Food

Even if you're not yet ready to retire, San Miguel de Allende is perfect for a vacation or long weekend getaway. Getting there United and American airlines offer connecting flights (via Texas) to San Miguel's two closest airports, Leon/Guanajuato (BJX), 90 minutes away, and Queretaro (QRO), one hour away. Round-trip airfares start around $600. Multiple airlines offer flights to Mexico City, which is three hours from San Miguel. When to go January may be the sole inclement month to travel, and even then it's nothing compared to a typical Baltimore winter.

Get ready to roll. Baltimore and Washington's fleets of food trucks are squaring off again. Some 40 trucks, 20 from each city, are expected to attend the second Taste of Two Cities event on June 1, which is relocating from Westport Waterfront to Rash Field. Food trucks from Baltimore and Washington will compete in several categories. An overall winner will be presented the Mayor's Cup Trophy by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who performed the same honors at the event's premier edition, when Baltimore's Gypsy Queen was selected the best by a panel of judges.

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

We're making a few tweaks to the Baltimore Sun Food Truck Finder. Here's where your Baltimore food trucks are today: The Gypsy Queen will be at President and Pratt streets. Philly Mignon will be at Commerce and Pratt streets. Kooper's Chowhound will be at Monument and Wolfe streets. Woody's Taco will be at 2610 Boston St. in Canton, near the Safeway. GrrChe will be at Charles and Baltimore streets. Kommie Pig will be at Wyman Park near the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus.

A snowball stand's success depends on two key things: hot weather and lots of hard work, say Baltimore-area purveyors of the summer treat. Add those ingredients to the crushed ice and syrup concoction that has long been a regional favorite, and summertime entrepreneurs say they can make a decent living during the season's warmest weeks. "A lot of people think it's easy to start it," said Margo Torsell, who along with family members runs a three-year-old stand on Liberty Road in Randallstown.

Always, there were those lovely old country estates and gracious manor taverns with roaring fireplaces, but in the old days fine dining was associated with the city. Not so anymore. Now, there are more compelling reasons than ever for diners to cross county lines for a good meal. The 50 best county restaurants in Howard County, Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County is a mix of the old and the new, destinations for special occasions and joints for Monday night suppers, the chef-driven and crowd-pleasing.

Company's coming to Pimlico Race Course . For the throngs expected at Saturday's Preakness, the hospitality team at Pimlico Race Course is bringing in 7,000 pounds of crab meat and 3,000 pounds of aged tenderloin. Did someone remember to get ice? Yes: 30,000 bags of frozen water are already in place. Those were just a few of the items on the Preakness list of Tommy Inzer, director of hospitality for the Maryland Jockey Club, which has been hosting the Preakness since 1873.

This weekend's Polish Festival will include food stands, a staple in ethnic showcases. The treats served are easy to carry around so you don't miss out on any of the festivities, but don't think their portability takes away from their authenticity. Coordinator Maryann Fredrick says that these foods are true to tradition and will entice people to come to the inner harbor. The menu she organized includes such favorites as: • Kielbasa (Polish Sausage): This recipe calls for pork, more pork, and a fair amount of garlic.

The Daily Meal, a food-and-dining website, has published list of the 10 Best College Towns for Food. Baltimore didn't make the list, but Baltimore isn't a college town. So, no hard feelings. The top ten college towns for food were 1) Berkeley, Calif., Ann Arbor, Mich., Princeton, N.J., Oxford, Miss., Chapel Hill, N.C., Burlington, Vt., Eugene, Ore., Ithaca, N.Y., Boulder, Colo., and Madison, Wis. Here's that list on TheDailyMeal.com. Did your old college town show up?

The Scientific American blog network has a juicy looking collection of posts up on the subject of food and eating. The round-up is called Passions of Food . I have to admit, I love this stuff, especially the articles by anthropologists. Some of the posts were produced freshly for this round-up; others, like Bora Zivkovic's Do you love or Hate or Cilantro? , are from the archives, I've barely cracked the spine, but I'm looking forward to Krytal D'Costa on the culture of  coffee drinkers and Christie Wilcox on the myths of organic farming . Bt right now, though, I'm going to read D'Costa's Are We Ashamed of Lunch?

Federico Lopez is proud of the food of his hometown. That town, Mexico City, should be proud of him, too. With his wife, Maria, Lopez owns Fiesta Mexicana, a tiny, friendly Rosedale restaurant dedicated to cooking authentic Mexico City cuisine. As the capital of Mexico and the country's largest city, Mexico City draws culinary inspiration from the entire country. The resulting cuisine feels familiar to the American palate, but fresh. Diners will recognize the tortilla-plus-meat-and-sauce concoctions on their plates; it looks similar to the food at any run-of-the-mill Mexican place in America.

