Words on the menu
What a menu here says without explaining
20 words that turn up on Ocean City menus with no gloss beside them. The definitions are the regional canon, not a reading of our corpus; where a word is also something we counted, the count is one link away.
From 40 menus · How we read them
backfin
Body meat from a blue crab, in flakes rather than whole lumps. Cheaper than lump; the usual crab-cake grade.
Backfin is the flaked body meat of a blue crab, picked from the chambers behind the swimming legs. It is the grade most crab cakes and most crab dips are actually made from: it holds together, it takes seasoning, and it costs less than the whole lumps. A menu that says lump and a menu that says backfin are describing the same animal picked two different ways, and the price on the line is usually the clearest statement of which.
Read more: What is jumbo lump, and why does the menu say it?
benedict
Poached egg and hollandaise over something — the something is what each kitchen puts its name on.
A benedict is a poached egg and hollandaise sauce over a base, on a split muffin or a biscuit. The classic base is ham; in Ocean City the base is where the kitchens separate, and crab is the common local swap. It is a breakfast word rather than a dish name, which is why a menu prints four of them under one heading and expects you to read down the list for the difference.
blue crab
Callinectes sapidus, the Chesapeake crab. Unless a menu says snow or king, crab here means this one.
The blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, is the crab the Chesapeake fishery is built on and the one a Maryland menu means when it says crab without qualifying it. Snow crab and king crab are named because they are imported and different; blue crab is usually not named at all. It is sold steamed whole by the dozen, or picked into grades — lump, backfin, claw — that a kitchen then cooks into something else.
Read more: Where do I get steamed crabs, and how does all-you-can-eat work? · What is jumbo lump, and why does the menu say it?
Boh
National Bohemian beer, brewed in Baltimore from 1885. Also Natty Boh, after the one-eyed man on the can.
National Bohemian, brewed in Baltimore from 1885 and known everywhere in Maryland as Natty Boh or just Boh. The one-eyed moustached figure on the can has been the label's mark since the 1930s and is worn on the state as often as it is drunk. The brewing left Baltimore decades ago and the beer is made under contract elsewhere now, which Marylanders will tell you about at length and order anyway.
Read more: Why is it called a Boh?
crab imperial
Picked crab bound in a rich mayonnaise-and-egg sauce and baked, often back in a shell.
Crab imperial is picked crab meat folded into a rich binding sauce — mayonnaise, egg, mustard, sometimes sherry — and baked until it sets and browns. It is often served in a shell or a ramekin, and the same mixture appears on this coast as a topping, stuffed into fish or spooned over a steak. Where a crab cake is meant to hold its shape, an imperial is meant not to: the sauce is the point.
cream of crab
The cream-based crab soup, thick and pale. The other Maryland crab soup is the tomato one.
Cream of crab is the pale, thick, cream-and-butter crab soup, usually finished with sherry and a dusting of Old Bay. It is the counterpart to Maryland crab soup, which is tomato-based and full of vegetables, and a kitchen that serves both will offer them half and half in one bowl. Almost every kitchen on this coast makes one, which is why the interesting question is never whether but which.
Read more: Cream of crab or Maryland crab soup — what's the difference?
crush
Fresh-squeezed citrus, vodka, soda, over crushed ice. Credited to a Delaware bar in the 1990s.
A crush is fresh-squeezed citrus juice, vodka, and soda water poured over crushed ice — orange is the original, grapefruit the second. The drink is credited to Harborside Bar & Grill in West Ocean City, in the autumn of 1995, and spread along the coast from there; the Starboard in Dewey Beach is named too, and the claim is not settled. What makes it a crush rather than a screwdriver is that the fruit is squeezed to order, which is why bars here keep a juicer on the rail.
Delmarva
The peninsula — Delaware, and the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and Virginia. Ocean City sits on it.
Delmarva is the peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic: all of Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and the two Virginia counties at the southern tip. The name is a portmanteau of the three states and is used locally for everything from a highway to a poultry industry. On a menu it marks the regional canon — crab, Old Bay, scrapple, chicken — rather than a cuisine anyone would claim to have invented.
hush puppies
Cornmeal batter, dropped in the fryer and served alongside. Sweet in some kitchens, oniony in others.
Hush puppies are spoonfuls of seasoned cornmeal batter dropped straight into hot fat and fried into rough balls. They come alongside fried fish and crab, and the recipe divides sharply between sweet ones and ones built on onion and black pepper. The name has half a dozen origin stories, all of them about quieting a dog with a scrap of fried batter, and none of them documented.
jumbo lump
The two whole swimming-leg muscles of a blue crab. The largest pieces, and the dearest.
Jumbo lump is the pair of large, whole muscles that drive a blue crab's swimming legs — two per crab, which is the whole reason for the price. The pieces are white, intact and shaped, and a kitchen that pays for them will fold them in as gently as it can and print the words on the menu so you know why the crab cake costs what it does. Break jumbo lump up and you have made backfin at four times the cost.
Read more: What is jumbo lump, and why does the menu say it?
lump
Broken pieces of the crab's large body muscles — smaller than jumbo lump, still whole pieces.
Lump is the grade below jumbo lump: broken pieces of the large body muscles, still in recognisable chunks rather than flakes. It is the compromise grade, and it is what most kitchens mean when the menu says lump without the jumbo. The grading is done at the picking house, not the restaurant, so a menu word here is a purchasing decision the kitchen made months earlier.
Read more: What is jumbo lump, and why does the menu say it?
Maryland crab soup
The tomato one: vegetables, crab, Old Bay, and often a beef stock underneath.
Maryland crab soup is the tomato-and-vegetable crab soup, seasoned with Old Bay and usually built on a beef or vegetable stock rather than a fish one. It is the other half of the pair with cream of crab, and the two are commonly sold half and half in one bowl. What is in it beyond crab, tomato and corn varies by kitchen, which is ordinary for a soup that started as a way of using what was already in the pot.
Read more: Cream of crab or Maryland crab soup — what's the difference?
Old Bay
The celery-salt-and-paprika spice blend, made in Baltimore since 1939. On crabs, fries, and rims.
Old Bay is a spice blend of celery salt, paprika, mustard and pepper, made in Baltimore since 1939 and now owned by McCormick. It is the seasoning steamed crabs are packed in, and it has spread from there onto fries, chicken, corn, potato chips and the rim of a glass. Maryland uses it as a regional signature rather than as one seasoning among several, which is why a menu can print the two words and stop.
rockfish
Striped bass, as Maryland names it. The state fish, and a regulated catch.
Rockfish is what Maryland calls striped bass, Morone saxatilis — the state fish, and the Chesapeake's most closely managed one. The fishery was closed outright through the second half of the 1980s and reopened under quota, so a rockfish on a menu here is a seasonal and regulated thing rather than a standing item. It is a firm white fish, usually broiled or blackened rather than fried.
scrapple
Pork scraps and cornmeal set into a loaf, sliced and fried. A Delmarva breakfast meat.
Scrapple is pork trimmings and broth thickened with cornmeal and buckwheat, seasoned, set into a loaf and left to firm. It is sliced and fried until the outside crusts and the inside stays soft, and it is eaten at breakfast, usually beside eggs. Pennsylvania Dutch in origin and thoroughly Delmarva in practice: on this peninsula it sits on a breakfast menu next to bacon and sausage without any explanation offered.
Read more: What is scrapple?
Smith Island cake
Maryland's state dessert: eight to ten thin yellow layers under cooked chocolate icing.
Smith Island cake is eight to ten very thin yellow layers stacked under a cooked chocolate icing that sets firm rather than staying fluffy. It comes from Smith Island in the Chesapeake, where the story is that the thin layers and the cooked icing travelled better on the oyster boats. Maryland named it the state dessert in 2008. It is sold by the slice on this coast far more often than it is baked here.
Read more: What is Smith Island cake?
soft shell
A blue crab caught just after moulting, eaten whole — shell, legs and all.
A soft shell is a blue crab taken in the short window after it has moulted and before the new shell hardens, so the whole animal is eaten: cleaned, floured, and fried or sautéed, usually in a sandwich with the legs hanging over the bread. The season runs from roughly May into September and depends on the moult, not the calendar, which is why menus print it as a market item rather than a fixture.
Read more: Soft shell crab: what am I eating?
steamed crabs
Whole blue crabs steamed in Old Bay, sold by the dozen or all-you-can-eat, eaten with a mallet.
Steamed crabs are whole blue crabs cooked over water and vinegar under a heavy coat of Old Bay, dumped onto brown paper and picked apart at the table with a mallet and a knife. They are sold by the dozen, graded by size, or as all-you-can-eat by the hour, and the price moves with the catch — which is why a crab house menu so often prints market price rather than a number. It is a meal that takes two hours and leaves both hands seasoned.
Read more: Where do I get steamed crabs, and how does all-you-can-eat work?
Thrasher's fries
Boardwalk fries in a paper bucket, salted, no ketchup on the counter. Vinegar is the condiment.
Thrasher's has sold fries on the Ocean City boardwalk since 1929, in paper buckets, salted, with apple cider vinegar to shake over them. The stand famously does not put ketchup on the counter, which is the detail everyone repeats and the reason a vinegar bottle stands where one would be. Boardwalk fries elsewhere on this coast are an imitation of a specific stand rather than a general style.
Read more: Why doesn't Thrasher's have ketchup?
vinegar
On fries, apple cider vinegar, shaken from a bottle — the boardwalk condiment here, in place of ketchup.
Vinegar on the boardwalk means apple cider vinegar shaken over a bucket of fries from a bottle on the counter. The habit is old and local, tied to Thrasher's, and it is offered rather than assumed: a stand that keeps vinegar out and ketchup back is telling you which tradition it is in. Malt vinegar does the same job beside fried fish and appears on menus here as a slaw dressing too.