Caesar Salad

For the first time in history, Maryland's governor has decided he wants to be represented by a potato.Chick and Ruth's Delly, the 30-year-old Annapolis institution where politics regularly mix with pastrami, will add No. 11, the "Parris N. Glendening (Healthy Choice) Baked Potato" with broccoli and cheese, to its menu Monday.Owner Ted Levitt said the potato is a first for the deli, which has long named its specialty sandwiches after politicians. Mr. Glendening was offered the opportunity to have his name attached to any sandwich but chose the potato instead.

I always get an earful from readers when I neglect to mention Costas in any roundup  not only of crab houses but of good area restaurants in general. Costas isn't the first restaurant that comes to mind for a Baltimore Summer Restaurant Week option -- for one thing, it's in the county. For another, some folks think it foremost as a crab house. But take a look at the menu. Looks good! And the best part --all entrees are served with choice of two sides: baked potato, herb parmesan whipped potato, mixed vegetables or corn on the cob. Who loves Costas?

Eddie's Gourmet-to-Go 5113 Roland Ave. Hours: Open Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (410) 323-3656, ask for Gourmet-to-Go department.Deep in the heart of Anne Tyler country -- which is to say, Baltimore's Roland Park neighborhood -- the accidental tourist to Eddie's Supermarket will discover the pleasures of Eddie's Gourmet-to-Go. And although the space it occupies in the back of the store is small, Gourmet-to-Go's culinary ambitions are large.The menu changes every day, but Gourmet-to-Go offers a few favorites almost daily: a delicious Caesar salad (its dressing contains a raw egg substitute, making it safer)

Tired of homogenized, cookie-cutter restaurants; places where the art is perfectly placed -- and perfectly boring; places where little interesting happens; places that hardly dint your memory?Then head over to Eutaw Street, two doors south of Lexington Market and five blocks north of Oriole Park to the Palmer House -- excuse me, ''the original Palmer House.''Where else would you find:* The photographic equivalent of Haussner's, with a photo of Shoeless Joe Jackson below a photo of the D'Alesandro family (posing in front of their Little Italy home)

Every neighborhood should have something like the Blue Cow Cafe. Tucked in one of Columbia's many neighborhood centers, the family-run cafe sells newspapers, coffee drinks, bagels in the morning, peanut-butter sandwiches for the kids, and a wide-ranging and tasty selection of salads and sandwiches for the rest of us. The cafe is run by Karen Blue, who grew up nearby in Columbia's Thunder Hill neighborhood, and her husband/chef, Mark. They've worked a miracle to turn a sterile, fluorescent-lighted space into a cozy eatery with artwork for sale on the walls and checker tables ready for action.

B.O.P. has been an institution in Fells Point for about as long as I can remember. After a recent visit -- the first in many years -- I'm pleased to say it's still doing things well. B.O.P. -- for Brick Oven Pizza, of course -- was one of the first restaurants to introduce such a thing to Baltimore. Sitting on a corner in the heart of Fells Point, the restaurant is a funky but welcoming outpost producing tasty, thin-crust pizzas in a huge, wood-fired oven. B.O.P. has one of the best jukeboxes around, with everything from The Big Chill soundtrack and Dwight Yoakam to Aerosmith and the Everly Brothers.

It's impossible to place the Charcoal Deli in Cockeysville in any one carryout category. Imagine a Baltimore-style pit-beef joint crossed with boardwalk cuisine, served with a side of Western ranch flair. What's more, the place sits next to a pool hall, around the corner from a couple of other smoky rib-and-beef places, making this spot the barbecue epicenter of Baltimore County. To add to its eclectic appeal, the Charcoal Deli, open year-round, looks a little like a diner you might imagine in Dodge City.

A successful boss - or so at least one school of thought holds - hires the best possible people, pays them well and gives them free rein to do their jobs. As tonight's winner of The Apprentice will find out, Donald Trump isn't enrolled in that school. The high-rolling real estate developer, who through the NBC series has become perhaps the nation's most famous boss, does hire the best he can find, and he does pay handsomely in the executive ranks. But when it comes to those reins, some former employees say Trump can - and regularly does - tug on them, sometimes viciously.

Pick a food trend, any trend. You'll probably find it at the new Copra on North Charles Street. OK, no Asian accents. But there are small plates, comfort food, expensive appetizers, inexpensive entrees, salads that are meals, sandwiches that are panini, brick-oven pizzas, roasted vegetables, chicken Caesar salad, death-by-chocolate cake and -- ta-da -- creme brulee. How can it miss? Well, for one thing, it helps if your stomach has an asbestos lining when you eat at Copra. This is the spiciest food I've had that wasn't advertised as spicy on the menu.

It's no mystery why Amicci's has been so popular for so long. Open a restaurant with good, basic Italian food served in heaping portions and at reasonable prices, and people will come. This Little Italy stalwart has changed quite a bit since it opened in 1990. Back then, it had 43 seats and a casual, sandwich-driven menu. Today, with a new dining area that opened in May, the restaurant seats 220, and the menu is mostly Italian entrees like lasagna, chicken parm and shrimp scampi, plus several pasta vegetarian dishes.