Minxeats' Most Popular Post

This post is the top google search result for "leftover french fry hash browns," and Minxeats' most popular post since it was published in 2012. Who knew so many people had leftover fries that needed to be repurposed? Especially since I see so many of them left uneaten.

We still take ours home, every time, and still enjoy these crispy potatoes with our eggs on the weekend. These days, I don't bother with the onion, and have replaced the regular paprika with smoked paprika. But the charnushka is non-negotiable. 

 

Fast-casual burger joints like Five Guys tend to give customers a plethora of fries, far too many for the two of us to consume at one sitting. Rather than waste food, I save the excess potatoes for a weekend morning and use them for a hash brown-type preparation.

I like my breakfast potatoes crispy, so I'm often disappointed when I order hash browns and receive a big pile of steamed potato with the barest hint of a crust on the top. Leftover french fries always have some extra grease clinging to them, so they fry up crispy without even trying. And then I season the heck out of them with whatever spices strike my fancy on that particular day. My favorite combination of flavors usually includes charnushka, also known as black caraway, nigella, or kalonji, which adds a nice onion-y flavor.

Leftover French Fry Hash Browns

chopped onion (a couple of tablespoons, depending on how many fries you have)
olive oil
salt
leftover french fries
seasonings

Over medium heat, sauté chopped onion in a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt until translucent. Chop fries into small pieces and add to skillet. Toss well and cover pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until potatoes start to crisp up. Season to taste - I like to use a mixture of regular paprika, onion powder, cayenne, charnushka, and black sesame seeds. And of course salt and pepper to taste.

Continue to cook until most of the potatoes are crispy. Serve with eggs.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Everybody Goes to Gino's...

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on September 8, 2011.

Gino's service has improved quite a bit, thankfully, and we go there on a semi-regular basis.

-----------------------------------------

...and I think they were all there on the same evening we decided to try out the brand-spankin' new Gino's in Towson. Not only were they all there, but they all got their food before we did.

We thought we were smart, getting to the restaurant at 4:30pm. There was no line, and there seemed to be open tables both inside and outside, so we figured we were golden. Wrong-o. After placing our order for two Gino's Giants, one with fries and one with onion rings, plus two fountain drinks, we were given two plastic cups, a plastic card with the number "1" on it, and a receipt noting the time of 4:35pm.

4:36pm: We fill our cups with fountain beverages and grab two seats at a short counter near the side entrance. The plastic "1" went into the metal ring atop the condiment caddy to alert a server to our presence when he or she brings out our food. The restaurant is pretty full and includes almost as many people waiting for carry-out as sitting at tables. Most of the seated people already have food, so I'm pretty confident that we'll have a short wait. I'm expecting 20 minutes.

4:42pm: My chair is jostled by some fatass with a balance issue. There's definitely enough room to move past me.

4:50pm: Food seems to be coming out at a decent clip, so I'm sure that we'll get our food soon.

4:55pm: It's been 20 minutes, but we're still not eating.

5:01pm: At this point, I start to wonder if offering an amuse bouche might not be a good idea, just a little something to appease those of us waiting for a while. At a fine dining establishment, we would have been done with the appetizers and waiting for our main courses by now. (Of course, were we at Alchemy, our main courses would be on the table already, too.)

5:05pm: Hey! That couple came in after we did, and they just got their food! Grr.

5:08pm: My chair is jostled again, by a server taking food to another table. Grrr.

5:10pm: That trio definitely came in after we did - and they're eating! Grrrr.

5:12pm: I notice that the line for ordering food is out the door. There should be a sign out front like the ones posted near roller coasters, "one hour wait from this point." Better yet, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

5:13pm: A lone woman diner, sitting at a table behind us, manages to get the attention of a staff member to complain that she had been waiting since 4:29pm and still has not received her food. She also kindly points us out as coming in right after her and being in the same boat.

5:15pm: A server offers us a coupon for a free shake on a future visit. I think, "fat chance of that."

5:16pm: Another server comes over to check our receipt. Apparently our order disappeared and they need to know what food we paid for.

5:20pm: My chair is jostled for what must be the fifth time by a vertically-challenged busser who can't seem to be able to lift the plastic bucket of soiled napkins and food baskets high enough to avoid whacking me with it. At this point, I'm almost annoyed enough to whack her back.

