The Baltimore Foodie Challenge

Pitango Gelato

2011-06-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

Mmmm. This gelato is so good. Some of the unique flavors we tried were almond, quince, and chocolate orange. As you can see, we rode down to Fells Point in our personal ambulance.

P.S. Please excuse the horrible picture - my arm is not long enough to get a good one I guess!

Bull Roast

2011-06-05T09:22:00.001-04:00

Well, this one is way overdue. A few months back we attended a bull/oyster roast at a autoworkers (or maybe steelworkers) union hall. Delicious food and very interesting atmostphere! The amount of food was amazing, the music was definitely interesting, and the people were great fun to watch.

We're Baaaaaaaaaack!

2011-04-10T13:13:00.013-04:00

Well it's been a while, but never fear we have been hard at ~~work~~ eat! We have all been super busy at work, but have been meeting up (and even bringing a few friends a long) over the last few months to sample more of Bmore's tasty treats. Unfortunately I have just been slacker about uploading the pictures and updating the blog.

Over the last few months we knocked the following items off the list:

14. Chiapparelli’s House Salad, Completed 1/1/11

I was looking for a place to do dinner for my 30th bday and decided I would kill two birds with one stone and chose a list item. I have a family connection, so I have eaten the Chiapparelli's House Salad at family parties, but I had never been to the restaurant. Everyone had awesome meals and the staff was super friendly. Many people said they enjoyed this salad more than the Bookmaker at Sabatino's. I like them both, but they are so different I can't choose a winner.

32. Savory muffins at Red Canoe in Lauraville, 85. Coffee from Zeke’s & 99. Eat sushi in Towson, Completed 2/20/11

Morgan had sent the rest of group an email trying to line-up knocking out a list item. In the email she presented three suggestions. Shane suggested we do all three in one day and the rest of agreed. We started at Zeke's, which has really tasty coffee. Then we walked down the street to Red Canoe, ate some muffins, talked politics and browsed the books. It was an awesome place. I really need to go back. We had spent a pretty long time at Red Canoe, so when we left there decided we could all probably each lunch, so we headed to Sushi Hana. While Zeke's and Red Canoe were new to us, I must confess Sushi Hana has been a favorite of ours for years, so this wasn't our first time, but they never disappoint!

100. Wiener schnitzel, red cabbage, and more at Eichenkranz in Highlandtown. The last traditional German food in the city, Completed 2/29

Shane was super excited (as seen below) that he was able to get wiener schnitzel, topped with a fried egg. I ordered the wurst platter and Ryan and Morgan both ordered sour beef and dumplings. Food was all good, especially the musterh :)

31. Thin crust pizza! Iggies and Joe Squared, Complete 3/15

Shane and I had been to Joe Squared multiple times, but I'm pretty sure that it was Ryan and Morgan's first time. The boys ordered a ridiculous amount of meat laden pizzas and Morgan and I split the Chicken, Corn and Apple Pizza. We also got a few bowl of risotto to split. Everything was very tasty!

Until we eat again!

Andy Nelson's...Mmm Mmm Good

2011-01-18T18:13:00.000-05:00

Delicious vinegar based sauce and juicy meat!

String Bean Rolls at Cafe Zen

2010-11-17T20:45:00.000-05:00

This place is pretty awesome. I think the string bean rolls was the best thing we ate there and we ate quite a selection of foods off the menu. Next time, I'm ordering this for dinner! It's like a giant pancake with some kind of brown sauce and lots of string beans.

Dangerously Delicious Pies

2010-11-17T20:31:00.000-05:00

Dangerously Delicious Pies is now in Canton! We ate the Baltimore Bomb (Berger Cookie Pie) and it was YUMMY! The blueberry pie was also very good.

JFX Farmer's Market & Bloody Mary's with Old Bay Rimmer!

2010-09-20T21:41:00.008-04:00

We have slacked on updating the blog but we have actually accomplished a few list items!

