New Rule #55 Associated Flavors Are Not Intrinsic Flavors.

New Rule #55

OLD BAY SEASONING IS NOT CRAB.

So last week I go this unnamed place  and everyone says you have to try the crab fries, So I sit back waiting for a heaping bowl of fries covered with crabmeat, provolone cheese and doused with Americaine sauce (ha ha) but instead I get french fries covered with Nasty Old Bay seasoning. There is nothing I despise more than old bay, in fact for that reason when I go to Washington DC I have to fly so I am not anywhere remotely near Baltimore or the Chesapeake Bay. Makes me gag.

Anyway they should be called old bay fries since there actually is NO crab in it. Obviously we have visited this conversation ad-nauseum with the truffle oil discussion.

So there.

Comments have been disabled for this post, it is what it is.

Comments

[D. Gordon]

My dear Shola,

You know I think the world of you and your cooking. And I agree that "crab fries" here was a misnomer. However, I simply cannot let you malign Old Bay seasoning in this way, especially in the context of crab.

East coast or Gulf of Mexico Blue Crab + Old Bay can be a wonderful thing.

I'll chalk this up to your having had some horrible dish involving Old Bay at some point...

[Andy Little]

This post really makes me sad and actually a little angry. The subtitle of your blog is 'pushing flavor forward'. Just posing a blanket 'nothing I despise more that Old Bay', 'It makes me gag' over Old Bay seasoning seems like a cop out to me. Perhaps you view it as too pedestrian and would perfer to work with trendy ingredients like vadouvan(although I know I don't need to remind you that vadouvan is simply a spice blend much like Old Bay.)

I will not argue with you that Old Bay has been misused, overused, abused, etc. It has. However, if innovative food thought is your gig(and one reason that people read your blog) and you want to 'push flavor forward' then perhaps you should take not liking it in its current iteration as a challenge to find new and interesting interpretations of Old Bay instead of limiting the scope of your cooking by simply saying 'I don't like it'.

Listen, I'm not defending Old Bay because I work for McCormick. I don't. However, Old Bay in its proper and, unfortunately, misused application is part of my terroir and I think you give it a bad rap. I'd be really interested in seeing what you can do with it if you approached the product with a clean slate and open mind.

[SholaO]

Andy.
With all due respect.

1.What does the subtitle "pushing flavor forward" have to do with whatever opinions I have that makes it a cop out, am I supposed to like everything?
Old bay does make me gag.

2.Accusing me of using trendy ingredients is just plain silly and inaccurate, the first use of vadouvan mentioned on this blog was in May of 2007 when I wrote that it is in fact becoming trendy. I was using it at least 2 years before that after a meal at Sketch in London and much before it was even sold by anyone in the USA. http://studiokitchen.typepad.com/studiokitchen/2007/05/post_2.html and as I recall vadouvan did not become so trendy till it was used on last season's top chef.
I know this because every hit on google at the time came to my blog. Now I am not claiming I was the first to use it, no interest in those kinds of discussions but for historical accuracy I beleive the first person ever to put it on a menu in the continental USA was Ludovic at Bastide in Los Angeles followed by Liebrandt at Gilt in New York.

3. Accusing me of viewing it as pedestrian again is baseless because there is no logical information to reach that conclusion unless you assign a pretense-superiority complex to what I do. That is not the case.
I use Zaatar, ras el hanout, garam masala etc. All are fairly basic ethnic spice mixes. Old bay just makes me nauseous.

4.I have an open mind, what makes you think I had it only once and concluded it was useless to me?
While I respect your passionate defense of old bay, Chefs/cooks as a whole need to respect that not all Chefs/cooks like the same things. It borders on dictating taste, I am NOT dictating taste, I am simply telling you I DESPISE the smell of old bay seasoning while I respect anyone else's right to love and use it.
Are you seriously telling me I cannot complain on my own blog (which by the way I am not forcing anyone to read) about things I do not like?

[Holly Moore]

Way back when, in the days of the Upstairs Cafe, it has been rumored I once complained, "Who put crab meat in the Crab Imperial." We actually did use crab meat, but it tasted the same either way.

Agree there is no reason for Old Bay Seasoning to migrate more than a mile from the shores of the Chesapeake.

[Chicken Fried Gourmet]

Again why do people argue with you? If you dont like something he posts then move on to the next post or read some other blog. There are things that I have not agreed with Shola about but I didnt tell him that he was going against the "theme" of the blog, his blog mind you, I just moved on to the next idea he shared with us. There is a place and time for discussion on agreements and disagreements.....I just dont think it comes across that well in the comment section. By the way I hate ginger, I choose not to use it and if I have to it is in limited quantity.Does that make my opinion and blog any less revelant?

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000104794613]

....you can easily make-mix it your self and avoid using it nasty stuff from the can with all msg's...and ati caking-shaking agents...its a free country and you can choose a can or make yours like i did some time long time ago, when i need it old bay seasoning ...just to bring old fashion crab flavor..old bay-my way !
...people serve wird and nasty things with no respeckt...old bay does not belong on frys...in a past i had seen blackened hot dogs ...do you think thats right ? or just recently ...300? gigantic...automatic meat marinator in a william sonoma ! with a big drum who spins ..oh my god !