Pit Beef

Delicious Baltimore fare: a Pit Beef sandwich with beans and slaw from Chaps on Pulaski Highway.

Very tasty.

The Wire: A Missed Opportunity

Anyone with ears can hear the buzz about “The Wire”, the HBO show set in Baltimore’s back alleys and trash-littered projects. I, like everyone else I know, am a big fan of the show. It’s well-written, easy to watch and more realistic than anything else on TV (including the news). That being said, “The Wire” is guilty of focusing on the city’s crack and heroine problems, its organized crime, and its dark-side in general, and I think it’s unfair.

Why, for instance, does the show never feature a stroll in the attractive, trendy and family-friendly Fell’s Point neighborhood? Couldn’t the storyline take viewers away from the crumbling and boarded-up facades of the slums and instead stage a few scenes in front of the creative architecture of the Visionary Arts Museum?

Although I did witness a few shady-looking gatherings from my car window, and I’m pretty sure that one Baltimorean tried to sell me crack, my visit to Baltimore really didn’t resemble “The Wire” at all. And to be honest, I think “The Wire” is really missing out. Here are some things that I did on my visit that I think should have included in one of its Emmy-winning episodes:

The Waverly Farmers’ Market