Restaurant Week in Baltimore

This coming week is Restaurant Week in Baltimore and it's become rather a competitive event. Just how many restaurants are YOU going to get to? I've got two lined up so far, and may try another one. One is a revisit, just because I am going with friends and it was one place they mentioned. The other will be a new place for me. Catch my reviews in the coming week!

So, where are YOU going?

Tomato Aspic

I was over at Food Maven (and her other blog Coconut Lime) the other day and she's hosting a retro food challenge. It involves making a wobbly food product from a cookbook from before 1985. Now, I was a bit offended by that, since I am waaay pre-1985, and don't think I am terribly retro.

Anyway, I decided to make an old summer favourite, tomato aspic. If you are me, you say those words this way: tomaaahto aspic. It's like tomato juice jello. They used to serve it at the old Woman's Industrial Exchange on Charles Street in downtown Baltimore, with their famous chicken salad with mayonaise. Again, if you're me, you say myyy-naze, sort of the French way. My family's British and Southern, so maybe that's why I talk funny.

I was at my sister's house this afternoon and she had a 1946 copy of The Joy of Cooking (now that's retro!). So I took a picture of the pages with the aspic recipes and am going to make one to submit to the Food Maven. They also had a grapefruit aspic, which sounded very interesting. Stay tuned...

Oh...there will be a small prize to the person who answers the question in the post below (and Cat, you and Dog can't answer!).

Dizzy Issies

Cat and I were trying to decide where to go, outside of the usual haunts, and since we'd had a conversation about Dizzy Issies a couple of months ago, and I had read about it on Baltimore Snacker, we mapquested it and headed up to Remington. It's a little hard to find because the cross street, 30th Street, doesn't quite meet up with anything but Remington Street.

DI is located just across the street from the Ace of Cakes, Duff Goldman and Charm City Cakes. We didn't see any of the gang there, but noticed that all of the windows in Duff's building are covered with lighting gels.

DI, which is a typical neighbourhood pub, was crowded at the bar, but there were some seats in the dining room. We snagged two and got to work ordering from their drinks menu. Cat started off with a wheat beer, which she said was a little licorice-y. I got a Tanquery & tonic, with lime. I usually order Mt. Gay rum & tonic, which I've been drinking since college, but DI doesn't carry Mt. Gay.

The dining room is a few steps up from the bar and is decorated with coloured fairy lights and old, not repro, advertising signs. There is a huge stone fireplace along one wall and the whole room only seats about 20. We did find out that the second floor is open as well.

Cat started with a cup of crab soup, which was thick and tomato-y and looked like it had lots of crab meat. She said it was a little spicy though. We both ordered burgers, medium. The waitress asked if we wanted our onions raw or cooked. WOW! The burgers came quickly and were juicy and perfectly cooked. I got a bleu cheese burger, a fave from college days at Happy Hamburger in St. Mary's County (RIP). The bleu cheese was a little overwhelming, but good anyway. The burgers came with what looked like Utz chips.

We still had a little room, so ordered a slice of lemon/coconut cake to share. It was light and very good. We each also had another drink.

The total cost for dinner was an amazing $33.00!!! The place was so small, I didn't take pix, but if you look at Baltimore Snacker's review, you can see some.

I've been asking people the quintessential question that every Baltimorean knows the answer to without blinking or hesitating. If you had to dump a dead body in the city, where would you do it? Answers please!