Crab

Schultz's Crab House, 1732 Old Eastern Ave., Essex. (410) 687-1020. Open every day for lunch and dinner. MC, V. No-smoking area: no. Prices: appetizers, $1.35-$5.75; entrees, $8.95-$16.95. ***What is the world coming to when you ask for a glass of white wine at a nice, old-fashioned crab house (OK, that was the first mistake), and the waiter says, "White zinfandel or white Chablis?"Next they'll be serving tiramisu for dessert.Not to worry, in almost every other respect Schultz's Crab House seems timeless: a family-owned and family-operated business where the hard shells are enormous and as good as they get.It's a pleasure to sit down in Schultz's inviting dining room, with its knotty pine walls, leaping marlins and paper-covered tables with red paper place mats on top. The place is friendly and unpretentious, like the people who work there.

I won a crab picking contest. Me, a guy who was born in Kansas, and grew up believing "seafood" was fish sticks. Me, who once thought a crab hammer was something you put in your tool box. Me, who wouldn't know a crab knife from a putty knife, pulled 7 1/4 ounces of meat and some shell from about four crabs in three minutes to win the First Annual Preakness Crab Picking Contest Monday at Harborplace.I have the placard for my wall, and the cuts on my hand to prove it.I should remember that this was not a contest for crab-picking pros.

Crabs weren't the only critters featured at the annual crab feast of Chi Eta Phi, a sorority of African-American nurses. Tons of turtles decorated outfits in the crowd of crab lovers gathered at Martin's West. "The turtle is our mascot!" club historian DeLois Hamilton explained. "Like the turtle, we may go slowly, but we work [club projects] to the end." Some 300 members and guests certainly worked slowly but steadily through the group's latest project -- a buffet line of steamed crabs, corn, pasta and chicken.

It is time to enjoy the soft side of summer - eating soft-shell crab sandwiches. This fare is not for the faint of heart. Some diners are put off by the sight of crab legs and claws dangling over the edge of a sandwich. But for the rest of us, the bodies of these blue crabs are luscious stuff. Caught as they shed their hard shells, these crabs are battered, fried and served in a sandwich with tomato and lettuce. They are rich, delectable and a regional tradition. On a recent ride around the Beltway, I found three good soft-crab sandwiches, on rye. Best Bite Kibby's Restaurant Address: 3450 Wilkens Ave. Phone: 410-644-8716 Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday The soft crab in this $11.61 sandwich measured 6 inches, point to point.

Maryland's plan to limit crabbing later this week comes at the last minute, but not too late for the migrating female crabs it aims to protect. Their peak travel time to the lower bay to bury themselves and their fertilized eggs is in September and October, the time when they are most vulnerable to the crab pot and trotline.By closing the crab fishery two days a week after Thursday and ending the season 45 days early (on Nov. 15), state officials hope to reduce the female crab harvest by 20 percent.

Marylanders have always kept a close eye on the health o King Crab, but usually only after he has been properly steamed and seasoned.Market prices and available sizes at restaurants, seafood markets and carryout shops have been the primary public measures of change to the prodigious populations of these beautiful swimmers of the Chesapeake.Some years the delectable crustaceans are huge and abundant, other times they're scarce and small and costly. But that has always been the way with the cycle of nature.

The county liquor board has ruled that the owners of Spittel's Crab House in Sykesville cannot apply for a liquor license again for six months because they violated county law.The restaurant, at 1043 Liberty Road, was closed from Sept. 14 through Oct. 12. County liquor law says an establishment cannot be closed for more than 10 consecutive days without notifying the board.Betty S. McGuirk testified at a hearing in November that her family had been operating the business because she was ill.Co-owner Patricia M. Prediger testified she had not been aware the business was closed for that period.

CAMBRIDGE - Nearly 200 watermen packed the pavilion at Sailwinds Park last night to hear details of new harvest rules that they fear will ruin commercial fishermen whose business depends in large part on catching female blue crabs, the Chesapeake Bay's signature fishery. The number of crabs has dropped so sharply that Maryland and Virginia imposed restrictions last month that are aimed at reducing the annual harvest of females by one-third. About half of the blue crabs harvested in Maryland waters are females, officials say, and many are caught in warm fall waters.

Maryland is lowering the boom on Smith Island's unlicensed crab pickers, warning watermen's wives and widows of stiff fines if they continue their decades-old tradition of selling crab meat in violation of state health laws.In letters mailed last week, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene informed 22 residents of this isolated, marshy island in the lower Chesapeake Bay that after tomorrow they may no longer pick crab meat for sale to the public unless they comply with the state's strict -- and costly -- food processing guidelines.