Crabs .... Chesapeake Bay steamed crabs .....

[Stinky The Clown]

A friend of ours has a bushel and we're going over there tonight to pig out.

This forum has been a little slow of late. I am emotionally drained today. The body politic is just plain sick .... critical condition, maybe. This crap with Roberts has me in a huge funk. Its a slow work day. (Not that I mind that all that much!) I was hoping to find some respite in this forum. A roaring debate over the use of fresh vs dried basil ....... or Silestone vs Granite ...... or baked vs fried.

I guess I'll just go practice my crab picking and beer drinking ..... and enjoy the company tonight. Mericfully, everyone who will be there tonight is politically sympatico.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. i felt the same way yesterday.

I kept running over here to see if anyone had posted anything foody that we could discuss. I almost started a thread saying 'let's talk food!'

DH went crabbing last weekend. I even went out & bought extra cracks & picks. They got zero keepers, Nada. Nothing. Bubkus. I'm glad your friend got some.

best

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Are you on/near the Chesapeake, too?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. no-sorry, I should have made that clear.

We're pacific northwesterners. DH was going after Dungeness. The best crab in the world!


Crab fight! Crab fight!

best

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Dungeness vs Blue

You don't **even** wanna go there!

I have a friends who live in Portland .... but she's from back east. We have never been able to settle this debate .... even when we eat them side by side.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

5. Jasper White agrees with

me! End of the debate. I made his recipe for crab & corn chowder once. God, it was fabulous! And he said to use dungeness if you could get them.

Crab fight! Crab fight!

best

[NMDemDist2]

6. dungeness by far

having eaten pounds of both

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

7. 2 for dungeness, 1 for chesepeake!

crab fight! crab fight!

best

[NMDemDist2]

8. yea, but that little grey guy on my shoulder is from the east coast

so he may cancel out my vote LOL

"moderators should take extreme care in posting in highly controversial topics" from the DU moderator handbook

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

9. LOL

Darlin' I'd by far father have a good natured arguement over crabs than beat my head about dumbya & his crap SC pick.

Plus, I'll get my dh to cancel out your dh.


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[Stinky The Clown]

10. Chessy chessy chessy chessy ..... that's four votes!

Gawd, this is the kinda debate that's fun.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. whoa!

how are you coming up w/4 votes? sparkly gets one! You aint no repug to get extra votes. If you do, than Jasper gets like 10!

best

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. I gotta get in here...............

Hardshell crabs, covered with Old Bay Seasoning. Tables with brown kraft paper tablecloths. Wooden hammers. Beer, beer, cold, icy cold beer in old plastic pitchers (Yuengling, because that's down home beer). Big bowls with lemon wedges. The pounding of the tables with the mallets when we decide to sing "Happy Birthday" to the USA on the Fourth of July - or any other time.

The occasional bowl of coleslaw or pepper cabbage or french fries brought out to cool down the palate, and then diving into the latest batch from the steamers.

Dungeness crabs have dreams, when they sleep, that they are hardshell crabs.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. And another vote for the bllue crab ... king of the crawlies

not the lowly Dungeon cwab .....

[NMDemDist2]

14. just as a thought, a 55 gallon barrel cut in half boiling over a fire

on the beach of Northern California, the crab boats just docked with the sun going down over the ocean

Dungies fresh out of the pot with dust dry california white wine on ice, crusty sour dough bread and a pair of pliers

it doesn't get any better than that, sorry

[OldLeftieLawyer]

15. That scenario

That's SO Republican.

Why do you hate America?

And where are the fries, hmmmmm?

[NMDemDist2]

25. California NEVER counts as repub OLL, but nice try hehehehe n/t

[OldLeftieLawyer]

26. Tell me again ..............

..............who's your Governor?

heh heh heh, indeed

[NMDemDist2]

33. ahhh Janet Napolitano (D-AZ)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

36. So, you're really in AZ?

Ah, well, then the joke's on me.

You write about California crab fests on the beach as if they were - oh, you miss them. I get it. Landlocked Arizona. Oh, now that's really sad.

But, boy, do I have eggs (over easy, in butter, sourdough toast, hash browns crisp, coffee black) on my face.

So, how's the crab situation in :::: chuckle :::: Arizona?

Do you steam them, or do they just die of the heat?

[NMDemDist2]

37. you just buy a kiddie pool and throw them in the backyard for a couple

hours at high noon

Yikes! that's bordering on animal (crustacean) cruelty! my bad

[OldLeftieLawyer]

39. NICE!!!!!!!!!!!

You can climb right in the pool, have someone spray cold water on you, and EAT! Makes cleanup really simple.

There. That's one way in which West prevails over East.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

20. almost missed your post,

AZ. YES, San Francisco sour dough bread & pounds of butter to go with. We are beating the pants off those easterners.


best

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

16. Dungeness ARE hardshell, except during molting.

Then all crabs are soft shell

[OldLeftieLawyer]

17. My mother always called them "hardshells,"

and, in her honor, I've carried on the great old Pennsylvania tradition. Our girls call them hardshells, too.

Every Friday, all the taverns in our little landlocked borough got in big shipments of crabs, steamed them up, and I had a regular jaunt to make to one of the them - Semanczyk's - to pick up two dozen hardshells. (I think they were $2 a dozen!)

That was what my Mom and I did on Friday nights, at the kitchen table, while our other family members steered really clear of us. More for us, she said.

Then, it was my job to get rid of the leavings. Since trash wasn't picked up until Monday mornings, very often this was a tricky proposition, often involving my sneaking into someone else's outdoor garbage cans.

My mother made me into the felon that I am, and it was all because of shellfish.

[displacedtexan]

18. Absolutely! I concur!

We grab stacks of free Baltimore City Papers (instead of butcher paper) and hammer away! Down the street at Lexington Market, they steam them and Old bay them for us.

About $20 a dozen for large ones.

Yum!

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

19. Are you're voting for Cheseapeake?

Have you ever had dungeness? I dunno if people can vote who haven't tried both!

best

[Stinky The Clown]

22. That's what we did last night ..... newspaper

We almost never do the fancy roll paper. Just old copies of the Baltimore Sun .... or the WaPo when it is time to wrap fish or throw crab 'stuff' away.

I grew up on Long Island Sound (the Connecticut side, right on the water) and we used to get crabs and just boil 'em ... sorta like lobster .... and then peel them and make crab salad. All pretty tame. I never had Chesapeake style crabs until moving to Baltimore in 1979. Now I can't imagine eating them any other way.

There's something so special about the democracy and conviviality of eating crabs. Everyone is equal and everyone is a mess. Everyone has a cut on the hand from an errant crab shell and the seasoning burns the living hell out of it. But no one quits. A lot of beer ... maybe some vinegar to dip the sweet morsels in. Everyone with their own personal 'one true way' to crack and pick 'em.

Maryland and Crabs and Natty Bo (National Bohemian Beer). All in the Land of Pleasant Living.

Take ***that***, left coasters!

Who's goin' downee ayshun, hon?





Trivia ...... the Maryland 'arster' (oyster) fleet was the last commercial fleet to be limited to sail power only. The last of the Skipjacks, as shown in the bottom picture (pixtcher in Bawlamerese) were in use through the 1970's. Only a few of them survive today. All of them are well over a hundred years old.

Log canoes, a craft of similar vintage, were also used for commercial fishing. Hewn, literally, from either three or five huge logs fastened together, they were a maninstay of the Chesapeake commercial fleet for well over a hundred and fifty years. The ones that survive today are pleasure craft that are often raced.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

23. the only concession I will make to east coasters is that

your lobsters are better. But we have abalone! Take that easterners!


best

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Abalone

You're quite right about that. We have nothing to compare. The only abalone we get our here is the small stuff .... and its always frozen.


I do it every now and again ... but mostly my attitude toward the abalone we get out here is 'eh'.

Of course our lobster (lawbstah) is better. Ours is the king of lobsters. Everything else is just big shrimp!


But ...... you gotta admit ...... dungeness is just a wannabe blue crab.

And I dunno .... but I think those Long Island Blue Points - and surely those Tighlman Islands - beat most from the left coast ..... but I could just be prejudiced.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

28. Lest we forget............

.......... the lovely clam, steamed, fried, chowdered (always New England, never "Manhattan"), who cares? They're all wonderful.

Now, I know the West Coast has its razornecks, which are usually devoured by the Dungeness crab, leading to what is commonly known as "Yes, we have no clams this season."

This never happens in Maine. Or Maryland. Or Connecticut. Or the East Coast.

[ernstbass]

21. Yes - heavily coated with Old Bay

I might want a little melted butter ( or clarified) also. And in regards to the debate, I've never met a crab I didn't like but I'll have to go with my homeland (VA) and vote blue.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

27. heavily coated w/Old Bay

because they have no taste! Braaahaahaahaahaa!

best

[Shakespeare]

29. (here, I'll play conciliator...) All parts of our country....

....are blessed with excellent shellfish (and fish)!

Lobster from New England....

Chesapeake blue crab......

Dungenness (from my own backyard), and don't forget the fresh wild salmon this time of year....

CRAWFISH and catfish checking in from the gulf states!

And don't forget about Texas gulf shrimp...

Ersters from the east, lovely mussels from the Pacific NW coast...

Even our landlocked brothers enjoy some good stuff with bass, croppie, and trout....

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

30. No, no, no Shakespeare!

No concilators This is a duel to the death

If Dungeness is from your own backyard than you're a pacific northwesterner & you really, for the sake of solidarity, have to agree that they're the best.

