Lets not mince words: there are parts of Baltimore that are economically depressed and where Baltimore gets its reputation for a lot of its violence. There has been plenty written about red-lining that has caused this situation, or how the police unfairly target minority neighborhoods, or how city education leaves city students unprepared, or how gentrification is building in the nice parts and leaving the rest behind.

This is not a post that is going to dive into the thorny, and difficult problem that underpins the two Baltimores. This is a post about a neighborhood in the depressed part of Baltimore, and it would be silly to pretend that all of Baltimore is the same.

The two Baltimores are usually referred to as the ‘White L’ and the ‘Black Butterfly’. It is actually well demonstrated from the map I created to map out the places I plan to go to for Baltimore Around the World.

Notice that most of the places I am going to make an L shape, roughly going from Hampden in the north down to the waterfront, and then following the waterfront east. These are the predominantly white neighborhoods of Hampden, Charles Village, Station North, Bolton Hill, Mount Vernon, Charles Village, Downtown, the Inner Harbor, Fed Hill, Fells Point and Canton. The two butterfly ‘wings’ are large swaths of east and west Baltimore. This is where most of the 318 murders happened last year.

If you want to see something really striking, look at the Baltimore Sun homicide map. You will notice the White L I described. You can also separate the murders by race and compare the 291 black murders vs the 17 (!!!!) white murders.

So while I would love to find the gems of the Middle East neighborhood, that seems unwise. But I will do a short walking tour my home in Upper Fells Point to West Indian Flavour, a Trinidad restaurant, and back.

It would be insulting to think that I, a person that grew up in Idaho, has lived in the suburbs of Maryland for five years, and then lived in Upper Fells for a year and a half, can understand any of the things that cause that murder map on a short walk. I simply hope to see another Baltimore neighborhood.

Trinidad

When I told Maureen we were doing Trinidad food this week, she started singing about rum and Coca-cola.

It is kind of catchy

I did not know where Trinidad was, as was the case last week, so I needed to take out my trusty globe to find it.

It is only 6 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Fortunately, the Venezuelan food we will be doing later appears to be centered around Arepas, so there is enough diversity to do both! The restaurant this week this week is called West Indian Flavour, not for west India, but for the West Indian Islands. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus, and was named that to distinguish it from the East Indian Islands.

They don’t care about Trinidad. They just want walks anywhere.

Unlike last week, where I had never had Lebanese food before, I have had good Caribbean food, so I had an idea of what to expect. But it had been a few years, and had not been at this place. So I grabbed my dogs for a walk and headed out.

I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wasn’t at least a little worried about walking up to Middle East. My wife works at Hopkins, and she regularly gets emails notifying her about crime that happens around the Hopkins campus. Assaults, shootings, muggings, break-ins; they all get blasted out to the Hopkins workforce to warn them.

I like to think that I am the type that would not stereotype based on the color of someone’s skin. But I think I have to be honest with myself, and acknowledge that there is that initial judgement that I have when walking around the city. Sure, there is the argument that the areas of the city that are predominantly black are the ones that are predominantly poor and crime filled. And it would be safer to not venture out to there. It would be safer to stay with people like me. Lets not be stupid, walking in unfamiliar areas is just risky.

But screw that. The only way to break those prejudices is to break out of those bubbles. This is an exploration of Baltimore. Lets go! So with my vicious attack boxers at my side to protect me with the power of all of the kisses and wiggles they could give a potential assailant, I ventured out.

Walking down Baltimore St, I walk past the big, beautiful, old rowhomes, some of the ones close the the park, go for nearly half a million dollars. The houses in Upper Fells Point, Washington Hill, and Butchers Hill are generally larger because this used to be a very nice area of town. It was away from the dirty port of Fells Point, up the hill with a better view, and closer to the park. Now the waterfront is desirable, so they aren’t quite as high end as they used to be. But there are still some very expensive, large houses.

The closer to Patterson Park, the more expensive the houses get. The park is 137 acres of great walking trails, ponds, playground equipment, dog parks, tennis courts, and lots of open space. Its a real Baltimore gem. But when I turned north at the park, I was heading toward the border between the “Baltimores”.

After a block, I see a place that Maureen and I looked at purchasing when we were in the market for a house. It was really nice, and this area is not bad. I would have wanted to do a bit more homework on the area if we did get serious about the house, except that it had a major leak in the ceiling that we wanted no part of. This area is in the process of being gentrified, and this was a beautiful flip that had some issues.

I continue my walk north. I look at the sidewalk and see that it is strewn with trash. But that isn’t a difference between the areas I was just in, because we just had a huge wind storm on trash day that probably trashed the whole city. I haven’t seen a boarded up rowhome yet either.

Strangely, I still wasn’t seeing the difference. A few people said hi to my dogs. Hmm… that happens in my neighborhood too. I didn’t even feel like the only thing between being mugged and murdered was my vicious attack boxers.

I get to Orleans St, which is usually considered the real border. Don’t go north. Insta-murder. A lot of the crime notices my wife gets from Hopkins are from this area. This is getting toward the area where the 317 murders happened last year. Turn around. Don’t be stupid for a blog. The restaurant delivers! GO HOME.

I head north another block and turn left toward the restaurant. That’s where I got the picture to the left that best shows the two “Baltimores”. In the foreground, there is an old business for sale, that has been there long enough to be boarded up and had a mural painted on it. I could see a sliver under the boards, where I could see into what appeared to be a pit filled with bricks. This building has been boarded up for at least a decade based on Google street view.

