Honey-Nut Sundaes WIth Nazar's Balli Cerez

Repurpose some Turkish nut spread by using it to create a honey-nut sundae with vanilla ice cream.

The Omak brand balli cerez is a thick spread made of crushed nuts soaked in honey.  Crushed pistachios, walnuts, hazelnuts and more fill the small jars at Nazar Market in Columbia.  They're doused in honey, and I have no idea how Turkish people use them -- other than that they're a "snack," according to the guys at Nazar.

I used them as a sundae topping.  I spooned a few tablespoons over vanilla ice cream, then poured on a few tablespoons of honey because the balli cerez is more nut than sauce.  That made for an ice cream parlor dessert -- crunchy, sweet and way more natural than that Magic Shell that I loved as a kid.

Nazar Market has become a delicious source for unique items.  You get fresh meat -- including ground lamb -- from the halal butcher, along with many Turkish items that are great on their own or work well in recipes.  Plus, you can walk across the parking lot for a sandwich at Bon Fresco.  Check out all my Nazar posts.

Is Frisco Tap Room Still Set To Move Next Week?

Anyone know when the new Frisco Tap Room will open -- and usher in a new era for the craft beer and burrito scene that started at Frisco Grille & Cantina?

The word on Twitter in early November was that Frisco was targeting Thanksgiving for the move.  They're going to have more space and even more options for interesting beers and southwestern food.  People rave about everything from the brew to the children's menu.  Once they're open, I want to update the post about beers.

(Update: See the comments below.  The Baltimore Beer Guy says the latest word was that the current location will close in November and the new one will open in early December.  Check below for more.)

Laurel Tavern Donuts in Laurel

The flavor in a donut comes from sugar and oil, but the magic comes from making fried food that tastes light.

The donuts at Laurel Tavern Donuts comes out soft and puffy, topped with the simplest cinnamon or frosting and easily the best part of a cold morning.  Even the cake donuts are light.  They have a sweet crust that supports the strawberry frosting, then gives way to airy cake inside.

If Laurel Tavern Donuts were owned by some 21-year-old college grads, it would have a marketing story about old-fashioned technique and artisan donuts.  They'd hit up a local farm for some berries, and they'd push a tale of locally-grown produce to get some of the love that food writers have blindly lavished on cupcakes and lawyers who quit to make food.

But this is Laurel.  The "tavern" sits on U.S.1, and its immigrant owners offer coffee and a dozen variations on fried dough.  You should go for a donut worth the calories.  Sweet, slightly oily, but still light enough to make Dunkin Donuts taste leaden and tired.  Check out the donut holes as well.

The Laurel Tavern is in the former location of the Little Tavern chain.  They also serve up breakfast sandwiches and mini-burgers along the lines of the Little Tavern speciality.  I haven't tried those yet.

Laurel Tavern Donuts
115 Washington Boulevard (U.S. 1)
Laurel, MD 20707
301-362-7551

NEAR:  The donut shop is on the south-bound side of U.S. 1 where it separates in downtown Laurel.  It is a few stores south of the light at Main Street.  Look for a converted Little Tavern -- and thus a tiny white building with green trim -- on the right side of the road.

Anyone Know Where To Find Venison Sausage?

Anyone know where to buy venison sausage?  Amelia picked up some pork sausage from Boarman's to spice up her Thanksgiving stuffing.  I haven't seen venison there or at the Laurel Meat Market.

Anyone have a hookup for deer sausage?  Or German sausage of any kind?  The folks at Ellicott City Brewing told Amelia that they get their venison sausage from a place called Baker's.  Does that ring a bell? Anything closer than the German Gourmet in Falls Church?

New Rolls - And Masterpieces - At Sushi Sono

Sushi Sono has added two new rolls -- master pieces of fish and vegetables that push their already-imaginative food.

The new rolls come on top of one of the best restaurants in Howard County.  It's pricey.  About $50 for three large rolls, a soda, and edamame.  But those rolls are unique and inventive:

• The "sunshine roll" -- tuna with crunchy seaweed topped with spicy tuna tataki and a dallop of mango sauce.  It's a spectacular roll.  Fish with the spicy edge, the sweet of fruit, and the crunch of the seaweed.  Special seaweed, the Sushi Sono folks explained.  Cooked to create the crunch.  Not the crackling of a cracker, but more the crunch of bean sprouts.
• The "sushi nugget" -- cooked tuna with onion, topped with scallop and then baked.  You get five pieces laid on their side.  It's rich and cozy.  The wrapper has a slight crunch, but the real flavor comes from the fish and, I think, some type of sauce.

