Nah. The crab cake was roundly admired before it was carved up into 600 sandwiches. Which were eaten. Completely.
"You would expect it to be dry, but it was very moist. We were blown away by the taste," says George Fiorile, vice president and general manager of hotel operations. Thus, the man had early first dibs.
"The flavor profile was terrific."
Flavor profile?
"That's what we use in the industry."
In other words, it was real good eating.
The memory of a truly jumbo crab cake needed to be savored. So, armed with videotape evidence and official verification, Cupp turned to the only player that matters when it comes to world records.
But, as it turned out, London-based Guinness World Records didn't have a category for crab cakes. (What do Brits know about Maryland blue crabs anyway?) But the company did have a "fish cake" category. As unsavory as that sounded to Cupp or any honorable Marylander, Cupp pursued the Guinness record.
He nagged and e-mailed, until last week the powers that are Guinness formally (sort of) recognized the Mid-Atlantic specialty. The embossed certificate hanging in his office reads, in part: "The largest fishcake weighed 106.59 kilograms (235 pounds) and was made by Handy International in conjunction with Dover Downs Hotel & Casino on Oct. 21, 2006." Not exactly the Nobel Peace Prize, but still pretty cool - except for those words again: fish cake.
"I think they took the path of least resistance and lumped the crab cake up into the fish category," Cupp said. If it was any consolation (and it is), the Handy-Dover crab cake beat a reported existing fish cake record of 55 pounds.
Meanwhile at Dover Downs, the other proud parents also hung up their sealed and embossed Guinness certificate for the world's largest fish cake last week.
"Hey, whatever gets us in the book," says Dover spokeswoman Lisa Butler.
Not so fast.
Cupp says the certificate does not say anything about the record going into one of the famous annual Guinness books. It just means they have the record; it just means, for now, they have two pieces of paper hanging in offices. And that will not do. Cupp plans to research what it will take to have the record in a Guinness book.
"I'm working on that," he says.
rob.hiaasen@baltsun.com
