April Foodie Pen Pal

I would like to thank Azia over at Azia said what? blog.  She’s an amazing writer who participated in Nanowrimo 2013.  You should check out her blog.  But on to the box…  Unfortunately the first one she sent apparently got way-laid somewhere!  So, she was nice enough to send me a replacement box.  That is an AMAZING pen pal!

Foodie deliciousness!

As you can see, she really went all out for me.  The big thing in the box is the jar of Newman’s pasta sauce.  It looks so good.  Next up are the soy nuts (yum), Primal Strips (my FAVE!), individual servings of peanut butter and hot cereals, and veggie shells.  Also included but not pictured were like three kinds of tea (I drank the pumpkin chai right away), an energy drink addition, and some gummies (vegan of course!).  Again, thanks to Azia for the great box.

Here’s more info about the program:

• On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
• You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
• The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
• You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
• Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers.
• Foodie Penplas is open to US, Canadian & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans.

Restaurant Review: Indigma

Martinis

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and LOVED the food, but vowed you would never return again?  This was one of those places.  I bought a Groupon a bit back for this place as I had been a few years before.  I enjoyed the food on that occasion, but the service had been terrible.  I figured they had been open for this long, they had to have gotten better.  I was wrong.

Fried Naan and chutneys

We were a bit early for our reservations, so I asked the hostess if we could get a drink at the bar (it was happy hour still).  She told us we could not, that the bar was backed up….  Ok…  Well, we were shown to our seats and we waited.  We got our water.  We were asked for our drink orders.  Ernie ordered a French martini and I ordered the Hot and Dirty martini (made with pepper vodka and with a pickled spicy pepper garnish).  We waited….  We were asked for our dinner order. I had some questions about the options.  I enjoy Indian food and have eaten a fair amount of it.  But this place had some different options than what I’ve been used to.  They had this Thali option for ordering where you got an appetizer, rice, salad, raita, main, roti, and dessert.  The vegetarian option was malai kofta, so I decided to go with it.  Ernie got a three course prix fixe dinner and some chapati.  We got our drinks and toasted.  Ernie’s drink was mostly juice.  My drink was fine…  But it wasn’t made with pepper vodka.  Again, nothing really wrong with my drink, but it just wasn’t right.  The problem was that the server never really came back until much later for us to even complain, so it was useless at that point…

Coconut shrimp

We got fried naan with three chutneys and preserved lemon.  OMG.  That lemon was the most delicious few bites.  I mean, I made preserved lemon, but this wasn’t really salty.  It was spiced and a bit sweet.  SO GOOD.  I liked the cilantro chutney, but Ernie did not.  We both liked the tamarind one, but only Ernie liked the onion (too oniony for me).  Ernie’s coconut shrimp came next.  and I just sat there.  He eventually ate it, but we thought my appetizer was coming as well…  Nope.  But he said the coconut shrimp was SUPER tasty.  Next, Ernie got the lamb korma.  It was spicy according to him, but very very good.  NOW my food all came at once…  I had no idea.  The waiter never explained how this was supposed to happen.  I specifically asked what the Thali was about, but he didn’t really explain it.  If I knew that I was going to get EVERYTHING at once, I would have been fine with it.  But not so much….  On my “plate” was a samosa, daal, channa masala, saag paneer, rice, malai kofta, rice pudding, and raita.  ZOMG.  That saag paneer was absolutely amazing.  It was just spicy enough so that it just burned at the back of my throat…  so good.  The channa masala was nicely spiced, but not hot.  The daal was not really spiced at all.  I was a bit underwhelmed with it, but again not bad.  I gave the rice pudding to Ernie as he really wanted it (and so I could have his dessert).  I got to eat the chapati and Ernie ate the roti.

Lamb Korma

The last sort of dig at the end of the night was that I asked our waiter (who finally showed up) if I could have the recipe for the preserved lemon.  The waiter was unsure, but went to ask.  He came back and said the owner/manager would be out to talk to me.  He never came. We were there for over an hour and a half, much of it just waiting….  Again, the food was VERY good.  It was definitely a step above a “regular” Indian place.  But I would rather pay less and get a slightly “lower” quality of food and better service.  For sure.

samosa, daal, channa masala, saag paneer, rice, malai kofta, rice pudding, raita

Chinese New Year Dinner

My mom has organized a Chinese New Year dinner in Philadelphia for the past few years.  I haven’t been able to go for some reason or another, but this year my mother-in-law decided to treat my husband and I to it for our birthdays.  I must say that it was a great present.  First of all, the food is absolutely amazing.  I found every course to be wonderful, but some items were more amazing than others.  Secondly, the chef accommodated my food restrictions.  I was able to have a mostly vegan meal with only a bit of dairy in the mango puree.  Thirdly, the place is a BYOB AND there is no corkage fees!  I brought bourbon with ginger beer to drink with my meal, but there was wine, a drink called Cinnamon Toast Crunch (tastes like the milk leftover from the cereal sitting in it), margaritas, and plenty of other stuff.  Lastly, the place may not be the fanciest of places, but the chef was so personable that it made up for it.  A million times over for sure.