H&S Properties Development Corp. plans to push its Harbor East development east across Central Avenue with an expanded Whole Foods Market, a possible department store and apartments on two sites, baker-turned-developer John Paterakis Sr. said Friday. The developer will convert the one-story, brown-painted H&S Bakery distribution center into one or two floors of retail space, with apartments above, Paterakis said. H&S Bakery revealed intentions last month to move the center to an East Baltimore office park, freeing up the real estate by the end of 2014, he said.

If you won't be in the Grandstand at Pimlico, you can still celebrate the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes in style with a black-and-gold party. Black and gold — the colors of the Calvert family — pop up everywhere at the Preakness, from the state flag to the winner's wreath of black-eyed Susans. Recreate that feeling at home with black and gold stacks of polenta, goat cheese and olives, deep brown chocolate bread pudding with a gold topping, and Black & Tans, a fruity cocktail with turn-of-the-century Maryland roots.

Owner Haluk Kantar has big plans for his pizza-focused sports bar. Last April, he opened the first HomeSlyce Pizza Bar in Federal Hill. Six months later, a second location came downtown to North Charles Street, next to Mick O'Shea's. Kantar - who also owns the Turkish restaurant Cazbar in Mount Vernon - recently said Canton and Hampden are likely the next neighborhoods to get their own HomeSlyce. After the city, he wants to expand south to Columbia, College Park and eventually D.C. Kantar has ambitious plans for HomeSlyce, and based on a recent Saturday night at the downtown bar, it made sense why. The atmosphere was approachable and laid back, and never boring.

Nate Weiner used to do most of his grocery shopping at the Wegmans in Hunt Valley and the Giant near his Hampden home. Now he orders most of his groceries online from Relay Foods and picks it up at designated spot on Sundays. "I get most of my produce from them," said Weiner, 26, a mechanical engineer and part-time student. "The local stuff is picked that morning. They're some of the best vegetables I've ever had. " While the aspect of fresh and local food is an attraction, the real selling point for him is convenience.

In its first 15 months, the United Way of Central Maryland's Access to Healthy Food Initiative distributed more than 3.4 million pounds of groceries to low-income individuals and families, the organization said. But because spring and summer are slow times for food donations, the UWCM is holding its first Families Living United Healthy Food Week campaign , which continues through Saturday. Businesses, schools and organizations are being encouraged to conduct their own drives.

Moms are feeding their babies solid foods before their bodies are developed enough to handle it, a new study by the Centers For Disease Control has found. The American Academy of Pediatrics has long advised that babies don't get solid food until they are four to six months-old. But 40 percent of the nearly 1,300 mothers surveyed in the study said they introduced food before that. Babies are better developed at 4 to 6 months of age, including having the ability to hold their heads up and open their mouths for food.

Cook something sexy lately? Let’s see it! Send in your best food porn to Project Fresh for a chance to win the Show Me Your Food Porn contest. First place winner will take home some b swag and of course, all-time bragging rights. Entries must be received by 10 p.m., May 9. Send images in jpeg format to jasmine@bthesite.com. Need some inspiration? Wondering "What the heck is "food porn"? Check out... Foodgawker Tastespotting Food photography tips [101 Cookbooks]

Baltimore's fleet of food trucks are rallying again this weekend. The series of weekly food truck rallies known as the Gathering will convene, for the first time, on the Sinai Hospital  campus. The trucks will gather from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday at the Michel Mirowski Medical Office Building, 5501 Greenspring Ave. The band Greasy Hands will perform. Expected to roll in are Gypsy Queen, The Sultan, Jolly Pig, Busia's Kitchen, Wheyich, South Carolina BBQ, Flavor Cupcakery, Miss Twist, Great Cookie, Hardy's BBQ, GrrChe, Kooper's Chowhound, Charm City Gourmet, and Iced Gems Baking.

A good deed can be as simple as giving a few coins or donating used clothing. But Gaithersburg resident Brett Meyers has taken the role of good Samaritan one step further, feeding families by turning waste into nourishment. Meyers, who has spent most of his career in the food industry, founded the organization Nourish Now in May 2011, feeding the hungry with unused fresh food from restaurants and caterers. "I worked at Panera Bread and other delis where a lot of food would get wasted at the end of each night," Meyers said.