Pat's Select Pizza Grill

Any place that serves good pizza and is within reasonable driving distance is going to become one of our regular dining destinations. Add a selection of salads, pastas, sandwiches, and wings (in the rare case that one of us doesn't want pizza), and we have Pat's Select.

Pat's is a small regional chain out of South Jersey that has so far branched into Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The Cockeysville outpost, which is closest to us, opened in the second half of 2018. On our first visit, Mr Minx and I were treated to a selection of Pat's most popular options, which included the margherita pizza, cheesesteak roll-ups, and wings. We were also urged to order whatever else from the menu we wanted to try, so we opted for a wrap and a pasta dish.

The cheesesteak roll-ups, from the appetizer selection of the rather voluminous menu, consist of flour tortillas filled with sliced steak and melted cheese and come with a creamy horseradish dipping sauce. They were hot and tasty and good for sharing. Pat's wings come in both bone-in and boneless varieties and can be tossed with any of six sauces of varying heat levels, or naked. We went for the "blazing bourbon," which provided just the right amount of sweet heat.

Pat's pizzas are long, rather than round, but there is a thick crust round pizza available. All are baked in a blazing brick oven visible from the dining room. There are two sizes, the 15" x 7" being more than enough for two people and the 24" x 11" being, well, gigantic. There are all the usual toppings, but also specialty pizzas with pulled pork or buffalo chicken and bleu cheese. We had the margherita, a simple affair of fresh mozz, good sauce, and extremely fragrant basil on Pat's light crispy crust. Mr Minx and I are fussy about pizza. We like what we like, and we hate everything else. There's a lot of mediocre pizza out there, and about as much bad pizza. Pat's is good pizza, however, which means we'll be going back. Possibly often. They also have strombolis, and two oven baked sandwiches, one involving chicken parm, and the other, meatballs.

We tried Pat's meatballs atop a mountain of spaghetti baked with marinara and cheese. Honestly, we didn't really notice how much pasta was in the bowl until we took the leftovers home and had them for dinner the next day. Mr Minx can eat a LOT of pasta, and there was enough left over that he was able to share it with me. But back to those meatballs...they were very nice. Not too soft, not too cheesy, but just right. They'd be great in that oven baked meatball sandwich I mentioned in the previous paragraph, and I do intend to try that in the future.

Last but not least, we tried the Sriracha shrimp wrap, a flavorful combination of breaded and fried shrimp with avocado, red onion, tomato, cilantro, and sriracha aioli. I'd eat that again. However, there's a ton of other stuff on the menu to try first. They have crab cakes! They have many many salads, burgers, steak sandwiches, other wraps, more pasta, fries, even gyros. It'll be a while before we can say we've tasted something from every major category on the menu. I'm thinking that will be a fun endeavor.

Pat's Select Pizza Grill
10151 York Rd
Cockeysville, MD 21030
(410) 683-2000
patsselect.com

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Sammiches

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on April 16, 2013.
----------------------------------

Cajun Kate's softshell crab po boy, image from egullet.com user philadining

Last Friday they were discussing sandwiches on WYPR's Midday with Dan Rodricks and it got me thinking about sandwiches I have known. I put in my two cents by recommending the po' boys from my friend Don's restaurant Cajun Kate's in the Booth's Corner Farmers' Market in Boothwyn, PA, because it's one of my current favorites (especially the brisket, fried oyster, and soft shell crab versions), but that's not the only sandwich that has struck my fancy over the years.

When I was quite young, my maternal grandmother had a stroke. During her recovery, we ate lunch together every day, and every day it was the same thing - an imported deli ham sandwich with iceberg lettuce and Kraft thousand island dressing on seeded rye bread from Levin's bakery, with a side of Funyuns. I don't know the origin of the sandwich, but I suspect it was my mother's invention, as I have never seen it elsewhere. Occasionally, when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic, I have a ham on rye with lettuce and thousand island for lunch. It never fails to take me back to age 3, when being cute and entertaining came far more easily.

Another sandwich I enjoyed in my youth, but not nearly as often, is the Baltimore classic, pit beef. It seemed that I only ate them in the first weekend of October, when the Fells Point Festival was in full swing. We lived on the 500 block of Ann Street at the time. Dad and I always walked down together in search of a pit beef sandwich, which Dad would order well-done, with burnt ends,  to which we'd add mayonnaise and enough horseradish to make our noses run. Oddly, we always had to share the sandwich (Dad's rule, not mine), so I tend to feel a little greedy that now, as an adult, I get to have my own.

