Woodberry Kitchen Brunch

Fellow blogger and market-goer, Kitchenography and I usually do a “big” brunch on the last day of the Farmers’ Market, but since the last market day was cancelled due to the snow, we also cancelled our brunch plans.

It took another couple of weeks to make up this date, and when we decided a destination, Julie picked Woodberry Kitchen, since she’d not been there. We were joined by her husband, who’s also a lot of fun and a great eater.

Woodberry Kitchen just started serving brunch a few months ago, and I knew if the brunch was anywhere as interesting as dinners, it would be excellent. Although it was bitter cold outside, the inside of WK was bright and warm, and the hot air wafting towards our table from the wood-burning oven was welcome.We started with coffee in personal cafetière, or French Press coffee maker, which came with a small hourglass so you could time exactly when to press the plunger and pour your coffee. Since I’ve been using a cafetière for about 25+ years, I knew what to do with it, but for others, it might not have been as obvious.

Julie got a mimosa, which was garnished with a beautifully spiraled orange peel speared as a garnish. I got french toast with a honey-cinnamon butter, along with some house-made sage sausage. The sausage was a little more dense than I like, and it seemed to need more fat to give it a better mouth-feel.

Julie got Eggs Benedict, but instead of ham, it had two crabcakes and Julie had it without the eggs.  Mike got shirred eggs with crab, served in a cast iron ramekin, which he said were “interesting”. I thought that shirred eggs were softer than his appeared to be. The best thing about Woodberry today was that it was not the mob scene that it usually is. You are generally packed into the restaurant like sardines, and it was a welcome change to have a little elbow room. I love the way the sun is lighting this image.

Caffe Falai in NYC

Fellow food blogger, Kitchenography (Julie) and I, went to NYC to meet up with an ex-Baltimore food blogger, Raspberry Eggplant (Roopa) for lunch.

Roopa suggested Caffe Falai for lunch, since it was just a short jaunt from her office at City Hall and it was easily accessible by the subway. It was an inspired choice!

For starters, we all had salads, with Julie and Roopa having an avocado salad (avocado with mixed greens, radicchio, and black truffle dressing) and I had Spinach e Fragole (baby spinach, strawberries, sliced almonds ,reduced balsamic with mozzarella pearls). Isn’t that a beautiful salad? For mains, we all had different things. Julie got Gnudi, spinach and  ricotta balls and a sage-infused brown butter sauce, but instead of the sauce, it had a foam on top. Roopa had Pappardelle Alle Mandelore, an almond flour flat pasta with mushrooms, cauliflower and parmigiano sauce, which was just gorgeous. I had a panini with fresh figs and gorgonzola. It was an incredible mélange of flavours. It was just great fun to see Roopa again, and to hear all about her recent wedding and appearance on Jeopardy.

 

After lunch, Julie and I walked through Little Italy and Chinatown. We saw a store with loads of fresh durian on display. They were cutting them open and selling them. I asked for a tiny taste, but was turned down.

Durian fruits are very forbidding in a lot of ways. Their skin is hard and spiky. Their smell is incredibly offensive to the point of being forbidden on public transport in Southeast Asia. But the taste is reportedly smooth, custardy and quite good. So I was very curious to try a bit, if only to say I’d eaten some.The vendor was opening the durian and scooping out the flesh, which was a creamy yellow. There seemed to be five sections, as well as a seed, and the pulp came out in one piece. A couple buying a durian told us that durian are high in protein and are useful in healing after surgery. The box with the dollar bill is to tip the vendor after he’s cut and boxed the durian for you.

Clementine

I’ve been meaning to try Clementine for a while, but the problem, and it’s a very small one, is that it’s close to my office, and not downtown. And I didn’t think that they were open for lunch. With Connor-pup, I have to go home after work, and can’t stay uptown for dinner. Anyway… the Blonde and the Redhead took me to dinner there for my birthday last night and we had an amazing and fun dinner. I was thrilled to see that they had escargot on the menu, as you rarely see them. I ordered them as my starter. They were sauteed with shitake mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce over toast points, and were fabulous!The B&R split an order of macaroni and cheese, which is similar to the mac & cheese at Sobo Cafe, where the chef at Clementine used to cook. This is made with the traditional elbow macaroni, instead of Sobo’s penne pasta, but it was every bit as good. For my main, I had the smoked pork tenderloin with smoked gouda mashed potatoes and asparagus. The Blonde had the Baltimore Grill, a lovely piece of steak, with shredded horserashish and the same mash and mixed vegetables. The Redhead had a pork chop with mash and asparagus. Two friends of ours stopped by for drinks at Clementine and sent over a piece of coconut cake with seven-minute icing, which was perfect to end the meal!

Clementine specializes in charcuterie and makes their own sausages and smokes the meat on premise. They’ve just expanded from the original space into the space next door, more than doubling the size of the restaurant.