5:26pm: Our food arrives. At this point, both parties that arrived after us but who were served 15 minutes earlier have finished eating and left the building.

After fifty minutes of sitting in a restaurant redolent of beef and fried potatoes, we are ravenous. After a couple of bites of both fries and burger, Mr Minx turns to me and asks, "Salty?" Yes, I have to agree - both items had been aggressively seasoned. The onion rings, on the other hand, were perfect, and just the way I like them: cut into extremely thin slices and fried to a deep golden brown. They come with a little tub of sauce that tastes a bit like a Sriracha mayonnaise, but not as interesting. It was a little too spicy for the rings, but it works with the fries. The fries are merely ok, a little hard, and of course, salty. Our sandwiches - two well-done patties topped with American cheese, dill pickle slices, lettuce, and Gino's "secret sauce," on a squishy sesame seed bun - sadly arouse no feelings of nostalgia in either of us. Not that they aren't good - apart from the surfeit of salt and pepper, they are tasty, with a good ratio of toppings to burger, and just enough sauce to drip out onto our fries but not cause the bun to disintegrate or the meat to slide out - they just taste like fast-casual burgers. Not like Gino's burgers.

Granted, it's been at least 30 years since I've had a Gino's Giant. There was a Gino's down the road from Catholic High, on Edison Highway, and occasionally a few of us would hike down there after school to grab a burger before heading home. I remember liking Gino's much more than McDonald's. The burgers seemed tastier - possibly because of the Baltimore Colts connection - and they sold Kentucky Fried Chicken back then, too.

Today's Gino's is more like a Five Guys, except with a crappy system. In my experience, at Five Guys, one places an order at a counter at one end of the store, then goes to wait at a separate counter on the other side, or at a table. Folks who are ordering and those who are waiting do not mingle. At Gino's, the restaurant is set up like a more traditional fast food joint, with ordering and pickups done at a long counter at the back of the restaurant. Unlike a fast food restaurant, however, a customer does not immediately receive a pre-made burger and fries slapped onto a tray or placed in a paper bag, quick-and-dirty service allowing the customer to get out of the way of the next patron in line. Instead, like at Five Guys, Gino's patrons have to wait for their food to be cooked to order. Those who choose to eat in can take a table, but those waiting for carry-out orders sit and stand near the counter, some getting in the way of customers who attempt to avail themselves of self-serve fountain beverages.

While getting a piping hot burger that spent no time languishing under a heat lamp is a good thing, having to wait nearly an hour (in our case) is not. The problem seems to be the order numbering system. At other restaurants, one gets a receipt with a number printed on it. The receipts come out of the computer in numerical order, so it's pretty easy for someone making food to know the sequence in which the orders were placed, and thus, the order in which they should be filled. At Gino's the numbers are completely random. Our number was "1." The number of the couple in front of us was "31." The woman who came in at 4:29pm had the number "54." The trio who were in line behind us received "100." And "100" received their food before both "54" and "1."

All I have to say is, "WTF?"

6:30pm: Editing post which has become a rant about more service not equalling better service. (Ok, so I didn't edit out too much.) All I'm gonna say is...table service is a dumb idea. Patrons are perfectly capable of listening for when their number is called, getting their fat asses up from a chair, and retrieving their meal at the counter. Instead, servers who do not know exactly where their particular customer is sitting are often forced to circumnavigate the entire dining room AND check outside before finding their quarry. The high backs on some of the booths getting in the way of a server's line of sight don't help things one bit.

Initially, I was quite happy to see that Gino's was making a comeback. That quickly turned to disappointment when I realized the only thing that the new restaurant had in common with the original was the font used in the logo.

My recommendation to folks who are still eager to try Gino's, even after reading this, is to wait a couple of months so the crowds die down a bit. Maybe the table service doesn't seem like such a dumb idea when the restaurant isn't lousy with patrons. I think I'll schedule my next visit for sometime in 2012. By that time, the new Perry Hall location should be open, and they'll get the crowds, leaving Towson a quieter place.

6:45pm: Find a giant chunk of black pepper stuck in back molar.

Gino's
8600 LeSalle Road
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 583-0000

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Everybody Goes to Ginos....

Our first visit to the new Gino's really pissed me off. Thankfully, they have improved a great deal, both service- and food-wise, and we eat there regularly. Well, not regularly, because there's more to life than hamburgers, but once every couple months. That's regular for us.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on September 8, 2011.
------------------
Everybody Goes to Gino's...

