post #10

     As a Senior in college, I've been in Baltimore for a long time at this point. I've been to an incredible amount of restaurant. I've even worked in a few of them. From my time working in these places, I've gathered that people native to Baltimore are far different than the New Yorkers I grew up around. 

    The worst place I ever worked was a crab house just North of Baltimore. I'm told that their crabs were voted "the best in Maryland" but from what I could tell, those crabs came from the same ocean as all the others. There wasn't anything particularly special about them at all. 

    Conrad's Crabs may not have been special, but it sure was famous. The place was filled to the brim with people every day trying to get their crabs before we ran out for the day. I could never get over the barbaric method used to cook the crabs. Throwing live animals in a steaming tank and closing the lid just seems so heartless to me. 

    The physical features of a crab are incredibly interesting. I never knew they were a light blue color before they were cooked. They're also incredibly aggressive before they're thrown into the steamer. I remember prepping the crabs to be cooked. I had to wear thick rubber gloves to prevent them from snipping my fingers off. 

    The two types of crab served in Maryland is just the normal kind, and the soft shell kind. The soft shell crabs are just crabs that have recently molted their shells. My heart really broke when I saw how those had to be prepared. They had their bottom half sawed off with a serrated knife, then their sides lifted off and their lungs trimmed out of their body. That had to be done because apparently their lungs explode in the deep fryer. That could potentially burn the chef. 

    Personally, I had never even tasted crab before. And I'm still slightly confused about why Maryland has an obsession with them. Every beach town up and down the East coast has crabs. However, I must admit that they do taste alright.

    I can remember the first time I tried one. I was working the register when I causally brought up to the person next to me that I had never tasted a crab before. They invited that I eat a crab leg smothered in butter while I was on duty.

    As unappetizing as the gross dangling leg looked, There was no way I was going to wimp out in front of all my co-workers. I took the meat out of the crab shell and popped it in my mouth. I chewed and swallowed as fast as I could. As I chewed, images of the crabs squirming in their giant metal pots as they slowly cooked to death played in my head.

 "That's fine I guess" I said to the worker who made me try it. I inquired why it was a big deal, and if he even like them. He quickly retorted that he was an Orthodox Jew, and he would never dare to go against his religion by eating the filthy bottom feeder. Why would he make me try it if he never had? 

    At the end of the day I truly get it. Crabs are amazing when you smother them in enough butter and salt. I can see myself eating them in the future, just not when I'm the one preparing them.