On 6/20 (that's exactly 3 months ago for those of you keeping score at home!) we made a trip to the JFX Farmer’s Market. I wish I could remember more details about that day, but sadly my brain storage is all filled up with things less exciting then the farmer's market. Anyway, our group consisted of Melissa, Ryan, Morgan, Shane and myself. I remember we ate some tasty stuff, met a really awesome man who sold us a giant bag of veggies for $5 and met the owners of our favorite beef, Hickory Chance Farms. If you are a beef eater, I highly suggest checking out their products. They sell them at lots of farms, markets or you can buy from them directly. It was a hot, but beautiful and luckily for us the JFK provided some much need shade!

On 8/29, we knocked the Blood Mary's with Old Bay Rimmer off the list. The previous day we completed a pub crawl and decide the best way to recover from an entire day of drinking is too drink more for breakfast! Since it's only a hop, skip and jump from Canton Square, we walked from Ryan and Morgan's house to Speakeasy Saloon to grab some breakfast. We weren't planning on completing a list item that morning but the Baltimore Foodie Challenge gods made it so! The food was delicious and the Blood Mary's were even better.

**Warning - Please keep in mind these pictures were taken the morning following a pub crawl! **

Tune in next time for another update on a tasty Baltimore treat!

Baltimore Snowball Factory

2010-07-06T20:42:00.000-04:00

This was quite a while ago, but we all made it out for snowballs in Essex one night. Flavors included Reese's Pieces, Chocolate Coconut with marshmallow, Blood Orange, and....Shane, what flavor was yours again?!

Vacarro's & Matthew's

2010-05-26T20:07:00.000-04:00

Monday night was a dessert extravanga. In order to balance out all that sweetness, we started out at Matthew's Pizza on Eastern Avenue. We enjoyed the "Popular" pie and "Anna's Stuffed" which was basically a double decker pizza with meat in between. This horrible picture above is what happens when we don't have our trusty friends play photographer! I swear....we were all here, even if you can only see my nose.

Second (and last) stop of the evening was Vacarro's all-you-care-to-eat dessert buffet....and oh my goodness, it was serious decadence. And it was beautiful, so we took lots of pictures!

We pretty much had to be rolled out of the restaurant at the end of our dessert. Stay tuned for the next big post...

All Hail Ale Mary's

2010-05-14T01:10:00.015-04:00

On Saturday May 8th we knock #67 Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding at Ale Mary’s off the list.

We were downtown celebrating a great friend's birthday that started with Lucha VaVoom and ended with delicious food and desert from Ale Mary's.

We shared an order of Crabby Tots which were amazing. They were devoured quickly so sadly there is not a picture of them.

Morgan ate Mr. Boh's Mussels

Ryan had Fleet Street Cheese Steak Sub

Shane had the Sweet N' Savory Ribs. Notice the Crabby Tot carnage in the back left.

I had the Thankful Turkey Sandwich which was basically Thanksgiving on bread. It was awesome.

We lucked out and had an awesome waiter, who didn't seem too annoyed with the druken shenanigans that were occurring at the table. When desert time came he talked us into the Kitchen Sink which consists of ChipWich Sunday, Big Ol' Brownie and the Krispy Cream Bread Pudding. He made a compelling case, so who were we to disagree.

We may have mentioned it was Kathy's birthday so the very awesome waiter brought her dessert with a candle!

It was every bit as tasty as the waiter promised!

On the way out we asks a guy outside smoking to take a picture and he assumed we were tourists......Say "OLD BAY"!

Sip N' Bite

2010-04-26T12:38:00.000-04:00

These are way late...a lot going on in recent days. So everyone told us we shouldn't go to the Sip N' Bite to eat unless we had been out to the bars first because the food was no good, but I thought it was pretty tasty. It was pretty typical diner food, which I usually like, so it suited me just fine! It was also a nice change because we didn't have to wait to get a table or have a reservation to get into the restaraunt :)

Sabatino's

2010-03-31T20:16:00.007-04:00

I apologize for being a slacker, but life has been a little crazy.

We actually knocked this item off the list on 3/13. As always we had a great dinner and time at Sabatino's. Our waitress was really funny and didn't seem to mind our general ridiculousness.

As expected The Famous Bookmaker Salad, invented by a bookie named Al Isella was delicious. Michael Olesker actually talks about this salad and some Sabatino's history in his book Journeys to the heart of Baltimore. As a side note, I had to read this book a few years for a sociology class and while I didn't really care for the writing style, I enjoyed learning a lot about the history of the city's most known inhabitants. I have lived here my whole live and didn't know most of the information in the book.

Anyway on to the pictures!

Wockenfuss and Blue Moon Cafe

2010-03-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard to tell but we are all eating Wockenfuss candy here...a night well spent.

The candy really set off our appetite for late night breakfast, so we went to eat at Bel-Loc Diner in Towson, only to find that it was closed...onward to Blue Moon Cafe we went at 1 AM! We feasted on Potato Pancakes, Country Scramble, some crazy biscuits with whole raspberry preserves, Cap'n Crunch French Toast, Pancakes, and a Mexican Omelet. Coffee was outstanding too.

And the highlight of the evening...Jack's Bistro!

2010-03-03T20:32:00.000-05:00

I am posting this a bit late, but Saturday night was a fun-filled and friend-filled night of eating....we literally gorged ourselves on the food of Canton. We started out the night planning to meet at Jack's Bistro to complete #38 (Macaroni and Cheese with bittersweet chocolate from Jack's Bistro)....not the best laid plans. The place was packed with a two hour wait, but the hostess was very accomodating to our party of 8 and got us a reservation for 10:30. With that in place, we decided that we would knock out #90 (Margarita in a Hubcap from Nacho Mama's). When we got there, guess what? two hour wait for dinner...but no problema! we ended up at Jasa Kabob, not on the list but Deee-licious. By the time we finished up with kabobs, baba ganoush, and some BYOB from down the road, we were definitely ready for the hubcap margarita. Since we had our name on the list down at Nacho Mama's we were able to get in and fulfill #90, as you can see here! It was good, but very strong. I'm not complaining though!

Gotta love those faces!

And our finished product/creative art project...

After Nacho Mama's we headed back to Jack's Bistro for some delicious drinks and appetizers to round out the night. Never having been there before, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It was pretty much the best food (and drinks) ever! I'm not joking, the food was perfectly prepared, the drinks couldn't have been better, there was just the right amount of sweet in the desserts and cheese in the macaroni.

I had the peanut butter and jelly shot first, and holy cow! I did not know peanut butter rum existed until Saturday evening. Let me just say, it turned my whole world upside down. After we sat down I tried the Elvis Martini, which was chocolate and banana, and Shane had the peanut butter and chocolate martini. Both were outstanding. Ryan indulged in a super fresh coconut mojito too!

As for the food, we ate poutine, fried s'mores, mac and cheese, and a special fried egg with pork fat. Overall, everything was awesome, definitely my new birthday dinner restaurant of choice....mmm can't wait to see what the next thing on the list has in store for us!

A boat of mac and cheese

Poutine

Fried S'Smores

Fried Egg

Mouthfuls of mac-and cheese!

Sauerkraut and a Sugar Coma

2010-02-21T11:36:00.000-05:00

Last night was delicious!

#7 Split Maryland Beaten Biscuits and put some thin slices in them.
#89 Have Old Bay on things other than seafood. (we had potato salad and corn)
#8 Serve sauerkraut with your turkey
#4 Drink a Natty Boh
#5 Snack on a Berger's Cookie
#72 Otterbein's Cookies!!!!
#98 Mary Sue easter eggs

So good...

After the food, we were all in a sugar coma....Shane looked the most beaten.

All in all, a fun night!

Big Weekend Plans - The Beginning!

2010-02-15T19:19:00.003-05:00

We're knocking out some of the list this weekend. The menu follows:

Dinner:

#71 Old-Fashioned Maryland Stuffed Ham served with

#7 Split Maryland beaten biscuits and put some thin slices of ham in them

#89 Have Old Bay on things other than seafood. We'll have corn on the cob and potato salad with the ham

The beverage of choice will be:

#4 Drink a Natty Boh

Dessert:

#5 Snack on a Berger's Cookie

#22: Eat a box of Rheb's buttercreams. Not at one sitting, of course ... on the other hand, why not?

#72 Otterbein's Cookies!!!!!

#78 Wockenfuss Candies

#98 Mary Sue Easter Eggs

Think we'll be sick from all those sweets?? Yummy!

Pictures to come after the weekend!

Rules of the Game

2010-01-25T18:50:00.002-05:00

In order to complete this challenge that we (Rachael, Shane, Ryan, and myself) have set out for ourselves, we had to come up with rules so that we felt we had truly completed the task at hand. Here they are:

1. When completing an item on the list, each person must at least try the item, but everyone in the group isn't required to eat a whole order for themselves (ex. #52 Fried Chicken Livers from Lexington Market!)

2. Each item on the list must be completed as a group.

3. A picture will be taken as proof (mostly to ourselves) that we have completed the task at hand.

4. The item must be completed no matter where we have to go to get it!

READY, set, go!!!

The Big 100 List

2010-01-25T18:46:00.000-05:00

1. Have a jumbo lump crab cake from Faidley's on a Saltine.
2. Pick steamed hard shells at Mr. Bill's Terrace Inn in Essex.
3. Eat Bertha’s Mussels
4. Drink a Natty Boh
5. Snack on a Berger’s cookie
6. Put marshmallow on your snowball
7. Split Maryland beaten biscuits and put some think slices of ham in them
8. Serve sauerkraut with your turkey
9. Get a chicken box (fried wings, western fries, dinner roll) from a Baltimore City public market.
10. Maybe the chicken box should be from Tyrone's?
11. Lake trout. And for those of us who watched "The Wire," have a grape soda with it.
12. Breakfast at Blue Moon Cafe down in Fells Point.
13. Corned beef on rye at Attman’s
14. Chiapparelli’s House Salad
15. Knock back a goblet of Resurrection Ale at Brewer's Art.
16. Take a Sunday morning stroll through the JFX Farmer’s Market
17. Thrasher’s French fries from the boardwalk in Ocean City
18. Have a Black Eyed Susan at the Preakness
19. Chow down on a pit beef sandwich at Boog’s during an O’s game
20. Shop for shoes and chocolate at Ma Petit shoe in Hampden
21. Have a soft crab sandwich on white bread
22. Eat a box of Rheb's buttercreams. Not at one sitting, of course ... on the other hand, why not?
23. Order a Tio Pepe sangria (red). It contains fruit, so it counts as food!
24. Polish sausage from one of the two Ostrowski shops
25. German sausage from Binkert’s
26. Fisher’s popcorn downy ocean, hon!
27. Sunday brunch on the terrace at Ambassador Dining Room, an atypical setting for an Indian restaurant.
28. Get peach cake from Woodlea Bakery
29. Eat the pumpkin appetizer at the Helmand
30. Eat a Wockenfuss caramel apple! Mmmmm.
31. Thin crust pizza! Iggies and Joe Squared.
32. Savory muffins at Red Canoe in Lauraville
33. Try some of the special flavors from Taharka Bros. (formerly Sylvan Beach) ice cream and Pitango Gelato.
34. Make fun of the hipsters at Golden West and Rocket to Venus in Hampden.
35. Have a special occasion dinner at Charleston. Ask Chef Cindy Wolf to fix what she thinks is best that night.
36. Change your mind about vegan/vegetarian food at Liquid Earth.
37. Try the charcuterie at Clementine.
38. Macaroni and cheese with bittersweet chocolate from Jack's Bistro.
39. Throw in a shrimp salad from Kibby's and/or Mary Mervis.
40. Smith Island Cake, but only from Sugarbakers.
41. Gorge yourself on the Monday night all-you-can-eat at Vaccaro's.
42. Discuss a bottle of wine with Tony Foreman at Cinghiale.
43. Eat roasted vegetables at Donna’s…wearing black.
44. Veal chop at Da Mimmo
45. Bookmaker salad at Sabatino’s
46. Get a crab cake and a lemon/peppermint stick at the Flower Mart. Isn't a fabulous crab cake, but even an average crab cake in Baltimore is better than anywhere else!
