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Baltimore Crabs:

Crabs are Baltimore’s culinary claim to fame, and Faidley’s Seafood in Lexington Market claims to have the city’s best crab cakes. We had to check it out.

I’m always weary of this dish. Crab cakes are often less lumps of delicious seafood and more hunks of deep fried bread crumbs. Faidley’s gets its crab cakes right. The jumbo lump crab cakes were enormous. They were nicely seasoned with huge chunks of meat and very little filler. However, Faidley’s is not a restaurant. There’s no seating, only long counters that diners stand at while devouring their seafood feasts. Not exactly a great place to relax after fighting our way through holiday rush hour traffic.

The bill: $18.99 for the jumbo lump crab cake platter with 2 sides.

Philly Cheesesteak

Although Philly was in our top places to visit this summer post, the city of brotherly love has been demoted. It’s a dump. I had imagined it to be like Boston: Colonial architecture, cobblestone streets and old townhouses. It wasn’t. However, I may have missed the scenic part of town, because our trip to Philly lasted two hours. That was enough time to grab a cheesesteak and a beer at Devil’s Den.

As a Philly novice, I headed directly toward the most famous sandwich joint in town: Geno’s Steaks. The cheesesteak vendor is controversial. It has sign informing patrons: “This Is America: When ordering please speak English” (it’s in a largely Latino neighborhood) and is covered in police paraphernalia. It serves zenophobic attitude along with its tasty meat and cheese-wiz sandwich.

Some Philly natives, however, who sat beside us at our picnic table (the restaurant has no indoor seating), said that neighboring Pat’s King of Steaks was better. Indeed, the line a Geno’s was nearly all out-of-towners: half visiting businessmen and half teenagers at Jesus summer camp.

The bill: $16 for two sandwiches. No drinks.

New Haven Pizza

A few months ago, I watched a Travel Channel special on the US’s best pizza. They hit the standards: New York, Chicago and some organic, California hippy pies. But the country’s best pizza, known as “apizza,” was in New Haven, Connecticut. I scoffed: “New Haven? When will I ever go there?”

The answer: last week.

New Haven, most famously home to Yale, also has two storied pizza restaurants: Pepe’s and Sally’s. Both serve the thin, mozzarella-less pie. Their specialty is the white clam pizza; it’s thin crust, garlic, oil, clams and a hard cheese, such as asiago.

Sally’s was closed for the 4th. That left us with Pepe’s, the original New Haven pizzeria, which promised a crunchier crust. At 1:30 pm, the line for a table was out the door. However, it was fast-moving and we had a seat within 15 minutes.

The pie was great – and huge. A medium is plenty for three people. It was covered in fresh clams and garlic (two of my favorites). The crust was chewy and light. The staff, however, was grumpy and brought us drinks in minuscule glasses. You can’t have everything.

The bill: $29. One Medium pizza. Two soft drinks. And one Sam Adams in a Pepe’s pint glass.

Boston Clam Chowder

Apparently, Boston is a popular destination on July 4th weekend. The downtown was unbearably crowded with tourists like ourselves. So, on the hunt for the city’s most famous chowder, we had to settle for Quincy Market, a touristy corridor of food stands in the middle of downtown.

The definition of “clam chowder” is a matter of opinion and geography. Here’s a quick lesson: Manhattan chowder (a name that actually came about as a way of insulting Rhode Island clam chowder) is traditionally made with a clear broth and a generous portion of tomatoes. Boston Clam Chowder uses cream or milk based broth, butter, potatoes, and onions. You may have also heard people talk about San Francisco clam chowder, which is really nothing more than Boston clam chowder served in an edible sourdough bowl.

Many locals rave that Boston & Maine Fish Company has the best chowder (I’m saying ‘chowda’ in my head) in the city.  It didn’t disappoint. We squeezed up to the bar and sipped our soup as swarms of visiting families bumbled through the market. The soup was creamy, hot and chock full of clams and potatoes. What more could you ask for?

The bill: $7.50 for clam chowder in a bread bowl. Or get a lobster roll and chowder for $16.