It may have been an error in judgment to go to Salem on the Saturday before Halloween, the biigest day of the year in the Witch City. But we were intent upon seeing the soon-to-depart Hudson River School exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum and forgot all about our possible peril.

Sure enough we were surrounded by witches and all sorts of ghoulish companions on the streets of the city, which look like an urban version of a country fair. Every available space seemed to host a Fried Dough truck or a Sausages and Peppers cart. Alas! I saw no Corn Dogs so I had to settle for real, local, organically-raised food instead.

The nice lady at the Visitor Center told us about someplace for breakfast, but it was full so we kept looking. Not far on we saw the Scratch Kitchen, proudly proclaiming local fare, so we went in.

They certainly have local fare well-prepared, including a succulent pulled pork from Lucki 7 Farms topped with a sunny-side up egg and washed down with a Notch Session Ale from nearby Ipswich.
The session ale is a sadly underrepresented type in this day of super-hopmonster Imperial IPAs and Imperial Belgian Drafthorse Ale and Imperial super-high-gravity neutronium ales: Session ales are flavorful but lower in alcohol (Notch doesn't go over 4.5% alcohol by volume) so they accompany a meal nicely without demanding to be the meal. We'll be back to Scratch!

Upon leaving the museum, we stopped in the downtown mall to get some tea for Annette. Tea in the mall? Well, first, it's not a massive sprawly suburban mall. It's a small thing with some quirky shops in it. I got a black tea at a Polish deli and a Shui Hsien Oolong Tea at a Chinese gift shop. I couldn't read either label very well, but both teas wil serve as conversation pieces for Annette's get-together!