I didn't see a "Next Sunday's review" entry among yesterday's new posts. Was this an oversight, or did next week's review get sidetracked by the road trip to Chicago?

It got sidetracked. Thanks for noticing. :-) EL

We adore horseradish sauce (and not to cover up the taste of other things)--it is standard on sandwiches in our house in lieu of mayo. We love smoked salmon with horseradish sauce, but I have to admit it never occurred to me to pair it with crab cakes (mainly because a great crab cake needs no sauce).

As I was reading your review and got to the end of paragraph 3, it occurred to me that maybe the Sandbox conversational style has found its way into your more formal writing. Not a complaint, just interesting.

I just wish I could afford the place. Many years ago I had a nice Christmas dinner in Pisces. As we were eating some snow flurries came through. What a brilliant view of the Inner Harbour, through a veil of snow.

I'm no fan of Maryland crab cakes. I don't think they exploit the flavor of the crab properly. Horseradish would be a superb complement to crab. A mild horseradish sauce perhaps made with sour cream for a little tang and you flesh out the flavor experience. Everybody likes a little tang. I would add a small julienned cucumber and sweet onion salad marinated in rice wine vinegar with white pepper and cilantro. Garnish crab cake with four shiso leaves.

Free yourself from the chains of Old Bay Marylanders! Follow the advice of President Clinton.
The President of Funk, that is. What do you know, there's a song on there called "Fish, Chips and Funk". Now everybody on the dance floor. You're only dilemma is whether to Get Up or Get Down. Yeah!

We should remember that Pisces is, first of all, a hotel restaurant. That is, it must cater to all types of hotel guests. If some Texas calltelmen are in town, they will likely want to see beef on the menu, vegetarians will want meat-free (at least) dishes, and folks looking for some "local" food will want fish and crabs. There are people who do not go out to all the wonderful restaurants within walking distance, either by choice or necessity. When you open an independent restaurant you can make it whatever you want. If you want to open a Lutefisk-only restaurant you may. Hotels do not have that luxury.

Regarding the win list, or lack thereof, I cannot talk to businessfolk's preferences. However, when I was out traveling by meself, or even with my DW, the last thing I need with dinner is a full bottle of wine. Even if the only travelling I must do afterwards is in the elevator. A glass, maybe; a half-bottle if with my DW, perhaps; but not a full bottle. Just as we have found out about menu tweaking, perhaps the hotels have found out what their guests do and don't drink.

RtSO, my DW and I had New Year's Day Brunch there a few years ago. Yes, the view is magnificent (food wasn't bad either). We were on board the U.S.S. Constellation to view the fireworks at midnight, then walked across the street to our hotel room while the rest of the Inner Harbor was in gridlock. Next morning, after brunch, we went strolling around an almost-deserted Inner Harbor.

That which Gets Down must Get Up.

OMG -- Yep, everyone loves a little Tang.

(Actually, this stuff was truly awful. But the commercial is fun.)

Contemporary or traditional ... is this not the eternal dialectic? I find that I have the same opinion about crab cakes as I do with modern forms in art, music and liturgy. Before I try your new fangled innovation, prove to me that you have mastered the classics.

I appreciate Mark Rothko all the more because he knew how to draw. I appreciate Steve Reich's Drumming because he could write fugues as well. I will happily pray with your church band if I know that they have carefully crafted the service.

By the same theory, I will gladly try a new take on crab cakes, especially prepared by a chef who knows and respects the local culture.

(Of course, by another theory, everything is worth trying once, but that gets us into new territory.)

An element of my fascination with crab cakes in distant places is the guessing game about whether the creator had ever tasted an authentic Baltimore version. Usually you can tell that they haven't ... in which case they almost always call them "Maryland Crab Cakes."

I'm with Dahlink about horseradish sauce. I make enough extra when I do pit beef to last for a couple of weeks of sandwiches. Will have to do some soon and try them with crab cakes.

(PS: Dahlink, my New Haven years were 1977-80.)

As a child of the 50's/60's, Tang was the drink of the astronauts and oh, so cool!

It had never occurred to me to try horseradish sauce with crabcakes, but I can picture it working. I'll have to try it next time I make crabcakes.

It's not really any weirder than Nancy Longo's smoked crabcakes, and I thought they worked.

I never really liked the Orange flavor Tang. I DID like the Grapefruit flavor, and think I had some of the last jars around in the late 70's and 80s.

There is a more sinester side to Tang: Tang bomb

Just as I suspected, MD Canon. We were there from 1969 to 1974. You missed the Blank Panther Trial, troops on the New Haven Green and the shut down of the university. Too much excitement!

I'm with you, Hal. Not something that would occur to me but worth a try anyway. I do draw the line at onions and green peppers in crab cakes though. Just wrong!

Cheese Girl and Rosebud, ever have ether? Tang will smell like ether to me for all the rest of time... (with all due respect to the astronauts).

I just realized I never responded to the actual post -- I'd be open to trying horseradish with crab, as long as the sauce wasn't too over-powering. I guess it would depend on the sauce itself.

Tang had to be the drink of the astronauts, because us mere mortals could never get the stuff to dissolve fully in water under Earth's gravity and weather conditions. There was always an gritty, icky, yellowish-orange residue at the bottom of the glass.

I read the review and I was curious about the horseradish sauce with crab cakes. I love horseradish, the stronger the better. But I believe it would drown out the subtle taste of the crab. Depends on how strong it was.
But that view is tremendous!

Joyce W wrote: "Tang will smell like ether to me for all the rest of time... (with all due respect to the astronauts)."

Don't you mean with all due respect to Hunter S. Thompson?

Joyce - Oh yes - every time we visited a relative (who shall remain nameless) she insisted on serving us Tang; and to make matters worse, she was cheap, so it was more water than anything. Then again, maybe that was a blessing.

hmstd - LOL - I can still picture those clumps!

RiE -- Somehow, I'm not suprised.

I'm with Rob in PCB. I love horseradish, but think it would drown out the crab.

I'm also wondering about a sauce with what should be a crispy outside.

Why not horseradish sauce, I have been watching people dunk crab cakes into cocktail sauce for my entire Baltimore existence and thats laced with horseradish.

I think a mild horseradish sauce would work well, and I'll try it the next time I have crab cakes at home. Another oddball choice that worked well was the tartar sauce served with the crab cakes at the Center Club back in the mid-80s...which had a mild but unmistakable hint of bleu cheese. I know it's not for everyone, but I loved it! (I don't know if they still do that, because I haven't been there in about 20 years. But it made an impression.)

Cheese Girl and Rosebud, ever have ether?

Now there's a sentence that no one has ever typed before.

I love horseradish, and i find it to be a great compliment to many foods I like, such as prime rib, but it is also a great masker for foods I don't like - but the wife makes me eat - like gefilte fish.

As for Tang, I'm not sure if Tang is worse than Sunny Delight...or as it called now -no doubt after some expensive marketing study - Sunny D. Oh man, whether it be Delight or D, that stuff is nasty.

Hon said I have been watching people dunk crab cakes into cocktail sauce for my entire Baltimore existence

Ack!!! I've never seen anyone do that, thank goodness. That sounds awful!

I'm not sure how to explain it, but even though both cocktail sauce and horseradish sauce contain horseradish, I find cocktail sauce much stronger tasting. Perhaps because the strong taste of the ketchup allows mixing in a lot more horseradish.

Cocktail sauce? That's how they serve their crabcakes at Velleggia's.

Bourbon Girl, perhaps, but my large Samoan Attorney advises me not to discuss the matter...

Tang bomb -- who'da thunk it? (Was the local grocery store sold out of Mentos and Diet Coke?)

On the (not infrequent) occasions when I've been served a crabcake with cocktail sauce on the side, I've silently wondered why the establishment wanted to ruin a perfectly good crabcake. For me, at least, the acidity of the cocktail sauce would be a complete turn-off.

Now, a mild horseradish sauce on the side (like Tulkoff's Tiger Sauce) might be worth a try. However, I wouldn't want to dump a heap of grated horseradish on a crabcake -- that's best left for a pit beef sandwich, or the Passover Seder plate.

Tang, peroxide and a disposable camera ...

Sounds like a bad R&R weekend in Saigon.

We'ren't we given Tang as children to prerpare us for the taste and texture of Metamucil?

All quite atrocious, but is there anything more soul-draining than "Alone Again Naturally"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_P-v1BVQn8

===========================
In a little while from now
If I’m not feeling any less sour
I promise myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower
And climbing to the top will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it’s like when you’re shattered
Left standing in the lurch at a church
Where people saying: "My God, that’s tough
She's stood him up"
No point in us remaining
We may as well go home
As I did on my own
Alone again, naturally

To think that only yesterday
I was cheerful, bright and gay
Looking forward to well wouldn’t do
The role I was about to play
But as if to knock me down
Reality came around
And without so much, as a mere touch
Cut me into little pieces
Leaving me to doubt
Talk about God and His mercy
Or if He really does exist
Why did He desert me in my hour of need
I truly am indeed Alone again, naturally

It seems to me that there are more hearts
broken in the world that can’t be mended
Left unattended
What do we do? What do we do?

Alone again, naturally
Now looking back over the years
And whatever else that appears
I remember I cried when my father died
Never wishing to hide the tears
And at sixty-five years old
My mother, God rest her soul,
Couldn’t understand why the only man
She had ever loved had been taken
Leaving her to start with a heart so badly broken
Despite encouragement from me
No words were ever spoken
And when she passed away
I cried and cried all day
Alone again, naturally
Alone again, naturally
==========================

Ugh. My browser is weeping.

It seems like the horseradish you get in the store here is a pitiful weak version. I remember my mother getting it at the farmer's market where Amish women would grind it fresh and it was like a tear gas factory. POW! This weak stuff like Turkoff's just doesn't make it. It can't be stale, the factory is in Canton.

Horse radish at Passover seders never made sense to me. It's supposed to be a bitter herb symbolizing the bitterness of enslavement, but horse radish is neither bitter nor an herb. Might as well use wasabi (same family).

terriermom -- while it's not from the Seventies, "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro (1968) out-saps Gilbert O'Sullivan, hands down.