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Archive for Maryland

Eating Maryland – Tidewater Grille

Jan01

Restaurant: Tidewater Grille [1, 2]

Location: 300 Franklin St, Havre De Grace, MD 21078. (410) 939-3313

Date: November 22, 2017 & November 21, 2018

Cuisine: Coastal American

Rating: Fun spot on the shore

_

When our family drives from Washington to Philadelphia, which is generally part of the ThanksGavin tradition, we often stop at this old school Eastern Shore seafood place in Havre de Grace.

It sits right on the river, right by the train bridge.

The menu.
7U1A1813
Even in the winter, it’s a pretty nice view.

A lot of seating is on the porch.
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Maryland Crab soup is a must. Slightly spicy tomato broth with vegetables and crab. Think minestrone with crab.

Cream of crab soup. It’s more fatty cousin is clam chowder, but with crab instead.

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And kids love spaghetti.

Veggie sandwich with cheese.

Fried local fish with tartar sauce.
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The fried fish sandwich.

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And the all important crab cake sandwich, one of the great American sandwiches. Available here with slaw, potato chips, etc.

This is a simple place, but it serves up some good road stop lunch — certainly way better than McDonalds!

For more local dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Tidewater Crab
  2. Eastern Promises – Holly’s
  3. Quick Eats: Houstons
  4. Blue Plate Oysterette
  5. Ocean Avenue Seafood
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: crab, Havre de Grace, Maryland, Seafood, Tidewater Grill

Eastern Promises – BBQ Joint

Jul15

Restaurant: BBQ Joint

Location: 216 East Dover Street, Suite 201. Easton, MD 21601. 410-690-3641

Date: May 24, 2014

Cuisine: BBQ

Rating: Some of the best BBQ I’ve had

_

The Eastern Shore of Maryland is usually considered a seafood zone, being known for its awesome blue crab, but local residents don’t turn their nose at any Southern American favorites.


Located in quaint old Easton.


The menu.


The house made sauces (mostly a choice of sweet or spicy).


Sawdust floors.


Some sides, like applesauce, mac & cheese, and cornbread.


A pulled chicken sandwich and collard greens.


Salad. I like the “paper” plate.


This side plate has a roll and slaw.


Part of our BBQ sampler. featuring ribs (wet), BBQ chicken, chopped beef brisket, and pulled pork.


A pulled pork sandwich (front right). The pulled pork is a Carolina style. In the back are ribs “dry” and in the front baked beans (with pork of course).

The BBQ joint is as described, pretty straight up BBQ, but wow, was it tasty. This was some darn good smoked meat!

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eastern Promises – Brightwell
  2. Eastern Promises – Holly’s
  3. Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani
  4. Fogo de Chao – Beef!
  5. Western Smoke House Meats
By: agavin
Comments (0)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Barbecue, Barbecue chicken, bbq, BBQ Joint, Easton Maryland, Maryland, Meat, Pig, pork, Pulled Pork, ribs

Eastern Promises – Holly’s

Jul08

Restaurant: Holly’s

Location: 108 Jackson Creek Rd Grasonville, MD 21638. (410) 827-8711

Date: May 23, 2014

Cuisine: American

Rating: Solid modern Gastro-comfort

_

My family has been stopping at Holly’s (a greasy spoon a few minutes east of the Bay Bridge) for almost 40 years.


This establishment is old school Americana at its best. Nothing has really changed here since the 70s, and probably for 20 or so years before that.


Classic decor. As a kid they even had one of those “Have a Coke and have a smile” machines that was a top opening cooler! Served bottles of course.

The menu is pretty classic too.


But it does have Eastern Shore specialities like Crab and Vegetable soup. This Eastern Shore variant on Manhattan Clam Chowder (blue crab instead of clams) is delicious, sweeter, and altogether amazing.


Tuna sandwich.


Catfish sandwich. They don’t skimp on the portions.


Pancakes.


And one of their specialties, straight up friend chicken. No chocolate. No waffles. No tempura batter. Just homemade American fried chicken. And it’s still great.


Another regional specialty, the crab cake sandwich. Filled with blue crab!

It’s nice that some things, especially simple good things, don’t change. As much as I’m a food modernist, I can also really appreciate well cooked classics, sort of the culinary version of folk music.

Oh, and they have crazy good pies too, including the famous apple “dumpling.” Plus, the prices are crazy cheap. Adding a fried chicken breast to anything costs $2.59!

