I once had hugarian foie gras: whole lobes of goose liver, sealed in a jar with fat/renderings and possibly some paprika. It was served cold, our host pulled it from the freezer to the fridge and served it on warm toast with a little salt and pepper.

Does anyone know how to make this? I'm not looking for terrine or pate: the fat should be separate from the liver itself. I think I can get the goose liver from Hudson Valley, but wanted to throw it out there.

Thanks ahead of time!

I have a friend who raises cattle on a family farm in PA. And what he said about feeding cows corn is this (paraphrased): Corn is a grass. It's a monocot.

Now, without a doubt, the general public thinks that they only feed cows the grain portion, but from what he told me, they feed the cows shredded parts of the corn stalk. Everything is used. This may not be the case for large, corporate farms, but maybe it is. I don't know. What I do know is that he is right: corn is a grass.

This isn't official, but I think the owner's of Bluegrass have young children (I suspect this because of their awesome stroller that I've seen twice by the bar), so they are kid friendly (or at least you can bring your stroller in, right?). I did bring my toddler to Bluegrass early one day for dinner and he had a blast exploring the space, but that might not work at 7pm, when it can get crowded.

Woodberry has nice space outside (trees) but what I like about Bluegrass is that you can walk around Federal Hill and window shop if your infant is fussy. Parking for Bluegrass is city parking, while I believe Woodberry has a parking lot (it's been some time since I've been there!) but I think Bluegrass also does valet. I don't recall if either have changing tables in the restrooms, which would be a huge factor in choosing a restaurant for me, but maybe not you. Good luck, and enjoy your meal!

That's probably a negative. The start up chef is the owner of the restaurant (he was hired from Jesse Wong and then he started it himself.)

I will have to go check the place out again, but it's really hard to beat the location from Annapolis.

If you're going to the Black Olive on Sunday night, you can go to Max's afterwards for their impressive selection of beer. It's a longish walk or a short cab ride. You can also go to Bird's of a Feather for scotch afterwards (the bartender there is really nice when there aren't obnoxious people in there and it's a great scotch bar, but there is no food.) And there is Vaccarro's (the one in Fells Point) for amazing cannolis. AMAZING, and every time I go there I meet different out of towner regulars (meaning they fly in from other places and ALWAYS make a trip to Vaccarro's.) All of these places are on the southeast side of the city and are longish walks or super short cab rides.

For Saturday night: I would go to Federal Hill or Mt. Vernon. They are different neighborhoods of Baltimore and you'll get a different vibe from them. Mt. Vernon: Brewer's Art for their garlic rosemary fries, Ressurection, and pub food. The downstairs is a great place to eat. There are plenty of bars around that area too, but the Brewer's Art is special and worth dining there.

Federal Hill: Bluegrass is really great and very casual-- their crawfish hush puppies though not filled with crawfish are tasty and they make almost everything there (ketchup, mustard, etc..). Once again, lots of different bars in the area to peek into afterwards, though I haven't gone there to drink in a long time. Matsuri is consistent in their sushi (fresh, not too creative, but affordable) and the Sobo is casual yuppie comfort food that is affordable too. (Although those places I have a bit of a bias for because we've been going to them for over a decade) And if you plan it right, you can stroll around the inner harbor to walk off your food coma. :)

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Brewer's Art
1106 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201

Black Olive
814 S. Bond Street, Baltimore, MD 21231

Sobo Cafe
6 W Cross St, Baltimore, MD 21230

Matsuri
1105 S Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21230

I went there < two months ago at noonish and had a great time. The house was completely packed and as long as you were aggressive with the trays, the food was hot and fresh. I didn't have the shrimp though (love shrimp, don't care for it in dim sum as it's typically premade stuff) but the pork spareribs, the crispy bbq pork, and the chicken feet were very good. Even the congee was good-- not too salty, lots of egg and pork in it.

I enjoyed their alaska roll, the stuffed clams, and the other sundries. A loooooong time ago, they made black skin chicken soup and that was wonderful but I don't expect that to come back again. But it's the only place in HoCo that is worth going to now for dim sum.

the Black Olive. The owner's have the fish shipped in every night and it's the best place that I've ever had Dover sole from. Tom Sietsema of the WashingtonPost loves it too.

