The Food Market

After being urged by several different people to try the Food Market, we did, with some delicious results.

The place is popular. Seriously. We eat dinner early, partly to miss the crowd, partly because we're old. By 6pm on a Saturday, the place was hopping, and getting louder by the minute. The music was loud, the people were louder, and the restaurant has no sound-absorbing materials at all, apart from the barely-padded banquette seats. So bring earplugs and a hearty appetite because there's lots to try.

The menu at the Food Market has categories like "little," "small," "big," and "in-between," which translates as "finger food appetizers (plus a soup)," "appetizers that require a fork," "entrees," and "sandwiches." (You're welcome.) Absolutely everything sounded like something we wanted to eat, so it was a bit hard to narrow down our choices. Eventually we settled on two littles, two smalls, and one in-between to share.

The Amish soft pretzels were less the stereotypical salty twists and more like buttery bread fingers (think Aunt Annie's). The generous portion of beer cheese fondue was spiked with jalapeno and had a nice kick. It was so good, we hated to waste it; even after the pretzels were gone, we kept the cheese sauce as a dip for french fries and the tasty foccacia that was brought to the table when we arrived.

Amish soft pretzels, beer cheese fondue

The meatloaf fries were fat little fingers of very good, very moist, homestyle meatloaf, dipped in tempura batter and deep fried. Complete overkill, but quite tasty. I think I might enjoy the meatloaf more if it were served in a more traditional manner.

Meatloaf fries crispy tempura
ketchup & black pepper beef gravy

At this point, after only two courses, I was getting full. The next two dishes that arrived were thankfully somewhat lighter. Yes, the pork belly seemed lighter than the meatloaf, probably because it hadn't been deep fried. Not that there's anything wrong with deep frying....

There was a nice ratio of fat to meat on the chubby chunk of belly, which can sometimes seem too fatty. (Not that there's anything wrong with fatty....) The brown sugar topping added a perfect amount of sweetness and married well with the toasted pecans. My favorite dish of the evening.

Brown sugar pork belly, petite greens, toasted pecans,
cherry tomatoes, bangin’ honey mustard vinaigrette

We also ordered the chopped salad, which the kitchen thoughtfully split for us. It wasn't quite a chopped salad, as the lettuce was whole and the sprouts were cut in half, but it was an interesting combination of flavors, and quite autumnal. I thought it was odd that the sprouts were warm, and everything else was at room temperature, and felt the macadamia nut crumble was merely a texture and not a flavor, but Mr Minx gobbled it up. And he's not a fan of either beets or cooked carrots.

Chopped salad lemon cream cheese, roasted brussels, beets, 
carrots, mac nut crumble, cranberry vinaigrette

Finally, we shared the Pat LaFrieda burger, which the kitchen again split for us. The saltiness of the bacon predominated, rendering even the pickles mute. But the meat was perfectly cooked, and the bun held up to the large amount of filling. The crinkle cut fries on the side were a touch of nostalgia.

Pat LaFrieda Burger diced bacon, lettuce, tomato, 
onion, sesame bun, cheese, pickles

And then we ordered dessert. I was tempted by the sound of pumpkin cannoli, but would have preferred a single large cannoli to the three small ones. I'm more about the filling than the shell, which was a bit dry and dense.

Pumpkin Cannoli

Mr Minx ordered the Heath bar bread pudding, which was lovely and moist, but far too sweet for my taste. The plain whipped cream was a welcome relief from the sugar overload, although it's probably odd to look to a pile of what is essentially whipped fat to lighten anything.

Heath bar bread pudding

I have mixed emotions about the Food Market. I love the concept, always love small plates, but think it really takes some advance knowledge of the dishes to put together a meal that feels like a meal, rather than a sundry combination of snack foods (granted, we did perhaps order oddly). Several of the diners around us were ordering big plates only, which might be the way to go. And speaking of other diners - the tables are fairly close together, so it's easy to overhear conversations. For instance, the table of annoyingly giggly female 20-somethings to our left threw out a few bons mots, my favorite being, "ooh...the Baltimore Club looks really good. Except for the shrimp salad." (A Baltimore club is generally a crabcake paired with shrimp salad. Without the shrimp salad, it's a crab cake sandwich.)

