Maryland Is For Crabs
Filed under Restaurants & Nightclubs
A visit to Baltimore is a visit to the home of the blue crab and to those who consider it a delicacy. It’s nearly impossible, in fact, to avoid running into a crab house in Baltimore, There’s one in every neighborhood, each proclaiming itself to be the maker of the best crab cakes in Maryland.
Situated as it is on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and alongside the Atlantic Ocean, Maryland is very much a seafood state. In addition to steamed crabs, softshell crabs, crab cakes, crab fluffs, fried hard crabs and crab soup, you’ll find restaurants offering everything from steamed shrimp to mussels to oysters to fish.
Don’t be afraid to try it. Sure, crab LOOKS like a giant spider (and, in fact, crabs are related to their spidery cousins). But it’s actually quite a treat - the kind of food that encourages messy social gatherings with plenty of chit-chat.
Some Maryland crab treats to try:
- Steamed Crabs - A Maryland seafood staple, steamed crabs are blue crabs steamed in their shells with Old Bay seasoning or a similar seasoning. To eat, you have to remove the hard shell, clean the crab out, and pull out the tasty white meat. It’s messy, but fun. Best to do with a large table, plenty of newspaper to protect the tabletop, and lots of friends.
- Softshell Crabs - This one is not for the squeamish. Softshell crabs are crabs in their molting stage, when their shells are soft instead of hard. Marylanders love to fry them up still in the shell and eat between bread for a nice softshell crab sandwich.
- Jumbo Lump Crab Cake - Nearly every Maryland seafood restaurant offers its own version of the crab cake and every one of them thinks its version is best. Those made with jumbo lump meat (the most expensive and tastiest Maryland crab meat) are the winners. Look for crab cakes that break apart when your fork touches them: the less breading to hold the crab cake together, the more meat and the more delicious the meal.
- Crab Fluff - The Maryland crab fluff is close cousin to the crab cake, but with a light, fluffy stuffing that is battered and deep-fried to a golden-brown.
- Fried Hard Crab - Basically a steamed crab that is still in its shell, fried and deep-battered. You have to eat the crisp stuffing and shell first, then break apart and clean and eat the crab just like you do with steamed crabs. Bring your crab hammer!
- Crab Imperial - A dish of jumbo lump crabmeat combined with mayonnaise or a sherried white sauce, Crab Imperial is rich-tasting and unforgettable.
- Crab Soup - There are two versions. Maryland Crab Soup is the spicy kind, made with the same Old Bay seasoning used for steamed crabs, as well as plenty of crabmeat and vegetables. Cream of Crab soup is a white, creamy soup made with plenty of cream and plenty of crabmeat.
Port Discovery Children’s Museum
Filed under Attractions & Entertainment
Port Discovery Children’s Museum, voted one of the Top 5 Children’s Museums in the US, is no stodgy, please-be-quiet type of place: It’s an interactive play zone where imagination reigns. Exhibits have included everything from interactive robots to a trip through Alice in Wonderland’s surreal world. Among permanent exhibits are the following:
- Miss Perception’s Mystery House, where kids help solve the baffling case of the missing Baffled family
- Adventure Expeditions, which takes kids on a magical adventure back in time to 1920s Egypt where they must decipher hieroglyphics and find clues to lead them to a pharaoh’s lost tomb
- Wonders of Water “WOW!”, a series of exhibits where kids get wet playing water chimes, building a fountain, and taking a trip through Plumbers Park and Earth Today, a real-time atmospheric display
- The Diner, a realistic 50’s style diner where kids can pretend to cook and serve food to their parents
- Harvest Hill, a place for kids to barter, sell, or trade products at a pretend roadside market
Port Discovery, located in the Power Plant Live! plaza, has something for all kids, from the very youngest toddlers to school-aged youngsters curious about how the world operates. And parents will have a blast too!
Address:
35 Market Place, Baltimore, MD 21202
410-727-8120
American Visionary Art Museum
Filed under Attractions & Entertainment
The American Visionary Art Museum, located at the base of historic Federal Hill in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, is one of the most unique art museums in the country. You won’t find anything boring or stuffy here. The museum features artworks by contemporary and historic self-taught artists. What makes their work interesting is that it breaks all the rules and arises from an intense personal vision. You’ll find everything here from art made from junkyard scraps to the most intricate and time-intensive models and sculptures, many taking decades to create. The artists - many of them street people, hermits, housewives, and blue collar workers - may not even think of their work as “art,” but what they’ve produced are some of the most fascinating and beautiful artworks you’ll ever come across.
Address:
800 Key Highway, Baltimore, MD 21202
410-244-1900
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Filed under Sports & Leisure Activities
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the beautiful baseball-only facility in downtown Baltimore, became the official home of the Orioles on April 6, 1992. The construction of the park was completed in essentially 33 months from the time razing previous structures on the 85-acre parcel began June 28, ‘89, in the area known as Camden Yards.
The one-time railroad center is 12 minutes west by foot from the City’s Inner Harbor and only 2 blocks from the birthplace of baseball’s most legendary hero, George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Ruth’s father operated Ruth’s Cafe on the ground floor of the family residence located at Conway Street and Little Paca, now center field at Oriole Park. The ballpark seats 48,876 (including standing room) and the project cost was approximately $110 million. It was designed by the Kansas City architectural firm of Helmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) with direction and input from the Orioles and the State of Maryland, which owns and operates the facility through its agency, the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA).
Working under contract to HOK were the urban design firm of RTKL, the landscape architecture firm of Wallace, Roberts, and Todd, and the engineering firms of Bliss and Nyitray: Rummel, Klepper, and Kahl: and Kidde Consultants, Inc. Working under contract to the Orioles were the interior design firm of Forte Design and the graphic design firm of David Ashton and Associates.
Oriole Park is state-of-the-art yet unique, traditional and intimate in design. It blends with the urban context of downtown Baltimore while taking its image from baseball parks built in the early 20th century. Steel, rather than concrete trusses, an arched brick facade, a sun roof over the gentle slope of the upper deck, an asymmetrical playing field, and natural grass turf are just some of the features that tie it to those magnificent big league ballparks built in the early 1900’s. Ebbets Field (Brooklyn), Shibe Park (Philadelphia), Fenway Park (Boston), Crosley Field (Cincinnati), Forbes Fields (Pittsburgh), Wrigley Field (Chicago), and The Polo Grounds (New York) were among the ballparks that served as powerful influences in the design of Oriole Park.
Tags: baseball, conway street, crosley field, ebbets field, fenway park, oriole park, oriolesNational Aquarium in Baltimore
Filed under Attractions & Entertainment
The National Aquarium in Baltimore is a state-of-the-art aquarium featuring creatures from sharks to dolphins to giant octopi to exotic fish from all over the world. Here you’ll find approximately 16,500 specimens and more than 660 species of animals. And it’s not just fish. The aquarium is also home to a variety of birds, amphibians, and invertebrates. The top floor is a rainforest where visitors walk among real rainforest fauna and flora.
Exhibits have included Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes, Frogs! A Chorus of Colors, and the 4D Immersion Theater, which brings you closer to the sights, sounds, and even smells of the action.
There’s also a dolphin show. And, if you’re really adventurous, you can try an Aquarium Immersion Tour, tours that really let you dive beneath the surface behind-the-scenes. There’s no actual diving, of course, but immersion tours take you behind the scenes to where the public normally isn’t allowed to go. You can walk a catwalk where sharks swim just inches under you, engage in a private dolphin training and play session, and even participate in feeding the animals. If you have the night free, try a sleepover. There’s a Sleepover With the Sharks, where you’ll bed down in the underwater viewing area with the sharks sleeping close by, and there’s also the Rainforest Sleepover and Wild Extremes Sleepover.
And if you ARE a diver, there’s the Guest Diver Program, where you really do get to dive in for two 30-minute dives!
The National Aquarium in Baltimore, located on the pier in the heart of the harbor, is an exciting tour through worlds humans normally never get to see.
Address:
501 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21202
410-576-3800
La Tasca
Filed under Restaurants & Nightclubs
La Tasca is a careful blend of everything about Spain. Warm décor, authentic cuisine and friendly hospitality. All these go together to create a unique and genuine atmosphere. La Tasca has been described as being “so authentic that you won’t find anything better in Spain”.
Enjoy our sangria and savory Spanish tapas on the waterfront in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Upstairs and downstairs patios are available with capacity for parties and events up to 400.
Tags: inner harbor, sangria, spanish restaurant, spanish tapasInterContinental Harbor Court
Filed under Hotels & Vacation Packages
For business and pleasure, the gracious InterContinental Harbor Court Baltimore is the premier choice among Baltimore Inner Harbor hotels, offering elegant accommodations in a landmark setting. Located along the picturesque waterfront, our downtown Baltimore hotel is within walking distance of the business district and many popular attractions. Treat yourself to impeccable guest service and European-style elegance in a superb location.