Crab

They are giddy. Drunk on knowledge. High on the conceit of what they are trying to do. Finest dining, here in Fort Point — modern yet lavish, refined and formal and beyond expensive. You are in their sights, and Menton’s minions are coming for you. From the right! A woman armed with more information about the wine she will pour than anyone would ever need to know. She is grinning. She is talking perfume and acid and soil and philosophy. She is pouring liquid, golden, into your glass.

Serves 8 Andy Husbands and Chris Hart write that people eat with their eyes first, so when they're in competitions, their team uses really big shrimp. In industry talk, standard cocktail-size shrimp are called 16/20, which means 16 to 20 per pound, each weighing an ounce or less. This recipe calls for U4s, meaning there are under 4 per pound. You can also use jumbo shrimp.

If you're tired of artificial, machine-made computers, then check out this new, all-natural computer, designed by computer scientists in Japan and Britain. It's 100% organic: In place of the usual silicon circuits, it uses huge swarms of blue soldier crabs. The "computer" was built by Yukio-Pegio Gunji and Yuta Nishiyama, of Kobe University, and Andrew Adamatzky, of the appropriately named Unconventional Computing Centre at the University of the West of England.

NEW YORK - Russians prefer their Lay's potato chips dusted in caviar and crab flavors. The Chinese like Oreos stuffed with mango and orange cream. Americans might get squeamish at the thought of their favorite snacks being tweaked. But what works in the United States doesn't always work elsewhere. Food makers long have tinkered with their products to appeal to regional tastes, but getting the recipe just right is becoming more important than ever. Says Lee Linthicum, a market researcher: "It can't be some generic mix of spices that might fool an American.

I'LL BE walking down the concourse of an airport in Chicago or Atlanta, passing gates where people are waiting to fly to cities all over the country. There might be some small sign of difference here and there — different team hats, accents — but they're all basically acting the same. Then I get to the gate for my flight to Boston. People are eating sticky food and reading and staring at their phones, just like at the other gates, but their expressions are a little stonier, and they get up a little earlier before the listed boarding time to mass in front of the door, angling a little more aggressively...

ELLSWORTH, Maine -- Snowdrifts lingered. Wire lobster traps stood piled high in yards and on wharves. Wood smoke curled from chimneys Even in March, though, a crowd had formed at Jordan's Snack Bar in Ellsworth. Waitstaff, wearing fleece pullovers and mufflers wound around their necks, busily took orders for crab rolls and other Down East fare. In eastern Maine, Jordan's opening for the season stirs something in the soul. It gives folks hope that warm weather isn't too far off. After being hammered by blizzards all winter, locals hanker for simple pleasures like going for a crab...

Summer sings a paean to seafood, and some Boston-area restaurants are highlighting creative specialties this month. At Sonsie, they're going through some 50 pounds of crabmeat a week. There's an entire appetizer menu dedicated to crab: yellow tomato soup with Maine crab meat, garden salad with herb crab fritters, corn-crusted sea scallops with crabby cole slaw, and avocado crab cakes. There's also a new take on the reliable stuffed mushrooms: the crab-stuffed portobello topped with melted brie and buttered bread crumbs (definitely not on the low-carb diet)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Is that spring in the air -- or an old gym sock on fire? In sailing-crazy Annapolis, boaters celebrate the first day of spring with a ceremonial Burning of the Socks, signifying it will soon be warm enough to wear boat shoes without socks. "It's a good idea to stand upwind," warned John Morgan, 77. The tradition began in the mid-1980s, when an employee at Annapolis Yacht Yard tired of his winter days doing engine maintenance on yachts and power boats.

The fiddler crab was not happy. His eyes bulged, his big claw jabbed, and every segment of his two-inch body writhed furiously in the palm of researcher MaryKay Fox. And who could blame him? One minute the tiny creature in his glorious purple-tinged shell was skittering sideways across the sand, maybe planning to dig a perfect round hole under the marsh grass for some shut-eye, and the next he was captive in a human hand. Fox picked up the little guy during a horseshoe crab monitoring project with scientists and volunteers from the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine...

