Salad Sandwich

Natural Gourmet Classics 334 N. Charles St. Hours: Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Call (410) 547-0550I have this friend who has a thing about lunching only at establishments that use cloth tablecloths. I try to accommodate him because we don't get together very often, but that usually means spending at least $15 apiece.One day, I didn't have $15 to spend on lunch so I hedged a bit. I insisted we have lunch at Natural Gourmet Classics on Charles Street.

As we begin this week's episode of “Top Chef,” I have to ask: Did anyone really miss Beverly? Over the past few weeks I had rooted for her because I love an underdog, but let's be real: The woman was annoying. This week the final six, or top six as Lindsay points out, are ready for the tough challenges. So bring it on! Quickfire Challenge With every season of “Top Chef” there are a few staple Quickfire competitions. There is the cooking with junk food and the taste-test challenge (which I am still waiting for!

Should you decide to forgo the bread in this shrimp-salad sandwich, you'll be just as satisfied with this recipe as a main-course salad. I know this because I've become addicted to the salad since I first happened on the combination of sweet shrimp, spicy sausage and soft bitter greens about two months ago. The sandwich idea came about recently, after my friend began to reminiscence about France's Provence region and our first introduction to the delicious...

Oh, that's right. Cafe Hon is a restaurant. It would have been easy, last year, to mistake Denise Whiting's Hampden establishment for almost anything else. It was only in November, when Whiting announced she was rescinding her controversial "hon" trademark, that the municipal emergency surrounding Cafe Hon subsided. Two months after the TV show "Kitchen Nightmares" gave it a wholesale makeover, Cafe Hon has settled back nicely into its primary business of serving food to customers — lots of them, too. On recent visits spanning several weeks, the Hampden restaurant was full of patrons, many but by no means all of them families with young children.

Good Lord! You use e-mail?" This is what the popular and good-looking Elizabeth Saltzman of Vanity Fair was overheard saying to the queen of England at a recent garden party in honor of the Household Cavalry. Elizabeth II had just said to Ms. S. "We must keep in touch; let me give you my e-mail address." The queen had added as an aside that she does use e-mail. "But I don't write them myself. I dictate them." The queen is surprisingly agile when it comes to the 21st century. She is known to use a mobile phone given to her by Prince Andrew, and she also has an iPod.

You might worry about a restaurant like Vince's Carry Out that sells Alka-Seltzer out of a vending machine in the waiting area. But, I'm happy to report no stomach relief was needed after our recent meal at this Harford County carryout in Joppa. Indeed, we were satisfied, if not overwhelmed, by our outing to Vince's. With one sad-looking plant and absolutely no decoration on the walls, this small carryout isn't much to look at. But the service was both friendly and efficient, there was a bench for customers waiting for orders, and the food was reasonably priced.

Chesapeake Gardens 800 N. Crain Highway, Glen Burnie; 443-749-0411. Open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m-3 p.m. Saturday Green food lives in Glen Burnie. Tucked among the automobile dealerships and transmission-repair shops on North Crain Highway is Chesapeake Gardens. This cafe and carryout, now almost four months old, has a limited menu, but it delivers terrific soups, crisp salads and toothsome sandwiches, all made from natural or organic foods. Even the takeout containers are recyclable, or, as a note on the cardboard soup container puts it, compostable.

Jalapeno poppers, chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks are the currency of American bar food, and that's no exception at Backfinz, a Locust Point bar and restaurant with a platoon of regulars. Backfinz is a worthy destination for anyone who needs a taste of lively city living. On an April evening that felt like summer, the neighborhood was hopping with a Little League game, stoop-sitting and rush-hour traffic. The bar was busy with customers having a beer after work, smoking, playing with their cell phones and a rather risque video game.

Sorrento's West isn't much to look at. The food is extremely basic, and the service, while efficient, is on the brusque end of the scale. But the Catonsville eatery has been serving inexpensive burgers and pizzas for years and seems to be doing good business. Sorrento's sits at the busy intersection of Baltimore National Pike and Rolling Road just outside the Baltimore Beltway, a distinctive, bright blue awning beckoning. The interior is rather less distinctive - cold tile floors, fluorescent lights, dark-red Formica tables and nothing much on the walls (except for a weird sermon linking Jesus, Isis and Harriet Tubman on the men's room wall)

The first Bagel Bin & Deli opened more than 20 years ago in Columbia's Wilde Lake area. Today there are eight of the restaurants scattered around Howard, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties. The Bagel Bins sell excellent bagels that are crusty and chewy - two fine attributes, in my opinion. You can get any number of sandwiches made with the bagels, or bread or croissants. The restaurants also offer a limited number of breakfast dishes, as well as the usual assortment of espresso and other coffee drinks.