What? ..... It's Friday?

Well, here it is Friday again..seems like the week is composed of Monday and Friday. Usually we venture into possibilities for the weekend, but I think we may have slightly crested the spring wave..

It was a hectic week for the Feeders, which for us will continue into the weekend. We had house guests arrive Wednesday, and they left yesterday afternoon. Of course that meant that the previous Sunday through Tuesday was spent in cleaning, straightening, hiding, dusting, and vacuuming the digs from stem to stern. Visitors do have their place I guess. MFO left early on Thursday for Annapolis to attend a Maryland Historical Society conference and will arrive this afternoon in time to get DFD’d and go down to the college for the 60th Anniversary Dinner of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society. She dug in the archives (her job, actually) and made a nice display of St. Mary’s County involvement in the civil war.

Tomorrow afternoon, we will be going up the road to Baltimore to attend…… not Pimlico, but the annual reception hosted by the umbrella organization of one of the (numerous) Boards I sit on around here. Last year’s event was held in the Renwick Museum in DC, and this one will be in the Baltimore Art Museum. Based on last year’s, it should be a wonderful foodie experience. In a bow to decorum, I will not take the trusty camera, so you’ll have to have only a verbal report next week.

Then after arriving home late Saturday night, we’ll be up and out to work the first BeerFest at Historic St. Mary’s City. It is a fundraising event for support the many wonderful educational programs they do. There will be several craft and Maryland beers available. Tickets are required of course, and there will be plenty to do and see for guests of all ages. Music, Food, Crafts, Demonstrations will be part of the fun. So come out and I’ll pour you a beer.

The Woods Tea Company will also be performing (separate from the Fest) at the visitor’s center Sunday at 2 pm.

Other local stuff to choose from:

With most of the musical folk from St. Mary’s College off on their annual trek to Alba, Italy, there aren’t any classical offerings at the college for a bit..

There is a lecture tomorrow at the Calvert Marine Museum called “Giant Shark Babies from Panama”, starting at 2:30, and free to the public.

And also tomorrow, St. Michaels School is hosting a Asian-Pacific Celebration, unfortunately also starting at 2:30. Might be a chance to sample some different cuisines. Think there is a charge (to support the school).

And yet more tomorrow, there’s the annual Strawberry Festival and Bazaar in Chaptico in the social hall of Historic Christ Church. Maybe more “church lady” food available.

Speaking of Church Lady food, on Sunday, there is a “chicken dinner” put on by Trinity Church, down by the city. Nice compliment to the beer festival.

Restaurant Week is on the horizon starting on June 6 and running for two weeks.

Okay, enough for now.

Quick Foodie Note:

With MFO out of town (and dining at Harry Browne’s in Annapolis) I went back to “we’re out of scallops” last night. They weren’t..

Quick living on the water note:

Every time we look out the window, there is something different to see (you can see a lot just by looking)

Sometimes in the foggy mornings, we see the barges off to do their work



Sometimes there’s clouds.. like last night after the storms:








Life can be good

Especially if you are

DFD

One, Two, Three Strikes.....We're Out!

These are actual experiences in local restaurants lately:

One…The server greets the table, asks about drinks, go and gets them, comes back, we’re not ready to order yet. By way of saying there had been a lot of interaction between server and table before orders were taken. A question from one of the guests after reading the menu…”what is your quiche today?”…. Answer: "It’s ham and fontina cheese, but we’re out."


Two… An order was taken for a dish, and twenty minutes later (another item for discussion) server reappears, menu in hand, and says: “I’m sorry were out of (what was ordered)…”


Three… after presenting the menu, and informing us of the night’s specials we’re left to enjoy our drinks while considering our food choices. When we’re ready to order, MFO selects her item, and I say I’ll have the scallops. “I’m sorry, we’re out”.

Before going off the deep end, I did a little research with some local restaurateurs, and it was unanimous that the chef/kitchen has the absolute responsibility to let the floor staff know what is not available. Some have white boards in the kitchen, or the chefs call out: “only three tuna left!”, or it could be on the point of sale computer where the ticket is entered, and there are some other strategies. Bottom line, it should be known by all the servers what the state of the menu items are.

