OMG! Now I Know What Crabby Snacks Are

For me, I like to get a feel for the crab meat. I have used a tiny amount of yellow mustard from time to time depending on the crab flavor. I love brown mustard, but more so on hot dogs not in crab cakes. It's all a matter of preference. I grew up here, went crabbing with my grandfather, and my grandmother would steam the catch for all of us.

My folks had a summer place at South Bowers Del and My aunt has a summer place near Rock Hall Md. Crabs were an institution in our family. Id go crabbing in the marsh, and dip for "Softies" for frying .
Wed set traps out at dark on a Friday and retrieve em Sun AM. Wed buy chicken carcasses from the butcher in Chesapeake City (That town was quite a dump when I was a kid, it only became hoidy toidy when a Dupont lady sunk millions into its gentrification. I prefer it as a dump, It had waay more character.

People that don't know how to at crabs are missing a lot in life Sez I.

On MPT (whenever they beg for money every month) they show a coupla Chesapeake Foodie shows
1The Best Crab Houses in Maryland

2Eatin Crabs Chesapeake Style

Both shows get me and Mrs F all ready for a crab road trip

In Maine we have these Jonah crabs, not so big and not as flavorful

My friend and i used to go to the Chesapeake Crab House in Orlando, Florida. I could see no connection with the Chesapeake at all--not that it mattered. At one end of every table there was a huge roll of brown butcher paper. When you sat down, the waitress would pull out the paper, enough to cover the table. Then she'd put plates on the table, and by each one, a horribly foreshortened baseball bat, about a foot long. Then they'd bring out huge steel platters of steamed crabs until you told them to stop. It's amazing how many crabs one man can east, especially if he has been using herbal supplements before getting to the crab house.

munchies respect no species of foodstuff.
A Maryland tradition is the butcher paper rolls for table cloths. In aMd crab house would be served, as an accompaniment, a bowl of drawn butter for dipping the crabmeat.
Also, with each tray of crb, would usually come a bunch of corn on the cob, n a big pitcher of NATIONAL BO.

Ya can't get National Bo in Orlando, at least not as far as i knew. They had the corn on the cob, though, and hushpuppies too. As with the platters of crab, no opne asked, they just brought 'em. There was no menu. You sat down, you ate, you paid.

pretty much, yep, that's the way.
I mean, ya walk into a place that sports a HUUUGE SIGN saying "STEAMED CRBS"
we sorta have an idea whats the bill of fare


National Bohemian is a thing f the past. Today, most of the Chessie crb houses are all FERN RESTAURANTS with high stools and fuckin fern planters all over.

When the Chesapeake got discovered in the 80's , it all went to ****, and carbs, a traditionally poor mans food, became a delicacy , and its price got jacked out the roof.
Crabs are the BMW's of seafood. (they raised the price before they raised the quality)

We went to the Chesapeake Crab House back in the late 80s. Crab was pretty damned cheap there at that time. It was all you can eat for $8.99. Every kind of seafood in Florida was cheap, if you avoided the tourist traps. Same thing in North Carolina, where we would go down to the docks where the boats came in on the inland waterway--you paid a third or a quarter of what they charge in supermarkets, which is a third or a quarter of what it costs in a restaurant. Best thing, the fish and seafood was fresh off the ice in the holds of the boats.

If you sit down at a tourist place for steamed crabs, they ask if you want drawn butter. If you tell them "I'm a local", they smile and you don't get the drawn butter. Enjoy it anyway you want, mox nix, but only tourists and newly settled out-of-staters use butter. Also, you can still get National Bohemian but you should ask for Natty Bo. But just for Baltimore purity, don't dip steamed crabs in butter, use it for other crab dishes. (The shell gets cracked off before the meat theoretically is dipped in butter.)

One of the best crab places locally, is Cantlers,, in Annnapolis, MD. Right on the river. Very crowded in the summer, brown paper or newspaper is placed on the table, small wooden mallets are used to crack the shell. The whole idea around picking and eating whole steamed crabs is social. People drink beer and pick crabs, you fill up but you haven't really had a balanced meal. But so what,

Maine has its Lobsters, 30 states each have there own particular version of barbecue, Maryland has her crab cakes.