In case you were not paying attention to the Baltimore area internet in the past few days, it was initially reported on Monday by Sun reporter Justin Fenton that during a pub crawl along Fort Avenue on Saturday (an overlapping pub crawl not associated with the one I plugged a few days prior), an altercation broke out which eventually resulted in one man being stabbed in the back by another, the details of which unfolded during the day in the form of edits on the original post. The nature of the report and the individuals involved – for whatever reason – sparked what essentially amounts to a race war in the comments section within a few hours; truly some of the most vitriolic commentary I’ve seen in relation to Baltimore neighborhoods and their opinions of one another in a very long time (this line of commentary continues on Sam Sessa’s Midnight Sun blog here). I recommend reading these as a case study on how truly screwed up we are as a community, especially given the fact that someone’s life was nearly lost in the incident.

(continue reading…)

While I normally wouldn’t be caught dead in Stalking Horse (26 E Cross St., Federal Hill) on a weekend evening, I have to admit they’ve got some pretty good bar food. Weeknights at Stalking Horse are quiet and usually feature CHEAAAAP specials, so I’d recommend it. At any rate, this is about nachos so let’s talk about nachos. The nachos at Stalking Horse are $6.99 and featured tri-colored chips, cheddar, salsa, guac, sour cream, jalapenos and black olives. For $2.99 more you can add chicken or beef, and for $3.99 more you can add steak or jumbo lump crab meat.

I guess if I had to use a term for the nachos at Stalking Horse it would be “totally adequate.” They have all of the toppings people want and/or like, at a very very reasonable price. They satisfy all of the requirements for a decent pile and deliver plenty of flavor and a generous helping, even for two people. This particular serving had just a little too much salsa and not enough cheese, but not so much out of the ordinary as to cause me to hate them uncontrollably.

But one thing sets these nachos apart in my mind that has nothing to do with NachoQuest simply due to the Nacho Manifesto’s first law; you can substitute waffle fries for nachos at no additional cost. I’m going to go right ahead and guess that in the event you order waffle fries instead you won’t be getting nearly as much, but considering this is an option you see almost nowhere else in the city, I thought it was pretty awesome. If anyone out there has tried them, let me know how they were!

Bottom line: The nachos at Stalking Horse are really good.

Four Golden Nachos out of Five
(view the NachoQuest map so far here)

(video is up on our webspace, apologies for the lack of ease of use that is youtube)

While rummaging through an entire life’s worth of crap left in my childhood closet the other day, I found something of untold worth: my old VHS collection. $35 dollars for a video capture device and hours of editing later, I’ve got a video treasure on my hands – Dave Attell’s visit to Baltimore for his Comedy Central show, Insomniac. The Baltimore episode is from season 1, and isn’t available on DVD. In fact, I couldn’t find it anywhere else on the internet. Unfortunately it’s not the whole episode, but it’s a pretty good glimpse at 2000 era Baltimore, where smoking was still allowed in bars and Bohager’s was the venue of choice for drunken debauchery years before Harbor East even existed.

Dave pops into The Wharf Rat, Mum’s, Bohagers and hangs out by 723 and gets harassed by idiots. Enjoy!

(MAC USERS: click this, or maybe buy a PC)

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I’ve always enjoyed the food at No Way Jose. I don’t care what anyone says, they’re mexican is pretty good stuff despite the fact that Blue Agave is practically right next door (not to mention Pop Tacos has awesome burritos etc. for much less) and the “upscale” Federales Cantina is on the horizon. And these nachos are, in short, pretty good stuff too. But not great.

The nachos have some good, fresh ingredients. Good pico, comes with guacamole and sour cream – and fresh jalapenos. Nice. Especially with a base price of $7.99. ($2 extra for meat) And the chips are light and crispy, in fact they’re some of the best tortilla chips I’ve had, unlike most of the heavily salted chips that most other places have. And it looks like a nice big plate of nachos, right? …not necessarily. Unfortunately for these nachos, they violate tenet #3 of the Nacho Manifesto. The toppings seen in the picture are hiding a huge pile of naked, dry, boring chips underneath. NOT RAD GUYS, NOT RAD.

I feel very strongly about tenet #3. Despite the fact that they include most of the ingredients I hope to see in a steaming pile of nachos, at a reasonable price, a big fat pile of naked chips underneath lowers the value substantially.

2 out of 5 golden nachos

(view the NachoQuest map so far here)

1211 S. Charles St., Federal Hill

(it’s pronounced “Deece”) The owner of di[e]ce, Shab Esfahani, has a great space on her hands and a great deal of potential. Aside from vintage goods, di[e]ce features handmade jewelry from local artisans (including some crazy “human ivory” pieces made with fingernails!), local art installations that are all for sale, and custom tailoring/alterations. One of my favorite items was a set of men’s scarves made out of old dress pants – which hopefully I’ll purchase when they attach a pocket on one of them.

Shab hopes to keep the inventory lively and fresh, always changing the game. So if you’re in the market for something original, stop by di[e]ce and have a chat about what you want, chances are pretty high it can happen!

Anyway I’m no fashion expert, but the grand opening was pretty great fun and I took some pictures, so here they are.

[Show as slideshow]