my favorite places to eat in baltimore

What I like to eat in Baltimore:

1. fries with old bay from CVP (with a Yeungling to wash them down)
2. veggie supreme pizza from Hopkins Deli (the sauce is spicy and it is so good)
3. eggplant parm sub from Hopkins Deli
4. the Melting Pot
5. Pazo
6. crepes from Sofi’s Crepes
7. the portabella sandwich from the Saturday Farmer’s Market (SO GOOD!)
if you can think of any more places, feel free to add them by leaving a comment!

Anyway- about three of those places. The picture above shows Elana and Lisa holding a fresh crepe that we just got from Sofi’s.

I love Sofi’s (I used to work there and think it was the most fun and best job I ever, ever had- fun people, making food all day… what could be better?) Anyway, we went this past weekend and built our own crepe- gruyere, spinach, tomatoes, avocados. Always fresh ingredients, and you should go there, not only for the food but also for the decor! Orange and blue walls, warm lighting, and a shimmering mass of keys setting off one wall, cool rotating art- and always great music (the people who work behind the counter choose what to play). When I worked there, I really liked making crepes for myself with egg, cheddar, tomatoes, avocado, and pepper (and hot sauce). My favorite sweet one was first the Apple Crisp- apples, caramel, cinnamon, and graham cracker crumbs (but I would add granola as well) but then I began to really love the Bananarama- bananas, granola, honey, and peanut-butter- not only is it a great dessert or breakfast or snack, with proper crunch, but it has all these healthy, natural ingredients! So- go to Sofi’s, and say hi from me!

The Goat Cheese Bruschetta from Pazo. This is my favorite dish there (I am so lame, but the goat cheese is so soft and warm and the onion is round and sweetly plump and glossy and caramelized, the bread so crispy- it is a wonder not only for tastebuds, but texture-wise..) so a picture of it (after we attacked it):

We ordered a bunch of stuff- but here are some other pictures I remembered to take – we got the Goat Cheese Agnolotti, which was a fresh ravioli, perfectly cooked, with earthy mushrooms setting off the al dente pasta and creamy cheese.

and we got some strawberry sorbet, which was refreshing end to the meal!

The last item I’m going to post about is the Portabella Pita from the Saturday Farmer’s Market in Baltimore.

This pita sandwich is soooo amazing. There’s always a long line, and as you wait, smoke from the grilling of the marinated sweet onions and portabella strips gets in your eyes. But then it’s your turn and the guy behind the table asks, Everything? and you respond, yes! Everything, with a little bit of hot sauce! So he takes the pita, which is wrapped in tin foil, opens it with his tongs, stuffs in some lettuce (not iceberg but a darker variety), adds some grilled onions, stuffs the grilled portabella strips in there, adds more green onion and lettuce, sprinkles it all with this super-tasty spice mixture, dumps a handful of feta, and drizzles on the hot sauce till you tell him to stop. This sandwich is juicy and savory- the onions are a little added sweetness, and the hotsauce adds the kick. But the Mushroom people are only around in the summertime- which is sad. The past two weekends in Baltimore, they weren’t there. But I’m going to visit again, because it’s been way too long since I’ve bitten into this superb sandwich.