That said, I'd like to go back and try a few more things. The pork belly was seriously good (everything was, in its own way), and both the cracker fried oysters and lil' lamb porterhouses seem like items I'd really enjoy. And they have scallops, which almost always turns me on.

The Food Market
1017 West 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
(410) 366-0606
thefoodmarketbaltimore.com



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Shellback Caribbean Rum

When I was offered the opportunity to sample Shellback rum, I jumped at the chance. Rum has long been one of my favorite spirits, and the closer we get to Christmas, the more spirits come in handy. If you catch my drift.

You might be wondering what a "shellback" is, exactly. No, it's not a turtle. A shellback is "an experienced sailor, revered for his nautical progression and courage, who has achieved the landmark triumph of crossing the equator." I am far from a shellback myself, having never been remotely close to the equator. However, I have been to the Caribbean, and I likes me rum. Aaarrr!

There are two Shellback rums: Silver, a lovely smooth spirit with a delightful vanilla nose; and Spiced, which is flavored with cinnamon, ginger, clove, nutmeg, cassia, allspice, and vanilla. The spicing is subtle, but there's also a bite that I like quite a bit. They're both nice with a bit of cola, but even better with ginger ale. And of course there are several yummy-sounding recipes for both Shellback rums on the Shellback Web site, like Hot Buttered Cider and the Bloody Money.

Shellback Spiced Rum and Ginger Ale

Shellback has recently become available in Maryland, and can be purchased at a liquor store near you (call for availability) including Beltway Fine Wines. Personally, I think they'd make a terrific holiday gift for friends and family members who enjoy a tipple now and again (as I do), and I'm sure they'd be amazing used to booze up a fruitcake.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Brussels Sprout Hash

In the same week I spotted this recipe for brussels sprout hash at Serious Eats, we purchased a tree-trunk-sized branch o' brussels sprouts at the supermarket. There are a lot of sprouts on one of those branches, and while I really didn't want to be eating them every night for a week, it was a much better deal than purchasing one of those little cups of sprouts or buying them loose (6x as many sprouts for $2 more).

Since I had decided that hash was a fine idea, I pushed the whole lot of them through the shredding blade on the food processor. Half of them were put into a freezer bag and tucked away for another time, and the rest went into a large saute pan with a mess of onions and some olive oil. I thought that bacon would be a great addition to the hash, but as we didn't have any, I had to find an alternative.

Meanwhile, I popped a couple of pork tenderloins in the SousVide Supreme. Mr Minx had suggested that I use Asian flavors on the pork. I knew there would be leftovers, so to keep the meat somewhat neutrally-flavored, I seasoned them fairly simply with tons of garlic, a good tablespoon or so of freshly grated ginger, and an equal amount of gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes). That way, we could eat the leftovers as tacos or in a pasta sauce as well as fried rice or a stir fry. I also made a simple dipping sauce for the meat with soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds.

Because I was now leaning in a vaguely-Asian direction, I chopped up some Chinese sausage and fried it until crispy. When the hash was cooked, I stirred in the sausage.

Eventually, all of the elements came together. After five hours of cooking at 135F, the pork was lightly pink inside and extremely juicy and tender. The garlic and ginger flavor had permeated the meat, and even the flavor of the gochugaru (although not the heat - it's a fairly mild pepper) was obvious. The hash was delicious - it reminded me a bit of sauerkraut in texture, although of course it was not sour - and would make a really nice accompaniment to a holiday turkey dinner. We rounded out the meal with some mashed potatoes, and a simple salad of julienned apple seasoned with several tablespoons of lemon juice.

There were leftover sprouts, which we ate the next morning topped with fried eggs, in a variation of the Serious Eats recipe.

Brussels Sprouts Hash

1 cup sliced onion
olive oil
pinch salt
2 Chinese sausages, skinned, quartered, and sliced
3 cups finely shredded brussels sprouts (about 1 lb), rinsed and drained
salt and pepper to taste

In a large saute pan set over medium heat, cook onion in a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt until soft and starting to brown. Remove onions from pan and add sausage. Turn up heat and cook sausage, stirring regularly, until sizzling and brown. Remove sausage from pan and set aside.

