I don’t call a lot of attention to it, but I live in two cities now. So when I’m asked about my favorite food, I can’t limit myself to Baltimore anymore, I need to throw in some New Orleans, too.
But Baltimore first. Bear in mind, this isn’t a definitive list, just a list of places I love. Burgers at the Abbey. The California Chicken Wrap at Metropolitan. The crepe/taco place on Charles Street, just north of Cross. Spoons coffee and their huevos verdes scrambled. Matsuri for sushi. Cinghiale, especially if we sit at the bar. Petit Louis. Charleston for celebrations. Iggie’s and Matthew’s for pizza. The Wine Market and Bluegrass, especially on nice evenings when one can eat outside. Faidley’s for crabcakes. The Helmand. The chicken and feta pita at my favorite felafel place, Cypriana.
Now I feel a little more tentative about writing about New Orleans food because it’s a town where people will scoff at one’s eating choices. (Maybe Baltimore is, too, but I’m secure in my Baltimore bona fides.) So I’ll list the places where I often end up taking visitors, of whom we seem to have many, many, many more than we ever do in Baltimore. (Hmmmmm.) I like: Coquette; Lillette; Baru; Bayona; the Upperline; the Taceaux Loceaux truck, which I follow on Twitter; Casamento’s; August; Elizabeth’s for brunch; La Petite Grocerie; Sake Cafe; Rum House (for the tacos a la carte and the mango-guacamole dip); Mosca’s; Pascal Manale; Crescent City Steaks. We have a soft spot for Venezia, an old-fashioned Italian restaurant in Mid-City, but we are the kind of household that needs an old-fashioned Italian restaurant. And I want to go back to a Mexican restaurant I tried on Carrollton, which seemed amazingly authentic to me.
There are some big gaps in my New Orleans eating. I’ve never been to Stella’s, for example, along with several other well-regarded restaurants. My po’boy research is far from definitive, although I have to say that no po’boy so far has made me as happy as an undressed fried oyster sandwich at Casamento’s. The best gumbo I’ve had was made in my kitchen by Davis Rogan, who is not Davis McAlary and his new CD, The Real Davis, breaks that all down for you. I need to follow up on some recommendations from John Currence, the New Orleans native taking a turn on Top Chef Masters. And, finally, I am very happy with my own red beans and rice, but I should credit the remarkable cookbook, Cooking Up a Storm, edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker, for helping me get it right. (Simplify, simplify, simplify.) When people say that the Internet will kill cookbooks, I think of books such as this one, which is equal parts recipes, culinary history and good old-fashioned storytelling. Even if you never cooked a thing, you could read it for the sheer pleasure of the stories.
I urge people to nominate their own favorites in the comments section here, for either of the cities above or their own hometowns. By the way, I just want to give a shout-out here to Alafair Burke for taking me to Otto’s in New York City when ramps were in season.
Oh, Pascal’s!! Only thing I miss about Syracuse. Used to be at the foot of my street, there.
I can pretty much only speak for Baltimore, but I love Miss Shirley’s and Golden West (tater tots! garlic fries! catfish po’boys!).
I feel so bad that most of the Baltimore restaurants I’ve never heard of because it’s been 15 years since I lived there. When I get back, I always go to Matthews Pizza, my parents used to go there in the 40′s and I’ve never had a better pizza!
I miss all of Lexington Market but Faidleys was a great place to do lunch when I worked downtown.House of Welsh and Tio Pepes were places that memories of long ago still linger. Angelina’s on Hartford road had great crabcakes and Perring Place a neighborhood restaurant that’s still hanging on are also favorites.
Had I never moved to Maine I never would have eaten fiddleheads, those magical ferns that are in season for about ten days every spring (right now, in fact). I talk a lot of trash about Maine’s food shortcomings, but the truth is that Portland is a great restaurant city. Five Fifty-Five introduced me to the wonders of mussels (I don’t even eat seafood), and the house burger at Nosh is a revelation. Tapas at Local 188 are terrific, and I may need to go there this weekend just to have some fiddleheads.
At the moment, my gave things are markets rather than restaurants. So happy my mother found this little tiny place in and Exeter strip mall called “On the Vine,” which has decent baguettes and my favorite espresso soda–which I’ve never seen for sale outside NYC and Long Island. And oh, God, the joy of shopping at Fairway and H&H bagels and Zabar’s and Citarella again… They’re like food museums. In a good way. And also there’s a great Indian grocery out in Jackson Heights where I got lime pickle and mango pickle and lychee flavored Jell-O and guava candy and incense and even this lime soda called Limca that I haven’t had since 1987 in Kashmir. Now if only I could find a place that sold the kind of inroads we used to get at this roadside stand in Bali, my life would be complete…
I love Golden West too, for the green chile, and Hamilton Tavern for casual nights, Pazo for swanky, Chameleon Cafe for food made with love, Clementine (get the pork chops!) Also Joe Squared (more than pizza), that Thai place in Federal Hill, and my new lunch thing is a couple of the food trucks, Souper Freaks and Gypsy something or other. (How they made chickpea tacos so yummy is beyond me.)
I don’t remember where I ate in New Orleans, it’s been a while, but I’ve had plenty of great gumbo, courtesy of my former in-laws, one of whom is from SW LA.
Amanda Hesser’s THE COOK AND THE GARDNER & COOKING FOR MISTER LATTE are similar to COOKING UP A STORM. I attended a book dinner at the Brass Elephant (LL probably knows that place) for her in 04. Good writing with some recipes as well.
HONEY FROM A WEED by Patience Gray is an extraordinary read about life with a sculptor in small communities across Mediterranean Europe has wonderful stories and recipes.
In the beverage world, Eric Felton’s HOW’S YOUR DRINK soars above the crowd.
As a food service professional I get to travel and dine at pretty good joints across the country. Some of my faves are listed as follows:
Portland, ME – Fore Street, Hugo’s, Bresca
Agawam, MA- The Federal
DC – Marcel’s, Malaysia Kopitam (sp?), Jaleo, Beck
Silver Spring, MD – Crisfield (MD Seafood – best example)
Rockville, MD – New Fortune (dim sum)
New Orleans – August, KPauls (I’ve only been there once)
Frederick, MD – Volt
Pittsburgh – Lidias
Cleveland – Lola’s (Marrow . . . Mmmmm.)
Louisville – Proof on Main (Octopus in the Mid West!)
Chicago – Rick Bayless’s places
Syracuse,NY – Pascals
Washington, VA – Inn at Little Washington
Columbus,OH – Barcelona
Richmond, VA – Juleps, CanCan
San Fran – Yank Sing (best dim sum ever)
Woodinville, WA – The Herbfarm
I have lots more places to try!
I just recently moved back to Baltimore. Just dined at The Wine Market the other day. I believe the taco/crepe place you refer to is Rueben’s. Have an upcoming book club meeting at the Metropolitan soon. Seems we enjoy some of the very same places. Love my Baltimore cuisine!
Kevin,
Dim sum in Rockville? This could be a life-changer. Mr. Lippman adores Crisfield’s. The Inn at Little Washington was my birthday treat many years ago and I’m still trying to get to Volt. I think we have very similar palates.
Smoked crabcakes at Pierpoint in Fells Point, muffaletta from Trinacria, pignoli cookies and espresso from Vaccaro’s, anything raw and fresh from the Cross St. Market, Bruce’s wings at the Cross St. Market, tortellini with peas and ham from Amicci’s, once got smoked mussels and goat cheese with fresh thyme and pistachios from the Waverly farmer’s market that was incredible…
When I took my son to see Johns Hopkins, we had breakfast at Pete’s Grill and lunch at The Papermoon Diner. Pete’s is a great diner place with only bar stools, where you can sit and watch the waitresses clean out the innards of the soda dispenser while you eat. I had a terrific BBQ sandwich at The Papermoon. Maybe it is too “in,” but I still enjoyed seeing the sights in the place. If you were high, it would be be even more of a trip.
The Batali place at 8th and 5th, I think. It was amazing.
More good Baltimore suggestions, guys. Thanks!
The Mexican place on Carrollton — are you thinking of Panchita’s? Or further up, by Venezia? Panchita’s has crazy good huge goblets of agua fresca — perfect on a hot and humid summer day in New Orleans.
Thank you, Ms. Lippman for following up by posting your favorite Baltimore eateries, as well as your New Orleans ones. I made the suggestion that you blog about food and was thrilled that you did so. I may be visiting Baltimore later this month for 2 or 3 days for business and will use your list to guide my eating. Serendipitously, I’ll be in Nola in June for ALA (where I understand you’ll be a keynote speaker) and though I have favorites to revisit (Cochon & Rio Mar), I’ll take yours into account as well. Also hope to see Nola appear as a character/setting in your books as well.
I lived in New Orleans for a long time before I moved to Md after Katrina. Charlie’s Seafood in River Ridge was one of my favorite local places to go. Pascals Manale, Giovanni’s, Drago’s, Commander’s, Boudreaux, Jacques Imo…all wonderful places. I love Rio Mar, too!
Oh lord — I forgot the Donald Link trifecta of Cochon, Herbsainte and Butcher. And I also enjoy Rio Mar. But I love, love, love Butcher.
There’s a reason this blog is called The Memory Project.
Oh, this is making me miss Baltimore so! I used to love Pierpoint but haven’t been there in years and I have to second the recommendation of the Chameleon Cafe! Somehow, I do manage to make it there most times that I get back to Baltimore.
We were in NOLA for almost a week last December and managed to miss all of the places listed. We pretty much stuck to the traditional tourist route but I will be saving that list for next time.
Laura, re New Orleans, you might enjoy Rene Louapre’s food blog, Blackened Out. Rene is a lawyer in NOLA and a food lover and has a wry sense of humor. He has been very kind with recommendations for me when I’ve been visiting.
http://www.blackenedout.com/
Have you been to the Green Goddess yet? That’s where I’m really wanting to try.
In addition to the ones you’ve mentioned, also Liuzza’s, off Canal St, which is an old-school NOLA neighborhood restaurant. Cash only, very cold beer, great muffulettas and hearty entrees. Also, Stanley, the brother restaurant to Stella on Jackson Square, serves great breakfasts.
I still need to go to Green Goddess. I’ve been to both Liuzza’s and Stanley.
I forgot Meauxbar, which I love, St. Philip’s and Rampart. If I were still freewheeling I would be there at least once a week.
Some of my friends say they love Liuzza’s more out of sentiment than the food — but they do have really good onion rings there.
The other place I want to try is Herbsaint (hopefully the next trip) and also Luke (with umlauts), which is an Alsatian restaurant on St Charles in the CBD.