When I like something a lot, I try to eat it often, but not often enough to tire of it. Back in the heyday of Harborplace, there was a little Greek stand on the second floor of the Light Street pavilion. After a morning of desultorily shuffling from shop to shop with my college buddies Leslie and Wanda, we'd occasionally grab lunch there. My personal favorite was a veggie pita, basically a gyro without the meat. If I remember correctly, a warm and fluffy Greek pita was piled high with a combo of lettuce, tomato, raw onion, and cucumber and glopped with tzatziki and feta before being wrapped in aluminum foil to make the messy sandwich easier to handle. So simple, but so good, and something I could eat once a week without getting bored.

I'm also quite fond of a good chicken salad sandwich, and by "good," I mean chicken salad made with a mix of white and dark meat, chopped into fairly small pieces, a generous but not overwhelming amount of mayonnaise, and bits of minced onion. The seasoning can be simple salt and pepper, or something fancier like curry powder and mango chutney. The bread can be rye or a nice artisan loaf. Chicken salad sandwiches I am currently fond of include, believe it or not, the ones found at the University of Maryland Medical Center's Aramark-run cafeteria. The sandwich ladies are not skimpy with the scoops of salad, and they carefully remove the tough part of whole romaine leaves before arranging them carefully on your sandwich. And it's a steal at about $4. Mary Mervis, in the Lexington Market, also makes a fine chicken salad sammie. I like to make it a Chicken Smith by requesting a salty addition of a slice of Smithfield ham. This sometimes confuses the sandwich makers, so tell them to slice and weigh the ham and add the price to the sandwich.

Oh, there are so many more I can mention here: the asparagus and goat cheese wrap from the SouperFreak food truck, any number of tasty grilled cheeses (love the Fresco at Grilled Cheese & Co.), Attman's corned beef! and let's not forget Maryland's potential state sandwich - the soft shell crab. And burgers - but they're a completely different post....

What are your favorite sandwiches?

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - A Trip Around the Mediterranean

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on June 7, 2013.

Beef kebabs with shakshouky, tzatziki, and tomato and cucumber salad, on pita.

It seems traditional to drag out the grill on Memorial Day. While many people are content with burgers and hot dogs, I think if Mr Minx is going to go to all of the trouble to fiddle with charcoal and have a dirty grill to clean afterward, the food had better be a bit more interesting than the usual.

I've been enamored of ground meat kebabs recently and decided to make two types - lamb and beef - based on recipes from Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean. Pictured above are the beef kebabs, flavored with cumin, paprika, allspice, and cinnamon, (this recipe, minus the herbs, fruits, and nuts, plus 1/2 teaspoon cumin). The lamb kebabs were based on this recipe, minus the cumin and pistachios.

To accompany the kebabs, I made four sauces/dips that I like to make, and it struck me that they came from different countries along the Mediterranean Sea. There was Romesco from Spain, Tzatziki from Greece, and Shakshouky and Hummus, popular in various North African countries. I also chopped up a seeded hydroponic cucumber and a pint of cherry tomatoes, dressed it with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and called it a salad, and there was feta cheese, too.

The recipe for shakshouky is linked above, and there will be a post next week on the hummus. The other two sauce recipes follow.

Romesco Sauce

I cheat when I make Romesco. Rather than roasting the vegetables myself, I use jarred roasted red peppers and canned fire roasted tomatoes. Here's the recipe I usually use. I didn't have almonds in the house, so I used 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's almond butter instead. Worked like a charm.

1 small onion, chopped
2 jarred roasted red bell peppers, torn into chunks
1 15-oz can chopped fire roasted tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
1 ounce white bread, toasted, crust removed
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon pimentón (Spanish sweet paprika)
olive oil
salt

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned. Place in blender or food processor with the next seven ingredients and purée, drizzling in olive oil until a thick sauce is formed. Add salt to taste.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Very Simple Tzatziki

1 hydroponic cucumber
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
kosher salt

Cut the cucumber in half and scoop out the seeds. Puree the flesh in a food processor, then dump it into a tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the cucumber back into the food pro with the yogurt and garlic and puree until well combined. Season with salt.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Sammiches

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on April 16, 2013.

Cajun Kate's softshell crab po boy, image from egullet.com user philadining

Last Friday they were discussing sandwiches on WYPR's Midday with Dan Rodricks and it got me thinking about sandwiches I have known. I put in my two cents by recommending the po' boys from my friend Don's restaurant Cajun Kate's in the Booth's Corner Farmers' Market in Boothwyn, PA, because it's one of my current favorites (especially the brisket, fried oyster, and soft shell crab versions), but that's not the only sandwich that has struck my fancy over the years.

