Attman's Authentic New York Deli

I used to live in the city. I used to live on East Baltimore Street by the western edge of Patterson Park in Butchers Hill back when re-gentrification was first taking hold, and rats and addicts and undercover cops still wandered the alleyways. Shortly after I moved there, the city decided to help support the efforts of the well-intended yuppies homesteading in the neighborhood and engaged in some beautification. This included repaving the sidewalks and adding some very attractive brick inlay work. It also included placing giant potted plants on the corners. They lasted until sometime around bar time of the first night. At the time, my friends and I laughed at this with jaded cynicism. It was, however, the beginning of a significant change. I left the neighborhood before this change was complete, and am now amazed when I drive through it on my way out to my current home in the suburbs.

I used to spend Fridays drinking in Fells Point in the now defunct Miss Irene's, home to bikers, artists, Johns Hopkins residents from foreign countries, and other assorted oddballs. I used to wake up too early on Saturday mornings from a restless, beer-fueled semi-sleep with a rough edge. But I was still young and thought I had the cure for a hangover. My cure entailed throwing on a pair of shoes and a coat over my jammies and driving down to Attman's Deli for a fresh potato knish and a Dr. Brown's Cherry Cola. And, while Butchers Hill is now fully re-gentrified and Miss Irene's has become an upscale bistro, Attman's is blissfully unchanged.

Attman's is a staple of the Baltimore landscape. It sits alongside Lenny's Deli on a two-block stretch of Lombard Street that used to be known as Corned Beef Row as at one time it boasted a number of classic delis that were rumored to rival New York's finest. I can vouch for this claim as the pastrami Reuben I get at Attman's is still better than any sandwich I've gotten in New York. I took the hike up there for my Friday lunch this week and, as usual, was not disappointed.

I love that they even offer a pastrami Reuben. I find this to be superior to the traditional corned beef mostly because I find pastrami to be a superior cold cut. The peppery flavor adds a little zest to the sandwich, and the texture of the meat is more like actual meat and doesn't have that graininess of corned beef. And their cold cuts are cut on the meat slicer right in front of you as you order, so your sandwich comes to you with freshly sliced meat. The lady in front of me ordered her roast beef shaved, and she got to see a sample slice before her sandwich was made.

Attman's uses good Jewish rye bread. The slices are thin but substantial and can carry the weight of their meaty sandwiches, even the notoriously damp Reuben. They use a generous amount of Thousand Island dressing on both slices and nestle the still-crisp sauerkraut on the inside between two slices of Swiss cheese and all that fresh-cut deli meat. It even survived my five-block walk back to the office. Wrapped in deli paper and then foil, the sandwich was still warm when I got to my desk. And, the bread held together while I ate, without the almost inevitable sauerkraut downfall that has afflicted my other Reuben experiences.

Even though it's been years since I visited Attman's, very little has changed about the quality of their food. That consistency is comforting and a little reassuring when so much else about my former life has changed, or even disappeared altogether. Standing in the narrow space between their counter and their beverage coolers, I felt a little nostalgic for my early years in Baltimore that now seem so reckless in comparison to my current life. Sometimes you can go back home, and Attman's is proof that sometimes some things really don't change, and in this case it is a very good thing.

Attman's remains one of my all-time favorite lunch spots in the city, as well as a genuine slice of Baltimore culture. While Corned Beef Row may be a shadow of what it once was, Attman's continued to serve up quality deli meats and sandwiches to a packed house seven days a week with a brisk and personal efficiency that comes from 100 years of service. They also offer catering.

Attman's Deli is located at 1019 East Lombard Street within walking distance of the Harbor East, Inner Harbor, and Little Italy neighborhoods. Metered street parking is available.

Petit Louis Bistro: Total French Immersion

There are so many restaurants these days who are making the minimal effort at creating a space for people to dine and providing them with a decent meal. As we increasingly abdicate our responsibility to provide food for our families to these charlatans, the bar for what is worth paying for gets lower and lower. So often we are served up foot that resembles frozen dinners, both in flavor and craftsmanship, as if we should be willing to pay to have someone else do the cleaning up and count ourselves satisfied.

Then there are restaurateurs who are committed to their craft, who invest their efforts and creativity into building a dining experience that surpasses the ordinary, that is enjoyable and memorable and leave you feeling like the meal was a truly special occasion. For our 14th wedding anniversary, we wanted just that, and Chef Cindy Wolf provided it with Petit Louis Bistro.

