Crab

Maryland seafood processors, desperately short of hands to pick crabmeat, are rushing to apply for visas for foreign workers after the federal Department of Homeland Security declared Thursday that 25,000 seasonal immigration permits have gone unclaimed for this year. The unexpected discovery that some of the annual allocation of 66,000 seasonal worker visas were still available was a welcome relief for the operators of Eastern Shore crab "picking houses," some of which had remained shuttered when the season started in the spring because they could not find enough help.

A special visa program that has supplied Maryland's seafood industry with foreign workers is about to expire, and owners of crab-picking houses on the Eastern Shore say their livelihood is once again in jeopardy. The law that extended the H2B visa program, which has brought workers from Mexico and other countries to the Shore during the past decade, is set to expire tomorrow. While the thousands of workers already in Maryland will be able to stay until their seasonal jobs end in a month or two, they have no guarantee they'll be able to come back next year.

Years ago Tauraso's (6 N. East St., Everedy Square, 301-663-6600) was about the only restaurant in Frederick that Baltimoreans considered worth the trip. That's changed, of course, with the opening of places like The Tasting Room and Acacia. Now Tauraso's itself is changing. As of May 1 it will officially be Danielle's, named after the new owner's wife. The owner is Daniel Cruz, and he says the past owners "lost interest" in the restaurant in the last couple of years. Cruz is renovating the place, has hired back a former chef, Terry Mason (who had moved on to The Tasting Room)

COULD a person from Wisconsin, where the state motto is "Eat Cheese or Die," go a year without chowing down on Cheddar? Could a Texan go without steak? Could someone from Pennsylvania Dutch country say no to shoofly pie? Could a San Franciscan lay off the Rice-A-Roni for 12 months?Could a Marylander abstain from crabs for a year?Tough one.Eating steamed crabs from the Chesapeake is a time-honored tradition in Maryland. As I write this, I crave them. Unless you're a total veg-head, eating crab meat in any form -- crab cake, crab dip, crab imperial, crab soup, or the wacky crab cake fluff -- is something you do in these parts.

The new Governor's Grille in Annapolis has only one problem that I can see, but it's a big one. What's going to make a customer decide to go there rather than one of the city's other upscale steakhouses? There's Lewnes, a fine restaurant with the force of tradition behind it, or Ruth's Chris, which has name recognition on its side.But who knows. Maybe Annapolis has an unending appetite for huge prime steaks. Maybe there are plenty of customers who have enough money to afford them. If so, Governor's Grille can hold its own with the best of them.

After operating his carryout seafood shop on Hospital Drive in Glen Burnie for almost 20 years, owner Jerry Wood decided six years ago to open a seafood restaurant, also in Glen Burnie. From this first success evolved his second success, the Seaside Restaurant & Crab House.If the sight of brown paper-covered tables pleases you or the sound of cracking crabs is music to your ears, then Seaside is for you. Although I had to wait 20 minutes, it was worth it. In the summer, this restaurant is so popular, the line can be as long as 10 to 20 people.

You might need some celestial navigation to guide you to a Howard County restaurant called Starry Nights.Hidden in the West Friendship Shopping Center, this small, bistro-like restaurant is trying to succeed where its predecessor, Country Road, failed. Even owner John Mitsos admits the location, which is not visible from the road, is "quirky."Mitsos bought Country Road last December, kept the bar-food fare the same for a few months and introduced a new name and menu in March. His concept is upscale food in a relaxed setting, or as his ads tout, "casual fine dining."

TYLERTON -- Gov. Parris N. Glendening hopped a ride on a fire engine, pulled a rope that set a church bell ringing, learned to pick crabs and otherwise made his presence known yesterday during his first-ever trip to Maryland's Smith Island.Not that any of the 347 people who inhabit the island's three small towns -- Ewell, Tylerton and Rhodes Point -- could have been unaware that the governor, along with an entourage of media, state officials and others, was paying a visit.Even the sea gulls perched atop the piers and the herons wading through the Chesapeake Bay grasses seemed to take note of the hubbub as the ferry Chelsea Lane Tyler -- the boat that takes the island's youngsters to school on the mainland -- shuttled the group around Smith Island.

THE LATEST studies indicate the Chesapeake's blue crab population is in clear decline. Unfortunately, we've heard the same woeful assessments for years.Maryland imposed new limits on crabbing three years ago, cutting permitted fishing times and catches. The results were mixed: a spurt in the crab catch one season, a drop the next.Logically, the emphasis on curbing overfishing should have yielded an increase in crab numbers, given their short life span of two to four years. But commercial watermen have increased their efforts, within the rules, to take more of the shellfish.

The owners are natives of Greece, but right now you won't find any Greek dishes on the menu at Fells Point's new Gemini Bistro (710 S. Broadway), which opened last week. Instead, chef Brigitte Bledsoe prepares dishes like grilled tuna with wild mushroom beurre blanc topped with crispy fried leeks, and jumbo lump Creole crab cakes with remoulade and roasted corn relish.Greek food will be added as specials soon, says Chris Solomonides, who with his twin brother, Theo, owns Gemini.Bledsoe's cooking is known to Fells Point habitues because she worked at Tapestry before she moved on to Morgan Millard in Roland Park and then to Gemini.

