A Case of Crabs

[lilmissnever]

At the height of the season, by the Bay, Dungeness crab is ludicrously cheap--around five bucks a pound if you buy it directly from the crabbers on the wharf. Fisherman's Wharf is one of those places where real San Franciscans do not go. It is a tourist sacrifice zone, all dazed-looking out-of-towners wearing I Love San Francisco fleeces and trying

Comments

[cris]

whenever family visits New England from the West Coast, one de facto, non-negtionable dinner plan we have is at least one night at a good seafood shack where we can order a number of lobsters and revel in our alpha predator status and be thankful for our opposable thumbs1. When I visit California, the favor is returned by a dinner at Crustacean or Thang Long or some other Asian crab shack where we can order platters of crab stir fried with garlic and scallions. This has been a very good exchange for us over the decades, and quite central to family harmony.

This is also one of my favorite memories of Hong Kong -- a friend licking her thumbs after we'd been wrist deep in typhoon crabs at a night market.

Though, your feast sounds fantastic and that crab stock sounds utterly enviable.

1nearly 10 years ago, the family dropped by the Slanted Door when it was in the Ferry Building and we ordered a bunch of family style orders, and our waiter came back and said "oh, that steamed catfish ... you know it's a whole fish, right? It has bones and a head. I assume that's ok?"

And my mom looked at him like he was a simpleton and said, that "yes, that was fine."

Then the waiter came back and said, "oh, and those crabs, you know that they come in the shell, and you're ok with cracking them open?"

And my mom looked at him again like, "bitch, you challenge our orders again, and I will demonstrate my use of opposable thumbs by cutting you." and said that it was fine.

We didn't go back to the Slanted Door. That was enough for us to realize that we weren't their kind of clientele or they weren't our kind of restaurant.

[lilmissnever]

There is still a Slanted Door in the Ferry Building. It is tasty, but it is certainly not the kind of authentic Eat All The Parts Asian restaurant you were looking for. I like Crustacean for that.

family legend has it that at the age of four, I once gave the Death Stare to a kindly waiter who tried to give me kiddie chopsticks, picked up my mother's set of chopsticks and started eating whatever was in front of me.

There are lots of new dim sum places in SF now, which I have been meaning to check out. I am hoping that the reign of BBQ is over and xiao long bao is the new brisket.