100. Crab Louis

Ah, Louie, Louie, oh no, said we gotta go….yah yah yah yah yah yah.

OK, so I got that out of the way.

Um. No I didn’t. Because that song made me go here:

And then that started this stream of consciousness rant:

Damn! That’s Priscilla Presley at the end of that clip! I remember when she was on Dallas. That was a long time ago. They’re making a new Dallas. She was married to Elvis. I love Elvis. They got married at the Aladdin in Vegas. That’s not there anymore. What’s there now?(I looked this up afterwards: The Aladdin was imploded in 1998 and on the site is now the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. Are Sly & Bruce & Arnold & Demi still making money on that brand? I remember once having a Planet Hollywood board game and no one ever wanted to play with me. 1. Because everyone I knew thought board games were lame and 2. I was too good at it. I was impossible to beat). Why didn’t I go see the Elvis statue at the Las Vegas Hilton when I was there? If I go again I want to stay at the Hilton. They have a Benihana and a monorail. A monorail! Look how gorgeous and unbelievably happy Elvis and Priscilla were at their wedding. Wow, doesn’t she look a lot like Kelly Kapowski? I want her manicure and I miss my hair from when it was really long and black. Why did I cut my hair? Oh, that’s right. Damn you, X-Files. Damn you, Gillian Anderson. 

Sigh.

#100 Crab Louis, or how it is sometimes referenced: The King of Salads. The salad apparently has a storied history. Where did it originate? What is the correct preparation? This article has some insight:

“The crab Louis’ origin may be cloudy, but the salad’s popularity is clear”

So what makes  Louis a Louis is the dressing. And from what I can tell, #100’s take on the Crab Louis is pretty standard. The sauce is made from mayonnaise, cream, chili sauce, green pepper, green onion, salt and lemon juice. And #100 had the addition of both horseradish and Worcestershire sauce.

But it is not 1000 Island dressing, as the above article so vehemently states. However, I would not have minded 1000 Island as I consider it the King of Salad dressings.

The Dinner is Served! version is comprised of asparagus, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, and black olives on Romaine and Iceberg lettuces.  And I followed #100’s instructions to the T. One change, however. And I know that it is sacrilege here in the Land of Pleasant Living where regional pride and tourism hinges on the almighty Chesapeake Blue Crab; but for my Crab Louis I used surimi a.k.a fake crab meat.

Oh, don’t be surprised. I wanted to be frugal and one 12 oz. package of imitation crab is around $5 whereas a 6-8 oz container of lump crab can be as much as $15 and if you get crab legs and extract the crab, well, you’re still at $9-$12 dollars a pound.

So sue me for not wanting to break the bank on jumbo lump crab meat. In my defense, the Crab Classic is heart healthy and an excellent source of Omega-3s. It says it right there on the package. So I’m totally staving off a heart attack, varicose veins and depression. Yay.

Anyway, I made the salad. And I made it just like DiS! told me to.

OK. That’s a lie. I fiddled around with the ratios of the ingredients in the dressing, but it does say ‘to taste.’ I added a lot more horseradish, extra green onion and green pepper, and I added some Old Bay in an attempt to recoup some of my Baltimore street cred.

Here it is:

It wasn’t bad. I made a half-sized portion because it was just me, but I did end up using it all. I had a dinner, and 2 lunches: 1 as a proper Louis salad and for the other I mixed the dressing with the surimi, topped it with shredded lettuce, and served it on a toasted Everything bagel. That was pretty damn good.

So the dressing was a half-success. It’s really thick and it’s SO close to being a 1000 Island that I just would rather have 1000 Island.

The canned asparagus was absolute shit and had no business being on my salad. I remedied that when I redid #100 for Cleve later that week.

I made the salad as #100 directed, except I substituted blanched fresh asparagus spears and the salad was crab-free because I served it as part of a meal with freshly-steamed Dungeness crab clusters.

The other elements of the meal were melted lemon-butter, oven-roasted corn on the cob, homemade cocktail sauce, and Natty Boh in a can. It wasn’t as good as sitting on a dock somewhere and tearing apart some blue crabs, but it was still pretty damn good. And the Dungeness crab was quite good when dipped in the Louis sauce.

Oh, look to the tool bar on the right. Dinner is Served! is now on Facebook, so you can get the very best in 1970s cuisine right in your news feed as well as other food and 70s-related treats.

Tell your mama, tell your friends, tell anyone whose gut can comprehend. Send it in a letter, baby, tell it on the phone. I’m not the kinda girl who likes to blog alone.

Here’s the Aladdin Hotel implosion. The commentary is rich.