Hungry Times Two

Some swear the ballparks do it best. Others say the ones out of a box aren't half bad. Some like theirs at the movies. We like them Amish-style. We're talkin' soft pretzels, people. Credit: Michael Lorenzo/sxc For our first outing since our nasty sickness hit us on Tuesday, Scott and I decided to hit up the Dutch Country Farmers Market in Laurel, Md. A little fresh squeezed lemonade and buttery, warm soft pretzel would do the trick to get us back on our feet, yes? This place is so neat - we see it as lots of independent food stalls with offerings you might find at Whole Foods/Farmers Market/Fresh Market/Baltimore's Cross Street Market - only Amish. Indeed, it was just the right introduction back into the real world - complete with a manic hunt for a spare parking space. We learned after our first trip there that the easiest thing to do to avoid a bump-up or road rage incident in the very crowded parking lot is to park next door at Home Depot. People go nuts...

Setting the scene: Friday night, low on groceries, and even lower on energy to cook.   The cast of characters: Erin and Scott, HTT bloggers with a desire for something different. The mission: A new place to eat, without the pain-in-the-ass travel time to Hell On Earth, I mean, Northern Virginia or DC. Final destination : Tiffin the Indian Kitchen, Langley Park, Md. Background info: Scott and I have visited Woodlands  (vegetarian Indian) in Langley Park and wanted to see if Tiffin might be as good. Langley Park is a swath of commercial real estate  between Takoma Park and Silver Spring, Md., dotted with tons of tiendas, liquor stores, and apartment buildings primarily housing a huge immigrant community here. It ain't exactly the flashy area we'd bring out of town guests or anything, but if you're looking for ethnic food, you can't go wrong.

Okay, so this blog post title is a TAD sarcastic! Beer, raw oysters and clams, fries, donuts and more beer is not exactly healthy, in a nutritional/pysiological sense, but they're definitely a mental health/pleasure boost. The first photo comes from The Brewer's Art, where I spent Friday after work with two co-workers for happy hour. And yes, that IS a pitchfork on the tap, which is appropriate for the beer it dispenses - Ozzy ! I had a Chimay glass of it and a pint of Zodiac ale - most satisfying after rushing a grant application around for signatures, etc. The following day, we spent Saturday in Baltimore for Jason Dick's birthday, the man with the classic quote, "If you think something happened, then it probably did." We met up at Federal Hill's Cross Street Market, where we proceeded to inflict serious damage on Nick's Seafood supply of bivalves. Three Natty Boh's and a plate of Maryland oysters was the start of many an oyster and clam (cher...

We met our friend Gideon in D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood for breakfast at Jimmy T's Place . It's a corner breakfast/brunch place that's been around since 1969, so as Gideon noted, it was around LONG before Capitol Hill gentrified! : ) For Erin and I, it was our second visit and first time eating there - we tried for it last October when my dad and sister were visiting from Georgia, but the staff ignored us as we patiently waited for a table. That experience was odd, and likely isolated, given that we were greeted today with a "Have a seat wherever you like" welcome. As for the food, it's standard breakfast fare if you're looking for that, PLUS D.C./Mid-Atlantic specialties, namely half-smokes and scrapple . Ben's Chili Bowl pretty much equals half-smokes, while scrapple even has a few mentions on The Wire from Baltimore's Jimmy McNulty . Erin had a spicy half-smoke with her breakfast (the sliced sausage near the edge of her plate). ...

National Bohemian beer is back on tap after 15 years! We've lived here almost one year now and much like PBR has a hip/shtick/cool factor across the country, National Bohemian beer , or "Natty Boh," is experiencing a resurgence around here. And as well it should be, given that it was originally brewed in Baltimore's Brewers Hill neighborhood. The original brewery complex is now a mixed-use development of self-storage, housing and nearby shops/restaurants.

