Shrimp Salad

Did you hear about the hurricane that hit New Jersey? It caused $100 million in improvements. Just kidding. I'm actually a Jersey fan and I drive up there frequently to see relatives. One thing I know about the drive is that there are few decent and convenient eating options between here and there - the usual fast-food junk. However, I recently discovered one alternative just a short jump off Interstate 95. Chesapeake Food Works in Perryville is a perfectly acceptable deli selling an assortment of sandwiches, soups and salads.

Downtown workers, take note. You can now go French for breakfast and Middle Eastern for lunch - all at the same new restaurant. Bon Appetit, which opened last week at 203 E. Redwood St., offers a bit of both cuisines. It's a reflection of the owner's personal history. Dgavad Azimzadeh says he is of Persian descent but lived most of his adult life in France before moving to the United States a few years ago. The eatery's breakfast menu offers American standards such as eggs, bacon, toast and coffee, as well as crepes.

Andrea L. "Angie" Haigley, known around Ocean City as the "Shrimp Salad Queen" for her contest-winning recipe, died Sunday at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury from complications of a stroke. She was 60. An Ocean City bartender for many years after moving there in 1985, Mrs. Haigley was born in Baltimore and graduated from Eastern High School. She was active in many charities and was a member of the Blue Ribbon Social Club. At the time of her death, she was manager of the bar at Salvatore's Restaurant in Ocean City.

PHILADELPHIA - When Carol Seelaus showed up a little before 10 a.m. on a recent Saturday, Nick Ide was already dressed in his tuxedo pants and white shirt. Carol had had them cleaned and pressed. She brought his red boutonniere. "He looked almost shiny," she said. "He had a smile on his face that small children could have fallen into." Carol had been to a dollar store, and had bought decorations - plastic flowers, candles, crepe paper, and duct tape to bind it all together. She and her second cousin Norma Hall decorated the courtyard, making small centerpieces for the picnic tables.

Located where Ten Oaks, Howard and Green Bridge roads intersect in Dayton, the Crossroads Pub is a cozy, inviting place to stop for a country seafood dinner. Crabs and other seafood are the house specialty. During the summer, the restaurant offers all-you-can-eat crabs Mondays and Tuesdays. "Most summer nights, our crab deck is filled," says Bill Green, owner and chef. The pub's menu also offers hot sandwiches served with seasoned curly fries, thick onion rings, cole slaw, applesauce, three-potato salad or hush puppies.

You might think that if DiPasquale's Gourmet Italian Market of Highlandtown opened its first eatery it would be small scale -- a deli, maybe. But DiPasquale's at the Pikes (912 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville) is a full-service Italian restaurant with a liquor license. (Yes, there is a deli and grocery as well.)The old Pikes Theater, after extensive renovation, is the setting for what Joe DiPasquale, one of the owners, says is really a trattoria. The menu is mostly southern Italian, with dishes like risotto, scampi and veal Marsala.

The only problem with Price's Seafood in Havre de Grace is getting there. But this classic crab house is worth the drive, about an hour from downtown Baltimore.Walk up the steps to this wood-frame house, high on a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River, and snag a green vinyl booth inside. That's not hard to do since the wood-paneled room is filled with them. The booths in the middle are side by side, making them roomy enough for large parties.Ready for the onslaught of crab shells, tabletops are spread with clean white paper, some scribbled with reservation times.

Glorie's Place, with its flouncy curtains, knickknacks on the windowsills and bright, spotless dining rooms, is the kind of place that makes you feel as though you're eating in someone's home.Karen Connelly bought the Essex restaurant two years ago from the previous owners and kept the name. In the middle of a residential neighborhood, it draws a regular crowd of loyal patrons who don't seem to mind that a meal here can be quite uneven. Glorie's is convenient and comfortable and homey. Heck, if I lived in the neighborhood, I'd probably go back, too.Here's the meal I'd order.

I'm grateful to Billy Himmelrich, owner of the several Stone Mill Bakery cafes in the area, for bringing such good bread and such flaky croissants and such buttery brioches to Baltimore. But I wish he would teach his staff how to make an iced latte.We had lunch at the recently opened Stone Mill in Roland Park last Sunday. This is a handsome cafe, done in a sort of Shaker chic -- minimalist decor, comfortable ladder-back chairs, the Stone Mill's trademark riveted metal tables as well as a couple of wooden ones, and two high chairs hanging from pegs along the wall.

Three recipes, any one of which is likely to become your very favorite, include barley soup, a shrimp salad and a pecan cookie that is some-kind-of-good.Mrs. B. Wagner of Baltimore wrote that she had pored overrecipes in the library and had experimented on her own, but could not come up with a creamy macaroni shrimp salad that pleased her. Eha L. Schuetz of Baltimore came to the rescue. Her recipe was excellent, according to Chef Syglowski, who chooses and tests recipes submitted to this column.