Blue Crab Killers

Last week we earned our ticket as Marylanders. And it only cost us $30. I'm speaking of our first experience with Maryland Blue Crabs, the official food down here. Everyone eats them, and you can get them absolutely anywhere, in one form or another. Within a five minute drive of where we live there are at least 3 places that sell nothing else but steamed blue crabs and crab cakes to go.

Blue crabs are smaller than Dungeness and instead of being served with butter and lemon, they are steamed with a hell of a lot of Old Bay seasoning and eaten as is. The result is a sticky, spicy, salty experience that is alot of work, but worth the picking.

We ordered a dozen mediums (that's what they recommended for two! they are quite small- about the size of a man's hand), bought a couple mallets (they don't use crackers) and dug in over a couple bottles of ginger beer. It was messy, fun and delicious, but we both concluded that we prefer the west coast's dungeness and find the seasoning a bit too salty. Next time we'll see if they'll steam them half seasoned for us.