Everyone that I know in Maryland has their own special recipe for Crab Dip. It usually starts with cream cheese, maybe sour cream, maybe mayonnaise, Old Bay, salt & pepper, butter, cheddar cheese, crab meat, green onion, bread crumbs, probably garlic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, possibly hot sauce. Some people like to get fancy and add in diced ham and peppers as well as other cheeses, like pepper jack or parmesan. Anyway, it's all stirred up, topped with more cheese and then baked in the oven and finally served with crackers or crusty bread.My sister makes the best crab dip in the universe but she punked out on me on this trip and tried to pass off some new dip called 'Pizza Dip' which had no crab in it and instead diced pepperoni?!? Ok, whatever.
When I went out to my steamed crab dinner, we decided to start with a crab dip appetizer. Thank God. It was terrific. I am a huge fan of cheese, especially melted, so I could always use more cheese, but it was a tasty app nonetheless.
But the BEST part of the meal, and my entire trip, by far, was the Hot Steamed Crabs. I haven't had them in a couple of years and I had forgotten how delicious they are. They are actually hot to the touch and COVERED in Old Bay. (It's practically like salt and pepper in Baltimore.)
After cracking open one crab, I was an absolute mess, crab mustard in my hair, something spicey in my eye. But it was so worth it. And it explains why even the fanciest restaurant lays newspaper down on their tables. After a while, the table was decimated and crab carnage was everywhere. All the tummies at my table were full.
