Foodie vs. Food-Lover

A few weeks ago, I read an article about the decline of the word "foodie."  Since everyone and their brother were now foodies, did that word really mean anything these days?  Couldn't people just say they loved food?  I thought it was fairly ridiculous at the time.  I mean, I got what they were saying, but just let people call themselves what they want to be called.

Cut to this weekend.  I was eating dinner with my friends at a new restaurant, and doing my food-happy dance - as you do - and I said at the time that there were about 7 things in the world that made me truly happy.  Food being one of them.  But it was more than that, it was yummy food.  Not something bizarre just for the heck of it.  Not something so crazy, that I just had to try it.  It's really good food full of delicious ingredients that makes me the happiest.

That's when I figured it out.  Maybe I'm not a foodie - though I strive to be one since being brave is on the list of to-dos - but I'm most definitely a food-lover.  And I'm 100% ok with that.  Some people just don't get excited about new restaurants or new menu items to try.  But I do!  I probably won't be guest hosting for Anthony Bourdain or judging on Top Chef any time soon.  But what I'm going to do is eat delicious food, try new places and new things, and keep reading about food and the food industry.  That is what makes me happiest. (Though I do wish - only sometimes - that exercise and dieting made me happiest... : )

Secret Supper Redux

A few months ago, my friend Jennifer and I went to the Baltimore Secret Supper.  The premise is this - you pay ahead for a 4 course dinner with wine pairings, then you don't actually find out what restaurant you'll be eating in until the night of the dinner.  The last time we fortunate enough to get to try Aggio by Bryan Voltaggio.  While the entire meal wasn't perfect, there were definitely some highs about it.  

Tonight's dinner was held at Cunningham's in Towson, which was already a bit of a downer because Towson is so much farther than downtown Baltimore. I'd like to say the meal made up for it, but it really didn't.  Nothing seemed to go together at all.  And while I'm sure others enjoyed the food, I wasn't a fan of the mish-mash menu filled with ingredients that weren't my cup of tea.  Also, seeing as I wasn't drinking the wine, I really wasn't getting anything out of the evening at all.  Even the service wasn't up to par with Aggio.  

It was a huge restaurant so I can understand being a little slow, but after sitting down at 7:15 we didn't receive the first course until after 8:00. That meant we didn't get to finish the dessert course until well after 9:00.  At Aggio I was home by 9:00. In the end, Jennifer and I had a nice evening chatting, but the next time we've decided to just try a restaurant we've been wanting to try instead of waiting to win the foodie bingo.

* As you can see, clearly I'm no foodie photographer.

29 + 4 Things to Try This Year

I'll just say, I sort of suck at doing the things on my list, but I swear I'm going to try this year

• Attend Broadway Con - They really need to stop teasing us and just schedule it already!
• Take another cooking class - I'm thinking omelettes...
• NYC – 12 times in 12 months
• 12 shows in 12 months
• Learn how to use chopstix – this is really ridiculous that I haven’t learned yet
• Attend a balloon festival – Easton in August
• Plan another International Trip – I’ve been thinking about this one for a while, and I’m not entirely sure where I’ll be going, but I do know I want to go somewhere outside the States. 
• Eat at Charleston – one of the best reservations in Baltimore
• Read at least 3 books a month – I should probably add to this, stop buying so many until I’ve read down the stockpile.
• Finally…FINALLY!!!! See Hamilton
• Shakespeare in the Park
• Drive over the Bay Bridge – God I hate that bridge!
• Start writing more – Don’t just blog about things, but keep a journal and write down all the things that pop into my head rather than letting them fly off into the universe.
• Figure out what I want to be when I grow up – you’d think this one would be easy, but it’s so not!
• Volunteer for a charity
• Run (who are we kidding here?) Walk a 5K.
• Continue to learn how to Kayak.  I’m not a huge boat person, but I have to admit I loved doing this last summer.  Such a great workout and such a great way to see the Magothy.
• Try Standup Paddleboarding – I’m not sure this one is going to happen. I’d sort of like it to, but I foresee it ending badly.
• Roadtrip to a city other than Baltimore or NY for an overnight. I’m thinking Boston again – Love me some Boston!
• Continue to watercolor.  I have lots of ideas, but I’ve stalled a bit on actually succeeding in them.  It seems Shrek was a fluke and everything I’ve attempted since, has sort of failed miserably…
• One museum trip in Baltimore, One in DC and one in NYC.  I really should be more cultured…
• Learn all the graphic design Adobe products – via Linda.com and community college classes.  I’m not sure if I want to go into graphics, but I really feel these products will help on the resume. 
• Maryland Ice Cream Trail Trip - who needs wine when there's ice cream?!
• Take every opportunity to explore chances to take photos – sunrises, sunsets, boat trips in Naptown.  Practice, Practice, Practice
• Match.com – I know I say this every year, and I know I flake every year.  But I could really use a Prince Charming.
• See an O’s game, a Caps game and win tickets to a Ravens game (seriously, have you seen Ravens ticket prices!?)
• Move to Canada should Donald Trump win the presidential election…
• Learn to public speak – actually in front of people and not have a panic attack while doing it. 
• Organize all my photos. There are just too many random photos floating around my house.  If there not currently in some sort of album, they will soon be.  And while speaking of albums, finish my Europe album.  It’s looking so cute, it just needs a little more love.
• Preakness - This might have everything to do with wanting to wear a big fancy hat
• Cronut, Rainbow Bagel, Crazy Milkshake, Frozen Smore and Levain Cookie in NYC
• A show at Joe’s Pub, or the Public Theatre
• Smith Island with the added bonus of Smith Island Cake