...and I think they were all there on the same evening we decided to try out the brand-spankin' new Gino's in Towson. Not only were they all there, but they all got their food before we did.

We thought we were smart, getting to the restaurant at 4:30pm. There was no line, and there seemed to be open tables both inside and outside, so we figured we were golden. Wrong-o. After placing our order for two Gino's Giants, one with fries and one with onion rings, plus two fountain drinks, we were given two plastic cups, a plastic card with the number "1" on it, and a receipt noting the time of 4:35pm.

4:36pm: We fill our cups with fountain beverages and grab two seats at a short counter near the side entrance. The plastic "1" went into the metal ring atop the condiment caddy to alert a server to our presence when he or she brings out our food. The restaurant is pretty full and includes almost as many people waiting for carry-out as sitting at tables. Most of the seated people already have food, so I'm pretty confident that we'll have a short wait. I'm expecting 20 minutes.

4:42pm: My chair is jostled by some fatass with a balance issue. There's definitely enough room to move past me.

4:50pm: Food seems to be coming out at a decent clip, so I'm sure that we'll get our food soon.

4:55pm: It's been 20 minutes, but we're still not eating.

5:01pm: At this point, I start to wonder if offering an amuse bouche might not be a good idea, just a little something to appease those of us waiting for a while. At a fine dining establishment, we would have been done with the appetizers and waiting for our main courses by now. (Of course, were we at Alchemy, our main courses would be on the table already, too.)

5:05pm: Hey! That couple came in after we did, and they just got their food! Grr.

5:08pm: My chair is jostled again, by a server taking food to another table. Grrr.

5:10pm: That trio definitely came in after we did - and they're eating! Grrrr.

5:12pm: I notice that the line for ordering food is out the door. There should be a sign out front like the ones posted near roller coasters, "one hour wait from this point." Better yet, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

5:13pm: A lone woman diner, sitting at a table behind us, manages to get the attention of a staff member to complain that she had been waiting since 4:29pm and still has not received her food. She also kindly points us out as coming in right after her and being in the same boat.

5:15pm: A server offers us a coupon for a free shake on a future visit. I think, "fat chance of that."

5:16pm: Another server comes over to check our receipt. Apparently our order disappeared and they need to know what food we paid for.

5:20pm: My chair is jostled for what must be the fifth time by a vertically-challenged busser who can't seem to be able to lift the plastic bucket of soiled napkins and food baskets high enough to avoid whacking me with it. At this point, I'm almost annoyed enough to whack her back.

5:26pm: Our food arrives. At this point, both parties that arrived after us but who were served 15 minutes earlier have finished eating and left the building.

After fifty minutes of sitting in a restaurant redolent of beef and fried potatoes, we are ravenous. After a couple of bites of both fries and burger, Mr Minx turns to me and asks, "Salty?" Yes, I have to agree - both items had been aggressively seasoned. The onion rings, on the other hand, were perfect, and just the way I like them: cut into extremely thin slices and fried to a deep golden brown. They come with a little tub of sauce that tastes a bit like a Sriracha mayonnaise, but not as interesting. It was a little too spicy for the rings, but it works with the fries. The fries are merely ok, a little hard, and of course, salty. Our sandwiches - two well-done patties topped with American cheese, dill pickle slices, lettuce, and Gino's "secret sauce," on a squishy sesame seed bun - sadly arouse no feelings of nostalgia in either of us. Not that they aren't good - apart from the surfeit of salt and pepper, they are tasty, with a good ratio of toppings to burger, and just enough sauce to drip out onto our fries but not cause the bun to disintegrate or the meat to slide out - they just taste like fast-casual burgers. Not like Gino's burgers.

Granted, it's been at least 30 years since I've had a Gino's Giant. There was a Gino's down the road from Catholic High, on Edison Highway, and occasionally a few of us would hike down there after school to grab a burger before heading home. I remember liking Gino's much more than McDonald's. The burgers seemed tastier - possibly because of the Baltimore Colts connection - and they sold Kentucky Fried Chicken back then, too.

