The Davis Family: No Electricity = Crabs

What to do when you have no power thanks to the hurricane? Meet up with your cousin and eat crabs! My cousin Ali and I had already had this Sunday lunch on the books for a few weeks. Well, when Irene decided to make her little visit to our area, we said, Naa-aah, you aren't going to make us cancel. So, on Sunday morning, Ali and her fiance Brian met up with Clint and me at a local Annapolis favorite, Cantler's. They are known for their hard crab. We had heard you might have to wait 2 hours to even get in the place. Well, not so on the day after the hurricane. We couldn't have picked a better time. *Note to Southerners like me who didn't know: When I say hard crab, I'm not talking about crab legs. No ma'am, I mean busting up the whole entire crab. This isn't just a meal, it's an event. Something that I have been told is a "Maryland thang." Apparently, hard crab in the Chesapeake is the equivalent to BBQ in the South. So of course I wanted to try it.

Thankfully, Ali had done this type of eating before and her instructions proved to be vital to my hard crab experience. Clint and Brian played it safe and ordered something else from the menu. Leave it to the girls to order the all-you-can-eat crab feast. Let me just tell you, it's not really all you can eat. It's more like all you can break open. Man, after the first 2 crab, I was getting sick and tired of cracking and hammering that puppy for only a few morsels of crab meat goodness. Final verdict: Give me the crab legs any day. I prefer not to have to beat out the guts and such. So much work for such little reward. Now I see why this is an "event." And my gracious, what a mess! However, so glad that I can say that I've do it now and won't look like a total idiot if I ever have to do it again. So glad I was with family!

Afterwards, we decided to take Ali and Brian our new favorite place, Menchies. You know Clint and I love any form of ice cream. Since this is frozen yogurt, we feel like we are saving ourselves a few calories. (Let's just overlook the fact that we top that yogurt with candy and sprinkles, m'kay!) This was a perfect ending to our meal since Ali and I were still a bit hungry. The amount of crab I consumed was more like an appetizer.

Thank you Ali and Brian for making the drive to our parts. Couldn't have been a better time!