Discovering Ocean City

When it comes to northern beaches, I am a Cape May, NJ girl at heart. But this week, thanks to my very generous and enthusiastic friends, I find myself in Ocean City, MD. And, as with any new place, what better way to experience the culture than through its’ food?!

Alas, I was somewhat dismayed when I googled "places to eat in Ocean City MD" and discovered that I knew absolutely nothing about the food here. So when we arrived, all I could do was sit back and enjoy the ride as we began to eat our way through the city.

The first night, we were FAMISHED!! It had been a draining (for me, since I was driving) and often boring (for everyone else because of the monotonous farmland) three hour car-ride to the beach. It was 8 o'clock when we arrived, and almost 9 o'clock by the time the pizza arrived. For most of us that meant a good 8 or 9 hours since we'd had lunch. See that blur of a hand in the picture? We couldn't even wait long enough for me to get a decent picture before we dug in. :)

The next morning we ate the breakfast and lunch foods we brought with us. I could show you a picture of that, but I don't think it would be terribly interesting. Especially compared to what came next.

Since it was a beautiful day, we headed down to the boardwalk to experience OC first hand. It was not like anything I'd ever seen or experienced before. There's a definite culture down here that is just very, shall we say, entertaining to watch.

Two of my friends frequent this beach quite often, so they led the way to our next food experiences. The plan was as follows: eat the yummy fried stuff now, then maybe have real dinner at 9. Everyone agreed that this would be a great idea! (for the moment....)

 First stop: Thrasher's French Fries. We ordered a large for the eight of us to split. Good call.

These were good french fries, don't get me wrong. But who knew that they don't eat ketchup with them?!? I was really surprised about that. But I guess you've got to try everything like the locals, right?

We demolished the towering bucket o' fries in mere minutes. But they still left me wanting ketchup....and some water. So where better to go for some post-fry re-hydration than..... Dumser's!?

Okay, so maybe ice-cream isn't the best method for re-hydration, but it sounded good to us!! The boardwalk was really quiet so we walked right up and placed our orders. We were split between soft-serve ice-cream and milkshakes. I opted for a banana milkshake.

We have this place called Arctic Circle that we go to at home if we want a good milkshake. One of my favorite flavors there is banana because it has real banana pieces inside and is super banana-y. So I guess I had high expectations of the best ice-cream shop on the boardwalk. Unfortunately, I ended up tossing out half of my milkshake (though I did feel a little bad about wasting the food and the money). I just felt like it wasn't as obviously banana as I would have expected or desired, so why waste the calories? (Especially because of what was coming next.... Funnel Cakes!!!!)

One of my friends swears by this place. She says they always come here for funnel cakes. I'd take her word for it if I were you.

I have not had a funnel cake in years. Honestly. So I was so excited that we ordered not one, but two!! Oh it was so good. It was perfect. I could have eaten the whole thing by myself. That's how awesome it was. There is just something so heavenly about fried dough and powdered sugar. Really. What more could you ask for? I am drooling here as I think about it..... Ohmygosh..... If you haven't eaten a funnel cake in a while, you need to reacquaint yourself with this delicious boardwalk staple. It's for your own good.

After all of our boardwalk food I could not imagine stuffing another thing in my mouth. I thought I would surely pop. And I was not alone in that sentiment. So we bought some Fisher's popcorn for later and headed back to the condo.

It was a very successful day indeed.