Ever the fan of a playful pun, I came up with several on our 45-minute car ride this past Saturday to Deale, Md., which is pretty much in the middle of Backwater, Nowhere. What's the big Deale? I can Deale with that. I hope we're getting a fair Deale. Deale or No Deale? You get the picture. Luckily, bad puns were the only poor thing we endured during our trek out to Skipper's Pier Restaurant & Dock Bar.

Guess what, folks? We've discovered the ONE redeeming thing about going to a mall during the holidays. This weekend, Scott and I joined our friend Jim, his mother visiting from Florida, and two friends of his for a dim sum extravaganza at Hollywood East Cafe in Wheaton , Md. As Scott and I had errands to run afterwards, we followed Jim in our car, and were quite perplexed when we pulled up to the Westfield Mall in Wheaton . "A mall?" I asked aloud. How could good food come from the same place that has FYE , Macy's and JC Penneys? Scott reminded me we had a pretty amazing Vietnamese experience at a strip mall in Honolulu during our honeymoon in April 2007, so I shut my trap and hoped for good things to come. I'm happy to report that Hollywood East Cafe should get a Golden Globe, nay, an OSCAR -- at least a supporting one, for its Dim sum. Now, I must admit my dim sum experience is sparse -- other than a couple lunches at Ping Pong in D.C., I got nothin .' S...

My mom and step-dad were up visiting for Thanksgiving and after gorging ourselves on turkey and the sites of D.C., I took them on a day-trip to Baltimore. After a visit to my mom's favorite museum (she's a mosaic artist), we aimed for lunch at Rocket to Venus in Hampden . It was closed for lunch, but our trip up Charles St. wasn't for naught - we stumbled onto residents of 34 th St. setting up their Christmas displays! This street is Christmas at its best, or worst, depending on your tolerance/interest in all things Christmas. Erin teases me for being a scrooge, but I have to admit, lights and what-not are nice at this cold and dark time of year. After a brief walk through Hampden , we aimed for lunch at Kooper's Tavern in Fells Point. The tavern was most certainly open, with rowdy sports fans packing the bar and even spilling onto the sidewalk for fresh-shucked oysters. (My friend Gideon would have camped out right there for their Chincoteagues !) After some d...

It's surreal, y'all - Scott and I are now a one car household! What the what! It all came down to money - we want to save more of it. No we will have waaaaay less of an insane car insurance premium and I now have no car payment. Also, we longer will suffer the embarrassment of being car twins. We went from double Matrices to ein silver Matrix. I've always driven Toyotas, so I always gave my cars Japanese names - Yoko for my old green Camry, and Yoshi for my recently departed blue Matrix. Scott's not a fan of nicknaming his - I mean, OUR, silver Matrix - so when I pressed him for suggestions, he came up with...Momo, Japanese for peach. I kind of love it. What do you think? The other was a non-Japanese moniker - Dot, as in Dot Matrix. Kinda ridiculous, yes? I think we're going with Momo. Sidenote: To celebrate our newfound one-car-ness, we hit up Sardi's , our favorite Peruvian charcoal chicken joint in the area (so far.) Their churasco de pollo will cure what ail...

Last night while dining at the Korean place and Washingtonian "Cheap Eats" pick Lighthouse Tofu in Rockville, a discussion came up over cooking rice. (Sidebar: I had bad Korean food once in San Francisco - beef tasted "off" and the hot tea was like licking shoe leather. Not good. Long story short, Lighthouse Tofu redeemed Korean food for me - beef bulgogi is now the jam. YUM. Get some.) I can't seem to figure it out, but ever since I tossed out my non-stick cookware and switched to my All-Clad pot (the awesome one we found in the backyard of our first rental house in Nashville, but that's another story), rice at our house continues to be a rocky deal. I've tried lowering the heat on our gas range or upping it just a tad. I've played with the water to rice ratio, now working with a one and a half cup of water to one cup rice situation. I've washed the rice in a strainer, even. Sadly, sometimes the result is too sticky/gluey. Often the rice drie...

