the lump sum: washington's best crab cakes (link)
07.29.09 - the washington post - by jane black

ok. true confessions time. in my handful of trips to the d.c./virginia area (still haven't seen baltimore other than from the highway & on the wire), i've still yet to try the area's crab on any of my visits. no steamed crab, no crab legs, no crab cakes. maybe one day i will. i probably should. i hear it's their regional dish & all. funny...during my entire recent trip to chicago, i didn't have a single hot dog either. what's my problem (other than the obvious)?

since they apparently love a challenge, jane black & the washington post food section tried twenty-five different crab cakes as part of a search to "define and discover the best local examples." the most well known ones typically feature lumpy sweet crab with "old bay seasoning, lemon juice herbs and a binder such as eggs, mayonnaise or bread crumbs" for flavor, but there are obviously variations.

of those they tried, the better ones were the ones with jumbo lump meat like those at blacksalt, kinkead's & johnny's (the "more refined" places) & those at jerry's seafood and at g&m (both "more rustic but equally impressive"). these were all relatively straightforward takes on the crab cake, but little variations like the minced jalapeno at blacksalt made for nice additions.

it turns out that the crabs at a lot of these aren't even from the area. the chef at kinkead's gets maryland crabmeat "about eight months a year" & a lot of places get their crabmeat from the gulf coast or the carolinas. those at jerry's come all the way from venezuela, which you'd think would be blasphemy, but both chefs & the post tasters agreed that it's still cool. what was most important to the post tasters? that "they should always taste good." um, i could have told you that.

phew. i made it through that whole thing without making a "got crabs?" joke.