Petit Louis is a French bistro located in Baltimore's finest residential neighborhood. But, this is not some American dining experience dressed up like a caricature of the French. It is actually a fair replication of European dining. The host greeted us in enthusiastic (but not overpowering) French. The seating is close with a couple of thoroughfares for the staff to traverse the dining room. And, as a welcome departure from American establishments, there was no music playing, allowing the diners and the staff to create the atmosphere. I also enjoyed that on this mild May evening, we were not subjected to what is almost always too-cold air conditioning. Petit Louis has windows along the dining room that were open, allowing the fresh spring air and home sounds of the surrounding neighborhood to waft in.

Achieving the French atmosphere

The menu is fairly straight-up French and runs the gamut from familiar items like pea soup, smoked salmon, and grilled asparagus to things that only the French would cook, like escargot, confit, and sweetbread.

My counterpart started with the smoked salmon gravlax for his starter, followed by duck confit. I chose the straight French immersion experience and had the escargot for  my starter and the Ris de Veau sweetbread for my main.

The gravlax were lightly smoky, very buttery, and shaved paper thin. Served with a creamy cheese and the most amazing capers that reminded me of Italy. So often capers are mishandled in American kitchens that the acidulation they acquire from the preserving process overpowers whatever you pair them with. These were clean, earthy little berries that were the perfect accent for the dish.

Escargot in butter in the fore, gravlax in the back

My escargot were served shelled and nestled in the traditional sectioned plate with each little mollusk nested in its own butter-filled compartment. The butter was rich and herby with just a hint of garlic, while the escargot themselves were tender and slightly pungent tasting of seawater when bitten.

The duck confit was a generous leg with a crispy skin that snapped when my counterpart cut into it. The meat inside was dark and moist and tasted very strongly of duck. While confit is by design a fatty dish, this confit was not greasy or oily, but was very, very rich. Served on a bed of sliced potatoes, this was heavy, but flavorful, achieving a balance that is part of the artistry of French cuisine.

My sweetbread was a work of culinary perfection. Nestled in among sauteed mushrooms in a Madeira reduction, the organ meat was seared on the outside and tender on the inside without a trace of the bitterness that is so characteristic of this part of the animal. The mushrooms were cooked to perfection, and the rich reduction was a nice counterpoint to the livery flavor of the meat.

Sweetbread in the fore, duck confit in the back

Now, here's something I love about French dining. In addition to thinking one can cook things like snails and organ meat, or that it is somehow OK to leave your poultry in a kettle in the cellar for a couple of months, the French also believe that after a nice meal, one should have a little cheese. Petit Louis has a nightly cheese cart with varieties that range from a mild Spanish-style manchego to a potent little variety that had to be stored in its own separate box. While my counterpart ordered the former, I had to go for the latter, plus an aged goat cheese to round out the selection.

The very French apres dinner cheese cart

The manchego was tender and mild and a good choice after the confit.  The aged goat cheese had a thick rind that was only slightly bitter with a musky, chalky interior. And that little number in its own separate box? Overwhelming. The cheese itself was the texture of taffy with a flavor almost like aged brie that goes very sharp in the back of the mouth. It was surrounded by a crumbly orange rind that was so foreign and intense that I needed a second bite to determine that it was indeed too moldy even for my open-minded palate.

Assorted cheeses with toasted baguette

We shared a dessert that my counterpart has made at home with much success - pots du creme au chocolat. Served with a dollop of heavy, almost buttery cream, it was gratifying to experience how this dessert is prepared by an actual French chef. Dense and dark and rich, we were glad for the espresso we ordered along with it to help cleanse the palate (although when we were still awake after midnight, we were reminded that age alters what one is able to do in life, after-dinner coffee being among the simple things we really should no longer do).

Authentic pots du creme and the espresso that will lead to trouble later

The food was excellent, and this is easily the best meal I have had outside my own home. The service was polite and efficient with the right level of attention - no hovering waitstaff bragging about the kitchen, but rather competent,knowledgeable professionals confident in their work.

We will definitely be returning to Petit Louis.

Located at 4800 Roland Avenue just east of Edy's, Petit Louis Bistro is open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday, and brunch and dinner on Sunday. During the week, they provide a prix fixe menu, while on the weekend it is a la carte.

A happy food blogger

Mai Thai Baltimore

Sometimes the worst situations reveal the best in a restaurant. Today may have been such a day for Mai Thai in Baltimore. I placed a take out order and arrived to find the beginnings of the lunch rush with a single employee staffing the front of the house - host, bartender, wait staff, and busser. Oh, and the phone. He never missed a call. He remained pleasant and energetic, sometimes sprinting from the front dining area back to the kitchen, never breaking a sweat or losing his smile.

