Regional Delicacies

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now, but something happened that made me drop everything to post about this insanity:

One of the interns, coming back from the corner sandwich hole, said these words: "I dunno why, but every time I ask for a kosher dog they give me a regular hot dog wrapped in bologna."

To the natives, this isn't much of a statement. (Though someone at the office accused the corner sandwich hole of antisemitism). See, the bologna wrapped hot dog is a real thing. As in, people order it. As in, a certain subsection of Baltimore has the thought on a regular basis well, I sure could go for a hot dog, wrapped in bologna. And, actually, since I first posted this, it has come to my attention that hot dogs are almost always wrapped in bologna. As in, saying "I'd like a hot dog" means "I'd like a hot dog wrapped in bologna." In this article it's referenced as a "Baltimore Dog."

Wouldn't it make sense just to make the hot dog that much bigger in the first place? But, what do I know? I'm not a food writer.

But, I shouldn't have been so surprised: Baltimore has some fucked up food quirks. A sampling:

Scrapple

Random pig parts mixed with cornmeal and fried. Mmmmmmm...like sausage but more absorptive.

The hot-dog-bologna thing

I don't think it has another name.

Lake Trout

...is neither from a lake, nor is it trout. Wrap your head around that. Most fried-stuff corner joints carry it.

New York Fried Chicken

You can find this at many of the same places you find Lake Trout. No one can tell me what's "New York" about it. It's like the "Alabama" Fried Chicken we used to get in Detroit that was served in little plastic produce bags.

Crab Chips

You might recognize this from the Wire. The corner dealers are all about crab chips. After verifying that there's nothing remotely like crab in them, Vanessa and I bought a bag a few months ago. They taste like regular chips with a lot of seasoned salt on them, which is called "crab seasoning" in the ingredients. Seriously inedible. Your mouth prunes up and you piss rocks for the next week there's so much salt on these things. I imagine. The bag is still in my cabinet.

Natty Boh

I ordered it for the first time as "um, National beer" (the proper name is National Bohemian) from the same bartender at the Mount Royal Tavern that now has a can waiting for me before I can close the door. It's a step above Pabst or Hamms and a bit cheaper. I've never seen it anywhere else.