Soft Shelled Crabs
 

I just love them! Where, fellow Fodorites, have you had your best soft shelled crabs. (Can't really find them in California :-( )

Maryland, Maryland, Maryland...... at any of the good seafood houses around Baltimore and Annapolis!!! Second, Emerald Isle, N.C.!!! My husband's idea of heaven is a BLT with a fried soft-shell crab on it!!!

Bayou La Batre. AL.

I second MD. My husband has had them twice in the last week - Southern Maryland - Fancy: Dry Dock Restaurant in Solomons. Casual: Clarks Landing in Hollywood, MD. Very Tasty.

July/August is the season, I think, at least in NYC.
Our favorite is a small place in Rockland County NY called Piermont, the restaurant is called The Freelance Cafe, ..they saute them in white wine and butter and serve them with amazing fresh sauteed vegetables. Tender and melt in your mouth..bonnie..do they fry them or saute them?
I had some lovely soft shell crabs in sauce in Little Italy one summer also :)

Hi Scarlett

In Maryland they saute those little soft shells in butter - sometimes adding some white wine other times adding some Old Bay. They are sooooo good!!!

My husband has been known to bring them home when he finds them and then cleans them for cooking. I just saw some yesterday at the market but someone else bought the last ones.

Hi LN :)

I have to wander over to our new fish market and see if I can get some, now that you tell me this- I am getting a taste for them ~

Scarlett, my husband dips them in egg, then crumbs, then sautes them!

Thanks bonnie!
I will look tomorrow and make the Yankee cook them..does anyone clean their own or do you have the store do it?
Once, the store didn't do it, I thought they had. Was I horrified when those poor crabs started hopping around and waving their arms at me, when they hit the hot pan :(

Scarlett, dear Scarlett, what do you mean you don't clean your own? Half the fun of eating crabs is knowing that you deserve to eat them, after having spent hours picking at them!

I had my first taste of soft shelled crabs more than 15 years ago, after having given birth to my daughter. My parents were staying with us to help out with the babies, and they presented me with a heaping plate of freshly picked crab meat! Now crab to me signifies celebration and good times.

Beach Bistro--Anna Maria Island (FL). It was a little hard to eat something that was looking back at me but I managed!

I love, love, love them, used to eat them all during their season when we lived in Philadelphia. Here in Europe, they're hard to find, except at some sushi places..."Spider roll" on the menu automatically gets me inside. Grasshopper, check some of your favorite Japanese restaurants, bet they have spider rolls. The crab will be frozen, but frozen soft shell crab is better than no soft shell crab! And you can always comfort yourself that it's much easier to get Dungeness crab on the West Coast than on the East Coast. And it looks like it will be a good Dungeness season this year up in the Olympic Peninsula.

dln, you are talking crab meat and picking. WE are talking about the most divine food on earth--soft shell crab--you eat the whole thing (AFTER cleaning!!). Yes, I clean my own--and they do have to be at leasst somewhat alive. Dredge in flour and saute in butter. The season should be in when we go to Litchfield in a couple of weeks. Serve them with a fried green tomato as the "carrier".

Gretchen's right. You must get them as close to live as possible. Frozen doesn't do it. Nor does refrigerated for a couple of days. I had a soft-shell crab dinner last night in Chincoteague, VA. Disappointing. I've had a SS sandwich at this same restaurant in the past, and it was exquisite. Last night, however, didn't make the cut.

And Old Bay is great for hardshells, but it would destroy soft-shells.

Incidentally, the soft-shell starts getting hard as soon as it sheds its (old) hardshell. Best place to get a great sandwich or dinner is probably Crisfield, or Smith Island MD, or Tangier VA.

(Sorry to ramble on, but my mother was born on Smith Island, and I spend summers there as a young 'un...)

And for one last comment, find a copy of William Warner's Beautiful Swimmers. It's a powerful ode and homage to the Blue Crab.

In july 2002, we saw some amazing crabbing in Ft. Worden State Park, Port Townsend, Washington. (Cool area used for filming of 'An Officer and a Gentleman'). The guys catching them (what are they called ... crabbers..?!) educated us regarding ordinances, limits etc. Very interesting! And soo yummy later!

Question for Maryland - Virgina residents: after a search here these are the restaurants we're considering.

-Seaside Seafood (glen burnie?)
-G & M
-O'Byckies
-Carrolls Creek
-Murphy's
-Cantlers Crab House
-Riordans

Comments? Suggestions? Thanks!

Gretchen, I plead guilty! I was on the phone with my mother this morning, and she said to me (voice dripping with disbelief that I should confuse one with the other) "It was blue stone crab, not soft shell!" Hey, what can I say? Childbirth is rough. The blue stone sure tasted good, though.

Most of the crabs served in Maryland restaurants come from the Gulf of Mexico. Check with any seafood wholesale vendor.
That said, my parents had a house on the Chester River X from Chestertown on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and we caught 3 dozen Blue Claw crabs (male keepers) every day when visiting while I was stationed at NNMC in the early 70's (Bethesda N H). Fresh crab imperial is even better than soft shells, 'tho we get those fresh in season here in DFW.
Bistro Latino in Dallas and Bistro Louise in Ft Worth get the very best!
The frozen guys just don't cut it.
M

Peck's Old Port Seafood restaurant- Ozella, Florida

Oh I love soft shell crab!

Scarlett, have you noticed the wire baskets you turn at all of the car washes? They are to clean your oysters during season.

Why do you clean them? I love that goo. Yummmm. Just a little ground up garbage. Crabs will eat anything. They eat metal (but very slowly).

Crabs migrate, and the same crabs that are in the Gulf of Mexico will eventually find themselves in Maryland, moving along the shoreline with the Gulf stream. Hmmmm. They must stop somewhere. I wonder if there's a Mason-Dixon line for crabs? No crabs allowed from here on.