Mai Thai is located on the corner of Bank and Central in the space formerly occupied by Lemongrass - a favorite lunchtime and happy hour haunt of me and my coworkers until it closed down. I am overjoyed to have Thai food near my office again, and having it exactly where I used to get it is an added bonus as walking down the street and entering the dim interior retains the feeling of an old and comfortable habit.

I miss the sofas that served as the seating area in the bar. They have been replaced with standard restaurant seating. I also miss the fountain that used to segue the bar into the restaurant proper. This has been replaced with what appears to be a sizable table for large, family-style dining. The kitchen is more open and from the entrance is a bright, golden spot at the end of the dark restaurant. Overall, though, it has retained the modern look and feel that Lemongrass established.

The menu is also very similar with the usual selection of noodles, curries, and appetizers. Fans of Thai food will have no trouble finding their favorites here. It is also worth noting that Mai Thai is owned by a Thai family. Their website includes a brief history of their business. The current location is their second restaurant as the first was destroyed in a fire.

Today, I ordered the Panang Curry with chicken, sliced chicken breast in a peanut curry with what the menu called Thai vegetables. This actually turned out to be broccoli and carrots. They were cooked separately from the curry and were steamed to slightly tender, slightly crunchy perfection. Then, the kitchen staff placed them in a separate container to prevent them from wilting while I got my take out back to the office. The sauce was also very good and had a rich and slightly sweet flavor. The peanuts were crushed so fine that they blended into the sauce lending their flavor without providing any obstacles.

The chicken was the weak spot. Often when I go to Chinese restaurants, the meat comes across as pre-prepared, and somehow over-processed, as if the sad little pieces of chicken breast or red-tipped roasted pork were prepped at some factory and shipped out from McCain's or Sysco in giant bags only to be reheated as needed in the restaurant. That's how this chicken was. It was also relatively tasteless, so it didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the other components of the meal. But next time I'll try the shrimp.

Overall, I was fairly pleased with my Thai dining experience from Mai Thai and am glad to have Thai food once again within walking distance from the office.

Mai Thai is located on the edge of Little Italy at 1300 Bank Street. The main entrance is around the corner on Central. They are open for lunch and dinner 7 days a week.

Harbor East Deli Opens for Breakfast

Us working stiffs in Harbor East have noticed that the Harbor East Deli has been closed for quite some time for a number of renovations, including the addition of a breakfast menu. As there is only so much of the Whole Foods breakfast bar a person can take, I wandered down the block this morning to check it out.

To attest to the newness of the breakfast menu, it is neatly typed up on standard office copy paper, not the usual trifold semi-gloss of their deli and pizzeria menu. And, it consists of just what you would expect - egg sandwiches, omelets, pancakes, and a number of side items that you can order a la carte. Included among the breakfast sandwiches was one of my personal favorites - bagel and lox.

The Nova Bagel as presented for take out

For $7.99, the Nova Bagel is a generous portion of lox on a toasted bagel of your choice, along with cream cheese, sliced tomato, read onion, and lettuce. I ordered mine on another personal favorite - the Everything bagel.

Total time from order to service was a tidy 7 minutes. This is good time for a made-to-order breakfast and got me back to my desk and working in about the same time it takes me to navigate Whole Foods, yet much quicker than the walk down to the Legg Mason cafeteria.

My Nova bagel was served closed face. Anyone who has eaten a closed face sandwich on a bagel knows you need a pretty large jaw expansion to do this. Here's a helpful hint that should be standard operating procedure for a sandwich shop: cut it in half. Which I did. At my desk. With a plastic take out knife. But I managed. While it won't make the sandwich any shorter, it will provide a point of entry and will make the whole thing easier to handle.

Cut in half, like all sandwiches should be

As mentioned above, the portion of lox was indeed generous but also fairly decent with a smooth, buttery texture and just a slightly salty taste. The tomato was buried under the lox and went relatively unnoticed. But, this being early April, I didn't really mind. As I've noted before, tomatoes this time of year tend to be sad and flavorless, and I'd rather have less of them until summer.

Several very nice leaves of green leaf lettuce topped the lox. While I was impressed with both quality and quantity, I don't think they did much for the sandwich, and I quickly removed them.

