Baltimore Restaurant Week: January 20-29, 2012

Parsnip maple bisque with roasted apples and a cardamom creme fraiche

Where: The Brewer’s Art, located in a beautiful, old townhouse in the historic Mt. Vernon neighborhood.

The Deal: a three-course meal for $30 per person.

Why: We’ve been to their bar/lounge and had a good experience. Why not try their fine dining for a change?

Roasted beet and blood orange salad

I do love restaurant week in Baltimore. I try to go to a different restaurant every time one occurs. It’s a wonderful way to experience the cuisine and atmosphere of restaurants you’ve been wanting to try, are a wee bit out of your price range, or you just want a good reason to go back to them.

The Brewer’s Art is famous for their award-winning beers (the most popular being the ‘Resurrection’) which they brew on their premises. Their bar and lounge areas are fun, chic, and comfortable and their dining room, simply elegant. The food is quick to get to you (and hot) although I wish the wait staff were a little more attentive. My glass of water was left empty several times for quite awhile. But that’s such a minor complaint for some delicious cuisine!

Utz crusted cod with horseradish potato mousseline, sweet
and sour red cabbage, and mustard sauce

For variety, we each ordered different items and shared (although everyone receives the same dessert for the pre fixe menu). Our appetizers were a parsnip maple bisque and roasted beet and blood orange salad. The bisque was amazing- sweet, creamy, and lightly spiced while the salad was colorful and flavorful.

For our main dishes, Nick had baked kabocha squash ravioli with root veggies, bitter greens, pears, chestnuts, and brown butter sage cream. The subtle flavors and textures of this dish melded well. I had a mouth-watering, Utz (the potato chip!) crusted cod. The fish was very tender and well matched with the red cabbage, mustard sauce, and horseradish potato mousseline on which the cod sits, beautifully presented.

Tres leches cake and a chocolate torte

The desserts were a rich, dense (but moist), chocolate torte with a drizzle of raspberry sauce and a tres leches cake with a custard sauce that was just simply delectable.

I will definitely have to eat there again!

Check out the participating restaurants for Baltimore Restaurant Week at:

http://www.baltimorerestaurantweek.com/

Chinese New Year

Xīn nián kuài lè! (Happy New Year!)

Yesterday, I held my Annual Chinese New Year’s Eve Potluck dinner. Everyone brought a tasty dish and we ate with gusto.



Spring rolls, dumplings, and various stir fries



Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival, is one of the most important celebrations in China as well as in other countries. The New Year falls on a different date every year because it follows a lunisolar calendar. Generally, it begins on the second new moon after the winter solstice and ends 15 days later, when there is a full moon. The Chinese calendar also contains a 12-year cycle to which an animal is assigned (i.e. the Chinese zodiac). This year, January 23, 2012 marks the end of the Year of the Rabbit and the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. (RAWR!)

Traditionally, Chinese New Year is a time to celebrate the coming of spring, to honor deities and ancestors, feast like you’ve never feasted before, and reunite with family (and friends). Each day of the New Year’s celebration consists of a different set of rituals and traditions. Like all holidays, it has changed over time, but the overall essence is still the same giving a sense of togetherness and relaxation with family and friends as well as reflections on the previous year and new hopes for the upcoming year.

Homemade green tea ice cream with whipped cream,
chocolate sauce, and a chocolate fortune cookie

Food is an important part of any celebration and, for the Chinese, like in many other cultures, various foods have symbolic meaning. The New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day dinners are a chance to try to cook up symbolic dishes and foods which will aid you in the upcoming year. Several examples of symbolic foods include:

Longevity: uncut noodles

Fertility: eggs, seeds

Wealth: oranges, spring rolls, egg rolls, dumplings

For a Sweet, Rich Year: dessert

Prosperity: whole fish

Columbus Eats- Part 2

Hand painted ceiling tiles at the Blue Danube made by their patrons

This is a continuation of my previous blog entry containing mini reviews of Columbus, Ohio restaurants. Enjoy!

