Culture of Baltimore
The city of Baltimore, Maryland, has been a predominantly working-class town through much of its history with several surrounding affluent suburbs and, being found in a Mid-Atlantic state but south of the Mason-Dixon line, can lay claim to a blend of Northern and Southern American traditions.
Traditionally, crabs are steamed in rock salt and Old Bay Seasoning, a favored local spice mixture manufactured in Baltimore for decades.
The crab is typically tossed in flour to which some combination of salt, pepper and Old Bay Seasoning have been added, before being deep fried or sauteed in butter.
By 1863, the year President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, one in four of Baltimore's residents were transplanted Germans and spoke the tongue as their first language.
Made by Tulkoff Food Products, it is unique in that the Baltimore version uses a much more significant portion of horseradish, making the sauce extremely hot.
The menu may consist of pit beef, ham, turkey, or oysters, the latter being variously served fried, raw (on the half shell), or stewed with buttery milk or cream.
Typically, a smorgasbord of side dishes (such as mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green beans, cole slaw) is featured along with a fresh salad bar.
In addition to the profits from tickets sales, a variety of gambling and other fundraising activities are often features, such as a wheel where one bets on numbers (similar to a simplified roulette game), raffles, or auctions.
Lake trout is an everyday food, and is often served wrapped in aluminum foil in a standard paper lunch bag at small take-out establishments.
Louis continued to develop more recipes, and Esther learned to hand-dip the centers in a smooth and velvety chocolate that they had blended to complement each piece of candy.
After the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984 and the Orioles left Memorial Stadium in 1991, Natty Boh was no longer available to fans at Baltimore sporting events.
Baltimore is divided into several vastly different neighborhoods and regions, all of which hold their own reputation in terms of their crime rates and average income, among other stereotypes.
Here, Baltimore's history and culture are exploited, featuring restaurants offering blue crabs[17] and historical highlights such as the USS Constellation.
[citation needed][20] Older houses may retain some of their original features, such as marble doorsteps, widely considered to be Baltimore icons in themselves.
They are a popular renovation property in neighborhoods that are undergoing urban renewal, although the practice is viewed warily by some as a harbinger of "yuppification", particularly when the term "townhouse" is used instead of "row house."
Formstone was particularly popular in East Baltimore, where residents believed that the stone imitation made their neighborhood resemble that of an Eastern European town, which some thought had an appearance of affluence.
[citation needed] Patented in 1937 by L. Albert Knight,[24][25] Formstone was similar to a product that was invented eight years earlier in Columbus, Ohio, and called Permanent Stone.
[citation needed] During the construction of the Washington Monument in the mid-19th century, the marble gained in popularity as a decorative stone and was used widely for the steps of row houses surrounding Baltimore's inner harbor and in Fells Point.
Other common pronunciations include "ool", "amblance", "wooder", "warsh", "sharr or shaow", "far", "cowny", "tew", "lor" and "zinc" (oil, ambulance, water, wash, shower, fire, county, two, "lil", and sink respectively).
[citation needed] There is also a popular summertime phrase, "goin' downy ayshin" (going down to the ocean, usually referring to Ocean City, Maryland) as well as popular phrases such as, "my (appliance) went up" (meaning died, shortened from "went up to heaven") and "dem O's" (i.e. "them O's", referring to the city's Major League Baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles).
She estimated that since it was first revealed in December 2010 that "Hon" was trademarked to her, the restaurant suffered a "20 to 25 percent drop off" in sales and that she needed to sell her IRAs just to meet payroll.
[31] Baltimore's most enduring music legacy might be in the realm of "old school" jazz where a number of natives made the big time after moving to New York City.
Others that would find fame in the music business from the area would include jazz-rock composer Frank Zappa, singer Ric Ocasek of The Cars, pop vocalist Mama Cass,[32] and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne.
Additionally, television shows such as NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street and HBO's The Wire and The Corner have also been set and filmed in the city.
[35] Barry Levinson, a Baltimore native and filmmaker, made many Baltimore-based films, including: Diner, Avalon, Tin Men, and Liberty Heights.
[36] Another Baltimore native and filmmaker, John Waters, makes subversive films that glamorize the less socially acceptable side of the city's culture.
When Welcome Back, Kotter first aired in 1975, some Baltimoreans were shocked to hear the word "sweathog" which, at that time, meant "whore" in many Baltimore neighborhoods.
M&T Bank Stadium, the home of the Baltimore Ravens, hosts the annual lacrosse double-header events, the Face-Off Classic and Day of Rivals, which have featured several Maryland-based teams.
This term was popularized by the local station WFBR when announcers reacted to Doug DeCinces' walk-off home run over the Detroit Tigers in 1979 by shouting "it might get out of here", followed by an eruption of fan cheering at Memorial Stadium.
[42] Eating Esskay hot dogs and drinking National Bohemian beer at Baltimore sporting events, particularly at Orioles games, has become a long-lasting tradition.
