Our never-ending education about crabs, crab cakes and the Chesapeake Bay continues at Faidleyโs Seafood in Lexington Market where Bill Cole and Damye Hahn discuss local business and what goes into making your crab cake taste great this summer in Maryland.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
crab cake, crab, maryland, people, deviled eggs, good, taste, love, fried, place, talk, trash truck, crab meat, tour, baltimore, costas, delicious, told, meat, restaurant
SPEAKERS
Bill Cole, Damye Hahn, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome back, WN st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive weโre positively doing the Maryland crabcake tour. Weโre fade Leeโs at the world famous Lexington Mark I love where you position me your name because I can look out and see since 1782. So I know how long itโs been here since since 1990 and Cole roofing, no call was here. Itโs all brought to you by our friends Maryland lottery. Bill has number 18 year hasnโt scratched yet, but Marty Garyโs gonna get one. Heโs gonna talk fish here later on. And Iโve got lottery tickets giveaway all summer long. Weโre gonna be a Cocoโs in two weeks. Weโre going to be at Shannonโs at Hale Thorpe soon. Weโre going to be a Costas on the third celebrating 25 years and drug city on the fourth. Celebrating 25 years in just a month. Fourth of July weekend fish fishing the bay, Lexington market city and crabcakes bilkul of course sponsors all of our community stuff here. So you had ever had
Bill Cole 00:56
Baltimore City Public Schools trash truck drive by okay. Why does Baltimore City nevermind? Why does Baltimore City Public Schools
Damye Hahn 01:05
have a trash truck separately than the other trash trucks? Yeah, have no
Bill Cole 01:10
sense to anyone we should Iโm gonna investigate this
Nestor Aparicio 01:12
show he takes looking out the window.
Bill Cole 01:16
Looking at it. What kind of truck is that? Oh, itโs a trash truck. Okay,
Nestor Aparicio 01:20
trying to promote her crabcake. He taught me so hereโs so hereโs the
Bill Cole 01:23
hereโs the observation I just made. So I never really order crabcakes when I go anywhere, this is not a thing
Nestor Aparicio 01:30
is when I was telling you the last segment Iโm in New York, why would I think if you I was I was thinking you were saying you should hold the meetup to New York. Iโm thinking I wouldnโt know whatโs in a crabcake. And I would never order it.
Damye Hahn 01:41
Yeah, theyโre not shipping that much up there now. Okay, so Iโm not
Bill Cole 01:45
even Iโm not even necessarily referring to like, I definitely wouldnโt do it out of Maryland, right. But even in Maryland is just like, if Iโm picking that was never really my pick, youโll take a steak, youโll take a pork chop, take workshops, I love a good portrait. But my assumption is, is that if, if somewhere earlier in my life, I would have experienced this crabcake I would continue to search for that. And I would order it all the time. Thinking that itโs going to be as wonderful as this was, Iโd be disappointed every time. But that experience so you have one earlier in your life, and youโre not all that excited about it goes down the list. Like Iโll tell you good pork chop every day, you know? And now Iโm like, No, I understand
Damye Hahn 02:30
now even chat GPT said if you have one place to get a crab cake, it would be fadeless
Bill Cole 02:36
doesnโt really that is awesome. We have more
Damye Hahn 02:41
material out there.
Bill Cole 02:42
That is why stop on my son is currently doing a research project around a eyes interpretation of economic models. So I guess the theory is like, like if Chechi Beatty is going to give you advice somehow related to the economy. Whatโs the backstory that itโs right data is built on? Right? So heโs gonna love when I tell him that itโs picking the crabcake location and that I mean, thatโs just such life,
Nestor Aparicio 03:12
champ, etc. If youโre gonna listen to one radio show in Baltimore, itโs got to be mine.
