Baltimore Green Week Restaurant Tour-Local Is Very Tasty!
What a way to cap off Baltimore Green Week! The Local Is As Local Does local food tour on Friday was a brilliant twist on a tasting event — a progressive tasting tour that stopped at four of Baltimore’s committed-to-local restaurants for a chat with the chefs and, of course, yummy food. I think it might be cruel to regale you with the lovely details of each stop . . . but I’ll hit some highlights anyway, in case you need motivation to sign up for this right away the next time Baltimore Greenworks and the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Alliance (CSBA) do this. (I’m sure they will do it again – the tour sold out in about two hours of being announced – and the 33 lucky folks who took every seat on the bus definitely got their money’s worth!)
So, let’s see:
three different varieties of cultured oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, house-corned beef tongue and the last of the winter’s house-made sauerkraut, a selection of local cheeses with poached rhubarb and gelled apple cider bites at Woodberry Kitchen, after chef-owner Spike Gjerde gave us one of the first public glimpses of his new preservation kitchen;
the season’s first Virginia asparagus with a Mornay-inspired sauce and Chapelle cheese from Maryland’s Eastern Shore from the kitchen of chef-owner Galen Sampson at reopened Dogwood;
at Gertrude’s, along with local wines, shrimp pate using crustaceans from Maryland’s Marvesta Shrimp Farm, asparagus frittata, and arugula pesto, all recipes from Lucie Snodgrass’ new book, Dishing Up Maryland, for which chef-owner John Shields wrote the forward;
finally, pate of chicken livers from Rumbleway Farm with local honey, house-made and cured saucisson, and mixed greens grown four blocks away at Hamilton Crop Circle (plus a personal visit from Crop Circle farmer Arthur Morgan) at Clementine, served by co-owners Cristin and Winston Blick.
Mind you, these are just highlights, there was even more than I had room to detail here. What really made this tour unique was that it began and ended at Real Food Farm, one of the many impressive urban agriculture programs flourishing in Baltimore. This one currently consists of three large hoop houses in which both educational and commercial agriculture project are taking place. In fact, greens and radishes from Real Food Farm were on our plates at a couple of our restaurant stops.
Although I’m told the idea was a last-minute brainstorm, the event came off very well. Other restaurants have already been calling Baltimore Greenworks and CSBA to be included on future events. Many folks who attended this time around would sign up again at the drop of a napkin, and there were plenty of people who were turned away and would love another chance. So I doubt we’ve heard the last of Local Is As Local Does food tours, which is very good news.
