The sign outside
Carma's Caf5f said
that it was voted the
best place to get a
sandwich in Balti-more by the City Paper. Naturally, this caught my attention. I went inside and saw a stack of muffulettas to the side of the counter, so of course I ordered a quarter and gave it a try. It was actually better than the sandwich I had in New Orleans, the muffuletta's home turf. Carma's makes a superior muffuletta, and that was just the beginning.
I usually make do with a single visit before writing a review, but Carma's was so excellent that I had to make the standard three visits in order to give the place a fair shake. I love this place. It has classic style, an adventurous menu, smoothies for the new-agers, excellent coffee in unexpected varieties, a raft of cheap food and the serious sandwiches.
Let's examine the printed menu one page at a time before returning to a consideration of the d5fcor, service and character of the place. The breakfast options are not exactly a revelation, but they include a frittata of the day, usually three. A frittata is a thick Italian omelette that can be made long ahead of consumption and filled with many ingredients. One of the listed frittata during my visits was leek and smoked mozzarella. I found Carma's willingness to deal with leeks wonderful.
Apparently the granola at Carma's is something special, but being not much of a hippie myself, gradations of granola are indistinguishable to me. There is fruit compote offered as an accompaniment to either yogurt or oatmeal, which is another old-fashioned foodie touch. Fruit compote is basically fresh jam with various sizes of fruit chunks, and sometimes a few nuts. It's delicious and easy, but no one seems to make it anymore, except, of course, Carma. The oatmeal itself makes my Irish heart happy. It comes thick and fairly dry, with brown sugar and cream optional. There are also spices at the sideboard,which include a fresh nutmeg grinder -- an excellent touch. The oats are big, chewy and smooth all at once.
Though it appears on one of the specials plates, the chocolate panino, complete with merciful use of the singular, is a standard item. It is two thin pieces of sturdy bread filled with chocolate and then grilled. The chocolate melts but does not burn. The bread takes on a golden brown crust but does not blacken.
There are soups -- and these are tasty soups, including a mushroom and barley soup with fresh thyme. This was good soup, and good soup is hard to find. It's mushroomy, rich soup, and the barley is not overly soft and balances the texture of mushroom and of broth. Fresh herbs highlight the principal flavors of the dish, rather than dominating them.
The "small foods" section is so considerate. There are four items, a "very petite" grilled cheese, a salad, sesame noodles and hummus with baguette, all for between $2 and $3. So often in caf5fs the customer is forced to pay $6 for a sandwich,
$3 for a brownie or starve. These small options are polite to the student budget and perfect for the all-afternoon study session at the caf5f.
The sandwiches come with either a mesclun salad or sesame noodles; they will probably never accompany their sandwiches with french fries. I think this is a wise decision, not just for health reasons, but also for style -- they manage to quite simply not deep-fry anything. If it weren't such a successful move, I'd brand it hubris.
They have their marinated steak sandwich and their chicken salad sandwich (with chicken poached in white wine and mixed with chunks of red grapes). Both have aioli on them -- thank God some place has realized that aioli is both very cheap and delicious. It's just mayonnaise with stuff in it, usually garlic. They have a veggie sandwich and a mushroom sandwich -- as a former vegetarian I appreciate it. On the specials board, which is made of plates, there was meatball rocket, artichoke tuna and polynesian.
Set apart from the sandwich section is the muffuletta. It's a mammoth sandwich, and it is glorious. I guess I should point out some connection between the muffuletta and its native New Orleans, but really the presence of the sandwich here in Baltimore just makes me feel better, knowing that the New Orleans culinary diaspora is finally growing to the size it deserves.
If you'll forgive me moving on, I'll address the lattes. These espresso drinks are simply of very high quality. On the menu there is a caf5f cr5fme, which most Americans would think of as a breve -- a latte made with cream instead of milk.
Also interesting is the build-a-latte, which finally acknowledges on the menu that people put all sorts of crap in coffee, and it just says, "I know you're going to add like nine modifiers to anything we could print on the menu, just get it over with."
As if to signal that Baltimore sits between the North and the South, iced tea and sweet tea are distinguished on the menu. There's also a section on their frozen coffee things, which are, I suppose, obligatory, but thankfully they are as aggressively open-ended as the 'build-your-own-latte.'
The one problem at Carma's is that the menus on the wall, which are all attractively framed, have fine print that is difficult to read, and when there are things on the menu called "sno-joe" and "zamboni," easy-to-read descriptions would be a plus.
These problems are overshadowed by the high quality of everything else. The people who work at Carma's, including Carma herself, are wonderful, charming people. They are familiar with the regulars, charming to newcomers, and they know how to show proper appreciation for a four-month old baby.
Go there to think weird thoughts, eat good food and do all that stuff you thought college was all about.
