Pandemic Eats, Week 1-8, Home Edition

While we ate a lot of carry out and delivery food during the first 8 weeks of #stayhome, we also cooked regularly, too. Some of the food was completely from scratch, while other dishes repurposed restaurant leftovers. (I hate food waste, and you should, too.)

On the Tuesday of what would become Week One, I had tickets to The Band's Visit at the Hippodrome, and I had planned to take my friend Jeremy. The show was postponed pretty early on, so he and I made alternate plans. Those alternate plans were also changed by coronavirus. Plan C involved J coming over to make us Chinese dumplings, from scratch--wrappers and all. I was sous chef, and I am responsible for the horrible pleating on the dumplings. (I think we added too much water to the dough.) Still, they were delicious, particularly the fried ones.

I made gluten free apple pie for dessert, which we consumed with an Irish coffee on the side. Pierish coffee, as J calls it. It's not a thing, yet, but it should be.

My friend Laurie, @Baltimorehomecook on Instagram, started a project of making pasta and delivering it to folks. I can't turn down her homemade cavatelli, which I served with chopped up Italian cold cuts, spinach, parm, and fresh chives.

I was still attempting to continue Whole30 at this point, so these pancakes are made with Bob's Red Mill gluten free one-to-one flour.

Then I decided, since I wasn't losing anything, that I'd allow some gluten back into my life. Like the crust on this ham and brie quiche.

And the pumpernickel bread used for this toasted cheese sandwich served with a quick soup of canned tomatoes, cannellini, and stock, with fresh swiss chard.

Black bean soup with pickled watermelon radish yielded enough to stash a quart in the freeze for future eating.

Leftover pork tenderloin became an element on this salad, a riff on the classic nicoise, with a mustardy vinaigrette and potatoes. Cheese and nuts just because.

I found that beets make great lunch salads. I tried red, chioggia (candy stripe), and gold beets, and determined that the earthy flavor of red goes best with cheese (feta or bleu) and nuts (walnuts or anything else).

Turkey meatballs with creamy pesto were good for a couple of meals.

Ditto this pot roast, which we ate at least 4x.

I like changing up my daily lunch, so when I don't have leftovers to eat, I make something like this beet hummus.

I opened up a jar of Desert Pepper Salsa Rio and knew we wouldn't be able to eat the whole thing before it got funky, so I repurposed it as a soup with cannellini beans, leftover pork, and pickled onions. Cheese quesadilla on the side.

We've been eating a lot of potatoes, mostly baked. One time I got fancy and made Smitten Kitchen's cacio e pepe potatoes Anna. Pretty good, but next time I'll use butter instead of olive oil, for more flavor.

We've had Chinese carry out a few times, from Red Pepper Sichuan in Towson and Asian Kebab and Hot Pot in Lutherville. (They are owned by the folks who operated the late, lamented, Hunan Taste in Catonsville.) A ton of rice meant fried rice one night. I also repurposed some crazy spicy pig ears into this dish, and the avocado mellowed that heat out nicely.

I broke out my recipe for sriracha bouillabaisse one evening to use up a pack of frozen TJ's mahi mahi. With some rouille-coated toasts, it made a fine light supper on two evenings.

What have you been cooking at home?

* 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. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pandemic Eats - Week 1-8, Take-Out Edition

It's hard to believe that we haven't been able to dine in a restaurant for 8 weeks already. And things were looking up this year! Last year it appeared that we were overlooked for most media feedings, at least in local restaurants. (Chains like Fogo de Chao still liked us though.) This year seemed like it was going to be so much better. In March alone, I was to judge two food events and we had at least 5 invitations to media dinners. Then we were asked to stay home in order to flatten the curve, which doesn't really seem to be happening. While states are starting to re-open businesses, I'm betting that situation is going to revert pretty quickly once infections start increasing again.

In the meantime, we're trying to keep local businesses afloat by getting carry-out or delivery at least once a week. Here are some of the things we've enjoyed over the last 8 weeks.

We had to be in Dundalk in Week 1, and any trip to that part of town deserves a pizza from Squires. We also got crab soup. At this point, we already realized that it might be smart to order enough food to last for more than one meal. At least a dinner and a couple of lunches.

The following weekend, we visited our friends at Cajun Kate's in Wilmington. We brought home 8 quarts of various gumbos and some red beans, and enjoyed this catfish turnover with maque choux and deep fried mac and cheese in the car while we were there.

