chefdilettante's Profile
What wine pairs with carrot pate?
In general, high acid, no oak. Demi-sec Vouvray, great idea--I like Francois Chidaine's wines. Off-dry Alsatian Pinot Gris would be another good choice. Some champagnes could work well.
Food Lover's Guide to Baltimore
Goldberg's are good but their dough is premade as well.
Food Lover's Guide...Part II
Since Minx made full disclosure, I'll bite:
Chinese: Hunan Taste. Grace Garden will garner the most votes and is awesome.
Thai: No good Thai in Baltimore IMHO
Italian: Cinghiale
Modern American: High end: Charleston. Mid: Woodberry Kitchen
Indian: all disappointments, both city and 'burbs
Burgers: McCabes
Deli: Attman's
Diner: Bel Loc (for architecture, not food)
French: is there even a French restaurant left in Baltimore?
Greek: Black Olive: but overpriced and overrated. Samos is well priced but really pedestrian food
Korean: Shin Chon
Mediterranean: This category is from the 80's/90's, right?
Mexican: Tortilleria Sinaloa (city), Mari Luna (burbs)
Crabs: Canton Dockside. Crabs are Gulf but are fat and only crab shack with good beer selection and outdoor seating
Steakhouse: Yeah, it's Prime Rib
Sushi: no great sushi. Sushi Ya has moments though
Pub Food: Bluegrass Tavern (high end pub food/bistro)
Vegetarian: Why would anyone go to a restaurant without meat?
Best traditional pizza delivery in Owings Mills, MD?
I afraid that Vito's is about as good as it's going to get. It's serviceable, but the Pikesville/Owings Mills corridor is not configured for NY pizza snobs...
If someone has found a gem, please post. In the meantime, as a New Yorker, you can take solace in decent bagels at Goldberg's and hand-cut belly lox at Ed Mart.
Food Lover's Guide to Baltimore
We always like to combine shopping at H Mart with lunch or dinner at Hunan Taste. Terrific restaurant and BYO to boot.
Food Lover's Guide to Baltimore
You need a section on all the great Korean barbecue in Ellicott City. Honey Pig and Shin Chon are two great examples and definitely worth a trip. The HowChow blog does a great job of covering all the great Korean and other Asian restaurants in Howard County.
http://howchow.blogspot.com/
Live Crawfish in Baltimore
Crawfish season is in full swing down in Louisiana. Any idea where to find live mud bugs in Baltmore?
Cured meats and wine... what wines do you drink?
For salume: Do like they do in Emilia Romagna--Lambrusco. Love prosciutto, speck and salume with a really good Lambrusco, like Francesco Vezzelli Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro "Rive dei Ciliegi."
For pate, I like sparkling Vouvray, Cremant d'Alsace, or Champagne.
Wine pairing recommendation for A. Bourdain's marrow bone last meal
We served this at our last two New Year's eve dinners. This is all about the push-pull of acid and fat, with a nice amount of salty tang from the capers. Dress the salad lightly--a little goes a long way.
You want champagne, trust me. Marrow by itself--you could go for lots of great pairings, including the lithe reds below. But with all that acid and salt, and the need to refresh against the incredible richness of the marrow, we've always done champagne.
Wine in Vegas [moved from Wine board]
I think the wine list (all 63 pages of it) at Lotus of Siam is insane. No one would have thunk that a Thai restaurant in a strip mall off of downtown would keep a cellar like this one. It is arguably the best collection of German wines in the country (and nice values, especially in bottles with good age). Food is great too.
http://www.saipinchutima.com/#
Birth Year Wines
For me, my love for aged wines is claret. I have a son born in '09. Based on prior experience and preference, some en primeur reviews, and the recs of my vendor who tasted en primeur, I bought a case of Prieure Lichine '09 on futures for $52/bottle. Not sure what the release price will be, but should be under $100 easily.
Leoville is my go-to for most dependable aging but I was priced out of '09 (appx $100 or more in futures). The '09 Langoa Barton should be a very good bet for your money and for long-term aging. Futures went for $70 and that wine will easily go 21 years and on and on.
I need to find a trendy restaurant in Baltimore and I've never been there, please help!
+1.
Heather Beckman is the restaurant group's group dining manager and a pleasure to work with.
Stemware from C&B?
Agree with dinwiddie; Schott Zwiesel is the way to go. The construction and feel is similar to Reidel Vinum series, they are reasonably break resistant, and they represent great price/value relationship. Personally, I like the Tritan series. A set of the 28 oz Bordeaux from Amazon will keep you under $12 per stem inclusive (no sales tax + super saver shipping).
http://www.amazon.com/Schott-Zwiesel-Stemware-Collection-Bordeaux/dp/B00284AKCY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1330116545&sr=8-3
Looking for Romantic Dinner in Baltimore Area
Oops. Hadn't noticed OP is from 2009. Brass Elephant closed that year.