Damye Hahn 03:16
Right, right. Well see, and apparently, the AI model doesnโt use advertising. So itโs got to be itโs got to be organic material. Itโs got to be people saying, or how many articles or whatever? Yeah, exactly. It canโt be how many top ads you bought, I
Nestor Aparicio 03:34
think I told you this. I told him this was before we were on the air. I lived downtown for 20 years, 19 years. And I probably was in here three times a year, eating your crabcake because three times a year, her father would come to town or and not that I wouldnโt take them out to the suburbs to a place or whatever. But living downtown. They want to walk somewhere they want to go to a game, whatever. You are the only place I would take literally the only place that Iโd say weโre gonna walk through an old market. Weโre gonna youโre gonna see fried chicken, weโre gonna get a crab cake. Thatโs why weโre taking you and people weโre always weโve always walked to the front and come up through the market. I never I didnโt know this door was here till five years ago. Honestly, I just know. Iโm not from the west side. Why would I enter from the west side or from the east side? So
Damye Hahn 04:16
because thatโs where the parking lot is.
Nestor Aparicio 04:19
All these years and I never really put is it Friday is embroiled what makes it so good. Whatโs in it? Whatโs the slurry until, you know, five, six years ago, I started doing the show here every month and then the economy went boom and Trump in the city and the EpiPen like all that and Iโm like the crabcake tour. The interesting part of it is you can explore everywhere nobodyโs gonna do it your way because your ways like your way. Like I mean literally. You got pissed at somebody because they had a familyโs name on their crabcake they
Damye Hahn 04:49
did it in a restaurant. We went to a restaurant.
Nestor Aparicio 04:52
Listen to this. This is an amazing story. Dude. We went
Damye Hahn 04:55
to a very nice white tablecloth restaurant in Charleston, out there just outside Did Charles sit on Kiawah Island? And we sit down, thereโs eight of us we sit down, open the menu. And it says, families families famous jumbo lump crab cakes. That was their, their, their, the top of their?
Bill Cole 05:16
Were they ordering them and you shipping them to the right. So itโs homage. Right? Right, except the hangers here doing
Damye Hahn 05:27
exactly what I want to ship.
Bill Cole 05:31
You could have done a decent
Nestor Aparicio 05:33
crabcake or was
Damye Hahn 05:34
decent crabcake. But it wasnโt ours. And apparently the chef had come up here fell in love with ours and then wanted to mimic it. But I, as I told the manager, it was funny because a friend of mine had a fatal t shirt on. And were you sitting there and the the he said to the waiters, the waiter came over, he says, I think we might have a little problem. And the waiter looks down looks at the shirt and goes, Oh, Iโll get the manager. So I did I said I said Iโm very flattered. You know, and once again, Iโm very flattered. But we do have some trademark issues here. You canโt just use our name and not have our product. So they they did take it off the next day. But it was interesting that somebody was actually trying to get away with that.
Bill Cole 06:26
And they didnโt do the deal just to keep it now get them
Damye Hahn 06:30
no show. No, they put Maryland style on there. I think
Nestor Aparicio 06:33
Yeah. Well, this is where I want to bring you because Marty Garyโs gonna be here. I donโt even know his title. Heโs the fish guy around here, the seafood guy out on the waters. And you will talk so much about True Blue and Maryland crab. And you sent me all over the state two summers ago doing the crab cake tour. And there were places that had true blue in the window. And there were places that didnโt. There are places that sell famous crab cakes here in this area in this region. When the minute I taste the meat. Not only is it not Maryland, itโs not even the same species of crab. Right. And we talked about this, that some places can serve a softball crab cake for 1695 and have these big things of lump. But thatโs
Bill Cole 07:14
that stuff they call crab stick. Youโre telling me no, no, no, no, no. Thatโs not Maryland crab.
Damye Hahn 07:20
There is a you know, I even heard some people using fish but most of it is either from the like the west coast of Mexico, and all the way over to Asia, Indonesia, like a Philips as a packing plant in Indonesia. It is a blue swimmer crab. It is not a blue crab. So theyโre theyโre two different species. And they taste different. Yes. And that and theyโre an ocean crab it gets bigger. Our crabs never get that big. Not anymore. Weโre between everything thatโs eating them in the Chesapeake Bay and us eating them. They never get that large. So weโre not getting any colossal lump this
Nestor Aparicio 08:02
collage go out on that we donโt have any way there will be no way in the world that Maryland and our bay and our tributaries could possibly produce crabs that you could have a Maryland crab cake in other places. And you are very specific and youโre in when you get a crab cake youโre in December when itโs out of season, which a billion people do. Iโd have Bruce Zimmerman is like a nephew to her pitcher for the Oreos. I came in here with a mask on two years ago. Heโs at that table stuffing boxes. Sure heโs helping him pack boxes because they do so much shipping the whole pasteurization process Iโve learned so much about this, but just growing up and thrown up a chicken neck off the pier over back river over in the you know, over in Dundalk on a Bear Creek which I did when I was a kid and a little cages to catch crabs. We just grew up with it we think itโs every itโs so special. Tonyโs so special and it needs to be hugged specially to yes yes
Damye Hahn 09:03
and we only have this short six months season if that you know itโs determined by the Department of Natural Resources each year you know when we can take the first crab out when the first crab you know the last crab can be pulled and itโs highly regulated. And and for good reason. But it makes it that much more special. Because we canโt get it 365 days a year. Thatโs why I told you thereโs pasteurization, thereโs blast freezing. Thereโs other ways that we collect up crab through the fall to make sure that we can put some in each one and then the rest is you know from the Gulf and even the tip of Venezuela, which is the same species.
Nestor Aparicio 09:44
So when I see Venezuelan meat I know enough to know thatโs the same species same crab so they will chase the same because of the Saleen ation of our water or the brackish waters we have we
Damye Hahn 09:56
have if you look at our aircrafts are sweeter yeah and you look At our cat Cana crab meat, you look at a Venezuelan Canada Venezuelan Canadaโs completely white, and washed and arcane. Canadaโs full of fat and eggs and everything else. You got the orange and the yellow and the green running through it. And thatโs what gives it all the flavor.
Nestor Aparicio 10:13
Especially the orange a better time now. The orange Yeah, the orange is where you get it.
Bill Cole 10:17
My impression is that, like, no one pretty much knows anything that we just talked about, like a lot of donโt understand.
Nestor Aparicio 10:25
Thatโs why I do this.
Bill Cole 10:26
Right. Okay. But my real question from the business standpoint is do they care?
Damye Hahn 10:31
They do when they taste it. Itโs amazing. My mom, itโs her favorite thing to sit in here. And we get probably 70% of our businesses tourism. Because, again, they get on the internet. They say okay, this is authentic Baltimore, weโre coming here. We will get people from Russia. And then you got people sitting next to him from England. And then you got people from all over the country. Theyโre bringing their families in there. Theyโre driving up and down the coast and they literally come off and 95 come in here.
Nestor Aparicio 11:00
Iโve rarely been in here and honest to god, I usually leave here at lunchtime 1212 31 oโclock to get out of your way. Wrap it up. I have rarely been in here when I havenโt seen somebody bring a roller bag in here. Yes.
Damye Hahn 11:16
So they do they just Uber from the airport, which is another reason why I chose Gainesville. Because itโs so close to the airport for and the tourism is is so important to our business. But they will come in here and they will have one of these and they just go oh my god. This is what itโs supposed to be. This is what itโs supposed to taste like. Yeah.
Nestor Aparicio 11:36
And what about you man? These are consistent crabcakes
Damye Hahn 11:39
thatโs another thing you know Nancyโs that for consistency. You have to keep it the same. You have to keep
Nestor Aparicio 11:45
Iโve never had a crab cake and it didnโt taste exactly the same as the last time I was in here. Even the way you cook it I tried to get you to cook a little more because I like a little crispier
Damye Hahn 11:53
and we say no.
Bill Cole 11:56
Sorry, so do you. In the idea of competitors. Thereโs all these other places that make crab cakes so people are buying crab cakes there instead of here. What is a? I guess a bigger limited limiting factor for you. Other people selling crab cakes or the fact that crab cakes are a premium item and only so many people can afford to eat crab cakes.