It was a great place for a celebration dinner in a casual setting and I am sure it will become a new favourite for all of us!

Thanks again, B&R for the lovely presents, the wonderful dinner and the exceptional friendship!!!

B&O American Brasserie

The newly opened B&O American Brasserie at the Hotel Monaco-Baltimore has a great happy hour. It’s $3 for some of their beers, white and red wines and champagne. They have a small bar menu that you can get some little plates from, as well as burgers and flat bread pizzas.

Chef Cat and I both had been interested in seeing this place, so while Chef Dawg was working late, we went over. Valet parking is $5, so that’s a good start. The building is the old B&O Railroad headquarters and it’s amazing. (You can read more about it here.)

We started out with a glass of champagne each and got a chicken liver pate with fig jam and brioche toast as an appetizer. There were only four tiny brioche toast fingers and so we had to ask for more. I always wonder what the kitchen is thinking when you get a lot of spread or cheese or pate and only two pieces of bread. The pate was mousse-like and very light, and the brioche fingers were buttery, but the fig jam didn’t have much flavour, which was a shame. It was sweet, but didn’t have the taste of figs.

We ordered a flatbread with cheese, asparagus, arugula and a fried egg on top. It was very good and Chef Cat ate the egg. There were fava beans in there as well, but I picked them out. I don’t like beans much. We also got some meatballs, which were well-seasoned and came in a nice tomato sauce. Kinda hard to tell what they are from the picture, but they were served in a little iron pot. Since Chef Cat’s a pastry chef, we HAD to order dessert. The menu was interesting for early fall, with some non-seasonal items like a rhubarb-strawberry cobbler. There was a cheese plate, which I totally understand, but there was also a charcuterie plate, which I totally didn’t understand, especially since it wasn’t listed on the bar menu as an appetizer. Really, do you want meat for dessert?

Chef ordered the rustic apple tart and I ordered the butterscotch pudding. If you know me, you know I love sweets. But the pudding was gross. It had no discernable butterscotch taste and a really odd texture. Chef Cat said it had a raw corn-starch flavour, but I didn’t even get that. It certainly wasn’t a pudding, because it didn’t seem like it had either milk or cream in it. Maybe a pastry cream? It was served in an 8-10 oz. glass with a garnish of a ginger cookie. I ate about three bites and left the rest.

When Chef Cat cut into the steaming rustic apple tart, she realized that the apples weren’t cooked. So she took the pastry top off of the tart and looked at the apples. Not only weren’t they cooked, they were brown because someone didn’t know enough to put them in acidulated water to keep them fresh and white. The pastry top was not quite cooked through and was raw on the inside. While we liked the restaurant, and the service was very friendly and good (if a little slow), the desserts were a huge failing and really brought the meal down. They were basically inedible.

We’ll go back for happy hour though!

RIP Brass Elephant

I was shattered to find out that the Brass Elephant has closed its doors. There was a good article in the Sun today, in which I am quoted, about the high-end restaurants that are shuttering in the economy.  I loved the Elephant. We spent many happy times there. Here’s a little story:

Before I moved to England, my final celebration meal was at the Elephant, and when I came back to Baltimore, one of my first outings was there again. That's the one event that stands out in my mind the most.

For several years, during the lighting of the Washington Monument, Jack Elsby, the Elephant’s manager and I would serve cocoa to all the visitors in the park. It was free to everyone and we were happy to do it. It was a little pre-Christmas, small-town celebration. Then the city decided that the vendors had to charge for their food/drinks, so Jack stopped doing it. But at the lighting, I'd always stop by the restaurant for a quick hello and a drink.

Late in 2005, I had to come back to Baltimore unexpectedly, and not many people knew I was coming home. It was right before the Monument Lighting, so I met up with the Blonde and the Redhead. We watched the lighting and then headed up to the Elephant. It was crowded, as usual, and Jack was running around.

I spotted him through a crowd of people and just grinned. He looked up and saw me and he just lit up. We made our way over to each other and hugged. He told me that he'd been thinking about me all day because of our tradition of serving cocoa, and then he looked up and I was there.

It was a tiny personal moment in hundreds of happy moments that I've spent at the Elephant, and one that I will never, ever forget.

I hope that everyone associated with the Brass Elephant can find another job. RIP.

Salt

As part of Restaurant Week, four of us had dinner last night at Salt in Butcher’s Hill. I have heard loads of great things about this place, but have never managed to visit.

We started with some drinks, the men had beers and I had a strawberry mojito, and an order of Salt’s famous Duck Fat French Fries with a trio of aioli – malted vinegar, truffle and smoked pepper. We all preferred the truffle and the fries were gone in a flash.

Since they just seemed to be offering the Restaurant Week menu, that’s what we ordered from. I started with a fabulous salad of bibb lettuce, watermelon, feta and a balsamic reduction. Julie had a seafood chowder and Mike had fajitas.

For our mains, I had the Grilled Giant Prawns with roasted chickpeas, lemon, olive oil, garlic brioche, which I thought was the least successful of the four dishes. It was very hard to eat the prawns and there was very little meat in them. They had HUGE long legs that stuck out everywhere. I thought the chickpeas, lemon and olive oil would be more like hummus, and less like three separate ingredients.

Julie had a Fresh Pasta with Corn, Asparagus, Chiles, Sweet corn butter, fresh thyme, shaved Pecorino Romano, and proclaimed it a hit.

Mike had a pork shank with peanut Udon noodles, which he liked more than the pork, which was falling off the bone.

Joe had Grilled Lamb Shank with a Curried carrot fritter, watercress and bean salad, feta vinaigrette and he ate every speck of it, so it was apparently a success.

For dessert, we each had something different. I had a creme brulee, Julie had mini-donuts with lavender honey and salt, and coffee-chocolate chip ice cream, Mike had lemon sorbet and Joe had a biscuit with fresh whipped cream and berries.

The pictures above all have a very strong green cast to them due to the lighting in Salt, which you can see in the top image. I don’t think that colour does either their patrons or their food any favours.

Otherwise, we though the food and service were both excellent.

Crush

In honour of my friend Jefe’s birthday, we had lunch at Crush today. Crush is located in Belvedere Square, and if you’re old Baltimore, like I am, you might remember it as the location of Hess Shoes with the sliding board. They do still have the sliding board, but it’s raised so you can’t slide down it.

I hadn’t been in the restaurant since it was Taste, and didn’t really remember what it looked like then, but this iteration is really well-decorated and interesting.

We got there right at noon, and there was only one other table taken, but by the time we left, an hour and a half later, there were about 10+ tables filled.

Since they were offering a Restaurant Week menu, I ordered off of that, but Jefe ordered from the regular lunch menu. A few weeks ago, I’d written about the amazing idea of grilled cheese croutons, and Crush had a creamy tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons. We both started with that, and it was excellent.

My next course was grilled salmon with lobster mashed potatoes(!!!), spinach and a red wine reduction. Jefe got a grilled chicken sandwich with Brie and bacon. Both were excellent. Just beautifully presented and fresh.

As we were eating, I saw the waitress walk by with a colourful timbale. I started describing it to Jefe, but then she  walked back with it and I flagged her down to tell us what it was. She said it was the Uncobb salad, with layers of arugula, lobster, shrimp, avocado, crab and tomato on a pool of vinaigrette. It was just gorgeous, and the perfect thing for a summer day.

We finished by splitting a Jewish apple cake with an excellent caramel drizzle and vanilla ice cream.

The bill was quite reasonable and both of us agreed we’d go back there in a heartbeat.

Marie Louise Bistro

I have eaten at Marie Louise Bistro on Charles Street in Mount Vernon a few times, but this time I went with the Chefs. If you don't know, Marie Louise is in the space that, for a number of years, was Gampies. Following its closing, the space was empty for years. It re-opened late in 2008 as Marie Louise Bistro, with a beautiful new interior and huge windows facing the hustle and bustle of Charles Street.

The last few times I've eaten at MLB, it was late winter and early spring, which was reflected by the menu, which included duck confit and some heavy beef dishes. Now, in early July, the menu is still the same, and hasn't changed to accommodate the great fresh and seasonal foods now available. That was surprising to both me and the Chefs.

Our major gripe with our experience on Friday was the absolutely sluggish service. It took about 10 minutes for anyone to even acknowledge us once we'd been seated. Then a waitress came over with two glasses of water for three of us, and took off before we could place drink orders. Ten minutes later, a waiter returned to ask for our drink orders, but without the extra water glass. It then took about seven minutes for the drinks to arrive. We ordered immediately, since we didn't know how long we'd have to wait before another waitstaff came by. Lest you think it was mobbed, there were three waitstaff for 12 tables, which is a very good ratio even for a Friday night. Cat and I ordered hamburgers with fried onions and bleu cheese, and they came with french fries, which were barely warm. Dog ordered a chopped salad, which he said was overdressed. There was no bread put on the table, so Dog also ordered a mac-and-cheese, which was good, although made with the pedestrian elbow macaroni. The desserts at Marie Louise are made by Patisserie Poupon on Baltimore Street, so you know that they're good. There is also a small selection of gelati. The last time I was at MLB, they must have been very low on desserts, since the dessert tray featured a chocolate croissant, which is breakfast food. Unfortunately, someone put butterscotch syrup on the strawberry tart, and it tasted exactly like it came out of a jar. Caramel or chocolate sauce would have worked a lot better.

Dinner and tip came out to about $100, but we were so disappointed with the slow service, that it really made the experience less than pleasant.