Return onions to pan. Add brussels sprouts and an additional tablespoon of olive oil. Stir well, then cover pan and turn heat down to medium. Cook until sprouts have wilted and softened, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper.

Serve topped with reserved Chinese sausage.

Serves 4.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Top Chef Seattle Episode 5 Recap

This week's Quickfire Challenge might be considered cruel and unusual punishment, as the sleepy cheftestants had to rouse themselves at 3:45 AM and get to the famous Pike Place Market, home of flying fish and the original Starbucks outpost.

Not only that, but it's Stefan's 40th birthday. (A belated happy birthday to Stefan!) He's worried that the "birthday curse" that struck down so many of his teammates in season 5 may resurface this season just for him.

Padma greets them in her jammies and a sour look on her face. She's accompanied by the much more chipper Daisley Gordon, who happens to have two establishments at the Market. Apparently he thinks it's a swell idea for the cheftestants to cook breakfast for the farmers' market vendors who will be arriving shortly.

The catch - breakfast must be on a stick. Another catch - it's a team challenge. The fourteen cheftestants must pick a partner with whom to work. It's still pretty early on in the competition, so not everyone is not pal-sy yet. (Pal-sy, not palsy, dammit. Ok. Friendly.)  Josie ends up with Eliza, who learns that Josie is a "my way or the highway" type of person.

An even worse pairing is the Mustache and TMHCiD; we already know they hate each other's guts. Either that, or are in love with each other but can't admit it just yet. (It's the mustache, I'm sure.) Stefan, surprisingly, doesn't pick Kristen, but he does get a pretty girl in Brooke. (I wonder why he hasn't started hitting on the only obvious lesbian in the group, Josie. Is it because she's taller than he is? Or is it because he's also a "my way or the highway" person and their highways are going in different directions?)

Daisley provides a pantry of ingredients for the cheftestants, but they have to set up their own "kitchens" with equipment from the nearby Sur la Table and $500. And everything - including the cooking - must be achieved in 45 minutes. Rush rush hurry hurry! Big Belgian Bart slips and falls with his panini press and it conks out while he and Sheldon are trying to cook their "green forest" breakfast sandwiches. Other cheftestants are making crepes, pancakes, or tacos, except for Lizzie and Danyele, who manage to grab only pancetta and berries from the pantry table so can't really make much of interest.

Time goes fast, especially when 50 portions are needed, and soon the hungry hordes are shoving skewers into their mouths. I have to wonder how many people stabbed themselves that morning. Soon, sleepy Padma and Daisley, who have tasted all of the wares, give the verdict. Josie and Eliza's pancake stack on a stick is a disappointment, and Lizzie and Danyele's meagre berry offering fares likewise. On top are, surprisingly, TMHCiD and Mustache, and Sheldon and Bart, who get the win despite the broken panini press. They also get immunity from elimination in the next challenge, and believe me - they will need it.

Everyone will, actually. The next challenge stymies all and sundry. The cheftestants must remain in their incompatible pairings and create a dish using one of the more unusual ingredients produced by market vendors. They draw knives to see who gets stuck with the rose petal jam and who gets stuck with the salmon candy, and then have to get to work immediately. There's no day of rest this time, no day of shopping and napping. They're making lunch, and it needs to be served in two hours.

This time, the market itself serves as the chefs' pantry, and they run around picking up both the theme ingredient of their dish, and other stuff they might need. They cook their grub at Marché, which is one of Daisley's restaurants. The kitchen can't accommodate fourteen chefs working at once, so four teams get to work first while the others heckle them. At this point we really get to see how dysfunctional some of the teams really are. Mustache and TMHCiD realize that this challenge is important, and do their best not to get on each other's nerves. They politely agree with the other, despite not really agreeing. Mustache isn't keen on the idea of cutting a pork tenderloin into steaks before searing it, but he does it because TMHCiD suggested it. He's also not thrilled with TMHCiD's grits, but he claims they're fine. Oh boy.

Team CJ and Tyler seem to get along fine, but CJ, despite having only one testicle, has some real cojones. Their team has to work with spicy dill pickles, so he suggests a pork burger. Tyler counters with a chowder garnished with pickle fritters, which sounds outside-the-box and daring, but CJ insists that if they do something other than a burger, Tom will say "why not make a simple burger to highlight the pickle?" Tyler, who has adopted the "I can't do anything right" attitude of every child's favorite cranky donkey, Eeyore, can't argue his point. Although he should.

