Alewife

I've been to Alewife more than a couple times in the past few years, yet have never written about it. Full disclosure: Chad Wells, the chef at Alewife, has helped us out with more than a few recipes for our books, as well as information on invasive species in the Chesapeake for the upcoming one. He's a smart guy with a lot of passion for fishing and food, and is a fine chef to boot. And...he makes one of the best crab cakes in town--no lie--with actual local blue crab (Alewife is True Blue certified).

I work about two blocks from Alewife, and I love craft beer, yet I manage to avoid the place at lunchtime. (It helps that they're not open for lunch most of the week.) This is not to say that I haven't occasionally had a liquid lunch, but most often I go to Alewife to chat with Chad. Recently, however, I've found occasion to have dinner there. Twice in a month. Alewife just happens to be the most interesting restaurant within short walking distance of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a great place to have a beer or three and maybe a burger or something more exotic before taking in a game.

On my most recent trip, Mr Minx was my dining companion. He had never been and was eager to try a few beers and maybe the wild boar sliders or blue catfish tacos. Unfortunately for us, the restaurant had been hit by packs of rabid eaters and drinkers during the week, sucking most of the taps dry and devouring many menu items. "I'll have the [insert brewery name here] IPA, and she'll have the [insert other brewery name here] porter," was met by, "oh, sorry, we're out of that," more than once until I asked our waiter to just tell us what of the rather voluminous list of brews was still available.

Eventually we received our beers (Right Brain Fuzz Face peach ale for me, Union Perfecta pilsner for Mr Minx) and ordered some food: Thai peanut wings, brussels sprouts, egg rolls du jour, and a smoke burger to share.

I'd been craving wings and liked the idea of ones bathed in a spicy Thai-style sauce. These were good--well-cooked, not overly saucy or messy, and not overly spicy. Marinated carrots were a nice twist on the usual celery sticks, and a cilantro Sriracha sauce stood in for bleu cheese. I would have loved a handful of finely chopped peanuts on top, but  maybe the dude with the peanut allergy at the next table wouldn't have appreciated it.

Chad told us the eggrolls that day were filled with his mac and cheese, Buffalo-style. Sold! They were great--perfectly fried, with a filling of Chad's super creamy Palmyra cheddar, Gruyere, and Grana Padano-sauced rotelli pasta and little nuggets of hot-sauced chicken. They reminded me a bit of my friend Don's glorious deep-fried mac and cheese. Loved the Parm-tinged dipping sauce on the side, though the creamy eggrolls didn't really need it.

The Smoke Burger, an 11-ounce patty of local Roseda Beef topped with smoky stuff like applewood bacon, smoked Gouda, and chipotle aioli, plus Gruyere and caramelized onions, was perfect for sharing. It deserves every accolade it's received as the Best Burger in Baltimore. The meat was tender and juicy, perfectly medium, with just enough toppings. Even the brioche bun, which we usually hate because they always fall apart, worked perfectly. The accompanying duck fat fries dusted with rosemary were crisp and lovely. A great burger and fries combo.

We also had the tasty Brussels sprouts, simply pan-roasted with some bacon lardons and balsamic vinegar.

A few weeks earlier, my brother and I had pre-game nibbles that included the pork belly fries. Like the mac-and-cheese stuffed eggrolls, this is a perfect dish for someone planning to have more than a few drinks. The restaurant's customary duckfat fries are topped with mac-and-cheese, braised bbq pork belly, and pickled collard greens to cut the richness. It's a somewhat insane combination, but one that works very well, even for folks who aren't hitting the sauce.

We had the shrimp and grits (which is more like an app than an entree). Loved that the grits came in the form of crispy fried cakes. Also had the snakehead cakes, kinda like an invasive species version of Baltimore's famous coddie, served with a corn and bacon salad and dill avocado puree. (Somehow I deleted that photo. I'm sure it was blurry.) All delicious. (And if you want the recipe for the snakehead cakes, it'll be in our next book!)

All this rambling to say...wish it hadn't taken us so long to sit down and enjoy a full dinner at Alewife. Food's great, beer selection (when it hasn't been decimated) is really nice, and Chad's great, too. Go check it out, even if you have to buy Os tickets or see something at the Hippodrome (across the street) or Everyman (next door) theaters to give you an excuse.





