Bay Bites
NBT Birthday Bash: Barbecue on the Bay
by Gabby Crabcakes

It takes a lot of hands to make a free picnic for five or six hundred hungry New Bay Times readers.

Directing all those hands are some of the best cooking minds in Chesapeake Country. Many people can't resist a good meal; these are people who can't resist feeding you that good meal. They've been planning what they'll serve for weeks. Even now, they're making my mouth water.

Let's get your mouth watering, too, with a run down of who's coming and what's cooking.

Hosting our Birthday Bash again this year is Jerry Osuna of Surfside 7, who's firing up his grill at noon, when the party gets going. It'll be sizzling with hamburgers and hotdogs all afternoon while the river sparkles and the bands play on until 5pm, when our celebration ends and business continues as usual at Surfside 7. If you haven't eaten at Surfside 7, by the way, you may want to stay on for the most alluring crabs in town or a gourmet dinner.

I like to start off at the grill because it's not a picnic until I've eaten a dog.

If you're a meat-eater, you'll want to stay with me a few paragraphs more, because while every good picnic begins with a burger or a dog, it doesn't need to stop there. After all, we promised you a barbecue.

What's a barbecue without a pig?

I've known pigs in my day, but few compare to the 100-pound, crisp roasted porker coming to the party courtesy of our good friend Billy Bagdasian, of Adam's the Place for Ribs. As every connoisseur of barbecue knows, it doesn't get much better than Adam's. Good as it is at the Place for Ribs, fresh roasted pig al fresco, the way Billy's serving it up under the Sunday afternoon sun on Surfside's riverside lawn is what barbecue is all about. Thank you, Billy.

If you're wondering what's in it for Jerry and Billy and all the other cooks you're still to read about, wonder no more. Of course, they're hoping you like their food so well you'll become a regular customer. And, believe it or not, the ideal of community service is alive and well for these people: they appreciate New Bay Times, they believe in the Bay and they're eager to entertain you. But competition is part of the fun. Their neighbors' good food spurs them to their personal best.

So don't think you've done your duty by barbecue until you've eaten the meat roasted and served up by our friend Scott Sorrell of Olde South Catering. Scott says both pork and beef barbecue are likely on his table and, like Billy, he offers your choice of sauce: both thick, traditional sauce and my personal favorite, vinegary Carolina-style picking sauce. Scott also likes to prepare a surprise or two. Last year, it was chocolate-dipped strawberries, and we're hoping he'll rest on those laurels.

No, you're not done yet. You've still got to sample barbecue with that Caribbean twist that spices up life at the Beaches. Last year, Anen and John Remy of Lagoons Island Grille and Harbour Island Grille topped their specially spiced chicken with creamy sauce and rolled it into delicious tortilla wrap-ups. Everybody loved them, and they were easy to eat.

There will be a new twist on that theme this year with the first appearance of papussas, a Venezuelan specialty like a small round pancake stuffed with beans, cheese and chicken, topped with a spicey sort of cole slaw.

Jerry tasted them at an ethnic food festival in D.C. and liked them so well he invited the makers down. (NAFTA hasn't fully kicked in: for these south-of-the-border treats, there's a $1 charge. Alcoholic beverages are also charged.)

Another new friend, Oliver's, is coming from Laurel, bringing meats for grilling, which we're eager to taste.

For our vegetarian friends, Barbara Sturgell of Happy Harbor is bringing a couple pasta salads, one with seafood because, after all, this is Chesapeake Country. Anna Chaney from Herrington on the Bay is bringing the potato salad.

I know, by now you're too full to read another bite - unless it's dessert. Hope you've saved room, because two of our favorite sweets specialists - Chaney and Susan Marshall of The Chocolate Box in Edgewater - have been baking for days to fill that last, tiny gap. Susan's sending baskets of cookies, both chocolate chip and sugar, while Anna's been busy whipping up cookies, brownies and crumb cake.

Thinking about all the good food from these old and new friends of New Bay Times makes me so hungry I'm breaking for lunch. See you in line

Surfside 7 Rt. 2 (southeast side South River Bridge), Edgewater · 410/956-8075

Hours: Party with us Sunday, May 16 from noon till 5pm

Reason to go: Do you have any better ideas than spending a Sunday afternoon on the sparkling West River meeting friends, enjoying free food, moving to the music and outbidding the competition in live and silent auctions - all for a good cause?

Something to think about: If you're coming by land, look alert for the turn: Make a left just after the bridge if you're coming from the north. Make a right just before if you're coming from the south.

| Issue 19 |

Volume VII Number 19
May 13-19, 1999
New Bay Times

| Homepage |
| Back to Archives |