Today's Gino's is more like a Five Guys, except with a crappy system. In my experience, at Five Guys, one places an order at a counter at one end of the store, then goes to wait at a separate counter on the other side, or at a table. Folks who are ordering and those who are waiting do not mingle. At Gino's, the restaurant is set up like a more traditional fast food joint, with ordering and pickups done at a long counter at the back of the restaurant. Unlike a fast food restaurant, however, a customer does not immediately receive a pre-made burger and fries slapped onto a tray or placed in a paper bag, quick-and-dirty service allowing the customer to get out of the way of the next patron in line. Instead, like at Five Guys, Gino's patrons have to wait for their food to be cooked to order. Those who choose to eat in can take a table, but those waiting for carry-out orders sit and stand near the counter, some getting in the way of customers who attempt to avail themselves of self-serve fountain beverages.

While getting a piping hot burger that spent no time languishing under a heat lamp is a good thing, having to wait nearly an hour (in our case) is not. The problem seems to be the order numbering system. At other restaurants, one gets a receipt with a number printed on it. The receipts come out of the computer in numerical order, so it's pretty easy for someone making food to know the sequence in which the orders were placed, and thus, the order in which they should be filled. At Gino's the numbers are completely random. Our number was "1." The number of the couple in front of us was "31." The woman who came in at 4:29pm had the number "54." The trio who were in line behind us received "100." And "100" received their food before both "54" and "1."

All I have to say is, "WTF?"

6:30pm: Editing post which has become a rant about more service not equalling better service. (Ok, so I didn't edit out too much.) All I'm gonna say is...table service is a dumb idea. Patrons are perfectly capable of listening for when their number is called, getting their fat asses up from a chair, and retrieving their meal at the counter. Instead, servers who do not know exactly where their particular customer is sitting are often forced to circumnavigate the entire dining room AND check outside before finding their quarry. The high backs on some of the booths getting in the way of a server's line of sight don't help things one bit.

Initially, I was quite happy to see that Gino's was making a comeback. That quickly turned to disappointment when I realized the only thing that the new restaurant had in common with the original was the font used in the logo.

My recommendation to folks who are still eager to try Gino's, even after reading this, is to wait a couple of months so the crowds die down a bit. Maybe the table service doesn't seem like such a dumb idea when the restaurant isn't lousy with patrons. I think I'll schedule my next visit for sometime in 2012. By that time, the new Perry Hall location should be open, and they'll get the crowds, leaving Towson a quieter place.

6:45pm: Find a giant chunk of black pepper stuck in back molar.

Gino's
8600 LeSalle Road
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 583-0000


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Best of 2015 - Part 1

We start off every year with a recount of some of the very best things we ate in the prior year. So let's begin 2016 (2016!) with a look back at some of our favorite restaurant dishes from last year.

February

I tried several varieties of fries at the Local Fry last February and enjoyed them all. I think my favorite, however, was the house version, the "Local Fry," topped with taco beef and spicy sauce.

March

It's hard to pick just one dish from the Oy Bay! dinner at Clementine to designate as our favorite. Everything was stellar that night, from the pickled oyster salad to the oyster stuffing-filled quail with squash and brussels sprout gratin, to the carpetbagger steak from Roseda Beef. (The quail is pictured above.)

April

No pic, but the slice of coconut cake I received at the Peppermill after our waitress accidentally dumped my destined-for-a-doggy-bag shad on the floor, was amazeballs.

A giant meatball at Pane et Vino, in Little Italy, was up there on the list of Best Meatballs I Have Ever Put in My Mouth (yes, there have been many). I was also pretty turned on by the steak and stracchino piadine, a quesadilla-like sandwich.

May

What wasn't terrific on B&O Brasserie's Spring 2015 menu? Not a whole lot. Loved the octopus tacos served with shells made from raw jicama, the juicy soft shell crabs (pictured), the flounder, oh, just everything!

June

Decadently rich and sweet, the corn creme brulée at New York's Quality Meats was meant to be a side dish, but served very well as dessert, too.

Jokers 'n' Thieves, Jesse Sandlin's new joint in Canton, delivered some edible happiness last summer, particularly in the form of a soft shell crab and waffle sandwich. The brisket and creamy Carolina Gold rice was a winner too.

The best breakfast of 2015 came from a tiny cafe in Charles County. Pancakes Plus served up these lovely eggs, plus grits, scrapple, toast, and surprisingly delicious coffee for about $6.

