Hey everyone good morning hope you're having an amazing day. It's mark wiens, i'm in san francisco, california, when it comes to food in san francisco, the king of everything you could possibly eat is dungeness crabs. He's tickling me, which are harvested and fished right here on the pacific west coast of the united states. Today we're going to go on a dungeness crab tour of san francisco we're going to go to a fish market where we're going to see some of the live.

Fresh dungeness crabs we're going to go to a couple of restaurants that are famous for crabs. Again. This is a guarded secret family recipe. Is there some of the sweetest juiciest silkiest crabs that you can eat in the world and i'm gon na share everything with you all of the crabs and this entire ultimate san francisco experience with you all coming up right now in this video so again good morning From san francisco it is a cold rainy, drizzly day, not the best conditions, but these are perfect conditions for exploring and eating dungeness crab, and before we start this video.

I just want to say a big thank you to visit california and san francisco for sponsoring my trip uh for inviting me here for making all of the arrangements we're on our way to the first place where they source, where they supply some of the best dungeness Crab in san francisco, so here we are welcome to allioto lazios we're right here along the wharf along the harbor and we're gon na see some seafood we're gon na hear from the owners, the family. They have a very unique story and they have some delicious dungeness crabs, family owned and operated since the 1940s. Currently, the main group are all females. The next generation are all males and how many, how many generations has this been in your family? We're? Third and the fourth ones are coming up, you guys, i mean specialize in local seafood, especially crabs, and what dungeness crabs is what san francisco is known for, that is our big seller.

Okay and then we do work with west coast seafood and to try and keep that sustainable and an option for people all right. Yes, it's very exciting um, you meet the boats or the trucks, and then you meet your customers. You enter immediately. You hear the water, you see the tanks full of fresh dungeness crabs.

It's set up like a market, so you can come in here. You can buy a live crab. You can buy a crab, they'll package it up for you. They ship crabs, uh and then they have crab samples available.

So that's about a two pounder: yes, okay, beautiful dungeness, crab all right and then make sure you don't put your finger too far up. Okay, ah, okay, all right! Oh here we go dungeness crab. Just don't put your face too too. Close he's tickling me, oh man, but these crabs beautiful, but i know that it's a species of crab that is native to the west coast, from canada to san francisco and down the west coast, and so this west coast in the united states is, i believe, the Only place to get i mean the real dungeness crab all right.

So this is a cooked dungeness crab and has it been boiled or steamed? We boil our crab okay for 28 minutes and i'm gon na pull it open and then i'm gon na take off the mouth. Of course it doesn't cooperate this morning, oh good, taking off the apron break it in half and then you can just start cracking. What's the average or ideal weight of a dungeon, we love two pounds each about two pounds. One and a half to two is good.

Okay over two is spectacular. This one has already been uh deshelled from there okay. So no one has to worry about that. All right, whether you want to add cocktail sauce and then when you are here conveniently they have fresh crab samples which you can get which are all pre-peeled um.

Just you can scoop it up with a little mini fork. There's some cocktail sauce, but i just got to taste the pure dungeness crab. First, my first bite dungeness crab in san francisco, oh wow, oh man, the stringiness of it. It's nice, you taste, the sea, water, saltiness, the brininess and then the sweetness following through.

Oh sure, thank you. Would it be like a best to dip it dip it in the cocktail sauce or pour it okay put it on the edge on the edge okay. What you want to do i'll, try it next, with a little bit of cocktail sauce. Try it next with a little bit of cocktail sauce to taste that difference, but man this crab is so good, so sweet! Oh, oh yeah! It is good with the cocktail sauce.

It doesn't overpower the flavor of the crab. What do you think makes dungeness crab unique? The sweetness and the delicacy of the meat, it's just the best i mean, there's, no comparison, no comparison cool. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you for coming.