And, it is not to say that occasionally a restaurant shouldn’t be out of a particular item, suppliers don’t deliver on time, there’s an unanticipated “run” on a dish, more guests showed up than the order to the supplier was placed for, and other reasonable circumstances. You would wish if it is on the menu, they can deliver, but it is understandable that sometimes they are short, and that is forgivable.

What is unforgivable is NOT letting a guest know immediately where choices are limited:

“Here are your menus, and I am sorry but the (tuna) is not available tonight”
“I know we were running short on (tuna), let me quickly check for you”
“I know you’re ready to order, but I just found out that the (tuna) isn’t available anymore”

Just be aware. Good service is good service, starting with coming through the door..

Phood Photography

Over the weekend, a friend sent a link to a live on-line workshop on food photography. Since I had a minute on Saturday, I decided I’d just take a peek figuring, yeah, yeah. Well, in the end I spent a lot of the day Saturday and Sunday glued to the screen (figuratively, of course). The course was “taught” by Penny De Los Santos, who is a contributing photographer to Saveur. Alert readers will recall that one of the reasons I rate Saveur so high in the foodie publications is the photography. It was an eye opening experience. The amount of prep and work that goes into one of those pictures of strawberries in a bowl is amazing. There is a food stylist, a prop stylist, and a host of others that can take three to four hours for getting that “hero shot” (her term) of the strawberries. During the evolution, the camera (she was using Canon, by the way) is hooked directly into a computer display so she can see the results immediately. Light reflectors, blockers, and other devices fill in light where it is or is not needed, pieces of parsley are moved a half inch to the left, no, up, no, down. Of course there are “tricks” used to make the food look fresh when it’s been sitting there a half hour, like spraying water on it, or brushing on oil, but she strives to use the natural look as much as possible.

Of course most of us amateurs (and I now have a feel for how amateurish I am) don’t have those resources available, but she did talk a lot about light, composition, camera angles, what the edges look like, and so on. The “students” had chances to take shots, and then she would critique them, courteously of course. She kept emphasizing that you need to have a story for a picture…why do I want to look at this? Where does my eye fall? Anyway, it was a nice glimpse into the professional end of the business. She’s pretty amazing. I hope maybe I can take something away from the experience that will eventually make some of my shots more interesting..

Funny, she didn’t mention

DFD

Lunching in Leonardtown...

Back to more familiar territory after the technology nightmare…

I met a friend for lunch on Friday at Cahil’s Café, the new occupant at the Antiques Center in Leonardtown. I think this is the third (?) attempt at a restaurant in that location. It survived for a long time on its “Tea Room” theme, but lately there have been attempts to put in a “real” restaurant. The location is a bit of a hindrance, tough to get into from traffic, separated from the heart of Leonardtown, next to a car parts store, so some hurdles to overcome. I had heard some good reports (actually from the same friend) about the food so was glad to accept the invitation to lunch.

You still enter directly into one of the two dining spaces which is sort of awkward, resulting in a “Tah Dah!” entrance. Boom. There you are. And the room is small enough that tables are quite close together, making any conversation that you would prefer not to share somewhat difficult. The protection against this is when enough tables are occupied, your conversation gets lost in the others. There is another dining space that perhaps would be a little more discreet. The remains of the Victorian/Tea décor is still evident, but again, you play the hand you’re dealt.

Currently Cahil’s is open for dinner Friday and Saturday only, with lunch (11 to 4) every day, including a Sunday Brunch. We were seated at a table in the corner which was relatively private for a little bit until another part arrived. Subjects of conversation changed. There is a small card on the table with quite an impressive list of teas, some traditional, some a bit frilly (I think there was a chocolate in there, I’m not sure). The menu itself is a do-all, covering lunch and dinner options, through Starters, Salads, Sandwiches, Entrées, and “Finishing Touches”. The menu proclaims that (sic) “EVERYTHING is house made (okay, we don’t churn the butter…yet”. Without going through the menu in detail, most any wish will be met with a choice or two, including some interesting dishes (Spanikopita, stuffed shells) Prices are mid range, salads under ten (unless you add shrimp or chicken), sandwiches and entrées, about $12.

