smetz

I'll be out in San Francisco and Napa/Sonoma in about six weeks, and I understand that dungeness crabs are in season through June or so.

My wife and I really want to enjoy some of these, and I'd love to hear from anyone about your preferred way to eat them (e.g. picking them yourself, or in some sort of recipe), and good spots around San Francisco, or to the north along the cost, to find them.

I have picked cracked crabs at Fisherman's Wharf and really enjoyed that, and have had them in crab cakes - also very good. But I've also heard of them being roasted or baked, or being cooked Thai style with some sort of a spicy sauce.

Fodorite018

I prefer dungenous crab plain...cooked and then eaten. They are so good on their own, there is no reason to mess with other ingredients.

kleroux

I agree...plain or with melted butter. Crabs are in short supply this year, however... so be prepared to either pay a lot more than usual to eat them, or not find them on the menu. You will find them at Fishermans Wharf..but IMO I'd avoid those restaurants that I think over cook the crab, and find a less touristy restaurant. If you go to Healdsburg, about 1.5 hrs North of SF you could eat at Willi's Seafood restaurant... its delicious with small plates to share. You'd find great crab there. Plus there are a lot of other things to do in the area.

StuDudley

Don't mess with the delicate sweet meat of the crab. No cocktail sauce, no crab cakes, no Thai seasonings, etc. Just some melted butter with a little lemon - that's about the extent of it.

"Borrow" a fork from your hotel in San Francisco. Go to the Wharf and get a whole crab & have them clean & crack it for you. Make sure that they also slice through the body with a knife (that's my favorite part of the crab). Have them put it into a plastic bag. Bike to Crissy Field and devour the crab yourself on one of the picnic tables there & enjoy the great views.

You can also get crab at Whole Foods on Franklin & Calif streets. Go to Lafayette Park & eat the crab there.

Stu Dudley

RONREYN2008

I live up in Sonoma County & at a couple local stores that get the Crabs fresh from Bodega Bay & sell them for about half of what they sell them for down on Fishermans Wharf. I like to go to one of these stores & get a couple Crabs after they clean & crack them for me for free. I then go to a park down the street with my nut cracker & little fork & have a ball. Who needs Butter? I also take them home & make our own Crab Louie or then get the Butter out & throw the diet completly out the door.I love SF & it's Fisherman's Wharf but not if I have to pay that much more for my Crab. One local store has it's fresh Crabs at $3.99 a lb. right now & it will be still a lot less up here than down there, then. So, come & enjoy the Crab & you can stay in SF if you want but....

StuDudley

I think just about everyone living in the Bay Area can get crab for less $$$ than at the Wharf. I go to Half Moon Bay to buy crab. However, a visitor may not have the opportunity to venture beyong the Wharf to look for crab. I would never purchase a walk-away crab cocktail at the Wharf. Last time I did that was probably 1964.

Ronray - we'll be visiting friends in the town of Sonoma on Friday, returning Sat. Where do you buy crab for $3.99 per lb. I'll bring up a cooler & purchase two.

Stu Dudley

TTess

Go where the locals go...Swan Oyster Depot.

suze

yikes, I would never make Dungeness Crab spicy thai styled! Plain steamed. On a plate or possibly in a salad. It's too delicate and way too expensive to "do" other things with.

smetz

Well, it sounds like the consensus is for pure and simple eating, and I'm for that.

TTess, Swan Oyster Depot sounds great. We had Hog Island oysters when were were in San Francisco last year, and I thought they were excellent. I live in Maryland, and people here tend to say that the west coast oysters are too bland, but I did not find that at all with Hog Island's - delicious!

kleroux, I think a trip to Willi's Seafood restaurant may be in order too. Is that related to Willi's Wine Bar in Santa Rosa? We also went there last year and really enjoyed the food.

StuDudley, great ideas - how is the weather in March for eating outside?

Ronrey, we are thinking of staying a night or two in Bodega Bay - any place you'd suggest? We ate before at a little crab shack on the western side of the bay - no indoor seating. Too bad they were out of season then, all they had were crab salad sandwiches & oyster chowder, both of which were pretty good!

StuDudley

Weather is quite un-predictable. We are at the end of a heatwave that lasted about 10 days. It hit the 80s in a few spots - 12 degrees above the previous record high temp.

No telling what March will be like. Bring a jacket.

