Yin Yankee Cafe

Leaving the comfort of our air-conditioned home on the hottest day of the year so far (our car thermometer read 101 on the way home) to go to Annapolis probably wasn't the smartest idea in the world, but we had an appointment. While we were in the area, we decided to stop for lunch at Yin Yankee Cafe, on Main Street. The Baltimore Sun had given it a good rating, and Baltimore Magazine chose it as one of their favorites for 2006. We've been in an Asian mood lately (at least I have) so we decided to give it a try.

Yin Yankee is a relatively tiny place, funky and eclectic, with textured metallic gold walls and colorful, flat, blob-shaped pieces of glass suspended from the ceiling that gave the feeling of being in a giant lava lamp. A sushi bar/open kitchen dominated the room, and patrons could choose to sit and eat at a counter, diner-style (or, sushi bar-style), or at a table.

The problem with such small restaurants is that they often have one unisex bathroom. Unisex bathrooms mean one thing - pee on the floor. (Why do men have such horrible aim? Do they even aim?) I know a restaurant review is probably not the place to discuss bodily functions, but hygiene is kind of important. In addition to the sticky wet floor, Yin Yankee's bathroom featured an elaborate mural of a dragon, and a quirky cabinet that contained, among other things, an autographed photo of Ron Jeremy.

To the food. For his appetizer, my handsome dining companion went for the shrimp and veggie beignets with firey habanero sauce. I chose the chili pod fried calamari. Both servings were easily share-able by 2 or more. The large, crisp, puffy beignets were studded with big chunks of shrimp and small bits of vegetables (although I couldn't tell you what they were, as I was too absorbed in my app) and the dipping sauce was far from firey. It was garlicky, however, and rather like a twist on cocktail sauce. It had a sweet, ketchup-y quality, a bit of heat, and lots of savor. My calamari were served with a soy dipping sauce and a tasty pile of salad made from cucumbers cut into long thin noodles. The squid could have been crispier, but they were extremely tender - not even the barest hint of rubberiness - and the generous portion also contained quite a few of my favorite part, the tentacles.

For his entree, my companion (ok, it was my husband) chose the House of Yin Steak Sandwich - thinly sliced, grilled top sirloin with caramelized onions, marinated cucumbers, and creamy wasabi dressing. The sandwich was served on a warm baguette, dressing on the side, with a pile of waffle cut fries and a bit of peanutty Asian vegetable slaw. Far more firey than the habanero sauce, the wasabi dressing had a serious bite and made a perfect dip for the excellent, nicely salty fries, as well as the flavorful sandwich. I chose the Laos salad - baby spinach, oranges, basil, toasted pine nuts, golden orange-soy vinaigrette - with duck. The salad was small, but well dressed, with a generous portion of the pine nuts, and a healthy sprinkling of crushed fried won ton noodles on it too. And the duck was tremendous. There was about half a duck breast, sliced not-too-thinly, cooked perfectly medium, atop the salad. It was melt-in-the-mouth tender, and had a slight smoky flavor that hubby said was almost "like bacon." There was a crisp strip of skin on each slice, and absolutely no fat. I have no idea how they rendered the fat so well, but this was among the best duck dishes I have ever eaten.

I'd go back to Yin Yankee just for the duck. And I wouldn't mind trying some of the funky sushi rolls while I'm at it.

Frittering Away the Time

After making drunken noodles over the weekend, I had about 6 ounces of crabmeat left over. I had originally thought a crab salad would be a good idea, then realized it would not be enough for two people. Remembering a shrimp cocktail I once had in London that was an odd combination of shrimp, corn kernels, and a close relative of Thousand Island dressing, I thought that adding some corn to the crab salad might work to bulk it up. But then something in the recesses of my mind whispered "fritters" to me. More accurately, it said, "placki." Growing up in a Polish household, I ate a helluva lot of placki (pronounced "plotsky") in my day, mostly potato, but sometimes corn. Once in a while Grandma felt adventurous and made asparagus placki, using that nasty metallic-tasting mush from a can. (That was the only asparagus I was familiar with, so at the time it wasn't so weird. And the placki were actually pretty good.) Why wouldn't corn and crab placki work?

I did a brief search of the Web and found that the two ingredients seemed to be made for each other, as there were dozens of fritter recipes. I borrowed heavily from a couple of them to create these:

Corn, Crab, and Coriander Fritters
1 cup corn kernels, thawed and well-drained if frozen
6 oz crab meat
3 scallions, white and green parts chopped fine
3 tblsp cilantro, chopped fine
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
Salt & pepper to taste
oil or nonstick cooking spray

Whisk together eggs, flour, baking powder, and milk until smooth. Add remaining ingredients except crab and oil and mix well. Fold in crabmeat. Set batter aside for about half an hour to rest.

I used a pancake griddle sprayed with Pam, but you can use a skillet with oil, if you prefer. Dollop the batter on and spread slightly with back of spoon to form approximately 4" flat rounds. Cook until browned on bottom, then flip to brown other side, pressing down with spatula to flatten more, if necessary. As they become cooked, transfer fritters to a plate and keep warm by covering with aluminum foil.

Serve hot with Sriracha, sweet soy, or plain. Garnish with additional chopped cilantro and scallions, if desired.

Makes 12 fritters.

Thai Noodles

I love Thai food. If I had to pick a favorite cuisine, although my tastes vary from hour to hour, my choice today would be Thai. The powerful flavors created by the combination of herbs and seasonings so very unlike those of Western cuisines amaze and delight my taste buds and leave me wanting more. I still lament the loss of my favorite Thai restaurant, Bangkok Place, when I recall the aromatic wonder that was their red curry. It was the standard to which I hold all other red curries, and none, with their usual over-sweetened gloppiness, has come close to that sublime combination of coconut milk, chiles, and kaffir lime.

