Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Not sure about this

I kept seeing this billboard once we crossed the Bay Bridge.

I am allergic to crab, but before my allergies got so bad, I used to pop Benadryl and indulge in crab cakes once a year. My favorites were from a mom-n-pop place down here in Ocean City, where they were made by hand with huge lumps of crab, a bit of mayonaise to hold it together, and Old Bay for seasoning.

So I was naturally suspicious of a McCrab.

I remember trying a test-market version of McRib while travelling through Virginia one summer. It was vile.

Bal'mer Sun columnist Dan Rodricks noted that the crab cakes, which are being test marketed in Delmarva, are handmade in Easton. That's a good sign, though phrases like "microwave ready" and "less fish filler" aren't so good. Rodricks didn't try them because of his personal boycott of crab meat over the over-harvesting of Bay crabs, a view I can respect. His column didn't specifically say that McDonald's was using Maryland blue crab, though, and even though the production is in Easton, a fair amount of crab is actually imported into Maryland from the Gulf of Mexico.

Anyway, I'm on vacation, and a serious discussion of ecology is for another day. So, for that matter, is the McDonald's debate...they are bad, they are good, I am fundamentally opposed to so much of what they do, but I eat there probably once a week. On bad, busy weeks, it's even more. I feel dirty.

I'm also never going to be able to eat the stupid crab cake without having to go to the hospital, but for some reason I really want to know...is it any good?

Posted by Nic at August 2, 2003 10:36 PM