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Category: Maryland

Chesapeake Bay Farms, Pocomoke MD

REVIEW

Have you noticed how dairy farms have taken to making and selling ice cream on site to the public? It’s part of their struggle to survive as small farms, like much of America, participate in the gig economy to make ends meet. From an ice cream lover’s perspective, it’s a welcome trend, bringing not just the chance to sample homemade ice cream, sometimes even made from the milk of the cows grazing on that farm, but also the opportunity to get out and enjoy rural life for a few hours. Continue reading

Soft Shell Spring Fair, Crisfield MD, May 29th 2016

Soft-shell crabs were invented in Crisfield MD. Well, OK, they were invented by the crabs themselves but the harvesting and marketing of them as a food item began in the Chesapeake town. It’s a very delicate process because, if left in the water, a crab’s new shell begins to harden about two hours after shedding its old one. Frozen and cleaned soft-shells are, of course, available year-round but live ones, which are definitely superior, can be obtained only from late spring into early fall. As you might imagine, getting them from the water to the cook alive, and before a new shell has formed, is no small endeavor. Yet the process goes on because the creatures are so darned delicious (and strikingly easy to eat compared to their well-armored brethren). Continue reading

Vote for the Best Ice Cream Parlor, Lobster Roll, Cuban Sandwich, …

USA Today’s 10Best has got a mess o’ polls going on right now, many focused on regional food specialties across America. In each category, a team of experts has selected 20 candidates, and it’s up to you to choose the winner. For instance, in the category of Best Po’ Boy in Louisiana, one of our favorite spots, Parkway Bakery and Tavern in New Orleans, is currently leading the vote tally, which will continue to accumulate until May 9th. Continue reading

Old-Fashioned Corn Roast Festival, Union Mills MD, August 1st 2015

For the 45th consecutive summer, the Union Mills Homestead will be hosting their annual Old-Fashioned Corn Roast Festival. The date is Saturday, August 1st, from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Local corn roasted in the husk over coals is really something special, and your meal ticket gets you all the corn you care to eat! Along with that corn: fried chicken, applesauce, sliced tomatoes, roll and butter, and iced tea or lemonade. Continue reading

America’s Top Dozen Donuts

This past winter we popped into Frangelli’s Bakery in Philadelphia to try their donnoli — that’s a donut filled with cannoli cream. Alas, they were out, and we returned home with a fine selection of “regular” donuts, which included a dossant (like the trademarked Cronut). Little did we know at the time that their jelly donuts are a force to be reckoned with. Frangelli’s jellies were just named one of America’s top 12 donuts by The Huffington Post (full disclosure: the story’s writers are from Philly). Continue reading

Seaside Restaurant and Crab House, Glen Burnie MD

REVIEW

The dining room is packed and virtually every table is covered with brown paper and Callinectes sapidus in various stages of disassembly. These are old-hand locals, capable of locating the choice crab nuggets while devoting only half their attention to the hard-shelled creatures, the other half devoted to watching their beloved Orioles clobber the Red Sox on one of the TVs perched on the walls around the dining room. We love tearing apart steaming hot Old Bay-plastered crabs as much as the next guy but, today, we’re feeling lazy, and tired from the long drive. So crab cakes it is, without shame. Continue reading

Tony Luke’s Coming to Ocean City MD in May

A new Tony Luke’s, popular South Philly purveyor of cheesesteaks and Italian roast pork sandwiches, will be opening on 33rd Street in Ocean City, Maryland in May. The restaurant will remain open year-round, i.e., it’s not a summers-only venture as is the practice of many businesses in Ocean City. Read more in this DelmarvaNow story.

The Attman’s Deli Story

Attman’s Deli on Lombard Street in Baltimore turns 100 years old this year. Today’s Attman’s is famous for their sandwich menu but what most fans don’t realize is that, for about the first 50 years of its existence, Attman’s was really a Jewish grocery that fixed the occasional sandwich for those customers who asked. It was founder Harry Attman’s son, Seymour, who turned it into a true restaurant in the ’60s. Continue reading

Garden & Gun’s Ultimate Barbecue Bracket

Garden & Gun is running a bracket competition between 32 Southern barbecue joints, covering pretty much all the regional traditions in Southern Q. We didn’t do the detailed work to know for sure but it appears that every Southern state is represented in some way, which is as it should be. First round voting is going on now. Our pick for most evenly matched first round battle: Kreuz of Texas vs. Craig’s of Arkansas. Biggest mismatch: Lexington of North Carolina and Chaps Pit Beef of Baltimore. We like pit beef just fine but we don’t see it lasting long among these heavyweights.

LAF in the A.M. February 21st, 2015

A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day

HAPPY NATIONAL STICKY BUN DAY!

Baltimore Matzo Ball Soup Like Mom’s

Arcade Dinners Begin Next Month

New Tempting Trio at Primanti for Lent

Maurie and Flaurie’s Up In Smoke

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LAF in the A.M. February 14th, 2015

A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day

HAPPY CREME-FILLED CHOCOLATES DAY!

Pie and Ice Cream Benefit at TX Brewery

Top 10 Food Cities in the World

Shake Shack Comes to Baltimore Monday

Local Praise for Giordano’s of Indy

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LAF in the A.M. February 13th, 2015

A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day

HAPPY NATIONAL TORTELLINI DAY!

What Makes Southern Food So Good?

Widman’s Named Best Candy in Minnesota

More on the Galatoire’s Line Sitters

Chick & Ruth’s of Annapolis Turns 50 This Year

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LAF in the A.M. January 11th, 2015

A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day

HAPPY NATIONAL HOT TODDY DAY!

Memphis Pancake Battle: Arcade vs. Eclectic

Attman’s Deli of Baltimore at 100

Louise A. McPartlan, Owner of McPartlan’s Corner of Amherst NY, Has Died at 90

Bigger in Texas

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Kooper’s Chowhound Burger Wagon, Baltimore MD

REVIEW

We love to try the local cuisine when we travel — we’re LAFers, after all! — but it would be nice to have at our fingertips a list of the best burgers, dogs and, perhaps, pizza, wherever we might be. So, while we crave steamed crabs plastered with Old Bay, crab cakes with big pearlescent lumps, and Maryland crab soup with a kick, we also enjoy the occasional palate refresher when we’re in Baltimore, and a hunk of crusty, flame-cooked beef, as served by Kooper’s Chowhound Burger Wagon, fits that bill perfectly. The trick is in finding it. Continue reading

LAF in the A.M. November 21st, 2014

A Morning Menu of Stories We Think You’ll Find Interesting

A Dozen Great American Food Cities

Best Cheesesteak in Philly

Becky’s Diner of Portland ME Hoping to Offer Health Insurance This Year

Guns N’ Roses N’ Deli

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Attman’s Authentic New York Delicatessen, Baltimore MD

REVIEW

Corned Beef Row. The name designates an area that was once the center of Jewish life in Baltimore. Today, Corned Beef Row consists of Attman’s Deli and little else. Seymour Attman, longtime owner of the deli, has passed on but the deli continues. This once thriving Jewish neighborhood can today seem a little intimidating to some, but a daytime trip to Attman’s (the only time it’s open) will make it worthwhile. Continue reading

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