grilled cheese, gourmet cupcakes and a variety of gourmet food truck lunches over the past month and it's left me wondering what we actually mean when we say something is gourmet. It used to conjure up images of rare and exotic ingredients combined with some sort of alchemy to create something truly extraordinary. Now you can get your gourmet ingredients at the grocery store. (Tomatoes being the one truly gourmet item if you find any that actually taste like tomatoes and not like cardboard.)

With an increased availability of a wider variety of raw ingredients from other countries and cultures, what makes something gourmet? Is it still reserved for those items that are truly rare and exotic, like truffles? Can it really be applied to a grilled cheese sandwich if it's made from brie if you can now buy brie at the Wal-Mart? Or has it simply become another marketing term that really no longer has any meaning?

The standard dictionary definition still alludes to exotic ingredients and skillful preparation. That being said, here is this week's gourmet cupcake from

IcedGems

- made from scratch with real sugar, real butter and real vanilla. Don't get me wrong - it's a damn good cupcake and I throw dietary caution to the wind every Friday for one of these. I can't help but get the feeling that what makes these gourmet is the fact that they are skillfully  made from scratch with real raw ingredients. As Americans in general (if not me in particular) are willing to get more and more of their meals out of boxes, cans and drive-through windows and accept food that has been reheated in a microwave as part of a sit-down restaurant experience, maybe actual cooking is becoming a lost and rare art, exotic, alchemic, and gourmet.

This week's gourmet experience

Liberte! Fraternite! Egalite!

As Thursday was Bastille Day, I felt obliged to visit my local wine bar and raise a toast to Liberte. A small gathering of co-workers assembled at Vino Rosina for wine and light fare. We sampled two varieties of white wine listed on the Happy Hour menu.

Now here is where I am supposed to provide the details of the wines, but at this point all I know for certain is the first one had too much bite and the second one, while sweeter, was the overall winner. The aroma was light and fruity, and the top note was similar to a good Pinot Grigio. There were very few other undertones, and the finish was clean and final with no lingering after taste. This was a very simple wine, and after a fairly gruelling week, none of us seemed up for any additional complexity.

An off-hand reference to how my Libertarianism is perceived led to an enthusiastic toast of "Let them eat cake", and our Bastille Day observance was officially in full swing.

The best commemoration of Bastille Day was observed by a former classmate in Madison of French decent, and someone I knew through an on-campus job we both worked at before he left to study abroad. He spent a year in France and when he returned, he had lost 30 pounds, gained some cultural awareness, and launched the first Bastille Day Bad Wine and Cheese Party.

Located at the top of the hill on East Gorham (Madison alum know the hill I mean), he and his friends had rented a house with a large front porch and an almost perfect view of Lake Mendota. I arrived with a mutual friend shortly after sun set before things got into full swing. Like all house parties, invitation was word of mouth. Admittance, however, was another thing altogether. To get in, you had to present an acceptable item of bad wine or cheese. And by acceptable, it was meant completely unacceptable - Night Train, Ripple, Mad Dog in the full rainbow of flavors - all set out on a folding table for partiers to consume at their own risk. A bottle of NyQuil was accepted. And Velveeta, CheezWhiz, EasyCheese in the aerosol dispenser. Any presented items considered too high brow - like a gallon of Ernest and Julio Gallo's Best - meant admission denied.

Truly this was the best concept party ever. We got silly. We drank the Night Train. We mixed the Ripple with shitty champagne. We sprayed the EasyCheese at each other. We danced and sang and embraced each other without care or concern as if we would all be friends for the rest of our lives. And when it was time to go home, our host cut the music and replaced it with a scratchy rendition of the French National Anthem. We all sang along for the first several playings, but he continued to play it repeatedly until the novelty wore off and we all cleared out.

On a campus know for its parties, that one - held over the summer when the population of Madison drops by several thousand - was the best party I attended, and one of the few I can remember. I don't know how many more Bad Wine and Cheese parties there were after that. I lost my connection to the host through a falling out with our mutual friend that now seems childish and wasteful in retrospect. I started focusing on finishing college and trying to figure out what would come next. We all still ran into each other on campus, separated by the inevitable pre-graduation drift.

But every Bastille Day, I remember that night and how perfect it was. The summer seemed the only moment in time, and graduation a lifetime away. But I also remember the people and what a wonderful crowd I was running with that summer.

Friday Night at Wok To Go

It's Friday night at Wok To Go and the drizzle outside is pulling a light but steady stream of customers over to the take out counter. One of the tables is occupied by two elementary school children who mind their business as we wander to our usual spot. The sushi chef greets us, and an unfamiliar white boy is behind the counter.

