EL: I agree about the crab issue of Saveur, but they gave a GIGANTIC shout out to Berger cookies. Now they'll get even more expensive as they get publicity. Fortunately, they won't become an endangered species unless the food police find out.

Thank heaven Crab Week is at last over. At least for those of us who weren't born and raised in Maryland with a mallet in our hands. Not that I begrudge my Bawlmer pals the pleasure of picking away to get a few shards of succulence from a recalcitrant crustacean. But at least when you're served a steak or lamb chop, nobody has to take pity on your ignorance and show you the "zipper." Okay, I'll admit I find crab cakes pretty tasty -- and best of all, they don't take any strenuous work on the part of the eater. But some of the other crab concoctions -- from fluff to dip to a dollop of crab goo slathered on a slab of meat -- leave me stone (crab) cold.
Am I being crabby? Of course I am. I've only lived here 17 years and haven't yet succumbed to the Maryland mystique.

I too am wondering if anyone has bought crabs from those mobile trucks? There is one on Northern Parkway, but I've always been wary....

As Crab Week ends, I'd like to put in a plug for local watershed organizations who are working to clean the water upstream from the Bay. A good way to support them would be to buy a Bay Plate, if you don't have one already. The Chesapeake Bay Trust, which is funded by the plates, supports all our groups with grants for urban greening and watershed stewardship. Thanks!

I'm 81 and yes do remember buying
crabs from back of truck in East Baltimore. Not fortunate to have access to transportation or boat to do
personal crabbing it was next best thing. Trucks even had soft crabs iced and available. Easy to tell if crabs were alive when you bought. As teenager was able to go to Gordon's
on Orleans and Patterson Park Ave
to buy steamed crabs for $1.75 doz.

I think I was ready for crab week to end about three or four days ago.

Crab Week starts to feel like a week in Ocean City. The first few days it's nice to see the beach and feel all nostalgic. By the middle part of the week, the crowds start to get to you, and you start to get a little cranky as you can't get a seat at the bar. And by the end of the week you're fighting with everyone, and you say to yourself that this place is so over-rated and you don't know why it's so expensive and that next year you're going to do something different.

Someone recently made a comment to me that I thought disturbing, but since its Crab Week, it kinda is worth mentioning here.

This person refuses to eat crabs from Louisiana since after Katrina, many folks went missing in the bayous...

ewwww.

Well, that comment somehow seems a fitting end to Crab Week. EL

I'm feeling pretty crabby as well. Perhaps next year we could just do a Crab Day or Crab Weekend. Maybe all the crabs will be off-limits by then, so we will be stuck with just the memories of crab feasts of yesteryear.

With its post rate, Crab WEEK is a keeper. Mid-week I did a quick and dirty add of posted comments and was over 300 for the various threads. We're generally chatty, but that's a lot.

Silly crabbies ... what do you think crabs normally eat? Crab-aroni. My distaste for crabs is informed by the knowledge that they are usually attached to floaters in the bay and harbor. Ask any cop.

I personally am so saturated with Crab Week that I can never watch the movie Sideways again.

Can we unroll our trousers now?

You know what I think is funny?
There are some people here who are burned out with Crab Week; yet this blog is soooo addicting that they still show up with their comments!
Maybe we need to start a 12-step program for Dining@Large addiction :-)
(Although it would only work if the person WANTS to break the addiction, and I doubt that anyone here wants to).

LJ, my office mate buys from the truck on Northern Parkway a lot and she's very happy with what she gets. They check each crab to be sure it's still alive and kicking before it goes into the bag.

About 2 weeks ago, I bought from a truck that was parked on Woodbourne right off of Perring Parkway (next to the hidden swim club). They were a little small but very heavy and good, but I just really hate being the one to keill them.

Rosebud, I'm glad you mentioned the truck on Woodbourne, since I noticed it recently on the way home, and wondered if it was any good.

How much are the trucks getting for crabs this year? Any ballpark figures would be great.

mdlrvrmuncher, do you know there's a Berger Bakery stand in Lexington Market? The Berger's boxes one finds in stores are good, but there's NOTHing like one that's fresh-made with still gooey chocolate! Oops, just drooled a little on the ol' keyboard....

Rosebud and LJ, thanks for the info about the crab trucks. I pass them all the time but was wary about buying form them. Now that you say they're okay, I'm going in!!

"This person refuses to eat crabs from Louisiana since after Katrina, many folks went missing in the bayous..." And I made the albeit non-tastefully) comment at the time of Katrina, "well the Louisianna crab harvest oughta be great this year". Everybody knows that crabs are bottom feeders. That's why they're not kosher!

Crabs aren't kosher because they don't have fins and scales, not because of what they eat.

I thought it was because they weren't circumcised.

Now I'm positive RevEd isn't really a man of the cloth.

Lissa - true but also "shellfish, which as filter feeders can accumulate harmful parasites or toxins; or pork, which can harbor trichinosis if not properly cooked. Thus, it was natural for many to assume that all the laws of kashrut were merely hygienic in intent and origin. One of the rabbinical authorities that mention the hygiene hypothesis is Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed." ok, it's from Wikopedia but just pointing out that shellfish are not known for their "purity". :) Joyce (who loves them crabs whatever it is they're feeding on and loves that mustard no matter what it Really is!)

Well, carp are bottom feeders, and they are kosher, and they go on to become gefilte fish. Catfish are also bottom feeders, but they are not kosher...at least that's what the wife says which may have less to do with the Torah and more to do with the fact she doesn't like catfish.

Gefilte fish, hmmmm. Ok, blows that theory. where is Maimonides when you need him?

Catfish aren't kosher because they don't have scales.

Joyce, a lot of folks have tried to figure out the rational reasons, if any, for kashrut. Not being Jewish, I have no right to go there.

Maimonides certainly did. Brilliant man. I don't remember him talking about kashrut in _Guide to the Perplexed_, but it has been a few years since I last read it.

Just got our copy of Saveur. They add insult to injury by illustrating their instruction on crab picking with a (sob!) female crab.