Recently, myself and a group of eight local epicurean adventurers headed out around Tampa in search of devil crabs. Tampa was the birthplace of this snack in the early 1920s — a croquette made from seasoned, cooked crab meat which is breaded, fried and traditionally eaten with hot sauce. We tasted this indigenous dish from several different Tampa establishments known for making their own from scratch, comparing their differences and tasting some of Tampa's food history.

First things first, while I may be a native Tampanian, I learned on this day that the proper title of this edible delight is "devil crab", not "deviled crab".

The Columbia's devil crab
  • The Columbia's devil crab

Our group met up in Ybor and headed to the Columbia Restaurant who had the smallest version of the devil crab. The appetizer included six mini croquettes filled with blue crab and seasoned with paprika, garlic, and onion. The small bites had nice-sized chunks of garlic and onion in them, and were served with the restaurant’s own label of hot sauce. In my opinion, the hot sauce wasn’t really needed, as the seasoning in them was sufficient.

The next stop, Carmine’s, was my standard setting out on the crawl. Having lived in Ybor, I often ate their crabs and was very interested in comparing them to other versions. Carmine’s has been using the same devil crab recipe since sometime around 1929, the bartender told us. Their version is about the size of a softball with a crispy shell. The dish was stuffed with blue crab, and chunks of onion and green pepper were visible. While delicious, the crab overall lacked seasoning. Carmine’s serves their devil crab with Texas Pete hot sauce — a good accompaniment to add some much needed heat.

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This article appears in Aug 4-10, 2011.