The Baltimore Mystery

Since Baltimore was the home of Edgar Allan Poe, many mysteries were created there, including The Telltale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and the Fall of the House of Usher. Unfortunately my mystery doesn't compare in any way to Mr. Poe's brilliant themes. In fact it's about as pedestrian a mystery as you can imagine. Still it intrigues me, and nobody has provided an explanation during my three visits to this fascinating city. Why does it intrigue me? Because it involves a situation that I have not encountered in any other city. And when I mention it to anyone in Baltimore, they look at me as if I were peculiar to even wonder about the mystery. What is it? Simply this: That in almost all  of the restaurants and coffee shops I patronized in Baltimore, there was no cream or half-and-half. What there was instead was Cremora. While this coffee whitener is acceptable in an emergency, it is no way compares to natural coffee creamers since it has its own distinctive and not totally pleasant flavor. It is a substitute the screams, "cheap and vulgar" and I can't imagine why any reputable restaurant would serve it, much less dozens of restaurants to the exclusion of anything better. I like Baltimore. I like its architecture and its people, it's waterfront and such fascinating neighborhoods as Fells Point. But I really hate it when I can't get cream or at least half-and-half for my coffee and nobody in Charm City can tell me why.