What foods/drinks should be served at a party whose theme is Baltimore, Maryland?!
Thanks in advance!
Answers: I plan to host a party to watch the final episode of "The Wire," a television show set in Baltimore, Maryland, and I'd like to serve foods/drinks appropriate to a Baltimore theme. What foods do you recommend (vegetarian options particularly welcome)? What's a particularly good/authentic crabcake recipe? What is a good traditional Baltimore drink (local beer I can get in Atlanta, mixed drink, non-alcoholic, whatever.)
Thanks in advance!
Baltimore, so near the Chesapeake Bay, loves shellfish. Oysters, clams, and of course the blue crab.
Local beer: National Bohemian, brewed by G. Heileman. (If you can't find National Boh, any of the light lager brands Heileman bought up, e.g., Lone Star, others, taste pretty much as though they're from the same tap, same recipe. Don't tell them we know this.) In the older days, Carling's Black Label Beer (now from Canada) was brewed in Balto.
Every restaurant in Baltimore serves a crab cake. Crab cake recipe: One egg, one slice stale bread, 1 tsp. dry mustard, 1/8 tsp celery seed, scant 1/4 tsp worcestershire, dash of cayenne, 1 lb backfin, one slice stale bread. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except crab cake and bread. Gently place crabmeat into mixture; add bread crumbs. Toss gently, to keep crabmeat texture intact. Bread crumbs will, with the egg, be the glue which holds the crab meat together. With hands, make 2" (3" gets to be too fragile to turn easily) crab cakes. Fry, covered, on low heat in skillet with butter or Pam. until heated through. Crab cakes like to fall apart. May be too fragile for a first timer. Some people double the recipe, using special crab meat which is a step down from backfin. The smaller pieces stick together better. Marylanders like as close to 100 per cent crab as possible in the crab cake, and only put enough spice to accent the pure, sweet crabmeat.
Crab soup (a sort of veg. beef with little beef and crab claw meat) is a favorite, lately nudged out by cream of crab.
Maryland fried chicken is also served widely (the chain still exists in some small southern towns). Corn meal or flour mixed with pepper and not too many other spices make the mild breading. A little paprika works, too. Maryland fried chicken isn't going after the Colonel's many secret herbs and spices. It's down home and from the Eastern shore, but served in many homes in Baltimore.
Local brands which may or may not have made it to Georgia are Utz chips (they make a chip flavored with Old Bay crab seasoning), Berger's cookies, and Suburban sodas, especially the Almond Smash flavor. (but they don't all go well together at the same meal!)
Corn, in season, and fried RED tomatoes (firm; not too ripe) are local favorites, too.
crabcake, chickenbox, and half & half LOL!!!!
Anything with old bay on it for food, especially crabcakes. Raw oysters, fordham beer, oyster po boys, fried chicken, bloody marys, crab soup, crab dip, anything with crab in it...
Being from Baltimore... Crab is a must!!
Pick up some Natty Boh (natural Bohemian), or Oxford R
Cakes: Don't put to much "filler" in the cake, you def. want to taste the crab...
Invest in a can of Old Bay Seasoning
Saute some onion, green/yellow/red pepper (small amounts for color and elegance)
Mix in an egg (or two) and some bread crumbs, pepper, and some Old Bay and pan-fry... you will have kick *** cakes...
Natty Boh is not short for "Natural Bohemian", it's "National Bohemian". It tastes the same as Bud Light or any typical watered down american beer. It's a Baltimore tradition, but one that I don't partake in.