The red onion is always a bit of a zinger for a bagel with lox. If the slices are cut too thick or you use too much, it will overpower the salty lox and cream cheese. Harbor East Deli got it right and provided just enough red onion sliced so thin you can almost see through it. The zesty, slightly bitter flavor of the onion provided just a little sharp edge but otherwise blended in perfectly with the rest of the sandwich and did not upset my sensitive tummy.

All Harbor East Deli breakfast items come with a side of "home fries".  And I must use quotes on that because that is what the menu calls them when in reality they are pre-cut potato cubes reheated on the griddle with a little onion. These are not home fries, and I ignored them. This is not an indictment of Harbor East Deli, but a symptom of a state-wide problem with breakfast in Maryland. (Oh, Maryland, my Maryland, why can't you figure out how to cook breakfast potatoes?) Really, if anyone out there knows anyplace in Baltimore that serves decent breakfast potatoes, please share in the Comments section below.

No breakfast is complete without a cup of joe. I got a large coffee for $2.75. This was not some gourmet coffee but a good old fashioned cup of standard sandwich shop mud. I only wonder what happened to those standard sandwich shop coffee prices. While coffee has always been one of the cheapest items for restaurants to provide (think free refills), it seems that Starbucks has altered our collective sense of what a cup of the stuff should cost.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with my breakfast. Located at 1006 Aliceanna Street in Baltimore's Harbor East neighborhood, Harbor East Deli opens at 7:30 for breakfast. The breakfast menu can be found on the counter, and they don't mind if you take one with you.

Asian Fusion at Ten Ten Bistro: The New Bahn Mi

Bagby's Ten Ten Bistro is rolling out some new items for their spring menu. One of the items they announced via their Facebook page is an Asian inspired Bahn Mi sandwich. Made up of Asian pork meatballs, slices of country-style pork pate, cole slaw, spicy aioli, and their own house-made pickles on a crusty roll, it sounded too interesting to not try.

The Bahn Mi sandwich as presented for carry out

Like all their sandwiches, this comes with a side of either a composed salad, house-made potato chips, or fries - regular or drizzled with duck fat. The sandwich itself was so impressively presented that a separate container was needed for my side salad. And this was a stuffed sandwich - three meatballs, two slabs of pate, a generous portion of cole slaw, plus sliced radishes and fresh cilantro inside a roll smeared with aioli orange with sriracha.

I sampled one of the meatballs first. The ground pork had a nice texture that was slightly firm with very little filler and a slightly braised exterior that gave just a little resistance when bitten. Slightly salty with a hint of soy sauce and something earthy, they were moist and tender but not greasy. The pork pate was similarly seasoned and was edged with a thin skin of bacon. Even though the flavors were very similar, the pate provided a variant texture that added interest to the sandwich while retaining a common flavor theme.

Pork meatballs and country-style pate with coarsely cut slaw and radishes

The cole slaw was creamy and coarsely cut into thick ribbons of green and purple cabbage mixed with a slightly sweet mayonnaise. The slaw was topped with equally course cuts of radishes.The bitterness of the radish, even in thick slices, was muted by the sweet slaw that allowed the zingy flavor of this much maligned root to shine through.

The sriracha aioli added a pleasant spiciness that worked well against the salty meat and sweet slaw. And the fresh cilantro provided a bright flavor that helped cut the salt, cleansed the palate and worked well with the more robust flavors showcased by this sandwich.

While the sandwich itself was quite pleasing both in flavor and mouth feel, the roll it was served in appeared to be chosen more for presentation than for anything else. It was light and flavorless and lacked the backbone to carry the weight of the sandwich. It dropped crumbs on my desk and quickly fell apart, even with the sandwich cut in half. This was not Ten Ten's best bread offering. The rolls they use for burgers and crab cakes are better tasting and solid enough to support something like this.

Overall, I remain a fan of the Ten Ten Bistro. They are experimenting with flavors and traditional bistro fare in an informed and artful manner. This fusion-based sandwich is another winner for them. Hopefully they will reconsider that roll. While it made for a beautiful photo, it also required considerable desk cleaning afterward.

Ten Ten Bistro is located in the courtyard of the Bagby Building at 1010 Fleet Street in Baltimore's Harbor East neighborhood. They are open nightly for dinner, weekdays for lunch, and Sundays for brunch.

Shwarma, Charm City Style

This has been a long,  hard work week for me. When Friday lunch rolled around, I wanted something that would put a smile on my face. And what  better food choice than shwarma. Shwarma is a happy word. Just saying it make me smile.