Red Pepper Sichuan in Towson got the call the following week. This was at least 3 meals.

After that was pizza, wings, and a Lorenzo salad from Earth, Wood, & Fire. Two dinners and a lunch.

Koco's pub came next, for crab cakes that we supplemented with homemade celeri remoulade. Just because. We also got crab soup for a later lunch.

One of our quarts of Cajun Kate's pork gumbo was called into service later that week. Thankfully we were able to get in and out of Delaware before Maryland put the kibosh on out-of-state trips.

We were contacted by Ledo Pizza and asked to promote their $5 calzones on Instagram. They threw in one of their famous square pizzas too. Neither of us had tried Ledo in the past, and we thought their unusual flaky crust was quite good. Two dinners and a lunch.

Silk Road Bistro's Uzbek cuisine, including chicken tabaka, kebabs, and a couple of salads, served us well for two dinners and three lunches.

My brother tipped me off to a place called Asian Kebab and Hot Pot in Lutherville. The place is owned by the former owners of one of our fave Chinese restaurants, Hunan Taste, that closed in 2018. The menu is different, featuring hot pot and kebabs rather than Hunan food, but still quite good. We'll put this place into our permanent rotation, hoping that they stay afloat.

We ordered a dozen bagels and some veggie cream cheese from Bottom's Up Bagels and were pleased to finally find a place that made a proper chewy bagel. We put most of them in the freezer to enjoy later (and we're down to our last 3 already!)

Mr Minx was craving burgers, so we grabbed a couple and some poutine from Clark Burger. I think these burgers taste better at home than perched on an uncomfortable stool in their tiny joint on York Road. While this was only one dinner's worth of food, sometimes ya gotta make sacrifices.

Gypsy's Truckstaurant supplied us with wings, a lamb gyro, and crab cake tacos. for a dinner and a lunch.

We even scored half dozen free donuts from Donut Alliance. The bananas foster one in my hand was my fave, though I also really enjoyed the birthday cake one. The icings have real flavor, unlike those at some other places that will remain nameless. And yes, we ate all 6 on the same day. Donuts get stale, you know.

What have you been eating these last 8 weeks?


* 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. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

On the Hunt for Good Chinese Food in Baltimore County

When we were growing up, there was a Chinatown of sorts in downtown Baltimore. A good handful of restaurants dotted the area around Park Avenue and Mulberry Street, including Mee Jun Lo, which was a family favorite. In the 80s, we had some pretty terrific "Szechuan" restaurants in the City, including Szechuan in Federal Hill, Bamboo House at Harborplace, and Uncle Lee's on Greenmount Avenue. Theminx's family frequented all three on a pretty regular basis.

Today, we live in the county. There seems to be a tiny Chinese carry-out in every shopping center, but are any of them good? Szechuan House, up in Lutherville, used to be pretty good. There are still folks who dine there regularly, but it's been a while since we've had a good meal there. Normally, we order delivery, and food arrives impressively fast and somehow the spring rolls are always crisp. But, dishes like orange chicken and General Tso's are gloppy and uninspired. And they cannot do a good kung pao chicken or moo shu pork to save their lives. We've tried several times, and been disappointed each time. The moo shu, in particular, offends. For some unknown reason, the smell of it reminds me of the elephant cage at the Zoo. But kung pao and moo shu pork are among our favorite American-Chinese dishes, so we needed to find someplace that made them well. Well enough to suit us, that is.

We started our search at Lucky Inn, in the North Plaza Shopping Center. We weren't sure if the stereotypical lantern-bedecked decor was a good or bad thing, but we persevered and ordered.

We tried their won ton soup and the eggrolls to start. The soup was tasty, but there was something very commercial, from-a-can-ish, about it. The eggrolls were inedible, at best. They smelled funky and tasted worse. Not quite freezer-burned, just horrible.

I had the General Tso's. The all white meat chicken was moist, with a light tempura-like batter, but there was far too much sauce, which was sweet and not spicy. I prefer dark meat, and some spice, but it wasn't horrible.

The kung pao chicken had big chunks of green pepper (ugh), and was somewhat spicy, but I didn't think it had any other flavor.

The fried rice, which accompanied both dishes, was pretty good. Decently greasy, as it should be.

Not a complete failure, but probably not worth a return trip.