Chiles Poblanos from El Vaquero



Blue Danube

Located on N. High St., north of the OSU campus, ‘The Dube’, as it is commonly called, is a Columbus staple that’s been around for more than half a century. I’ve hit up the Dube since I was a teenager and continue to eat there whenever I’m in town. It draws a hodgepodge of people from teens, to college kids, to hipsters, and so on. They have a mean jukebox, are open past midnight, and serve up diner/greasy spoon fare. The food can be hit or miss. I’ve always been fond of the fried goodies such as fried cauliflower, mushrooms, and zucchini. I recommend their breakfast burrito (they have a vegetarian version now) but be forewarned- it’s the size of a burrito from Chipotle. I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a dive. But it’s a dive full of fond memories and crazy awesome ceiling tiles.

Vegetarian Breakfast Burritos, from the Blue Danube,
stuffed with eggs, peppers, onions, mushrooms,
hashbrowns, and refried beans and topped
with enchilada sauce and cheese

Lavash Café

Lavash, located on High St., in Clintonville, dishes up heaping mounds of Mediterranean cuisine. Lavash has everything going for it- it’s relatively cheap, the food fresh and flavorful, it’s in a good location, and they have vegetarian and non vegetarian options alike on their menu. The only drawbacks: they give you a lot of food that you have to pick up, on a tray at the counter, which, when you’re eating with others, makes for zero room at their small tables.

http://www.lavashcafe.com/

Vegetable stew with almond basmati rice at Lavash Cafe

El Vaquero

Strangely, it can be a bit difficult, at times to get vegetarian cuisine at a Mexican restaurant without meat (for many restaurants, even the refried beans are cooked using pork), but El Vaquero, on Olentangy River Road, has a decent selection of veggie options on their menu. Here, you can get the norms of tacos, enchiladas, and the like and the wonderful complimentary chips and salsa that just keep on coming.

http://www.vaquerorestaurant.com/

The 'Lavash Combo' with spicy black bean hummus, tabbouleh,
falafel, and stuffed grape leaves

Columbus Eats- Part 1

Szechuan pickled turnip with shrimp at Fortune

Earlier this week I came back from my hometown of Columbus, Ohio where I spent nearly two weeks seeing friends and family and eating, virtually, nonstop. I really do love my hometown. I know what you’re thinking, “You miss Columbus? Really!?!?” but Columbus has moved away from its image of being a ‘cow town’ (although the OSU College of Agriculture does still have fields of cattle). It’s no New York City but Columbus has its own quirks and areas of interest without the hustle and bustle of big city life.



Tater tots and 'Beano' a vegeterian hotdog with refried beans,
diced tomatoes, mustard, and cheddar from Dirty Frank's

Columbus has a diverse and growing food scene. I’ve lived there for most of my life (minus the past 6+ years I’ve lived in Baltimore) and have traveled, relatively, extensively in and out of the United States, and I can tell you, from experience, that Columbus has more restaurants (and fast food joints) than any city I have ever been to. Naturally, this makes it hard to pick a restaurant to go to, but it’s wonderful that there are so many choices and the variety of different types of cuisine, in equally diverse and interesting neighborhoods, is outstanding. So for the next two posts, I will be doing mini reviews of several of my favorite restaurants in Columbus, Ohio. If you’re ever there, give them a try for some local flare!



Clay Pot with tofu from Fortune



Dirty Frank’s Hotdog Palace

Dirty Frank’s is not your average hotdog joint. Located in downtown Columbus, Frank’s serves up unique hotdogs. Now, the hotdogs themselves are just your average hotdogs, but the toppings are fun and different. Have you ever had a hotdog topped with crushed potato chips? What about cream cheese? Coleslaw or Sriracha mustard? Well, you can at Frank’s. For you vegeterians out there, Frank's will substitute a veggie dog for the all beef hotdog. Also, their tater tots and funnel fries are well worth a try. Avoid karaoke night at all costs- the place is small and they crank up the volume...

http://dirtyfrankscolumbus.com/



'Funnel Fries' a fry version of funnel cakes complete
with cinnamon and powdered sugar
from Dirty Frank's



Fortune Chinese Restaurant

Fortune is easy to overlook. It has an unassuming façade and is located in a strip mall near the OSU campus. They recently underwent new ownership and the current dishes (many are Szechuan), I must say, are remarkably tasty (although slightly greasy). If you are one that gets irritated, like I do, when you go to a restaurant and order something medium or hot and you get Americanized heat, then you will not have a problem here- the spicy dishes are spicy. My friend, Katie, ordered the dan dan noodles, without pork, so I could try them- simply amazing. Fortune surpasses your common strip mall Chinese restaurant in flavor and quality. And you leave happy and full without breaking the bank.