Baltimore food history factoid – the Original Table Crumber

An evening out celebrating our anniversary and the husband’s birthday had us at the ever delightful, full service Prime Rib Restaurant last night.

 I don’t know about your dinner conversations with your husband, wife or life partner but in our marriage of 29 years it isn’t overly stimulating.  It isn’t about world affairs, finances or even children. My life centers around food and the food industry and the husband’s interests are the History Channel, flea markets, taking naps and World War II but they do say opposites attract.   Are you getting my drift?

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Cookbook Corner: BabyCakes Covers the Classics–gluten free, vegan recipes

Did you know that May is Celiac Disease Awareness month?  The University of Maryland’s School of Medicine Center for Celiac Research recently discovered that on a molecular level celiac disease and gluten intolerance are different and the response it elicits from the immune system.  Gluten intolerance is on the rise especially in seniors and the numbers are growing astronomically. Proof is seeing what major food manufacturers and restaurant chains are doing to accommodate those with either.

Another barometer on the growth of gluten intolerance and celiac disease are the number of bakeries that are popping up.  Chef Erin McKenna was the forerunner with here BabyCakes bakery in 2005 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan geared to those with food intolerances to gluten, dairy and other dietary restrictions.

Read the full story and enjoy the recipes HERE

Coupon pick of the week – Pierpoint Restaurant in Baltimore

Don’t get this confused with yesterday’s post about Jewpon which rhymes with Chewpons which is offering a $36 coupon at Pierpoint Restaurant for just $18 today. There are a limited number of Chewpons for Pierpoint available so don’t hesitate. This is the buy of the week.

Pierpoint
When I met Executive Chef Nancy Longo back in 1989 when Pierpoint opened she was breaking ground with new Maryland cuisine like the Brussel sprouts coleslaw and smoked crab cakes. You can still find these modern takes on Maryland cuisine and her salute to Asian and Italian cuisines on her menu.

Continue reading  Coupon pick of the week – Pierpoint Restaurant in Baltimore

From Tel Aviv to Baltimore – Welcome Jewpon

Groupon, Living Social, Restaurant.com, Chewpons move over and welcome Jewpon to Baltimore.  This is not a joke, the website says they are “deal finders, fun hunters and all around lovers of the Kosher and Jewish Community.”  Based out of South Florida they span the globe with cities like Jerusalem, Toronto and London to a selection of cities in the United States.

Continue reading for the full story:  From Tel Aviv to Baltimore – Welcome Jewpon

Cookbook Corner: Salad As A Meal – Patricia Wells

Salad as a Meal – Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season is the latest offering from prolific award-winning cookbook author and expat, Patricia Wells.  A true cookbook collector would need an entire shelf just for her cookbooks and she needs a shelf for all of her awards.

Most of her books have been about the food in France: The Paris Cookbook, Patricia, Wells At Home in Provence, Simply French; The Provence Cookbook, The Food Lover’s Guide to France, Bistro Cooking, and L’Atelier of Joel Robuchon.

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Haute Cuisine Jelly Beans for $500 a jar

Mona Lisa recreation made out of jelly beans - photo by Dara Bunjon

Jelly Belly inventor David Klein has reinvented the wheel, well the jelly bean. Coated in gold leaf, Klein’s diminutive confections are packaged in a crystal jar for a mere $500 a jar. The 24 karat sugary nuggets will be unveiled this week at the Sweets and Snack Expo in Chicago. We hear they will be under armed guard.

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Haute Cuisine Jelly Beans for $500 a jar

Are you getting jazzed about Chazz? Vitale-Palminteri restaurant collaboration -

There has been a lot of buzz about this restaurant collaboration of actor Chazz Palmintera, known for his 1988 one man show about life in Bronx in the 1960’s and local restaurateurs, Sergio and Allesandro Vitale.

Chazz: A Bronx Original restaurant follows the theme of Italian life and Italian American food in Bronx in the 60’s. Gentlemen please note that pompadour hair and sharkskin suits are not a pre-requisite to dine. Ladies, you can skip the ice blue eye shadow and teased hair.

Check out the estimated date of opening and more about what will be served:

Are you getting jazzed about Chazz? Vitale-Palminteri restaurant collaboration

Wondering when Baltimore’s Summer Restaurant Week kicks off?

