Friday Shout Out: Good Food In Big Yankee Cities

Posting on behalf of my male HTT counterpart:

My dad and sister drove up from Georgia this past long weekend and we explored Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Molly (my sister) had never been to Baltimore nor Philadelphia, Erin was new to Philly and I’d only been to Philly for about six hours in a snowstorm (stopped there midway from Asheville, NC to Montreal, left in a hurry trying to avoid getting stuck in a blizzard). My dad, laid-back as always, was open to visiting all three places, so we started with Baltimore on a Friday.

Baltimore

I drove them into town, with quick trek through downtown and then onto Chaps Pit Beef, a place on the far eastern edge of Baltimore City serving pit beef, Baltimore’s local take on barbecue. I’d seen Anthony Bourdain’s visit, so I made sure to try the tiger sauce. That, plus heaping spoons of horseradish, had me in “food sweat,” which isn’t a bad thing as long as tasty, spicy food is involved. Molly and dad got straight-up pit beef, while I opted for a combo with corned beef, smoked turkey and pit beef. We shared a heaping order of fries which were top-notch, real fried potatoes rather than “It-Came-From-the-Deep-Freezer-Potato-Matter.”

After polishing off that, we meandered back to Federal Hill for a visit to the American Visionary Art Museum, a gem for art and classes, including pretzel-making. Once we had our fix of amphibious art vehicles and screen painting, we stopped at The Brewers Art in Mt. Vernon for a few beers before Erin’s train arrived at Penn Station.

From Rocktober 2010

Resurrection Ale is their signature beer, which we sampled along with Sun King and Golden-something.

Dinner took us to Fell’s Point, where we ate at Bertha’s. They’re noted for their mussels, of which we had plenty.

From Rocktober 2010

Sauces included garlic-sage, white wine & butter and tomato anchovy (surprisingly good!) tarragon and sage, Spanish sauce.

Philadelphia

We got out of the apartment at 8:30 p.m and arrived in Philly just in time for an early lunch. Dad had researched Philly Cheesesteaks and.... To Be Continued!!