They have an amazing fish stew that will just floor you.

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Black Olive
814 S. Bond Street, Baltimore, MD 21231

I would also suggest Red Pearl.

It still has some of the issues that I don't care for-- food sometimes cold on the cart, a bit mismanaged when it gets in the weeds-- but it has a great assortment of dim sum, which Oriental East does not. In fact, I would avoid Oriental East if you are familiar with dim sum. You've had it all before. RP has some things you won't find anywhere else-- just be aggressive in looking for waiters with trays or sit closer to the kitchen. :)

If you're driving from Annapolis, it's probably your best bet in terms of distance and traffic. Plus, there is a nice movie theatre and mall across the street and the lakefront is a good place to walk around after you've gorged yourself.

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Oriental East
1312 E West Hwy, Silver Spring, MD 20910

B&O Brasserie might do the trick-- excellent cocktails and food, great ambience, and it's walking distance from the inner harbor.

I miss the JFX farmer's market-- it is comparable to those in California in terms of size. You'll love it.

I would also suggest a quick trip to Woodberry Kitchen if you have the chance, as well as Bluegrass, and the Black Olive-- all great recommendations. If you want to do something artsy, the Walters Art Gallery is free and the American Visionary Art Museum is just wickedly cool.

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Woodberry Kitchen
2010 Clipper Park Rd # 126, Baltimore, MD

Black Olive
814 S. Bond Street, Baltimore, MD 21231

I went back too... and there was no improvement. It makes me extremely sad because I loathe leaving the city for food, esp. Chinese food. Sorry to get your hopes up. I know mine were. It looks like I will be going to Oriental East for dim sum until a substitute reveals itself.

This being said, I did have a great time at Hunan Taste in Catonsville, and I didn't have to suggest anything to the server to make it better. There's a thread in chowhound already for it... it's close to the City (about 15 min.) and it has an extensive hunan menu.

For pictures, see my blog entry: http://tizinu.wordpress.com/2009/11/1...

Baltimore City still lacks decent Chinese food. (Sorry, Zhong Shan, you still need a lot of work.) But it seems like Catonsville has a solution to this dirth of real, authentic, I can take my mom to this place and she won’t hate it, Chinese. It’s called Hunan Taste and it’s next to our favorite Sunday hangout place– the HMart in Catonsville.

The restaurant is in a strip mall, but it’s possibly the best located strip mall location for an authentic Chinese food experience. With hundreds of hungry Chinese families going to the HMart on a daily basis, it is working by word of mouth through the Chinese community as a place to get real Hunan cuisine– “dry” cooked with fresh chili peppers and garlic being the essence of the dish. It’s also got a wide range of dishes for large parties: there are the American dishes of General Tso’s to the REALLY authentic dishes that my grandma makes because it’s hard to find, like the goose intestines, hot pot, or fermented soybeans with chilis. (Think stinky tofu, but not tofu.) And it’s definitely trying to get those large parties in, with a fabulous wooden carving in the entry, a secluded back room with karaoke, and a polished but definitely Chinese decor that blends Last Emperor with the Red Maple– posh, clean, but hinting of the Old World. Jonathan Gold would hate this place, but my mom and I loved sitting there, calmly eating our dishes and trying to not get too excited. Our food was great, fantastic, and dare I say it… damn good authentic Hunan cuisine.

We ordered the following:

Chicken Bumkin appetizer, which was chopped chicken with bone in, dry sauteed with black beans, hot chili peppers, garlic, and green onions. There was no sauce to this dish, just tons of flavor from the fragrant ingredients. I highly recommend this.
Chicken Bumkin

Chicken Bumkin

Twice Cooked Pork Belly - with large leaks, red chili peppers, and red cooked pork, this was exceptional, although I lamented the pork belly wasn’t cooked long enough to make the fat melt like butter in your mouth. Still, dry sauteed, with so much flavor I can’t really complain. It was perfect in its own way.
2X Pork

