Mezze

20130215:
The food here was delicious, some plates were a lot better than others. My favorite of the night was the goat cheese stuffed roasted peppers. My second favorite was the lamb giouvetsi. I'll most certainly go here again.

Baba Ghanoush (left) and Tzatziki (right)

Menu Description:
Baba Ghanoush A classic puree of eggplant, tahini & garlic, blended with lemon juice & imported olive oil 6.95

:The baba ghanoush was good. Though I liked the tzatziki better, just as a personal preference.

Menu Description:
Tzatziki (Cacik) with Silifke Style-Yogurt Farm stead yogurt mixed with roasted garlic, cucumber, dill & imported extra virgin olive oil 5.95

:Reiterating my comment above, I liked the tzatziki better than the baba ghanoush. However, I could easily imagine many people preferring the baba ghanoush over the tzatziki.

Asparagus

Menu Description:
Asparagus Fresh grilled asparagus topped with brown bread crumbs & lemon juice 6.95

:This was a plain and simple plate of asparagus. I prefer stir-fried asparagus to this plate of grilled asparagus. Overall, solid dish, but not as mouth-watering as any of the other dishes we got.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Roasted Peppers

Menu Description:
Goat Cheese Stuffed Roasted Peppers With a blend of mushrooms & herbs 6.95

:I loved how this just melted in my mouth. Thinking of it makes my mouth water as I write about it. In any case, there are various recipes floating around on the internet and I think it would take some experimenting to improve on any of the current recipes online, but it would be worth perfecting.

Lamb Giouvetsi (left and bottom)

Menu Description:
Lamb Giouvetsi Pulled lamb over orzo cooked in a tomato sauce 11.95

:While I didn't know how to pronounce giouvetsi, I'm glad I ordered it. The taste isn't too different from pulled pork. As I mentioned in the introduction, this is my second favorite plate. Apparently it is also known as youvetsi.

Steamed Mussels

Menu Description:
Steamed Mussels In white wine, tarragon, & shallots cream sauce 9.95

:I liked the sauce these mussels were prepared in. It was our only seafood item for the evening.

[20130216]

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Mezze

Dinner at Mezze.

Relevant Links:
Mezze Website
Mezze - Fells Point - Baltimore, MD (Yelp.com)

Hunan Taste

If a price follows a name, then I was able to find the exact dish or something very similar to it on the Hunan Taste website. As a result, the dish name might be inaccurate and the price below may not be the price of the dish as of February 10, 2013.

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20130210: (Lunch)
This is my first time at Hunan Taste and overall I like the food here. With all the food ordered, the cost to each person was $25 with some overhead being covered by two of the professors. This was good, because it somewhat offset the fact that our table had a decent amount of unfinished food. I hate having leftovers at the table.

spicy pork skin 13.95 (left) and cold beef w/peanuts (right) 1:35PM ET

After I said I was allergic to peanuts, Jian said the cold beef had peanuts on top. With this in mind, I proceeded to inspect the dish. At first I thought the crushed peanuts might be chopped garlic, but their size was much finer than the size of chopped garlic, which I could see in the spicy pork skin dish. Also they were not distributed throughout the dish, but simply clumped on top, which was also an indication that the crushed peanuts were crushed peanuts. Eventually, Jai Ung gave it a taste and confirmed the fact for good. In any case, I liked the pork skin. 1:38PM ET Eventually, the waiter came with a new dish, but there was no room on the turn table and so he cleared what remained of the spicy pork skin onto my plate.

cucumber with garlic sauce 6.95 1:36PM ET

marinated beef combination 15.95 (left) and eggplant in clay pot in garlic sauce 12.95 (right) 1:41PM ET

The beef and stomach and eggplant tasted really good. 1:42PM ET

pork intestines in casserole 14.95 1:45PM ET

So when someone asked what the intestine dish was, several other people knew but wouldn't say. At first I didn't understand why, because such dishes aren't uncommon in Vietnamese cuisine. It irked me because I wanted to know what it was too! But I eventually understood that they were afraid that if the original person knew what it was, then he wouldn't eat it. From the shape, I guessed what it was and confirmed it with Jai Ung. The sauce was really good. 1:45PM ET

braised fish and lamb 22.95 1:41PM ET

The fish is good. 1:45PM ET

sponge cucumber with egg pancake 13.95 1:48PM ET

The egg pancake was on the soft side. I prefer it more crisp. 1:48PM ET

sweet and sour spare ribs 13.95 1:48PM ET

The sweet and sour spare ribs were unexpectedly sweet. It was delicious. 1:48PM ET

fish

dry-fried green beans with ground pork 12.95

pork 1:58PM ET

The pork was just okay. It seemed a bit dry. 1:58PM ET

stir-fried smoked ox tongue 14.95 1:58PM ET

The ox tongue was a bit burnt, but good. 1:58PM ET

meat and tofu

tofu

[20130217]

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20130210:
Dinner
Not long after leaving, I'm back here at Hunan Taste for round 2. This time, the company I'm with keeps the amount ordered reasonable and we close the tab with a clean table and each person owing about $17. There were, however, two in the party which ordered more food to go.

duck

dry-fried green beans with ground pork 12.95

fish

shrimp with salt and pepper 15.95

The tail has been cut off. I personally eat the head along with the body. When fried, you most definitely should not peel the skin off. As a matter of preference, I eat the skin even when eating steamed shrimp.

Not pictured: rice cakes, scallop, shrimp, and vegetable.

I liked the scallop and rice cakes. There were almost no shrimp, vegetables, and squid left when the dish got around to me, so I opted not to eat any. 8:58PM ET

Not pictured: beef

Chinese leek with shredded dried bean curd 11.95

mushroom tender green 11.95

[20130217]

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Hunan Taste

Hunan Taste.

Relevant Links:
Hunan Taste Website
Hunan Taste - Catonsville, MD (Yelp.com)