On a recent weekend, we set out to do what so many Marylanders do as soon as the weather gets hot: head out to a crab shack to feast on piles of hard shell blue crabs.

Cantler’s holds a place of honor among crab shacks. It’s so popular that it’s even included on nautical charts of the Chesapeake Bay – all the better for getting there by boat. Continue reading…

Certain hometown restaurants inspire a kind of mania among their fans. In New Orleans, that restaurant would be Mother’s, whose po’ boy gets raves from longtime patrons of the creole lunch counter. Go here and locals will give you one important instruction about that sandwich: “Make sure you get the debris.”

As with many recent additions to New Orleans patois, this one has a traceable history. When a customer asked for the shreds of roast beef from the pan on his po’ boy, original Mother’s owner Simon Landry responded, “You mean the debris?” A sandwich was born. Continue reading…

To answer the question that’s on everyone’s mind: yes, there is still excellent seafood to be had in New Orleans. Much of it is top quality shrimp, crawfish, blue crab, and much of it is local. Though National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has closed 60,000 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico to commercial fishing to date, 75 percent of federal waters are still safe for the shrimp and shrimpers that make their livelihood on the Gulf. As Food Safety News reports, all of the waters directly affected by the spill remained closed to commercial and recreational fishing, so no seafood from the region is at risk of oil contamination.

In other words, don’t add insult to injury by postponing or canceling a trip to Louisiana because of the oil spill. The kind folks down there will make sure you are extremely well fed during your visit. Shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, shrimp etouffee, shrimp remoulade and shrimp sandwiches are still on the menu. If there is excellent wild shrimp anywhere in the area (including Lake Pontchartrain), Louisianans will find it.

Americans also shouldn’t assume the impact of this disaster is limited to Gulf states. Nearly half the nation’s domestic seafood comes from the Gulf area, and every time BP fails to seal off the oil spill, the area of federal waters closed to commercial fishing increases. The longer-term impact on shrimp and fish lifecycles in the region is still unknown.

In the meantime, do what you can to support Gulf fishermen by buying wild-caught domestic shrimp – which have far less pollutants and do far less environmental damage than unregulated farmed or wild-caught shrimp from China, Mexico and other developing nations.

Buy wild domestic shrimp at Fresh Direct.

Future updates about the safety of Gulf seafood can be found here:

Food Safety News: Gulf Oil Spill

Life is grand at Galatoire’s, the century-old restaurant in the French Quarter, where ladies in hats and men in white linen jackets gather under the ceiling fans in the sunny, tile-floored interior for a lunch that stretches into the afternoon. An oasis of air-conditioned civility on rowdy Bourbon Street, Galatoire’s still requires men to wear jackets, even if the mercury’s pushing 95. It’s one of many ways that Galatoire’s hews to tradition, even as the rest of the world constantly changes.

One of the best windows into New Orleans food, Galatoire’s specializes in the remoulades and etouffees that give Creole cuisine its particular French-Southern twist. The crowd is largely local, and there’s lots of table hopping on the main floor. Service is genteel, efficient but unhurried. A recent lunch here began with a cocktail proffered up on a silver tray. Cocktail hour seemingly never ends in New Orleans: the bar here was full by 2 in the afternoon. Continue reading…

At this location on Royal Street in the French Quarter, prime tourist territory, Cafe Beignet could be serving stale doughnuts and watered-down coffee and still they’d make a profit. Fortunately, New Orleans’ pride in good food is evident even in this little cafe, which specializes in these addictive breakfast pastries.

Each beignet is about the size of your fist, so you’d be fine splitting an order of three for a meal in Cafe Beignet’s charming tree-lined side garden. A beignet isn’t exactly a doughnut, and it’s not exactly Italian zeppoli. Continue reading…