Fortunately for me, my fishmonger takes a vacation once a year. And the day before, they sell all of their fish at a 50% discount. Fresh fish just won’t last the week, you know.

With jumbo lump crab meat going for USD$30/lb., summer has found me a little, well crabby about the price of fixing what has always been a summer staple around here. But with that discount, a pound of crabmeat becomes more affordable. (You can always cut down the cost using backfin crabmeat, but jumbo lump can’t be beat.)

I’m generous with the crab cakes and can get four of them to a pound. Like barbeque, crab cake recipes are a matter of individual and even regional taste. In my opinion, they just aren’t the same unless the meat is from the Blue Crab.

So if you’re going to invest, I thought you might like the best recipe in the world to prepare yours. Like the blue crabs themselves, this recipe comes from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, from a place that was once little more than a shack at the end of a pier, The Oxford Carry Out.

Crab Cakes for Four

Mix:
2 tsp. of dry or wet mustard (I like Coleman’s Dry)
1 egg, beaten
1 heaping TBS. of mayonnaise
2 oz (3 slices of bread without the crust) bread cubed (Here’s where I deviate from the perfection of the original recipe: I use Panko breadcrumbs or a good organic hot cereal mix as I did this time.)
Salt, pepper, and fresh chopped parsley to taste.

Add into the bowl:
1 lb. of jumbo lump crabmeat.

Form the crab cakes by hand, handling as little as possible. Fry in oil or butter.

As a kid, I would eat sandwiches made with crabcakes, a hamburger bun, coleslaw and a pickle. They are still the perfect summer food.

This particular evening, I fried two and broiled two after spraying them with a butter flavoured cooking spray. The fried cakes broke up a bit (cook’s error on turning), but would have made easy and tasty sandwiches nonetheless. The broiled version looked much prettier and held together better. I served the crab cakes on a bed of roughly torn Romaine lettuce leaves with a splash of Balsamic Vinaigrette and freshly cracked pepper for a more elegant, if less traditional, presentation.

A word of warning, once you start making your own using this recipe, you will become very critical of those served at most restaurants. At current market prices, however, you would be paying about USD$30 a crabcake or more. Fortunately, they go great with cold beer.

We here in Virginia are inventors and entrepreneurs. The internet is based in Northern Virginia, for goodness sakes. Yes, we have a way with influencing the globe. Take for example the watermen who devised more efficient and cheaper ways of harvesting our Blue Crabs from the Chesapeake Bay. Yes, it is we Virginians who are responsible for jumbo lump crab meat at USD$31.00 (+) a pound. There just aren’t that many crabs left.

And what is summer without Blue Crabs? No jumbo lump crabcakes. No Crab Imperial. No She-Crab Soup. No pan fried soft shells.

Sacrifices will have to be made.

This year, it will be cheaper to eat lobster than to dine on the more humble crab. Chin up and uncork the champagne.

The Easy and Elegant Maine Course Lobster Salad.
Serves Four.

1 cup of cooked and chopped lobster. (Or one to two small tails.)
Grated Onion to taste.
White pepper and salt to taste.
Vinaigrette
(chill one hour)
1 cup chopped celery
2 teaspoons of dry sherry
Mayonnaise
Dash of dry mustard

Garnish with fresh parsley, pickles and hard-boiled eggs.

Mix well, lobster, salt, pepper, vinaigrette and chill for an hour to blend the flavours.

Add in the celery, sherry, dry mustard and about a tablespoon (+) of mayonnaise. Stir to combine. Serve over a bed of lettuce and garnish with chopped fresh parsley, chopped pickles and chopped hard-boiled eggs.

If you’re out of bubbly, a nice rosé goes equally well.

(Image and Swimsuit available from Brooks Brothers)

Getting my sea legs has little to do with sailing for me these days. Rather it is the moment when I must face up to the fact that I will, at some point in the near future, unveil said pasty stems and their supporting structure to the indifferent and unenvious glances at the beach or the pool.

If you, like me, are over the age of 30 and can’t quite carry off the La Perla GrigioPerla swimsuit sported by Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale”, you may be looking for a suitable swimsuit that will do the least damage to your reputation. Here are a few things to consider:

1) Length: I prefer a shorter version of the swimsuit as I am neither hip nor hop. Look for an inseam of 6″ - 9″.

2) Pockets: are a nuisence. They collect sand and balloon up in the water. Besides, my mobile isn’t waterproof.

3) Colour and Graphic Design. Less is, as with most things, more.

4) Material: quick drying and not-at-all clingly is most desirable.

And finally,

5) The Waistband: over 30 you are taking chances with an elastic waistband. Over 40, as I am, and you are flirting with the horrible muffin top regardless of how physically fit you may be. Even Sylvester Stallone had liposuction. I have had enough of hospitals and refuse to volunteer go under the knife. Or vacuum. Or whatever… Yikes. The solution is the sized waist with a draw cord closure. Buy them at your actual size and they will not slip. Nor will they bind and squeeze and redistribute that which has taken you years of sybaritic indulgence to build up.

Try the custom option or Style 301 Mid-thigh Basic from Birdwell Beach Britches. At USD$39.50 they are a steal and will last you indefinitely.

Or consider the Brooks Brothers Country Club Side Stripe Board Short with draw cord closure (shown above.) Worth the sale price of USD$73.88 and ocean tested by your faithful correspondent. The Bond-like light blue are sold out online. But then, my eyes don’t match them anyway.