This has been educational and delicious, and what i love is it's family run third generation going on. Fourth generation their family originally came from italy to the coast here to san francisco as fishers, and then it's just the business has been passed down through generation and generation. Luckily, it's just now stopped drizzling uh we're gon na walk down to pier 39, which is one of the most recognizable one of the most famous places in all of san francisco and then we're gon na go to our first crab restaurant. It started off rainy and cloudy and drizzly, but it's turning out to be a beautiful morning, and so we made it welcome to pier 39.

This is one of the most iconic attractions in all of san francisco. There's rides, there's shops, there's souvenir stores and there's lots of restaurants and pier 39 is also known for their california sea lions. Fresh donuts look micah they just pop out, but before having crab, we could not resist the aroma of the fresh donuts pouring out of this window. The warm heat of the boiling oil, the sweet aroma of the donuts and ying also wanted a quick coffee, so we're gon na stop here for a few donuts as we walk to the end of the pier.

Thank you very much. It's a pretty cool automatic, donut fryer. It's almost like a lazy river of oil, okay, hot fresh mini donuts, that's extremely tasty, because the entire donut is crispy. Thank you yeah! You just cannot drink enough coffee in san francisco, with the weather, with the sea breeze.

The rain we're gon na continue walking to see the sea lions say hello to the california sea lions. So you walk pretty much to the end of pier 39 and there's a bunch of docks full of california, sea lions. There's the california sea lion center man. They just look like they're basking in the sun, taking a dip in the water every now and then when they feel like it munching on fish.

They just look like they're having a great time and enjoying life, but man it is beautiful. This morning in san francisco, you see the rolling hills of san francisco, the downtown buildings, the skyscrapers alcatraz in the distance. You can see the golden gate bridge from here just shrouded in the mist and then something that uh yummy you'll just notice when you come to san francisco, is the amazing wildlife from the sea lions right here to seagulls to flying v formations the nature, the natural Setting here in san francisco is it's spectacular and they are hilariously entertaining to watch. Some of them will be taking a nap and then one of the younger sea lions will jump up on them and disturb them, and then they'll like get angry.

But then like fall asleep back at the same time, they make all sorts of gurgling sounds burps and farts. They are hilariously entertaining all right from here. We're gon na go eat crab. Welcome to the crab house on pier 39 we're here a little bit early before they open, so we're gon na have a chance to meet the chef to see the kitchen and to see how they prepare their legendary dungeness crabs on a hot iron skillet, oh nice.

So these these guys just came in from uh washington, okay, so we just cooked them off. We just got these live guys in cooked them. Up this morning, they cool down a little bit, we'll clean them up and get these going to go into our garlic, roasted crab dishes served on a skillet okay, so we're going to clean up the head, take a lot of goodies out of there and then we're Going to hold them all right, we're going to serve it whole we're going to roast it in the oven and our secret garlic sauce served on a skillet. How long do they boil for just about 20 minutes? Okay, salted water, nothing like fresh crab, dungeness crab.

So what they do is the they have already boiled the dungeness crab and then we're gon na see the next process as they clean them up and then, as they uh, prepare them roast them with the special garlic sauce and serve them on a hot iron skillet And then we're ready to go to the oven? Okay, oh so you've got a couple cleaned up. Yeah! You need to go to the oven. How many are you gon na eat - probably two yeah. So what we're going to do is we're going to roast them in a hot pan.

How big are these crowds uh about close to two pounds about a pound and three quarters right now? We're only getting the ocean run in okay, there's no sizing, because the crab season is uh, we're in and out of seasons right now, so they're selling the crabs. That's ocean run. We don't have the pick of the litter where we can get uh only two up. We usually use only two pounds of plug, so that's like a garlic butter.

This is just a butter butter that we're gon na roast it in all right. Oh man, oh man, that aroma immediately smells incredible. Then they pop into the oven uh to roast and now he's heating up that hot iron skillet. So we're gon na make you two skillets: okay, cool one, we're in a little olive oil on our skillet.

We bar cook our mussels in the morning so that they can cook a little quicker on the skillet and our shrimp. We marinate with garlic, rosemary lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper and olive oil for at least 24 hours. So all those herbs and spices can get penetrate them. Okay, great now we're going to put these guys on our skillet as well.

