LAMILL Coffee, Baltimore

Another fine addition to the Four Seasons in Baltimore is LAMILL Coffee, originally from LA. While the coffee is excellent, an added bonus is that pastry chef Chris Ford is responsible for most of the items on the menu.
He is certainly fond of making seasonal macaroons that are larger, usually a whopping 2-3 inches in diameter. I've had flavors like cinnamon brioche and red currant in the past.
One time, I tried his dense rich bacon cheddar scone as a savory alternative.

One of my favorites is hot beignets with your choice of dips. I end up getting the Meyer lemon curd all the time.
I recently tried the everything cookie, similar to Momofuku Milk Bar's compost cookie, it's got an assortment of items baked in it. What I could tell was chocolate chip, oatmeal, raisins, popcorn, potato chips, and pretzels.

 

I also recomment the delicious cinnamon brioche.

200 International Drive
Baltimore, MD

Baking for Good

I loved the concept of Baking for Good when I first heard about them. For each online purchase, they donate 15% to a charity of your choice (there are over 200 to choose from). I first sent them to a friend when her grandmother passed away, and when she raved about how good the cookies were, they became my go-to food gift of choice.

Everyone we sent brownies or cookies too loved them, and yet, I had never actually tasted any of these baked treats, only sent them out to others. Until recently...

We took the opportunity when we had a bunch of gifts to buy to throw in a few bags for ourselves. The chocolate chip cookie brownie (basically cookie dough dropped over a brownie and all baked together), I think, were my favorite. Warmed up briefly in a microwave, then topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup, they made great brownie sundaes. The s'mores brownies were super sweet but were fun ooey, gooey, treats. The traditional chocolate brownies were good, but I still think Redneckhunter makes the best on earth.

Can't wait until I have another excuse to try their oatmeal cookies, chocolate crackles, the list goes on. They also make fun decorated sugar cookie for every occasion you can think of - graduations, baby showers, weddings - they'll even do custom designs. As their motto goes, "a little sugar goes a long way."

Ta, Montreal

We had read about Ta, an Australian pie place that had opened up last summer. Situated on the edge of Parc Jeanne-Mance (near the big Parc Mont Royal), it was a perfect spot to pop in for lunch as we walked up toward Outremont and Mile End from our home base in the Plateau neighborhood.

Not sure if the name Ta is an acronym for Toutiere Australienne, or because it's an Aussie slang way of saying thank you. At any rate, the place was simple, satisfying, and good. They have a variety of pies with traditional (i.e. steak and kidney) and not so traditional (i.e. lamb roganjosh, Thai green curry) fillings.

I opted for the vegetable curry, topped with sweet potato. 1000yregg went Down Under all the way with the "Ned Kelly" (named after the infamous Irish-Australian hero) -- which I think was beef, bacon, egg, and cheese -- done as a "stack" with mashed potatoes, mushy peas, and gravy. I had mine with some HP brown sauce and chutney, though there were an assortment of other condiments to choose from -- everything from traditional ketchup to sriracha.

I knew I wanted to try the Afghan cookie for dessert when I read about it on their website -- a dark Belgian cocoa and cornflake cookie, covered with bittersweet chocolate. It was amazing - really great dark chocolate, and the cornflakes gave it such a great chewy-crunchy texture -- David Chang would have approved.

1000yregg opted for the Lamington, an Australian specialty which is like a petit four, dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut. Interestingly, while we had thought it was chocolate frosting, the cake is actually soaked in chocolate on the outer layer.

They had the story of the Lamington posted on the wall of the restaurant -- how the cake was name for Lord Lamington, Governor of Queensland, even though he actually hated the dessert and called it "those bloody poofy woolly biscuits." (though Wikipedia has varying accounts of its origins).

We could only finish 1/2 our desserts, but they were too good to leave behind, so we got a to-go baggie, making for a perfect accompaniment for a mid-afternoon ice coffee break later in the day. If I lived close to this place, I could see myself becoming a regular -- trying all the different flavors, buying frozen pies to take home, and of course, stopping in for those great cookies!

