St. Michaels & Crabs '08

Remember last year when I talked about the St. Michael's summer weekend getaway? I decided to revisit that concept, this time with Mr. Roganista and instead of a luxe farm cum water front estate, we decided to see St. Michaels as the tourist do. It was actually pretty fun...until I dropped my camera in a bowl of clam juice at the famous Crab Claw restaurant while snapping pictures of my food. Yeah, that's right, I'm grace incarnate.

According to Mr. Roganista, who used to swing by St. Michaels on sailing jaunts as a boy, it used to be a sleepy little fishing town with chain linked fences and true bucolic charm. Nowadays it's more stylized rustic with swooshy little bistros (Bistro St. Michael's) and updated gourmet ice cream shops (Justine's). But what still remains the same is the Crab Claw restaurant, where you can pick at crabs and other local delights in your flip flops and t-shirt. It's classy, in the CASH ONLY and tour bus kind of way, but it's fun. Reserve a seat outside on the deck/dock, and you can see all the recreational boats coming in.

So "crab pickin" is an art, apparently. You are bound to get messy and sticky. However, Mr. Roganista has his own technique for staying relatively tidy while dismembering the little creatures. He diligently picks all the meat out of crabs and puts it on a plate like a sort of salad to be eaten with a fork(!), after being sprinkled with a little Old Bay and malt vinegar. Most people (e.g. me and everyone else) just hammer at the claws (as you can hear in the background of the video below), break the shell and suck at the meat. Lest you do it like Mr. R, be prepared for a mess (and a broken camera).

Sittin on the dock of a bay...waiting for crabs...

Classic crab acoutrements: Old Bay, malt vinegar, and butter

Mr. Roganista demonstrates the art of crab picking (forgive the poor videography):

We also got a bucket of little neck clams...

...you can use butter or clam juice (this is the last picture I got before my camera went in the bowl (and stopped working altogether))

St. Michaels is a great getaway, just 2 hours from DC... a little touristy in the summertime, but fun if you want to experience Maryland's bounty.