For more Washington dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Eastern Promises – Azeen’s Afghani
  2. Tidewater Crab
  3. Quick Eats: Coastal Flats
By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: crab, Crabcake, Eastern Shore of Maryland, fried chicken, Holly's, Maryland

Jaleo Bethesda

Dec07

Restaurant: Jaleo [1, 2]

Location: 7271 Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814. 301.913-0003

Date: November 29, 2011

Cuisine: Spanish Tapas

Rating: Fun Tapas Bar

_

I’ve reviewed a lot of José Andrés restaurants on the blog, seven I think. This is een the second Jaleo.  The Bazaar (REVIEW HERE) and his high end Saam, but also brunch at Trés, lunch at Trés, and to é by José Andrés and Jaleo in Vegas and Zaytinya also in Washington. Back to Jaleo, the restaurant at hand. It’s basically a straight up Spanish Tapas place but with a slightly modernized and enlarged menu.

The menu.

One annoyance of  this particular branch — and not the restaurant’s fault — is the Maryland law against corkage. They have a fine list, but I had brought an amazing Spanish wine 3,000 miles!  Parker gives it 91 points. “The 2008 Termes offers up a sexy perfume of cedar, spice box, violets, incense, espresso, and blackberry. Savory, concentrated, and well-balanced, this flavorful effort will benefit from several years of additional cellaring but can be approached now.”

“Gazpacho de remolacha con queso de cabra y naranjas. Chilled red beet soup with goat cheese and oranges.” I’m a total José Andrés gazpacho whore. I even make it at home home.

This is a different variant, kind of gazpacho meets borsch. It was fantastic. Beety, with that vinegary tang. Delicious.

“Dátiles con tocino ‘como hace todo el mundo. Fried dates wrapped in bacon.” Really how can you beat fried dates wrapped in bacon? Yum yum.

“Ensalada rusa. The ultimate Spanish tapa, a salad of potatoes, imported conserved tuna and mayonnaise.” The Spanish love potato salad.

“Aceitunas rellenas de anchoas y pimientos del piquillo. House-made stuffed olives with anchovies and roasted piquillo peppers.” This is another classic, and these are a really good implementation.

“Jamón Ibérico de bellota Fermin. Cured ham from the legendary, acorn-fed, black-footed Ibérico pigs of Spain and miscellaneous other Spanish meats like chorizo.”

“Pan con tomate. Toasted slices of rustic bread brushed with fresh tomato with Pasamontes farmhouse Manchego.” Basically Spanish bruschetta.

“Salpicón de cangrejo. Jumbo lump crabmeat with cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower and Sherry dressing.” While Spanish in flavors I suspect this a bit of a nod to the Eastern shore. Big lumps of crabmeat too.

“Pan de recapte con anchoa. Traditional Catalan bread with peppers, tomatoes and salt-cured Spanish anchovies.” I really wanted Fresh Spanish anchovies, marinated (Anchovies en Boccerones) but they didn’t have them. These weren’t a bad substitute.

“Espinacas a la catalana. Sautéed spinach, pine nuts, raisins and apples.”

“Vieiras con romesco y mojo verde. Seared scallops with romesco sauce and mojo verde.”

“Lomo de buey. Grilled hanger steak with piquillo peppers.”

“Arroz con costillas de cerdo Ibérico de bellota. Made with the famous Ibérico de bellota pork ribs.”

“Arroz Mediterraneo. Made with porcini mushrooms, mixed vegetables, green and black olives and thyme.”

The dessert menu.

“A classic Spanish custard with creme and oranges.”

“Dark chocolate mousse with sponge cake and hazzelnut ice cream.”

“Various fruit sorbets.”

“Vanilla ice cream and grapefruit sorbet.”

“Chocolate ice cream.”

Jaleo is like a good Tapas place in Spain but a little slicker, with perhaps more consistant quality. And they don’t have fresh anchovies! It is also a little (actually more than a little) more expensive than a typical Spanish tapas place in Spain. But considering the scarcity of good tapas places in America… worth it.

