Essential English phrases

Term of address, from 'honey', historically used by working-class women in Hampden and Highlandtown. Still genuinely used, and also self-consciously celebrated — Hampden runs a HonFest every summer.

Baltimore City and Baltimore County are separate governments with separate taxes, schools, police and courts. The city is not inside the county. Get this wrong on a form and it goes to the wrong office.

The city's dominant housing type, in continuous brick terraces, often faced with formstone — a moulded fake-stone cladding applied by the thousand in the mid-twentieth century and now either heritage or eyesore depending on the block.

The city's nickname, from a 1970s tourism campaign that stuck, and the original area code — used as an identity marker the way the 313 is in Detroit. 443 and 667 came later and carry none of the same weight.

How the city's name comes out in the local accent, which flattens vowels hard — 'warsh' for wash, 'zinc' for sink, 'Merlin' for Maryland. Nobody native says all three syllables of Baltimore.

A street vendor selling fruit and veg from a horse-drawn cart. Baltimore is the last American city where the tradition survives at all, down to a handful of stables.

'Down the ocean' — Ocean City, on the Atlantic coast about three hours east. From Friday afternoon in summer the whole region goes, which is why eastbound US-50 stops moving.

The celery-salt and paprika seasoning that goes on crabs, chips, corn, chicken and the rim of a beer glass. Treating it as optional marks you out faster than an accent does.

Steamed blue crabs dumped on brown paper with mallets, Old Bay and beer, eaten over several hours. Picking crabs badly in public is a genuine social tell — watch someone competent first.

National Bohemian beer, whose one-eyed mascot sits on a giant sign over Brewers Hill. It has not actually been brewed in Baltimore for decades, which nobody lets get in the way.

Fried fish on white bread from a corner carryout. It is not trout and it is not from a lake — it is whiting, from the Atlantic. A city institution built entirely on a misnomer.

Shaved ice with flavoured syrup, and — if you order it properly — marshmallow on top. Distinct from a snow cone; the ice is finer. Stands open from around April to September.

A surviving Maryland leasehold: you own the house, someone else owns the land, and you pay them a small sum twice a year. It is registered with the state and, on most leases, redeemable. Check before you buy.

Baltimore City's service line and app for potholes, bulk trash, rats, dead streetlights and water problems. It is the number you will actually use most. 911 stays for emergencies.