The Best Crab Cakes For People Who Don’t Know What A Good Crab Cake Is
Posted on July 29, 2009 by andrew
The Washington Post devotes a good chunk of today’s Food section to the search for DC’s best crab cake. I haven’t tried many of the restaurants on their final list of top choices, as it’s an expensive set of options. However, the list and the article do confirm my previously held belief: It is extremely difficult to get a good crab cake at a reasonable price in Washington.
DC is filled with non-locals (both tourists and transplanted residents) who are excited to eat the local specialty regardless of quality. They lack the necessary knowledge to distinguish a real crab cake from the pale imitations Washington restaurants serve, and so the restaurants are happy to continue serving those pale imitations. If you choose to eat the average restaurant’s crab cake in this city, you might as well be eating at a Red Lobster in Nebraska.
So, what’s the discerning Washingtonian to do? This isn’t hard: Drive to Maryland. Specifically, you want to go at least as far north as Laurel or at least as far east as Bowie. Ideally, go to Baltimore or Annapolis. You can get a crab cake that is noticeably better- not to mention almost certainly cheaper- at almost any restaurant in either of those cities. Even a good number of Baltimore’s dive bars have much tastier crab cakes than anything in Washington. While you’re there, you can also order yourself a cup of genuine Maryland crab soup, as opposed to the chowders and bisques we have here. Trust me, it will be worth the trip.
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3 Responses to “The Best Crab Cakes For People Who Don’t Know What A Good Crab Cake Is”
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This list is an absolute disaster and the abutting article is worse. Including “pan-fried” as an option for crab cakes, and including at least one restaurant that pan-fried in the positive reviews is unconscionable. That may be how people cook them at home when necessary, but if you are not broiling the cake, you’re failing.
DC can lick it, reason number 32569
Also, while I appreciate a remoulade AS AN OPTION, grading a cake based on it is a disgrace. Would we grade burgers based on what kind of fancy mayo or mustard that was included?
We absolutely would grade burgers like that, if the burgers in question were tasteless, pan-fried lumps made mostly of filler. In that case, the quality of condiments would count quite a bit. I’d say it makes perfect sense to grade DC crab cakes by their remoulade, since it’s the only part of the meal that might be good.