Here’s the list of the courses and food:

• Appetizers:  Vegetable spring roll, salt crusted tofu, fruit salad (the one on the plate had mayo, which was switched out for one that did not), eggplant “hamburger”, and tofu sushi with fries
• Intermezzo: Mango puree with ice and an envelope with a dollar for good luck
• Main Course: Tofu! in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce, rice with lettuce and corn and jicama, a “kebab” of fried tofu balls, pineapple, eggplant in a spicy sauce
• Sides: pasta with veggies (jicama, snow peas, green beans, carrots, lotus root), veggies for all (green beans, black mushrooms, corn, and sun-dried tomatoes)
• Dessert: fruit salad and a candy

A special thanks to Chef Joseph Poon for his hospitality and wonderful personality.  He does walking tours of Philly’s Chinatown along with teaching cooking classes and hosting dinners.

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February Foodie Pen Pal

OMG, super excited to tell you about my February Foodie Pen Pal box!  I haven’t participated in a few months due to moving, so I was happy to start back up again.  My match for the month, Megan, a high school student!, who runs the blog Integral of Health was great.  She listened to my crazy requests and delivered a great box.

Pen Pal Box

In the box was:

• Cholula chili lime hot sauce!  I’ve never had this kind, so I’m super excited to add this hot sauce to my repertoire
• Chai Spice Tea (yum!)
• Peeled Organic Apples (only apples, so good!)
• Natural peanut butter (I’m not normally a huge fan of peanut butter, but this has a nice nutty taste)
• Love Crunch dark chocolate berry granola (HOLY CRAP GOOD!)

Here’s the information to participate next month:

• On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
• You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
• The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
• You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
• Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 
• Foodie Penplas is open to US, Canadian & European residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. Same with Europeans. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

Turkey Substitute Roundup

So, I’ve been a vegetarian for half of my life now.  That means 15 Thanksgivings without turkey.  The first couple of years it was all about the sides.  I know PLENTY of people that aren’t vegetarians that prefer the sides anyway.  So, it didn’t really seem like that big of a deal to just not eat turkey.  Well, the years went on and my cooking skills did in fact increase (or at least I wasn’t burning things in the microwave anymore…).  I decided to throw a Thanksgiving holiday dinner for friends when I had moved to Baltimore, so I thought I should serve something “turkey like”.  Here are four different turkey substitutes that I have served at Thanksgivings or other holiday dinners.

Tofurky

This is the most well known substitute and when you tell people you are a vegetarian on thanksgiving, they will for sure ask if you are going to eat one.  There are some big pros to this item.  It’s both a protein source and has stuffing in one, so you don’t HAVE to make more stuffing.  The gravy that comes with it may look a little strange, but is actually quite good.  It’s actually the best prepared vegan gravy I’ve found.  The biggest downside I’ve found to the tofurky is that when it cools, it gets kind of rubbery.  The taste is fine, but the texture becomes slightly offensive.  I’ve never tried any of the “fancy” ways to prepare  the roast, but there are some fun recipes found on the site.  Tofurky is vegan.

Quorn Turk’y Roast

This was my second foray into a turkey substitute.  I had tried the naked cutlets and really liked them, so I wanted to try the roast.  THIS WAS GOOD.  Like really good. Like not just as a substitute good.  I’ve been told it both looks like and tastes very much like a pork loin, but I would have no idea.  The interesting thing about quorn is that it’s made from mycoprotein (mushroom derivative).  Before you condemn this product for being mushroom, it doesn’t actually taste like mushrooms.  My sister who HATES mushrooms loves this.  I would not follow the instructions on the box and cook the roast IN the packaging.  Take off the plastic and roast it with veggies.  I don’t eat this anymore as there is egg in the roast, but if I ate eggs this would be what I eat.

Field Roast

I wasn’t able to try the celebration roast, which apparently is pretty delicious, but I was able to snag a Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute.  The texture is a bit like soft vegan sausage.  And I did not really see a distinction in between the sausage part and the stuffing that was supposed to be there.  BUT.  This was pretty tasty.  The inside was very flavorful and had lots of herb flavors.  I made this with some stuffing and some southern style kale for a Manucci thanksgiving this year.  I think it went over pretty well.  This is vegan and very delicious.