In the background of the picture, you can see Johns Hopkins Hospital, which had a 2015 revenue of $7.177 billion (for the hospital, not including the university). The difference between a multi-billion dollar institution and a place that has been vacant for a decade is 0.3 miles.

That’s the two “Baltimores”.

I got to West Indian Flavour and ordered my food, and could tell I had picked a good place. I heard a lot of Caribbean accents from the customers and the cooks, which I consider a good sign in any international restaurant. I also heard a song that referenced Tom Cruise a LOT. When I got home, I googled ‘Caribbean tom cruise song’, and found the Don Andre gem I heard (embedded to the left). Don Andre is Jamaican, which is also West Indian. This place is legit so far!

That song was followed by one that was heavily Steel Pan based. Unfortunately, its much harder to google ‘Caribbean steel pan’ and find unique songs, as the steel pan is from Trinidad! I have never seen someone play the steel pan in person, but the video is really interesting.

I didn’t want my dogs scaring people while they waited outside, so I stepped out to wait with them. McElderry St. is on the back side of the Northeast Market, which is a Baltimore public market like Lexington Market, Broadway Market in Fells Point, Cross Street Market in Fed Hill, Hollins Market, and Avenue Market in Upton. The front side of Northeast Market is literally kitty-corner from a Johns Hopkins University building and has a great looking farmers market, but Hopkins sponsors its own farmers market on its grounds so that employees don’t have to venture out to the ‘unsafe’ part of town a couple blocks away. This, unfortunately, reinforces the ideas of it being unsafe.

The Food

The place was definitely a takeout kind of place, and has only the most cursory tables, which are best suited for sitting to wait for your food to be made. So after walking back home, it was time to break into the best part of this: eating!

We started with an order of Goat Roti, also known as Dhalpourie, which is a Trinidad staple. This is a Roti that is stuffed with a kind of lentil mixture called dhal, made with yellow split speas, cumin, garlic and pepper. This comes as a large pocket that is filled with the meat and lentils. The picture to the left was taken as Maureen was cutting it open and shows all of the filling. To be honest, the dhal mixture fades into the background a bit, and kind of fills the same role as rice does in Indian dishes: it has a bit of flavor, but mainly adds substance to the meal. You would notice if they were gone, but they compliment the meat well enough that you don’t notice it unless you are looking for it. The roti flatbread is a soft, thin bread that mainly acts as a delivery method. This could easily be eaten without utensils. But the star of the show is the meat; in this case, goat. This was a very tender meat, that was spiced perfectly. There also was no bone in it, which made for an amazing dish.

Next we had Oxtail Buss Up Shut, which is a special event type of meal in Trinidad, such as birthdays, or weddings. This is also a roti, but it had everything separated out. It seems to be similar to the pocket roti, but with everything separated out. Its called buss up shut, because the flatbread with it looks like a busted up shirt (say it with a Caribbean accent… busted up shirt… buss up shut). I enjoyed this one as well, except that I love Oxtail. Sure, its a very fatty meat, but its also so tender. Falls off the bone and just has the consistency of a well cooked meat. Does it matter if its a high quality cut of meat if it tastes good? I submit that the answer is no.

Next we had Jerk Chicken, with rice and cabbage on the side. Jerk style is really a Jamaican style of cooking, where the meat is dry rubbed or marinated with a hot spice mixture. And its a sneaky kind of spice. I had a bite of the chicken, and was about to move on to trying something else when I noticed the heat. Its not like a lot of other spice I have had where it kicks you in the mouth; this was more subtle and pleasant. I am not a huge chicken fan, but this was well done and tender. Its easy to make dry chicken, but this was not. The rice that went with it was a nice compliment, but nothing special. Same with the cabbage. They are there to make the whole thing a meal, but are nothing to write home about.

On the side we had plantain and calalloo. Calalloo is a creamy side dish that is very Trinidadian. I have no idea what was in it, as it seems that there are a lot of ways to make it. You make it the way your mother made it, who made it like her mother. So you get a bit of a game of telephone with recipes. Either way, I enjoyed it with some of the flatbread, as it was a cool dip type side. Almost like a spinach dip that Maureen has made. Not spicy, but nice and cool, and probably would have gone well with the jerk chicken, if I had thought of it.

The plantains were a sweet side. They are a Trinidadian staple that is eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They were well cooked so that they were firm enough to be a finger food, but not so much that it was tough. Excellent.

And as the song said, we had rum and cocaaaaaaacola. We could have used Caribbean rum, but instead used Baltimore’s own Old Line Rum. Probably a waste of good rum, but oh well. It was tasty!

The Wrap

I don’t have anything insightful to say after my walk from Upper Fells to Middle East. These are complicated things, and while I have ideas on how to fix it, my dad once told me “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one and everyone thinks everyone else’s stinks.” So there is no need for me to go down that road. It was an interesting exercise for me though, and one that is part of a tour of Baltimore.

Next week, I will not be posting a normal blog entry because I have some friends coming into town. However, there are a lot of St. Patty’s day things coming up, and I will put up a post later this week with some of the things that are going on through St Patty’s Day. And in two weeks, I will be doing Irish week at Life of Reilly in Butchers Hill. Maybe we will even have a special guest of Irish decent, from the storied McCaffrey clan. If we can only be so lucky.