[a/s] Tangier - the eats

["Robert D. '"Sandy"' and Ann Noyes" <boojum@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The eats are the big draw on this island as they are on Smith Island, a similar island community 
not too far away.  Hilda's Chesapeake House is the famous draw on Tangier.  It is family style 
and the food is on the table before you get there.  We were walked from the boat by a guide/shill 
who gave us a short history of the island on the "7 minute walk" over to the Chesapeake House.  
The island is dry, the sale and purchase of alcohol being forbidden by the strongly Methodist 
community.  Consumption is not forbidden and apparently much of the alcohol arrives in "fish" 
coolers.

The menu at Hilda's consists of ham, potato salad, cole slaw, pickled beets, bread, corn pudding, 
clam fritters and crab balls.  Crab balls are rationed, two per person, the rest are an all you 
want basis.  The beverage is iced tea.  Desert is pound cake.

The ride over is an hour and a half each way and costs $20 round trip.  No one way tickets as far 
as I know.  The meal was $12.50 and well worth it.  It is a bargain when compared to the other 
food shops which serve a la carte and offer no such bargain.  The ladies running Hilda's all 
assured me that they eat lunch there, too.