Damye Hahn 12:21
You know? It never bothers us that other people are selling crab cakes. Everybody is going to you know have their own flair and do what they do. And nobody can feed everybody. You know, McDonaldโs canโt give everybody a burger. But I donโt think when people come in here they will especially because a lot of it is tourists. They will splurge. The locals have to you know the locals will come in here and weโve got people that will come in here once a week. Weโve got people come in here once a month. And they will splurge for it because they know the difference they know when they taste it they know what theyโre getting. They know the quality
Nestor Aparicio 13:02
and youโd have a really hard time replicating this at home because the slurries just I know itโs got some kind of mustard in it but thatโs what you
Damye Hahn 13:07
can buy that I can sell you the we sold 695 I have
Nestor Aparicio 13:12
my thoughts come get yours. Yeah, people think about me crab and made a crab cake at home since this tour started. I literally I have to. I was given one pound of crab meat by Chad the crab man down at Alโs in Essex at the end of the crab cake the end of the end of the crab cake tour two years ago and we we took it he had a television gig. So we had a whole like couple pounds of meat. I dumped it in crab soup. Itโs the only crab meat Iโve had. Oh my wife made a thing. That was cool. It was the best vat of crab soup ever. I had to put the kitchen sink in. There was cabbage in there. There was bacon in there. There was okra in there and it was peas in it are green beads and air is white corn
Bill Cole 13:57
Arab suit. What he just described is not crab soup. Just want to clarify
Damye Hahn 14:03
a crab sounds wonderful.
Bill Cole 14:05
Sounds delicious, but it is not. Well I think the differentiators the bacon. Yeah, right right. If you put bacon in your crab soup is no longer crabs
Damye Hahn 14:17
on eastern shore they used they would use the Smithfield salty ham you Sophie Hamza, and the little chunks of salt.
Nestor Aparicio 14:27
It has to have a big ham hawk or smoke thing to it that no smoking. Trust me
Damye Hahn 14:33
down on the eastern shore that the salty Ham was a big thing.
Nestor Aparicio 14:35
I want to tell you what my mother would make you bilkul you donโt know whatโs good.
Bill Cole 14:41
No, this is not. This is not a determination about good versus not good. Itโs about where you talked about crafting. trueness, right legitimate thatโs thatโs the debate Iโm having. And, and Iโm not like I donโt really I canโt comment on that. All right. So
Damye Hahn 15:00
and hereโs the other thing he learned room temperature is good. You get more flights or
Nestor Aparicio 15:05
her mom gave me a whole lecture about not too far not overheating. This is a leftover remnants of whatโs left and youโd say, well, we made this crabcake 3040 minutes ago. Itโs room temperature. I let me heat it up for it. No, no. It tastes better when itโs cold. Not cold room temperature, you chase, you actually taste the Christ. Because I drink in a stout or a red wine. You know, you wouldnโt want the red wine chilled because the flavor would be different. Right? And although I do love them, fry, you know this about me you have any more questions for Jamie? Because I love when you host the show because you think of things that ask I donโt think I learned stuff.
Damye Hahn 15:45
After I got him. I do want to say one thing after I got you to try the oysters. Now youโre going to do an oyster oyster tour.
Nestor Aparicio 15:52
Are you open in spirit? Yes. You ever met when
Bill Cole 15:55
he admitted heโs gonna do that? Listen,
Nestor Aparicio 15:57
you asked her about the competitive thing. And I gotta stay in business too. And I do business with Costas Pappas places around town. Itโs fine. I move around. Sheโs the one who inspired all of this because people would ask me all the time. Whatโs your favorite crab cake or the best crab cake and she knows this. You go to the east side of town. Thereโs going to be a whole lot more old bayonet crab cake. Itโs just going to be a little itโs going to be salt here. It leans more toward my parents making claw meat fried like little hockey pucks. I had Rick Vaughn on the show last week. And one of my favorite crab cakes is the one that tastes like my motherโs which was the press box at Memorial Stadium. They had a fryer and they fry them and they were like little hot the same crab cakes. You got it the Leaning Tower pizza behind home plate with a little fried crab cakes and mustard packets right? Delicious. Not this right but delicious. Right? Thereโs a place in Annapolis. Itโs a Paul Davis is Paul. And they serve that crab cake. Thatโs not this. Itโs totally different. Itโd be like saying I want a teriyaki steak or I want a garlic pepper. Itโs the same thing but itโs not the same. And because of her and this and people asking me to which oneโs your favorite. Iโm like, go eat them all right, so thatโs kind of to me as the crabcake tour. Iโm like Iโm eating Mo and Mike dude spirits west now the look exalt like fade these or whatever put, you know, be hard on grading your crab cake. Itโs delicious, right? Itโs your family recipe right? You know who screwed all this up? Zimmermanโs the one that really beat he and I have had a fight on YouTube. Gary Vaynerchuk was witness to this. Zimmern and I got my crab cakes. No, it was it was actually Santonio Holmes worse than than Vaynerchuk have a stealer. Santonio Holmes was in this conversation. And I said to Zimmer and Iโm from Maryland this before I did the crabcake tour, and he I think he plugged you I think he might have plugged Costas too. I lost my head. He plugged some places in town. Pretty say thereโs only one way to make a crab only one way or the and then thatโs crabcake and Iโm like, Dude, stop. Youโre acting like a guy on TV. Thereโs never been a Marilyn. Itโs a billion ways. Itโs like you piss it on my crap shoot. Whatโs wrong with you? Itโs whatโs delicious.