The sunshine roll matches the No. 12 roll that the Columbia restaurant introduced earlier this year.  That was a delicious roll with a tempura shrimp topped with tuna and a spicy sauce.  The sunshine is light and flavorful.  The tuna is spiced, then seared before its sliced on top.  The roll fulfills sushi's best promise of fresh fish dressed up for a party.

In contrast, the sushi nugget was a complete surprise.  The roll comes hot.  It's not the clean, light notes of most sushi.  The warm, mellow flavor comes more like a winter soup, a restaurant soup where someone with skill has balanced ingredients into some special.  It's closer to Volt than a sushi bar.  Rich and concentrated like a stuffed mushroom, but sweet with the scallops on top.

I don't throw Volt around lightly.  This was a dish that someone thought about.  "Small plate" cuisine where some chef has experimented and turned out bites that I couldn't figure out, let alone replicate.  Hustle over.  It's worth your while.

Sushi Sono is really one of the best restaurants in Howard County.   Rolls have gone up about a dollar on the new menu, but it's still one of the great splurges.  Casual and relaxed, but classy enough to make even a Wednesday special.  Order green tea.  It's gratis, and it is absolutely delicious tea.

Anyone Know If The Bon Appetit Cafe Opened?

The Bon Appetit Cafe & Bakery on Rte 40 has been under construction since at least last spring.  Does anyone know if opened yet?  Know the story?

(Update:  It opened in November 2010.)

Shopping For Your Howard County Thanksgiving

Time to think about your Thanksgiving weekend -- whether you're hosting here in Howard County or carrying the holiday out of town.

I'm an advocate for non-traditional Thanksgiving.  Thai Thanksgiving comes to mind.  But that gets vetoed by my better half and my equally-traditional sister-in-law. Whatever way you go, you can get the good stuff close to home.

• Start traditional.  Maple Lawn Farms grows turkeys on Rte 216 in Fulton.  They sell from the farm, and Mom's Organic Market in Jessup sells them along with two other varieties.  I haven't eaten one yet, but I hear they're very good.
• Spice up your table.  Zip up the stuffing with sausage from Boarman's in Highland or Laurel Meat Market.  Grab some vegetables at Gorman Produce Farm in Laurel (as long as you go Thurs-Sunday).  Maybe try a shrimp plate or oysters from Frank's Seafood in Jessup.
• Prepare for baking.  Ann's House of Nuts in Columbia sells all kinds of items to bake into sweets. They also sell in-shell nuts if you want a bowl on nuts on your fireplace.
• Pick up dessert.  French pastries and fruit tarts at Bonaparte Bread in Savage.  Cupcakes, cookies and tarts at Touche Touchet in Columbia.  
• Grab a few specialties to amuse your guests.  Pistachio nougat at Caezar's International Market in Elkridge.  Orange blossom water for a special lemonade.  Old Bay chocolate crabs at Sweet Cascades in Ellicott City.  Or bacon chocolate at im Wine where they'll help you pick out the grape, then sell you bacon candy bars.
• Plan to get out of the house.  For the kids, a new indoor miniature golf course has opened in Jessup.  For a break in the leftovers, grab tacos.  It's a light lunch and a beef or pork alternative to turkey sandwiches -- at R&R Taqueria in Elkridge or Lily's Mexican Market in Columbia.
• Snap up a quick lunch on Black Friday.  At the mall, I'd get Yogiberry or maybe cross the road for Chinese at Red Pearl or sushi at Sushi Sono.  From the Target, consider a post-shopping lunch at Royal Taj.

And if your family is open-minded, consider just spicing up your entire meat.  That Thai Thanksgiving would come from the H Mart.  Or you could go Mexican.  Lily's Mexican Market sells spices to rub on the turkey.  Mexican chorizo for the sausage.  Maybe cactus for a side dish?  I can't serve that here, but there's always hope for you!

Did Maruha Japanese Steakhouse Close?

Has anyone been past the Hickory Ridge village center to see if Maruha Japanese Steakhouse is still serving sushi and hibachi?

There was a tweet yesterday from Theycallmef where he reported Maruha "dark and shuttered" on a Saturday night.  Maybe they were just closed for a night.  The restaurant only opened last year.

Link: El Hidalgo On HoCo Rising

El Hidalgo in Elkridge starts off with homemade salsa and kept pleasing HoCo Rising and Jane -- as reviewed on the HoCo Rising blog yesterday.