When I was quite young, my maternal grandmother had a stroke. During her recovery, we ate lunch together every day, and every day it was the same thing - an imported deli ham sandwich with iceberg lettuce and Kraft thousand island dressing on seeded rye bread from Levin's bakery, with a side of Funyuns. I don't know the origin of the sandwich, but I suspect it was my mother's invention, as I have never seen it elsewhere. Occasionally, when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic, I have a ham on rye with lettuce and thousand island for lunch. It never fails to take me back to age 3, when being cute and entertaining came far more easily.

Another sandwich I enjoyed in my youth, but not nearly as often, is the Baltimore classic, pit beef. It seemed that I only ate them in the first weekend of October, when the Fells Point Festival was in full swing. We lived on the 500 block of Ann Street at the time. Dad and I always walked down together in search of a pit beef sandwich, which Dad would order well-done, with burnt ends,  to which we'd add mayonnaise and enough horseradish to make our noses run. Oddly, we always had to share the sandwich (Dad's rule, not mine), so I tend to feel a little greedy that now, as an adult, I get to have my own.

When I like something a lot, I try to eat it often, but not often enough to tire of it. Back in the heyday of Harborplace, there was a little Greek stand on the second floor of the Light Street pavilion. After a morning of desultorily shuffling from shop to shop with my college buddies Leslie and Wanda, we'd occasionally grab lunch there. My personal favorite was a veggie pita, basically a gyro without the meat. If I remember correctly, a warm and fluffy Greek pita was piled high with a combo of lettuce, tomato, raw onion, and cucumber and glopped with tzatziki and feta before being wrapped in aluminum foil to make the messy sandwich easier to handle. So simple, but so good, and something I could eat once a week without getting bored.

I'm also quite fond of a good chicken salad sandwich, and by "good," I mean chicken salad made with a mix of white and dark meat, chopped into fairly small pieces, a generous but not overwhelming amount of mayonnaise, and bits of minced onion. The seasoning can be simple salt and pepper, or something fancier like curry powder and mango chutney. The bread can be rye or a nice artisan loaf. Chicken salad sandwiches I am currently fond of include, believe it or not, the ones found at the University of Maryland Medical Center's Aramark-run cafeteria. The sandwich ladies are not skimpy with the scoops of salad, and they carefully remove the tough part of whole romaine leaves before arranging them carefully on your sandwich. And it's a steal at about $4. Mary Mervis, in the Lexington Market, also makes a fine chicken salad sammie. I like to make it a Chicken Smith by requesting a salty addition of a slice of Smithfield ham. This sometimes confuses the sandwich makers, so tell them to slice and weigh the ham and add the price to the sandwich.

Oh, there are so many more I can mention here: the asparagus and goat cheese wrap from the SouperFreak food truck, any number of tasty grilled cheeses (love the Fresco at Grilled Cheese & Co.), Attman's corned beef! and let's not forget Maryland's potential state sandwich - the soft shell crab. And burgers - but they're a completely different post....

What are your favorite sandwiches?

Posted on Minxeats.com.

A New Tide Rolls in for By The Docks

We took my mom to By the Docks in Middle River for her birthday in 2006. It was our first time there and, after re-reading the Minx's blog post about the restaurant, I see we weren't blown away by the place. Except for the crab cakes, that is. Three of us ordered them and were stunned by the softball-sized mounds sitting on our plates. The Minx and I always planned to go back, but with all the new restaurants that popped up over the last 11 years, we just never got around to it.

As it turned out, By the Docks has gone through some changes over the years, with the original owners selling in 2010 and then buying the place back in 2015. They've recently remodeled the 19th century building and revamped the menu. We were invited to come by and check out the changes, and we were more than happy to comply.

Our group started with a couple of appetizers for the table. The oysters Rockefeller uses three kinds of cheese which are folded into the spinach before being placed atop the oysters. Their own imperial sauce is also dolloped on top, making for a very rich bite that is almost a meal unto itself.

We've talked about calamari a great deal on this blog, and it's heartening to find that the quality of the preparation has been steadily improving over the years. Even with that said, I think this might be the best fried calamari I've ever eaten. The fresh calamari is first marinated in Greek olive oil for 24 hours, then hand cut into rings slightly larger than what I've typically seen, They're lightly coated and flash fried so the calamari is incredibly tender. The crunchy coating is nicely seasoned so you don't need marinara sauce, but it is provided on the side. (Diners can also choose to have their calamari tossed in an Asian-style sweet and spicy sauce.)

