Travel Tips & Adventures

After several fun days exploring Williamsburg, you naturally will want to buy souvenirs, gifts or memorabilia. Basically, stuff, but Williamsburg stuff is definitely special.

Williamsburg has gift choices for every taste and budget. I purchased a Colonial era finely designed silver pin that I still cherish straight from the silversmith’s shop.

There are open air opportunities where you can purchase plants, and refreshments, hats and, well, almost anything that you can imagine appropriate to Colonial Williamsburg right in the restored area.

For an eclectic collection of Colonial Williamsburg purchases from $2 to as much as you can imagine, head to Merchants Square, adjacent to the restored area of Williamsburg.

Merchants Square – head there

There are many shops in Merchants Square. Clothing (see Scotland House Ltd., where they offer Scottish and British Isles attire. – if you’ve got any Scottish blood at all, you will be delighted with the collections of tartan ties) for any age, jewelry, furniture, furnishings, books, William and Mary College items – you name it, it’s there. Especially choice are the pewter and silver offerings, since they were definitely available in the 18th century.

The Craft House has everything from the root beer served in Williamsburg at $2 a bottle to $1,000 porcelain. Eunice Wermers, who works at the Craft House, says “bird bottles” (pottery bird houses) are very popular as well as mugs, teapots and other crafted items,made in businesses run by Colonial Williamsburg.

Everything Williamsburg is the shop for the logo items like hats, T-shirts, toys and, well, anything Williamsburg.

And, certainly not last, head to Celebrations for outdoor things, collectibles, wreaths, flags, candles and lanterns.

 

Specialty food shops offer peanuts, ham, cheese, candy and other favorites from the area.

Restaurants in Merchants Square

Working up an appetite from your shopping excursion, you might want to stop at one of the many restaurants in the Merchant Square area. Restaurants cater to tastes from burgers, pizza and ice cream to more upscale restaurants (modern décor) that serve seafood and other choices. My Merchants Square  favorite is Berret’s Seafood House, which serves irresistibly flavorful She Crab Soup. (She Crab recipe follows.)

Allow some time and budget for your purchases in Williamsburg. Many of the items are locally made and will provide you with a cherished reminder of your stay.

RECIPE

She Crab Soup

(recipe courtesy of America Cooks, by Judith Ferguson)

This recipe is similar to the one served at Berret’s. The sherry is optional.
1 Large crab, cooked
3 Tbsps butter
1 onion, very finely chopped
2 Tbs flour
4 cups milk
6 Tbsps sherry
Pinch salt, white pepper and ground mace
½ cup heavy cream, whipped

Extract the crab meat from the legs, large claws and underbody by cracking open the segments. Discard the stomach and the lungs.

Set the white meat aside with the claw meat.

Save the brown meat from the shell and reserve it. Also, if you see roe, save that, too.

Make the cream soup base by cooking the onion in melted butter for about 3 minutes without browning. Stir in the flour and the milk.

Bring to the boil, but then immediately turn down the heat to simmer.

Add the brown meat, then simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Add the sherry, salt, pepper, mace, white crab meat and roe.

Cook an additional five minutes. Then top with whipped cream and roe if available.

Tags: Recipe, Scotland, Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Family Fun, Food, Historic, Shopping, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.