Spotlight On - Points South Latin Kitchen

Not sure if anyone knows, but I've been writing a restaurant column for the City Walker App Blog. The purpose of the app itself is to give visitors a local's-eye-view of a city, so they are able to experience it in the same way residents do--on foot. (Not that anyone actually walks anywhere anymore.) The blog offers a bit more detail; I have endeavored to take users on a stroll through the city while pointing out restaurants along the way. In addition to the walking posts, I have been writing others that put certain favorite restaurants of mine in a spotlight. I thought I could share those here with you.
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Bryson Keens and Rey Eugenio were once managing partner and chef partner at Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion at Harbor East some years ago. This was back in the days before there were so many restaurants to choose from in the area, and Roy’s was the place to go. The menu, featuring dishes served in all Roy’s nationwide plus some local twists, was uniformly delicious. However, it was during the restaurant’s special wine dinners that Chef Eugenio’s cuisine really shone. Coupled with the amiable Mr Keen’s turn as emcee, plus wine, those dinners were a guaranteed good time. (Except perhaps for the husband who managed to talk his wife into leaving the kids with a sitter that night, only to find the dinner featured course after course of cute animals like Mary’s little lamb, Bambi, and Donald Duck, which the wife refused to eat. Fun fun sitting across from them!) Man, I loved those dinners. All good things must come to an end, of course: Rey eventually left Roy’s to work at a new Greek restaurant that quickly topped Baltimore’s Best Restaurant list. Bryson left a few years later to open his own place: Points South Latin Kitchen, in Fells Point. Chef Eugenio was brought on as a consultant, and now he’s running the kitchen. The food, predictably, is fan-fecking-tastic.

Points South is one of those places where making a simple decision about dinner can be quite difficult because everything sounds so tempting. Last time I was there with my family, we ordered what seemed like everything on the menu. We started out with the yuca croquettes, shrimp ceviche, lamb ribs, and grilled octopus, then went on to the beef short ribs and duck prepared two ways. A dish of chicharrónes, too, because every meal needs to have a side dish comprised entirely of slabs of fried pork belly. Every meal. Each dish was better than the last. Smothered in a honey chipotle barbeque sauce and complimented with garlic chips, scallions, and creamy mojo, the lamb ribs were a huge hit. Even my Dad, who has had a lifelong aversion to lamb, said they were so good, he would have eaten the bones if he could. The fork-tender beef short ribs, too, were excellent, infused with the spicy flavor of bittersweet chocolate sauce. We could easily have polished off a second order. But there was also that duck dish, a special that night: a large confit leg with luscious meat and crispy skin plus medium-rare duck breast, served with mashed potatoes and roasted root vegetables.

We were too stuffed to get dessert, and would’ve had trouble deciding between the flourless marble cake of Venezuelan dark chocolate, dulce de leche, and cafe au lait whipped cream, and the pastel de maiz, a corn cake with chile-lime macerated berries, candied lime zest, and coconut whipped cream. The flan with orange liqueur caramel sounds yummy, too.

Points South also serves brunch and lunch. The “platos pequenos” (small plates) are similar among the three meals, but entrees are replaced by a selection of pupusas, a Salvadoran dish of thick corn tortillas stuffed with cheese and/or other items like beans or meat. There are egg dishes at brunch as well. Cocktails ranging from the Latin American classics mojitos, caipirinhas, and pisco sours to house signatures like the tequila-based Cucumber Fresco are available with every meal (as are those chicharrónes).

This summer, Points South will be hosting the Mason Dixon Master Chef Tournament. If you’re lucky enough to be in Baltimore from June into early August, you can attend one of the battles, which are held on Mondays and Tuesday evenings. The Tournament pits two local area chefs against each other in a themed three-course battle, not unlike the televised Iron Chef competition that originated in Japan and continued on the Food Network for many years (and is poised to make a comeback). Please see http://www.masondixonmasterchef.com/ for information and to purchase tickets.

Points South Latin Kitchen
1640 Thames Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
443-563-2018



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Spotlight On - B & O Brasserie

Not sure if anyone knows, but I've been writing a restaurant column for the City Walker App Blog. The purpose of the app itself is to give visitors a local's-eye-view of a city, so they are able to experience it in the same way residents do--on foot. (Not that anyone actually walks anywhere anymore.) The blog offers a bit more detail; I have endeavored to take users on a stroll through the city while pointing out restaurants along the way. In addition to the walking posts, I have been writing others that put certain favorite restaurants of mine in a spotlight. I thought I could share those here with you.
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A high school project that required seeking out mythological iconography in architecture is what originally led me to the B & O Railroad Building in downtown Baltimore. This H-shaped Beaux Arts structure features a larger-than-life-sized figure of Mercury, Roman god of many things including commerce, communication, and travelers. He’s holding the caduceus, a short staff wrapped by two serpents and topped with a pair of wings. You’ve seen it before, as it’s commonly used as a symbol for healthcare. Except that’s wrong. The symbol of medicine is actually the Rod of Asclepius, a staff wrapped by a single snake, no wings. But considering the expense of health care in this country, perhaps the symbol of commerce is more apt these days, huh? But I digress. Mercury and his snakes are hanging out with an allegorical figure called Progress of Industry. Allegedly, there is a locomotive up there with them, but it looks to me like Prog is holding a double-dip ice cream cone. Mercury is definitely looking at the cone, as if thinking, “damn, why won’t he share with me?”

Look up at those figures and tell me I’m wrong. They’re still hovering above what is now the entranceway to the Kimpton Hotel Monaco at 2 North Charles Street.

Thus ends the architecture and mythology tour for the day.

To the right of the hotel entrance, up a few steps, is the doorway to the B & O American Brasserie, the hotel’s restaurant. But it’s not a typical hotel restaurant in that it’s really really great. (My apologies to hotel restaurants everywhere, but you know that some of you are, shall we say, meh.) Just beyond the front door is the restaurant bar, where you will find the cocktail stylings of multi-award-winning Head Bartender Brendan Dorr and his crew. Honestly, I’ve never been disappointed with any of the drinks Mr Dorr has invented, all complex masterpieces. I am a fan of niche (read: expensive) fragrances, and some of Brendan’s concoctions have reminded me of fine perfumes with their intricate combinations of flavors and scents. I love the Galavanter, made with rye, elderflower liqueur, and dry vermouth, and the Cardamom Daiquiri made with apricot-infused rum and cardamom bitters. Oh, there’s wine and beer too, of course, but the cocktails are too good to pass up.

Before you get too distracted by the drinks, take a look at the restaurant menu. The B & O serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and brunch on the weekends), but dinner is my favorite. The current Executive Chef is Scott Hines, who took over the kitchen when Michael Ransom went back home to Michigan to open his own restaurant, Ima, in Detroit. (I mention this because I feel Chef Ransom is one to watch.) Hines, like Ransom and the chefs before him, is wildly creative but without being weird. Case in point: he makes a gremolata out of marjoram and orange, rather than the usual parsley and lemon--a traditional accompaniment to osso buco, or braised veal shank. He puts this highly aromatic and somewhat offbeat condiment atop a dish of house-made pappardelle with slow-braised veal sugo and shaved Pecorino pepato. The dish--pappardelle with a tomato-and-meat sauce--is familiar and comforting, but it has the added zing of that rustic, peppery, cheese and the somewhat piney-oregano flavor of marjoram...and orange. Pow!

Another dish I really enjoyed recently was the oxtail marmalade. It’s like rillettes (cooked shredded meat preserved with fat and served as a spread for bread) meets bacon jam (bacon cooked down with brown sugar to a thick condiment for spreading on everything). It is beefy and unctuous, especially when eaten with a little of the bone marrow schmaltz that comes on the side (to mimic the fat topping of rillettes). A garnish of peppercress and pickled shallots adds touches of green and acidic flavors to offset the richness of the dish.

I now want to apologize, as I’m probably being a little mean by going into such detail. After all, the menu at the B & O changes a few times a year, and Chef Hines is likely working away on his Spring menu as I’m writing this. Rest assured, however, that it will be full of similar delights using ingredients of the season, and I cannot wait to taste everything on it.

As much as I love the B & O Brasserie, I do have one negative thing to say about it. However, it will not affect you, Dear Walker, because you are smart enough to be on foot. It’s this: if you linger more than a couple of hours at the restaurant or bar, the valet parking charge is enough to cause stomach (and wallet) upset. Better to park on the street somewhere nearby. Or, just walk.



Posted on Minxeats.com.