Best Ever Cream of Crab Soup

If you live in the mid-Atlantic region, you know that summer means blue crab season. One of our favorite ways to enjoy crab is in soup, weather it’s Maryland Crab, She Crab or Cream of Crab. If you’re traveling on the Eastern Shore this Summer or Fall make sure you stop in Easton, MD and have lunch at Legal Spirits Tavern (next to the Avalon Theatre) and have a bowl of the best ever Shore Boys Cream of Crab soup.

What: Jumbo lump crab meat, butter (lots), sherry, cream, old bay seasoning, etc.

Why It’s The Best:  For starters the soup contains a lot of crab meat, which is key.  Too many restaurants focus on the cream and skimp on the crab... it needs to be ALL about the taste of fresh lump crab.  Second, the soup has a nice consistency and it's not "starchy" which can also be the downfall of a good bowl of soup.  Finally, you can taste the sherry and a hint of old bay seasoning, which blend wonderfully with all of the other ingredients in the soup.  For us, the right balance of sherry in a cream based soup is test for a greatness...winner -- Shore Boys! 

How We Know:  We've tried cream of crab soups up and down the east coast.  She Crab soup in the "Low Country comes close, but no one does Cream of Crab as well as the Shore Boys.   If you need more proof read the reviews at TripAdvisors.

Craving Level: Weekly, bordering on daily.  The great news is that you can order the soup on line.  The bad news is that it's an expensive treat...you have to pay almost as much in shipping as you do for the soup.  It's worth a road trip to get it, and Easton is a nice get-away weekend location.

Best Conch Chowder Ever!

This summer we vacationed on the island of Turks & Caicos (TCI). Looking through the comments from previous guests (left in the guest journal of the home we rented),we noticed numerous references to Da Conch Shack as one of the highlights of vacationers' time on the island. Being the curious "foodies" that we are, we had to check it out.

What : Queen conch, vegetables, peppers (most likely habanera) in a fish and tomato based stock.

Why it’s the Best – freshness really counts in seafood, and it's no exception with conch. Old conch can take on a rubbery texture and lose its flavor. The conch in this chowder is tender and delicious. The chowder itself had a great balance of flavors and just the right hint of spiciness. It didn’t try to overwhelm the dish which we’ve run into a few times at other island restaurants.

We also sampled conch in about every other way imaginable; fritters, stir fried, even curried, and we weren't impressed. The conch is fresh and best eaten in soup or in fritters...in our opinion.

How we know – because we literally watched our meal go from the ocean to our plate...our soup bowl in this case. Plus, everyone in the guest book said so! Of course, the Rum Bar could of had something to do with it as well.

Interesting side note, conch fishing in the US waters and territories (the Keys, U S Virgins Island, etc.) is banned. Most restaurant conch is farm raised and Turks & Caicos is one of the largest exporters of Queen conch in the carribean. If you get a chance to go to TCI book a charter to go conch diving. Conch also makes a great salad (actually, it tastes more like delicious lime/jalepeno/cilantro salsa).

Craving Level: YEARLY (only because we're being realists, and don't own a private jet to take us there more often!).

Review & Directions: TripAdvisor