Maybe this crab cake tastes so good because I am eating it on Smith Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. Or maybe this crab cake tastes so good because of the effort involved in getting here.
I drive two hours from Baltimore to Point Lookout State Park on the southern tip of St. Mary's County early in the morning. By 10 a.m., I hop aboard a ferry, the Chelsea Lane Tyler, and make the 1 1/2-hour passage from the Western Shore to the island.
The boat deposits me and other passengers on the docks of Ewell, where the Bayside Inn, a family-style restaurant, serves up crab cakes and other fare.
The crab cake -- a golden lump of goodness, crisp on the outside and full of moist flavorful crab meat -- sends me into ecstasy. I decide maybe the crab cake tastes so good because the crabs were swimming in nearby waters only a few hours before lunch is served.
Others who eat the crab cakes also are wowed. Roxanne Green of Baltimore, who took the cruise to Smith Island with her husband, Brian, is impressed that there is no shell or cartilage.
"It is the first crab cake I have eaten that I didn't have to pick anything out of," she says.
Dale "Call Me Captain" Scheible, who runs a recreational fishing operation in Ridge near Point Lookout, has tasted a few crab cakes in his time. He gives these high praise.
"This crab cake is so good that if you put it on the bill of your cap, your tongue will beat a hole in your forehead trying to get to it," he says.
The grand crab cake is a high point in a day of exceptionally good food on Smith Island, where I continue my eating journey around the state. The crab cakes are served as part of a pat-your-stomach buffet for $12.50 at the Bayside.
I start off with a bowl of outstanding Maryland crab soup, brimming with crab flavor and fresh vegetables. I also make the acquaintance of several perfectly cooked clam fritters, a large helping of steaming corn pudding, a mound of sweet potatoes topped with brown sugar, fresh cole slaw, homemade rolls, macaroni salad, sliced ham, roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, and slices of applesauce pie and sheet cake.
I load up my plate and sit at one of many round tables filled with joyful eaters. Scheible, who is sitting at the table, summarizes the bounty: "This is some kind of fine."
Capt. Alan Tyler, whose family runs the Smith Island passenger ferry boats and the restaurant, dines with us. He is a pleasant man with a shock of white hair, who says that at 64, he is "just hanging out." He seems very busy to me.