2015 was a great year for soft shell crabs. 13.5% Wine + Food's Cyrus Keefer served plump softies served with a corn congee that rank among my top five ever.

July

The beautiful carrots with harissa honey, goat's cheese, and hazelnuts at Robin Haas's new mostly-veg restaurant, Encantada, tasted as good as they looked.

This coconut pie from Bonefish Grill was all kinds of deliciousness.

August

We ate at Hersh's twice last year, and both times were blown away by the fabulous pizza. Pictured is the Tre Porcellini, a feast of porcine products atop a perfect thin crust. Mr Minx has found his pizza holy grail; a shame it's not closer to Towson.

We went back to 13.5% Wine + Food in August for a media dinner. There were so many tasty things, but my favorite were the pizzas, especially the French bread-style pizza topped with snails. I am a sucker for snails.

Best burger of the year award goes to Alewife. Chad Wells' Smoke Burger is a real thing of beauty. Chad's mac and cheese is pretty amazing, too, especially when used as a stuffing for eggrolls, or as a topping for duck fat fries. I also had the best crab cake of the year at Alewife, and more than my fair share of fine craft beers.

September

We found a Korean BBQ place more conveniently located than Ellicott City's Honey Pig--Be One, located in a shopping center between Maryland Ave/Howard Street, 20th and 21st Streets. Really terrific bulgogi, and an outstanding, crispy, octopus-stuffed pancake. Uh-maz-ing.

October

We had a fine meal at Bookmakers Cocktail Club, including what I felt was the platonic ideal of a Caesar salad. The brussels sprouts with candied bacon were also quite delicious, and Mr Minx couldn't stop eating his pappardelle with lamb shoulder ragu. I also discovered my favorite new cocktail there - the Federale, made with tequila and Becherovka.

November

We had some nice tacos at Empellon Taqueria in NY, particularly those stuffed with pastrami. The Brussels sprouts tacos were delish as well.

Everything at  Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen, also in NY, was well-done, from the duck-stuffed buns to the soup dumplings. But my favorite was the flaky scallion pancakes filled with sweet and savory slices of beef.

More NY eats: Best fish taco ever, the fried skate on a blue corn tortilla at Mission Cantina.

We ate a lot of ramen this year, partly because it's increasingly available, partly because we were writing about it. This cold ramen dish served at Ivan Ramen on the Lower East Side, called hiyashi chuka, was a little soup, a little chef's salad, a lot delish.

We celebrated Ejji Ramen's 1-year anniversary with some Kobe beef. The real stuff, from Japan. It was served very rare, basically just seared. and was so tender as to melt in the mouth.

December

At a charity dinner on #GivingTuesday, we had various Thai-style dishes created by Zack Mills of Wit & Wisdom, Cyrus Keefer (formerly of 13.5% Wine Bar + Food, now at the Baltimore Country Club) and Dooby's Tim Dyson. While everything was delish, my favorite was Cyrus' take on pad Thai, using tender squid as the noodle component, with a delightfully fatty sausage link on the side. It didn't taste like pad Thai, but the flavors were boldly delicious.

Also in December was a visit to the Corner Charcuterie Bar, in Hampden.

We tried several unusual dishes--an octopus "burger," ostrich tartare--but I really fell in love with the fried house-made pickles. A melange of different veg, like radishes and cucumbers, each with its own different pickle flavor, all lightly coated in a crisp batter and served with a ranch dip. A perfect bar snack.

That's all for 2015. Hope you ate as many good things as we did!



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Bobby's Burger Palace

I know a lot of people don't like Bobby Flay for one reason or another, but I'm not one of those people. I've had positive experiences at his restaurants, Gato being the most recent, and enjoy watching him on TV, particularly when he gets his ass beat on Throwdown. For months I looked forward to the opening of Bobby's Burger Palace in Towson, and at long last, that day came in early August.

BBP is of the order-at-the-counter, server-brings-food style of fast casual restaurants. This keeps the prices somewhere between full sit-down (Red Robin) and fast food (Five Guys) service. Burgers hover in the $8-9 range and most have toppings inspired by US regional specialties; the Miami burger, for instance, is styled like a Cubano sandwich, with ham, swiss, pickles, and mustard. There are also plainer versions, like the classic with American cheese, the Bobby Blue with bleu and bacon, and the "Crunchburger,"which includes potato chips.