Happy Super Bowl!

It's Super Bowl day.  The Ravens aren't playing.  And Coldplay is the Half-Time show.  So really, all that's left to be excited about is the food and the commercials.

So as someone who has no stock in this game whatsoever, my choice for winner is Peyton and the Broncos.  Nothing against Carolina - though Cam Newton is a bit too cocky for me - but I'd like to see Peyton end his career (it just has to be his last game, right?) on a high. And seeing as they're ahead at half time, I'm feeling a bit confident.  

So for the first and last time, Go Broncos!

Another Lovely Day in the City

Some people crave the countryside or dream about a day on the beach.  Me?  I'm a city girl - specifically New York.  There's always an energy and craziness there that just makes me happy.  I can feel it in my bones.  I may whine about the people and the crowds and the prices, but deep down I know NYC wouldn't be NYC without those things.  It really has my heart - NYC and London share it and sometimes vie for space. 

This week NYC is winning.  All I need is a day trip and I'm back in love. This week was nothing special, but that's the best thing about NY.  You don't have to do much to get the real New York experience.  Just seeing the lights in Times Square makes you feel like your in a movie or at the very least an episode of Friends. And that's just the best feeling ever!

Schedule for a near perfect (there were a few rain drops so it wasn't 100% perfect...) day in NYC:

Chelsea Market for No. 1 Tacos (So good!)

Lunch somewhere new (HB Burger this time around - you really can go somewhere new every single time and never hit all the great spots in NYC!)  Then dessert at Magnolia Bakery - Their banana pudding is my downfall!)

Something Rotten! for the second time - still awesome!

Brick Oven Pizza in Hell's Kitchen

Shopping for Schmakeray's Cookies, Theatre Circle books, and Sephora makeup

A quick trip down to Times Square then it's off to the bus (preferably not Mega Bus again - Awful!!!)

Sleep all the way home while you dream happy thoughts of the city that never sleeps : )

 Chelsea Market

 Oops, forgot to add a macaron snack in my list of NY perfection

 Surprisingly this is 2 different sides of the same Christmas tree.  Apparently, the tree taker-downers are quite methodical in their undressing...

 Love!

 The Bestie and I had an argument about these grates.  She thought it was weird that I thought they were cute.  At the very least, they're unexpectedly fun, right?

 Notice the skeptical look on Bestie's face - some dude had just asked us for money.  At least we think he did - he may have been trying to give us money from a can too; he sort of just mumbled and shook the can.

Cooking in the Kitchen

Today I had the pleasure of attending a cooking class at the Baltimore Chef Shop, where my dad and I learned how to make croissants and danishes.  The Baltimore Chef Shop opened a few months ago in the Hampden area of Baltimore City.  It's housed in a cute townhouse on the avenue along with lots of other kitschy little shops and restaurants.  The chefs at the shop teach classes on loads of different styles of cooking; from French pastries to Omelettes, from Pizza to Dim Sum, and loads in between.

When I first heard about it, I was super excited!  It sounded like such a good time.  And since my dad is already a fabulous cook who took a class like this in Italy (and loved it!), I thought it would be a great birthday present for him.  And it turned out it was.  We had a wonderful time!  Our class was supposed to be 3 hours covering danishes and croissants for the first 2.5 hours, then give us a chance to eat what we had just made. 

