Something on the menu at Baltimore's new Amish farmers' market caused me to do a double-take: chicken and waffles.
Fried chicken and waffles are a classic, if improbable, soul food combo well known to Baltimoreans.
But the Pennsylvania Dutch version is something else entirely, and not just because it's prepared and served by women in white Amish caps.
This is a stew of shredded chicken, white gravy, peas and carrots ladled over a freshly made waffle. It's more or less chicken pot pie, with the waffle standing in for the crust.
It's on special this week at Marie's Dutch Kitchen, the 90-seat restaurant inside the Patapsco Amish Farmers' Market, which opened two weeks ago at 3321 Annapolis Road, next door to the Patapsco Flea Market.
The chicken and waffle comes with a vegetable, choice of apple crisp or chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, plus ice cream -- all for $7.95.
The chicken-and-waffle special at Marie's Dutch Kitchen. And yes, macaroni salad counts as a vegetable here. Karl Merton Ferron