I feel sorry for anyone who was actually at the beach this week, with all the rain. The worse beach trip we ever had it rained for four days straight. We had two young boys in a hotel room. Glum.

Bucky was stuck on a pile of rocks all week.

Fourth food is picnic food, unless you count the red, white and blue mashed potatoes we had at Girl Scout camp the year of the Bicentennial.

Maybe best "unusual" ingredients or variations for potato salad?

Perhaps a top ten list of All American Restaurants.

Now, I know such a term will lead to the usual suspects questioning the term "all american" as it relates to food at first and then later as it relates to culture, but there might at least be a few hours of talking about hot dogs before the topic spirals down into an Antrho-Soc abyss.

How about a Top 10 list of non-alcoholic summer drinks?

Clams, clams, clams, bacon and clams (an homage to Monty Python's Spam song). Top Ten clam dishes: hard clams, soft clams, cooked clams, raw clams, cherry stones, little necks, top necks, quahogs, cockles (but but mussels) alive alive oh! Clams casino, posillipo, steamed clams with drawn butter, stuffed clams, Rocco's vongole with in tomato, olive oil and garlic sauce (CLAMS!). Sushi clams: giant clams, geoduck, razor clams, surf clams, akagai, hokkigai, mirugai, tairagai, torigai, clam chowder, clam rolls, cioppino, fried clams, breaded clams, bouillabaisse, clam Po Boys, smoked clams, pasta with clam sauce

I don't have recommendations except for Rocco's. I'm looking for recommendatins. Clams!

Finally ate at Pollo a la Brasa, across from Santoni's in Baltimore Highlands. Chicken was ok, yucca frita was excellent (best I've had, actually), cole slaw was sweeter than ambrosia (which is not a good thing). Portions were much smaller than Chicken Rico. The green sauce was hot and good, the mayo-based sauce was bland and...sweetish?

The room is plain but clean, with minimal Peruvian kitsch and only one flat screen TV (which was blaring out MLB in Spanish, at an equal volume with the Latin American pop).

It was ok, but I think the next time I'm down there and hungry, I'll try the little Dominican place between the bus stops.

Fourth of July food, to me, is the classic cookout/barbecue fare: Burgers and dogs on the grill, potato and macaroni salad, cole slaw, perhaps some steamed crabs, and plenty of ice cold beer.

That sounds pretty good, especially the beer since its been hotter than the hinges of Hell here for a week.

Alas this was not ready earlier in Beach Week.

Your friend Lord Marmalade has been thrust into the Modern Age with Lord Marmalade's Manor, a web log that we have created as a surprise for his Lordship. Whilst we cannot guarantee a steady stream of memoir such as the sparkling first one, we hope that this will serve as a palate for his wicked quill.

Enjoy "Whereupon Lord Marmalade discovers the Manwich and other American treats"

Right now he is walking Mimsy anmd Puddles, but he should be quite surpised by this. Enjoy.

thanks for sharing