Well, the class quickly turned into a 4 hour affair seeing as the timing was a little rough. This was the first time the BCS had covered croissants and danishes, and since they're just a bit labor intensive, we were willing to overlook that.  But after all of that, we finally got to taste what we made, and that was most definitely my favorite part.  The cheese danishes were so darn yummy!  The croissants were a little too buttery, a little too heavy and a little too empty (I would have preferred Chocolate...) for me.  And while I probably won't be attempting croissants any time soon, I'm already hoping to give Danishes a try one of these days - of course I'll be needing a Kitchen Aid, a scale and a bigger kitchen...

Friday Five

1. Someone's meniscus has been fixed and all went smoothly!  Woohoo!

2. Ok, I'm on the Adele train.  Honestly, I love her but I hadn't heard the new music yet.  I figured it couldn't be as good as everyone was saying.  It is.  It totally is.  Now I've got "Hello" stuck in my head but I don't have tickets to see her live.  Seriously, man?  How did they sell out that quickly!?

3. This.  This is most definitely true.  Is it wrong that I have off from work 12 days and I already have a list of 3 new restaurants I want to try.  And that's it.  Other than the obvious Christmas activities, I have no other plans for my vacation than to eat...

4. I've been dying to see Hamilton for a while now.  Luckily for me I got tickets - of course those tickets are for a show in September of 2016 so I'm guessing I won't get lucky enough to see Lin Manuel Miranda.  However, seeing his various interviews really makes me hope this isn't true.  His performance on Colbert this week was absolutely amazing.  So funny! Even the interview was lovely.  How can one human being be so darn talented!?
            

5. And speaking of theatre...While I'm usually not a big fan of musicals built around a particular song book, I'm a little too excited about this possibility.  I LOVE Jimmy Buffet.  Mostly I love how Jimmy Buffet music makes you feel.  It makes you feel like summer - toes in the sand, waves crashing on the shore.  Can you just imagine how great you'd feel after 2 whole hours of that?  Now, fingers crossed, they'll choose NYC as the city to premiere. 

Emporiyum DC

Another year, another awesome Emporiyum.  I'm just loving the Baltimore/DC food scene these days.  There are all sorts of fun events that showcase the awesome chefs and restaurants we have here in MD.  The best event to do this is the Emporiyum - 2 days & over 30 restaurants, food trucks and foodie businesses, showing off all the amazing food they create.  

This year's was in the Union Market Space in DC, which was the best venue yet, in my opinion.  There was tons of space - full of tons of people of course.  And if you got tired of the Emporiyum, you could just mosey on next door to the actual Union Market and check out all their yumminess too. 

There were quite a few new places, but some of the old favorites were there as well. I was sad to see that no Voltaggio restaurants were there.  They are of course, always my favorite.  In fact, there weren't any real celebrity chefs there besides Erik Bruner Yang - the rock star of ramen (which I will say, that's a name he truly deserves - yum!)  My other complaint was the complete lack of anyone selling water.  The drink stalls were selling only alcohol - not even sodas were being sold.  That's a little ridiculous.  I had to beg a cup off the Living Social people and use the water fountain to fill it.  Other than that, it was a rousing success as always. 

They even seemed to realize that if you make smaller portions or give free samples, people will eat more.  Half size sandwiches were being sold as well as individual sized pies or single cookies.  That was my most favorite part.  Yay Emporiyum people, for getting a clue!

 These pieces of art were made completely out of plastic cups.

Reflective Air Stream Selfie!

And here's the important part - the food!

 Erik Bruner Yang's awesome Ramen - So delicious!

 This was the best thing I ate all day!  I have no idea how to pronounce it, but it's basically a wafer, with to die for marshmallow on top, covered in chocolate and coconut. OMG! It was life changing : )

 According to the Top Chef judges, Mike Isabella's Pepperoni sauce was life-changing.  Obviously they never had the marshmallow cookie thing I had before this.  It wasn't bad but I'm no Isabella fan, so that may have clouded my judgement. 

Dooby's was my favorite from last year, and this year it was my second favorite this year.  I have no idea what they put on that fried chicken but it's spicy and sweet and perfect.  The honey chips were also unbelievably tasty. 

German Feast

A friend of a friend of a friend is apparently a chef.  She had owned a restaurant that had closed a few years ago.  Now she has a few other jobs; one of which is taking over a restaurant in Fells Point once a month and creating a 3 course German menu for any and all that come to eat.  And I'm hear to say, the girl can cook.  It was such a lovely evening!

I wasn't really feeling the menu before I tried the food.  There were way too many ingredients on the do not eat list.  But after trying the meals, I was hooked. Apparently I like cheese with mushrooms in it, German potato salad, bread dumplings, and Beef Rouladen.  And then of course there was the dessert - not so German - but oh so good! Already dreaming about next month's menu!