BTW, this (at least on my part) is all in good fun. I was just fooling around to get my mind off of dumbya & roberts

best

[Shakespeare]

31. Okay, fair enough. Here, I'll give us a new argument:

Let's argue about who gets to claim dungeness as "their" food--I say San Francisco bay area ('cause that's where most of it comes from--and there have been BIG fights among local fishermen who are angry at boats coming down from WA and OR to over-harvest).



In fact, that late, great Herb Caen (longtime liberal columnist for the SF Chronicle) described the quintessential "San Francisco meal" as a plate of cold cracked dungeness crab, a loaf of sourdough and a bottle of cold chardonnay (a meal I've enjoyed many times).

heeheehee

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

32. Well, they harvest them off the coast of

Oregon, which is where dh went this past weekend & got skunked. (Only because they didn't get any 'keepers'.) So I don't know how San Fran can claim them, but since we used to visit San Fran once every couple of months or so I guess I'll let them have the honors. Also, the Palace Court in San Fran supposedly invented the Crab Louis salad.

I remember when I was growing up & it was really, really hot, my mom used to make giant crab louis salads for dinner & serve it w/a loaf of sourdough. I was too young to get the wine, but got sips.

Another favorite hot weather dish was abalone. It cooks in like 2 minutes. Again, gotta serve it with bread.

As I copped to Husb, Maine Lobsters are better than ours, but on Sundays dh I used to go to the dock & pick up a lobster to bring home & grill. Heaven. That of course was bc.

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[Shakespeare]

34. aw, I was just playin' wit ya!

You (joked) that you wanted to keep the Great Shellfish Flamewar going, so I was just obliging you.

I'm not a native SFer anyway (I'm a southern girl), so I don't really care one way or the other who gets to claim the wee crabbies.

I do like eating them, though....

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

35. ooh, you got me!

There are so many wars going on about which version is 'authentic' & who 'invented' a particular dish. I just had to assume that San Frannner's who are unbelievably protective (almost as bad as the French, except absolutely noone could be as bad as the French) had the same 'it's ours' attitude.

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[Stinky The Clown]

38. Of course this is all in good fun

We're all food lovers here. There's no more animosity in this entire thread than might be found when the mayor of Boston bets a pot of beans and a tray of scod against the cheesesteak and pretzels bet by the mayor of Philadelphia in a Patriots/Eagles matchup.

The fact that Maryland blue crab is better than dungeness isn't the issue. Well, it is .... but I'm trying to be nice.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

40. Ledo's pizza - born in Maryland, I might add ............

We're up north for the summer, and all I want is pizza from Ledo's. Extra cheese, onions, garlic. That's it.

[NMDemDist2]

41. OK long funny story (you can ignore it if you'd like)

an Ex and I were visiting his slightly dotty mother in Ft Lauderdale and we bought some live Blue Crabs for dinner

We brought them home and filled the sink with water to "keep" them till we did all the other stuff to get dinner together.

When we threw them in the sink water, they went MAD from the chlorine in the city water, splashing and jumping out of the sink, sliding across the kitchen, skittering across the floor.

BF and I laughing maniacally as we chased Blues, mopped up water and assured the dear (well, more than slightly dotty) lady of the house that everything was under control and to stay in the Living Room, Please MOM, STAY IN THE LIVING ROOM!!!!

You probably had to have been there, but I still crack up when I think of it almost 20 years later

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

42. You can ignore this story too

DH gets home from crabbing at like 1 am. He's got buckets & buckets of crabs. This was sooo long ago the limit was sky high. So, he wakes me up. We have no way of keeping them alive so we decided to steam them all. We're up drinkin' & steamin' until 6 am. The entire house stunk to high heaven. We fall into bed for an hour then have to go to work. Neither of us had time to take a shower. All day our co-workers kept commenting that they 'smelled' something, but couldn't figure out what it was. When we both got home we mentioned it at the same time. ROFL. What a wonderful dinner. & breakfast. & lunch. & dinner. You get the drift. We ate crabs for days.

best

[NMDemDist2]

43. ewwwww! My ex hubby and I used to haul dungies from N Cal to Sacramento

to sell to resturants etc

we had a big church that wanted to have a crab feed, but would only buy the crabs cooked so I have spent hours cooking crab and can't imagine going anywhere without a shower LOL

[Stinky The Clown]

44. My son strings his own crab pots .......

and often gets half a bushel to a bushel on a Saturday. But he has all the cooking gear in the truck too, so he steams and then picks then right at the pier.

Of course, the little shit never shares with his dear old Dad ......

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

45. Please don't think bad of me!

We were just sooo tired. He had showered before he came back & I had showered before bed. I guess we smelled the same & didn't notice it.
But, really, please don't think we're like animals. Also, we were really, really young.

best

[NMDemDist2]

46. of course I don't think any less of you for that! LOL just get a mental

picture of me on my hands and knees chasing Blues across the floor

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

47. You're the nicest n/t