Food Pilgrimage: The Quest for the Baltimore Crab Cake that Got Away

Baltimore locals are quick to expound on their city's highlights: first-rate museums like the Walters Art Museum, the Inner Harbor and the Super Bowl-winning Ravens. Still, some residents would argue that Charm City's greatest point of pride is a more savory entity: crab cakes. This waterfront city on the Chesapeake Bay loves a good crab dish. Yet, while living in Baltimore for four years while studying at Loyola University in the 1990s, I never ate a crab cake.