I thought it was illegal for people from Maryland to eat Dungeness crab !!!

Stu Dudley

smetz

"I thought it was illegal for people from Maryland to eat Dungeness crab !!!"

Ha ha! We do it on the down low.

easytraveler

There are a couple of very expensive Vietnamese crab places in San Francisco: Crustacean and Thanh Long. both restaurants are very highly rated.

http://www.anfamily.com/portalpage.html

Their prices are way high for me, at $35+ for one crab! The "secret" recipe is delicious, but...

We do our own crab and prefer to buy them live at a nearby 99 Ranch Market. We just had our first crab fest this year with 15 dungeness crabs at $3.99 a lb for live crabs. At least half the crabs were as big as the ones at Thanh Long - over 2 lbs apiece.

If doing just crab, we do not boil the crabs, but steam them. then we have two sauces, one butter and one Asian, that we use for dipping.

Otherwise, I do cook them other ways, but this takes a lot more effort, as it involves breaking the crab apart while it is still live - not a task for the squeamish! Also the claws, once detached, still snap, so care has to be taken in handling the live crab. The trickiest part is washing them and getting them squeaky clean while all those claws and sharp hooks at the end of their legs are waving around wildly!

I have about 7 or 8 ways to cook the crab once it's been broken up. Ah, but these are my own secret recipes and at least a couple of them are better than the secret recipe at Thanh Long, IMHO.

If I were you, I'd check myself into one of those suite hotels with a kitchen, then go and buy myself some live crabs and a set of nutcrackers (with pick), boil the crabs at the hotel, and set to.

Oh, and some good wine - we prefer Reisling with crab!

Enjoy!

sf7307

Stu, where do you get your crab in Half Moon Bay -- at the stand right where you turn left onto Main Street?

StuDudley

Yep - but they have ripped me off a few times - so be careful. Always stand in front of the scale and verify the weight. Call ahead and ask for the price of large cooked crabs.

Easytraveler - where is that 99 market?

Stu Dudley

easytraveler

Stu:

Here's a list of the 99 Ranch branches:

http://www.99ranch.com/StoreLocator.asp?Store=All

You can find the one closest to where you live.

I believe they all carry live seafood, but don't know for sure. Always ask for the large crabs "big, BIG" and have them hold up the crab to show you to make sure that it's the size you want, but also that it's ALIVE.

The meat of a live crab tastes so different from the meat of a crab whose date of passing is unknown.

In the seafood section, there should also be a frying section. You can select a fish (usually a dead one), have them clean it and fry it for you. saves a lot of work and oil splatter by having them do it for you.

If you buy a live fish, they will also clean and gut it for you.

Shanghainese

Stu:

www.99ranch.com

Note weekend crab prices are higher than weekdays.

StuDudley

Thanks Shangi & Easy.

Have either of you been to Marina market on Hillsdale Blvd??? How does 99 compare for Fish & other Asian items? I love the roast duck at Marina.

Stu Dudley

easytraveler

No, not to that particular Marina.

I've been to a Marina market in Cupertino but found their prices much higher than 99 Ranch for the same items. Haven't been back many years now. Don't know if they are the same chain.

Oh, another tip on buying live crab from 99 Ranch: they put the crab into a transparent plastic bag, make sure they punch a hole in the bottom of the bag to let out the water, otherwise, you are paying $3.99 for dirty water!

If you can get the crabs home fast, then it's ok to leave them as bagged, otherwise, to keep them alive, you have to open up the top of the bag to give the crabs some oxygen. If kept in the plastic bag for too long, they'll die - which makes it meaningless to get them live at the market.

smetz

"The meat of a live crab tastes so different from the meat of a crab whose date of passing is unknown."

You mean it's ok to cook them after they're dead? (Not so with blue crabs around here.) Or, is the "date of passing" the date that they're steamed & then they sit around a while?

StuDudley

>>"date of passing" the date that they're steamed & then they sit around a while?<<

yep

I've never purchased live crabs and 'cooked" them myself. I always buy the cooked crabs cleaned at the market, but never broken up or cracked. I do that at home. Lots of "juices" are lost if they are cracked much before they are eaten.

My wife does not like live things in the refrig - lobster or crab.

FWIW, I've had crab in France, and several times in Maryland. I prefer the Dungeness. I've only had Maryland crab with Old Bay - which kinda smothered the taste, IMO.

Stu Dudley