Saunders at Rye Harbor 175 Harbor Road, Rye, N.H. Telephone: 603-964-6466 www.saundersatryeharbor.com Hours: Open daily at noon; Monday and Tuesdays, open for lunch only, noon-4 p.m.; Wednesday through Saturday, noon-9 p.m.; Sunday, noon-7 p.m. Major credit cards accepted Accessible to the handicapped Let's say it right off the bat. While there are a few dishes at Saunders that are excellent, most of the food is...

A computer made of crabs If you're tired of artificial, factory-built computers, then check out this new, all-natural one, designed by computer scientists in Japan and Britain. It's 100 percent organic: In place of the usual silicon circuits, it uses huge swarms of blue soldier crabs. The "computer" was built by Yukio-Pegio Gunji and Yuta Nishiyama, of Kobe University, and Andrew Adamatzky, of the appropriately named Unconventional Computing Centre at the University of the West of England.

If you're tired of artificial, machine-made computers, then check out this new, all-natural computer, designed by computer scientists in Japan and Britain. It's 100% organic: In place of the usual silicon circuits, it uses huge swarms of blue soldier crabs. The "computer" was built by Yukio-Pegio Gunji and Yuta Nishiyama, of Kobe University, and Andrew Adamatzky, of the appropriately named Unconventional Computing Centre at the University of the West of England.

"Rationalists," writes noted British paleontologist Richard Fortey, "are not permitted to have shrines," but if they were, Shark Bay, on the remote and barren coast of Western Australia, "might be high on the list. " Shark Bay is the place where, in 1954, a form of life so ancient it makes one giddy to think of it was discovered alive and well in the clear, shallow waters of a cove known as Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites, for those who have never heard of them, are dark brown columnar structures (some apparently look like knobbly cauliflower heads or even...

I'LL BE walking down the concourse of an airport in Chicago or Atlanta, passing gates where people are waiting to fly to cities all over the country. There might be some small sign of difference here and there — different team hats, accents — but they're all basically acting the same. Then I get to the gate for my flight to Boston. People are eating sticky food and reading and staring at their phones, just like at the other gates, but their expressions are a little stonier, and they get up a little earlier before the listed boarding time to mass in front of the door, angling a...

If this keeps up, the betting between mayors will soon begin in the preseason. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino will make another friendly wager today on the fortunes of the New England Patriots. This time, Menino will bet with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, whose Ravens play the Patriots in the AFC Championship on Sunday. Bets between mayors and governors of opposing cities were once reserved for Super Bowl and the World Series, but this year the genial gambling started early.

Serves 4 as appetizer, 2 as entree 3 egg whites ¼ cup water 3 tablespoons flour 3 tablespoons cornstarch 3 tablespoons semolina Salt and pepper, to taste Pinch paprika 3 tablespoons canola oil 4 prime soft-shell crabs, cleaned 2 cloves garlic, chopped ...

The Young Man & the Sea: Recipes & Crispy Fish Tales from Esca , By David Pasternack and Ed Levine, Artisan, 252 pp., $35 I might as well be the first to admit it: Sometimes I'm wary of cookbooks written by famous chefs. I've been let down more times than I can count by people whose immaculate, well-staffed kitchens bear no resemblance to my own and whose books have just about lost their toehold in reality. There's the "army of prep cooks" problem of the chef who has forgotten what it's like to peel fava beans.

IF you watch HBO’s police drama “The Wire,” you might think that Baltimore is filled with drug dealers and crime ringleaders. But in truth, the city has attracted a different breed of misfits: artists. Lured by cheap rents and warehouse spaces, artists and photographers have flocked there to claim the city as their own. Once rough neighborhoods like Hampden and Highlandtown have been taken over in recent years by studios, galleries and performance spaces. Crab joints and sports bars now share the cobblestone streets with fancy cafes and tapas restaurants.

Serves 4 Prime size soft-shells are best for this recipe. But if you use jumbo size, which are more often available for retail, add 2 minutes to the cooking time. Ask your fishmonger to clean the soft-shells for you. They cook very quickly. Assemble the other ingredients, so you can layer the sandwiches when they’re done. Also, be careful of spattering oil when cooking the crabs. Use a splatter guard if you have one. AIOLI 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 1 clove garlic, finely chopped ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard ...