Adventure with a Crab!

I wish I had a picture of this one--but sometimes even advid scrapbookers get caught up in the drama of the moment and don't think to grab a camera!

On Tuesday afternoon, before I got home from work, our next door neighbor, Rick, came over with a present for us. He had gone crabbing that afternoon and wanted to share his bounty. When we arrived home Shawn asked each of us if we liked crabs. Bill answered in the affirmative and I answered in the negative. Shawn asked if I had ever tasted a crab and actually I have only tasted crab cakes, not steamed crabs. I never could get past the nastiness of the process of picking them, having watched my father as a child and being repulsed by the sight and smell of it. Then Shawn pointed to a bag in a corner of the kitchen and told us of Rick's present. I said I wouldn't even have any idea how to steam crabs and Shawn proudly started reciting the process. It seems Rick had even been so kind as to share his recipe. Bill and I looked at each other and then he said, "I'll put them on the porch and take them to school tomorrow." We decided we should call my sister, Janet, who was coming the next day and see if she would like to have them. Well, that was actually the last time I thought about the crabs in the bag on the porch until last night. Bill and I were watching a movie and during a commercial I decided I should take Oliver out for a quick visit to the yard before putting him to bed for the night. We have a light on the back porch with a motion detector so it doesn't come on until you actually step out onto the porch. I opened the door and stepped out onto the porch and stopped dead in my tracks when the light came on and let out a surprised yelp. Just inches from my bare toe was a very feisty crab waving his pinchers at me threateningly! Bill heard my yelp and came to rescue me. I do wish I had grabbed the camera because it was very entertaining watching Bill (from behind the screen door) trying to grab the crab without getting pinched! He secured them but the next time I took Oliver out (I decided to wait until the next commercial--when my heart rate was back to normal) I was a little apprehensive and waved my foot out the door to get the light on before venturing out. All was clear as Bill had moved the crabs to a cooler and secured them by placing a bucket on top. They were gone this morning so I guess he took them to school. Anyone interested in some crabs for supper?

Over breakfast this morning I told Dad about my encounter with the crab. He laughed heartily and then told me about a Emerald Road neighbor of ours, Mr. Rogers, and his experience steaming crabs. Apparently the lid of his pot was not secure and a crab escaped causing him to chase it around the kitchen. That led to another story about crabbing with Mr. Rogers. Apparently you can set five traps without a license which they did. However, the professional crabbers didn't like them infringing on their territory and would actually try to swamp their boat! He said they learned which areas to avoid.

He went on the share how he had stayed in a boarding house in Dundalk when he first came to Baltimore. That being an area where much of the population was Catholic, no meat was served in this boarding house on Fridays. He remembers that they mostly had oysters and they were very generous with them. He apparently thought this was wonderful but it doesn't sound appealing to me. I am, sadly, not much of a seafood lover, although I loved when my mother fried fish fillets. But my mother could fry anything and make it taste divine!

I shared with Dad that the only seafood I had ever tasted that I loved was shrimp. On the night of Parkville Sr. High's 1968 senior ball a group of us went to Jade East Restaurant in Towson. (Sadly, it is no longer there. It is the place where Bill proposed to me, presenting the ring just as the waiter arrived to ask if we wanted dessert. He made a hasty retreat when he saw what was happening!) Anyway, the restaurant brought out a tiered tray with all sorts of appetizers before the meal. There was one appetizer in particular that I was drawn to--again and again. I kept remarking how good it was and made a pig of myself. I had no idea what I was eating but many years later, after we had been married a few years, we were visiting friends and somehow the conversation got around to shrimp. I said that I had never tasted shrimp. Bill gave me a little half smile and said that indeed I had. Then he told me that those appetizers I had loved at Jade East had been some kind of battered and fried shrimp. When I asked him why he had not told me (because I was very conscious of following the Old Testament food laws), he answered that he didn't have the heart to tell me because I was enjoying them so much! Dad roared at that story also! Then he told me that when I was little and he was working for Gaines & Boutz (this was several years before Dad and Lee Gaines started their own company), he was sent by Mr. Boutz to Wilmington, Delaware for a job that was to last a few days. He ended up being their for almost a year and only came home on weekends. But he said there was a restaurant in Wilmington that served shrimp cocktails that were very good, although he had them rarely because they were rather costly.

For some reason I now have a craving for fried shrimp. Go figure! (But I'm still not steaming those crabs.)