Virginia Kitchens, Restaurants, and Food in May

Food in Virginia in May

This is the first of two posts about food and kitchens in May, 2025. We had such a busy month that I had to break my usual wrap-up post into two parts: tomorrow will be a post about Ann Arbor kitchens and dining. During our trip to Fairfax and Charlottesville to attend Alice’s college graduation, we ate many good things. Here are a few examples.

Restaurant food: a steak at our graduation celebration in Charlottesville.

Brunch at a favorite Cuban diner: huevos ranchros.

Back in Fairfax: dinner at Evelyn’s. Salad, quinoa, bread…

… and the main course: trout.

Evelyn’s fried Gabriella brought us Armenian apricot leather.

Tom’s crab cakes in the refrigerator!

Bonus: Murals

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

Shared with Sherry and Sami.

A Beautiful Day in Maryland and Pennsylvania

At the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River

The main attraction at the Conowingo Dam is the numerous eagles that nest there and fish in the river.
Arny and Tracy drove us to this wonderful birding site this morning.

Many Black Vultures also hang around the dam.

The viewing area attracts lots of birders! (I liked this random t-shirt.)

 Beautiful Landscapes En Route from Lancaster to Conowingo

Good Things to Eat

Was the seafood local to the area, we asked? YES, clams, oysters, crab and more were all from the local waters.
In fact, the waitress said, there was a delivery truck there at the moment.
Above is the fried oyster and chicken salad plate.

Garden salad with a crabcake. An absolutely wonderful crabcake!

A crabcake sandwich.

Mid-afternoon stop at an Amish dairy for ice cream.

Blog post and photos © 2023 mae sander.

Havre de Grace, Maryland

After a morning watching eagles and vultures at the Conowingo  Dam on the Susquehanna River,
we chose a beautiful outdoor seafood restaurant in Havre de Grace, on the Chesapeake Bay.

We watched the Amtrak trains cross the bay bridge.

A fish sandwich and a diet Coke for Len.

My indulgent salad: spinach, bacon, egg, and lump crabmeat with creamy bacon dressing.
And a glass of water. Tracy also had a fish sandwich, and Arny had a crab cake. All good!

A Beautiful Waterfront

After lunch, we walked around the town, where we admired and photographed dozens of murals and other types of street art. That will be for another blog post. Along the water is a beautiful boardwalk, with documentation on the destruction of the town (then 60 houses in size) during the War of 1812.

A Very Amusing Retro Shop

A large selection of vintage Corningware, just like what I have at home.
Tracy bought me a replacement for one that I’ve worn out!

“Just Retro”

Amazing finds if you are a collector!

Blog post © 2022 mae sander.

And Now We Are In Maine

 

Of course we stopped at the L.L.Bean store. (I bought a raincoat.)

I ate perky toe crab cakes. Most of us had some form of lobster.

Our restaurant in Bar Harbor, where we will be vacationing for around a week.

© 2021 mae sander

Good Food in South Carolina

Fresh and Local: Fish and Shellfish from Harrellson’s Market in Murrell’s Inlet

Ever since we were here in the Litchfield-Pauley's Island area last year, I've been dreaming about Harrellson's Seafood Market, which has fresh local fish of many types. They have a couple of cauldrons of boiling water with your choice of spice level, so they can cook the very fresh shrimp for you. That's how we did it. It's fantastic to have fish and shrimp this fresh!

A whole triggerfish ready to be cleaned and cooked,
kept under the ice. We bought a piece of snapper from another case,
but this made a much better photo!

We bought shrimp and a piece of snapper and took them home for dinner — such fresh fish are a wonderful treat!

Oven-baked grouper with a wine and lemon sauce and a salad.

Thomas Cafe in Georgetown, S.C.  

Inside the Thomas Cafe, which has been in business for 75 years, and serves traditional Southern food.
It was extremely good!

Shrimp and grits with a few pan-fried green tomatoes.

A crab-cake sandwich with a scoop of potato salad.

A deep-fried green tomato with dressing.

A shrimp Po-Boy sandwich.

The view from the Georgetown boardwalk. We've been enjoying our stay here,
and I'll post more photos later.

Blog post copyright © 2020 mae sander for maefood dot blogspot dot com.