What are Maryland Crab Cakes?

I get asked from time to time in the dining room if our crab cakes are Maryland-style. I don't know. I'm a Virginia boy who spent the summers of his youth on our end of the Chesapeake Bay crabbing and eating crabs. What do I know about Maryland?

Truth be told, I also lived in Maryland for several years and my wife was a resident in Baltimore, so you would think that I would know a Maryland crab cake when I ate one. Not so. Around here, we don't find it necessary to label our crab cakes.

But I do have to say that I had the worst crab cakes of my life at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore: so loaded with red Bell peppers and Old Bay that I couldn't taste the crab. I know that this is not what Maryland crab cakes are all about.

My crab cakes are very simple: crab, celery, parsley, white pepper, salt, egg, panko, and mayonnaise. End of story. And they are fantastic and probably representative of what the rest of the US calls Maryland crab cakes.

So, dear readers, what are Maryland crab cakes? And, what other kinds of crab cakes are there?