Twice Cooked Pork

Sauteed Frog Hunan style – sauteed with button mushrooms, red chili peppers, green onions and garlic, this was probably one of my favorites. The frog was perfectly cooked, but more importantly, the mushrooms were too– firm, without any sogginess, and extremely well paired with the frog as the textures were so similar and yet the flavors so different that it make a silky party in your mouth.
Frog... Ribbit

Frog... Ribbit

Braised Cabbage Soup – who knew there was a vegetable called “wahwah?” My mom and I didn’t… but apparently, it’s baby Chinese cabbage, and it’s was served in a white broth that had scallions, country ham (think Virginia salt ham), little medicinal tree seeds (I can’t remember the English word for it) and (wait for it…) A WHOLE THOUSAND YEAR OLD EGG!!!!!! Not cut up in tiny pieces, but served quartered, to give a slightly bitter, umami flavor to the delicate soup. I nearly shit a kitten eating this– it was so delicious, so perfect, and so unexpected.
Braised Cabbage Soup

Braised Cabbage Soup

The service was polite and the management friendly, in particular the owners, a couple who franchised out the Jasmine bubble tea chains that are found in the malls in the area. They, like myself, were tired of running to Rockville, Flushing, LA to find food for themselves and decided to open this restaurant so that they could have a place to eat near their home. A restaurant catered to feed its own, to show off real Chinese food, and to provide it in a relaxing setting.

I can’t help but want to scream “Run, Don’t Walk to This Restaurant!!!” because it’s going to be impossible to get a table there in a few weeks. You know, when Thanksgiving rolls around and it’s packed with the people not working at the mediocre Chinese restaurants in the area.

Hunan Taste
718 N. Rolling Road
Catonsville, MD 21228
410-788-8988

Dishes – $12-20, average

Service: Polite and expedient.

PS– they also have sinks outside the bathroom to wash your hands in before eating. Very asian. :)

I understand the pessimism, but because there is such a huge dirth of dim sum places in the Baltimore metro area, I'm going to go back and hope for the best. I will also note that they are responsive to criticism, because the soup dumplings were a suggestion of a customer and they already received some suggestions as to how to make the dumplings better from other customers. So hopefully, more people will go, and they will be able to perfect the recipe and also produce other dishes that way.

In general, I do think that they are responsive to clientele, esp. if you go there in person to talk about the food. I also know in this area, unlike LA or NYC or even Rockville, the sifu cook for other people and not their own, resulting in a lack of authentic chinese cuisine. But unlike LA, NYC, or Rockville, I think that Zhong Shan really needs people to step up and voice what they want to make it better (I don't think they read the Baltimore Sun commentary on this) by going there, trying the food, and giving input to the staff directly. And I think they will be responsive to this as well as long as it's done in a helpful way.

I acknowledge that it may backfire too, but here's to hoping that we gain a great chinese restaurant amongst many horrible take out stands and subpar "Chinese restaurants" in the city.

I have been there twice this past week and just wanted to give a status update on the food there.

First of all, the sifu is actually from Zhong Shan and trained by chefs in that area. This is why although the food is generally slightly different, because the flavors of that area are not szechuan or catonese. They're slightly sweeter, which can be a turn off for lots of people.

This being said, let's get to the meat of this review:

Service: I found that the servers are quite obliging, speak reasonable English and excellent Mandarin, and attentive.

Food:
Dinner - I had some sauteed leafy greens (water vegetables I think is the English word for it) that were sauteed well, some roasted duck, and the lamb casserole. The lamb casserole was my favorite-- it was filled with lamb and cooked quite well. Dinner prices were reasonable.

Dim Sum (took my mother this time): Unlike a lot of dim sum places, this place makes it's own lotus leaf wrapped rice, taro dumplings, and tofu skin wrapped dumplings. The flavors were a little different than what I would expect otherwise, the taro dumplings had a sweeter filling, and the lotus leaf wrapped rice was a little blander than I would have liked, but extremely fragrant on the lotus leafs. The pork spare ribs are good-- large chunks of pork with slices of hot peppers on top-- and the chicken feet were also generous in proportion. The tripe tasted clean, which is really my definition of good tripe-- if it tastes like tripe, then it's not prepared well.

