Shrimp

Everyday Food: Great Food Fast From the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living Fine Cooking Annual Edited by Martha Holmberg and Pam Hoenig The Taunton Press / 2007 / $34.95 We love Fine Cooking; really, we do. We look forward every month to perusing its sensible-yet-elegant recipes, handy tips and techniques. The photos always make us hungry. So why weren't we wowed by this first collection of more than 200 recipes from the magazine? For one thing, the type is larger. Normally, that's good for readability.

Inspectors normally visit restaurants three times a year, though more often if the results indicate problems. Reports show Hunan Manor in east Columbia has had a chronic series of health code problems. A report done last month found, among other things: a mouse behind flour and sugar containers. a live roach on the floor in a storage area. food items stored on the floor. a "pungent odor" in a food-preparation area. dirty floors and debris, and a dead roach in a closet. In a March report, food had to be discarded because it was stored at improper temperatures; dead roaches were found inside ceiling light fixtures; and another roach was found next to a wall fan. Previous reports contain occasional customer complaints of insect parts in food, broken sugar bags on the floor contaminated by rodents, small holes in walls in back areas that can allow rodents and insects entry and general cleanliness problems.

Leaving the shells on shrimp protects the delicate flesh underneath from the searing heat of a skillet, an oven or a grill. Once cooked, the shrimp is more moist, more tender. Tastier, too, as the shell infuses the shrimp with extra flavor. Only problem: eating the shrimp. Some people just eat the shrimp shell and all (I often do). Others fuss around, prying the shell off the cooked tail with fork or fingers. Serve the shrimp with Asian noodles. Bill Daley writes for the Chicago Tribune, which provided the recipe analysis.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration responded to jitters over Chinese imports recently by banning some of that country's seafood because of contaminants, but the agency has failed to apply the same standard to seafood supplied from other large exporters that use the same chemicals and fish-farming techniques. Imports from Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, for instance, have continued apace, even though fish-farming techniques in those countries are similar to those cited by the FDA when it issued an import alert in June targeting Chinese fish.

As I was planning a lunch for friends, I decided on a soup and salad menu. A combination of ruby red grapefruit segments, sliced avocado and cooked shrimp tossed in a small amount of curried apricot mayonnaise then mounded in grapefruit halves made a perfect counterpoint to the season's steamy weather. With it, I served iced tea, a chilled cucumber soup and fresh berries with shortbread cookies for dessert. Betty Rosbottom writes for Tribune Media Services. GRAPEFRUIT, SHRIMP AND AVOCADO SALAD IN GRAPEFRUIT SHELLS Serves 4 SAUCE: 1/3 cup regular or reduced fat mayonnaise (but not nonfat mayonnaise)

Marlin Barnett Hopkins loved his mother's "party spaghetti," which was nothing more than a jar of Prego tossed with shrimp, smoked sausage and ground beef. Janice Letmate used to prepare a shrimp Creole that her children savored. And Steven R. Shores was partial to his sister's homemade Jewish apple cake. Those recipes and dozens more have been collected in a 78-page cookbook that is being released today not by the Baltimore Culinary Institute, but, tellingly, by a part of the city state's attorney office.

In some broiled-chicken restaurants, customers can build up an appetite watching their meal turn gently on a rotisserie before it is brought to their table. No such luck at Pollo Amigo. Here, the magic takes place behind the shiny silver doors of a refrigerator-sized oven. That's where the chickens are broiled over charcoal. When they emerge, their skins are deep mahogany, and so crisp they almost burst open at the touch of a fork. Hints of garlic, cumin and paprika provide a heady counterpoint to the mild flavor of the juicy meat.

Baltimore Farmers' Market Under cover of the Jones Falls Expressway viaduct on Saratoga Street between Holliday and Gay streets -- 410- 752-8632 Hours: --8 a.m.-noon from the first Sunday in May through the Sunday before Christmas Eaters arrive early at the Sunday morning farmers' market in downtown Baltimore. In my 30 years of visiting this market, I have spent most of my time stuffing produce in a bag. But on a recent Sunday I changed course, prowling the market for cooked foods and chowing down on breakfast fare.

The new Governor's Grille in Annapolis has only one problem that I can see, but it's a big one. What's going to make a customer decide to go there rather than one of the city's other upscale steakhouses? There's Lewnes, a fine restaurant with the force of tradition behind it, or Ruth's Chris, which has name recognition on its side.But who knows. Maybe Annapolis has an unending appetite for huge prime steaks. Maybe there are plenty of customers who have enough money to afford them. If so, Governor's Grille can hold its own with the best of them.