Sometimes you don't need ambiance. Sometimes you don't need a six page wine list. Sometimes you don't need small plates drizzled with some kind of prettified infused reduction sauce. Sometimes you just want a beer. Or four. Plus food. Like a burger, maybe? And accompanied by something nice and fried - tater tots, perhaps? Well friends, thanks to pal I.J., I found just what's described above - something that can only be called "A Dive Bar." Silver Spring's Quarry House - Monday Nights. A bevy of normal folks pack the place to enjoy half-priced burgers, dollars off all beers during Happy Hour. Happy indeed! You know you're headed somewhere special when you take to the grungy stairs heading down to a 70-year old basement space under an Indian restaurant on Georgia Ave. Johnny Cash is on the jukebox and strings of colored lights and dimly lit sconces provide just enough light to make out the menu. The beer list is impressive - they even offer Orkney Skull ...

As I sit here typing, a funny little sound escapes from my kitchen. "Thwack. Pop." Silence...then again, "Thwack." No, it's not Scott taking out his frustrations on a meal tonight. It's glass jars filled with yummy sweet spreads sealing their lids as they cool. Oh, how I love that sound! What did I make, you may wonder. Well, let me tell you. It has to do with these shots, taken during our visit to Homestead Farm two weekends ago: Our host tells us what's up... respect the fruit. We always respect the fruit. The apples we picked -- about 20 - 25 of the Gala and Cameo varieties, were HUGE - nearly twice the size of the typical grocery store kind. I am obviously all about them, as you see below. In addition to acres of apples, the farm also includes a pumpkin patch - pretty irresistible this time of year. Our friend Ryan demonstrates how Mr. Potato Head has been replaced by a much larger piece of produce - MUCH larger. If apples aren't your deal, you...

Posting on behalf of my male HTT counterpart: My dad and sister drove up from Georgia this past long weekend and we explored Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Molly (my sister) had never been to Baltimore nor Philadelphia, Erin was new to Philly and I’d only been to Philly for about six hours in a snowstorm (stopped there midway from Asheville , NC to Montreal, left in a hurry trying to avoid getting stuck in a blizzard). My dad, laid-back as always, was open to visiting all three places, so we started with Baltimore on a Friday. Baltimore I drove them into town, with quick trek through downtown and then onto Chaps Pit Beef , a place on the far eastern edge of Baltimore City serving pit beef, Baltimore’s local take on barbecue. I’d seen Anthony Bourdain ’s visit , so I made sure to try the tiger sauce. That, plus heaping spoons of horseradish, had me in “food sweat,” which isn ’t a bad thing as long as tasty, spicy food is involved. Molly and dad got straight-...

It's nearly the weekend, and I for one am just elated about that! Something about the past couple work weeks has me jonesing for some down time, with no computer screens to stare at or emails to answer. So, weekends are made for fun, and pie . Last weekend we enjoyed a visit from my old college roomie and friend Victoria. She's from Richmond, she's a Historic Preservation planner so she can do planner-speak with Scott all the time and she loves her historic stuff so she's fun to travel with and tour museums and noteworthy places, and she's a non-seafood eating vegetarian . With three more food lovin' folks along - Jim, Gideon and Gideon's friend Jason, We visited Federal Hill, Baltimore's Cross Street Market for Nick's Seafood, so Victoria found a Mexican joint in the market, Pop's Tacos, run by Asians (just saying...it was unusual.) Photo...

Our love for seafood has no bounds. It is, to use metaphors tragically, wider than any river, deeper than any ocean. It is for reel. ( Ok , terrible pun. I will stop now.) I knew Scott was the man for me when he ordered shrimp and grits on our first date at Asheville's Early Girl Eatery. Scott grew up on Low country seafood and my mom's side hails from the Wilmington, NC area, so our palates are well adjusted to all sorts of fruits of the sea. Appropriately enough, we served shrimp and grit cakes smothered in country ham tasso gravy and had boiled shrimp accompanied by a huge-ass shrimp trawler ice sculpture at our wedding in coastal South Carolina. (And yes, I must also mention yet again the awesome and legendary cheese castle that I didn't even ask my caterer for yet it totally rocked our friends and relatives' salivating faces off.) Behold - the kick-ass Cheese Castle (thanks to L. Adams for the pic) So we like it all - crabs, oysters, ...

