So here I am, minding my own business, driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, when up comes a rainstorm that won't quit for an hour. Heavy stuff. And I'm thinking: And I'm gonna camp out in this? But let's not be hasty, have a nice lunch and think it over. I have this place, the Red Roost, in the middle of nowhere, picked out for lunch. But I get there, in the middle of nowhere, and the sign says "Open at 5:30." What to do now? I really want to eat there. And it
might rain again. So I get a motel room in Salisbury and drive back to the Red Roost for dinner.
What's the deal with the Red Roost? Its supposed to have the best crab in Maryland, which is saying something. The locale and ambiance reminds me of Salt Lick, outside of Austin, Texas, or even of the old Swamp Guinney Inn, outside of Athens, Georgia. See picture.
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The Red Roost
Whitehaven, Maryland |
The interior is plank tables in the middle and booths along the sides. There is butcher paper on the tables and rolls of paper towels for napkins. The lights have overturned peach baskets for shades. And there is a 70-gallon trash can at the end of each table. But the food is something else.
I thought they had a seafood buffet, but instead the specialty is "all you can eat." Top of the line is the "Everything" which means you get all you can eat (1) whole blue crabs, (2) snow crab clusters, (3) steamed shrimp, and (4) fried chicken. All that for a mere $47.95 per person. I asked the waitress if people really ordered that and she said, "Yes, quite a bit."
I decided to settle for the "Red Roost Sampler" for $23.95. It consisted of a snow crab cluster, a steamed blue crab, about a dozen steamed shrimp, a fried chicken thigh, and a rack of four barbeque ribs. I also got french fries, cole slaw and corn on the cob. Because that certainly wasn't going to be enough, I got the appetizer of crab balls--five orbs that looked like hush puppies, but were in fact miniature crab cakes consisting of at least 70 percent crabmeat. The feast is below (I have never before in my life taken a picture of what I was about to eat):
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| Red Roost Sampler |
On the left side of the center plate is the blue crab. The waitress called it a Maryland crab because of where it came from and how it was prepared. It is steamed, and then coated with Old Bay Seasoning. As you pull apart the crab to get at the meat, your fingers transfer the seasoning onto the meat. Then you dip the meat in vinegar and then into more Old Bay Seasoning and eat. Really. That's how its done. You also get butter (or margarine) for the snow crab clusters, which come from Alaska (thank you
Deadliest Catch). It only took me an hour and fifteen minutes to consume most of it. It was delicious.
Mileage: 200. Cumulative mileage: 1,860. Today's earworm: "Bad Moon Rising" Credence Clearwater Revival.