Bill Cole 18:14
I know that youโre not youโre
Damye Hahn 18:15
not listening. Itโs just not true. I use fire
Nestor Aparicio 18:18
to traditional if it is tradition, roasted tomatoes or my craps you present to Gucci for you?
Bill Cole 18:24
Yes, that does. Like no, no, remember what we started with? Remember where we started? We started from this humble beginnings right? This humble beginning of using the resources that were available to us to make something out of something that we might not have even used otherwise. Yes, and
Nestor Aparicio 18:42
youโre this you like saying that my mother making the fried crab cake with the crappy crab meat is the only way the rest of my life Donโt
Damye Hahn 18:51
be dissing the claw meat. I love the claw meat
Bill Cole 18:53
me too. I know. I love swing again. Thatโs thatโs legitimate. Right? Thatโs thatโs your universe. Thatโs the way you did it. Thatโs the way she did it. Thatโs one really
Nestor Aparicio 19:04
wonderful, Gainesville location. If you offer the poor man, that Dundalk crabcake and you take Kwame and you
Damye Hahn 19:12
somebody to pick the cause. Thatโs our problem. Right now. We canโt get Marilyn claw me nobodyโs picking cloth.
Bill Cole 19:19
It would be interesting. If there were like, three different crabcake options, right,
Damye Hahn 19:25
which is what we used to have here. We used to have a claw like the original, the big one.
Bill Cole 19:29
And then like, you know, the deep fried hockey puck and yeah, I love it.
Damye Hahn 19:34
We have to we have to different than the Bougie. Like
Bill Cole 19:39
we use all the fancy stuff.
Nestor Aparicio 19:40
You know the difference when itโs foreign meat when itโs not not not foreign? First of all work when itโs a foreign creature when itโs not a blue crab. Correct. I taste the difference immediately. Yeah, and then I donโt
Damye Hahn 19:52
want to be because youโve had enough.
Nestor Aparicio 19:55
We do after effects of that and the hours in the day after that. Itโs a completely diff For an experience than to eat well, right, but until it makes me sick, like it makes me not right. And I know that
Bill Cole 20:09
crabcakes How about like one of those like bars, where we all sit around and thereโs like a window. And the guys like making your crab cake like what do you know? Like, thereโs like five different crushers? We do right here, you can talk about me, right? But at that place, we need to sell like $12 beer, right? And they sit at the bar and they get to watch printing it. Because you know, everythingโs got to be an experience,
Damye Hahn 20:38
which is actually what weโre doing in the new market. We are having a crab, you know how they they have the window to making the fudge. We will know what youโre making. Because thatโs thatโs what we do here. Thatโs one of the things people when they come in is a watch us making them. They watch them go into the fryer go on to their tray, nothing is behind a wall. You watch it all happen. And you could say, oh, can I get extra this or that on there? And they do it for you give me extra tomatoes if I want to. Absolutely. I know she loves it. Tomatoes are really good, but that you get to watch all day long that heโll be making crabcakes here. Yeah. And weโre going to repeat that in the new Lexington market. Weโre going to have an area of where youโre going to watch the whole show. So
Bill Cole 21:23
the sign for deviled eggs.
