We have met three old-time chefs from Mobile, Alabama, each of whom claims to have invented what has become one of the city’s hallmark seafood dishes, West Indies salad. The most convincing story is that of long-time restaurateur Bill Bayley, a bigger-than-life gent never without a fat stogie clamped in his mouth, who also is credited with inventing fried crab claws in the early 1960s. “If you ain’t et West Indies salad, you ain’t et Mobile,” the late Mr. Bayley once told us, his story of its origin going back to when he was a cook on a ship docked in the Cayman Islands shortly after World War II. One day he found himself with a bunch of lobsters but not much to go with them. So he mixed up what he did have—oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and a chopped sweet onion— and marinated the cooked and cooled lobster meat in it. It was good. A few years later, when he opened a restaurant in Mobile, he wanted to include it on his menu. But lobsters were scarce and expensive. So he substituted meat from the Gulf’s abundant crab population. A great dish was born and is now available in seafood restaurants all around the Mobile Bay. At once rich and piquant, West Indies salad is served cool by the bowl—frequently family-style for the whole table, accompanied by saltine crackers. It usually is an appetizer, but it is often eaten in double portions as an entree.
West Indies Salad
1 pound fresh lump crabmeat, picked clean
⅔ cup chopped sweet onion
¼ cup light salad oil
⅓ cup cider vinegar
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup crushed ice
Paprika
Chopped parsley
Saltine crackers
1. Make alternating layers of crabmeat and onion in a 1- to 2-quart canning jar. Combine the oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt, and pour it over the crabmeat. Top the crabmeat with the crushed ice. Cover the jar and refrigerate 24 hours.
2. Serve dusted with paprika and garnished with parsley, accompanied by saltines.
4–6 APPETIZER PORTIONS