Sacrilege!
Baltimore chef John Shields says he is "kind of a purist" when it comes to crab cakes.
Shields, who owns Gertrude's Chesapeake Kitchen, says he normally doesn't add ingredients to extend the meat in his crab, but he's started to do the unthinkable: add tofu to his crab cakes.
Labor and supply shortages have made crabs more expensive in the Chesapeake Bay region. He calls this summer "one of the toughest years ever" for buyers of the bay's iconic blue crabs.
"Most people that would like to have a bunch of people over and make crab cakes or something, they probably would have to take a second mortgage to do that," Shields joked to Morning Edition.
Some area restaurants have had to take crab off the menu entirely. Shields still offers classic crab cakes at Gertrude's, but he admits they're expensive. So he came up with an alternative that he currently offers as a special.
The "Crabfulicious" crab cakes are a 50-50 split between crab meat and locally made tofu.
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1033541275/high-prices-lack-of-crab-meat-forces-maryland-chef-to-get-creative-with-tofu
_________________________________________________________________
Not only sacrilegious, but poisonous to some of us who are soy-intolerant or allergic. At least he designates them.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...and apparently the people who eat snails won't eat a crab if it's blue. 