We settled on the New Mexico and the Philadelphia, with an onion ring/fries combo, paid, got our number, and took a table outside to wait.

The place wasn't busy, so we got our order pretty quickly. The onion rings and fries came first, accompanied by a spicy "fry sauce" akin to chipotle mayo. The fries were excellent, crispy, skin-on, Boardwalk-style specimens. The onion rings (there were only two, one at the top and another on the very bottom of the container) were large and crusty with batter. A bit too much batter for my tastes - I prefer very little, actually. But they were crunchy and the hot onion didn't slide out of its casing and slap me on the chin, so I have to give it some points for that.

The New Mexico burger had queso, roasted green chiles, and pickled red onions. It didn't taste anything like the green chile cheeseburger that I had in Albuquerque, and that's a good thing. The patty itself was moist and cooked to a perfect medium, the cheese had some staying power and didn't drip out, but the chiles didn't pack the punch I was looking for. The surfeit of onions made up for it. There were so many, I'm sure Scott Conant was being offended somewhere.

Neal's Philadelphia burger DID have a punch - those hot peppers were indeed HOT. I would have taken at least half off, but my brave husband worked up a sweat as he ate all of them. His burger was also perfectly cooked, with a nice amount of cheese.

One of the best things about the burgers at BBP are the squishy sesame seed buns. Honestly, why do so many places insist on brioche buns? Fancy isn't better. Squishy rules.

We had fountain sodas with our meal (Fresca!), but milkshakes and malteds are available in 10 flavors, including pistachio, which I might have to try at some point. There are also three flavors of booze-spiked shakes (also on the "to try" list), plus beers, a lone margarita, and BBP red or white wine. The wine is definitely not on my "to try" list. Sorry, Bobby. The food menu also has a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and salads, but it's a burger palace, so eat burgers. They were pretty good, so we'll be back.

Bobby's Burger Palace
515 Virginia Ave
Towson, MD 21286
410-296-7227



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.

The Nickel Taphouse

When the Nickel Taphouse opened in 2013, I must admit that I wasn't all that excited. At this point, I don't quite remember why. Perhaps the menu was more limited than it is now and the options didn't thrill me. In any case, I wasn't in any hurry to go, even though the Taphouse is one of Robbin Haas' restaurants, and I do love me some Birroteca. We did get an invite to a media tasting there, but weren't able to attend. When I wrote back, asking for a rain check, my response was...crickets. I received no response.

In any case, we finally paid the place a visit. We wanted to eat somewhere close to home, on a Monday, at a place that served oysters and burgers and brussels sprouts. The Nickel Taphouse fit all of those bills.

The Nickel Taphouse is a warm, comfortable sort of place, with dim lighting, and lots of wood. We settled into one of the booths along the inside wall and perused the beverage list for a while. There were 30+ craft brews on tap, plus another 20 or so in cans, so we were in hops heaven. Dad and I went for the Rogue chipotle ale, a smooth and malty beer with a smoky finish. Mr Minx had a tasty Evolution Lot 3 IPA, and my brother chose another IPA, the name of which I don't recall, and because I'm a dolt, I didn't write down.

Once beers were ordered, we took another few minutes to decide what all we wanted to try. I was adamant we go for the Buffalo brussels sprouts, which turned out to be an excellent idea. The sprouts, some halved, some just loose leaves, were roasted, even charred in spots, tossed with hot sauce and topped with cheese sauce. The four of us attacked the ample serving and didn't look up until it was all gone. They were that good.

We also tried both the roasted oysters (done a la clams casino, with bacon, peppers, scallions, and mustard) and a selection of raw ones. The roasted bivalves had a pronounced mustard flavor, and while the taste was good, I felt the crust was soggy. The oysters were still nearly raw though, which is a good thing. I suppose it is a fine line between overcooked (if the topping was crisp) and perfect (soggy crust).

We ordered one each of the six varieties of local and otherwise raw oysters available. They were fresh and briny. A bit too many broken shell pieces for my taste, but their freshness can't be faulted.

Dad is a sucker for chili and ordered the beef and bacon-enriched version of the day, which contained chunks of beef in addition to ground beef and kidney beans. The chili had an unusual tangy aftertaste which I associate with smoked brisket. The serving was huge, and at $8, a pretty good deal.

Despite being a casual tavern, there are some dishes prepared tableside, like salads and a steak tartare entree. The chili was served as if it were a fancy soup: poured tableside over a bowl of rice. Gotta say, despite the overall tastiness of the chili, the plop plop plop presentation was less than appetizing. Save that for bisques, please.

Dad doggie-bagged much of the chili, for he had also ordered a burger. Burgers at the Nickel Taphouse come in 5-ounce "nickel" and 10-ounce "dime" sizes, with either minimal toppings (the "purist") or with extra sharp cheddar, house-cured bacon, mushrooms, a fried egg, and Nickel sauce (the "works"). Both Dad and my brother kept it simple. The Roseda beef burgers were plump and tasty. The brioche bun stood up better under the weight of only one patty but started disintegrating (as they always do) in the two-patty dime version.

In contrast, the roll on Mr Minxes beef on weck stayed intact and crunchy from start to finish. This western New York state specialty is simply thinly sliced rare roast beef on a kummelweck, or caraway and salt-topped roll. A bit of horseradish on the side added just enough oomph to the massive pile of tender, juicy, meat. The roll, which seemed mostly crust, was light and crisp, almost crackling. Personally, I think kummelweck rolls need to become a thing in Baltimore.

A bowl of good house slaw and pickles came with all three sandwiches.

I opted out of the meatfest and instead went for a bowl of mussels. They come in a few different flavors at Nickel Taphouse; I chose the Thai curry version. While not tasting particularly of red curry at all to me (it needed a bit of kaffir lime leaf and Thai basil), the creamy sauce was otherwise fragrant and not overly rich. I hate that mussels are so tiny these days, but these tasted terrific, and not a closed one in the bunch.

A gigantic order of fries with a tarragon aioli worked both with the sandwiches and my mussels. The fries were ultra slender and very crisp.

So maybe we waited a bit long to try the Nickel Taphouse. Now that we have, we will consider putting it into our regular rotation. I could eat those brussels sprouts regularly.





Posted on Minxeats.com.

Abbey Burger Bistro

Recently, as we were writing an article on burgers for Discover Baltimore, we felt the need to do just a tad more research. Also, we needed photos. We had been to Abbey Burger Bistro in the past on an epic day of eating. At that time, we were doing research for our first book, Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore, and did a tour of Grilled Cheese & Co., Thai Arroy, Abbey, and Midnite Confection's (apostrophe theirs) Cupcakes all on the same evening. By the time we got to Abbey, we were stuffed with cheese and tofu and weren't able to enjoy our burgers as much as we could have. Still, we came away with good feelings about the place and vowed to return.

We arrived early on this occasion and were able to snag a table near the front door, which offered us a bit of light for photography. We eschewed the meats of the month (nothing against wild boar, but camel sounded a bit too strange) and the build-your-own-burger option and ordered straight off the menu.

We chose the fried pickles as our starter. Such things can be really hit or miss. We've had really bad ones and really mediocre ones, and were still looking for really good ones. And we found them at Abbey. The sour pickle slices were in a light crunchy batter that the menu billed as tempura but we thought was more similar to fish-n-chips-style beer batter. They were so tasty, they didn't really need the lightly spicy mayo-based dipping sauce (but we used it anyway).

As for the burgers, Mr Minx went for the Baltimore burger, topped with crab dip, applewood bacon, and cheddar. He enjoyed it, but my palate doesn't care for seafood + bacon (shrimp, scallops, and clams being exceptions). The bacon makes the seafood taste fishy to me. He also ordered a side of fries, which were perfect - very brown, crisp, and fresh-tasting.

The same cannot be said for my side of chips (the default), which were the unfortunate victims of humidity. Most of them were melded together into one damp mega-chip, and the loose ones tasted stale. But my burger, a mostly traditional "paddy" melt, was nice. The burger was cooked to medium, as requested, and there was plenty of cheese and sauteed onions. I did, however, miss the Thousand Island dressing.

Abbey offers myriad meats, toppings, and breads, so one can have kangaroo on an English muffin with brie, grilled pineapple, and salsa, or lamb, sprouts, white truffle oil, and relish on a pretzel roll. Or even a tasty combination of toppings. We'll give that a try next time, and I'm definitely ordering fries with my elk, nacho cheese, fried egg, and buffalo sauce on a pita.



Posted on Minxeats.com.