There was some discussion about dinner on the drive over, and after a cursory glance at the menu we are ready to order. The sushi chef speaks to one of the children in his staccato dialect and she runs back to the counter, returning with the white boy. He dutifully takes our order, tells the sushi chef to put on the kettle for our tea (which we find somewhat shocking) and then disappears. We begin to suspect that he is actually a delivery driver and that he may not be a permanent employee.

A familiar voice is raised in the kitchen, audible to us and a small family who have joined us in the dining room. We recognize it as belonging to one of our usual waitresses. We imagine she is keeping everyone in line. As our food begins to emerge from the back - one item at a time but delivered by one of the other regular waitresses - the children continue in their activities and the hollering continues.

As we eat, we see her charge out of the kitchen, her decisive and deliberate stride bring her toward us. The sushi chef says something to her that we do not understand, but it stops her cold, turning her around and moving her back to the kitchen where her displeasure continues.

She does eventually make it into the small dining room to help deliver food, frighteningly efficient tonight and sincerely apologetic. We are amused as any issues she is seeing in the kitchen have been barely noticed by us beyond the sporadic delivery of our dinner. She is our favorite server. We smile and tell her that everything is wonderful. Which it is.

The food is very good as always. Gareth has the shredded chicken in chili sauce and has to wipe his forehead and nose. It is in an aromatic brown sauce with peppers and onions and I can smell it from across the table but do not try it for myself. I get the clear broth with mushrooms - a sweet onion soup that is lighter than my usual miso. I also order the shomai but no entree as I overindulged on ribs for lunch. Even Gareth's order of Crab Rangoon does not tempt me. He tries it with the plum sauce and agrees that it is a definite enhancement.

We linger over dinner and discuss our plans for the weekend that stretches in front of us like an empty beach in the sun. I look at the bare feet of the baby at the next table over and wonder at how all baby feet look so similar before they are misshapen by shoes, a stray thought that Gareth finds completely random.

Even though we did not get anything from the sushi bar this time, I drop a tip in the sushi chef's fish bowl as I know he has been taking care of us this evening. The flow of take out has not abated as I read my fortune: A new friend helps you break out of an old routine.

Sometimes It's the Simple Things

Today I had the cupcake that was just plain over the top. I ate it before my 1:00 meeting and was still a little jittery 90 minutes later when I started this posting. It was The Cookie Monster, a vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate chip cookie dough and topped with blue icing and a couple of mini cookies (see photo below). It sounded ingenious. It was sweet. It was too sweet. I ate the whole thing anyway. It was sweet to the point of no longer being enjoyable by the time I got to the last bite. I regretted it immediately. I am still buzzed. I am impressed. At this  point, I am dreading the inevitable crash. If there is no crash, Iced Gems will have truly achieved confection perfection, and they will become a permanent fixture in my Friday routine.

Oh, and there was also lunch before that.

We who work in the city have been blessed with an increasing number of mobile food vendors. This is especially nice in the Harbor East district. Sandwiched between Baltimore's two prime tourist spots - historic Fells Point and the re-gentrified Inner Harbor  (courtesy of William Donald Schaefer RIP)- we are faced with an over saturated restaurant market that provides very few places that you actually want to eat. I've heard rumors that the Baltimore City government recently made it easier to get a license for a mobile food truck but have been unable to confirm. Regardless of the reason, more of them are appearing thoughout the city. I am grateful as every Friday finds a new food cart within a few blocks of my office.

Today I found GrrChe the gourmet grilled cheese truck. The menu features standard grilled cheese - American, cheddar, Monterrey Jack and brie (no kidding - brie) on your choice of white or wheat. They also serve the best side dish ever to go with the grilled cheese - tomato soup. They wisely make this their lunch special.

In addition, they offer some high-end variations on the grilled cheese, including The Lobster Grille - lobster, brie and  cheddar served open face, The Middle Eastern - Armenian cheese, olive oil and mint (of all things) on a pita, and one who has already earned a reputation in my office, The Grilled Mac and Cheese. Here's the link to their full menu. It's also posted on the side of the truck.

Feeling a bit worn out from a week punctuated with rapid-fire bursts of stress, I went for classic comfort and got the special with cheddar and a tomato. Each sandwich is made to order and cooked on a grill inside the truck in about the same amount of time you would take to cook it yourself - about 7 minutes. This is reassuring in a time when so much food tastes like it was prepared in advance and simply reheated in a microwave. The sandwich is cut in half on the diagonal and wrapped neatly in foil like your mother would do. It also comes with one of those food service pickles that I always find a little sad and immediately cast aside.

