Posted on 04/21/2016 5:43:42 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
We in Maryland heard some good news during the past week: due to conservation efforts and weather conditions, the Blue Crab population is going to be about 35% higher this year. This is good news for crab lovers, but especially good news for the watermen along the Chesapeake, who make their livings from the 'Beautiful Swimmers'.
The first time I encountered a crab, I was a teen, lying in bed asleep, when my brother came into the room, dangled a live crab in front of my face, and yelled, "Wake Up"!
He had come home from a friend's house with a bucket full of fresh crabs and got us all up, late at night, to cook and eat them. My Tidewater-born Granny steamed them, and our Dad showed us how to crack, pick and eat them. They were very nice, but I'm not sure I was really 'sold' (perhaps I was still groggy from sleep, and from the visual shock of arthropod anatomy wiggling in front of my startled-awake eyes!)
I WAS sold, however, on my first real Maryland crab cake, which came from the Phillips restaurant in Baltimore. Long before, I had read in some popular writing that 'ambrosia' (the 'Food of the Gods' in Greek mythology) MUST have been 'oysters and champagne'; but my first taste of a good Maryland crab cake decided for ME the meaning of 'ambrosia', and I have been an addict ever since. (I will even buy the frozen Phillips ones in the supermarket, in a pinch - which frankly don't measure up at all to the ones in the restaurant.)
Here is the recipe for the very Maryland Crab Cake that has been offered in the Phillips restaurants since 1956:
http://www.phillipsfoods.com/recipe/shirley-phillips-crab-cakes/
And here's a recipe for Crab Rangoon, or Crab Wonton - which, in the average Chinese restaurant, is made with surimi - or "krab with a 'K'" - but can be easily made at home with the Real Thing, even though this recipe calls for 'canned':
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/200657/crab-rangoon/
(My favorite books about the Chesapeake are James Michener's 'Chesapeake', and William Warner's 'Beautiful Swimmers', q.v.)
-JT
crab stir fry is classic asian, hong kong, singapore
I use fresh lemon juice, fresh chopped parsley, capers, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and garlic.
Kinda like salty slimy mushy peas aint they?
With all respect, it’s pronounced ‘Bawlmer’ (with perhaps a little ‘under roll’ of the tongue on the ‘l’.)
Sorta like ‘Norfolk’, for those of us with roots there, is pronounced ‘NAWfk’.
-JT
Sounds classic to me.
Gnight my FReind
Pleasant dreams!
I think you left out a “U” LOL
Yes, a taste I never acquired. lol
You too, a pleasure to get off the kill each other threads
I have relatives who have summer weekend homes on the Eastern Shore, so they stop at G&M and bring crabcakes back every Sunday eve when they come back to PA. Best darned ones I’ve ever had. I also get them and other stuff online from G&M:
I quit reading them a few weeks ago.
I could murder some Haddock, and its inexpensive flakey and delicious
Where do you get Haddock anymore?
When I was growing up we could always get it from the local grocery store; if not fresh, it was sold in big frozen blocks.
My Granny used to cook it in the oven, with lots of salt and pepper and bacon on top; and served with cornbread.
I haven’t seen haddock available in the local grocery stores in decades.
-JT
LOL! My brother does an amazing shrimp stir-fry; but I don’t think he’d waste crab that way :-)
-JT
I can’t imagine anyone not liking boiled peanuts. They are delicious and are not even an acquired taste. They are just plain good.
I think a lot of people just haven’t had the ‘real thing’.
Do you have a recipe?
-JT
I have eaten boiled peanuts all my life. Daddy used to grow peanuts.
Actually I have never cooked them ever but it should not be difficult. Just cover them in salty water and boil for an hour or so. Maybe a little longer. You do need to get them green but still fully matured.
There was a store in my home town, DeFuniak Springs, who would have a yearly boiled peanut fest. You could eat all you wanted for free and just throw the empty shells on the floor. The floors were wood.
oh yea!!!. whenever we fly into BWI to visit we call ahead and make reservations and stop on the way from the airport. i get the big platter so have at least one crab cake leftover for crab omelets the next morning. AMAZON PRIME has utz crab chips. i have a whole box in the pantry.
No, I didn’t really. My Grandmother was born in the Tidewater in 1890; and she raised me. She died in 1985, as one of the very last of the old ladies who had that old accent.
She pronounced it like ‘Naaw-fk’, very slowly on the first syllable, and very quickly on the ‘fk’, in the Southern way, with the accent on the first syllable. You don’t really hear the ‘u’.
And, if you look online, they will tell you that it’s pronounced ‘NorFk’; but that’s not how our old folks pronounced it, and I’d bet that most of the old natives who are left down there don’t pronounce it that way, either.
It’s ‘Naawfk’.
Here’s something interesting; (scroll down to Norfolk):
http://cohp.org/va/notes/placenames_pronunciation.html
We keep two crab pots at the end of the pier all summer long right off Eastern Bay in the Chesapeake. We have them whenever we want them for free. Well for the price of Razor clams and fishing for White Perch for bait...Sure beats paying $75.00 a dozen. When they’re running I’ll catch 3 or 4 dozen in a couple of hours just chicken neckin’...G&M is the best crabcakes...there are a few others too...
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