Faidley’s Crab Balls

Baltimore, MD: Located someplace close to the downtown Baltimore Grand Prix, there’s a right and proper seafood place called Faidley’s Seafood.

My red-headed Capricorn buddy kept raving on and on about this place, and it was trial and error, mostly, error on my part for trying navigate down Baltimore during an event like the time trials for the Sunday race.

Got an East Coast tour, then walked over to the restaurant, which is more like a food stand.

The thing to get is the lump crab cake, either as a sandwich, or as an entree, or just a la carte. For splitting purposes? Get an entree and one al carte.

Legendary? Sure. Tourist trap? Not if the local color outweighs the obvious tourists twenty to one.

Worth the trip?

Yes.

I had a second crab ball, no idea why they’re called crab cakes, more like crab balls, in the motel room that night. Cold. Still delicious. It’s local crab meat, lump crab meat, saltine cracker crumbs, and special sauce.

Rather a remarkable culinary feat.

Because I’ll be on the Gulf Coast — the Third Coast — later in September, I tired a few of the fresh oysters.

They were okay, two good, and the third a little fishy, but the shucker was right there, so the oysters were fresh. Faidley’s Fresh Seafood.

I watched, bemused, as the shucks and his counter help exchanged jovial words with a leg-less man in a wheel chair.

“Don’t make me get up!”

There was that easy air of characters who knew each other.