The bread was grilled to a light golden brown and was lightly buttered but not greasy. The cheddar was melted thoroughly and evenly, and the tomato was warm but not wilted. In other words - it was perfect. The bread had a good texture similar to Texas toast and supported the sandwich well. This is an important factor given the double-whammy of oil from melted cheese and butter. The bread held up and retained its flavor. Though billed as sharp cheddar, the cheese was not what I would call sharp. This only means that it was not Wisconsin aged-for-seven-years sharp. It was still far from bland and was complemented by the subtle fruity sweetness of the tomato slice just the way it is supposed to be.

The soup was like tomato plus. The broth was smooth and creamy with chunks of several varieties of tomatoes (some that appeared to be heirlooms), plus what looked to be tiny pieces of carrot and zucchini. It had a rich, earthy, herby flavor more reminiscent of mushroom soup that tomato soup, and I wondered if it was actually in a meat stock. Definitely more robust than most tomato soups, it accented the simple perfection of the grilled cheese when I dunked my sandwich in.

This was without a doubt the best version of grilled cheese and tomato soup I have ever had. Coming in at $7.50, it was also the deal of the day.

It is now approaching 5:00 - a full four hours later - and the sugar buzz has receded with no signs of a crash. Proving that made from scratch really is better for you, Iced Gems now has a customer for life.

Cupcake Overload

Grilled Cheese Perfection

And Then I Found Ribs

From my college days in Madison trolling the Capital Square or Library Mall for cheap lunch, I have always approached the food cart with a certain carefree attitude, impervious to any potential health risks associated with dining from a mobile eatery that can easily move to evade health officials (a risk cited by a respected friend and colleague). Some of my street lunches have included the ubiquitous hot dog and chips (sampled in every city I have ever visited like some sort of gastronomical litmus test), Vietnamese from Madison's famous I Am Here cart, and the best knish I've ever had from a cart outside the New York Library. The Silver Platter is not in this category of mobile eatery.

On Central Avenue between Eastern Avenue and Bank Street, the Silver Platter lunch cart sets up shop daily Monday through Friday. The menu consists of familiar classics like brisket and mac and cheese, but with a gourmet twist. For example, the mac and cheese has lobster and truffle mixed in, and the brisket is served with Aoili. In addition, there is a good variety of seafood options - yet another reason why I enjoy the East Coast so much - like Buttermilk-Soaked Calamari, Firecracker Shrimp and Seared Scallops with prosciutto. (To see their menu, visit their Facebook page.)

All of this was very interesting, however I was on a mission for one particular item. This week all of my lunches have been working lunches where I nibble at some variety of salad while those around me actually get up and leave the building for a moment. And, every day, when they return with their lunch, I have smelled the unmistakable aroma of ribs. So, when opportunity presented itself today, I took the stroll down Central to get myself a little of that.

The cart is parked in the middle of the block about half a block shy of Mustang Alleys. When I arrived, a line had not yet formed, and I quickly ordered the Sweet Chili Baby Back Ribs (no sides or soda). The operator of the cart proved a couple of slices of watermelon to tide me over while I waited, an unexpected and very civilized touch. We made light conversation. He got me caught up on the expansion of Bagby Pizza to include a bar (follow the link to their site for more info), and I recommended that he contact Iced Gems for a Friday lunch combo. If they both set up next to each other, many of us would just show up with folding lawn chairs and camp out by their carts and never make it back to the office. They would kill.

The wait was so short I did not even clock it. I received a hefty serving of eight ribs on a bed of fried onion strips that held the sauce of which there was plenty. The meat easily fell off the rib bones and could be eaten with a fork, thus eliminating the potential hazard of getting sauce all over yourself from chewing the meat off the bone like a dog. And the sauce was amazing. It is both sweet and spicy as the name implies. The spicy comes in part from a healthy dose of red pepper flakes that enhance the flavor without becoming the primary note. the main component of the sauce is the sweetness, which tasted like a fruit base - mango or peach, I could not discern which. It's this sweet fruitiness that is the principle flavor of the sauce, so sticky it confirmed the exact location of the cavity I am getting filled next week. The spicy chili is a strong supporting player here and hits the tongue as the sweetness approaches the very edge of being overwhelming. The spice rises up and balances it out. Neither hot nor cloying, the Sweet Chili sauce on these ribs is near perfection. And though I have been only eating to my personal capacity and blogging about the evils of deliberate overeating, I rejoined the Clean Plate Club with much enthusiasm, eating the entire portion that could have easily fed two.

This extreme rib experience was followed up with another Iced Gem - the raspberry-filled lemon Elizabeth, which was superior to last week's Red Velvet. Filled with seedy and flavorful raspberry jam and creamy lemon icing, this moist little cupcake revealed the reason behind this bakery's name. It was indeed a perfect little gem of cake to top off a completely indulgent lunch. (CORRECTION: The Iced Gems truck is actually staffed by an employee and not the owner as reported in my last entry.)

With aching teeth and bloated belly, I faced my afternoon meetings feeling woozy but satisfied.