Where do you get your crab meat?

I was just discussing (okay, tweeting) about getting ready to make a crabcake from an old handwritten & hand-pasted family cookbook from my my mother's Great Aunt Florence, who died long before I was born. I was noting just how happy I am to have actual Chesapeake Bay crab meat to use. It's not so easy to find these days. Usually in Giant, I am lucky to find a tub that doesn't say "Packaged in China/Thailand/Indonesia" on the bottom.

So that led to the poll on the right, under the photo: where does YOUR crab meat come from? I try my best to only use Chesapeake Bay crab meat - for me, as long as it's from Maryland or Virginia, I'm happy (yes, Virginia - it is the same Bay). North Carolina is close enough to work when our crabs aren't in season, and the Tar Heels seem to prefer theirs to the ones from Virginia & Maryland, bless their hearts. (In fairness, I'd be saying the same thing about Chesapeake Bay crabs if I were from North Carolina - the local crab is always the favorite!)

The poll closes at the end of the day on August 2 (coinciding with the looming default on our nation's credit, by the way). You can choose multiple answers.

Baltimore Magazine's Best Restaurant of 2010 Poll

Baltimore Magazine has its poll up for the Best Restaurants for 2010. I'm voting now but y'all have until 11:59PM on January 15 to vote. So vote!

And stay tuned for my annual wrap-up of the year in food and restaurants, from my little neck of the woods.

City Paper Reader's Po... Hey, where the hell is it?

Maybe I'm slow, but it took me five minutes to find the City Paper Reader's Poll on their website. I guess they really want you to do it by snail mail after all. Screw that! Save a tree and do it here. But hurry: you only have until tomorrow. There's a whole food section.. There's also a favorite local blog section, but I'm not going to shamelessly plug. Most of you would probably nominate yourselves anyway :D

Listen to this post as an MP3

Memorial Day Poll: Charcoal, Propane or Me?

Are you a propane purist like Hank Hill, going for that smooth, even burn that only gas can give? Or do you think a real man (or woman) passes up that wussy propane for the drier heat and heartier flavor that only charcoal can give? Or maybe you'd rather just go to McDonald's? Each camp has its plusses. Propane is easy to use, though charcoal really imparts a nice flavor (that and I'm writing while someone outside is grilling with it). Then again, you can always just use an electric grill if you do all your grilling inside (here's Adam at the Amateur Gourmet talking about the ins and outs of indoor grillin').

What do y'all think? I'm firmly in the charcoal camp to be honest, but that's me. So, charcoal, propane, electric, or what? And if you're just having a Soyjoy - eww - this Memorial Day coming up, weigh in anyway. Whatever you do though, do it by the 31st. That's when the poll closes.

BTW: the results of the last poll are up: with 46 people voting (or 46 different votes), the broiled crowd wins in a landslide with almost 2/3 of all votes cast.

Bawlamorons clearly prefer 'em broiled

With just three days left in my "fried vs broiled" poll, it looks like a devastating loss is in the works for the fried crowd:


I added color to some of the words to make them visible. (Why the super-light gray?) And all this time - especially after listening to Henry Hong on the Dan Rodericks Show on WYPR a few weeks ago - I was under the impression that fried was really the preferred way to eat 'em in the Baltimore area.

Fried? Broiled? You Decide!

So far it's a pretty even match-up. Out of fourteen people, ten issued a preference for crab cakes so far, and it's split 50-50 down the middle as to whether or not people like 'em fried or broiled. Another person says either/or. It must also be noted that two people think crab is nasty (oh, maybe they misinterpreted what "crab" meant), and one guy doesn't even know what I'm talking about.

Further input? Feel free to put yours in! The poll ends in ten more days.

Most Voters Agree: Jenn Got the Shaft

10 out of 16 voters agree: Jenn's asparagus was not enough to send her home last week. To wit:


You can't see it because it's in really light gray letters, but it says that there were a total of 16 votes. Of course, unless something happens to one of the remaining contestants this week, that's still the last of Jennifer.

Next poll I put will be pretty self-explanatory. It's up for two weeks.

Poll: Who Should Have Stayed?

I'm trying out Blogger's poll function. Here I pose a Top Chef-related question: which of the first seven contestants voted out of the windy city should have stuck around? Your choices are to the left, and you may choose more than one. Vote once and maybe more! I am genuinely curious to see if anyone truly cares :)