Crab

I love the quirky limitations of regional foodways, I really do. But our lack of destinations for good whole crabs - just as the crustacean season is about to hit its peak - has gotten me steamed up. How is it that Philadelphia is so close to the Chesapeake Bay, yet so far from its love of hard-shell culture? Dainty crab cakes? We have plenty. But when it comes to the messy pursuit of whole critters piled high and all that they entail - the big dining halls filled with paper-topped tables, the joyous sound of mallets crunching down, the tangy celery spice of Old Bay seasoning the air - Philadelphia has far too few places to indulge.

"Everyone," says Dick Kauffman, "loves a crab apple tree in spring, but often gardeners don't realize the potential of some old and many newer varieties to remain attractive throughout the balance of the growing season. " Scab and rust, two diseases that can wipe out crab apple foliage by early July, leaving a tree bare until the next spring, have given these plants a bad reputation. Large fruit, no longer needed by cooks to produce pectin, also was considered a drawback. So far, breeders haven't produced the perfect crab apple, but they have made much improvement, and Kauffman grows at his wholesale London Grove Nursery in Chester County about 18 of the best varieties for this area.

In Grandfather's day, crab apple trees had mixed reputations. In the spring, they produced glorious blooms. But by the family picnic in August, they already had dropped countless diseased leaves on the lawn. Then, they frequently produced rather messy fruit that had to be swept from the walk or patio. "Crabs have changed," says J. Richard Kauffman, president of London Grove Nursery Inc., a wholesale tree nursery near Avondale. "Thanks to extensive study conducted by Penn State and other universities, researchers have developed crabs resistant to the diseases that caused them to lose their leaves so early in the year, and many of the newer varieties have smaller fruit, more like that of a holly, which will often remain on the tree until the following spring.

  It's true, says Chester County's Frank Barbalace, that the subtly sweet, crab-scented marinara sauce he (and partner Steve Donze) are bottling is indeed, as the label says, "Grandmom Concetta's, since 1929, original recipe. " He ought to know; it was his grandmother, born in Naples, who cooked the sauce from crabs at the Jersey Shore when he was a kid. Good over penne; better, Frank says, with sauteed shrimp added. - Rick Nichols A charitable twist Those in the loop - that October-centric pink-ribbon loop, that is - get yet another chance to contribute to breast cancer research, by savoring soft pretzels that forego the usual triple-twist in favor of the familiar ribbon's single loop shape.

Ever feel like you've been cast, unwittingly, as an extra in a particularly loopy science-fiction film? Try walking along the boardwalk here on Martin Z. Mollusk Day. Beneath you, in a large square etched in the sand, elementary-school-aged pigs sporting yellow ribbons are having a hoedown with what resemble three- legged scarecrows and black cows. (Or are they crows? Who knows.) A man dressed in a garbage can is serenading a crustacean to the tune of "Some Enchanted Evening.

Put out a net - a giant one. Buster the crab is gone. Someone snatched the 75-foot inflatable crustacean from atop his perch at Obadiah's seafood restaurant late last week. The wicked deed has gone unpunished despite a $1,000 reward Cape May County Crimestoppers has posted for the clawed one's return. Police are looking for suspects, even as Buster's owners yesterday erected a new inflatable on the roof that had been the monster crab's domain for the last two seasons. Now, said Sandy McIntyre Ummarino, whose family owns the restaurant, Crusty the crab has crawled into the spot once occupied by his twin brother, the lamented Buster.

If you've been searching for an attractive and comfortable place where you can let your hair down and get serious about seafood, then Crab & Company is the spot to drop anchor. This two-month-old restaurant, with a moderately priced and simple menu, is on Passyunk Avenue about a stone-crab's throw from South Street. It has a quiet, soft charm that makes it suitable for ties and jackets, as well as rolled-up sleeves. The attractive bar has a well-rounded selection of wines and spirits.

Vice President George Bush, a millionaire who likes to show people he's just a regular guy, went crabbing on the Delaware River yesterday. Delaware's top Republicans joined the GOP presidential candidate aboard the 36-foot crab trawler Wiso II. Bobbing in the river alongside of them were two Coast Guard boats, two marine police boats, a state police boat and two boatloads of press corps, scrambling from port to starboard trying to get a glimpse...

When I get that craving, usually on the third Wednesday morning in July, I jump into my car, take Interstate 95 south, and on the other side of Wilmington, pick up Route 13, the main highway into the Delmarva Peninsula. As I move south of Dover, I lose WCAU on the car radio, but the craving is so overpowering it just pulls me on. I pass Perdue trucks packed with thousands of chickens panting in the heat. Corn and soybean farms stretch over the endless flatland. At Seaford, I cross the Nanticoke River, 31 miles from its Mississippi-size mouth in Tangier Sound.