Favorite NV Champagne?
Big, corporate bubbles are to champagne what Cheesecake Factory is to dining. All the big houses are still buying sur-lattes, though the practice is technically illegal. At twelve million bottles a year, Veuve is all about LVMH shareholder value, not the celebration of terroir.
Terry Thiese's catalog is a great read and a manifesto for the greatness of grower champagne.
http://www.skurnikwines.com/msw/theise_catalogs.html
For the same price as corporate plonk, I'll take Gaston Chiquet, Aubrey, Thierry Triolet, Diebolt Vallois, Bereche, Delavenne (maybe my new go-to bubbles).
Philly hound needs Baltimore suggestions
You can also search threads on this board for Fell's Point and Inner Harbor, which will direct you to restaurants within walking distance.
Looking for some opinions on Baltimore farm-to-table restaurants
Please tell me that she's going to discuss what a tired and hackneyed term and concept this is.
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2010/08/foam_fan_wylie_dufresne_thinks.html
Birth Year Wines
You want to invest a few hundred dollars on a heat- and light-sensitive perishable, with the intention of drinking it two decades after it was bottled.
The algorithm has a pivotal branch point:
1. You do not have climate controlled storage: This is simple. The year was declared a vintage year by most port houses. Buy several bottles and lay them down the coolest, darkest place in your house, e.g. basement, crawl space, or interior closet. Port is the most durable and forgiving wine when it comes to storage. Sure, you could lay down claret, but what if you ended up with nothing but brown swill on that magic birthday in 2020?
2. You have climate controlled storage: So many choices! Large format ages better than 750 mL bottles. Do not buy 1/2 bottles (375 mL); they will age faster (though exception could be made for Sauternes and TBA/ausleses). Then buy one from each of the above you listed. And then we can give specific label suggestions.
30th Birthday Dinner in Baltimore
Wolf/Foreman does an excellent job with parties/private dining. Pazo has a few different private rooms, and Cinghiale has the farmhouse table in the Osteria side, as well as a private room off the Enoteca.
white Bordeaux for laying down.
That would get you a half-case of white Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte '07. Though Sauternes is legendary for its aging potential, I think well-made, dry white Bordeaux gains tremendous complexity with aging, and has a great track record in doing so. The Smith Haut Lafitte would give you solid aging (presuming good provenance/shipping).
Bon Chon Korean fried chicken opening in Ellicott City
Thanks for passing this along. I needed to look it up, so this might be of interest to other Chowhounders learning about their Korean chicken franchises:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/dining/reviews/02under.html
Italian Christmas Eve Menu - How to Pair Wines?
I think good Bardolino is one of the most underrated wines going. Corte Gardoni makes a great one. It's a wonderful, versatile food wine. And Corte Gardoni's chiaretto is a summer favorite of ours.
Pairing for Za'atar and Pistachio Crusted Poussin with Quince and Rose Jam
Sounds great but a tough wine pairing. Zaatar is an assertive spice, and the quince jam will be both acidic and sweet. Undoubtedly, you will get some recommendations for champagne/sparkling wine, and this will be a good, safe bet. I'm thinking something with pronounced aromatics, good acidity, and enough interest not to get crushed by the dish.
So, my recs would be a weighty Gewurtz, like Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre or Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer Clos Windsbuhl; or a big Pinot Gris like Barmes Buecher Pinot Gris Silicis or Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos Windsbuhl.
The danger with these pairings is that a sweet jam will make the (sweet but) less sweet wine taste sour. My advice is, if you're going for good pairing, is to be careful with the level of sweetness in that jam and to be judicious in its amount with the fowl.
Go-to lunch spot in Baltimore
Same distance, going the other way: Trinacria. Not necessarily healthful but, hey, the muffaletta sub is so good, it's worth it.
family lunch in Baltimore
Woodberry Kitchen has a kids menu, crayons, housemade fruit sodas, and is large and loud enough for the Sat/Sun brunch to work well.
Harbor East has two places that work well for kids (though both, admittedly, are part of mini-chains): Lebanese Taverna has lots of room at lunch, with lots of small plates for kids to eat through. Kids like the music and the food (lots of fried stuff) at Ra.
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Woodberry Kitchen
2010 Clipper Park Rd # 126, Baltimore, MD
Dinner recommendation in San Francisco? (moved from Washington DC board)
Maybe I'm missing something, but why not just peruse and post on the San Francisco Bay Area board?
Top 3 fine dining restaurants for special anniversary dinner
Abacrombie has been closed a while.
Charleston is arguably the only destination restaurant within Baltimore.