For her entree, the Minx ordered the Jewels of the Sea: the colossal jumbo lump crab cake they are so well known for along with a 4-ounce lobster tail, jumbo shrimp, and broiled scallops. The crab cakes have little filler and are very light on the Old Bay, so the sweet crab flavor comes through. As if this wasn't enough food, each entree comes with two sides, in our case, baked potatoes and creamed spinach.

I went for the Rockfish a la Vasca: pan-seared rockfish sauteed with shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, calamari, and Jonah crab claws in a traditional Spanish green sauce of fresh parsley, garlic, and wine. The chef is originally from Spain and he sees this as sort of a paella of seafood without the rice. The green sauce is something I'd never had before, and the sheer quantity of seafood is overwhelming. When I read the description of the dish, I expected a couple of shrimp, one scallop, a couple clams, etc. As you can see from the picture, it's an orgy of shellfish piled so bounteously that you can't even see the rockfish underneath (which was delicious, by the way).

Other diners during this media event tried the stuffed lobster tail and were presented with a mountain of broiled crab meat, like the crab cake but even bigger, with a 9-ounce lobster tail hiding underneath. Portions are truly incredible here.

Of course, it's not all seafood. While it's the star, there are also plenty of chicken, steak, and pasta entrees, and sandwiches like oyster po' boys, Reubens, and burgers.

Even though we had to get boxes for our leftovers, we couldn't leave without trying a couple of their desserts, made by Yia Yia's Bakery. Turns out, the family that owns By the Docks also owns Yia Yia's, where we have been getting yummy holiday pies for years. Their baklava cheesecake has all the elements one typically finds in the Greek pastry, with a rich layer of creamy cheesecake in the middle. A great combination of two classic desserts.

The Smith Island cake is everything the traditional dessert should be with thin layers of white sponge glued together by rich, fudge-like frosting. As full as I was, I couldn't stop eating this dessert.

In addition to their regular menu offered every night of the week, By The Docks offers specials Monday through Thursday like Monday Lobster Night where you can get twin lobsters for $28.99 or Thursday Steak Night where all cuts are just $19.99, They also offer a $17.99 brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. We're quite confident we won't wait another 11 years to go back to By The Docks.

By the Docks
3321 Eastern Blvd
Middle River, MD 21220-2811

410-686-1188

Posted on Minxeats.com.

The Local Fry

Elizabeth Irish is Korean-American. Her husband, Kevin, is from Ireland. Together, they have come up with a pretty swell global food concept in the Local Fry. Who doesn't love french fries? (Or, as Kevin might call them, chips.) Especially when they're properly made, thrice cooked beauties, freshly cut and cooked. At the Local Fry, the potato part of the equation is delicious enough to eat on its own, maybe with a bit of Old Bay or malt vinegar. And you can certainly get them that way. But if you're looking for a more international experience, go for one of the several specialty varieties.

I was part of a group of local media folks who were invited to sample all and sundry of the Local Fry's food. In addition to french fries, there are multiple flavors of chicken wings. We got to taste those, too. While our group wasn't particularly adventurous in the wing department, ordering only the honey garlic, lemon garlic, and Jamaican jerk flavors, I can report that all of them were uniformly tasty. The wings themselves are flash fried, leaving them crisp and relatively greaseless. But lets move on to the fries, shall we?

We sampled several flavors of specialty fries: banh mi, kimchi pork, Hawaiian, Greek, poutine, fish and chips, and the house fries. All of the toppings are made in house, from scratch, and some of the combinations are fairly elaborate. Take the Greek version, for example. A nice portion of fries is topped with housemade Greek seasoning, shredded romaine, tomato, gyro meat, shallots, feta cheese, and homemade tzatziki. It's like a delicious gyro that one eats with a fork, with fries instead of pita. The kimchi pork fries have got some authentic kimchi garlic funk going on, really delicious. The banh mi has all of the pickled veg, cucumber, and cilantro that one expects on that Vietnamese sandwich specialty. And the house fries, the "Local Fry" fries, are topped with ground beef seasoned up like a taco and doused in a special spicy sauce. I think they were my favorite of the night. My only complaint, and it's not a huge one, is that the cheese curds on the poutine weren't squeaky. The tasty gravy made up for it though.

