Akbar

India Rasoi Akbar Restaurant 823 N. Charles St., Baltimore -- 410-539-0944 Hours --Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; dinner: 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5 p.m.-11:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday Restaurant's estimate --5-10 minutes Ready in --11 minutes The pair of samosas in this order, $4.45, were relatively small and didn't impress us. The dough was decent - slightly salty and fried brown - but the stuffing could...

Akbar in Randallstown, one of three Akbars in the area, has been sold. The new owner is Chandra Nigam; he's renamed it the Akbar Palace. The restaurant was formerly known for its northern Indian cuisine; Nigam has expanded the menu to include specialties from various regions in India. Signature dishes include tandoori salmon, baby lamb chops and dosas (filled pancakes). Also new: live sitar music on the weekends. Akbar Palace is at 3541 Brenbrook Drive.Fondue restaurant to openThe opening of the area's first fondue restaurant, once set for July, is now scheduled for mid- to late-October.

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia's new president, B. J. Habibie, consolidated his hold over the country's politics yesterday when one of his close advisers won a hotly contested vote to lead the country's dominant political party.It was the first electoral test for the man who was almost nobody's choice to succeed President Suharto six weeks ago, and who many people believed would hold office only fleetingly.Habibie's control over the party greatly improves his ability to set the political agenda and remain in office at least until the end of next year, when he has scheduled a parliamentary vote for a new president.

In July the Randallstown Akbar became the Akbar Palace.The name change is significant. Or maybe I should say the lack of name change. The Indian restaurant has a new owner, Chandra Nigam, who has some connections to the former owners. (They still own an Akbar downtown and one in Columbia.).The connection is reflected in both the name and the menu. Nigam has expanded the latter to include some new specialties and some Southern Indian dishes, but what's noteworthy is that there are no great changes.

Maybe all the competition in the neighborhood has kept Akbar on its toes. Mount Vernon has more than its share of good ethnic restaurants, including three good Indian restaurants. Who would have thought that one of them, Akbar, would be even better than when it opened?It's been so long I can't quite remember what Akbar's dining room looked like then, but it seems warmer and cozier now. Banquettes line one wall; on the other side is a floor-to-ceiling mirror that opens up the small room.When Akbar first appeared in a basement dining room under the Green Earth on North Charles Street, it was something Baltimore hadn't seen before: an Indian restaurant that specialized in dishes like crab Malabar (crab meat in a coriander cream sauce)

A coherent approach toward Islam has become an imperative of U.S. foreign policy. The cry of "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") by Muslim fighters can be heard throughout the arc of crisis reaching from the Balkans through the Middle East to Central and South Asia. Islam is playing a critical role in conflicts asvaried as Bosnia, Chechnya, Nagorno-Karabakh, Algeria, Gaza and the West Bank, and Kashmir. Throughout this region, Muslims are asserting their identity against non-Muslim regimes or factions, or opposing established secular regimes in the Islamic world itself (Algeria and Egypt)

Back to OutbackGet your steak knives out, boys and girls. The newest Outback Steakhouse opened last week in Bel Air at 615 Bel Air Road. Probably the most successful beef chain in the history of the world, Outbacks -- in case you're one of the few people who haven't eaten at one -- have an Australian theme, with specialties (other than steak, of course) like the "Bloomin' Onion" and "Chocolate Thunder from Down Under."Good credentialsTimothy's lineage is impeccable. Timothy Euler graduated from Baltimore's Culinary Institute in 1989 and has worked as a chef in five states since then.

An item in Friday's Maryland Live section contained an incorrect address for the new Akbar restaurant in Columbia. Thecorrect address is 9400 Snowden River Parkway.The Sun regrets the errors.

An item in Friday's Maryland Live section contained an incorrect address for the new Akbar restaurant in Columbia. The correct address is 9400 Snowden River Parkway.The Sun regrets the errors.A headline in yesterday's Table Talk in The Sun's Maryland Live section contained incorrect information. The Bread Place bakery in Annapolis remains open, and a new restaurant, Cafe Rendezvous, has been added to the bakery at 1410 Forest Drive.The Sun regrets the errors.The new Cafe Rendezvous in Annapolis has specialties like salmon on a citrus salsa and a veal chop with grilled vegetables and a wild mushroom demi-glace -- not what you'd expect from a cafe that opened in a bakery.

An article in The Sun June 12 about a Muslim holiday cited the version of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son from the Hebrew Scriptures. Muslim tradition follows the Koran, which records that the son was Ishmael, not Isaac.The Sun regrets the error.From the shade of tall oaks at the edge of Gwynns Falls Park, within earshot of North Avenue traffic, came the chant in Arabic "Allahu Akbar" -- God is great.Some 150 Muslims from Baltimore knelt, pressing their foreheads to the ground as they faced Mecca, where 30 of their number were completing the obligatory pilgrimage.

