Roadfood_ Revised Edition - Jane Stern [44]
Mr. Heflin’s other recommendation was crab soup, which is a virtuoso balance of creaminess, crabbiness, and sharp spice. You can also eat velvety crab imperial perked up with peppers, crab dip, and crab bisque made with sherry. Those who are anti-crab can revel in fried shrimp, scallops, and oysters, all with a delicate crust, as well as good side dishes that include what the menu promises are made from Jerry’s mom’s recipes: stewed tomatoes and coleslaw.
The Narrows
3023 Kent Narrows Way S.
410–827–8113
Grasonville, MD
LD | $$$
Here is an extraordinarily handsome Eastern Shore restaurant in a breathtaking setting overlooking the Kent Narrows, where local watermen come and go and pleasure boaters drop anchor and relax. The menu is broad, including $30 and up steak dinners, sandwiches, and salads for lunch, hamburgers, cioppino, and barbecued quail with polenta, blackberries and Smithfield ham in a balsamic glaze.
Great stuff, what little of it we have sampled, but we likely wouldn’t include this place in Roadfood if it weren’t for the crab cakes. Here is the Eastern Shore delight done to perfection—crab cakes so perfect that any traveler in search of the best regional specialties needs to dive in with a fork.
As the fork touches the cake, chances are good it will begin to disintegrate, for there isn’t much here other than pearly lump crabmeat, a little mayo, and some seasoning. The outside is baked to faint brownness, but beyond minimal crust is only moist, warm, sweet ocean goodness. And by the way, the cream of crab soup is sensational, too—loaded with hunks of crab.
Park-n-Dine
189 East Main St.
301–678–5242
Hancock, MD
BLD | $
If you are driving—or riding your bicycle—through the narrowest part of western Maryland in Hancock and find yourself hankering for meat and potatoes, pull up to Park-n-Dine. Located alongside I-70 and on the bike trail from Indian Springs along the C&O Canal, this venerable establishment is a blast from the past where uniformed waitresses are pros and where the kitchen still practices the craft of from-scratch cooking.
High kudos to the old-fashioned roast turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, followed, of course, by wedges of apple pie or actual from-scratch pudding (banana, tapioca, chocolate). Yes, that’s pudding, not mousse! Sandwiches and hamburgers are available, and breakfast is fine and dandy, but the charm of Park-n-Dine for us is its seven-day-a-week roster of Sunday dinner, i.e., pork chops, meat loaf, and plates of steaming-pink corned beef and cabbage. Portions are vast and prices are low.
Randy’s Ribs and Barbecue
Leonardtown Rd. (Route 5) at Gallant Green Rd.
301–274–3525
Hughesville, MD
LD | $
Randy’s opened in 1981 as a weekend-only roadside stand, and while its catering business has become large, the eatery remains small and charming. The sweet perfume of slow-smoking pork fills the air seven days a week throughout the year, and if you are one who considers barbecue foremost among the food groups, you will love what you find.
Sandwiches and platters are available: minced or sliced pork, ribs and ham, whole chickens, and slabs of ribs. “Slaw on that?” the order taker will ask if you get a sandwich. “Yes!” we say, and then unwrap the foil around a big bun loaded with chunks of moist, full-flavored pork bathed in Randy’s excellent spicy sauce, with which sweet slaw sings happy harmony. Ribs are large and chewy, their luscious meat infused with smoke, and on the side, we relished collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and baked beans.
Randy also offers a mighty fine half-smoke, which is the locally preferred variant of a hot dog: an extra-fat sausage bisected lengthwise and smoke-cooked until its skin is taut and dark red, its insides dense and succulent. All the usual hot-dog condiments are available, but we recommend