Eventually, Elizabeth and Kevin hope to add some other items to their menu, like sliders, but for right now they are concentrating on the fries. And that's quite a lot, really, when you consider the care they put into all of the myriad toppings they have to prepare every day. I think it's worth the effort and can't wait to get back to the Local Fry to try the handful of flavors I haven't yet tried (Tonkotsu pork cutlet and Japanese curry-topped fries, and another version with Buffalo chicken tenders and blue cheese.) You should go, too.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Avgolemono Soup

When I made that Greek-ish pasta dish the other day, I ended up with far too much for two people. That means leftovers, and while we do appreciate not having to cook on some random weeknight, I I am not particularly fond of eating rewarmed pasta that already has a sauce on it. After a few hours in the fridge, the pasta has sucked up whatever moisture there might have been in the dish to begin with, and if there's no extra sauce in a separate container, it's just too dry for me. But since this particular pasta dish had some lemon in it, and certainly a lot of other flavors that work harmoniously with lemon, I thought dumping the leftovers into some avgolemono soup might provide the necessary moisture.

Avgolemono (Greek for egg-lemon) can be a soup or a sauce, usually made with eggs and lemon juice, heated with stock until thick. It's pretty easy stuff, one just has to watch not to add too much hot broth to the eggs all at once so as not to curdle them. At that point though, it's egg drop soup and not necessarily a bad thing. There's usually some rice or orzo in a classic avgolemono soup, so if you don't have leftover pasta, then add about 1/3 cup of raw rice or orzo to the chicken stock and boil it for about 10-12 minutes, until the grain is done but not mushy, before adding the egg and lemon.

Avgolemono Soup

6 cups chicken stock
2 cups leftover Greek-ish pasta
4 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice
salt and black pepper to taste

Bring the chicken stock to a simmer. While stock is simmering, warm the leftover pasta.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until frothy. Whisk in the lemon juice.

Slowly pour 2 cups of hot chicken stock into the eggs, whisking constantly. When combined, slowly add the egg mixture to the pot of simmering stock.

Immediately remove stock from heat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Portion the warmed pasta into large serving bowls and ladle soup over top.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Greek-ish Pasta

Sometimes, when I get something stuck in my head, I just can't shake it. This is especially true of recipes. I'll come up with a combination of ingredients and obsess over it until I can get into the kitchen and create the dish.

Things don't always work out the way I plan.

My original concept for this dish involved ground lamb. I figured I could pick some up at Weis on our regular grocery day, but they didn't have any ground lamb in stock. I visited the local Giant, which has had ground lamb in the past, and found no lamb of any kind. Poo. I didn't want to drive all over town looking for one product, so I made a substitution. My dish was inspired by the flavors of Greece, and Greeks eat shrimp, which also goes well with feta and garlic and pasta and all the other good stuff I planned to use. So I bought a pound of shrimp.

Overall the dish was pretty good, but I still want to try it with ground lamb someday.

Greek Shrimp Pasta

1 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined, shells reserved
1 pound pasta of your choice
1 cup chopped onion
olive oil
salt
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
pinch red pepper flakes
1 cucumber, halved, seeded, and sliced into crescent moons
2 tablespoons finely minced dill (divided use)
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
salt and pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil
chopped toasted walnuts
finely chopped mint
lemon juice

Heat a few teaspoons of oil in a saucepot. Add the shrimp shells and cook, stirring, until they turn pink. Add 2 cups of water. Bring to a simmer. Cook 10 minutes, pressing down on shells to extract flavor. Remove from heat and strain out the solids. Season with a pinch of salt. Refrigerate stock until ready to use.

Cook the pasta al dente in well-salted water, according to package directions. Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water for the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat, add bit of olive oil, the onion, and a pinch of salt. Cook until onion is translucent. Stir in the garlic and the red pepper flakes. Add the cucumbers and cook for about three minutes. Stir in one tablespoon of the dill.

In a bowl, combine the remaining dill, feta cheese, and yogurt.

Add the shrimp to the skillet. Cook until just pink. Pour in about half a cup of the shrimp stock. Add the pasta and toss to coat, adding pasta water if the mixture seems dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil.

Serve pasta in bowls with a dollop of the yogurt sauce. Garnish with chopped walnuts and mint and squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

A Trip Around the Mediterranean

Beef kebabs with shakshouky, tzatziki, and tomato and cucumber salad, on pita.

It seems traditional to drag out the grill on Memorial Day. While many people are content with burgers and hot dogs, I think if Mr Minx is going to go to all of the trouble to fiddle with charcoal and have a dirty grill to clean afterward, the food had better be a bit more interesting than the usual.

I've been enamored of ground meat kebabs recently and decided to make two types - lamb and beef - based on recipes from Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean. Pictured above are the beef kebabs, flavored with cumin, paprika, allspice, and cinnamon, (this recipe, minus the herbs, fruits, and nuts, plus 1/2 teaspoon cumin). The lamb kebabs were based on this recipe, minus the cumin and pistachios.

