Vanilla Ice Cream

Don't let the name fool you. Edo Sushi, the new Japanese restaurant in Timonium, offers much more than raw fish on seasoned rice. Traditional casseroles, teriyaki, tempura and noodle dishes are all on the menu. About the only thing you can't get here is a Japanese beer; Edo Sushi doesn't have a liquor license. (The restaurant is happy for you to bring your own alcohol.)This is a sunny, cheerful little dining room with lots of blond wood -- shiny and bright as a new penny. Kimono-clad waitresses carrying the sushi chef's pretty creations glide from table to table.

Before we even took a bite at Paul's on the South River, my wife and I had an inkling we were in for a fine time.When I called to make a reservation for two on a Saturday night, the hostess asked whether it was a special occasion. This willingness to please was refreshing.The attention to detail in service was evident throughout our evening.My wife generally steers clear of deep-fried food, but she heeded the waitress' suggestion of fried calamari in spicy Thai dipping sauce. But she said she should have followed her usual policy.

Desserts are my specialty -- my favorite part of any meal when entertaining. My decision, however, about which confection to include for a menu is inevitably influenced by the season.In the hot-weather months I love icy cold sorbets, ice creams perfumed with new flavors or well-chilled cheesecake mounded with fresh berries. During winter, warm, robust desserts are standard fare at our table.When I invited several friends to a last-minute potluck supper, I offered to make the main course and dessert, while others brought side dishes, bread and salad.

THE OTHER EVENING I came home to the kind of recorded telephone message I'd like to hear every night. The voice was from my long-time neighbor, Audrey Eastman. "The peaches are in," she said.I knew exactly what she meant. The glorious peaches from the tree she and her husband Don raised from a seed are ready for pickup.Their peach orchard consists of a single tree in a Guilford Avenue back yard. The Eastman peaches are as good as they get, often a touch better than those picked from the legendary Catoctin-Smithsburg-South Mountain orchards west of Frederick, which local peach fans venerate.

For a decade, Bob Adams' summertime cooler has been a strawberry snowball on a layer of soft vanilla ice cream. Not any more.This summer, the Anne Arundel County Health Department is enforcing regulations that require a snowball stand that also sells ice cream to be more of a restaurant and less of a shack.Those that lack hot and cold running water, sewer hookups and easy-to-clean walls, floors and ceilings can't sell ice cream.There are requirements for different kinds of freezers and other equipment, depending on whether the stand is serving soft ice cream or dipping hard ice cream.

Some people remember great appetizers. Others recall entrees. I have a dessert memory.I can still "taste" an incredible chocolate cake with creme fraiche I had five years ago. I can describe outstanding cookies as if they just came from the oven, although the experience is old.For more than a year I've had the pleasure of a pear upside-down cake lingering in my mind. The cake was created by Bradley Ogden and his staff at the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, Calif. I had the cake, and a few other desserts, I might add, during a restaurant splurge trip with friends.

MARIO'SWhere: 2204 Philadelphia Ave., Ocean City, (410) 289-9445Hours: Dinner served 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. dailyCredit cards: Major credit cards accepted.Mario's is an Italian oasis in the Ocean City sea of seafood restaurants. After a summer of crab and fish, I was ready to see some pasta on my plate.Well, almost.I didn't want to go into immediate seafood withdrawal, so I decided to give the crab soup ($3.95) a try. It turned out to be a nice melange of shredded crab meat and mixed vegetables, and the kitchen wasn't heavy-handed with Old Bay seasoning.