Roadfood

[ralphmelton]

We took the Roadfood book down to the wedding with us. On Monday, when we came back from the wedding, we decided to stop at a few of those restaurants. Lori initiated the tradition of getting waitstaff to sign the book next to the entry for their restaurant--this will be a fun tradition to continue.

For lunch, we ate at the Women's Industrial Exchange in Baltimore. I had the crab cake platter with tomato aspic and deviled eggs; Lori had the chicken pot pie with deviled eggs.

I found the food somewhat bland, unfortunately. This was further complicated by the fact that I concluded that I don't really care for tomato aspic very much, and I seem to prefer deviled eggs with more punch. (I've been considering deviled eggs with more spices--I'll try these and report.)

The food wasn't bad, but if we were to look for roadfood in Baltimore again, I would prefer to go to a restaurant we had not tried.

We did some early Christmas shopping in the Women's Industrial Exchange store. Very crafty, very femme.


For dinner, we ate at the Park-N-Dine in Hancock, Maryland. (Follow the signs from Exit 3 on I-70.) This was a very tasty and satisfying meal. I had a cup of bean soup (listed as a regional specialty--pretty good), a large slice of country ham (salt-cured, not sugar-cured--very salty and savory) with buttered potatoes and green beans and corn (cooked southern-style, by which I mean simmered with pork bits until all resistance was eliminated). Lori had roast turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and the same green beans and corn.

The review listed pudding as a specialty of the restaurant, but they had no pudding today. Instead, Lori had a slice of Boston cream pie (very good, at least the tastes that I had).
For my dessert, I had a piece of lemon meringue pie that looked so absolutely perfect that I had to pause and admire it for several moments before starting to eat it. The crust was golden brown, the lemon filling was a perfect yellow, the meringue was perfectly even and browned exactly the right amount, and the whole piece had been separated from its neighbors perfectly, so there was no crumbs or slop on the plate. I feel a little bit sheepish for raving about this piece of pie so, but it was truly a wonderful-looking piece of pie. And it tasted very good, too.

I would happily go to the Park-N-Dine again on any trip along I-70. (But I would advise some caution in eating there to my friends who keep kosher.)

Comments

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I liked the Women's Industrial Exchange, but my entree (yummy chicken pot pie) was exactly what I wanted and expected.

The Park-N-Dine was exactly what you want out of such a place, and the boston cream pie was fabulous.

My favorite autograph so far is our waitress's from the first place -- she wrote "Come back real soon" :-)

We will have to hit some of the Texas places over Christmas!!!