"crab" news and stories

Happy National Crabmeat Day!

This sweet crustacean certainly puts up a fight before providing its trickily accessible succulent meat. Once spared of the efforts required for shelling your own fresh crab -- yes, a privilege in its own right, though hardly a desirable one for time-pressed home cooks -- pre-packaged lump crabmeat is a culinary godsend.

While the classic, breadcrumbed crabcake is the obvious favorite rendition (pictured here with a spring mix and edamame salad), take a look at some of our favorite crab recipes for your own inspiration:

• Daniel Boulud's Crabmeat Salad with Mango, Cucumber and Coriander
• Nigella Lawson's Linguine with Chile, Crab and Watercress
• South Carolina-style Crab Dip
• Springy Crab Tostadas
• A classic Crab Louis salad
• Mario Batali's Spaghetti with Crab, Saffron and Chiles

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured on the site.

A pair of North Carolina entrepreneurs is making sure crab pots remain a common sight along the state's coastline – at least at Christmastime.

Don Acree and Mary Smith this year took over crab-pot maker Neal "Nicky" Harvey's burgeoning crab-pot Christmas-tree business, selling more than $150,000 worth of converted crab pots strung with lights. Acree says many buyers, who just like the modernist look of the green mesh trees, are unaware of the design's waterlogged origins.

But there's no mistaking a crab pot in Down East North Carolina, where the crabbing industry was once a leading source of jobs. As recently as 1998, the state's fishermen harvested 63 million blue crabs; last year, they caught barely half as many. Unable to fend off threats posed by pollution, rising fuel costs and the global market, dozens of crab houses shut down over the past decade. "The state's blue crab industry is in serious trouble, if it isn't dead already," Harvey's hometown paper, the Carteret County News-Times, reported in 2008.

Harvey, who once sold 3000 crab pots a season from his single-wide trailer, was lucky if he could unload 300 pots a year. So the craftsman decided to reconfigure his sheets of wire into four-foot tall Christmas trees. He soon gave up on his line of pots.

Photo: Susan Filson/Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

What you're looking at may very well be the platonic ideal of crab and corn chowder. Note the massive chunks of crab, the bounty of fat yellow kernels of corn and a creamy broth whose surface is speckled with little pools of chili oil. Made and photographed by Susan Filson of the appealingly named Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy, it looks like the perfect antidote to summer's swelter: If the dog days are getting you down, fight them off with a bit of crab.

[Via Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy]

Slashfood confession time. I, Annie Scott, am addicted to imitation crab.

It's so colorful and friendly, and you can buy it by the pound! Normally, I'm pretty averse to food that doesn't really look like ... food, but the juicy texture! The way it separates in my mouth! It's just dry enough to eat as a finger food and oh, you bet I do eat it as a finger food.

My worst vice? Dipping it in pesto. Seriously, give me a small vat of pesto and a styro-wrapped pound of imitation crab and you have just bought yourself peace and quiet. For like, an hour.

It has a great balance of protein and carbs, fills me up, and is more fun than (and cheap as) a can of tuna fish. And it's delicious.

I don't recommend it for parties, because everyone knows it's not "real" food, but for the comfort of your own private snacking delight? There is no substitute for imitation crab.

• Here's an interesting idea: let's get rid of restaurant menus!
• The Best New Wine Lists of 2007.
• A list of products and trends you'll see in the kitchen in the next few years.
• Three interesting burgers to try this July 4th.
• Speaking of the 4th, a French chef shows you how to grill a steak.
• Heading to Richmond, VA? Check out this guide to the city.
• If you're not going to Richmond, how about Paris?
• How to preserve summer flavors.
• This month's recipes: Blueberry-Lemon Parfait, Summer Melon with Crab, Potato Salad with Bacon and BBQ Sauce, Tuna with Provencal Vegetables, Almond Ice Milk, and Cucumber-Basil Martini.