Gardein Holiday Roast

So, I’ve been saving the best for last.  This is by far the most delicious turkey substitute out there.  And I really wouldn’t even qualify the roast as only JUST good as a turkey substitute.  It’s just plain old DELICIOUS.  I actually went back to Whole Foods to try to get some more and they were completely sold out.  Gardein is pretty new in the vegan substitutes field, but it has quickly exploded into the field.  I haven’t found a bad product yet and I will continue to keep trying as many products as possible.  I actually followed the basic instructions by the blog Meet the Shannons to make the roast and stuffing.  FYI, make stuffing with cranberries in it from now on.  SO PRETTY!  The only downside to this product is the gravy.  It needs doctoring up.  For SURE add some spices like thyme, garlic, and rosemary.  It adds so much to the fairly bland gravy.  This is totally vegan.

 

Related articles

• Vegan Holiday Turkey Alternative from PETA (bluemoonpersonaltraining.com)
• Happy Tofurky Day: Vegetarian Thanksgiving on The Rise (bluemoonpersonaltraining.com)
• Beyond Tofurkey: A Vegetarian Thanksgiving (livingthroughthesenses.com)
• Vegan Holiday Recipes and Tips (ohsheglows.com)

Our New Addition

I have come to realize that I have NOT been great about posting.  I really need to stop beating myself up over this.  I’ve had a lot going on lately.  We have adopted a new cat!  This has not been an easy process.  I think at year anniversary of the passing of Ernie’s cat Ozzy was when a corner was turned.  I think at that point Ernie became more open to adopting a new animal.  I suggested (read: got a little whiny) getting a dog.  But, we decided that getting a dog was what I wanted, not was WE wanted.  So, a cat it was.

Ozzy

I suggested we adopt the new animal from the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.  Right now they are offering free adoptions through the end of October as part of a contest to win $100K from Rachel Ray.  Plus, I used to volunteer at BARCS, so I thought this would be a good plan.

The Pun!

Our first attempt at getting a cat didn’t go well.  We arrived 10 minutes before they were closing one day.  My bad.  So, we went back the next week, which was an open house/Orioles promo day.  The place was MOBBED.  But we stuck it out and went on a hunt for a new cat.  There are so many.  I feel so much any time I see animals in cages.  It’s SO tough.  But you can get a feel for the temperament of a cat pretty quickly.  If they start reacting to you being there, they are going to pay more attention to you overall.  If you see a cat more distracted by everything else, they may be more likely to be more independent.  So, after seeing a few cats, we went into the Kitty Korner room.  All of a sudden this arm comes reaching out for us.  The cat does these cutie faces and rolls over and meows at us.  We got him out of the cage and he burrowed in Ernie’s arms.  It was love at first paw.  So, after a few minutes we decided that Noodles (their name) would be coming home with us post-surgery (he needed to be neutered).

Noodles at the shelter

So, at the appointed time to be picked up, Ernie went back to BARCS to collect Simon (our name!) and he was not neutered.  He had developed an upper respiratory infection(common for shelter or bordered animals).  The shelter had warned us and we felt that Simon would do better in a home rather than the shelter trying to get better, plus we could bond with him.  So, for almost two weeks we had a sick kitty at home.   The issue was with another cat already in the house, we had to restrict the new cat’s movements.  So, he was confined to the back bedroom the whole time.  He had his own litter box, food, and toys, so it wasn’t completely austere, but still…

Lounging Simon

Finally we brought him back to BARCS for his surgery.  As it turns out his URI isn’t completely gone, but it was enough so that the surgery could happen.  We are now introducing him to more of the house while Punim sleeps during the day.  Our goal is to give Simon another couple of days to recuperate from the surgery before trying to introduce the two cats.  I know there will be some tensions between the two, so I don’t want to get them both riled up and have Simon pull some stitches.  But here’s hoping for them to get along and for Simon to whip Punim into shape.  He is hefty, so we’re hoping that a younger more agile cat will get Punim moving again.

Chillin

Related Sites

• http://www.mdspca.org/  Maryland SPCA
• http://www.bmorehumane.org/ Baltimore Humane Society
• http://www.baltimorebullycrew.com/ Baltimore Bully Crew
• http://www.luckycatrescue.com/ Lucky Cat Rescue
• http://www.masrescue.org/ Maryland Animal Sanctuary Rescue

September Foodie Pen Pal

Another month, another foodie pen pal!  This month, my foodie pen pal was Nicole D. and she is AWESOME.  I got my box right on time and ready for me!  I had a great assortment of items as well.

