The Eating Adventures of a Checker Cabbie
Read today’s Not For Tourists DC Page, and discover a Burmese restaurant with a Palestinian/ Guatemalan/ Irish bartender who serves the strongest vodka tonic in predominantly African-American Silver Spring, Maryland. Oh, and that bartender also happens to be my best friend since 7th grade (but that doesn’t mean that what I wrote about her isn’t true).
I’ll be happy if Alfonso Soriano stays a Washington National next year. But if he goes anywhere, I hope it is back to the Yankees. Either way, read yesterday’s Not For Tourists Guidebook Washington, DC page for an idea on where to eat in the area between the Capitol and RFK Stadium.
I hope you’ve been checking in to Not For Tourist Guidebook every day. If you haven’t, may I suggest you do so today. Both the New York page (Randazzo’s Seafood in The Bronx) and the DC page (Roger’s Produce in Potomac, Maryland) have blurbs written by some crazy cabbie.
Also, I’ve missed a couple opportunities to link to my blurbs in the past few weeks, so you can belatedly click below for those as well.
Magic Fountain Ice Cream in New Jersey
Bethesda Co-Op in Bethesda, Maryland
Tony Cheng’s in Chinatown, DC
Take a look at Not For Tourists Guidebook’s New York City page as well as their Washington, D.C. page. I’ve already mentioned that I’m not afraid to admit I enjoy fast food. And you could have guessed that half-priced sushi would make me happy:
This just in: since I’ve eaten at that Taco Bell, the area around it has been torn down to make way for some condos. The Taco Bell may be soon to follow. In that case, consider the story an obit.
Visit FamousFatDave.Com to book a five borough eating tour
There’s still beach weather to be had. So read Not For Tourists Guidebook’s DC section today:
Visit www.FamousFatDave.com for New York eating tours
People complain about DC pizza. Well, sometimes great pizza can be found in the most unlikely place, so don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it. Read today’s Not For Tourists DC “On Our Radar”:
Visit FamousFatDaveDotCom for five borough pizza tour options back in the birthplace of American pizza
Everyone who has the means gets out of New York City for as much of August as possible. The city empties. Traffic lets up. Business is slow. New Yorkers generally head out to the Hamptons in Long Island or down the shore in Jersey. Cab drivers often head back to the old country to see the family they left behind in Senegal or Bangladesh or Hungary.
But I am not a typical New Yorker. Nor am I a typical cab driver. My family hails from Chicago, but I spent my formative years in Maryland. And, like a good Marylander, I vacation in Delmarva (the DELaware MARyland VArginia peninsula).
When I was a kid, it was Ocean City, Maryland. But the family has moved on up to Bethany Beach in Delaware. So Melissa and I drove the five plus hours down through gnarly traffic last week, and we hit the beach. Melissa isn’t the one who dubbed the Freedenberg family “The FEEDenbergs,” but she knew what she was in for.
We aren’t the kind of family that sits on the beach drinking beer all day and then goes in for a sandwich or orders a pizza. We spend most of our beach time discussing what to eat next. In fact, we spend most of our eating time discussing what to eat next.
And being Marylanders for the three decades, a crab feast was the first thing on the list. For the past few years at the beach, we’ve dined at Mickey’s:
Mickey’s is officially north of the Maryland border, but it’s basically identical to a real Maryland crab shack. The only difference is that they don’t have Old Bay Seasoning on the table. However, that’s easily remedied by sneaking in a contraband container of Old Bay in my mom’s purse. The crabs are always steamed just right.
They’ve been getting smaller and smaller every year thanks to environmental degradation in the Chesapeake Bay and over-crabbing, but the meat is delicious no matter what the size. It just means even more work picking the meat during the only meal you can starve while eating:
Here, mother of Famous Fat Dave models some crabs and fried shrimp for the camera. Notice the open-mouthed pose at the right. You can see where I get it from. She’s the Hungry Mommy:
Not to be outdone, father of FFD tries his hand at some fried shrimp spokes modeling. A real crab feast always has a little fried chicken thrown in. My dad manages to model it without it actually being in his own hand.
I know they come out of waters a long way from the Chesapeake, but we ordered some King Crab Legs too. They are mentioned in the Famous Fat Dave theme song. Also, I just finished watching the second season of Deadliest Catch, so I considered it my civic duty to eat a few so that these crazy fishermen shall not have died in vain:
When the meal was done, this is what just one end of the table looked like:
Afterward, we were all ready to go into Ocean City for some frozen treats to wash the spicy Old Bay off our tickled tongues:
Now that she’s got the hang of it, my mom can’t stop modeling food. Although she didn’t realize that she was on camera in the photo on the right. While I was taking a picture of my mint chocolate chip scoop, you can see her in the back cheersing with her spoonful of ice cream:
We did spend a lot of time at the beach house though. The next night we decided to bring home a lobster dinner. Again, I know Maine is nowhere near Delaware, but we were all in the mood for seafood. Melissa was apparently in the mood to dance with hers:
She’s a Marylander, it’s true, but she’s also Thai. So she knows her way around a lobster. That, and she likes to eat the eggs. You can see her on the right searching for the tasty Eastern delicacies. Her dad would be proud:
Then she realizes she’s on camera so she decides to stop eating lobster eggs and just act cute, though I don’t think there’s anything cuter than eating lobster eggs:
Tracy, my sister-in-law, is originally from Massachusetts so we were hoping she’d bring some extra crustacean expertise into the family. She brings a lot to the table, but a knowledge of shellfish is not one of them. My mom, being a mom, picked Tracy’s lobster meat for her:
Alas, Tracy is not a fan of crabs. She tried gallantly to aquire a taste knowing she was marrying into a Maryland family, but she’s since given up. Still, we couldn’t resist having another crab feast:
Tracy got a filet of sole to eat as well as the spiced shrimp (we ate some of those too), and the rest of us had the pile of blue crabs and Old Bay:
My mom, being a mom, was in charge of handing out the crabs:
Tracy and Josh’s pride and joy Milo isn’t old enough to pick his own crab quite yet, but he seemed to like the little bits his dad Josh gave him (although he seems to like everything, including blue cheese). He is old enough to play with the hammer though. Looks like he’s going to grow up to be another crab-loving FEEDenberg:
Go to www.famousfatdave.com for fried whiting and king crab legs, egg cream ice cream and deviled eggs
What kind of son would I be if I posted those photos of my mom with all sorts of food in front of her face, called her The Hungry Mommy, and I didn’t put up at least one shot of her looking like herself
I drive a New York City yellow cab, but I grew up wanting to drive a DC Cab like Mr. T. Go to Not For Tourists Guidebook’s DC section today to read my post about some New York style pizza back in my hometown:
Visit Famous Fat Dave Dot Com for a five borough pizza tour through my adopted hometown