In the depths of the ocean, light is a stranger. As one descends into the ocean, colors all fade to blue, then to black. Three thousand feet down, virtually no sunlight can penetrate, and creatures there swim blind, depending on smell, sonar or other senses to survive. With no light, there would seem no reason for denizens of the deep to develop eyes. But scientists have found an unusual type of eye on two species that live at extreme depths, prompting new questions about life at the bottom of the sea. The eyes are changing scientists' notions of the deep-sea environment and have led to the discovery of previously unknown sources of underwater light, thanks in part to an astrophysicist from Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, N.J. And researchers have found a type of deep-sea crab whose eyes change form and sensitivity as the creature matures and moves to deeper waters.

If you ask 10 people for the best crab cake recipe, you'll get 10 different answers. One person I know uses the recipe on the can of Old Bay Seasoning - called a classic Maryland-style crab cake - a mix of crab meat, mayo, mustard, Old Bay, an egg, and parsley flakes. Some recipes call for hot red pepper sauce (Tabasco), Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. To bind the cakes, use egg and mayonnaise. Some recipes also call for dredging the crab cakes in bread crumbs, cracker meal, or panko before pan-frying or broiling.

Brice Phillips, 90, founder of Phillips Seafood, a restaurant chain that expanded from a single crab house to 19 restaurants and retail products, died Friday at his home in Ocean City, Md. Mr. Phillips and his wife, Shirley, started Phillips Crab House in 1956 in Ocean City. In 1980, the company opened a restaurant in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, which once reportedly had the third-highest gross sales of any restaurant in the United States. - AP

Ah, the Fourth: burgers on the grill, fresh-squeezed lemonade, creamy potato salad, the first corn of the season, and . . . Crabs and spaghetti? If you are a member of the Campanaro family, that's what you smell in your Fourth of July dreams. "It's one of those things you long for, you know?" said Lou Campanaro, chef and co-owner of Village Belle, the Italian-leaning Front Street restaurant. As a chef, and member of a family who love to eat and cook (and compete; just ask them about their family meatball contest)

With the summer tourist season unofficially kicking off, it isn't just shoobies and snowbirds converging on the Jersey Shore. The annual invasion of horseshoe crabs, those ancient mariners who each spring make their way to beaches along the Delaware Bay to spawn, is in full swing. Worldwide, there are four species of horseshoe crabs, though in this area we're most acquainted with Limulus polyphemus , those familiar yet funky-looking creatures sometimes called living fossils. Horseshoe crabs are among those animals that almost defy explanation - not even a crustacean, they're closer cousins to scorpions and fleas than a lobster or blue crab, and can live more than 20 years.

Those creepy, crawling, helmeted, dagger-tailed mega beach bugs known as horseshoe crabs might seem useless to sun worshipers, but on Monday, three Philadelphia men were arrested in the swiping of 132 of them in Ocean City. As tourists start to flip-flop toward the Shore in May and June, so do these 10-legged arthropods, which crowd the shoreline during full- and new-moon high tides at night to spawn. Partly because the countless eggs help feed migrating shorebirds, such as the red knot, harvesting horseshoe crabs is illegal in New Jersey.

Those creepy, crawling helmeted, dagger-tailed mega beach bugs known as horseshoe crabs might seem useless to sun worshippers, but on Monday three Philadelphia men were arrested for swiping 132 of them in Ocean City. As tourists start to flip-flop seaward in May and June, so do these 10-legged arthropods, who crowd the shoreline during full and new moon high tides at night to spawn. Partly because the countless eggs help feed migrating shore birds, such as the red knot, harvesting horseshoe crabs is illegal in New Jersey.

Nigella, Jamie, Martha et al. get most of the attention when it comes to talking about recipe expertise. But for many Americans, there's no higher authority than the back of the box, and food-trend observer Phil Lempert says more producers should be taking advantage of that. "Companies should be changing up their recipes on the back of packages," says Lempert, known as the "Supermarket Guru. " "So many consumers are bored with their food. They're trying new recipes. " Still, with customers often wildly loyal to old favorites, companies tend to proceed cautiously.

An apparent late-night craving for crabmeat led to multiple theft charges for a 37-year-old Delaware man, police said today. George J. Willis, of New Castle, was taken into custody on Monday after an investigation by Westtown-East Goshen Regional Police. The probe began after the Giant supermarket in Thornbury Township reported surveillance video of Willis, seen concealing numerous containers of Phillips Jumbo Lump Crabmeat and exiting the store, said Westtown-East Goshen Detective William Cahill.

You have your sweet, you have your tart, you have your creamy. They all come together in this almost-too-beautiful-to-eat summertime appetizer from chef Lou Boquilla at Audrey Claire in Rittenhouse Square. The crab and apple terrine is topped with avocado slices and drizzled with a roasted garlic and yellow pepper emulsion. Crab-and-apple terrine ($13) at Audrey Claire, 271 S. 20th St., 215-731-1222.

How to sort through University City's many culinary options during Dining Days? While there's not a bad choice among the participants, here are 10 sure to satisfy. City Tap House: Come for one of the 60 craft beers on tap; stay for chef Al Paris' beer-loving menu. Paris delivers the gastro-pub goods on this four-course menu with stand outs like an Italian accented chop salad, classic Margarita pizza and zesty jerk salmon filet with a chutney glaze. ($30) 3925 Walnut St., 215-662-0105.