Pen Pal Box

I got TWO Larabars, dried mango, pink sea salt (OMG!), salsa verde, sea snax, and some dried peanut butter.  Here’s the thing, I’m not a huge fan of peanuts or peanut butter.  I am definitely the strange one in my family as everyone else eats it out of the jar with a spoon.  It’s not a texture thing as I like almond butter, I’m just not a fan of peanuts.  But this powdered stuff?  It’s not bad at all!!!  I like that it’s not SUPER peanutty tasting.  There is a hint of peanut in the taste, but it has been going GREAT in my oatmeal with some almond milk, cinnamon, and raisins.  SO good.

Here is the info to join:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

Square 1682

I had the honor of eating at this restaurant on Saturday night with my parents.  I had gone up that morning to head up to Kennett Square, PA for the Mushroom Festival.  We unfortunately missed Antonia Lofaso from Top Chef‘s demonstration, but we did get to see her at the book signing tent.  We did get to see Dana Herbert of Desserts by Dana do a demonstration of non-pastry items.  None of it was vegetarian, so I wasn’t really invested.  Nothing was really new at the festival from previous years, but there are some really cool exhibits on growing mushrooms, the different kinds of mushrooms that are grown in the area, and there are a TON of local vendors.  My mom and I totally stocked up on some aged balsamic vinegar, she got a bunch of other vinegars, and I got a sun-dried tomato oil as well.  We also tried some hot sauces.  I went for the sauces starting at medium and worked up to hot/extra-hot.  I didn’t go for ones that ghost peppers in them.  But what did my mom do?  She went for the ghost pepper hot sauce first.  And then she had the hiccups .

I digress…  So, that evening we went to Square 1682as my mom had bought a vegetable tasting (6 courses plus a glass of sparkling wine!) for two and knew my dad wasn’t going to be thrilled to have to eat all those veggies.  So, I was the beneficiary of this lovely offer!  What’s especially cool about this place is that it is a LEED certified restaurant.  They recycle everything they can, compost, and make pretty much all their preserves and pickles in-house.  Also, the chef is committed to sustainable fishes, local meats and cheeses, and choosing in season vegetables.  If that doesn’t sell you to the idea of going to the restaurant, maybe this will… My brother is a chef there!  He’s been there for a while, but I haven’t had a chance to eat there.  So, I not only got to eat there, he actually made some of my food!

Blue Sage

We ordered drinks to start.  I ordered the Blue Sage which was tequila (yum!), blueberries, sage, lime, and coconut sugar.  I really like tequila, so I enjoyed the drink, but I felt like it needed more blueberry or some other flavor if the goal was for the drink to not taste just like tequila.  We had an order of the truffle oil popcorn with citrus salt sent to our table.  It is super good, so I definitely recommend it to

Beet Salad

share.  Our first course was a beet salad.  This was not just any beet salad.  It had thinly sliced yellow beets, locally sourced goat cheese, frisee, pine nuts, and red beet puree.  But the puree was from pickled beets, which I don’t normally like.  But they had been pickled in honey, so were really sweet!  This salad was amazing.  I could have totally eaten a huge thing of this (my brother actually made this salad!).  The breads were then put on the table.  It was an interesting mix of lavash, sourdough ,and focaccia.

Lavash, sourdough, and focaccia

There was butter and garlic infused olive oil to dip them in.  I wish I could make my bread that light and fluffy…  The next course was a super creamy carrot saffron soup with celery and celery root.  This soup is actually vegan!  It looks and tastes like there is cream in there, but apparently if you puree veggies with a touch of oil, you end up with a super creamy base.  I loved the celery and celery root topping on the soup.  It added a needed amount of texture and salt to the soup.

Carrot Saffron soup

Tomato tart

The next course was a tomato tart.  There was this amazing grilled tomato with a tough of ricotta salata on top of puff pastry.  The tomato looked like meat.  It was a little unnerving.  I had to touch it with my fork a few times before I actually ate it.  There was a lovely arugula salad on the side (a little heavy on the salt, but I love salt) along with some pesto and tomato sauce puree on the plate as well.  The tomato was smokey from the grill, which was complemented nicely by the ricotta.  The arugula was nice and peppery, and the dish was really nice over all.  The second entrée was a stuffed cabbage roll.  It

Cabbage Roll

had mashed potatoes and black eyed peas inside with some finely diced pickled vegetables on top.  There was also some kind of vegetable puree and it tasted like a pepper (not spicy) infused oil on the plate.  Those two parts were honestly the only misses of the evening.  Not that they were bad, but I don’t think they added to the dish.  I loved the acid and bite the pickled veggies added to what could be a fairly bland cabbage roll.

Duo of sorbet

Next up was our first dessert.  It was a peach tart topped with grilled peaches and a side of peach gelato and brown butter diced peaches.  I REALLY loved the grilled peaches on top.  Unfortunately my phone didn’t take a great picture of this, so I don’t

Champagne

have a photo to post.  My dad actually ended up ordering this as his dessert he thought it looked that great.  Our second dessert was a duo of sorbet with some diced strawberries.  One was this coconut, which I found slightly gritty to start but had a great finish for taste.  The second was a pomegranate berry one.  This was amazing.  In fact it was so amazing my mom went to take some of mine and ended up knocking over a glass of water.  It was pretty humorous.  And we capped off the night with a glass of sparkling wine.  It was really nice.  All in all, I had an amazing meal, I was full but not stuffed, and I had a great time with my parents.

My brother, Zach

August Foodie Pen Pal

It’s back!!!!  Yes, I again participated in the Foodie Pen Pals!  I received the BEST box from Anna Tesch.  She’s from the Seattle area and sent me a box full of yummy deliciousness.

Pen Pal box

I got: some delicious tea (it’s in the ziplock bag), pad thai noodles, trio granola bars, some delicious chocolates, the MOST DELICIOUS cookies ever!  (really!  they are egg free even!), and this sauce made of tahini.  It’s smooth with a bit of heat at the back end.  I’ve been putting it on everything.  I’ve been using it as part of a salad dressing, on some roasted veggies, and just dipping veggies in it.  I also got the current issue of Cooking Light magazine and this really nice CD of local music.  It’s super relaxing for the ride home.

Here are the rules for participating (which you should totally do!):

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

New Belgium Beer

It’s Sunday morning and I’ve been up for a long time already.  I woke up to watch the end of the women’s marathon finish.  It was a great race and Shalane and Kara did so well.  Team USA did win gold in the women’s double tennis match.  Serena Williams is amazing!  She wins individual gold, then turns around to win in the doubles with her sister.  I for sure have Olympic fever!

Spiced Rum from Turks and Caicos

As I was up early, I also decided to whip up a batch of the zucchini bread.  I’ve been soaking raisins for 24 hours in spiced rum we got on Grand Turks during the cruise.  I decided to make them muffins this time, and they turned out pretty great!  I might try more raisins next time to really boost the flavor.

I also wanted to write about two AMAZING beers I had last night.  The first one was one I’ve had before in cans, but not on tap.  I went out with Ernie and my co-workers to celebrate the leaving of one of them.  We went to this restaurant called Sticky Rice.  It is known for it’s great tots, sushi, and noodle dishes.  I have to say, the tots were good.  I got two of the vegan rolls, which were supposed to be spicy.  I was pretty underwhelmed in the spiciness of the dishes.  So, if you go, please don’t expect that the “Gardens on Fire” made with vegan mayo is going to be super spicy.  But it was pretty good .   What I had to drink was the EXCELLENT Fat Tire by New Belgium Brewing Company on draft.  It was amazing.  It’s one of those beers that you can drink and appreciate its taste, but not be overwhelmed by any aspect of it.  It’s not overly hoppy (I do NOT like hoppy beer), it’s not too malty, it’s not too sweet, it’s not sour at all, and it doesn’t taste boozey.  It actually is “only” 5.2% ABV.  It is honestly one of my favorite “drinking” beers.  If you want to try a beer and haven’t found one that you liked, try this one.

After we were done dinner, I was still game for chilling, so Ernie and I went to Max’s Taphouse in Fells’ Point.  They have 91 beers on tap, three of which are cask conditioned and two of the 91 are nitro pours.  This is a beer lover’s paradise.  I immediately wanted to try a bunch of the beers, but decided on one that sounded especially interesting.  I chose New Belgium’s Cocoa Mole Ale.  O. M. G.  This may have been one of the best beers I’ve ever had.  It is definitely more boozey than the Fat Tire, as it’s at 9% ABV.  But you don’t taste the alcohol.  You do taste chocolate.  It’s like a liquid dark chocolate accented with cinnamon (though they don’t list cinnamon as one of the ingredients) and this sort of tingling on your tongue that is a definite chili presence.  Now, the beer isn’t spicy at all, in that it’s not like eating a jalapeno.  It just has that tingle that you get when you are eating things that have a lot of spice to them.  I urge anyone that likes beer at all to try this. 

If you can’t tell, I’ve also changed up the look of the blog a bit.  Let me know what you think!  I do want to know!