With the prelims accomplished, we were approached by a server and asked about drinks. The wine list that was produced had some interesting wines on it, along with some fairly high prices. Many were in the eight or nine buck range. We selected a Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Noir. We were also informed that they were out of (a subject of the next post) the Salmon Sliders that my friend had enjoyed on the previous visit. The first glasses of wine arrived and eventually disappeared keeping the conversation flowing without so much as cracking the menu. Our server who had a delightful British accent, checked once, and the second time she said “I can see you are taking your time, so when you decide to order (I wish you could hear this in person), just raise a finger. Do NOT snap your fingers, just raise a finger and I’ll come over). Midway through the second class of wine we finally decided on food, raised a (index of course) finger and selected a couple of sandwiches. I took the “Roasted Beef Tenderloin” and the other a “Classic Chicken Salad’. My friend uses chicken salad as a bench mark much as I do “the drink” for the bar, or veal piccata for Italian places.

The food arrived not too long after ordering. I was kind of wondering how a “Roasted Beef Tenderloin” might appear, given a tenderloin doesn’t have much fat. I peeked under the bread (which MAY have been house made, but really didn’t look it) and found slices of beef that appeared to me to be more from a pot roast cut than tenderloin. The mean was uniformly gray and had lots of fat marbling. It wasn’t tough, and was the most likely the reason that it had fairly good taste, and the horseradish cream zipped it up a bit along with the peppery arugula. It certainly wasn’t what I expected. The chicken salad’s appearance immediately brought to mind the Iconic (to me, at least) Straub’s Chicken Salad (from St. Louis), as it was composed of chunks of white meat, and probably sour crème or yoghurt or some combination. But, unfortunately that’s where the parallel stopped. There was no “crunch” involved like celery or green pepper, just chicken and the white stuff. Good taste, but could have been punched up a bit. It was served on a (chosen) rye, albeit it was that “swirled” style of light and dark which I do not care for. It just ain’t right..

Anyway, we opted for some special homemade desserts, a strawberry Charlotte for my friend, and a sucker dessert for me, bourbon chocolate pecan pie. (you can choose whether it’s P-kan or p-CON).



The Charlotte was huge, light, and quite delicious. I thought my pie was sort of on the dense side and maybe just a little overcooked, although I managed to lay waste to it.

What made the lunch was the service however (for once, thank you God). Understanding what the table wants (to be left alone in this case), and just down to earth face to face communication (what would you like to drink). No stilted “Hi I’m…”, or “may I suggest” she just took care of business in an unobtrusive way. I think her generation and (apparent) British background helped immensely. The food was good, although I hoped for better, and even my companion admitted it wasn’t up to the previous experience. Of course in that case it may have been that second time is never as good as the first kicking in..

I want to go back again, and it will be for dinner. Lunch is a preview, dinner is the show. Which is why you should be

DFD

i don't know how this got so long, sorry, three more things to relate, but there will be a Tuesday for that...

Gagged By Google

Ain't technology wonderful department..

To paraphrase an old conundrum, computers are like women, you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. Yesterday, I sat down to take a look at what was going on in the county and distill into my usual insightful, clever and informative Friday morning blog. As usual I had to call up my own blog to sign in, and was surprised to see that the post that was displayed was over a week old. Heart rate increasing, I clicked the “sign in” button and was greeted with “Blogger is not available right now, sorry for any convenience”. Thump thumb thump, I quickly called my Blog Support go to guy and was told that it was all over twitterdom that Blogger was having issues. Pulse slowly returned to normal, and occasional checks revealed nothing had changed until late afternoon. By then I was whipped and decided to defer till today with reduced content.

So just a few minutes ago, I got to the sign in screen, filled in the requisite security stuff and a screen popped up that informed me there was a problem with my settings. What followed then was a frustrating half hour of wending my way through clearing cookies, browsing history, trusted sites, on and on. A couple of restarts later, I was finally able to access my account. I don’t know why these things happen

So the “to do” list is somewhat shorter now, but would include the Plein Aire deal and “Taste of Solomons” across the river, now in progress. The benefit of the festivities will be to support the annual 4th of July fireworks, which usually figures large in the social calendar of the Flutters and guests at the digs.