Meanwhile, Padma, who doesn't get to change out of her jammies or comb her hair, is joined by Hugh, Gail, Tom, and the artisans who produced the special ingredients being maltreated used by the chefs. The first four Dysfunctional Duos emerge from the kitchen and present their dishes. And each one is a huge fail.

Stefan and Brooke had rose petal jam, which they used for a glaze on a tough duck breast and as a sauce on cloyingly sweet red cabbage. Uh-oh. Stefan doesn't seem to have any mojo this season. TMHCiD and Mustache get a thumb's down on both the grits and pork elements of their dish, with the added criticism that they didn't use the truffled popcorn particularly interestingly. Micah and Kristen, who had to use cheese curds in their dish, killed the ingredient. And I mean that in a literal, death sorta way. Finally, Sheldon and Bart present their salmon candy with sweet and sour salad that doesn't have enough salmon in it. They actually seemed to get the least amount of criticism, but its still good they have immunity.

While the tasting is going on, the other three teams are in the kitchen. Josie seems particularly impatient with Eliza, who just wants to be allowed to cook something. They're using cardamom bitters, and it annoys me that Josie says "cardamoN" every time. When it's their time to present, their dish gets dinged for being too fishy. And dirty - Padma gets sand in one mouthful, while Gail gets a rock. That'll learn ya to clean your shellfish properly, folks! Lizzie and Danyele have made a dessert with the special chocolate they're assigned, and the judges are all appalled. Hard to mess up chocolate, but they have managed quite well. Finally, CJ and Tyler's pork burger is judged. For some odd reason, they chose to put it on a crumpet, which is extremely porous (think untoasted English muffin) and became soggy fast. Tom thought they should have been more imaginative than a burger.

The lunch was an unmitigated disaster, and the judges felt bad for the artisans whose products were so horribly tortured in the name of lunch. Tom is in a snit and declares that nobody will win the challenge or the 10K bonus prize and stomps into the stew room to let the cheftestants have a piece of his mind. He tells them that they suck and that a whole team will be going home for its suckitude. And they'll be further tortured by having to wait until the next day to find out who is going home. The chefs cry.

The next day, Tyler continues to Eeyore, saying if it's his time to go, it's his time to go. This pisses Mustache off for some reason. Guess he doesn't think it's his time to go if it's his time go? Will Seattle's Finest (no, that's not a brand of coffee) need to be called in to escort him off the set when it is indeed his time to go?

The cheftestants head off to the guillotine, but only three of the teams are actually at risk - CJ and Tyler, Stefan and Brooke, and TMHCiD and Mustache. Stefan is shitting his pants over the "birthday curse," and Brooke isn't particularly pleased at the prospect of sharing his potentially bad karma. I'm hoping that TMHCiD and Mustache are sent home. "John" and "Josh" are so much easier to type, but since I've started calling them TMHCiD and Mustache, I feel like I have to stick with it the whole way. So it's just better for me if they both go.

But that's not the way it goes down. While Tom and the gang hated - hated - their pork and grits, and they hated - hated - Stefan's overly-sweet cabbage that tasted like someone's grandmother, they despised - despised - CJ's pork burger. Tom says, "why did you do something so moronically simple as a burger?" and CJ says, "but I heard you in my head, saying that I should do something moronically simple like a burger." Nobody laughs. CJ then asks if the judges liked the dessert that Lizzie and Danyele made, because he thought it was an "abhorrence," which of course is a feeling and not a thing, but we can't expect chefs to be as facile with language as they are with a knife. Hugh said maybe so, but the burger was worse. Ouch.

The judges can't make up their mind who to send home. One of them really hates Stefan's dish, one loathes TMHCiD's, and one wants to gouge his eyes out at the thought of CJ's. Gail has to be the tiebreaker. She apparently chooses the pork burger, because CJ and Eeyore are sent home. Too bad. I feel sorry for Tyler; unfortunately, he doesn't have half the balls that CJ has, and arguing against that burger might have saved them. Or...his chowder may well have sucked, too.

Two more chefs down - twelve to go!

Posted on Minxeats.com.