Ta (Tourtiere Australienne)
4520 Parc Avenue
H2V4E3, Montreal, QC
(514) 277 7437

Toki Underground, DC

Since I happened to be going to a show in DC Friday night, I decided to drop in to new ramen place, Toki Underground, which was having it's grand opening on H Street in the Atlas District.
They describe themselves as a Taiwanese ramen restaurant, but when you walk in, they greet you with "irasshaimase", the Japanese greeting. Ramen is originally a Chinese dish, and I do understand the distinction between native Taiwanese and Chinese, but a Japanese greeting in a Taiwanese place is a bit odd.
So I started with a cocktail from their fun sounding drink menu. I got the Toki Monster, made with Bulliet bourbon, pepper honey liqueur, Peat Monster scotch, and topped with a skewer of pork belly. It was a good mix pairing the warm salty fatty pork with the bourbon. They also serve Mr. Brown, a Taiwanese ice coffee, Ramune, Calpico, and Apple Sidra.
I started with an order of Taiwanese style cold tofu. It's covered with shaved bonito and a thick soy sauce. It was good. I wonder if the chef considered adding thousand year egg to the dish.
I tried a small side of their kimchee, which was actually pretty fresh. Not too bad either.
I knew I wanted to try some of their dumplings as they make them from scratch. You can order various fillings and there is the option of having them steamed, pan fried, or deep fried. I decided for the staple- steamed pork dumplings. You get 6 dumplings in a small bamboo steamer. The skins were good. I think I tasted ginger in the pork, and the whole group is covered with a tare sauce, which is a like a thick soy sauce. In a lot of Chinese places they have cabbage on the bottom of the steamer, but in this case, it was cheesecloth. Because they kept the place pretty dark, I almost ate this.
I would say my favorite dish was their ramen. I ordered their Toki Hakata classic ramen, which came with nori, sesame seeds, pickled ginger, char siu pork, and a sousvide egg. The broth, made with pork bones, was flavorful, and the noodles they use are quite good as well. The sousvide egg was pretty awesome, but I do like my pork a little more fatty.
For dessert, I had the milk & cookies. The chocolate chip cookies were baked fresh and were still warm. It was served with some ice cold milk.
I would say Toki is good, but I'm not sure if it's worth a long wait. With ramen & dumplings, I expect a quick turnaround for seating, but I heard wait times were up to 3 hours. Hopefully, over time, they will get into a groove.

Stuggy's - Hot Dogs in Fells Point, Baltimore

I went to a newly opened hot dog & sausage place in Fells Point in Balitmore called Stuggy's.
While they don't make the dogs onsite, they do try to rely on local sausagemaker Ostrowski's for their meats.
I ordered 2 hot dogs: the Carolina Slaw Dog, a 1/4 kosher hot dog with chili, & cole slaw, and the Bmore Dog, a similar hot dog served with grilled bologna & mustard. Both were hearty and delicious.
I should note that this place is the first place I've seen a whole soda machine serving only Boylan's soda. I had the birch beer.
I just could resist getting their fried Oreo cookies. They were dipped in funnel cake batter, deep fried and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Wrong and yummy.
I am interested in heading back to try their bison sausage and their hot Italian.


809 S Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21231

Berger Cookies

New York has it's Black and White cookie, but Baltimore is known for the Berger cookie. I don't think I've seen these outside of this region, but man are they delicious.
Imagine a tiny sugar cookie topped with a giant dollop of fudge. It's so rich and sweet that you can only really eat just one before demanding some milk to get it down.
So wrong it's right.

Favorite Girl Scout Cookies?

I just got my Girl Scout cookies today at work. Here is a poll for our readers/contributors: what is your favorite girl scout cookie?
I used to be a thin mints person, but as I've aged- samoas are my favorite.

Dessert meals in NYC

Sometimes when I'm grazing solo in NYC, I just eat what I want to and end up having dessert meals. Yesterday, after seeing the Anglomania exhibit at the Met, I head down 2 blocks to the Lady M Cake Boutique at 78th and Madison. My parents discovered the original Lady M in Tokyo and fell in love with their signature dessert: the milles-crepe, 20 crepes layered with "ethereally light and creamy custard." The hint of burnt caramelized sugar blowtorched on the top is divine. My dad has been trying for years to recreate this -- his personal spin on it is mixing matcha (green tea powder) into the cream.

I then head down to Union Square where I was going to eventually meet my friend, but in the chow tour, the destination was The City Bakery. I love love love the pretzel croissants -- a perfect hybrid: denser and chewier than regular croissants, but still with all those buttery layers; salted on top like a pretzel, but flaky like a croissant. The pretzel croissant inspires such devotion, that it actually has it's own website.

So feeling a bit more in the mood for actual food food, I did actually get a small plate from the salad bar -- for a white establishment they do tofu alright there, not bland like white people usually do, for one thing they use the dried smoked tofu that i like better. Then I got a 1/2 dozen of the melt-in-your-mouth mini peanut butter cookies to bring over to my friend's place.

And this was from NYC earlier in summer, though I never blogged about it. Another grazing lunch where we split a sandwich, so that we could get dessert (the dessert and coffee cost more than our actual lunch): blueberry pie with an oh-so-flaky crust and super-gingery ginger sandwich cookies with hazelnut cream from some place on 10th Street who's name escapes me. Irene if you read this, please help me out.

Rose's Cookies in Hampden

Since my friend Andy was in town from NYC, we had to go to Rose's Cookies on The Avenue in Hampden so he could sample the cookies. I believe he got the oatmeal chocolate chip, a ginger snap, and a snickerdoodle (I never know what the heck is in a snickerdoodle). They met with his approval, and I should note this means a lot as he is the cookie shop connoiseur of NYC.
I had enjoyed the Jell-o cupcakes from Rose's a few months ago, and the toasted coconut cupcake I had was also very tasty. If we hadn't eaten just a few hour before, they had some fresh chicken pot pies sitting out that looked simply delicious. I need to return.