I still haven't been to the new, family-run restaurant.  I keep hearing a steady report of "good, authentic food" and "spotty service."  That was Rob Kaspar's review in the Sun, and it sounds like that was the scene when the bloggers ate Saturday night.

Twitter and Snapper From Frank's Seafood

I'm getting new fangled news from Frank's Seafood -- even as I'm trying to learn some old-fashioned grilling techniques.

The Jessup fish market has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and started offering specials.  The retail outlet inside the wholesale fish market has more than 60 years experience, but they're on the new trend with their own Twitter feed -- which you can follow.

I stopped at Frank's Saturday and picked up a whole snapper.  Grilling whole fish remains one of my quests.  Everyone says it keeps the fish moist, and I have all kinds of cookbooks with suggestions to effortlessly lift fillets right off the bone.

The Laotian snapper tasted delicious.  Steven Raichlen's Planet Barbecue has lived up to my early review -- everything is delicious.  But I basically shredded the meat taking it off the fish.  (Mrs. HowChoe doesn't relish the tail, the skin or the eye socket on her plate.)  Served up with beets, chard from my garden, and a sliced baguette from Bon Fresco Sandwich Bakery in Columbia.

Frank's still has crabs.  For $30, you got two dozen #1 males.  Frank's sold me delicious crabs in August, and they were saying that they're even better at this time of year.  They also had oysters.  Several varieties, including a small wild Maryland variety and some farmed, larger bivalves from Virginia and beyond.

Are there any other Howard County restaurants using Twitter regularly?  DiamondbackTvrn, NottinghamsMD, Touche Touchet, GrilledCheeseCo, ChefKloby and VictoriaGPub come to mind.  Anyone else that you recommend?

Touche Touchet Has Samples All Weekend -- As Discovered By A Hoco Politico Blog Investigation

Hoco Politico talks up Kloby's Smokehouse -- particulary the smoked turkey platter -- and then stops by Touche Touchet for coffee, carrot cake cupcakes, and samples in a post today.

The big discovery is that this weekend is the Columbia bakery's "open house."  They will have samples on Saturday and Sunday.  Touche Touchet is always worth your time, and you should enjoy a cool weekend with a sweet and a hot drink.

Sources say that early versions of the Hoco Politico post had photos of Hoco Politico buying two carrot cake cupcakes.  He appears to have revised so that he can tell Mrs. Politico that he only got one.  Oh, wait.  That's my plan for tomorrow.

Link: Sarah Says' Wonderful CSA

Sarah Says posts again about her CSA delivery and what she does with the vegetables.

I had figured that my CSA was going to inspire the same kinds of posts.  Unfortunately, mine was more of a learning experience -- new farmers, new consumer.  Good to have tried, but you need to read Sarah Says if you want real CSA inspiration.

(Hat tip to Hoco Rising, who does a great daily post where he writes himself and links to others.)

Link: Winter CSAs By Breezy Willow, Martin Herb

Two local farms will try to continue to sell local produce through the winter, reports the Ellicott City Patch, although they're not both really farm-based CSAs

Read the details carefully.  The Breezy Willow Farms in West Friendship will run a CSA from March to June.  Martin Herb Farm, which runs CSAs at Centennial High School in Ellicott City and at Pointers Run Elementary School in Clarksville, will run from December into early summer -- and it will mix local herbs and root vegetables mixed with locally-stored apples and produce imported from Florida.  Think of it as "thoughtfully-imported" rather than an actually locally-farmed.

Columbia Wegmans -- The Building Is Going Up

After so much, the construction of the Columbia Wegmans has started to go up.  After years of waiting and months of knocking down trees and old warehouses, they're starting to build up, reports M.R. who took a photo yesterday.

Incredible that we need to wait until 2012, but it is good to see that they're pushing out.  Join the Facebook group.

(Update: It turns out that they're building a retaining wall.  I have never been so excited by a retaining wall.)

Remember that the Baltimore Sun's Mobbie's contest runs through Nov. 12 so please vote for HowChow.  You can vote once a day!

Did Curry N Spice Reopen In Columbia?

Poking around the Mango Grove Web site, I saw a map referencing the Curry N Spice carryout and Indian grocery.

Did this reopen?  I seem to remember that the Mango Grove owners started with Curry N Spice, but it had closed by the time I started driving around Columbia in 2005.  But the map says "Now Open!" with an address on Dobbin Road.

Best Lunches Around Columbia; Help The Patchers

With AOL's new Patch site, Columbia gets a new daily journalist -- and one who needs somwhere to eat.

