Crab Soup

Mom-mom will have her best china out. The smell of roasting turkey will fill the air. The TV will be tuned to football, but who knows if anyone will be watching. More likely three generations will be sitting around the living room, talking and laughing, trading stories, and recalling favorite memories of year's past. Thanksgiving at Anne Roberts' little house in Grove Park, a tiny enclave in Northwest Baltimore, will be pretty much the same this year. But in some ways, it won't be the same at all. Paula Tolson, Anne's oldest daughter, predicts the hugs will be a little tighter and last a little longer, the tears come more easily, the sense of gratitude - of profound thanks - will require no extra incentive.

HOW DO YOU tweak a classic? That is the question about a dozen area chefs wrestled with last week as they prepared their entries for the annual Old Bay Crab Soup Stakes at Harborplace. Both the white cream of crab soup and its red vegetable-laden cousin are sacrosanct dishes in many Maryland homes. Recipes are passed down, like family silver, from generation to generation. Restaurant chefs, however, can be more adventuresome with crab soup. They can play with conventional recipes; they can think beyond the same old formula.

AS A FREQUENT Food Network viewer, Pam De Bari of Edgewater wondered how producers select the restaurants that end up on its "The Best Of" show. She also thought her good friend and neighbor, Michael Cummings, chef at Old Stein Inn, would be a good subject for the cable TV program. Curiosity finally got the better of her. A little more than a month ago, she sent the show an e-mail asking how restaurants are chosen. In her message, she wrote about the great food at Old Stein, particularly Cummings' award-winning Maryland crab soup.

Gertrude's is something of a forgotten restaurant. Not at lunchtime, of course. Museumgoers and staff at nearby Johns Hopkins University keep it busy. And it's a great place to go for afternoon tea. But after three years, the hoopla surrounding cookbook author John Shields' first restaurant has died down. It now has much the same problem as its predecessor, Donna's at the BMA: How do you lure customers on a weeknight without much in the way of a sign and almost no foot traffic? Particularly when your restaurant is not inexpensive.

The makers of Gordon's Chesapeake Classics foods knew they had a good Maryland Red Crab Soup, but it wasn't until last week that they knew it was out of this world. That was when the owners of the Pocomoke City food processor found out that their soup was among the provisions carried by the astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis as it rocketed to the international space station. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials say astronaut Tom Jones, one of three Baltimore natives on the mission, brought the soup to the Johnson Space Center in Houston and asked that it be freeze-dried and included in the food rations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Loaded with freeze-dried crab soup, a Maryland flag and three Baltimore natives, the space shuttle Atlantis is expected to blast off this evening for the International Space Station. Mission specialists Thomas D. Jones, 46; Robert L. Curbeam, 38; Marsha S. Ivins, 49, and two other crew members are slated to spend nearly 11 days in space. Their goal is to deploy the $1.4 billion U.S. Laboratory "Destiny," the latest component for the high-flying scientific outpost.

THREE different prize-winning crab soups, three different secrets of success. That is what I heard after quizzing the winners of a crab-soup contest, the annual Old Bay Soup Stakes held last Wednesday at Harborplace in the noonday sun. One chef said his secret was roasted red peppers, another winner said his was using crabs with lots of mustard in them, and a third said the key ingredient was cabbage. Two groups - the foodies and the sipping public - judged the soups. They spooned down soups that 17 area restaurants had entered in two categories: the vegetable-based red crab soup and the white cream of crab.

It's only a 30-minute ride from our house near Towson to River Watch in Essex, but, as we drove past open fields, marinas and tiny old riverfront cottages, we felt as if we were going on vacation. We have no idea what River Watch is like when the weather is cold, but it's a fine spot when you can eat outside on the restaurant's big deck under an awning, and watch the boats come and go on Middle River. The food's good, too. That's not always the case when a restaurant can get by on views alone.

First, you should know that there is an actual Captain Larry, who presides over his bar with grace. This means minding his own business most of the time and minding other people's when he needs to. It keeps the place spirited but orderly. Second, Captain Larry's is an actual neighborhood bar, in an actual neighborhood. Who knows what will happen to this tidy block in Locust Point as the South Baltimore "renaissance" continues its progress? But for now, Formstone is the preferred house front, marble steps gleam, and neighbors talk to each other through their screen doors.

The Treaty of Paris restaurant on Main Street in Annapolis is one of the longest-reigning eating establishments in town. And why not? The food is classic, the place historic and the service excellent. And yet on a recent Friday night, as I and two companions arrived for dinner at 8:30 p.m., for the first time in almost three years, I was struck by how 1980s the decorations appeared and how nearly empty the dining room was. An unchanged menu And despite a recent change in chefs, the menu looked almost the same as three years ago. Treaty of Paris does all the details right, from mouth-melting popovers in the bread basket to the lime sorbet served between the appetizer and main course.