We flip our drip, we're going to pull our crabs out of the oven and finish them off with our secret crop. Sauce all right, secret craft sauce is made up of over 20 ingredients. A lot of them are secret. I can't tell you: okay, i'll, have to guess you'll have to guess, but it's a very i'm going gon na go in the oven.

Now, okay, it's a very uh! Oh here comes the crack roasted season it off with a little bit of garlic salt mixture. This is our killer crab and shrimp killer crabs. What is that you got a little just a little bit of white wine with some fresh herbs in it. It creates that sizzle and the steam, and it adds a little bit of aroma.

Oh yeah, i smell that aroma, wow, wonderful again, he cleaned them out and you've got the shell on here for display and tear i'm gon na. Just take this guy, maybe kind of pop open pop him open the whole side of it, oh making sure not to splash too much butter. Garlic sauce that inside body meat is usually extraordinary. Maybe dismantle, maybe dismantle this.

Oh, i forgot to put on my bib hold on time out: oh yeah. How could i forget this is a absolute must, rehydrate in that juice and roasting butter and garlic pull up pull the legs apart. Oh revealing all of that beautiful dungeness crab the body section. First, my first bite: oh wow, oh man, dungeness crab.

It really is one of the best crabs in the world, man, the sweetness, the stringiness and then then the way that's just like piping hot scorched in the oven. I mean that sauce just poured over it. It's smoky garlicky, poof, great flavor, not overpowering and utility, that sweetness of the natural dungeness crab comes through rehydrated a little bit in that melted butter, garlic sauce. What happened? Oh! No! Oh! No! Crab accident, it's okay! It's just a little splatter, we're! Okay! He fell off the tray okay, one of the things about dungeness crab, for me is it's one of the most beautiful crab textures, so stringy it just almost like flakes apart in your mouth, on your first bite like angel hair, pasta, almost the texture, okay.

So these are garlic, shrimp, uh chef bob said they're marinated for 24 hours, oh the oregano or rosemary in there, herbal buttery garlicky bouncy shrimp. Now this is the garlic butter. Oh, oh, it's a lemon burger. You feel that acidity infused to break down the richness of the butter and then finally, we've got the mussels which uh, okay, i'll just try one first before adding any sauce.

Just the natural taste of the mussel, i'm gon na try some of that secret garlic. Butter sauce, though, on it next, so he said within that sauce, there's something like 18 different ingredients to me, it almost has a little bit of a cheesy, maybe cream in there a little bit of an herb mixture. Finally, chef bob just brought us a plate of crab fried rice, which it looks great, actually rice, stir-fried, there's egg in here, there's crab and topped with some micro herbs. Oh big nuggets of dungeness crab dungeness crab, fried rice, oh yeah, oh wow, crab fried rice is awesome.

Okay, back to the crab, i'm gon na move on to the the legs. There we go. There's a nice, a nice bite nugget. I love this sauce the best at the bottom here, because that's something that's on the roasting, pan yeah dungeness crab is extraordinary.

For me, it really just is the natural product, the fresh dungeness crab, that is one of the world's best crabs. I think my favorite bites from the dungeness crab are these little connecting bits from the body to the legs. Those are like some of the silkiest sweetest meatiest parts of the crab, a little squeeze of acid lemon juice. Perfect.

I do yeah man. This is an impressively good, fried rice. Actually it's so good and i love how all the individual grains are fully they're individual, oh yeah, with that lemon yeah i mean, i don't think, there's any other. More iconic food experience of san francisco been chowing down on dungeness crab at pier 39, overlooking the golden gate bridge.

Look at this bite just an entire bite of juicy sweet dungeness. Oh there we go. Yes, it's dried up butter, garlic, sauce on the bottom of the skillet, that's the best, the best flavor that you want to scoop up and smear up for your final few bites. All that's left are a bunch of empty leg shells and two heads from our our dungeness crab friends: oh a little wet wipe action, whoa, oh and that was a very successful dungeness crab experience, pier 39, what a beautiful location and delicious crab from here we are Gon na continue with this dungeness crab tour of san francisco and we're going to another legendary restaurant uh.