There will be a little reception at Carmen’s at 7:30, and we are planning on attending that.

The season finale COSMIC concert is this weekend with an edition tonight (7pm at Great Mills High School) and tomorrow (4pm Crossroads Christian Church in St. Leonard), presenting the Barber of Seville with help from the Light Opera Company of Southern Maryland. Opera, either light or heavy, is not the feeder’s favorite musical form, so we’ll give it a pass. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Foodie Content:

At this point, I was going to relate yesterday’s luncheon experience at Cahil’s, the latest occupant of our Antiques Center in Leonardtown, but I’m so worked up over all this computer stuff I will delay that a day.

Argggghhhh..

Oh I notice that the date of Friday yesterday was 13. Hmmmmm

and in light of all above, i just might relieve you of your commitment to

DFD

CD..... D minus

At least for last night.....you just never know when you walk through the door

After a sobering day of getting over the lessons in life, MFO and I decided to go “out” for dinner, and recalling a pleasant experience visiting the back end of CD Café (which is really “next door at the….”), we decided to go back for a bite. When we approached the door, we noticed there weren’t many customers, which is fine with us. We perched on the same couple of stools at the copper topped bar as we had last time. The first thing we noted was that the person behind the bar was not the same as last time. She was engaged with another server/barkeep who appeared to be explaining the use of the POS system, and how to fill out an order ticket. Uh Oh. And indeed we find out it was her first night on the job with bar duty. What followed was an on the job training session that went past irritating to a humorous entertaining experience.

First lesson was in response to my ordering of my DMOTRWAT drink and MFO’s request for a Toasted Head Untamed White. Both behind the bar people immediately consulted the “Bar Keepers Friend” looking up Manhattan recipes, and after finding the Dry version proceeded to the back bar with the book. They did ask if I wanted “Bourbon or Whiskey” and were satisfied with my response of Jim Beam. Fortunatley they reached for the green bottle vermouth, so that was okay and put that in the shaker with the Beam and a dash of Bitters. After shaking the drink one grabbed an “up glass”, and trying to be helpful, I called out “on the rocks!” to be greeted with a blank stare and they proceeded to strain the drink into the “up” glass, to which they added the ice cubes. Upon serving I said it was odd to get an on the rocks drink in an up glass! Response: "what’s an up glass?" after an explanation, oh, thanks. Then some rummaging produced the Toasted Head.. Don't bother to order that...

Another lesson occurred when a fellow diner at the bar asked if he could have a Grand Marnier with his crème brulee. “Is that some kind of wine?”. No, it’s a liqueur. “Oh, I don’t think we have that”. Yes you do, there’s the bottle right there. After guidance (next shelf down, go left, go right, the one with the white label) it was found and then she grabbed a red wine glass. Don’t you have a snifter? “what’s that?”. It’s kind of like that glass but with a shorter stem. “I don’t think we have any of those, but I’ll ask”. Soon returned with another server who opened a cabinet door and produced said snifter. “I’ll be darned”.

My empty drink glass remained on the bar the whole time I was there, and along the way, other little gaffes of service were made, but figuring she had had a tough evening we let it go. All through the experience there were multiple apologies, for being new, first time, sorry this, and sorry that. And, to be honest (as I always am), she was trying hard and just had apparently been thrown into the fire.

The food was good. I originally ordered an off the menu grilled tuna dish, which they were out of (my lot in life lately) and settled instead for a grilled salmon with a creamy dill sauce over roasted potatoes, with sautéed green beans. Generous and tasty. MFO had the turkey burger, which, although kind of thin was enjoyed aided by a nice tangy sauce.

A unique experience to be sure, and hopefully it will indeed be unique to last night. OJT one time is okay. If it gets repeated on next visit (and there will be one), then some decisions will have to be made..

We were of course

DFD

Bonus chuckle passed along by loyal reader (if the shoe fits department):

Wife asks Engineer Husband to go to the market.
Sure, what would you like?
A quart of milk, and if they have eggs, get six.
Husband arrives back at the house with six quarts of milk.
Wife asks why in the world did you get six quarts of milk?
Response: They had eggs…