Forget Viagra. Eat Oysters. (No prescription required).

In Bawlmer, Hon, Crab is King

Jumbo lump’s the filet mignon

100 Things Every Foodie Should Do In Baltimore…#1…Have a jumbo lump crab cake from Faidley’s on a Saltine.

…the single greatest thing that must be eaten at the market - the most delicious dish in all of Baltimore, maybe the most beautiful hunk of seafood anywhere on the East Coast between Maine and Charleston Harbor - is a Faidley’s crab cake.

Faidley’s Crab Cakes are crusty on the outside and tender, moist, and packed with crab on the inside.

They’re plump, sweet beauties with large pieces of crab meat (“only jumbo lump,” says Nancy) and subtle seasoning (“I don’t like so much spice that it wipes out the crab flavor”). Every subsequent crab cake will be measured against hers.

You don’t sit at Faidley’s, you stand, leaning against waist high counters bolted to the old market’s floor. And in that position, you enjoy perhaps the best crab cake you’ll ever have the pleasure of eating.

When it comes to crab cakes,” Bill says, “chefs think they know what they’re doing. They jazz it up and ruin it. Nancy keeps it simple. She makes a special sauce using the best ingredients but won’t even tell me what’s in it.

….bigger than a baseball, smaller than a softball.

There are a lot of contenders in the Crab Cake wars, but if we must pick one - Just One - it would have to be FAIDLEY'S (1st place winner in "Best of Baltimore" '89 - '99.)

I researched carefully before declaring any crabcake the best in Baltimore which would automatically make it the best in the world. All others were forgotten however, the moment I tasted the "Big Lump" crabcake at J. W. Faidley in the lexington Market. Award Golden Dish "Best Dishes of '92".

"America's Best Sandwich"(2012), "Bazaar Foods"(2013), and "Seafood Paradise"(2013)

Winner of Food Network's 'Food Feuds" with Iron Chef Michael Simon(2010)

Featured in scenes in the Sundance Film Festival's winning motion picture "LUV" by Sheldon Candis (2013).