Trinidad Gourmet

Trinidad Gourmet
418 E. 31st St.
Charles Village/Waverly, Baltimore
410-243-0072
Cost: $
Reservations: take-out
Date of meal: Friday September 28, 2007 (7pm)
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It

Trinidad Gourmet isn't really a restaurant. It has a counter, but that's about it. It is designed for take-out. It also has a rather extensive barrier between the counter and the patrons; the proprietor is obviously worried about crime.

The menu has a wide variety of Trinidadian food. Oxtail stew, goat curry, jerk chicken, etc. Entrees in the $7-$9 range. I had the jerk chicken dinner ($9) which includes rice and beans (mixed together), sauteed spinach (my choice of vegetable) and plantains. The jerk chicken was tasty and well-cooked. I would have liked it with a bit more spice, but it was juicy and fell right off the bone. The spinach was simple but excellent; it was fresh, perfectly cooked and not overly oily or creamy. Rice and beans were good but standard. Plantains are always yummy, but these were a bit mushy for my taste.

Trinidad Gourmet is a solid choice for inexpensive take-out in the Charles Village and Waverly area. I prefer The Yabba Pot (which serves Caribbean-inspired vegan food nearby at the same price point with nicer decor and more inventive cuisine), but others who want more meat may not.

Nam Kang

Nam Kang
2126 Maryland Ave. (at 22nd St.)
Charles North, Baltimore
Korean
410-685-6237
Cost: $$
Reservations: Not needed
Date of meal: September 5, 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It

Nam Kang is a medium-size restaurant in the basement of a rather sketchy block of Charles North (south of Charles Village and North of Mt. Vernon); there are lots of Korean establishments right around here. The inside is far from fancy, but it is clean and has homey touches. (The bathroom could have been worse but it could have smelled better.) A few excellent signs about Nam Kang:

1. When I called, the hostess answered in Korean.
2. Nearly all the patrons were Korean, the main exceptions for the night being my spouse, me, and a Caucasian graduate student I know who speaks in Korean and lived in Korea.

Nearly 100% of the speaking we overheard was in Korean (except for the annoying flat-screen TV showing CNN which we asked them to turn down). While I'm not a stickler for excellent English skills for servers in ethnic restaurants, our server's English was not really good enough to do her job. We were unable to successfully communicate the question "Can we have dish x served without ingredient y?" Despite her limited English, the server was attentive, competent, friendly and tried hard. They were not understaffed.

Panchan were outstanding. For those who haven't done these before, these are the little bowls of vegetables, kimchi, and such that they bring out before the meal. These are free. The highlights for me were the fish cakes (sweet and savory) and a chili-rubbed green vegetable (spicy but not overpowering). The tofu was a little bland.

We ordered bolgogi ($17, Korean barbecued beef in a sizzling platter) that was a bit sweet and quite good, though the price was a bit steep. The Bi Bim Bap ($11 since we got it in a hot stone pot, which is rice with egg and vegetables) was also very good. The stone was hot enough that you got the crispy rice goodness that comes from the rice getting seared against the stone. These are standard dishes and they were perfectly prepared. We also got one of our favorites, which is a scallion pancake (with not-too-spicy green chilis, $11) which was out of sight. Thing of a pizza-sized vegetable-laden version of what you can get as an appetizer in Chinese restaurants. Huge chunks of scallion and chili would just fall out of it. It was oily enough not to be dry but not so much as to be heavy and gross. This could not have been better.

At the end of our meal, they brought complimentary desserty beverages. These were latte colored and cold, with visible grains of rice. It had a rice and (????) bean-paste taste. Normally, I do not really like Asian desserts (a horrible generalization, I know, but I have tried a lot of them in my day) but this one was refreshing, palate cleansing, and tasted pretty good.

I absolutely loved Nam Kang. I think it would be a strong contender is Seattle, LA, or San Francisco (cities with lots of options for Korean food), though it would have to cut prices 20% to be competitive in these cities. I would be happy to bring Korean friends here.

Gertrude's

Gertrude's
10 Art Museum Dr.
Charles Village, Baltimore
410-889-3399
Traditional American
www.gertrudesbaltimore.com
Cost: $$$
Reservations: Recommended
Date of meal: various (lunch)
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It

I've been to Gertrude's twice for lunch. If ever a place was aptly named, it is Gertrude's. This was my late paternal grandmother's first name, and she would have loved the place. It's attached to the Baltimore Museum of Art. You will find it filled with middle-aged and elderly women who go there in connection with museum trips. At lunch it has more than its fair share of Johns Hopkins' senior administrators.

Gertrude's is not interesting, hip, cool, trendy, or dynamic. It doesn't try to be. It is quiet and serene. The outdoor space is pleasant and the indoors have excellent but cool (as opposed to warm or bright, not cool as in hip) natural light. Dishes are well-prepared with quality ingredients from a menu that could not be more predictable. Lunches include a variety of sandwiches and crab cakes. I have ordered these twice, and enjoyed them quite a lot. They let the crab do the talking and go easy on other fillers.

It would not occur to me to come here for a date, an anniversary, or a birthday party for anyone under 40 chronologically or under 50 at heart. I would absolutely take my parents or my surviving grandparents. I would do a work dinner, or better yet lunch, where I wanted to talk seriously without interruption. It's the kind of place where no one would think it odd to pull out paperwork and go over it will a colleague if you were both wearing professional clothing.

The punch line is that for the right occasion Gertrude's is perfect. I'm just trying to minimize the frequency of these occasions.

Yabba Pot

The Yabba Pot
2433 Saint Paul St (at 25th St.)
Charles Village, Baltimore
410-662-8638
Vegan
www.theyabbapotcafe.com
Cost: $
Reservations: Not Needed
Date of meal: many
National Price-Quality Frontier: Extends It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Extends It


The Yabba Pot rocks! In all seriousness, I almost bought a house two blocks north of The Yabba Pot so that I could be near it. That the house is still for sale must mean I have non-standard criteria for houses. Good vegan food is hard to find even in cities with large yuppie vegan populations. To the best of my knowledge, Baltimore is not such a town. Still, this place is probably the best vegan restaurant I've ever been to in any city. The proprietor, Skai Davis, is a very nice woman from the Virgin Islands. (Her staff is not always so nice, but I can live with that.) Entrees vary from day to day and are ordered from the counter (cost: about $10). You can sit there and eat in a bright, cheery, simple environment. It is not fancy but it is perfectly pleasant. Take-out is also a good option. I've had a number of amazing tofu dishes, and even a kale dish which I liked even though I generally don't like kale.