David graduated from Wilde Lake a decade ago, and he is back now to cover his old home town.  Lunchtime, I'm mostly in Washington, but I was recently tweeting with David about lunch and thinking about Sidamo's sandwiches.  Even though reporters never got paid enough to eat out every noon, it's fun to grab a bite and to show the journalistic flag.

There are good options in Columbia.  Start with sandwiches -- New York Deli for corned beef, Bon Fresco for everything, and Riverside Coffee for that bulgogi panini.  Consider a side trip to Maiwand Kabob , a splurge at Sushi Sono, or maybe An Loi's pho on a cold day.  Work your way up to the Indian buffets.  House of India is wonderful, and I have heard great things about Royal Taj on McGaw Road.

Where do you go for lunch?  People talk up some Columbia delis, although I haven't tried them all.

Lunch ideas outside of Columbia will have to be for other folks.  HowChow covers the entire county, but AOL has divided the world -- a separate Patch for Ellicott City and others for Savage and Elkridge.  That's four journalists who need lunch ideas, although they aren't allowed to travel far.  AOL actually forbids David from leaving CA's jurisdiction during business hours.  Journalism jobs are so scarce that these folks agreed to implanted GPS technology that warns their editors if they veer from the hyper-local.  If you leave your assigned census tract . . . you're fired.

So Elizabeth will have to eat all the tacos at Elkridge's R&R Deli.  Brandie can't share her pork belly from Honey Pig on Rte 40.  And Brian will be all alone at Savage's Bonaparte Bread.  Since you can go anywhere, where do you crave for lunch?

Vote For HowChow . . . Once A Day!

The Sun has resurrected The Mobbies for 2010 -- so it's time to vote and to vote for HowChow.

You can vote once a day until November 12 by clicking on the image above or by perusing the Mobbies list of food blogs.  That list includes a bunch of good food blogs, but I have better campaign promises.  If you vote for HowChow, then Columbia will get a Wegmans . . . eventually.

The Sun creates real buzz with this second annual blog beauty contest.  If it were a real Maryland election, we would be out creating slates of multiple candidates -- like a Vote Howard County slate where you can click for folks like HoCo Rising and Tales of Two Cities in the sections for the neighborhood blogs or the politics blog.

Start voting or we're going to get desperate.  You'll come to home to robo-calls from Mrs. HowChow on your answering machine.  Or she'll fill your front lawn with those signs.

Ask HowChow: A Quiet Sunday Lunch For Ten

An anonymous commenter asked for a recommendation -- a Sunday afternoon lunch spot where the food is good, the atmosphere is quiet, and the folks are relaxed enough for separate checks.

I would appreciate suggestions for a Sunday afternoon location for a group of 10+. The criteria would be a quiet environment so we can hear each other talk, separate checks and located in the Columbia area. I love Bon Fresco and promote their delicious sandwiches all the time, but there is a noisy drink? machine. Plus a group of 10+ relaxing would take up too much space. We enjoy Bangkok Garden located at Robert Oliver Place but looking for other possibilities. Sidamo would be super but a little too far. Thank you. 

Any ideas?  Sidamo is really a great choice because the sandwiches are delicious, and you could get counter service and space to spread out.  Same at Kloby's Smokehouse just off Rte 29 on Johns Hopkins Road.

But if they're too far, then I would think about slightly-larger joints up north.  Coal Fire Pizza has a bar area that might be perfect for 10 people sit in peace.  Pho Dat Trahn on Snowden serves reasonable food, and I bet there is space at lunch time.  And the Indian buffets charge a set price, so the check is easy to split even if it comes combined.  Start with House of India, where I have seen them make large tables for groups.

Any other suggestions?

Link: El Hidalgo Reviewed In The Sun

Now, I need to go to El Hidalgo in Elkridge.  I have two Mexican places that I want to try, but Rob Kasper's review of El Hidalgo highlights a Mexican dish that neither he nor I had had before -- tlacoyos.

Kasper says the new restaurant on Marshalee Drive compares with his visits to Arizona.  Still sounds like the service is getting up to speed, but it sounds like El Hidalgo is going for more than your average Tex-Mex.

Link: Great Sage Reviewed In The Sun

Great Sage in Clarksville got reviewed Saturday in the Sun as a vegan restaurant with a "demilitarized approach."

Richard Gorelick gives a generally positive report -- highlighting the fact that Great Sage offers some food that looks like meat and some that doesn't.  In the past, I have thought that the straight-vegetarian items were more successful than the "looks like a meat dish" options.  But Gorelick liked them all.