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Sprint for Spat

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Oy Bay!

In the middle of all the crappy precip we had at the end of February/early March, the freezing rain and snow, we had a bright spot. Oh, it was raining most of the day on that particular Wednesday, March 4th, but the streets weren't icy for a brief shining moment, allowing us to participate in a lovely dinner at Clementine.

All dinners at Clementine are lovely, of course, but this one especially so as it featured oysters. Chesapeake Bay oysters, from Barren Island Oysters on Hoopers Island, to be exact. Five courses of oysters plus a non-oyster dessert, each paired with both beer from Flying Dog and wine from Boordy. Does it get much better than that?

I think not.

Barren Island oysters on the half shell, served with blood orange lemongrass mignonette
and chile and garlic sauerkraut. Paired with Bloodline Blood Orange Ale and
2014 Sauvignon Blanc 

Barren Island oysters are plump and buttery, and some of the best locally raised oysters we've tried. They were delicious served raw, particularly with the sprightly blood orange lemongrass mignonette. They were aptly paired with Flying Dog's Bloodline, an ale flavored with blood orange, and Boordy's 2014 Sauvignon Blanc.

Next up, the oysters were lightly pickled and served with a beet salad. I must admit I was skeptical about the concept of a pickled oyster, but I needn't have been. A pickled oyster isn't that far different from a raw oyster dosed with mignonette, and their briny sweet-tart quality matched remarkably well with the earthiness of the beets. A pescetarian surf and turf, if you will.

Pickled oyster salad with arugula, beets three ways, and apple horseradish vinaigrette
paired with Supertramp Tart Cherry Ale and 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

We then had a lovely oyster stew with bits of bacon and small chunks of potato, paired with Flying Dog's Pearl Necklace oyster stout. This beer is brewed with Rappahanock River oysters, but they don't really add any flavor. Pearl Necklace drinks like any fine stout, with lovely dark roasty coffee-like flavors and a buttery finish. Proceeds from the sale of the beer benefit the Oyster Recovery Partnership, a fine cause.

The Oyster Recovery Partnership, or ORP, has planted over five billion new oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. Oysters are not just a tasty food source, they're also nature's filters, cleaning about 50 gallons of water per day. That's per oyster. The more oysters, the cleaner the Bay. The cleaner the Bay, the more it becomes a better habitat for the marine life for which it is famous.

If you'd like to help the ORP rebuild both the oyster population and oyster reefs, check out their site at http://www.oysterrecovery.org/, sign up for their newsletter, and buy a t-shirt or make a donation.

Oyster stew with bacon, smoked hummingbird tomato, and potato,
paired with Pearl Necklace oyster stout and 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

The stew was followed by a double main course. The Roseda hanger steak was absolutely perfectly cooked and seasoned, and there was a lovely touch of anise flavor from the Pernod. A softness of barely cooked oysters added a nice textural contrast to the beef.

Carpetbagger steak: Roseda hanger steak with oysters, spinach, tarragon, and
tamarind, and oyster liquor- and Pernod-poached and roasted fingerlings, paired with Gonzo
Imperial Porter and 2012 Merlot Reserve

It's probably a bit shocking to admit that neither Mr Minx nor I have ever eaten oyster stuffing, but it's true. But now that we've had the delicious oyster and roasted fennel stuffing in the delightful quail dish, we're going to make it for Thanksgiving. If we could get everyone to eat quail, heck, we'd make this entire dish for Thanksgiving. The squash and brussels sprout gratin was especially delicious.

Roasted quail with oyster and roasted fennel stuffing, cranberry apple gremolata, and
brussels sprout, butternut, and maple gratin, paired with Lucky SOB Irish red
and 2012 Cabernet Franc

After stuffing ourselves on oysters, we went on to a oyster-free dessert course. I went for the coconut cream tart, and Mr Minx had the fig and sesame tart. I thought the coriander and cardamom flavors were a bit too subtle in the coconut tart, but the coconut cream itself was rich yet light and despite being quite full of food and beer, I finished it. The fig and sesame tart was as earthy as mine was ethereal, but maybe a bit too heavy after all of the food we had consumed. Delicious nonetheless.