Don't throw that shrimp on the barbie! Don't toss it in water roiling with Old Bay! And, don't, please, hack it into small bits and stir it with mayonnaise and celery so you can slather it on bread!Shrimp is one of the most delicious morsels to emerge from the sea, and it deserves better treatment. Or at least it deserves to be served in new ways that show off its delicate flavor and amazing versatility."I think shrimp is a very important part of living on the coast," says Cindy Wolf, chef-owner, with her husband, Tony Foreman, of Charleston in the East Harbor.

A bag of shrimp in the freezer is like a helping hand. It's a great backup for those nights when you just can't make it to the store to pick up dinner. The shrimp thaws quickly in a bowl of cold water. And with a bit of seasoning and a quick saute, it's versatile enough to go over rice, pasta or couscous to make a filling entree. If you have time and think of it, marinate the raw shrimp in spices before you leave for work. Or just let them marinate for 15 minutes. Either way, the warm North African spices in this recipe create a flavorful, spicy match for the shrimp.

Along with the delicate vegetables finally making their appearance after a long winter, in spring our thoughts turn to shrimp. What other seafood is so versatile - it speaks every language, from paella to stir-fry - and so easily transforms a salad, soup or risotto into a meal? Skewer it, saute it, grill it - no more than a few minutes, and shrimp's done. Soon we'll be steaming it in classic Maryland fashion to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Old Bay Seasoning. Shrimp is one of those foods, says Baltimore International College chef instructor Michael Wagner, "that really take on the flavor of things you're pairing them with really well.

The Baltimore Sun 's restaurants blog) and nearby workers. There were some waits, and some things ran out, but only a true crank would mind now. One short flight up from street level, Mekong Delta's brightly painted but sparely furnished dining room even looks like the kind of place that draws a loyal following. There are prints and paintings of the old country on the sunny yellow walls, a few other decorative touches behind the partly concealed kitchen. Word will keep getting out and, soon, Mekong Delta is going to need some more help.

Last week when I made up a list of the best restaurants I reviewed in 2008, I didn't really get a chance to talk about the food, except to mention how many stars each got. This week I went back to the archives and read through my reviews to come up with 10 memorable dishes. I'm a big red meat eater (and pork), so I was surprised that not one made the list. I guess that was just in the nature of the restaurants I went to this year. Not one great steak house among them. Every time I came upon a dish in the archives I raved about, I copied and pasted it. Then I looked at my list and had to eliminate a few. Finally I tried to put them in order of fabulousness and memorability.

With a name that conjures up white tablecloths, lobster tanks and snooty waiters, Sapore di Mare sounds a lot fancier than it is. It's not fancy at all, and that is its greatest strength. Sapore di Mare is the kind of place you'd come to when nobody feels like cooking, but no one feels like making a big deal out of dinner either. Located on a short commercial strip in Joppa, in what used to be a High's store, it's just a little more done up inside than your average pizzeria or sub shop.

The formalities of the court were over, decorum maintained. Beans killed Shrimp, and the judge sentenced him to four years in prison. Donald Rheubottom, a captain with the Baltimore sheriff's office and the head of Circuit Court security, had successfully kept the two warring families apart - one seeking justice, the other leniency. It was an accident during a wrestling match between the best of friends in a jail cell they shared at the Baltimore City Detention Center, in a dispute over a Monopoly game.

This Top 10 Tuesday, dive bars with good pub grub, is a joint effort of readers of Dining@Large, Sun reviewers and me. Note that these aren't dive bars in the negative sense, but they are all a little funkier than neighborhood taverns. The list is in alphabetical order. 1 Bertha's in Fells Point: In spite of the afternoon tea, the live music and the famous mussels, it still has some of the good dive-bar elements. 2 Daniel's on Route 1 in Elkridge: Bikers' dive extraordinaire; all the food is good.

City dwellers who are used to urban coffeehouses and wine bars, normally found in renovated storefronts and converted townhouses, will have a hard time relating to Bliss, the new coffee and wine bar in Riverside. (It's not in nearby Bel Air, in spite of what the Web site says.) When I say new, I mean really new. Bliss is one of the first tenants in the new Riverside shopping center. Everything about it is shiny new, from the walls of windows to the casual, contemporary furnishings to the industrial chic exposed pipes to the flat-screen TV. (Not something you expect in either a coffeehouse or wine bar.)

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...

As Father's Day approached, I looked for new grilling tricks that a smoky old dad, a fan of live fires, might employ. Leafing through a slew of new grilling books and testing recipes, I found several. In retrospect, I see that most my insights would qualify as "Duh!" - or as Homer Simpson, one of my favorite father figures, might say, "Doh!" - moments. They involved simple changes in procedures and taking liberties with recipes. For instance, one of the tastiest dishes I made was grilled shrimp flavored with a sauce made with Old Bay seasoning.