It's actually a vietnamese restaurant that specializes in again roasted garlic, dungeness crab. Let's go we drove to the coast on the western side of san francisco and we're going to a restaurant, which i believe is one of the first vietnamese restaurants in san francisco, and they are famous legendary status for their roast dungeness crabs and garlic noodles. So i'm here now at ten long, ten long is that how you get yeah with monique and this restaurant has an amazing history and we're going to hear a little bit about the history. Now? Yes, so my grandmother, diana ahn opened tanglong in 1971..

I was still in vietnam and our family and my mom and dad had not arrived yet. Okay, so just your grandmother. So my grandmother came first okay and opened um the restaurant. It used to be a little italian deli and then she took it over and she decided to introduce vietnamese food to san franciscans, oh yeah, because i was reading.

It was one of the first vietnamese restaurants in san francisco. Yes, yes cool! So in the beginning, she kind of meshed the menu with some italian dishes and some vietnamese dishes and then, in the end, she just converted completely to vietnamese dishes, cool and um. The roasted crab is our signature dish and that's a dish that my grandmother brought to the tengwong and it was still popular and that got a lot of business and people coming to san francisco to eat was the roasted crab a vietnamese dish, or was it kind Of like a california vietnamese invention, yeah, it's actually a vietnamese dish. Okay, so the roast crab is vietnamese dish.

It's a vietnamese dish right, but the other dish they're just using the local ingredients yeah, it was just dungeness which is dungeness exactly okay and and they and it was it led perfectly to the way my grandmother prepared it with the roasted garlic, spices, okay, but the Other dish - actually i have to tell you about - is our garlic noodles that is kind of like my mother's invention. So that's not typical vietnamese, but when she came to america and she brought me in 1975, all we had left with the fall of saigon. Was this restaurant, so we all just kind of lived here and you know, and then she had to you know, try to invent new dishes and she wanted to. You know, build build the clientele and she created the garlic noodles.

That's awesome! So that's my mom helene on and so then that's the that's. The famous combination is garlic. It's the roasted crab with garlic noodles, exactly and now, many years later, it's the roasted cabbage garlic, noodle dish and uh yeah people travel from afar all over the place. Yes, over the area, definitely just to have our grills for having garlic noodles, so you'll get to enjoy it soon.

Yeah cool. Thank you for that. So one of the unique things about this restaurant is: they have something called a secret kitchen, which is a family only part of the kitchen, and what exactly is the the secret kitchen? Well, so it's a kitchen within the kitchen, okay and my mom. When she came over here um our roast crab and tiger khan dish was roast crab and garlic.

Noodle dish was so popular and people wanted to come into the kitchen and peek in to figure out how we prepared the dishes. So we had to like tell customers and guess: oh no, you can't come into the kitchen. So my mom just said you know what? Let's just create the secret kitchen and it's a kitchen within the kitchen and no one else gets to go in. Ah, that's very cool, yes, very cool and still to this day and to this day, yes and all our restaurants, we've opened crustaceans um in san francisco, crustacean, beverly hills and they all have our secret kitchen.

So we we have if we carry the crustacean and garlic um or the roasted crab and garlic noodle dish, then we have to have a secret kitchen. It's a top secret guarded family recipe. So it's an honor to be here to have a chance to taste it. There, it is that's the secret kitchen, family members, only very cool, so this is the secret kitchen and then the regular, more open kitchen.

I think they said two minute warning and the crabs are gon na come out of this sliding stainless steel from the secret kitchen onto these shelves. Well, we're gon na have a chance to see that that's so cool what a cool idea, family guarded family recipe and then we're also getting a couple dishes from the main kitchen here: okay, that's the fried mango salad, there's shrimp, there's scallops, there's onions in here smells So smoky, oh, it smells delicious. I think it is time this time there it is out of the secret passage door, the legendary roast crab and immediately as it's set here on the shelf. You smell that aroma of garlic, just protruding, and you see some garlic uh.

