Monday, May 4, 2009

Sometimes Wishes Do Come True

Saturday night, Neil and I met a couple of friends at a local restaurant for a night of beer, crabs and laughs. Lots of laughs. For those of you not familiar with Blue Crabs, they are a delicacy that is native to Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. When alive, the crabs are true to their name and are quite blue, but when cooked they turn a lovely orange/red color. Around here, we steam them (the only way to do it) and load them up with tons of salty Old Bay Seasoning. So much seasoning, in fact, that your hands (and shirt and pants and surrounding floor) are coated in the vibrantly orange stuff. It is not an overstatement to say that by the end of the night, you feel like you will never be able to get it all off of you.

I had never even heard of this style of crab before I moved to Maryland, and it took me years to develop the taste, but now I love them. Back home in Kansas, if you say crabs, you mean Alaskan King Crab Legs, of the Deadliest Catch variety. I still love those and the amount of meat you get out of them versus the Blue Crab, which is a lot of work for a very little meat*, is awfully appealing, but a night out eating blue crabs is an Experience.

It took the four of us three hours to pick our way through two and a half dozen crabs, but I wouldn't have traded a minute of that because during that time we traded stories, told jokes and caught up on each others lives. It's about more than just the food.

Sometimes easy isn't best.






















* An experienced picker produces less than one ounce of meat from the average crab.

** A rare photograph of me to be posted here. I swear I don't keep them out due to some sense of modesty or desire for anonymity as much as that I am generally the one holding the camera so there just aren't many pictures of me. I actually put on make-up for this little outing. Don't hold back, you can tell me how pretty I look. No really, you can tell me. It's okay, don't be shy.

20 comments:

  1. I'm glad you had a great night! I would like to try some of those crabs sometime, though I imagine that, as an inexperienced picker, I'd be wasted by the end of the night due to a poor crab meat to beer ratio!

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  2. You are gorgeous!!!! I love your hair!!!

    and I love crabs!

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  3. Good to put a face with the name! We are preparing for the Blue Crab Festival down here in FL on Memorial Day weekend. Oh how I love me some crab! I, too prefer the Alaskan King Crab.....but I will take any kind I can get!

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  4. Y'all SHARED 2.5 dozen crabs?

    I can eat that many alone. Not even kidding.

    When we go to the beach my brother-in-law steams about 12 pounds for the 4 of us to eat. (And his steaming recipe involves Old Bay, fresh Dill, and BEER!) We then over the table with newspaper, put out bowls of clarified butter, get our Land Sharks ready, and go to town.

    I love crab. LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

    And you look gorgeous. With your beer and those crabs. Awesome.

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  5. I am so glad to get to see a picture of you!!!!! Yay!!!!!
    I haven't yet:)
    You are beautiful!
    (you wonder about these things ya know:)
    What a fun night out! I totally want to go out and eat blue crabs with you guys now!

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  6. You. are. BEAUTIFUL! In every way. Glad you had a fun night out. I think that's just what you needed.

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  7. awesome picture! but I have to say that for as long as I lived in MD, never developed a taste for MD crabs...too much work! and that icky mustardy stuff...gross! I'll take Alaskan King Crab legs any day!

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  8. glad to hear you had such a nice date night!! no crab eating for me though!

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  9. If I ever make it to Maryland, you are so taking me there. Is that weird? And bold? And weird? Too bad. ;)

    (You're adorable)

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  10. Maaaaan! Now you have me craving crab ... of any kind.

    Also, if I were a guy (which I am not) and in a bar (which I wish I was) I'd totally hit on you.

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  11. Aw, you look so pretty! =)

    Also, really, they're BLUE?!

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  12. You do look quite lovely :]

    I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay and I remember catching blue crabs & eating them for dinner. Delish! It's been so long since I've done that though that I won't even order crab in the shell anymore at restaurants, because I don't want to get my hands all messy and look dumb doing it wrong.

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  13. I was going to comment about how good you look before I read the instructions telling me to do so! You can tell you are working out!

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  14. I have always wanted to try crabs, like real crab not the stuff in the packets.
    What a fun evening and you look so good.

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  15. One of the things I miss about my marriage is our social life. I loved evenings like that more than anything.

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  16. You do look pretty, I was just thinking this before I read the last line of your entry. Haha, shy I am not!

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  17. We always have a huge crab around New Years. But our crab is the Alaskan kind since we are on the Northwest coast area. Lots of butter and garlic bread mmmmm. I am hungry just thinking about it!!

    Looks like you had a great time!

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  18. Well, you really do look great!

    We have 1 all you can eat crab place here. Crab is my all time fav food. So I'm SOOOO salivating over this post! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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  19. Well, glad you enjoyed the crab!

    And you do look pretty :)

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  20. You look great and the crabfest looks fun!!

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Give me some sugar, baby!