Other than the freak snow storm that brought about 6 inches of slushy, wet snow to Lancaster County, our little road trip was awesome. We stayed in Lancaster, but visited Bird-in-Hand, Straburg, Intercourse, Paradise, Ephrata and Lititz. These charming small towns were all within a 20-minute drive. Check out the view from our hotel right before the snow really started falling.
The market in Lancaster was one of my favourite stops. So many locals seemed to actually come here to do their weekly groceries. The Amish butchers had some amazing looking meat and there were preserves, pickles and produce galore.
At the Bird-in-Hand market, we ate at the lunch counter. The Amish who ran the place were very kind, and the fried chicken and chicken pot pie (more like chicken and dumplings) really hit the spot.
Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is pretty heavy. Lots of meat and potatoes, casseroles and sugary sweets for dessert. Most restaurants in the area were Smorgasbord style (another word for buffet). The results of a typical breakfast Smorgasbord:
Clockwise from top left: scrapple (a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty made from various porky bits); butter-fried sticky bun (yes, fried in butter); bacon and sausage; biscuits w/ whipped butter. Lets just say that one Smorgasbord experience was enough for us.
I didn't buy the Amish butter cheese pictured above even though I was very curious, but found out it's a creamy cheese similar to Havarti.
More pics tomorrow!
One last slice of Shoofly pie from Dutch Haven before we hit the road. Not sure how authentic the pie here was, since traditionally it should contain molasses and the ingredients listed on this one (we bought an entire pie for friends back home) did not. It still tasted mighty fine. I picked up an Amish cookbook so I'll attempt to make my own one day soon. I also tried an Amish root beer. It tasted stronger and more herbaceous than regular root beer and was not as sweet. I saw quite a few signs at the end of farm driveways advertising homemade root beer for sale.
