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April 6, 2006
TEXAS blue crabs come fried and stacked high at Sartin's Seafood. Their shells are glistening with hot oil and crispy brown with barbecue spices.
A sandy-haired man wearing a suit and tie picks up a large one and breaks it in half. Using his fingers, he digs for succulent chunks of sweet, pearlescent meat.
"You really should have on picnic clothes here," he says with a smile and an oh-well shrug.
The taste of silken, briny seafood is worth the price of dry cleaning, especially now that blue crabs are plentiful and rich with meat.
"The season picks up when water temperatures reach about 70 degrees," says Robert Jakueas, owner of the Top Water Grill. "The crabs start moving around. In cold water, they're dormant, harder to catch."
Chefs and seafood purveyors are anticipating an abundant supply. High season began this month and continues through July.
"Prices start to go down this month," says chef Juan Cardona of Fisherman's Wharf in Galveston. "Compared to crawfish prices this year, whole blue-crab prices look pretty good. Usually it's the other way around."
A line forms inside Rose's Seafood in Seabrook. Near the entrance is a large chest of feisty crabs.
"Pick one up with the tongs," the girl behind the fish counter instructs. "If the crab is heavy, it's full of meat. Size doesn't matter. I've had really big crabs that were pretty lean."
The price is right
At about $1.80 per pound retail, live crabs cost 20 cents per pound less than crawfish - a first in many years, Rose's manager Tina Ly says. Last year, the crab price was $2 per pound, while crawfish was half that.
The reason? A crawfish shortage caused by drought and saltwater intrusion from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
At Sartin's, owner Kelli Sartin kicks off the season with an all-you-can-eat barbecued-crab and fried-shrimp lunch platter for about $17.
Barbecue crab was made famous in the 1940s by Granger's in Sabine Pass, 30 miles southeast of Beaumont. The roadhouse burned down in 1958, but Sartin's revived the tradition in the early '70s.
Sartin's seasons the crabs with a dry mixture that includes chili powder, cayenne pepper and perhaps curry powder (the recipe is a family secret, after all).
Once fried, the spice powder forms crusty, nut-brown patches so addictive you can't help but suck the shell.
In the '40s and '50s, Texas blue crabs were cheap and plentiful.
"Fishermen used to complain in the old days that there were so many they would eat their bait," says Glen Sutton, a fishery biologist for Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Back then, all-you-can-eat crab shacks such as Sartin's fanned across the Texas Gulf Coast. The rare one survives, including Stingaree Restaurant in Crystal Beach. For 18 years, generations have feasted on boiled, breaded and fried blue crabs. 
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"Some people sit here and eat them all day," manager Bob Organ says. "A big crab lover averages about 15 crabs. Most people eat six to 10."
In Houston, diners can partake of a crab boil at the Seafood Shoppe for $7 per pound. The restaurant-seafood market also offers a plate that includes four battered-and-fried crabs for $15.
Worth the effort
Eating whole crab is hard work.
"It takes a little effort to get to the meat, but once you've got it figured out, it's a big payoff," Jakueas says. "I have a boat in Chesapeake Bay. Blue crabs are abundant there, too. But the Gulf Coast crab is as good, if not better."
At Top Water Grill, blue-crab corn chowder is served year-round. Fried, stuffed blue crabs are available when the bottom-dweller is abundant. Its sweet, lump crabmeat is prized by chefs. High demand equals high prices: A pound averages $22.
"But it's fresh from the Gulf, right here at our back door," Cafe Annie sous-chef Elliott Kelly says. "For me, once a product has been frozen, it loses flavor."
Cafe Annie periodically offers blue-crab cakes with chipotle rémoulade as a special. The crab tostada and crab salad are staples.
The jumbo lump-crab cakes lightly dusted with Japanese bread crumbs are big sellers for executive chef Mark Holley at Pesce. Another popular item is the soft-shell blue crab stuffed with slivers of crabmeat and served with a mango-papaya salsa.
Down the street at Joyce's Ocean Grill, succulent battered-and-fried soft-shell crabs crown fragrant dill rice.
But for 22-year-old Andrew Vasko, Sartin's spicy fried blue crabs are hard to beat.
"Awesome," he says between bites. "I don't mind the work at all."
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HERE'S WHERE TO FIND THEM
Whole crabs
Sartin's Seafood, 18023 Upper Bay Drive, Nassau Bay, 281-333-4040.
The Seafood Shoppe, 10555 Westheimer, 713-978-5055.
Stingaree Restaurant & Bar, 1295 Stingaree Road, Crystal Beach, 409-684-2731.
Crab dishes
Cafe Annie, 1728 Post Oak Blvd., 713-840-1111.
Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 22, Galveston. 409-765-5708.
Joyce's Ocean Grill, 3736 Westheimer (713-850-7738) and 6415 San Felipe (713-975-9902).
Pesce, 3029 Kirby, 713-522-4858.
Top Water Grill, 815 Ave. O South, San Leon, 281-339-1232.
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