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Diners enjoy lunch at Tortilleria Sinaloa, which has top-notch tacos in tortillas made the right way — by hand. The unassuming storefront in Fells Point is one of several cheap-eats destinations in a city suddenly flush with award-winning chefs. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post) Baltimore is that rare city with a dish so fundamental to its culture that the food’s name is an answer to a crossword puzzle. But if the crab cake is Charm City’s calling card, it can also be a cross to bear for those planning to open a restaurant there. The chef who dares to ignore the crab cake is the chef who risks losing the tourist searching for Baltimore’s signature dish, typically built with Chesapeake jumbo -lump crab, saltine cracker crumbs , a mayo binder and, of course, Old Bay. “You will find that in many restaurants there is a crab cake,” says Suzanne Loudermilk, restaurant critic for the Baltimore Sun. “It’s just part of our cuisine. When people do come from out of town, they inevitabl...

CLOSE Download The Clarion-Ledger app for free on the Apple app store or Google Play. Justin Sellers/The Clarion-Ledger Robert St. John (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger) The following is the second in a four- installment summer column series covering my top 10 dining experiences for breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch in New Orleans. There are a few items to note: This list purely subjective . Everyone has varying tastes and preferences. This is not a ranking of overall quality from a critical/review standpoint. This is my personal list. These are my personal favorites. Everyone has personal connections to restaurants. These happen to be mine. According to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, there are more than 1,400 restaurants operating in New Orleans today. That’s an impressive number for a city with a population of only 390,000. There are obviously hundreds of restaurants I have yet to visit, though there are dozens of others in each category that I have dined ...