Lexington Market outranks San Francisco’s Ferry Building Marketplace in one food writer’s book. And she even likes the fact you can buy squirrel there.
That scribe of discernment is Jane Stern, half of Gourmet magazine’s “Roadfood” duo. With her husband Michael Stern, she’s a regular guest on The Splendid Table, a national program broadcast locally on WYPR.
Last Saturday, Michael and host Lynne Rossetto Kasper were waxing rhapsodic about the Ferry Building, where, as Lynne noted, “all the best artisans, it seems, have shops or stands.”
Finally, Jane could keep quiet no longer.
Sure, she acknowledged, the Ferry is a “beautiful, beautiful piece of architecture” and an “endless cornucopia of the best of the West Coast.”
(Even through the scratchy reception, you could just hear the “but” coming.)
“However.” Jane said. “With that said, I’m putting a vote in here for the Lexington Market, in Baltimore, Maryland.”
While the Ferry is a “yuppie dream,” she said, “the Lexington Market has the greatest soul food and the greatest crab cakes and the greatest old-fashioned chocolate layer cakes… It’s funky and a little more my style.”
Michael Stern quickly jumped in, praising the chocolate and coconut cakes and proclaiming the jumbo lump crab cakes at Faidleys as “truly the best crab cakes anywhere.”
Jane, perhaps worrying that we missed the “funky” bit earlier, underscored the point:
JANE: I couldn’t help notice that the stand to the left was having a run on squirrel …
LYNNE: I beg your pardon?
JANE: …yup. Muskrat and squirrel. … It’s a people’s market. It’s definitely a people’s market.
MICHAEL: The term ‘artisan’ would never be applied to anything made or served in this market, OK?
JANE: On the other hand, the best crab cakes ever. Ever.
So, there you have it: Baltimore beats San Francisco. If you want to hear it for yourself, click here.