When the Charm City Gourmet food truck pulled up along side my office building again for the second Friday in a row, I was pleased to find this Middle Eastern classic among the new items on the menu. Nestled in a deep, American-style pita pocket coated with tahini, the Charm City beef shwarma is tender and juicy and spicy. Charm City Gourmet also adds what they call Israeli salad, a relish of diced tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, and peppers with a confetti of parsley that is uniformly mixed among the meat throughout the sandwich. A little tzaziki and a little spicy red pepper sauce were the perfect crown. It was just what I needed.

If Charm City Gourmet successfully pulls in the old Silver Platter crowd and becomes a regular fixture on Fridays, I will  definitely be trying the other new offerings.

Shwarma happiness

Charm City Gourmet Delivers

Food is an essential part of our lives. It is nourishment to fuel us through our day. It is social as we often seek out friends to dine with. We build our lives around it, from grand traditions to daily routines. And some meals are so enjoyable that we shape our week around them, going out of our way for the unique satisfaction of a well-crafted dish. And then something changes, and that much loved meal is out of reach.

Many readers will remember my love of the original Silver Platter menu, and how my regular visits to that food truck opened a door for me to experience the mobile restaurant scene in Baltimore. I became fixated on the sweet chili baby back ribs and struggled to limit myself to one serving a week.

Then everything changed. When The Silver Platter revamped their menu, they also revamped their kitchen staff, and I feared I would never taste those tender, spicy-sweet ribs again. I have dreamed about those ribs during many dull 11:00 meetings, only to recall that they were no longer available, and a dismal despair would set in.

I should have known that those ribs, along with the other original menu items (including Maine Lobster Roll, Lobster Mac and Cheese, and the best  pulled pork and pit beef in town) would find another home. A year later, they have.

The Charm City Gourmet food truck is operated by the original chef of The Silver Platter. And he is selling the original menu that we all came to know and love last summer. When he parked outside my office and I realized what he was selling, there was really only one choice - ribs.

Now, sometimes when we are deprived of a favorite food for long enough, the memory of that food becomes such sweet nostalgia that said food item takes on a mythical quality, becoming not just a once loved meal, but The God of All Foods. And I've had a year to ponder those ribs, disdaining all other ribs out of a certainty that they will be sub par at best. So, when I had an order of those ribs that I remembered so well in front of me, did the reality measure up to the recollection?

Yes, and then some. The ribs were the same tender, falling-off-the-bone pork ribs smothered in the same sweet sauce that cuts right through tooth enamel the same way a good butter cream icing does. With just enough red pepper to give things a little kick, these ribs were exactly as I remembered, which made them all the more enjoyable. Still served on a nest of deep fried onion ribbons that catch the sauce, I am quite pleased that my favorite food truck meal is back.

Mmmmmm Ribs

To complete the trip down memory lane, I topped it off with an IcedGem. I chose the vanilla salted caramel, forgetting about the sugar level on those ribs. The caramel filling was the perfect balance of sweet and salty. Alas, the cupcake was just too much sugar after the ribs. While I could not make it through the cupcake, I thoroughly enjoyed what I was able to eat.

The inevitable cupcake

Lunch Will Never Be the Same

Though it was a four-day work week, by the time I woke up this morning, I felt as if I had already worked a full week. When lunch time rolled around, I knew in my heart that the only way I would make it through to the end was with a Bistro Burger from Bagby's TenTen and an IcedGems cupcake. It was a lunch reminiscent of former bad dietary habits and unfortunate weight fluctuations. But dammit I earned it.

I have indulged in the Bistro Burger a couple of times. It is indeed a perfect burger. It's a little large at 8 ounces. (That's, like, half a pound. And, every time, I'm, like, really?? Half a pound?? Remember when McDonald's launched the Quarter Pounder like it was a lot of meat? That was 30 years ago. What happened??) But it is local beef decked out with the classic trimmings of bacon and cheese from local sources; lettuce, tomatoes, and onions from their own farm, and an extra bite from their own crispy onions, lightly battered and fried on site. Plus they will cook it for you rare. Not medium. Not medium rare. Rare. Served on their amazing brioche rolls, this is truly the burger you must be worthy of. And today I ate the whole thing. Really.

