Crab houses on Maryland’s Eastern Shore

Grab a mallet and get cracking, said Jordan Hruska in The New York Times. Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., is “a vast, rich incubator for sea life.” During the season, from April to the end of November, crab houses along the Eastern Shore serve up baskets of jumbo crab to hungry locals and tourists alike. Yet relatively few travelers venture to the “gracious stretch of land,” still mostly undeveloped, on the mid-Atlantic coast.

The crabs are typically dumped onto a brown paper tablecloth, and all the diner needs to enjoy them is a wooden mallet, a paring knife, melted butter, and perhaps a glass of wine or beer to wash it all down. Here are a few noteworthy destinations.

Waterman’s Crab House “Truly jumbo” crabs are served at this lively spot. Melted butter and Old Bay Seasoning “represent the diametric sweet and salty palate” governing every spread. 21055 Sharp St., Rock Hall, Md. (410) 639-2261

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Schooners deep-fries soft-shell crabs and stacks them on a roll or white toast with mayo and tomato. The sight was a little unappetizing, with bent fins and claws sticking out from the sides, but “it all crunched the same.” 314 Tilghman St., Oxford, Md. (410) 226-0160

Drum Point Market Tylerton, ­population 85, is a village on Smith Island—which is, in fact, a collection of islands in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay that’s named for English colonist Captain Henry Smith. Drum Point’s crab cake is made from a well-guarded recipe, but mostly seems to rely on extreme freshness and a smidgen of black pepper. 21162 Center St., Tylerton, Md. (410) 425-2108