To accompany the kebabs, I made four sauces/dips that I like to make, and it struck me that they came from different countries along the Mediterranean Sea. There was Romesco from Spain, Tzatziki from Greece, and Shakshouky and Hummus, popular in various North African countries. I also chopped up a seeded hydroponic cucumber and a pint of cherry tomatoes, dressed it with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and called it a salad, and there was feta cheese, too.

The recipe for shakshouky is linked above, and there will be a post next week on the hummus. The other two sauce recipes follow.

Romesco Sauce

I cheat when I make Romesco. Rather than roasting the vegetables myself, I use jarred roasted red peppers and canned fire roasted tomatoes. Here's the recipe I usually use. I didn't have almonds in the house, so I used 2 tablespoons of Trader Joe's almond butter instead. Worked like a charm.

1 small onion, chopped
2 jarred roasted red bell peppers, torn into chunks
1 15-oz can chopped fire roasted tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup blanched slivered almonds
1 ounce white bread, toasted, crust removed
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon pimentón (Spanish sweet paprika)
olive oil
salt

Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil until lightly browned. Place in blender or food processor with the next seven ingredients and purée, drizzling in olive oil until a thick sauce is formed. Add salt to taste.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Very Simple Tzatziki

1 hydroponic cucumber
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
kosher salt

Cut the cucumber in half and scoop out the seeds. Puree the flesh in a food processor, then dump it into a tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Put the cucumber back into the food pro with the yogurt and garlic and puree until well combined. Season with salt.

Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sammiches

Cajun Kate's softshell crab po boy, image from egullet.com user philadining

Last Friday they were discussing sandwiches on WYPR's Midday with Dan Rodricks and it got me thinking about sandwiches I have known. I put in my two cents by recommending the po' boys from my friend Don's restaurant Cajun Kate's in the Booth's Corner Farmers' Market in Boothwyn, PA, because it's one of my current favorites (especially the brisket, fried oyster, and soft shell crab versions), but that's not the only sandwich that has struck my fancy over the years.

When I was quite young, my maternal grandmother had a stroke. During her recovery, we ate lunch together every day, and every day it was the same thing - an imported deli ham sandwich with iceberg lettuce and Kraft thousand island dressing on seeded rye bread from Levin's bakery, with a side of Funyuns. I don't know the origin of the sandwich, but I suspect it was my mother's invention, as I have never seen it elsewhere. Occasionally, when I'm feeling particularly nostalgic, I have a ham on rye with lettuce and thousand island for lunch. It never fails to take me back to age 3, when being cute and entertaining came far more easily.

Another sandwich I enjoyed in my youth, but not nearly as often, is the Baltimore classic, pit beef. It seemed that I only ate them in the first weekend of October, when the Fells Point Festival was in full swing. We lived on the 500 block of Ann Street at the time. Dad and I always walked down together in search of a pit beef sandwich, which Dad would order well-done, with burnt ends,  to which we'd add mayonnaise and enough horseradish to make our noses run. Oddly, we always had to share the sandwich (Dad's rule, not mine), so I tend to feel a little greedy that now, as an adult, I get to have my own.

When I like something a lot, I try to eat it often, but not often enough to tire of it. Back in the heyday of Harborplace, there was a little Greek stand on the second floor of the Light Street pavilion. After a morning of desultorily shuffling from shop to shop with my college buddies Leslie and Wanda, we'd occasionally grab lunch there. My personal favorite was a veggie pita, basically a gyro without the meat. If I remember correctly, a warm and fluffy Greek pita was piled high with a combo of lettuce, tomato, raw onion, and cucumber and glopped with tzatziki and feta before being wrapped in aluminum foil to make the messy sandwich easier to handle. So simple, but so good, and something I could eat once a week without getting bored.

I'm also quite fond of a good chicken salad sandwich, and by "good," I mean chicken salad made with a mix of white and dark meat, chopped into fairly small pieces, a generous but not overwhelming amount of mayonnaise, and bits of minced onion. The seasoning can be simple salt and pepper, or something fancier like curry powder and mango chutney. The bread can be rye or a nice artisan loaf. Chicken salad sandwiches I am currently fond of include, believe it or not, the ones found at the University of Maryland Medical Center's Aramark-run cafeteria. The sandwich ladies are not skimpy with the scoops of salad, and they carefully remove the tough part of whole romaine leaves before arranging them carefully on your sandwich. And it's a steal at about $4. Mary Mervis, in the Lexington Market, also makes a fine chicken salad sammie. I like to make it a Chicken Smith by requesting a salty addition of a slice of Smithfield ham. This sometimes confuses the sandwich makers, so tell them to slice and weigh the ham and add the price to the sandwich.