They will also give it to you with a side salad if you like. This is usually the wise choice to avoid the afternoon drowsies as fries are the best sedative I know, especially when consumed in the middle of a hellacious day. The TenTen side salad is a thing pf beauty. Consisting of the standard side salad mix of lettuce, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes, theirs is executed in a manner that makes you realize why someone thought this combination was a good idea in the first place. The lettuce is a bed of mixed baby greens, including frisee and spinach (two of my favorites). The cucumbers, radishes, and grape tomatoes are cut into a manageable size. (Why anyone would drop a whole grape - or worse, cherry - tomato directly into a salad with nothing for the diner to manage with than a dull butter knife is beyond me. And don't get me started on the dreaded tomato wedge.) The salad is topped with a crown of freshly grated carrot that still snaps. Their house dressing is a light, tangy, brown vinaigrette. It balances out the salad and even makes the radishes taste good, one of the few veggies I have a long-standing negative food bias against. The TenTen house dressing tames the most offensive flavors of this root and leaves only a slightly bitter after flavor it its wake.

Dessert was obtained at the IcedGems truck, long a fixture on Fleet Street on Fridays, if now reduced to every other Friday due to their ever-increasing success. I got the Caribbean Coconut, a coconut cupcake with lime-flavored butter cream icing and a candy lime wedge. The cake was a very nice white cake with shredded coconut and a very natural flavor that was complemented by the tangy lime in the icing. But, after a few bits, I noticed that it was too sweet. 

Wait, what? Was it the icing that was too sweet? Maybe..... My preferred method of eating cupcakes is to separate the iced crown from the base. This makes the whole thing so much easier to handle, plus it provides the hedonistic pleasure of the dietary equivalent of mainlining the icing with very little cake to disrupt the direct delivery of butter and sugar into the bloodstream. So, I abandoned the crown, took a drink of water to cleanse my palette, and tried the base.

Yes, the cake that had tasted so refreshing just a few bites ago had become sugary-sweet. When I returned to the icing-coated crown - usually my favorite part - it was too much. I had to quit. Even the gummy lime wedge was too much.

This is nothing against IcedGems. I think I have been away from cupcakes for so long that I have lost my sweet tooth.

Well, not entirely. I still like the caramel sauces I get at home. But maybe that's it for me now. Maybe this is the natural progression of things. Back in 2009, as my father lay dying and I comforted myself with Ferrero Rocher conveniently provided by a niece, I realized I no longer liked chocolate. Not just Ferrero Rocher, but almost all chocolate. Except for what I get at home. Maybe it just doesn't taste right to me unless Gareth makes it. Maybe this is true for all sweets. This is a revolutionary concept for me and one I will explore in greater detail at some point in the future.

The only other remarkable feature of today's lunch is the introduction of my new phone. I finally gave up the iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy Note. Yeah, that's that big phone that's half-way between a phone and a tablet. I used it for my Honey Pig post, and our 17-year-old Korean busboy said it was cool, so I feel as if I have some sort of street cred on this. It also has an 8 MP camera with a flash and actual depth perception. I'm quite pleased with it. Here are the shots of today's lunch.

Is that the project file for my 1:00 meeting under there?

Depth perception

A close up of that burger

The Honey Pig

When my mom comes to visit, we try to show her a good time. We let her relax. We feed her well. And we take her someplace local for an experience she can't get at home. This year, we took her to The Honey Pig in Ellicott City.

The Honey Pig is a 24-hour Korean barbecue restaurant located on Route 40. It has a sparse, warehouse look inside with corrugated steel siding and posters for other Korean businesses. It is such a cultural experience that walking through their front door feels a bit like leaving the U.S. As near as I can tell, they are always busy. And why wouldn't they be?

They do the traditional table-top grill and offer a variety of spiced beef, pork, and organ meat that is cooked at the table and served with the usual accompaniments of kimchee, sliced fish cake, picked daikon, spicy green beans, and sliced raw peppers and garlic. They tend to direct foreigners like us toward more pedestrian items, but this is most likely from hard-learned experience. The Korean palate is used to much more flavor than the typical Marylander can abide.

With my mother along for her first Korean barbecue experience, we let the waitress talk us out of the spicy pork bellies, but ended up with a good mix of bulgogi - seasoned beef - unseasoned pork belly, and beef tongue, a personal favorite of mine so long as it is not prepared by white folk.

The tongue was sliced thin and was very tender. It needed little seasoning and was quite good on its own. The pork was also sliced thin and took the special Korean hot sauce very well. This I ate with the raw garlic and peppers, wrapped in a little lettuce for the flavor explosion that makes Korean barbecue so enjoyable. The bulgogi was cut thicker and was marinated with sliced onion. It was a flavorful spicy rather than the heat my counterpart was looking for. Even so, we were all extremely satisfied with the experience.

