Takeout

Maggitti's Italian Market & Gourmet Bakery 2419 Baldwin Mill Road, Fallston, 410-557-7080. Open 10 a.m-8 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Maggitti's Italian Market has more barns than bocce courts in its vicinity, yet the fare here is genuine Italian. Set up as a combination grocery and deli, this Harford County crossroads spot has a country-store feel to it. The country we are talking about is Italy. I rode out to Maggitti's for lunch one sunny afternoon, counting cows and marveling at the winter landscape.

The economy is so bad that even pretty cheap Chinese takeout food has become a luxury. This adaptation of a recipe from Fine Cooking's latest annual cookbook lets you make a great version of Orange Chicken at home. You'll save money by buying a bulk package of bone-in chicken thighs and removing the skin yourself. SHOPPING LIST Orange : 89 cents Soy sauce: 20 cents Rice vinegar: 20 cents Brown sugar: 7 cents Red-pepper flakes : 15 cents Chicken thighs: $3.18 Eggs: 37 cents Cornstarch: 21 cents Canola oil: 32 cents Scallions: 89 cents Rice: 25 cents TOTAL*: $6.73 *Prices are calculated based on the amount used in the recipe.

International Food Market 7004 Reisterstown Road, 410-358-4757. Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday You don't have to speak Russian to buy food at the International Food Market, a combination deli and grocery in the Colonial Village shopping center on Reisterstown Road, but it doesn't hurt. Most of the signs and the conversation in the store are in Russian. When I visited, I simply smiled and pointed. There is a huge meat counter, with more kinds of salami than there were states in the former Soviet Union.

Aunt Erma's Bakery Pennsylvania Dutch Market, 11121 York Road, Cockeysville Open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursdays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Fridays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays (Thanksgiving week: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, closed Thanksgiving, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday). Call 410-316-1506. You can't have a Thanksgiving feast without pie for dessert, and for the pie-challenged cooks, Aunt Erma's Bakery comes to the rescue. Erma Riehl, who told me she was an aunt "some 20 times over," is the proprietor of a bakery in the Pennsylvania Dutch Market in Cockeysville.

Andy Nelson's Barbecue 11007 York Road, Cockeysville; 410-527-1226; open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday When I check out a barbecue establishment, I always take a gander at the back of the joint. That is where the wood should be stacked. Without wood, there is no smoke. Without smoke, there is no legitimate barbecue. The back of Andy Nelson's barbecue not only had a stack of hickory, it also had rows of picnic tables filled with smiling eaters. The "Cue," in particular the pork, had drawn the crowd.

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.

Pioneer Pit Beef in Woodlawn does not accept credit cards. It is open only six hours a day. It does not have a telephone number you can call to place an order. You have to stand in line, sometimes a long one, and wait. It has very limited seating, one picnic table set up outdoors. Yet the customers flock there. Starting around lunchtime every day except Sunday, the cars with husbands and wives, the trucks driven by plumbers and the vans piloted by BGE workmen wheel into the Pioneer parking lot. This is a place folks probably smell before they see. A smokestack on the roof sends an enticing smoky perfume into the roaring traffic of nearby Interstate 70. This is not a yogurt-for-lunch crowd.

Not so long ago, going to the supermarket was a pretty pedestrian act -- you stocked up on necessities and got out as fast as possible. Now we want to know: Is there local produce? Gluten-free cereal? A beautiful dinner we can heat, but not cook? Upscale supermarkets are growing to meet our demands. In the Baltimore area, the latest comer is Fresh Market, which opened in July at the Shops at Quarry Lake. Its arrival led us to investigate what the premium market had to offer, and we checked out four competitors in the northern area of Baltimore -- Eddie's of Roland Park; Graul's in Ruxton; Wegmans and Whole Foods.