Let's just all acknowledge this for a second: barbecue is an art form. It takes time, effort, patience, and a lot of smoke, heat, and know-how to create the final masterpiece. Luckily, Scott and I were invited by a new friend to a 21-year gathering centered around the glory of pork in Cheverly, Md. last eve. I figured it would be a casual deal so I made some blue cheese potato salad and prepared to eat some grilled meat. I had no idea that I was about to take part in quite the ceremonial affair. Our hosts' home was decked out in pig paraphernalia - pig string lights, tin signs, porcelain figures, photos, framed note cards, and even a pig in a tree. After the hosts and I chatted and they learned I was from North Carolina, instantly I had to ante up and confess my favorite regional style of 'cue in the Good Ol' North State. As I pledge allegiance to the Lexington style of pulled pork with a red ketchup and vinegar-based sauce, I was told that I should have been there la...

Yes, it was hotter than two rats fornicating in a wool sock (one of my all-time favorite expressions, and that's the clean version) this weekend. Yet we couldn't let 90 pesky degrees get in the way of some good times, could we? Naaaaah. We sucked it up and headed out for Alexandria and DC on Saturday, Baltimore on Sunday. In pictures I will demonstrate: We met up with one of my best college buds Kellie visiting from Asheville and toodled around an old 1940s munitions factory that was converted into an arts center - the Torpedo Art Factory in Alexandria. Awesome artist-in-residence studios with views of the Potomac, with lots of pricey fun stuff to look at. One throwback: An old-school soda machine. When was the last time you saw these? Especially the Mountain Dew! After a lovely time with Kellie, Scott and I decided to brave the National Mall and walk to Smithsonian's American History Museum. As luck would have it, one floor has Julia Child's kitchen on one wing and ...

My granola, that is. Yep, I'm just one step away from throwing on a batik sarong, renewing my subscription to Mother Jones, and getting in on the nearest drum circle I can find. Granola gets a bad rap, I think. It's a word used to describe the more liberal, earth- lovin ' folk, but I just think it's crunchy and tasty with yogurt or as cereal. I plan on breakfastin ' it up with this granola in the morning, accompanied by sliced banana and milk. The recipe I used is great, but it didn't result in big clusters of granola, which you might find in the $5 bags at Whole Foods and other places. It's still crunchy, just separated instead of chunky. I think a lot of granola recipes call for butter and this one uses oil instead. Often granola is considered a "health food" but when you examine the nutrition info on commercial granola, you'll see a fat gram count that is sooooooo far out, man. In other baking-related news, last weekend Scott and I attend...

Here are some quick bites for ya. Rather than rhapsodize for paragraphs over the breakfast offerings of Plato's Diner , 7150 Baltimore Ave., College Park, MD, here's a visual for you: Greek omelet and French Toast - yummmmmmmmm . Plato's is what our friends in Hyattsville call "The Shiny Diner." It's like a greasy Airstream. Hot and filling food at a decent price - gotta love the Greek diner. On a similar note, a new friend who lives in Silver Spring introduced us to: Where we found: Behold, the Lebanese Feast Mezze Platter at the Lebanese Taverna , 933 Ellsworth Dr., downtown Silver Spring. With a sampling of 12 menu items, we didn't know what exactly we'd get when we ordered but as you can see, they didn't skimp on us. The platter included falafel , hummus, tabbouleh, cucumber/mint/tomato salad, grape leaves, and Kibbeh (said in the style of South Park..." Kibb -eh!" ) - A.K.A the best meat-stuffed orb I've ever encountered - fi...