The "Eatin' Em Roasted" Story

It was an ordinary day. Traveled with our friends from State College, Jerry and Just Sue, to the Chesapeake Inn in Chesapeake City, Maryland, along the C&D Canal, for lunch recently. The weather was beautiful and we were hoping for a few large ships to travel on the canal. The canal is 14 miles long and crosses from the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay through Chesapeake City. The canal provides a shortcut of about 300 miles for ship traffic between the Port of Baltimore and the northeastern US cities and Europe. It is the only major commercial canal in the US that is still in use, among those which were built during the heyday of canal building in the early 1800s. It opened for business in 1829 with 10 feet of water and four locks and was purchased by the US Government in 1919 and in 1920 was excavated and deepened to create a sea-lever facility with a channel 12 feet deep and 90 feet wide. From 1935 to 1938 it was deepened to 27 feet and widened to 250 feet. We have seen ships of all sizes in the canal from cargo ships to automobile carriers to cruise ships. We enjoy the Chesapeake Inn since it is one of two restaurants that has a good view of the canal as you eat your lunch. I always call ahead for reservations and ask for seats in front of one of their windows overlooking the canal. They always tell me they can't reserve specific tables, but over the past few years they always come through for me. I think they know my voice by now, since most greet me with Mr. LDub when they hear my voice. For lunch today Jerry

chose the lobster grilled cheese sandwich, Sue had some kind of chicken sandwich, my wife had naked fish while I chose the aphrodisiac meal. I assume you know what that is? I love oysters and they have quite a good choice at the restaurant. Besides the fried oyster meal they have a raw bar as well as roasted oysters. That is what I chose for my meal today. You have to buy at lest half a dozen, but they do have six varieties to choose from. I chose one oyster Rockefeller which has spinach, bacon, and sharp cheddar, one Manchego which has parma prosciutto and manchego cheese crust, one Parmesan which is tomato's, capers, extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan crust, and three of my favorites, Chesapeake which is the roasted oyster with crab imperial on top of it. Great variety and with some Chesapeake bay seasoning on my fries, a real aphrodisiac experience. Oysters are an excellent course of zinc, iron, calcium, selenium as well as Vitamin A and B12. They are considered the healthiest when eaten raw, but I just can't handle that. We all had an enjoyable meal talking with our server and having a great time. Only bad part of the meal was that there were no ships using the canal during lunch. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.