X Marks the Spot - Baltimore

Two things define the food of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay metropolis: spices and seafood. And the former owes its prominence to the latter -- plentiful crabs that once bred like hard-shelled rabbits in the bay's warm waters. "When they were prevalent, bars here would have steamed crabs as giveaways," explains local food writer Dara Bunjon. "So that people would drink more, they made them that much more spicy." In other words, it seems that the city's core condiment, known as Old Bay Spice, was cooked up as a ruse to raise profits at drinking dens.

Food guru Marguerite Thomas theorizes that the city's history as a port combines with its Southern-tinged psyche to make spice such a staple. "You can go to a crab house and order cracked crabs without Old Bay, but people look at you funny," she chuckles. "Baltimoreans take great pride in it." The difference between restaurants' recipes for crab cakes is usually centered on the seasoning. She also loves the crab cake-esque coddie: "I grew up eating them. I'd go to the fountain and for 11 cents, I got a coddie and a Coke as my after-school snack." Thomas says that coddies were traditionally a Jewish treat, a kosher riff on the crab cake made from cod and potato and served on a saltine with a dab of mustard.

Read our "only in Baltimore" list after the jump...
Her pick of the local recipes is in the gritty Lexington Market at Faidleys. "It's been going for maybe a 100 years and they have a secret spice. People have speculated, and I know that mustard is involved, but it's subtle." Thomas's experience at Faidley's sums up how seriously Baltimoreans take their crab cakes: Standing in line, she struck up conversation with a staffer. "I said to him, 'Tell me what that special spice is -- I can't identify it,' and he replied, 'I've been sleeping with the woman for 40 years and she won't even tell me.'"

McCormick Spices
There isn't a spice rack in America that doesn't feature a few McCormick goodies. The firm was started by 25-year old Willoughby McCormick in 1889, focusing at first on door-to-door tincture and syrup sales before taking over an existing spice importer and morphing into the monolithic operation it is today.

Old Bay Seasoning
Now owned by McCormick, Baltimore's signature spice rub in a yellow can was begun by German immigrant Gustav Brunn in the 1940s and named after a passenger ship line that once sailed Chesapeake Bay.

Vanns Spices
Founded by the late Ann Wilder, a local icon who stood in markets offering samples of the exotic spices she'd personally sourced, Vanns is an upscale alternative to McCormick.

Tulkoff Horseradish
Another spicy Baltimore staple invented in the 1930s by the namesake family of onetime grocers that is crucial for seafood-dunking cocktail sauce and pit beef both.

Pit Beef
Baltimore's answer to BBQ, it's usually top round rather than brisket, shaved paper-thin on a meat slicer. "It's grilled not smoked, so the flavor is more beefy than smokey," Thomas notes. Gorge on it with raw onions, a dollop of horseradish (preferably Tulkoff) and a hunk of bread.

Bergers Cookies
Dreamed up by German immigrant brothers in the early 19th century, the Bay's favorite chocolate cookies are light vanilla wafers smothered in rich, thick chocolate fudge.

Smith Island Cake
Named Maryland's official dessert, this indulgent layer cake -- whose origins are foggy -- has eight or more thin yellow cake layers welded together with slathers of chocolate ganache, usually with extra crunch thanks to frozen, crumbled candy bars in the frosting. The namesake island has a population of 300 or so, and "people say if it weren't for the cakes, the post office there would have closed down long ago -- mail orders are so popular," Thomas chuckles. Google a home baker on the island proper, or try the NPR's recipe.

Rheb's & Goetze's Candy
Twin titans of sweet-toothed Baltimoreans, Rhebs -- which will soon celebrate its centenary -- is a staple of the holidays, while Goetze's caramel creams (caramel wrapped around fondant) come in both original and extra-long "Cow Tale" versions.