Damye Hahn 21:26
Oh yeah, we got deviled eggs. So weโll get you some devil. So
Bill Cole 21:28
where are you at on deviled eggs?
Damye Hahn 21:30
Right here right there.
Bill Cole 21:32
Like thatโs like core meal. Right?
Nestor Aparicio 21:36
Happy going to top? Yes. Yeah. Like deviled eggs. But thatโs where you really get
Damye Hahn 21:41
a rebel. Can you bring me a couple deviled eggs?
Nestor Aparicio 21:44
Weโre take a break. Youโre ready. You set a clock. You gotta go do what you do. Tell Jamie what you do on the airplane ride like, like she does his sexy crabcake
Bill Cole 21:55
100 Itโs kind of depressing. Right? Dirty Jobs that no one wants to really talk about or have to deal with. So you get a flood over the weekend. Itโs like a super crisis. And itโs
Nestor Aparicio 22:07
Saturday afternoon. Iโm texting Julie. And Iโm like, this is a mess. Yeah, my wife was a mess. Yeah,
Damye Hahn 22:12
yeah. a leaking roof is no fun. Itโs good thing my wife can work a shovel out 20 buckets at 720.
Nestor Aparicio 22:19
But this engineering thing doesnโt work out for my wife. Iโm gonna send her over to you. Yeah,
Bill Cole 22:23
sheโs thereโs so much. Thereโs so much to talk about. Theyโre
Nestor Aparicio 22:26
here for that. I mean, really? Yeah, just not my thing. But
Bill Cole 22:31
do you not like eggs in general?
Nestor Aparicio 22:34
I was tortured by this stuff as a kid. You know? I mean, I donโt eat it. Potato salad. I donโt eat my
Bill Cole 22:40
so deviled eggs at a cookout?
Nestor Aparicio 22:43
Yeah, no, I didnโt like to hear though. Click.
Bill Cole 22:45
Theyโre the first things to go. Right. You canโt make enough I made so many deviled eggs like two or three weeks ago. And they were gone. Maybe itโs because I planned I was gonna have more week like thatโs how many I made but because you grab them and you can pop them in
Damye Hahn 23:01
there every time you are intensive. Yes, that my father said stop doing the deviled eggs. And my mother said Are you kidding me? Weโre gonna keep doing the deviled egg.
Bill Cole 23:10
But this is another item that when you go to a really expensive restaurant, this is bougie. Yes. Yes, yeah. But again, itโs that what do we talk about what the crab cake right like these humble beginnings, this like root of all goodness, like deviled eggs are made with love. Right? And thatโs why people like
Damye Hahn 23:31
homemade salads or homemade salads are wonderful
Nestor Aparicio 23:34
shrimp salad. Sign me up. Yeah, Iโm gonna break
Bill Cole 23:39
Commercial Roofing. Solar, solar, commercial solar. Yeah, Iโm just
Damye Hahn 23:46
talking about solar. Okay, okay.
Bill Cole 23:50
Is that good? Or you want me to tell you more. I mean, we do repairs. We do schools, we do shopping center radio stations, radio stations, we do restaurants, whatever we you know, we do like weโre just problem solvers.
Nestor Aparicio 24:01
Heโs on the front of Baltimore positive. She is on Baltimore positive every single day. Our friends and window nation has sent us out on the road to eat deviled eggs and crab cakes and Iโm not going to do it. Iโm going to be all over the state later on in the summer, with 25 voices 25 days all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery as well. Margaery is here he is the fisherman around here. Iโm going to honor him by having some shrimp salad here. Some jumbo Texas shrimp. Here weโre gonna talk about Maryland oysters and Maryland fish and the cat fish that are angering her and hickories on Eastern Shore. And me and Dan Rodricks and waiters out on the north Potomac River outside of Williamsport, Maryland, near Luke, Maryland. Weโll do that. Theyโll close out. James gonna hang around Martyโs here weโre faintly celebrating. Summertime. 25 years wn St. We are at 5070, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive