We’re off on our annual trip to Ocean City, MD. Randy’s whole family gathers there in a handful of condominiums and have been doing so for over 30 years (before that it was at Ocean City, NJ). We’re stopping outside of D.C. to spend the night and in the morning heading off to a couple of our favorite stops.
Our first stop is Costco. As a girl from the Eastside (what Seattleites call the suburbs east of Lake Washington) where the Costco headquarters are located, I am a die-hard fan. Although there are no Costcos within a two-hour drive of us, we maintain our membership for times like this when we will be near one. The quality of the products available at Costco is far superior to Sam’s Club, especially the meat and the signature Kirkland brand products. Costco also pays its employees a fair wage and that appeals to my sensibilities. Besides, although Sam’s Club has tried to imitate Costco with its own cafes, for me, there’s nothing like getting a Costco hot dog with sauerkraut. Yum.
Our second stop is at G&M Restaurant in Linthicum, MD. G&M is a small, local favorite with a restaurant on one side and take-out area on the other. It’s not fancy and as a tourist, if you didn’t know to look for it, you’d certainly drive right by assuming it was a bit of a dive. G&M serves the most amazing jumbo lump crab cakes. If you haven’t had a jumbo lump crab cake, a crab cake made with just shredded crab meat is no comparsion. As the description indicates, G&M crabcakes are full of lumps (I like to think of them as “chunks”) of crab meat with little filler and just enough and binder to keep it all together. The flavor from a fresh crabcake can’t be beat. We’ve ordered small frozen crabcakes from QVC and they are good, but for sheer size and freshness, one has to travel to Maryland to get the real deal. I’m having Pavlovian response just thinking about them. The picture above isn’t of the G&M crabcakes but it does give you the idea of what lump crab looks like — it looks delicious!
All-in-all, the journey should prove a lot of fun besides just being full of good food. It’s always nice for us to be back in metropolitan areas, even if just passing through. I just hope we have enough room in our car for the Costco-sized purchases and a big enough cooler for crabcake leftovers. Hmmm. . . I better double-check . . .
Eldar is in Good Hands
As for our ailing cat Eldar that we have to leave behind, she, as well as brothers Avalon and Maximus, will be well taken care of by our regular catsitter Anna. Anna will be taking Eldar to the vet’s on Tuesday for the prescribed bloodwork. Also a couple of our cat-loving friends have been kind enough to agree to look in Eldar too throughout the week. She is doing well and although a little sluggish, is acting much like her normal self. We’re thankful to have her home.