The mid-Atlantic region of the United States is the birthplace of some truly classic American favorites

Maryland, Delaware, Virginia—if you remember your history, then you remember these states. In fact, Jamestown, Virginia, was the first permanent English settlement in the New World, founded on May, 14, 1607, on a marshy peninsula in the James River by a group of more than 100 settlers from England.

In the 1600s, Virginia’s lands extended as far north as Maine, and down south into Florida and west to the Mississippi River. The sheer size of that early territory gives an indication of the resources that the country’s earliest settlers had at their disposal. The food of the mid-Atlantic today still bears evidence of a remarkable convergence of riches, from the teeming tidal waters of ocean, bay and river to the verdant farmlands on their shores.

According to CiCi Williamson, a food and travel writer based in Virginia, in its first 200 years of existence, Virginia was much like California is today, setting the trends in food, hospitality, culture, and the arts.

“Brunswick stew, Virginia ham, peanut soup, spoonbread, grits, corn pudding, succotash, fried chicken, crab cakes, oyster stew, ginger bread, trifle, syllabub, roast beef and, of course, Sally Lunn bread are but a few of the delicious specialties developed across oceans and centuries that are still wildly popular today,” says Williamson. Over 400 years, adds Williamson, a unique regional cuisine has been created, beginning with English settlers and the additional foods of the native Virginia Indians, African Americans, and many other European arrivals.

It’s tempting to think that the food of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia consists of crab, crab and more crab. Certainly, crab cake—which may have been born of English fish cakes—are the iconic dish of the mid-Atlantic region, mixing sweet lump crabmeat with binders such as eggs and/or breadcrumbs and seasonings ranging from simple (chopped parsley) to distinctive (Old Bay seasoning). There’s also Crabmeat Imperial, a classic dish of crabmeat mixed with finely chopped red and green peppers and other seasonings, then packed back into its own shell or a gratin dish and baked. On the opposite end of the formality spectrum, crab boils are a ritual of tidewater life, a communal feast of spicy steamed crabs spread out upon newspapers along with mallets, bibs and plenty of cold beer.

But there are plenty of other culinary traditions here as well. From the waters come not only crabs in profusion, but also oysters, striped bass, flounder and mackerel. With the introduction of European pigs in the 17th century, ham and other salted and cured meats became core products in the mid-Atlantic culinary repertoire. And the rich farmland provided corn, tomatoes, wheat, beans, squash and other agricultural products to the mix.

Here are some of the other “tidewater treasures” that give the food of the mid-Atlantic region its luster:

Maryland Fried Chicken (a.k.a. Chicken Maryland) – fried chicken (either battered and deep-fried, or floured and shallow-fried), served with cream gravy

Brunswick Stew – traditionally a “hunter’s stew” that might have included squirrel or other small game, corn, beans and root vegetables, today this hearty regional specialty has found fans with rabbit or chicken, okra, lima beans, tomatoes and corn

Spoonbread – a pudding-like bread made with cornmeal, baked in a casserole; though similar to cornbread; it’s moist enough to be eaten with a spoon

Succotash – adapted from a Narragansett Indian dish of boiled corn, mid-Atlantic succotash is a blend of whole corn kernels and lima beans

Beaten Biscuits – round, roll-like biscuits that are incredibly crisp yet light, thanks to the fact that the dough is beaten (often with a mallet or even a hammer) for 20 to 30 minutes to make it glossy and well aerated

Baked Virginia Ham – Smithfield or other country ham, which needs to be soaked to remove the salt, then baked and served sliced, paper-thin

Sally Lunn Bread – rich, slightly sweet yeast bread that was brought to the colonies from England; it is said to have been popularized by a baker named Sally Lunn.