47. Order any sandwich at Trinacria. But no calling ahead to order like I do. You must wait in line for the full effect.
48. Order the popcorn and deviled eggs at Woodberry Kitchen. Before your appetizers, not in lieu of.
49. Have lunch on the patio at Sanders Corner overlooking the Loch Raven Reservoir.
50. Head to Carroll County for the best cream of crab soup at Smokey's BBQ on Liberty Road.
51. Stop at DiPasquale's in Highlandtown for their Italian and meatball subs.
52. Fried chicken livers from the Lexington Market.
53. Bagel with lox and cream cheese or apricot spread from Greg's.
54. Sit at the bar at Cinghiale and order anything. Talk to Rob about wine when Tony isn't in town.
55. Tamales from the food truck on Broadway
56. Coddies on a cracker from a rowhouse bar.
57. Wander aisles of exotic produce - lychees! jackfruit! Indian eggplant! - at H Mart or Lotte Plaza in Catonsville. Eat some yummy bi bim bap or udon soup at the food court and then pick up a beautiful fresh whole fish for dinner before you head home.
58. Go to a bull/oyster roast or crab/shrimp feast at any number of Baltimore venues as long as you go to at least one at a V.F.W. hall, American Legion, Steelworkers Hall, fire hall, state park, etc.
59. Prime rib at the Prime Rib
60. Greenberg Potato Skins from Prime Rib
61. How about the fried green pepper rings at Gunnings!
62. You have to get a Popular Mozzarella Pie from Matthew's Pizza!
63. A baloney-wrapped hot dog from Attman's.
64. Pit beef from anywhere without a door.
65. Late night dinner at the Bel-Loc Diner.
66. Eat a "Tour of Samos" at Samos in Greektown (Greek salad, tzatziki and pita, kalamari, spinach pie, chicken souvlaki, dolmades, lamb chops, garlic shrimp, gyro, roasted potatoes).
67. Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding at Ale Mary’s
68. Eat anything on the menu at Andy Nelson’s.
69. Gravy Fries.
70. Chicken salad from Graul's Market!
71. Old-fashioned Maryland stuffed ham.
72. OTTERBEIN'S COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!
73. Raw beef and onion sandwich with raw yellow onion and salt and pepper on fresh rye bread (or pumpernickel).
74. Buy a crepe at Sofi's and enjoy it while watching a movie at the Charles.
75. Naron candy.
76. Polish dog with "the works" at Polock Johnny's.
77. Italian cold cut sub at Pastore's in Towson.
78. WOCKENFUSS CANDIES!!!!!!!!!!
79. Order the chocolate-chili bread pudding at the Blue Agave.
80. Have a picnic at Fort McHenry
81. Any sandwich from Eddie’s in Roland Park
82. String bean rolls at Café Zen
83. Garlic fries at Brewer’s Art
84. Oysters and beer at Cross St. Market
85. Coffee from Zeke’s
86. Smoked platter from Neopol at Belvedere
87. Go to the Wine Market on a Monday night and enjoy a neighborhood discount (extended to all diners).
88. Have an ice cream that contains vegetables at Dominion Ice Cream. [Ed.'s note: Now relocated to Hampden.]
89. Have Old Bay on things other than seafood. For instance, corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw.
90. Margarita in a hubcap from Nacho Mama's.
91. Take the Clipper City brewery tour
92. Have a Black Eyed Susan cupcake at Charm City Cupcakes. It’s one of my favorite things about Baltimore!
93. Get fruit and veggies from an a-rab.
94. Sip ‘n Bite
95. Sip a Bloody Mary with an Old Bay rimmer. I only see this done at Baltimore restaurants.
96. Enjoy a meal at Salt.
97. Eat the Berger cookie pie at Dangerously Delicious Pies in Federal Hill. A new tradition built on the old.
98. Mary Sue easter eggs
99. Eat sushi in Towson
100. Wiener schnitzel, red cabbage, and more at Eichenkranz in Highlandtown. The last traditional German food in the city

Check out the list with pictures here.