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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.

Here’s the very short video:

Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, has a lot of water. It’s most famous attractions are Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, a weekend get-away/mansion perched on top of a creek, and the rapids of the Youghiogheny (pronounced – “yock-i-gay-nee”) River (below).

We skipped the rapids. The class V whitewater rafting trip that our friends signed up for cost $140 each, not suiting our cheapskate travel budget or my fear of tumbling out of the raft and bashing my head on a rock. However, trips on the milder sections of the river run about $50 a person.

Fallingwater:

Instead, we hit up the other watery attraction: Fallingwater.  The famous home was supposed to be a weekend retreat for the Kaufmann family of the Kaufmann department stores (now Macy’s). But Frank Lloyd Wright created a mansion of stone floors, cantilevered balconies and picture windows. Wright designed the home in 1935, but it still looks modern. The structure itself, hasn’t fared so well; the Pennsylvania Conservancy had to make major repairs to the foundation of the home.  I’m a sucker for architecture and loved Fallingwater. It was worth dealing with the crowds and having to order our tickets online (and pay the $2 surcharge). When we arrived for our noon tour, the day was entirely sold out.

Ohiopyle:

Also in the area, is the tiny town of Ohiopyle (pop. 77). The one-street village is entirely whitewater rafting outfitters and restaurants.  There is one bar, with not a single woman in it.

Fox’s Pizza Den: When we arrived in Ohiopyle, we were starving. And pizza seemed just right. This local chain sits at the corner of town and serves up a delicious Philly Cheese steak pizza. It also has on the menu a local creation, the wedgie. Wedgies are a sandwich served on a pizza crust instead of a bun.

House Cafe: I want to say only nice things about this restaurant, but I can’t. Sure, the setting, an old home with front porch and patio seating, was cute. The staff were friendly. But the food was over priced (almost $9 for a skimpy chicken salad sandwich) and the service horribly, horribly slow. Our lunch lasted a more than leisurely 2.5 hours.

Christian W. Klay Winery: Although buying beer in Ohiopyle requires an afternoon and a half tank of gas, purchasing a bottle of wine is not nearly so complicated. There’s winery ten minutes outside of town, located in a restored barn.  The decoration is cheesy, but the back porch is nestled in pretty rolling hills. Had it not been pouring when we visited, it would have been an excellent spot to sit and drink a bottle.

Before this trip, I assumed that a state famous for its craft brew (home to both the Troegs and Victory breweries) would have a plentiful selection of beer — and maybe even a few things we couldn’t get back in DC. Instead, we found ourselves driving from convenient store to gas station to supermarket and emerging from all empty-handed.

Finally, we got to a small shop in the center of Ohiopyle. The owner was used to tourists from the surrounding states being baffled by PA’s dry mini-marts. When I asked her where we could find beer, she replied with a question I’ve never been asked before: “Exactly how much beer are you looking for?” I shrugged, and she laid out our options:

a) Purchase a six pack from a nearby bar with an “off-license.” However, you will be charges the same rate for the carryout drinks as you would pay to sit at bar and drink them.

b) Drive to the other side of the mountain and buy an entire case from a beer distributor.

With time to kill, we went with choice (b) The distributor turned out to be a garage with a walk-in freezer attached to someone’s house. It was $31 for 24 bottles of Sierra Nevada, a decent price by DC standards. I know what I’ll be drinking for the next month.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUSDMPmo56U]

Bedford, Pa., isn’t the only place around here with a gravity hill. A two hour drive from DC, Burkittsville, Maryland, the site of 1990’s horror flick the Blair Witch Project. Unfortunately, this hill doesn’t have it’s own website, but it is captured on YouTube.

I hope to stop off in at the more famous (and better marketed) gravity hill on the way to a camping trip at Ohiopyle, Pa., over Memorial Day weekend.

1. Assateague Island: We attempted to camp at this National Seashore in Maryland last year. However, the place was booked up through October by the time I thought to plan the trip. So this year, I made reservations in January for a campsite in June. If you are interested in beach front camping and wild horses, go to the National Park Service site and reserve a camping spot now.

2. Philadelphia: Every time I drive up to New York, I pass by Philadelphia. I’ve never bothered to stop. This summer, I plan to change that.

3. Tubing: Tubing at Harper’s Ferry was my favorite day trip of last summer. We rented tubes from Butts Tubes and spent the afternoon floating down the Potomac, tipping over mini rapids and diving off rocks — all while towing a cooler of beer. (This year, I’ll remember to bring cans not bottles.) I want to expand my hunt for the best tubing in the region. I’m hoping to find somewhere as scenic as Harper’s Ferry W Va. but without the crowds of frat boys.

4. Tangier Island: Cheap seafood and weird accents are two of my favorite things in life. This Virginia island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay has both. Just be forewarned, no alcohol can be purchased on the island. Bring your own.

5. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum: I read about this unusual destination in Weston, WV, in the Washington Post travel section this winter. It closed to patients in 1994, and now — from April to Nov. — it’s open to tourists. I’m getting creeped out just looking at the photos.

Comment with your top travel plans and suggestions.

My friends who are paying high rent to live in the DC-proper were dismayed by Bourdain’s decision to feature so many places in Northern Virginia.  But to us on the other side of the river, this was official recognition of what we already knew: the suburbs have some great food.  Our ethnic restaurants may have plastic table clothes, folding chairs and chipped plates, but the food is damn good.

And, if you don’t have a cable subscription, the episode is up (for now, at least) on YouTube. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X6X-6EG2wg]