For more ThanksGavin meals, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Jaleo by José Andrés
  2. Quick Eats – Bar Pinxto
  3. Zaytinya – East made Easy
  4. é by José Andrés
  5. Saam – José Andrés Squared
By: agavin
Comments (2)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Bazaar, Bethesda, Dessert, Gazpacho, Jaleo, José Andrés, Maryland, Paella, Restaurant, Restaurant Review, Spanish Food, Tapas, ThanksGavin, Washington DC, Wine, Zaytinya

Tidewater Crab

Apr26

Restaurant: Tidewater Grille

Location:  300 FRANKLIN STREET, HAVRE DE GRACE, MD 21078 410.939.3313

Date: April 18, 2011

Cuisine: Eastern Shore American

Rating: Real crab cakes!

ANY CHARACTER HERE

One of the great things about the greater Washington DC area is the proximity of authentic Eastern Shore crab (and hence crab cakes!). Technically this is a “guest palette” as my brother was the one doing the eating. So the text and pictures are by Mitch Gavin.


An unassuming coastal frontage but a surprising beautiful find.  My parents have been going to this spot for a decade or two. We used to go to a restaurant up the street with a reputation for great eastern shore crab cakes and fried chicken.  I think I remember a s a kid getting a lot of bacon and dipping it in apple sauce.  To be discussed at a later date.  But in the recent past 2 decades M & D have been talking about this place.  I finally went one recent visit driving from DC to Philly to see my cousins.

To start: Maryland Blue Crab Soup.  Hands down my favorite soup and most scrumptious!  Vegetable base with chunks of tomato, corn, green beans I think and loads of crab meat.  Just crab.  Followed by a spicy seafood seasoning.  Something that reminds you of the beach and spiced vinegar fries.  Hot!  I tried to squeeze a bowl in because it’s going to be a year before I taste something this good again.

Now onto the crab cake!  Tidewater is the best crab cake east or west of the Mississippi.  These things are just so truly American, harder to find and worth savoring every bite.  Again you don’t find this in many places, it’s almost pure crab meat, very large and seared in a pan just right.  The taste of crab is so distinctive and Maryland stands alone at the top, athough Louisiana might get the Blue Crab too and be a closer runner up.  Arguably better tasting than the more expensive Maine Lobster this sandwish melts in your mouth.  The chips at Tidewater are unique — just simple strips of baked potato –and great!  The lettuce and tomato are unnecessary because additions just mask the special taste of the meat, so I recommend just lemon and bun.  No tartar was added to this sandwich.  🙂  [ although Andy adds that he loves tartar sauce because “fat == flavor” ]

After a few iced teas, a cup of soup and the oh so lovely crab sandwich the total was only $24.  Sandwich $14, Soup $4 and tea $2.5.


True tidewater country.


Here is another example, this one from Washington area restaurant Clydes.

Clydes crab cake was surprising lovely too, especially after closely visiting the Tidewater as  acomparrison.  It was a little more seared and smaller but very tasty.  They even simplified the platter for you with no lettuce or tomato, annoying not to be given the choice, especially since they have over the past 30 years.  And I’m not kidding people I’ve been going to this restaurant over 30 years; I even had my Bar Mitzvah there in the bright room upstairs in 1987!

Now the true pride in a restaurant in my opinion is not changing something that’s good.  Over the years, Clyde’s has managed to maintain the absolute best Chili I have ever had, and they have been doing so since before 1985.  It’s dark, molassesy, tangy and damn freaking good.  Seriously I’ve had other “great” chili’s but the tang and flavor of this one keeps me coming back year after year (when home on holidays!).

Dad had to leave early so I ordered the Blondie Brownie Sundae (not pictured), which I liked as a kid for mom and I.  The thing used to come in a tall Sundae glass, have a great grandma blondie brownie with carmel and great vanilla bean ice cream, nuts and everything but when the server brought it out on a flat plate the Blondie Brownie had no brown in it at all. It was disappointing as a too sweet flat white pastry looking thing with some vanilla ice cream, whip creme and thick brown chocolate sauce all over it that wasn’t good, maybe some nuts, the ice cream was similar but in short supply.  Thumbs down and unfinished between two.  That doesn’t say much that we then decided we didn’t need the unnecessary calories.  But on a positive note I’ll be back to Clyde’s again for that Chili, Crab cake and a lot of other stuff.  Clye’s gets a thumbs up.

Some other good crab cakes can be found on the west coast at Houstons or, surprisingly, at Capo. But they aren’t quite the same.

By: agavin
Comments (1)
Posted in: Food
Tagged as: Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus, Clam chowder, crab, Crab cake, Fish and Seafood, Maryland, Shellfish, Tartar sauce, Tidewater
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