When it comes to hip-hop, Baltimore doesn't have too many nationally recognized artists. The major hip-hop record labels focus on cities like New York and Atlanta and spend little time or attention on Baltimore. Musician and event organizer Jamel Jones, who knows there's no easy fix for the situation, hopes that wide-reaching events at well-regarded venues are a step in the right direction. That's why Jones, a 28-year-old Baltimore native, helped put together Burn Tha Mic, an evening of hip-hop, R&B and gospel performances.

India Rasoi Akbar Restaurant 823 N. Charles St., Baltimore -- 410-539-0944 Hours --Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; dinner: 5 p.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5 p.m.-11:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday Restaurant's estimate --5-10 minutes Ready in --11 minutes The pair of samosas in this order, $4.45, were relatively small and didn't impress us. The dough was decent - slightly salty and fried brown - but the stuffing could...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, lost a no-confidence vote in parliament yesterday after he was unable to stop the expulsion of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees and illegal workers from Iran in the past three weeks. Spanta was blamed for failing to find a diplomatic solution with Iran that would have prevented the expulsions. He won only 73 votes, while 141 legislators voted against him. Iran has expelled thousands of Afghans before. But the number it expelled this time, more than 50,000, was high for such a short period.

From childhood, Majnum burned with passion for the beautiful Layla, and she returned his devotion. But because the couple could not marry, Majnum went mad and wandered through the wilderness clad only in rags. Then Majnum's friend, seeking to test Layla's love, told her Majnum was dead. This news broke Layla's heart, and she perished from grief. When Majnum arrived at her funeral, so overcome with remorse was he that he leapt into the grave beside his beloved and died on the spot. This tragic tale of star-crossed lovers forms the central chapter of the Khamsa -- or quintet of tales -- by Amir Khusraw, a 13th-century Persian-language poet known as "the Parrot of India."

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Blowing up earth berms and emptying sandbags, thousands of Marines abandoned 3-week-old positions in embattled Fallujah yesterday, leaving behind hundreds of Iraqi troops who once served in Saddam Hussein's army to subdue an anti-American insurgency. The effort failed to bring immediate peace. A suicide bomber attacked U.S. armor escorting the U.S. forces, killing two Marines outside the city. Still, the general in charge of U.S. operations in the Middle East characterized the experiment of rearming an old foe as a proxy force as "a possible breakthrough" in the battle to tame Fallujah, in the area known as the Sunni Triangle.

FORT KNOX, Ky. - An Army investigating officer recommended yesterday that Sgt. Asan Akbar, a Los Angeles soldier accused of a grenade and rifle attack on his superior officers in Kuwait, stand trial at a general court-martial. Lt. Col. Patrick Reinert ruled swiftly after the close of a weeklong preliminary hearing that the March 23 ambush was "a surprise attack executed by stealth." During the hearing, Army prosecutors and defense lawyers argued about whether Akbar deliberately planned the attack or whether he was being falsely accused because of his deeply held Islamic religious beliefs.

FORT KNOX, Ky. - Two military officers testified yesterday that a man resembling Army Sgt. Asan Akbar warned that their unit was under attack moments before allegedly rolling grenades into headquarters tents in Kuwait in the early days of the war against Iraq in March. The testimony came during the first day of a weeklong preliminary hearing that will determine whether Akbar, 32, a native of Los Angeles, will be tried before a general court-martial. Army prosecutors contend that Akbar struck out against the military by also hurling grenades and shooting at soldiers as they fled from the burning tents.

Sometimes good restaurants start out when the owner needs a place to eat. I have no idea if Great Fortune (10026 York Road, Cockeysville) will be a great restaurant (it's scheduled to open this week or next), but I do know that the owner - Lo, as he likes to be known - wants a place where he can get a fresh, consistently good lunch in under an hour. His new place is a buffet restaurant with a regular menu of Chinese food. The buffet will have a cold section, with 20 to 30 salads and salad items, and two hot bars.

Jennifer Marx says she and her husband, Michael, searched up and down the East Coast from South Carolina to Maine for a city that would welcome the Nuevo Mexicano and Southwestern restaurant they wanted to open. They found it in Baltimore. To create Blue Agave (1032 Light St.), they spent the last couple of years gutting and renovating the space where the old McHenry Theater was in Federal Hill. Jennifer, who designed the interior, traveled to Mexico for decorative elements. Michael Marx, who's from Southern California, worked with Coyote Cafe, a respected chain of Mexican restaurants, before they moved East.

Clarification In last Sunday's review of Bombay Grill, Akbar was mentioned as one of several Indian restaurants in the area that had closed. Akbar did close but reopened under new management and continues to operate in Randallstown as Akbar Palace. The folks who run the local chain of Bombay Grills, of which the one in Owings Mills is the fifth, are old pros by now. They started modestly 13 years ago, in the basement of a townhouse in Mount Vernon. Their restaurants are located as far away as Columbia and Frederick.