You don’t have to wonder anymore. The announcements went out to the restaurants today so don’t expect to see any listing on the website www.baltimorerestaurantweek.com just yet. But you can pencil the week into your calendar.

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Wondering when Baltimore’s Summer Restaurant Week kicks off?

The best of the best - Restaurant Association of Maryland's 2011 winners

Executive Chef Brian Boston - Chef of the Year

This evening was the Restaurant Association of Maryland’s annual gala, an evening where the restaurant industry salutes and celebrates the business of feeding people from the corner luncheonette to the white linen tablecloth establishment. It is a night where the restaurateurs and chefs take the night off, get gussied up and let someone else do the cooking.

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The best of the best - Restaurant Association of Maryland 2011 winners

Dining Examiner’s pick of the week – five course tea dinner at Teavolve Café -

This is the first “tea” dinner I’ve seen in Baltimore and it is exciting. There are beer, wine, bourbon, tequila dinners but this is tea - way to go Teavolve. There are so many subtleties to tea and how they can be enjoyed on their own or paired with food. And it is, as I like to say, “cost effective,” five courses created by Chef Trinity for $35. That is five courses plus your paired cup of tea from the Café’s extensive loose leaf tea menu. (tax and gratuity not included) – what a steal!

Continue reading and look at the menu:

Dining Examiner’s pick of the week – five course tea dinner at Teavolve Café

Sure thing at Hollywood Casino and Races - Final Cut Steakhouse

This is not a pack the kiddies up in the car and go on a road trip – this is adult time! Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races if a full out casino with gaming , slots and let’s add the races. Poker, slots, gaming tables and the most important thing for me is food; multiple dining choices from Skyline Terrace at the race track, food court, Epic Buffet (they even have a Pho bar), Zen Noodle and the crème de la crème, Final Cut American Steakhouse.

At the invitation of Hollywood Casino, the husband and I drove the hour and fifteen minute to Charles Town, West Virginia. A quick trip, mostly highway through Route 70 (I’ve been known to hit the accelerator a bit heavy) to Route 340 down where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet at Harper’s Ferry on to Charles Town. It was a little less time then the time I spend driving home from Washington DC. Gamble or not to gamble, play the ponies or not, there is plenty to do for nice day trip from antiquing to rafting.

Continue reading, check out the slide show on Examiner.com:

Sure thing at Hollywood Casino and Races - Final Cut Steakhouse

A Southerly Course by Martha Hall Foose – Cookbook Corner -

My cookbook corner has gained one of the brightest additions of the year, A Southerly Course by Martha Hall Foose and it is what it states, “recipes and stories from close to home.” Home for Foose is Mississippi; she grew up in the Mississippi Delta and now makes her home in Tchula, Mississippi – on the family farm.

Foose’s earlier cookbook, a James Beard Award winner Screen Doors & Sweet Tea sits prominently on my cookbook shelf, full of anecdotes of life growing up in the south, in Mississippi. Foose is a great story teller as well as a talented cook. When reading both of her cookbooks, I’m transported to a circa 1950 Mississippi porch on a warm summer day, sipping a sweet tea, pie in the window cooling waiting for Big Daddy Pollitt kind of moment.

Read the full review, get the recipes and watch the video :A Southerly Course by Martha Hall Foose – Cookbook Corner

Restaurant Association of MD’s 57th Annual Stars of the Industry Awards Gala

Forget the James Beard Awards, they will have come and gone. The place to be will be the Restaurant Association’s Speakeasy themed 57th Annual Stars of the Industry Gala. No need to pack your flask, prohibition is over and there will be plenty of food and drink. Grab your flapper or dapper Dan and come out for the Maryland foodservice all star gala. The public is CORDIALLY invited.

Continue reading on Examiner.com:

Restaurant Association of MD’s 57th Annual Stars of the Industry Awards Gala

Obama, Trump and Omaha Steaks – 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner

Oh yes, I was a deer in headlights watching Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice episode where the teams were given the task of creating an infomercial for Omaha Steaks. If you have watched it or heard about it at the proverbial “water cooler” you know that the actor Gary Busey is an uncontrollable, unpredictable character that probably should have been fired from the show at the very beginning but that doesn’t make good TV. Trump, finally made the executive decision to fire Gary Busey two weeks ago.

Check out President Obama roasting Donald Trump:
Obama, Trump and Omaha Steaks – 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner