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Friday, May 29, 2009
Winners, winners and more winners.
Awards, ratings, winners...we should give ourselves a ribbon for trying to keep up with all this. But kudos
to these culinary honorees:
Baltimore Magazine had its first-ever rating of restaurants. In the Top 10:
1. Charleston
2. The Black Olive
3. Cinghiale
4. Linwoods
5. Oregon Grille
6. Woodberry Kitchen
7.
Aldo's
8. Antrim 1844
9. Pazo
10. Meli
(Including Petit Louis Bistro at #13, Cindy Wolfe's
Group had 4 restaurants in the top 15. Wow.)
Our buddy Gunner Roe, the Grillmeister, writes to tell us he placed 5th in Brisket at the "Pigs in the Park"BBQ competition in Danville, VA -- a KCBS
sanctioned event with more than 50 teams. Steep competition, fair judging, he writes. Way to go, Roe!
Finally,
hats-off to the Best in Show for the 2009 Maryland Winemasters Choice Award, Bordeleau Winery, for their 2008 Pinot Grigio. Hope to see you soon, folks! The full list of awards is here.
P.S. Bored this summer? Check out the Greenbrier Cooking School. Only a couple thousand bucks for three nights.
11:05 pm edt
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Interesting tidbits are crossing our desk:
 "Plant more than you need." Love this! We'd
heard casually about GroGood, a program sponsored by Scotts MiracleGro. They've teamed up to sponsor the program "Plant a Row for the Hungry" created by the Garden Writers Association. The idea: Plant a little more than you need  in your garden, maybe an extra row, and donate the fresh produce to feed the hungry. Great idea! (But man, it took some work
and searching to track this one down...anyway, check it out.) Meantime, don't weed out those extra tomato plants that you
think you won't need. Stick 'em in the ground!
Perhaps even more
useful, the links also take you to Feeding America.org, and also to the Maryland Food Bank. We've contacted our local food bank to learn more about how to donating fresh produce and will fill you in.
In more charity news, Whole Foods 5% day at the new Annapolis store
raised more than $6,400 for Future Harvest - Chesapeake Agriculture Sustainable Alliance. Cool!
We heard a great story about the rise of tv cooking shows yesterday on NPR. Author Kathleen Collins was interviewed about her new book, "Watching What We Eat." There's a
priceless clip on the audio archive of Julia Child trilling about chicken, which honestly sounds like someone from SNL trying
to do their best impression of her. Go listen, it will make you smile.
2:43 pm edt
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Whole Foods Market! 7.4 on the Food Richter Scale!
 Warning tremors have been going on for a while now, but the big seismic event looms on the horizon.
May 5th, 10 a.m., the 56,000 sq.ft. Whole Foods Market opens in Annapolis Towne Centre. We got a sneak preview last week
as construction nears its close. Oh, the humanity!- The cheese counter is worth diving headfirst
into, and nearly deep enough.
- Seafood: shucking station, massive fresh fish counter, 5 feet
of it devoted to whole fish.
- 200 Made-in-Maryland products, including dog food.
 - Coffee will be roasted at the store, and the coffee bar will be open an hour before rest of
the store (7:00).
- Look for dry-aged meats, in-house meat smoker and barbecue bar.
- Wood-burning pizza oven, gelato station, a
 tortilla-making machine in the bakery. - Culinary Center for cooking classes.
- Major prepared food section. 12-soup station. And a 200-seat in-store cafe.
More deets
to come, we'll do a big story upon opening. Apparently the half-price sale upon the closing of the old location was so
mobbed the fire marshal was called out. Sweet!
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