"Maryland food" and where to get it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bethesda Crab House is a good experience. Yes, MD crabs aren't in season, but at this time of year they have them flown in from the Gulf (of Mexico) region. Just call a day before to tell them how many dozen you'd like. It's not cheap, but it's an experience.

Oysters are indeed in season. Various restaurants will have them. There's a place on 14th street in DC, a few blocks south of U, that specializes in them. I'm clearly getting old as I can't remember the place now, but I think it even has "Oyster" in its name. In the summer, we've taken visitors to the Eastern Shore (St Michaels) and they have some restaurants there with local seafood, but I'm not sure the hours these places keep in winter -- check ahead.

Chaps is a bbq place in Baltimore. It's sort of unique and down-home, though not seafood: http://www.chapspitbeef.com/

Pearl Dive Oyster Palace.

[Anonymous]

Any seafood restaurant around the chesapeake bay for whole crab and soft shell crab.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the poster who suggested Ethiopian. Maybe not specifically MD, but DC has the largest concentration of Ethiopians outside of Addis, and by far the largest in the U.S.. Plus the food is delicious and perhaps not something they would get at home.

[Anonymous]

If you have time, take a trip down to the seafood market in southwest DC. They sell lots of fresh seafood as well some steamed and deep fried and it is, indeed, doused in Old Bay. It's really no more than a quarter mile from the Jefferson Memorial so if you're doing some downtown touristy things, you're close by, anyhow. Frederick MD also has rather a food scene these days but is also a quintessential cute Maryland town. And, yeah, Annapolis isn't in MoCo but is very close and has a lot of charm. If you head over that way, try the Severn Inn.

[Anonymous]

Agree on the Severn Inn. Cantlers is a bit more old school MD seafood but may be less fun in January. Also stop for drinks at the bar in The Treaty of Paris in Annapolis. It really is a historic inn where, I believe, various of the founding fathers went to tie one on in an epic party after hearing the terms of the treaty of Paris ending the war of 1812.

[Anonymous]

Also, some destinations outside Montgomery Co arent quite as far as they might seem if you're thinking of "county" in the perspective of a larger state. Baltimore and Bertha's Mussels in Fells Point are probably only 45 min away and the super charming St Michaels on the eastern shore only about 90. (And it has a way fun seafood restaurant right on the water.)

[Anonymous]

I'd take her to Samantha's in Silver Spring for Salvadoran food, and invite her back next summer to have crabs at Jimmy Cantler's in Annapolis.

[Anonymous]

Cantler's is legit. Very Maryland.