Oh, there are so many more I can mention here: the asparagus and goat cheese wrap from the SouperFreak food truck, any number of tasty grilled cheeses (love the Fresco at Grilled Cheese & Co.), Attman's corned beef! and let's not forget Maryland's potential state sandwich - the soft shell crab. And burgers - but they're a completely different post....

What are your favorite sandwiches?

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Ikaros

I can't tell you the last time I ate at Ikaros. I grew up in Fells Point, not that far from Greektown; Mr Minx was approximately the same distance away, in Dundalk. Yet it wasn't a restaurant in our parents' regular rotation. Perhaps because Greek restaurants tend to serve a lot of lamb, and that's not my Dad's thing. At all. In any case, we went recently, and we liked it.

I think we enjoyed it more than our trip to the Black Olive.

Ikaros is a rather old-fashioned sort of place. There are so many paintings, photos, and maps of Greece on the walls, it's almost like a Greek version of Haussner's. The menu is nowhere near as extensive, thankfully, but it was still difficult to choose from all the tempting dishes available. Mr Minx's brother went with us, so that gave us the opportunity to try an extra entree.

Spanakopita

Saganaki, sans flames

We started off with the spanakopita and the saganaki. The spinach pie was hot, crispy, and filled with spinach seasoned with feta and mint. It was delicious, as was the flaming kefalograviera cheese, set alight with brandy by our waitress, then doused with lemon juice to put out the flame. It was gooey and salty and slightly herbal, and really cried out for bread better than the squishy Italian-style bread on the table.

Moussaka

Shrimp Guvetsaki

For our entrees, we sampled the moussaka, which was dense and rich and meaty. We also had the baby lamb with string beans, and the shrimp Guvetsaki, but with rice instead of guvetzi (a Greek pasta). The shrimp was terrific - briny, tomatoey - and I loved the slab of feta cheese that almost melted on top. The lamb was very tender, somewhat bland, but very homey.

Lamb with green beans

Homey is actually a good word to describe the entire meal, including the service. I wanted to order some galaktobureko (semolina-thickened custard in pastry) for dessert, but before I got a chance, our waitress brought us a plate with all three of the house desserts on it, compliments of the kitchen.

Galaktoboureko, baklava, kataifi

The portion of galaktobureko was the largest of the three, almost as if our waitress had read my mind. It was also the best (although splitting the other two tiny pieces three ways didn't really give any of us a proper sample).

Ikaros has been around forever, and it's obvious some of the customers have been coming around almost that long. The food is good, no wonder.

Ikaros
4805 Eastern Ave
Baltimore, MD 21224
(410) 633-3750
ikarosrestaurant.com


Posted on Minxeats.com.

The Black Olive

The first time we went to the Black Olive, the prices scared us so much, we practically ran out of the restaurant. The second time, I went for Restaurant Week with my friend Melinda. After having heard so many wonderful things about the place, I expected spectacular. What we got was merely good.

I think my biggest problem with the Black Olive is the outrageous prices. This is not a restaurant that needs to pay for lots of expensive equipment, like immersion circulators and antigriddles. It's a restaurant that serves pretty simple fare. Yet, a bowl of tzatziki - yogurt with dill, lemon, garlic, and olive oil - costs $8. A single, simply grilled fish averages $30. Crazy. But, we still went there for dinner one night.

I figured that if we ordered a series of mezze and one fish dish, we could get out of there without breaking the bank. As it turned out, I was right. The appetizer platter included four spreads (tarama, tzatziki, melitzanasalata, and hummus) with some olives and feta cheese. It was $22 (!), but with a basket of outrageously good olive bread (ok, a basket and a half) it was a meal in itself. Each of the spreads was rich and thick. The hummus was strongly flavored with parsley and dill, the eggplants in the melitzanasalata had obviously been grilled, and the tarama was surprisingly un-fishy.

We also tried an order of the bread pudding, made with the house olive bread. It was incredible - soft yet crusty.

We also ordered the whole St Peter's fish, aka John Dory. It wasn't too pretty after it came out of the saute pan, but after our waiter deboned it tableside, it became a beautiful thing. This fish has a mild, buttery, flavor and a somewhat firm texture. The skin is flavorless, so completely edible. It was served with a simple sauce made from olive oil and lemon juice and accompanied by a very tart vegetable slaw. We really enjoyed it.

We enjoyed everything, actually. And we were very full at meal's end. The bill was $67 - cheaper than other recent meals and, comparatively, worth every penny. We get it now.

Black Olive
814 S Bond St
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410) 276-7141
theblackolive.com


Posted on Minxeats.com.

