Baltimore / "Bawlmore"

So it'd been over a year since Lisa and Noam moved to Baltimore, and I still hadn't been out to visit. Now, I know that you're all thinking that I'm the worst brother for not visiting for that long, but in my defense, with all the wedding planning, the two of them were back in Chicago on a monthly basis anyways. Either way, now that the whole wedding mumbo jumbo has calmed down, I decided it was time for a visit. Plus, since I was already on the east coast, it was no big thang (or at least until I had the horrible experience of riding the megabus).

Right when I got in we walked over to Lexington Market. It's this big indoor marketplace with tons of food vendors, drug users, and pick pockets. So of course it's got some of Baltimore's best options. We went over to Faidley's right away for a crab cake. It was unbelievably moist with gigantic chunks of crab meat. Then we walked over to Berger's to try some of the most famous cookies in town. They're just sugar cookies with too much chocolate frosting. I don't see what the big deal is. We got some fried chicken from this vendor too, but it was garbage.

Location: 203 North Paca Street

Cost: $12 per person for the crab cake, nominal for the cookies, don't eat the fried chicken

The Crab Cake

 Berger's Cookies

 Just some fried chicken

After that we walked around town a bit and stopped for a pint and a snack at Alewife. This place had a great beer selection, and the bartender was really helpful in picking out what to get. The truffle fries turned out to be a fantastic lil' snack. They had this spicy dipping sauce that rounded things out perfectly.

Location: 21 North Eutaw Street

Cost: About $20 per person

The Truffle Fries

For dinner we took a long walk along the harbor until we ended up at this place called Peter's Inn. It was among a bunch of row houses. We sat outside with a wonderful view of a Baltimore side street. The waiter made a point that they were short staffed, but it was no excuse that the table of four next to us got their food first after ordering later. We were still kinda full from our day's worth of eating so we went straight to entrees. I got the carrot risoto with bacon, Noam got the lamb chops, and Lisa got the tuna nachos. The risotto was well prepared and really rich. The lamb chops were too fatty and kinda small. The nachos were these wontons with seared tuna, beets, and wasabi (definitely the best dish).

Location: 504 South Ann Street

Cost: About $30 per person

The Carrot and Bacon Risotto

 The Tuna Nachos

That took care of our meals on Saturday, but Sunday before I got on the bus, we hit up this place called the Abbey. It was in this part of town that Noam and Lisa compare to Wrigleyville. We split this seafood salad and a build your own burger. The salad was tiny, and the dressing was way to acidic. The burger was venison and brie cheese on a pretzel bun. It was good, but I can't make any judgements since we made our own. They had a solid beer selection too.

Location: 1041 Marshall Street

Cost: About $15 per person

The Fried Pickles

 The Seafood Salad

The Burger