One of my other favorite Thai dishes is pad kee mao ta lay - rice noodles with seafood in a sauce redolent of Thai basil and chiles. Only one local restaurant serves it, that I know of -- Banthai -- and I compulsively order it every time I dine there. The noodles are delectably wide, and the sauce (if one can call it that, it's a rather dry preparation) is darkly flavored with the bitter licorice savor of Thai basil, reeking of garlic, and pungently hot. The seafood, usually scallops, shrimp, and decoratively latticed squid, is merely a distraction from the wonder of bland chewy noodles transformed by aromatic sauce.

Since we had planted Thai basil in our container garden this Spring, and it was growing rapidly, I decided to attempt making this dish at home. I wasn't able to find a recipe for kee mao ta lay, but did find several for kee mao, or drunken noodles. "Drunken" doesn't refer to the dish itself, but to the consumer. The dish is supposed to be so hot and spicy with chiles that the eater must douse the flames with lots of alcohol, thus becoming inebriated. Well, we're a little on the wimpy side in the Minx household, plus we had no fresh chiles (our jalapeno plant has many flowers on it, however!), so I cheated.

This recipe involved lots of prep work - chopping of various things, noodle cooking, but once all that was accomplished, putting the dish together was a snap.

Drunken Noodles with Seafood a la Minx
8 ounces wide rice ribbon noodles
1/4 lb shelled shrimp
1/4 lb small scallops
1/2 lb crabmeat, picked over
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 scallions, white and green parts finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
Approximately 30 Thai basil leaves (two good handsful)

Sauce:
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar
juice of half a lime
1 teaspoon Sriracha chile sauce
1/2 teaspoon Korean ground red pepper

Cook noodles according to package directions. (Boil 4 - 6 minutes, drain and rinse in cold water. I soaked them in cold water until I was ready to use them to keep them from sticking.)

Add a tablespoon of oil to a large hot skillet and cook shrimp until just beginning to turn opaque. Add scallops and garlic and stir fry 2 minutes. Add sauce ingredients (combining them in advance helps) and toss to coat. Drain noodles and add to skillet, mixing well. Add cilantro, basil, and chopped scallions and toss with noodle mixture. Allow basil to wilt. Gently stir in crabmeat.

Serve piping hot, garnishing with more basil, cilantro, and scallions, if you wish. Two - four servings, depending on how hungry/piggy you are.

As I was eating this last night, I realized if I had added some scrambled egg, beansprouts, and chopped peanuts, and subtracted the heat, I'd have Pad Thai. Delicious either way.

Barbecue Schmarbecue

Inspired by Elizabeth Large's Tuesday Top Ten on barbecue restaurants, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. We might know our crabcakes, but we don't have a big tradition of bbq in Maryland. Other states, however, have unique styles, techniques, and preparations, and each of them claim to be the best. Pshaw. I don't give a rat's ass about regional pride when it comes to BBQ, I just know what I like: tender meat that falls off the bone with little effort, and a flavorful sauce, glaze, or rub that isn't too sweet and has a bit of a kick to it. If I want to braise my ribs in the oven, then broil them with lashings of sweet sauce, I'm-a gonna do it, and I'm going to call it "bbq." (I'm no purist. If you want to use a ravioli press to make pierogis, I won't cry foul. You have no problem with calling General Tso's Chicken "Chinese" food, as authentic as it isn't.) A lot of "q" is about smoke, and I think that detracts from the flavor of the meat. I like the savor of grill char, but heavily smoked meat tastes like...smoke. Once in a while, when we're up for chain bbq, we go to Famous Dave's. I like their rib tips, because I have a thing for cartilage (blame my mother), but I can only eat a few before the smoke flavor overwhelms me.

North Baltimore (including both the north part of the city and the county above it) seems an unlikely mecca for the local "bbq" lover. However, there are several rib joints out that way: Corner Stable and Andy Nelson's in Cockeysville; Big Bad Wolf's House of BBQ in Hamilton; Razorback's, in Towson; and the Charred Rib in Timonium. An outpost of Bare Bones was once on York Road as well, but I suppose it had too much competition in the area. (I preferred the food at the original Ellicott City location anyway.) Out of those I've tried in that bunch, I like Razorback's the best. (And I'll like it even better once the statewide smoking ban goes into effect. Phew, that place reeks.)

When I was a kid, the rib joint of choice was Arbaugh's, on Connecticut Avenue in DC. Arbaugh's was an institution, popular for several decades before my family found it. Because it was a haul to get there, Dad had to be having a real jones for their tender ribs, piles of onion rings, and the best cole slaw ever. But it was always worth the trip. It was a sad day in the W household when Arbaugh's closed their doors sometime in the 80s. Sadly, it's been so long, I don't even remember what it tasted like anymore, but Dad and I still reminisce fondly.

The only other ribs that I think about from time to time are the spicy dry rub variety at Brother Jimmy's BBQ. I was in Chicago with my two best friends on a baseball, blues, and barbecue tour of sorts. We stopped at Jimmy's to hear the live music, and partook of a variety of ribs while waiting. The dry rub was so spicy, my nose hairs tingled before I got the rib to my lips. But damn, it was memorably tasty. Checking out the Web site, I see that it's a NY joint, so I might have to pay one of those outposts a visit on my next trip up north.

So what's your favorite BBQ?