The Weekend Pho-1-1

In this blog:

Baltimore Restaurants

Bond Street Social

Mekong Delta

Walt's Inn

Canton Bakery & Pizza

Topics

Friday the 13th

Charlie Brown

Food comas

Karaoke

Friday

I took a half day Friday from work to prepare for my dear friend's 30th surprise party. Back in the spring, she had instructed me to assist her husband in planning a 30th surprise party for her. If you find yourself casting judgement on this kind of seemingly vain request, well, let's break this down for a minute. Over 95% of people turning 30 in 2011 hoped for a 30th surprise birthday party, but only 2.5% of them actually received one. What a depressingly large percentage of disappointment, don't you think? By the way, I made up that stat. The moral of the story and the fake stat is that it's better to voice exactly what you want (to a degree) instead of silently hoping that your clueless husband/wife will magically read your mind. 

So here I was on Friday, waiting for Robbe to show up with Laura's birthday cake I had ordered from Safeway. It was a sheet cake (vanilla and chocolate with raspberry filling) with chocolate buttercream icing and flower accents--sweet and simple. Robbe came home with the cake. I lifted up the lid, and there sat the cake I ordered: a chocolate covered sheet cake with flowers. But the flowers were orange with green leaves. And Robbe said something about Halloween. And then all I could think of was candy corn. And then a big pumpkin. And then The Great Pumpkin. And then Charlie Brown. And how Charlie Brown was assigned a simple task to get a good Christmas tree. And he ended up returning with the most modest, withered tree of the lot. And everyone made fun of him for messing up such a menial task. And then I thought how I was exactly like Charlie Brown. And I pictured people pointing and laughing at the cake and then pointing and laughing at me. Spoiler alert: none of that ended up happening. There was laughing, but no pointing and laughing. Her husband booked a private room at Bond Street Social (replaced DuClaw) in Fells Point for roughly 40 of us. A bit pricey for my taste but a really nice modern meets rustic design with great outdoor space. What mattered in the end was that the cake was delicious. And that Laura was actually 100% surprised. And she didn't care that her cake looked more like we were celebrating Friday the 13th than her actual birthday. But if she did ever need a Friday the 13th cake, she would know who to go to.

Saturday

We had planned an incredibly busy (lounging with our mouths gaped open) Saturday that included cleaning (vegging) and organizing (Doritos on my plate or in a napkin?). All of that was abandoned when Robbe's friend Ali called and dropped the bomb on us that he was officially on the fast track to marriage as he had proposed to his girl Mel that morning and was in need of some celebratory action. We, of course, pushed our productive agenda to another time (never?) and responded immediately with getting the house in order for our guests to arrive (surprisingly all true). When the newly engaged lovebirds came, they wanted one thing and one thing only: Pho. To which I responded: Pho sho. (Crickets.) We soon found ourselves sitting in the restaurant of Yelp-critically acclaimed Mekong Delta serving up delicious Vietnamese cuisine (byob and cash only). All of us inhaled 3 different kinds of spring rolls which were no less than five inches--the biggest spring rolls I've ever seen. And then we each feasted on our meals of choice. Me? F22. A safe choice but a good one nonetheless. Our entire meal for four came to a grand total of $51. Tough to beat. Delicious. Generously affordable. You should want to go to there.

Food coma.

Then, the karaoke bug hit all of us. Because who wouldn't want to celebrate an engagement with song and dancing? No one said it had to be good song and dancing. We walked the half mile to Canton's Walt's Inn (karaoke 7 days a week) and eagerly smeared our names on several blank karaoke slips and submitted them to the karaoke MC who looked all of 21 and seemed to be hating every second of her life. The speakers were in and out; sometimes not projecting any music at all. I was the first of our group to go and yes, I picked my go-to ballad: "Shoop". The lyrics blazed across the screen but the music failed to project through the speakers. Thanks to a couple who was front and center, singing along regardless of the absent sound, I was able to make it through successfully in the style of a cappella. I'd like to think if Salt n' Pepa were there they might have cried. Next up was Mel who took on ol' Kenny Roger's "The Gambler"; Ali and Robbe tag teamed with "When We Were Young" by the Killers; and Robbe brought it home with James' "Laid." 

One thing I can always count on Ali for after midnight is rallying around a delicious piping hot pepperoni pizza. We found out that night that Canton Bakery & Pizza is open until 3 in the morning (schwing) and happens to only be less than a mile from our house (double schwing) so needless to say we brought that baby home and stuffed our faces into the early morning. The perfect lullaby for a beautiful night's rest.

The Hot July Moon Saw Everything

In case you were wondering, we survived the sneak attack storm that blacked out millions of people in our region a little over a week ago. It was only a few days ago that Mr. Natty Boh was also restored although his blinking eye has been suspiciously missing for weeks now. In observance of this, I've decided to patch out my own right eye--pirate style of course--until his eye returns. Did I mention I'm 30?

With the onslaught on summer comes a beefed up calendar of events throughout the city. I've been diligently documenting all the outdoor movies (Little Italy's just started this past Friday), concerts, festivals, and farmer's markets that I hope to go to (Young the Giant for free at Power Plant? Um, yes please!).

This past Thursday, Robbe and I went with our newly engaged friends Timmy and Dana to First Thursdays, a free outdoor concert sponsored by WTMD 89.7 in Mt. Vernon. Featured band? Scars on 45 (they're English and I don't get their name either). Basically, it's three hours of picnic-ing with a bunch of sweaty strangers against the backdrop of residential brownstones, local vendors, and neighborhood hipsters. It was great, truly. We brought our own supply of booze and sandwiches and leftover Fourth of July cherry and raspberry pie, handmade by Robbe's grandma by the way. Yes, yes it was a thousand degrees outside and yes, yes it did sprinkle on us a bit, but yes, yes we stayed until the end when the band closed out their set with Rihanna's "We Found Love" cover. It was my first event after moving to the city where I felt and witnessed a sense of community. Drunken community? Probably. But it was still community. This is where I live now. These are my people. And it got me excited about the rest of the summer, my generously marked up calendar, and the prospect of experiencing more events like this one that could lead to absurd fun.

Afterwards, we headed to Midtown BBQ for a quick beer which was a block away from the concert. I instantly thumbsed-up the place once I saw a large karaoke banner hugging its brick when we arrived. The sign actually said: "Full contact karaoke" which simultaneously culminated delight and confusion. We had seen an advertisement that a band called PB & Jamz was performing. All four of us had cast our judgments on what this band would sound like--white wannabe rappers? O.A.R. meets Sublime? Folks, PB & Jamz became my favorite new local band that night. The five-piece came right out covering Toxic by Britney Spears. Did I mention there was a clarinet (shout out to my middle school band instrument! 2nd clarinet where you at!) They went on to play Juicy (Biggie Smalls--babe-uh babe-uhhhh); Ignition (R. Kelly), remix no less!; I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney! RIP); Hard Knock Life (Jay-Z); and You Know I'm No Good (Amy Winehouse, ar to the eye to the pee). We left before they got to play Single Ladies which means they missed out on me performing the 3 seconds of dance moves I know from Beyonce's video (their loss). 

Next month the band plays at Joe Squared (Dear Pizza, I love you) so my plan is to brush up on my Biggie and Jay-Z and come ready to party with my new best friends (they have no idea who I am). Who's with me?

Kimi Redd