More on Balti - more, and other stuff

Well, we were in Baltimore, and there is a lot of pride there, andin fact there is a ship named that!

She visited us last weekend as part of Historic St. Mary’s City celebration of Maryland day with her flags flyng

But, that’s not what we’re going to talk about today, we’ve kind of done “events” lately so lets veer back to food for a bit, with some this and that stuff.  We'll come back to Maryland Day eventually

Food Equipment

If you keep your eyes open around here, eventually you will see one of these trucks on the road

The Adams Burch Company is kind of the Sysco on the equipment sdie for the food service world.  They supply all the “stuff” needed to process, prepare, cook and serve the food that lands on your table.  And, as a matter of fact they can get you those tables or the chairs that are put up to them.  Also supply the things to keep your kitchen clean and health department worthy.  They don’t make the stuff, but are more or less a distributor.   You order, they go get and deliver to you.

Every year, like Sysco, they have a show every year for restaurateurs, chefs, owners to come and see what’s new or to replace or upgrade the things they have.   I was invited to attend with a local restaurant owner.  It was once again held at FedEx Field up in DC, occupying about half of the fourth or “club level”.  All the manufacturers they represent have booths set up

6027

And, most of those booths come with a pushy, er, proactive rep..  “Hi, what kind of restaurant do you have?  need some (whatever)?”  After a while you sort of develop the same technique you use with homeless.   "no thanks!" and keep going..

It’s really fun to walk around and see all the stuff necessary to:

 store food

prepare it

and Cook it

An aside about above, real success story.  Remember your mother or grandmother used to have one of those Lodge cast iron skillets that weighed a ton, looked ugly, hard to clean, but produced a perfectly seared steak or crunchy fried chicken? well cast iron has become very trendy again

Then there’s all kinds of stuff to serve it on

and in

And it’s not limited to “little” stuff either, you can buy that Viking you need

A fascinating (to me) display of everything associated with the non-foodstuff side of things in a restaurant.  Everything from picks for Martini Olives, to forks, to sous vide machines, on and on.  And beside the reps from the various vendors there is an Adams Burch manager that serves venues within a given region that kind of follows you around and records your orders, helps to negotiate a price (if possible), a real treat.  They also have open bars situated around, and food is available in the form of a buffet if you want.  A nice way to spend a foodie day.

Ramblings in no particular order of a demented food person

Soba

Saveur article: “Sonoko Dreams of Soba; Transformed by the meditative art of Japanese Noodle making, a Soba master shares her buckwheat secrets”.  Know what Soba is?  Yup, buckwheat noodles.  Soba seems to be one of those foods which have almost a cult following.  Well, to be fair, there IS a cult about Soba noodles.  People will go to Japan to seek out Soba masters. Since I don’t much have that cuisine, I am not sure I have ever eaten them. I suppose I have.  I wish I could have a chance to have some of those that people travel to Japan for.  Occasionally there are stories in my various food mags I suppose I will look foolish, but isn’t a noodle a noodle?  Having read a bit about them in my recent issue of Saveur, I THINK the deal is that they support a wonderful broth.  Willing to learn.  

Oklahoma! where the (Vietnamese????) wind comes a’sweeeeepin’….. etc.

In the latest issue of the Smithsonian magazine, there is an article about the Vietnamese community in, of all places, Oklahoma City.  Talks about the genesis, but eventually the article gets around to food, and talks about getting Banh Mi sandwiches of which one of the favorites is a “Chalua”: ham, headcheese, pâté, pickled carrots, daikon, and jalapeño.   All this is put on a baguette from a bakery that turns out a thousand a day.  They point out that Viet Nam spent much of its recent history under French rule, hence the leaning toward that cuisine.  Fine and dandy.  But, that’s not what caught my eye.  Further on they talk about  “duck halut” which is described as “eggs with a partially developed embryo, making a crunchy treat”.   Okay, I’m going to change the subject.

“The” Cake

Lastly, in the same issue of Saveur mentioned above, there was an article on “Smith Island Cake”, the sort of legendary specialty cake made on Smith Island, a tiny island on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

With the prospect of sea level rise, it probably won’t be there in 25 years.   It’s kind of a gratuitous piece, using phases like “mysterious origins” for the cake in the title.  Centers around Mary Ada Marshall, who still makes the cakes for mail order and so on.   No “settlers” approach, she uses Duncan Hines Classic Yellow cake mix, and a Kitchen Aid.  “Way back when my grandma was little, they had to pre-sift, pre-measure, pre-this, pre-that.  I like modernization”.    He does address the history a bit, and speculates its origins may go back to a Józef Dobos, introduced a confection in 1885 that had layers of sponge cake, insulated by cocoa buttercream, and sealed with a crown of caramel.  Its attraction was that it would increase its (non refrigerated) shelf life. 

Happy Easter all.. here’s our non water side front yard today.

And as you sit down to Easter dinner, I’m sure you will be

DFD