They also make a sticky rice that reminded my mom of Taiwanese oiled rice, with sauteed pork and pork sausage and toped with toasted peanuts. I was really surprised about this dish because most of the steamed rice dishes in dim sum places have no flavor - like fried rice in a bowl - but this was unctuous.

Okay, so the big deal, the real reason to go now and to keep going is they also started making "shao long bao" which for those of you in the know are "soup dumplings." The sifu is perfecting his recipe, which is nowhere near the perfection of say Joe's Shanghai in Flushing, NY, but considering NO ONE ELSE makes them here in this area (I assume I'm correct in this, because of the dirth of Chinese food in Baltimore) I'm willing to praise it. I also highly recommend people going there for the shao long bao, which they recently added to the menu so that more people will order it and hopefully, he'll perfect his recipe a little bit more.

The prices for the dim sum was excellent (mostly under $3 per dish) and there are no carts-- only order via menu, so it's a good thing to ask the waiter for detailed descriptions. I'm actually glad there are no carts, with the lack of people there the food came out hot.

In general, I really enjoyed my experience there for dim sum and I ordered two orders of shao long bao. I think that they're still figuring out the area's pallette but I think that it can only work if people go there and try the food and provide actual criticism, which BTW, is how Grace Garden was made. And since Zhong Shan is so much more convenient for me in Baltimore than GG in Odenton (and also open on Sundays for dimsum, unlike GG) I will be going there again.

For true cheapness, I would agree with Denise and buy it and cook it at home. Especially with 5 kids, it might be nice for all of them to help out with the meal too.

You also might want to look for "steak nights" in your area, when the steak dinner is cheaper on some nights (say Tuesday?) versus others (Friday). Good luck.

Tater tots. There's something about the crispy, fried potato-y goodness that goes great with scotch.

"Scotchy scotchy scotch... I love scotch. Here it goes down, down into my tummy..."

The Washington Post Spirits Columnist (Jason Wilson I heart you!) wrote an article about it a year ago.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040300444.html

He adapted a cocktail here:

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/re...

Ingredients:
1 ounce artichoke-flavored liqueur, such as Cynar brand
1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
Dash bitters, either Peychaud or Angostura brand
2 orange wedges, sliced 1/2-inch thick
Ice

Directions:
Combine the artichoke-flavored liqueur, gin, sweet vermouth and bitters in a cocktail shaker along with a squeeze of juice from 1 orange wedge. Fill with ice and shake until well chilled, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the remaining orange wedge.

I personally don't like Cynar, but if you do try this cocktail, could you describe what it tastes like? I might attempt to persuade my local lounge to make it for me...

I just had dinner the other day there and was pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere is nice, the service is fine, and the food is good. Especially in the HoCo area, where so many of the restaurants are chains, it's nice to fine something that has an executive chef and a different point of view for food.

I wasn't too pleased with the renaming of "classic cocktails, but I suppose that they're trying to emphasize a theme. I also wish they had a Pimm's Cup or Pimm's lemonade on the list and that they spelled Tanqueray correctly. Or used Hendrick's. But they made up for it in the beer selection, which was resonably priced for the volume of beer. ($4/10 oz., $6-9/20 oz). And then they served my beer "ice cold" - so cold that ice formed in the glass (not a plus, but they did have Arrogant Bastard!)

The food was decent - the DLT is a really rich sandwich. I don't recommend getting the spinach salad side (which leaved a lot to be desired as a pile of spinach with some balsamic dressing on the side), but the duck fries were excellent at the pasta was as well. The burgers are also interesting-- they have different types and the healthy choices are there. They're just not as many choices-- which I liked because what they had all sounded really delicious.

I don't foresee myself going there very often because I live in Baltimore, but it was a very viable solution to eating-at-anything-but-a-chain-restaurant in the suburbs of HoCo. If their manager is reading this, they would do well by working with the local farmers markets and getting seasonal ingredients and emphasizing this on the menu. Overall though, I was very pleasantly surprised.