Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I go to a new place but don’t get too much time to explore it. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.
Crab cake sandwich at Poets Modern Cocktail & Eats
24 W Franklin St, Baltimore, MD 21201
Baltimore is a really special place, according to the people I know who grew up there, plus my second hand knowledge of the TV show The Wire. That being said, this week’s newsletter is the result of a short work-related trip, so the food recs below are more about convenience rather than the very best eats. That being said, since I was in Maryland, I had to eat some crab – and I will say that as far as hotel restaurants go, Poets Modern was pretty solid. It’s hard for me to rate this meal in a totally unbiased way, as nothing makes a meal taste more satisfying than spending the previous half day lugging a duffel bag down a six-floor walkup, several subway stars, and an Amtrak train through the rain. I would say a warm buttery hamburger bun sandwiching a nice fat crab cake with a side of salty fries and a Caesar salad (whenever I travel for work I love to order both a fries and salad) is a pretty great post-travel meal. Plus, the meal prices are really a steal compared to NYC.
Carrot cake at Poets Modern Cocktail & Eats
24 W Franklin St, Baltimore, MD 21201
For how much I like carrot cake, I really should have it in my life more often. But, then again, as this order proved to me, sometimes you get… carrot conned? I’m not saying this wasn’t a carrot cake, for certainly it appeared to be a cake with carrots in it… but what was it? When I picture and crave carrot cake, I imagine a thick moist slice of rich and nutty cake filled with carrots and topped with thick, cream cheese frosting. This cake, had multiple thin layers of cake and frosting, like a 12-layer cake? It was nice, just not really the quintessential carrot cake.
Iced white shakerato with oat milk at Ceremony Coffee
We all know the chokehold the Seven Dollar Coffee has on me (wait, actually it’s Eight Dollars). I really want it to be less tasty because “shakerato” is just sort of a cringe name and if I keep drinking shakertos at this rate I’ll have to build my future home out of avocado toast, but it’s unfortunately really delicious. It’s even more delicious at Ceremony Coffee, a local Maryland craft coffee roaster chain, than it is at Blue Bottle. I also feel pretty good about spending seven bucks here, because I swear it’s one of the most wholesome environments I have ever been in. Or maybe I’ve spent too long in NYC. But in my time enjoying a beverage there I’ve overheard several supportive and friendly multigenerational conversations going on. According to the barista it’s just espresso and simple syrup and oat milk shaken in a cocktail shaker and strained over ice, but it really manages to be greater than the sum of its parts.
P.S. Blue Bottle posts their recipe online, and I should give it a try. This is a note to myself.
Strawberry shortcake at Whole Foods
I know, I know, why am I linking a Bezos cake? The answer is, sometimes you really need a customizable text sheet-cake when you’re on a work trip for a good-bye cake ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️, and two, I really hate to admit it but this cake is excellent??? While it’s not a Japanese-style strawberry shortcake, which is the GOATed kind, I really liked it. It’s not as cottony-soft, but the cake wasn’t too dry. I was just about to write that it was Not Too Sweet, however, like a good journalist I first I surveyed my friend and co-worker, who has a stronger compass for Not Too Sweet than me. They said it was “just across the border of too sweet, the whipped cream was good but cake itself a bit sweet.” So there you go. I still enjoyed this because I have a Too Sweet Tooth, though.
The Anchor Tavern
888-898 S Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21231
I recently realized it’s been 500 years since I stepped into a bar with a group of friends? I think either I live a rather solitary life which kind of makes sense OR I think maybe bar culture kind of died after the depths of the COVID pandemic. It’s kind of hard to tell because COVID coincided with the end of my 20’s which is presumably when you would have friends to go out with. Anyway I stg this bar felt like we were in a sitcom bar. Tucked into the basement, it was cozy and totally empty except for all of us and a very friendly, vest-wearing bartender who played Fleetwood Mac all night. Seriously sitcom or movie vibes. I actually didn’t have a drink because what I had was a headache, so I can’t really comment on that but it did seem to be pretty well done.
XOXO,
Soph
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