vcurran: Crab cakes for sure. I often see them on the menus of Boston restaurants, but what you get is usually closer to New England fish cakes, those doughy discs frequently seen in the company of Boston baked beans. Skipjack's (a Boston restaurant that takes its name from a Chesapeake Bay oysterman's boat) makes a good crab cake.
Blue crabs offer fine eating in many forms. Soft-shell crabs are a treat, fried up and served on a roll with lettuce, tomato, and mayo (tartar sauce is even better). I miss the ritual of the crab feast, big kettles of steamed crabs smothered in Old Bay seasoning and washed down with pitchers of National Bohemian beer. (I preferred its upscale sibling, National Premium, but they stopped making it about 10 years ago.)
When I was a kid in Maryland, the radio was always playing the National Bo commercial:
"National Beer, National Beer,
Wet cold delicious National Beer,
While we're singin' we're proud to say
It's brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay!"

comment left Oct 11, 2008