Caesar Salad

This week we are reversing the focus for this speedy meal and we'll turn on the oven for the dessert and stick to a cool and simple entree. Dessert is an upside down classic that hails from France. It beats the clock over a traditional apple pie and I have a higher success rate and plenty of raves.This scrumptious chicken Caesar salad can be prepared within minutes at home when taking advantage of the many shortcut foods available at the supermarket.Chicken Caesar saladServes 48 cups washed, torn romaine lettuce from a salad bar or packaged prepared lettuce1 (10-ounce)

No Way Jose CafeNo Way Jose Cafe, 1041-43 Marshall St., (410) 752-2837. If you like inventive food, there's plenty to love, from the guacamole salad in radicchio leaves to the mesquite grilled tuna on a tomato and leek concasse. This is already the hot spot to be, so plan to wait patiently and have another margarita. $$ -- moderate. (Last visited 5/92.) Ralphie's Diner, 9690 Deereco Road, Timonium, (410) 252-3990. Ralphie's can be many things to many people. It calls itself a diner. But there's enough dark wood paneling to build a fern bar. It makes excellent milk shakes.

Q: Should I pay attention to my wife when she says that we should not order Caesar salads in restaurants?A: The easy answer is to tell you that you should always listen to what your wife says. She may not be right on every occasion, but it is true that Caesar salad dressing, made with raw eggs, has been responsible for many outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness due to contamination of eggs with Salmonella bacteria. These bacteria pose no threat when eggs are properly cooked, but Salmonella may infect the intestine if you eat foods containing raw or under-cooked eggs.

For $64,000, what dish (other than green salad and soupe du jour) graces more restaurant menus than any other? Why, Caesar salad, of course. I have no statistics to verify this, just a lot of observation.Twenty years ago, Caesar salad and steak seemed like the most common order in restaurants. Today, the steak -- and the martinis and cigarettes that went with it -- is as rare as a spotted owl. But Caesar salad is as popular as ever, maybe more so.However, while Caesar salad may be the most used restaurant dish, it may also be the most abused.

The following is a list of gourmet carryouts compiled from several sources, including a request for information in a recent "Tidbits" column.*CAFE MANETAddress: 1020 S. Charles St.Hours: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays.Type Food: A variety of soups (black bean, chicken gumbo, lentil), chicken salad, shrimp salad, vegetable lasagna, chicken stuffed with prosciutto, chicken Veronique, rack of lamb, veal Marsala.Price: $17 to $20 for dinner for two, including dessert.Phone: 837-7006.FAX: None.

Probably the best hint I could give you about Nacho Mama's is not to ask what "Mexican cowsay" is on the menu. Order the guacamole or the nachos, but don't ask about the Mexican cowsay. Because when you do, the waitress has to say, "Moo." And that's embarrassing for both of you. Believe me, after the thousandth time she does not find this joke the most amusing part of her job.From the beginning, then, you know Nacho Mama's is going to be a fun, wacky kind of place. Luckily, though, not all the cutesiness makes you want to gag. You may puzzle over the words on the menu under the chips and salsa -- "the first hubcap is free" -- but then you notice the good tortilla chips and mildly hot salsa on the table are served, yes, in a hubcap.

The last time I ate in the space where the No Way Jose Cafe recently opened it was Stall 1043. Nouvelle cuisine had just arrived in Baltimore, and dinner was three rare scallops in raspberry sauce with nasturtium blossoms on the side.OK, I don't really remember what dinner was -- it must have been a dozen years ago -- but one thing I'm sure of, it wasn't quesadillas or mesquite-smoked ribs with ranchero fries.I have a feeling that the No Way Jose Cafe is going to succeed in a spot where other businesses have failed because Baltimore needs all the good Mexican restaurants it can get. While our lTC meal there had its ups and downs, I like the kitchen's daring -- its willingness to offer customers Mexican food beyond tacos and fajitas.

The Midnight Express, possibly the only fast-food joint in the world that can make you a Caesar salad and a chicken vindaloo, is to Hong Kong cops what Dunkin' Donuts is to their U.S. counterparts: a place to warm souls chilled by street crime. A place to chow down among familiar faces. A place where everyone knows your name and that you've just been jilted by your girl."Chungking Express," a lyrical and delightfully goofy study in romantic longing, is two stories about two cops who nurse their broken hearts on a diet of Midnight Express grub and wistful fantasies.

What you think of dinner at Poulet, Pikesville's newest eating place, depends on what you're comparing it to. If you're out for a nice, relaxing meal at a neighborhood restaurant, this is definitely not the place to go. But if your alternative is a McDonald's - if you need your food fast and cheap - you'll be very happy with Poulet.Rotisserie chicken is what Poulet specializes in, and rotisserie chicken is the hot new trend in the food world. A franchise called Boston Chicken is supposed to be moving into the area soon; but right now if you want chicken roasted with herbs on a spit, which makes it crisp-skinned but keeps it moist inside, you'll probably end up at Jonathan Soudry's newest venture.

If poetry is any good, the 20th-century Greek poet George Seferis tells us, it must "draw on a deep-rooted experience of life, which all of us, young and old, have within ourselves." Stephen Dunn, last year's Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry for his volume Different Hours and visiting poet in Loyola College's coming Modern Masters Reading Series, has spent the past four decades uncovering this deep-rooted experience. Dunn's poems converse fluently with what he calls "the commonplace and its contingencies."