Coconut cream tart with coriander and cardamom, paired with Hefeweizen and Veritas Ruby Port

Fig and sesame tart with clementine gastrique and mild chocolate chile sauce
paired with Horn Dog Barleywine and Veritas Ruby Port

Gotta say, that was probably the best meal we've had at Clementine yet, and we've had a few. The food was terrific, service was great, and we learned more about a great cause that's near and dear to our hearts.

For more information on the situation of Chesapeake Bay oysters and restoration and farming efforts, check out this article at Food Republic. And stay tuned--there will be more from us on the subject of oysters in the not too distant future.




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Sidebar - H.L. Mencken: Culinary Chronicler of Baltimore

We were perhaps a bit overzealous when we wrote our most recent book, Baltimore Chef's Table, and handed in far too many words. Unfortunately, this meant some of them needed to be cut, among them several recipes and sidebars. We're posting some of those sidebars here on Minxeats. Think of them as supplemental material.

Robert F. Kniesche, Baltimore Sun photo / September 20, 1950

H. L. Mencken, the cantankerous journalist who worked for the Baltimore Sun during the first half of the 20th century, wrote about everything that affected his era, from revolutions in Cuba to the antiquated ordinances of the city government. Despite his contrarian and sometimes fiery demeanor in print, he could also become quite romantic when it came to the culinary delights of Baltimore.

Mencken lived the vast majority of his life at 1524 Hollins Street, a three-story rowhome in the West Baltimore neighborhood known as Union Square. Some of his earliest memories are of his mother going to the fishmongers on Hollins Street to buy 8-inch blue crabs “with snow white meat almost as firm as soap” for ten cents per dozen. The rarer soft crabs were more expensive at 2 1/2 cents each. When his mother reported to his father that the price of a 20-inch shad had gone from 40 cents to 50 cents, his father predicted that the Republic would not survive the 19th century.

Breakfast and lunch were the heavy meals in the Mencken household. While many today would have a sandwich for lunch, this was a rare item then. “When I was a boy there were only three kinds of sandwiches in common use - the ham, the chicken and the Swiss cheese. Others, to be sure, existed, but it was only as oddities. Even the club sandwich was a rarity, and in most eating-houses it was unobtainable.The great majority of people stuck to the ham and the Swiss cheese, with the chicken for feast days and the anniversaries of historic battles.” A typical lunch would include a platter of Norfolk spots, Himalaya corn cakes, succotash, buttered beets, baked potatoes, and string beans. If they were in season, oranges and bananas for dessert. Mencken estimated that the calorie content of this family meal was around 3,000.

Fruits and vegetables were seasonal in those days, and in winter there wasn’t much produce at all. In the summer, however, Mencken recalled the African-American street vendors who sold produce from the back of their horse drawn carts, known as Arabs or Arabers. “Arabs (with the first a as in day)...announced their wares with loud, raucous, unintelligible cries, much worn down by phonetic decay.” A handful of these vendors can still be seen and heard wandering through the streets of Baltimore today.

To Mencken, oysters were a low class food eaten by drunks in oyster houses like Kelly’s on Eutaw Street. He did concede, however, that one of his favorite lunch spots, the now gone Rennert Hotel at the corner of Saratoga and Liberty Streets, had a decent oyster pot pie. He was more inclined to order the crab soups, either the shore-style with vegetables or the bisque.

Indeed, crabs were the most popular item which came from “the immense protein factory of Chesapeake Bay.” Mencken remembered how a former sheriff of Baltimore, Tom McNulty, had a special way of preparing soft shell crabs. He would spear a slice of bacon on a large fork, jam a soft shelled crab on top, and hold the fork over a charcoal brazier until the fat melted over the crab. Then he would slap it on a slice of hot toast.

Mencken loved strong drink as much as food, and was not a fan of Prohibition. "A prohibitionist is the sort of man one wouldn't care to drink with -- even if he drank." He felt that alcohol was “the greatest of human inventions, and by far -- much greater than Hell, the radio or the bichloride tablet." Indeed, he saw food and drink as prime examples of Man’s ongoing quest for the finer things in life,"...all the charming and beautiful things, from the Song of Songs, to bouillabaisse, and from the nine Beethoven symphonies to the Martini cocktail, have been given to humanity by men who, when the hour came, turned from tap water to something with color in it, and more in it than mere oxygen and hydrogen."

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