I’m a crab snob. I moved to Montgomery County, Maryland (just outside Washington, DC) when I was in the 7th grade and lived there until we moved to Texas in 1990, so I grew up eating Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs. Bushels of them. One of my fondest memories was going to a friend’s parents’ house on the lower Potomac River on a Saturday morning. We purchased a couple of bushels of fresh cooked crabs and ate them all afternoon. My youngest daughter Stephanie was given her own crab picking tools when she was 5!
Now, if you have had the pleasure of eating these crabs you know they are not very big and do take some work to get the meat out. But oh my! The meat is so sweet and succulent, the work is worth it. When I pick crabs, I am a piler. I pick the whole crab and pile the meat in front of me. When I’m done, I add a little melted butter, a little Old Bay Seasoning and savor the meat. Yes, I am that patient. Just ask Karen!
So, when anyone tells me that the Pacific Northwest Dungeness crab are better, I turn up my nose. I do eat all kinds of crab, including Snow Crab and King Crab, but in my book there is nothing better than Chesapeake Bay Blues.
So, my cuisine of choice when I am in the Maryland area is crab, of any kind. I am always on the lookout for the “best crab.” A couple of months ago I was in Baltimore staying at a hotel next to BWI. For dinner I looked online for some recommendations for a good crab shack. When I asked at the hotel they gave me the name of a place just a couple of miles away. That restaurant is G&M Restaurant and it advertised it had “Baltimore’s Best Crab Cakes.” Being the skeptic that I am, I had to try it myself.
Well, the picture below may not do it justice, but it was a very good crab cake. If fact, I might not call it a crab cake at all. It was more like a crab mound. It was filled with large lumps of back fin (the best of the crab) and it had just enough filling to hold the meat together. This place is highly recommended if you are in the vicinity of the BWI airport outside of Baltimore. Just understand, it’s a crab shack. It is nice but certainly not fancy.
G&M Restaurant
804 N. Hammonds Ferry Rd
Linthicum, MD 21090
(410) 636-1777
While I have not been able to spend a lot of time in the Maryland area, I do prefer the blue crabs, and when I am there — as I was a few weeks ago — I eat all of the fresh crab and crab cakes I can find. When I pick crabs, I remove my rings and just get on with the show. But I am not patient enough to pick all before I eat. Maybe a half a crab at a time. No butter. Lemon and whatever Old Bay seasoning is on my hands. I am making myself hungry.