The service is un-American in that once they have cooked the meat for you, they let you enjoy your meal, even allowing you to digest before presenting you with the bill. This is saying something for an establishment that perpetually has a line out the door. The Honey Pig is about the Korean dining experience. Patronized by ex-pats, immigrants, and guest workers, and filled with bouncy Korean pop music, they deliver just that.

Waiting for our table

A quick Facebook Mobile lesson

Pork belly on sale tonight

Preparing for our gastronomical adventure

The usual accompaniments

Fire up the grill

Beef tongue

Pork belly

Bulgogi

My counterpart enjoying his barbecue

Spicy tofu soup

Everyone is a member of The Clean Plate Club tonight

After dinner

A parting glimpse

Throwing in the Towel

There are few things I enjoy more for lunch than a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. The grilled cheese is indeed a classic lunch, and one that is so popular that the Whole Foods down in my part of the city has started grilling them up to order during the Tuesday lunch rush. So I was baffled and disappointed when the GrrChe truck made a special trip to Harbor East and never drew a crowd. At least, not when I was looking. Which is truly disappointing because these guys offer something unique albeit off the beaten path.

GrrChe visits Harbor East. Harbor East does not return the favor.

Maybe it was the location. Around the corner on Central Avenue certainly seemed like a viable location. It's close to the office buildings on Fleet Street yet not directly in front of the Bagby Restaurant Group. Curbside Cafe was there every week and developed a regular following.

Maybe it was the infrequency of visits to this location. The trucks that have done well in this neighborhood have had a regular schedule. Curbside Cafe was every Tuesday. IcedGems is every other Friday.

Regardless of the reasons, and despite the undisputed quality of their food, I feel as if I must now accept what the owner of GrrChe may have already figured out. With the plethora of established restaurants and a high degree of competition for the corporate lunch crowd, Harbor East may no longer be a viable venue. Not just for them. Perhaps not for any of the trucks. We haven't had a regular lunch truck since the Sliver Platter moved out to the county. My coworkers and I can talk about how much we miss the food trucks, but if we don't patronize them when they stop in our area, we will lose them all for good.

Which is a shame, because they truly add value to Baltimore's restaurant scene. Especially the ones that take an otherwise standard lunch item and bump it up a couple of notches. Trucks like Haute Dog, Souper Freaks, IcedGems, Kommie Pig, and GrrChe make lunch a little more interesting when they appear on the scene. I have held firmly to the belief that there is room for everyone in Baltimore's food scene - the restaurants, the food trucks, everyone - and that we can all get along if everyone just agrees to. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case.

That being said, here's what I had for lunch.

Despite my fondness for the traditional grilled cheese and tomato soup, a classic that GrrChe has certainly perfected, today I ventured over to their specialty menu. This menu is made up of grilled cheese with a twist: Grilled cheese with a crab cake, grilled cheese with pulled beef, and - my new favorite - grilled cheese with jalapenos.

Specialty menu

Called the Jalapeno Popper, it combines the elements of a jalapeno popper with a grilled cheese. Roasted jalapenos, cream cheese, pepper jack cheese, and bacon on sourdough, this was both creamy and hot and provided sufficient buffering to the belly. While the cheese peppery flavor and a warmness in my belly lingered into the afternoon, there were no repercussions felt as the day wore on. My only regret is not asking for tomato on it.

The Jalapeno Popper sandwich - spicy creamy perfection

My professional colleagues do not know what they missed today, especially since the apparent small draw may not encourage them to come back. It is with a great sadness in both heart and stomach that I admit defeat. I will continue to watch the food truck scene in Baltimore, if only from afar.

A Return to the Food Truck Scene

It's been some time since I've seen a food truck in my work neighborhood. The Curbside Cafe was sold off so its owners could embrace a new opportunity. The Silver Platter, who dominated the area last summer, revamped their menu, relocated to the county, and has since run out of steam. The GrrChe truck made an isolated appearance back in the spring. Even IcedGems, a regular Friday lunchtime fixture, has been scarce.

Regular readers know that I love the novelty and creativity of the food truck experience. The small, mobile nature of the venture usually means a low overhead and lots of creative freedom. You can usually count on a fairly decent meal of out-of-the-ordinary food for a fairly decent price.

Even with the apparent disappearance of the food trucks from my neighborhood, the food truck scene in Baltimore remains strong. A fleet of trucks can be seen in Midtown, Fells Point, Hopkins, Charles Village, and many other neighborhoods throughout the city. And there are still (with increasing frequency) the food truck rallies know as The Gathering.

