Living on the net in San Francisco

Jackie's School

Beautiful days this week, I dropped Jackie off at school early Wednesday morning and rolled down to Third Street all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. I'm the perennial tourist, I like the wharf, but the reason I went on Wednesday was for the crab season opener on the 15th. Some of the boats came in on Tuesday night so my favorite place had tanks full of the big ones, local Dungeness, after last year's disaster this season's opening was eagerly awaited and did not disappoint.  This is the only place I buy crabs anymore, family business, historic, they even do interpretive talks for the Maritime Park.  Alioto-Lazio Fish Company .

Nino checking out his lunch

They have their own boats and large tanks to keep live crabs, but you can get them cooked, whole or cracked and cleaned.  I used to buy them live but their cooked crab is as good as I can do, and a lot less work.  If you don't know, these are two historic families, but for some reason the Port was trying to shut them down a while back, there was even a mysterious fire on their pier.  So I threw my support their way, and we eat a lot more crab.

The Girls at Alioto-Lazio Fish Company

Other places might be cheaper, but no better.   Anyway, the girls at Alioto-Lazio maintain the tradition, the crabs are fresh, heavy, fat, tasty, one of the reasons to live here in San Francisco, oh, sounds like I'm getting back to my existential inquiry in the last post, I didn't mean to get all philosophical on your ass.  They have a variety of fresh and smoked fish, shrimp and lots of recipes and information.

26 Foot Farallon

I used to throw my net in all over the bay and ocean back in the 70s, it's a wonder I'm still alive after eating all the fish and crab I pulled out of the bay, it was dirtier then.  Later my friend got a commercial license and we used to fish all over the bay and the ocean down to Half Moon Bay from his 26 foot Farallon, I even took Conner out there as a little kid, he did the work of a man, my friend was a mean captain, he wouldn't even let the kid keep a fish until I made him do it.  When I worked for the NPS at Fort Point and they asked me if I could do a crabbing program on the Torpedo Wharf, right by the Warming Hut, I really laughed.  

Drakes Bay Oyster Farm

Too bad the DOI shut down the Drakes Bay Oyster Company, known to everybody as Johnson's , we were buying them by the 100 up there back in the 80s, cheap, boy did we have some parties.  Just past Inverness, it was always fun to drive up to Drakes Bay, get the oysters, have a dozen or so while we were there, then head back to The City through Olema along SFD (Sir Francis Drake) and stop at the Lagunitas Grocery Store and get a real milk shake.  Rode out to the Pt. Reyes Lighthouse a while back, looked like a crane was taking out whatever was left of the oyster farm, a really minimal operation to begin with.  Probably did more destruction and harm to the environment taking out the hanging cultures than the farm did in all the years it was there.