Cypriana Cafe

There are currently two branches of Cypriana Cafe, one in the Sun Trust building on East Baltimore Street, and one in the University of Maryland Medical Center. According to the Web site, both share a menu of salads, paninis, pita sandwiches, pita melts, and rotisserie chicken. I've been going to the UMMC restaurant - really just a counter at which one orders and pays, and then waits for one's food before finding someplace to eat it - for several years now and have been generally happy with everything I've tried.

Not too lady-like, all spread-eagled like that, eh?

The "Big Fat Greek Pita" can be had with chicken, lamb, beef, or gyro meat. While lamb is my usual choice, the chicken version is good, too; even though it features chicken breast, it's quite moist. The best part about the sandwich though, is the "Cypriana dressing," a creamy concoction strongly flavored with tarragon.

The dressing is also the star of the Greek Salad, along with mounds of creamy feta. The salad comprises iceberg lettuce, onions, green peppers, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, and pepperoncini and can also be had with a more traditional oil and vinegar dressing. But why bother - the tarragon dressing is so good, you'll be tempted to slather it on your mouse pad and eat it.

My biggest gripe with Cypriana is that it has the word "Greek" all over the menu, but uses the flat Middle Eastern-style pocket pita for everything and not the soft, fluffy, non-pocket pitas that normally come to mind. But the pitas they do use are always fresh and do the trick well enough.

Cypriana Café at UMMS
22 S Greene St
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410) 328-2227
www.cypriana.com



Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Baltimore Restaurant Week - Meli

For our third and final Restaurant Week feast, I thought Meli would be a good choice. The choices were extensive - it was their regular menu - and we had never eaten there before.

I'd say the meal was, for the most part, successful, particularly the appetizers.

Mr Minx ordered Meli's Lobster Mac & Cheese which had aged Cheddar, applewood smoked bacon, lobster, and was topped with panko and crispy onions. It had an old-fashioned, home-cooked, baked mac & cheese flavor. We enjoyed it but agreed that there might have been too much crumb topping.

MinxBro ordered the Shrimp & Grits BLT. I expected it to be stacked, since the grits came in cake form, but it was kind of sloppily arranged on the plate. The shrimp were nice and spicy, full of that iodine flavor I love, and there was a cheesy sauce on the grit cakes that kept the dish from being dry.

I went for the seared diver scallops, because I am a sucker for scallps. The two medium-sized specimens came atop come very creamy polenta, with a green apple relish and a pancetta honey vinaigrette. The scallops (which were slightly overcooked) had a crispy sweet topping, almost as if they had been bruléed. The polenta was mostly for texture, because I couldn't detect any flavor. But the green apple bits were delicious and their tartness, coupled with that of the vinaigrette, made the dish.

For his entrée, Mr Minx chose the "duo of duck" which included a confitted leg, duck bread pudding, and honey wine-poached pears. Although the dish was quite delicious (at least the bites I had - the bread pudding was fantastic) Mr Minx didn't quite feel satisfied and he didn't like the sweet sauce at the bottom of the plate. I think the problem was: too much pear, not enough duck.

There were two striped bass dishes on the menu and MinxBro went for the crispy fried whole version. It was served with an endive salad and roasted fingerlings. It was rather awkward to wrestle with the fish, which curled during frying, but the meat was tender and not overcooked. The coating made it taste a bit like fried chicken. My brother seemed to enjoy it, but I felt it was pretty bland overall.

I had the Flintstonian-sized braised lamb shank with butternut squash mash and Brussels sprouts. The lamb tasted like someone's grandma cooked it - it was very homey, subtle, and soft as buttah. I would have preferred the mash to be chunkier and not hidden beneath the meat so much. An overall un-summer-like dish, but the barely cooked sprouts added a welcome green crunch.

Dessert was the least successful part of the meal. The cake in Mr Minx's chocolate trifle was rather leaden...

...there was no lightness in MinxBro's vanilla napoleon...

...and my serving of galaktoboureko was huge. Ok, that's the worst thing I can say about it - I rather liked it, particularly the bite on which the orange had rested. However, it was too heavy a dessert after my entrée. My fault, I suppose.

Honestly though, the desserts were no better than those found in any Greek diner. They had a bit of commercial flavor, which was at odds with the homey-ness of the rest of the meal. And for a place that refers to itself as a patisserie. I expected much better, particularly after Elizabeth Large's initial Baltimore Sun review.

Overall, we enjoyed the meal and thought the atmosphere was pleasant. I'd go back again for a couple rounds of appetizers, and the lamb shank would make a perfect dinner for a blustery winter's night.

Meli
1636 Thames St
Baltimore, MD 21231
(410) 534-6354