MARYLAND: Crab Feast

The crab feast, a banquet unique to the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, is a royal mess. Hard-shelled blue crabs, steamed in a kaleidoscope of spice, are presented as a great pile dumped onto a brown-paper tablecloth. It is the eater's job to retrieve the meat by using pick and mallet (and plenty of napkins). But oh, what delicious meat it is! Soft and sweet, yet laced with the Maryland spice mix of peppers, mustard, and mace, it is as addictive as food can be. At SeaSide Restaurant and Crab House, a big, boisterous place in the Baltimore suburb of Glen Burnie that's always heaps of fun, you buy them by the dozen and toss shells and debris into paper bags on the floor. The only proper beverage is cold Blue Moon beer on tap—and plenty of it.

SeaSide Restaurant and Crab House
224 North Crain Highway
Glen Burnie, Maryland
Tel: 410 760 2200
Open for lunch and dinner daily (11 a.m. to 11 p.m.)