Last night's Gathering was in Hampden in the parking lot of HeartWares at Keswick and 34th just a few blocks down from The Avenue. Many of the regulars were there, including The Gypsy Queen Cafe, Miss Shriley's, and the aforementioned IcedGems and GrrChe. But missing (and I did miss them) were SouperFreaks and Dangerously Delicious (I had my heart set on a mini SMOG pie, an item they only sell from the truck).

The gentle downward slope of the parking lot and the buildings that surround it looked to be the perfect location, offering the promise of protection from the still-hot sun of Baltimore's early evening. Alas, this was not the case. The sun shone directly into the space, and the surrounding buildings only served to cut off the air flow. Even so, it was a highly enjoyable food event.

With me again was a fellow foodie from work, and a couple of co-workers from her department. Our first stop was Miss Shirley's for their famous cheesy grits with bacon. They looked as good as always, although I did not partake this time.

First stop - the never disappointing Miss Shirley's

Cheesy grits with bacon

Next, we did a circuit to see what was there and plan the evening's eating. This is really the best approach to the food truck rally, especially a large one. As we wandered through, I stopped to chat with some of the vendors to try to find out why no one was in Harbor East anymore. Mostly, I heard good news about expanding operations and trying to reach more neighborhoods. IcedGems has expanded their circuit and now has a bi-weekly schedule throughout Baltimore. My favorite GrrChe also spoke of expanding operations to include additional trucks to reach a larger audience. All this is very good news. And despite the growing Bagby restaurant complex on Fleet Street, there is still room for these smaller lunch vendors to do business on an ad hoc basis so long as they park around the corner and out of sight on Central. (The Curbside Cafe did this for over a year, and we have been looking for someone to assume this space since they closed up shop.)

IcedGems

GrrChe

Last night's gathering was smaller than expected, and we navigated the space fairly quickly. We saw several newcomers, including the humorously-named Kommie Pig, selling sausages and pulled pork. We decided on fish tacos from Woody's Taco Island and an order of crabby fries from The Cruisin Cafe.

The Kommie Pig

Woody's Taco Island

Woody's Taco Island

The tacos consisted of fried tilapia, a mild cheddar cheese, cabbage slaw, fresh salsa, and a ranch-type cream sauce. They were light and flavorful and the perfect eating for a hot summer night.

Woody's famous fish tacos

The crabby fries were not so strong. The fries were fairly run of the mill, tasting like standard McCain's restaurant frozen fries tossed in the deep fat fryer. The crab topping, however, was good classic Baltimore cuisine. The traditional cream cheese and mayonnaise base had a generous amount of crab meat and a moderate dusting of Old Bay that was detectable but not overpowering. We mostly used the fries as a delivery vehicle for the topping. Once that was gone, we were done.

The Cruisin Cafe

Crabby Fries - fries covered in Maryland crab dip

A welcome addition to the food truck scene was a mobile clothing reseller Go-Go's Retread Threads, a vintage clothing shop in a revamped school bus. I loved this concept and braved the stifling heat of the bus to check it out. My co-workers did not share my fascination and remained outside. The seats of the bus were replaced with racks of neatly hung clothing with small shelves of shoes running along both sides and strings of lights hanging from the roof. While I found many souvenirs of my misspent youth, I exercised restraint.

Go-Go's Retread Threads

It was definitely all three

There was also a young entrepreneur selling cold beverages and raising money for The Guinea Pig Fund. When I purchased a bottle of water from him, before he gave me my change, he asked if I would like to contribute to the fund. I let him know I would donate a dollar to the fund. He thanked me and then explained that The Guinea Pig Fund was his effort to raise enough money to buy a pet guinea pig, which was why he was at The Gathering. I was so impressed with this that I asked if I could take his picture.

The Guinea Pig Fund

The Gathering food truck rallies continue to be an enjoyable evening out. Damien Bohager continues to contribute to the Baltimore dining scene with his ongoing support of the food truck community through the arrangements of these regular gatherings. I am looking forward to the next one.

Adult beverages, provided by event organizer Damian Bohager

The Jolly Pig

My distinguished colleagues and a shot of my IcedGem in their simple paper bag packaging that I later sat on

The side of the Kommie Pig

Busia's Kitchen

The Gypsy Queen Cafe

Lest we forget we are in Baltimore......

This is a caramel-covered donut with bacon. It also comes with whipped creme. I did not go there.