San Francisco Local Custom Tips by 100ACRE

A real San Francisco TREAT !

There's nothing like chowder, fresh crab and a bottle of Chardonnay for lunch.

The central California Dungeness crab season starts Nov. 15th.

Once the fishermen's price per pound ($1.75 a pound in 2005) is agreed to about 100 boats from Bodega Bay to Half Moon Bay go out to sea.

The cooked crabs were selling at stands for an average of $6.75 a pound.

They run about 1 1/2 to 2 pounds to 3-pounds.

As a tourist or local you can line up for a Dungeness fix by 10 a.m. each morning.

The local Dungeness isn't as salty as the blue crabs of the Atlantic seaboard.

We natives don't want to pay $5.95 or $6.95 a pound. One option is to buy crabs straight from a boat.

We had fresh crabs from the north (Washington and Canada). The only difference was the cost. The northern crabs were more expensive.

To me, the local crabs are a little sweeter.

The rules in place for crabbers include size restrictions, sex limits (catching males only), season, and rules on method of catch. These rules make sure we don't fish them out of existence.

Crab pots used to catch them are, by requirement, woven with circular holes big enough for the non-mature crabs to escape.

At home we put a live crab in a pot of cold water and bring that water to just under 100 degrees--about human body temperature. Crabs and lobsters slaughtered this way die quickly and easily without showing distress. The meat remains uncooked by this method, and you can continue with dressing (separating the meat from the innards) the crab and then stir-frying it.

Most Chinese markets with in-house tanks for live crab will dress the crab at no extra charge. It's not a bad choice, especially because these markets often have the the best prices for crab.

A popular place for locals is 99 Ranch, the Taiwan-based supermarket chain, in nearby Daly City.

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770 Stanyan St, San Francisco, (415) 386-9292
www.kezarpub.com

- Winner of numerous awards.
- The pub of choice for watching the Tour de France.

also great sports bars:
1. The Final Final in the Marina
2. Sam’s Anchor Café in Tiburon

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Best Coffee House
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Momi Toby’s Revolutionary Café
588 Laguna 415-626-1508

Martha & Brothers Coffee Co.
3868 24th St. 415-641-4433
2800 California 415-931-2281
1551 Church St. 415-648-1166

Starbuck’s? Never heard of it! :o)

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Jeff Kraft of Oakland and Aaron Leventhal of Berkeley, co-wrote "Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco" (Santa Monica Press, $24.95). The film buffs were determined to identify each and every corner of the Bay Area used by the Master of Suspense in his films and show how the spots look today - From as far south as Mission San Juan Batista where Madeleine Elster - and her stand-in - plunged to their deaths in "Vertigo" to as far north as Bodega Bay ("The Birds") and Santa Rosa ("Shadow of a Doubt").

In "Vertigo," when Scottie (Stewart) first shadows Madeleine (Kim Novak) through the streets of Union Square, he winds up following her right through the back door of Podesta Baldocchi, a florist that once sat at 224 Grant Ave. and now can be found at 508 Fourth St.

Although the back door of 224 Grant Ave. (where North Beach Leather sits today) would open onto a tiny loading dock called Ashburton Place, that alley is much too small to be the one shown in the film. Spotting patterns in the brick facade, pipes and an old covered-up vent, they found the door. (Now, it's covered in graffiti and blocked by bars.)

Hitchcock was very important to the Bay Area and certainly very important to Sonoma County.

This book is sold at the Argonaut at 350 Kearny St., the model for the Argosy Book Shop in "Vertigo."

All this Hitchcock hunting began five years ago as Kraft's brainchild. The devoted Hitchcock fan had seen nearly all the director's movies.

He thought a map showing Bay Area spots filmed by Hitchcock would be a good way to mark the 100th anniversary of the director's birthday. (As the project grew, it wound up hitting the market for his 103rd birthday instead, but so it goes.)

Kraft sought a photographer to help him and found Leventhal.

The two teamed to make the map, later deciding to create a large poster instead. But they unearthed such a vast amount of information, even a big poster couldn't contain it all. From there, they decided to make a booklet, then a full-size coffee-table book.

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Address: 3233 Pacific Avenue

A grocer built this house! It's a 1886 Queen Anne style museum/house. Inside this house is "staged" to help you step back in time. If you love architecture, got a couple of hours to do "something completely different", have a look. It's hard to pull yourself away from all the other cool things there are to do in this City, I know.

A nice journey back to San Francisco at the turn-of-the-century. Highly recommended for you nostalgia-lovers.

Besides, don't you want to learn the differences between a Queen Anne and an Edwardian Victorian house before you leave S.F.?

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Address: 999 California

Mark Hopkins built this wooden Victorian mansion atop Nob Hill. It was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. Now the location of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. I love the bar they have here today, the "Top of Mark", famous for the history and the great views.

This place does not get as much "love" as the Fairmont Hotel, across the street, but I don't think you can find a true local who has not had a glass of bubbly at the "Top of Mark".

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San Francisco loves its traditions, especially its rising from the ashes after the "Big One". If you come to San Francisco in April, meet me at Lotta's Fountain April 18th, 4:30 am. Explore this page and see why...

1906expo.com

For more on our history, check out these superb web sites:

SFHistory.org
SFMuseum.org

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Here's the latest place-to-be in the Bay Area. A great day away for us San Franciscans will always be Napa. And here's the latest, getting rave reviews.

Copia.org

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