John Shields

Look for a new Pan-Asian restaurant to open in Columbia in a couple of weeks. The Noodles Corner (8865 Stanford Blvd., No. 103) will specialize, not surprisingly, in noodle dishes. It has an inventive menu, from "Little Dishes to Share," such as Malaysian satay and vegetarian pot sticker, to "Asian Stir Fry" like pine nut shrimp and barbecue pork chops. In between are all the noodle dishes: lemon grass pasta, Singapore-style rice noodles, noodles in a hot pot and many more.The Noodles Corner will have seating for 75 and is hoping to get a liquor license.

A Chesapeake Bay phenomenon will be replacing a Baltimore icon at the Baltimore Museum of Art this summer, if a pending deal is approved by the BMA trustees' executive committee this evening.John Shields, cookbook author, TV cook show host and champion of Chesapeake Bay cuisine, plans to open a restaurant later this year in the space occupied since 1994 by Donna's at the BMA. Shields, a Baltimore native, has written three cookbooks, and his new show, "Chesapeake Bay Cooking with John Shields," is airing on Maryland Public Television.

For a moment, the human whirlwind that is John Shields has come to rest, in the living room of a friend's house in Towson.This Baltimore native who's made good as a chef, restaurateur, consultant and cookbook author has been caught up in post-production work on his first TV series, "Chesapeake Bay Cooking with John Shields," which premieres June 6 on Maryland Public Television.The next day he is off to Washington for the first stop on what will be a seven-city tour to promote the just-published book that is a companion to the TV show.

Under the bright television lights, Sen. Barbara Mikulski is sitting at a table, wearing an apron and a grin, while cookbook author, restaurateur and soon-to-be cooking show star John Shields stands behind her, chatting.Around the two, a small army of camera operators, sound man, producers, director, still photographers and lighting guy has taken over part of the Camden Club at Camden Yards on a crisp fall day and is laboring, within a network of wires and cables, to shoot another segment of Shields' new show for Maryland Public Television.

John Shields, Baltimore native, cookbook author, ex-restaurateur, crab expert and storyteller extraordinaire, and his friend Dolores Keh, Baltimore native, lifelong cook, wife to one chef and mother to another, are trying to explain to Maarten Wolvekamp, visiting from the Netherlands, just what it is about crabs and the Chesapeake region."