CHRIS PREOVOLOS: THE FOOD BLOG

12/22/2008

Midway through reading Calvin Trillin’s eminently enjoyable food book, “Alice, Let’s Eat,” two realizations converged, hitting me like a ton of bricks: I will be in the San Francisco Bay Area this week and Dungeness crabs are in peak season.

Forget Christmas. Forget family. It’s crab season.

And crab season is big business in SF: In Connecticut’s maritime shipping circles, the words ‘Cosco Busan’ trigger serious conversations about legal liability and the criminalization of seafarers, but in the Bay Area, it recalls the panic that ensued last year after 58,000 gallons of spilled bunker oil postponed the opening day of Dungeness season by a few weeks.

Breathe easy, those dark days are behind us and Dungeness is once again being hauled from the Golden Gate.

So, after three days of fantasizing about picking up a couple of crabs for Christmas Eve dinner, then settling in with a six-pack of Anchor Steam and some sourdough (preferably from ACME), I broke down and bought a crab in Norwalk. I couldn’t wait. The impulse was so strong I battled the traffic to Norwalk and the utterly wretched Costco parking lot.

Even in Northern California, I wouldn’t be buying live crabs. Regrettably, I probably wouldn’t even be buying San Francisco Bay crabs. The bay and surrounding waters are generally fished out within weeks of opening day.

Most of the crab sold in the Bay is taken much farther up the coast or in Oregon or Washington, then boiled and flash frozen. Basically, it’s exactly the same as what you can pickup at Costco in Norwalk for $5.99 per pound.

I’ve seen Dungeness at a few different markets here, but the crabs at “Seafood Showcase” at Costco are superior. Really, the difference is huge. [Plus, the crab is right next to the wicked good Manchego that is about 1/3 the price of similar Spanish cheeses at Stop and Shop]

I prefer to eat my Dungeness with nothing more than drawn butter or cocktail sauce, but I end up with most of the body meat left over for a crab louie (or a crab and avocado omelet). The fact that nobody on the East Coast has heard of a crab louie is an absolute crime, though so is charging $32 for a louie at Scoma’s in San Francisco. [To their defense, it's really a ridiculous mountain of fresh crab over a thin layer of salad]

With my Dungeness urge out of the way – at least temporarily – I can relax and consider the other possibilities for a first Bay Area meal; a double-double from In-N-Out, a Wisconsin Burger from Taylor’s Automatic Refresher, a few $1.25 tacos from the Tacos Jalisco truck…the possibilities are limitless.

–CP

P.S. DON’T FORGET: Dungeness enchiladas