In a way, I've been writing a restaurant blog for my whole career as the Sun's restaurant critic, only without the Web part. My reviews have been a personal journal of my adventures, and there have been quite a few. But I'm looking forward to having a little more room with this daily blog to talk about restaurant news and issues I don't have room for in my Sunday review or my Table Talk column.
I also get a lot of reader feedback that I can now share. Feel free to send me your restaurant news and reviews and questions of general interest. Hey, I may even address the Dreaded Crab Cake Question.
Here are a couple of e-mails I got about the now-closed Szechuan Best...
We have a dinner group who regularly ate at this restaurant. We were there the last night it was open. The staff was very sad since they had been there for about 30 years. Our favorite waitress said they were closing and everyone was going their separate ways. It is a real shame, because the food was wonderful and the service excellent. Judy Bushong
...Bad news about Best. My family loved to go there for Three Cups Chicken and orders and orders of the steamed vegetable dumplings, which were by far the best dumplings in the area--maybe even the world! .... Wonder if you know of any place locally that makes dumplings that would be almost as good? Will
...I don't remember Szechuan Best's dumplings, so I can't compare, but the steamed vegetable dumplings I had recently at the new P. F. Chang's in the Inner Harbor were pretty darn good. The menu also features Peking dumplings with ground pork and shrimp dumplings. My review of this popular Chinese chain will appear on Sunday, April 29 in the Modern Life section. I know, I know, it's not a small, family-owned restaurant but...