Like most of the crowd who ventured to the Maryland Seafood Festival at Sandy Point State Park Sunday, Walter Hughes arrived ready to eat. But unlike other festivalgoers, Hughes satisfied his appetite by wolfing down six crab cakes in 2 minutes 42 seconds. In doing so, Hughes won the second round of the festival's crab-eating contest and astonished his fellow competitors and a crowd of onlookers. When asked to explain how he was able to consume a half-dozen of the crab cakes, each weighing 3 3/4 ounces, Hughes, a 38-year-old carpenter from Port Deposit, said simply, "I was hungry."

My track record isn't very good recently as far as restaurant news is concerned, although I have been able to keep up - barely - on my blog, Dining@Large. First I reported that Jordan Naftal of Jordan's Steakhouse was reopening oZ. Steakhouse in Maple Lawn with Carlos Venegas, an owner of the planned community's tapas restaurant, Ranazul. Then the next week I told you, oops, Jordan's had closed unexpectedly because of a rent dispute with the landlord, but Naftal was still going ahead with the Maple Lawn location.

First, let us offer these two words of response to that unknown waterman who recently offered to sell his license to catch Chesapeake Bay blue crabs to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for $425 million: Nice try. Whether submitted in protest or humor, the bid only underscores the peculiar dynamics of the state attempting to buy back limited commercial crabbing licenses. Crabbing on a commercial level is a privilege, not a right. The state could just as easily stop renewing them and then 3,676 license-holders would be out of luck - and taxpayers would save about $3 million.

Close to 500 commercial crabbers bit on the state's offer to pay them to surrender their right to catch crabs for sale, according to Lynn Fegley, assistant fisheries director of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DNR had mailed buyback offers last month to 3,676 Marylanders holding "limited crab catcher" licenses, and they had until July 31 to respond. The licenses allow holders to deploy up to 50 wire-mesh "pots" or an unlimited amount of baited line to catch crabs for sale.

Maryland seafood processors, desperately short of hands to pick crabmeat, are rushing to apply for visas for foreign workers after the federal Department of Homeland Security declared Thursday that 25,000 seasonal immigration permits have gone unclaimed for this year. The unexpected discovery that some of the annual allocation of 66,000 seasonal worker visas were still available was a welcome relief for the operators of Eastern Shore crab "picking houses," some of which had remained shuttered when the season started in the spring because they could not find enough help.

THURSDAY CRAB SOUP STAKES: Restaurant Week kicks off with a crabby competition at the Harborplace Amphitheater, Light and Pratt streets, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Whether you're a cream-based devotee or prefer tomato-based crab soups, there'll be samples for both camps. Attendees get to vote for their favorites from area restaurants. The event is free. Call 410-332-4191 or go to harborplace.com. WTMD'S FIRST THURSDAYS IN THE PARK: "Listen for the music, look for the monument." In this case, listen for Evan Watson and Ms. Sara and the Help at the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon.

It seems like no matter what the original topic on my blog at Dining@Large, sooner or later the readers commenting get back to the same things they want to talk about. Here are the 10 topics we've dissected, examined, rehashed and argued over more times than I can count: 1 Children misbehaving in restaurants 2 Whose fault poor service is - the restaurant's or the customer's 3 Which restaurant has the best crab cakes. Why they are terrible because they are made with alien crab meat 4 Everything tastes better in New York (bagels, reubens, pizza, etc.)

The Prime Rib is a restaurant living in the past. It's a restaurant Donald Draper of Mad Men, the cable TV show set in Manhattan in the '60s, would enjoy - a place where wheeler-dealers took their beautiful wives, ate prime steaks and drank chilled martinis. The service, by tuxedoed waiters, is top-notch. That goes almost without saying. Since it opened in 1965, the Prime Rib has been Baltimore's answer to the New York supper club. Reviewers - including me - have swooned over the leopard-print carpeting, the black walls, the sensuous, gilt-framed paintings, the baby grand.

I call it cuisine creep: Crab seasoning is spreading beyond crustaceans. It is being used in hamburgers, on crackers, in Bloody Marys. Moreover, it is showing up in communities a long way from saltwater. Various mixtures of salt, peppers, paprika, mustard, celery seed, mace and cardamom have long been a staple of Maryland cooks. Besides coating steamed crabs with it, local cooks have traditionally sprinkled it in the fried chicken batter and on corn on the cob and snacks such as popcorn.

Is there a chef in the world who doesn't want to open his or her own restaurant? I doubt it. I can understand why someone would want total creative control, but the challenges of being an owner, particularly in a recession, on top of having to produce the food must be daunting. But chefs continue to do it. One of the latest is Antoine Petteway, who had a loyal following when he worked at the Metropolitan, a couple of blocks from the location of his new place, the Hill. He's managed to stay on good terms with his former employers, which says something about the kind of person he is. Petteway, I gather, is a major draw for the Hill.