Polydish city guide
Best Crab cake in Chicago
“Crab meat bound with bread crumbs, mayo, mustard, and egg—cooked your way, from any coast where crabs swim.”

What the real thing tastes like
A crab cake is a variety of fishcake popular in the United States. It is composed of crab meat and various other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard (typically prepared mustard, but sometimes mustard powder), eggs, and seasonings. It is then sautéed, baked, grilled, deep fried, or broiled. Crab cakes are traditionally associated with the Chesapeake Bay, in the state of Maryland. Although the earliest use of the term "crab cake" is commonly believed to date to Crosby Gaige's 1939 publication New York World's Fair Cook Book in which they are described as "Baltimore crab cakes," earlier usages can be found such as in Thomas J. Murrey's book Cookery with a Chafing Dish published in 1891. Crab cakes are particularly popular along the coast of the Mid-Atlantic where the crabbing industry thrives. They can also be commonly found in New England, the South Atlantic states, the Gulf Coast, the Pacific Northwest, and the Northern California coast. While meat from any species of
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A crab cake is a fishcake built on crab meat, bread crumbs, mayonnaise, mustard, and egg—bound together and cooked however you prefer: sautéed, baked, grilled, fried, or broiled. Rooted in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay waters since at least 1891, these cakes have spread along every American coast where crabbing thrives, each region favoring its local catch: blue crab in the Mid-Atlantic, Dungeness crab in the Pacific Northwest.
Order it here when it has
- blue crab traditionally superior
- widespread coastal availability
- flexible preparation methods
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