Lucky Inn
8924 Waltham Woods Rd
Baltimore, MD 21234
(410) 665-8383

We then tried OrderUp for the first time. We'd eaten food from Towson Best in the past, and remembered that it had been decent.

Their won ton soup wasn't bad. The broth was nicely gingery, and the won tons were plump, but there was a dearth of roast pork pieces and scallions.

The Mandarin-style spring rolls were a joke. They were tiny and flat, as if whomever made them forgot to add any filling. Oddly enough, they did taste pretty good.

The kung pao was all chicken and peanuts, with a mild spiciness. Overall, pretty darn good (no green pepper was a huge plus).

My moo shu pork had a generous amount of pork and tasted good. The pancakes were a little thick though, almost tortilla-like.

Portions, apart from the spring rolls, were generous. We'd definitely order from Towson Best again.

Towson Best
527 York Road
Baltimore, MD 21204
(410) 825-3770

Our next OrderUp order came from China Wok. There are myriad China Woks in the area; this one was on York Road in Towson.

The won ton soup was really nice. The broth was well-seasoned with a light body and nice flavors. The won tons themselves were not only stuffed with the typical gingery ground pork mixture, but also small pieces of pork.

The egg roll was meh, neither good nor bad. We added on an order of shrimp toast, which was an expensive disaster. It was burnt and lacking seasoning.

The kung po chicken
was a little atypical in that it contained tons of veggies like baby corn, carrots, green pepper, and celery. The sauce was a bit spicy, and a little salty. The chicken breast meat was sliced rather than diced, and it was extremely tender.

The moo shu pork was also a little salty, but otherwise quite good, with a generous amount of pork. The five pancakes were thinner than those from Towson Best. They were generous with the plum sauce, giving us two containers of that, but only one small container of rice.

As a bonus, we got dessert: four small pieces of sponge cakes in four flavors--coffee; chocolate; vanilla with strawberry frosting; vanilla with coconut frosting. Unexpected and pretty good.

China Wok
714 York Rd
Towson, MD 21204

Three down, many others to go... Stay tuned for more posts in the future.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Szechuan House

Before we discovered Grace Garden, our go-to place for Chinese food was Szechuan House, mostly because they deliver, even though we live almost 4 miles south of the restaurant. But the food is probably the best in the vicinity, and they even have a small section of the menu dedicated to authentic Chinese dishes, several of which involve "intestines." Haven't tried any of those, and not sure if I ever will.

After cooking bacon in the heat last weekend, the last thing we wanted to do was cook. Nor did we want to go out to eat. Szechuan House to the rescue!  We ordered our usual quart of won ton soup (a whopping $2.50) and two spring rolls to start. Somehow the spring rolls are ALWAYS hot and crispy when they get to the house. The won ton is sometimes more wan than anything, but this time it was bold and flavorful, with at least six whole pork-filled won ton noodles in a rich broth.

There are several dishes that we order on a regular basis: Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce; shrimp with ginger and scallion; shredded pork with dried bean curd; beef chow fun; Peking duck; Chicken with string beans; General Tso's chicken. All are uniformly tasty. There are also dishes we avoid: moo shu anything, and kung pao anything. There's nothing wrong with the kung pao dishes, we simply aren't enamored with the flavor (or lack thereof). As for the moo shu - it *tastes* fine, but the smell of the dish wafting out of its cardboard container is rather off-putting. Sometimes I think maybe an intestine or two snuck in there.

This time we ordered two dishes we had not yet tried at Szechuan House: beef lo mein, and shrimp in sesame sauce.

The lo mein was a bit on the bland side, but it was miraculously non-greasy.

The shrimp used in my entrée were HUGE, battered and sauced and thus sadly soggy. Somehow their General Tso's doesn't get quite as soggy on the trip. In any case, I might try ordering this with sauce on the side next time and see if that helps. The sauce was sweet, but not as thick and cloying as what is usually used on General Tso's/orange chicken/sesame beef-type dishes. And the shrimp had a nice...shrimpy quality. Not iodine exactly, but very flavorful. (Sometimes shrimp doesn't taste like much at all, which is always disappointing.)

If you're in the Baltimore area, what is your favorite Chinese restaurant? Your favorite for carry out or delivery? Do you go to Szechuan House?

Szechuan House
1427-1429 York Road
Lutherville, MD 21093