The shells and just tossed on top you see the pepper in there and there comes the garlic noodles. Thank you very much. You immediately notice, all of the fried garlic and the pepper just coating the entirety of the crab, there's a pool of juicy buttery. Goodness on the bottom, and then just oh man that garlickiness the ultimate indungence crab lift up the the head here, the hood.

Oh man, you can just take a look at that. You can see how it's just so much pepper throughout the entire crab wow and as a lover of black pepper, there's, nothing that it excites me more. Oh man, the meatiness of dungeness crab, the sweetness of dungeness crab tear, but oh so hot, so fresh out of the okay i'm going in for that middle bite right there and i'm gon na wipe up some of the some of the seasoning on the bottom. Some of that garlic, i love how they keep the garlic skins on that's one of the one of the great things about southeast asian cuisine, keeping those garlic skins on for extra fragrance guarded secret family recipe.

Oh wow, oh man. Oh, that is so incredibly good. Oh, the dungeness, all the pepper and garlic, the richness and butteriness the sweetness of the dungeness crab addictively tasty. Okay, i'm gon na peel this this guy right here we have another bite on this on the top of this leg.

Here, oh okay, that'll get that nugget dip man, it's almost hard to tell if that's melted butter or if it's a oil solution, maybe a combination of both oh wow. Look it ma'am, i'm only two by chin and i'm already addicted. Before we proceed on with more of the the roast crab, i got ta try the garlic, noodles well they're, hot and fresh, and it actually looks simple, but these are legendary garlic, noodles that people rave about that people are addicted to that people have even gone as Far as writing in in some of the articles, some of the and some of the articles written about this, these noodles that they would they're willing to marry into the family to have the recipe for these garden for these garlic noodles. Okay, here we go first, but oh man.

Oh that's incredible. I need to just gather my thoughts right now, almost like every single noodle has just been rubbed in garlic and the texture of the noodles is soft and slightly gooey. Yet like individual, not clumping. Together, all the texture is great and soft at the same time, but man, the garlic, is what stands out.

You taste the sweetness of the garlic wow. Okay, everything you've ever read about these garlic noodles. Nothing is an exaggeration. They are that good, okay gon na move back into the the crab legs.

Let me crack this guy. Every bite should be dipped drenched. Let's move on to the clock! Oh i splattered! Okay, oh there we go slides right out. Oh man, the garlickiness, the pepperiness that like butteriness, has just saturated into the cloth next section, something you can do is kind of mix your crab and your garlic noodles i'll put that on top i'll poke in with my fork, making sure to get that entire lump Of crab with some of the noodles all together in a bite, and you got the crab, the garlicky pepper, you know um and something about those noodles.

It's not only just the flavor, but it's that texture, which is soft, yet springy at the same time again, which is wok tossed so you've got kind of that combination of both fried mango and seafood plus raw lettuce. So much going on in there you've got that smoky, fried wok flavor, the crunch of the onions, the sweetness of the mango and then the raw lettuce, which is refreshing all combined onto a salt like a totally unique salad. One of the things that mrs monique recommended is to take the head, there's a little bit of tamale in here some of the head juices and also some of that oil. Some of that butter.

Some of that garlic has accumulated now take a bite full of the noodles, the garlic noodles into the head, whoosh that around get those head butter tomally to coat the garlic noodles. Oh yes, next bite. Oh, you can see like a yolk coating, the noodles now just layer upon layer of garlic and crab flavor and the tomali butteriness, the yolkiness dungeness crabs are full of meat too, so meaty so sweet. Look at that bite on the end there.

Oh man, this needs a wiping in the sauce. Oh look at all that it's just a pool of garlic and pepper and again i'm in not only the delicious food but the story of ten long and it's so cool how this is a vietnamese restaurant. This is a vietnamese dish which was brought to san francisco and then adapted to the local ingredients. Dungeness crab is what's available here on the west coast, especially in san francisco, and this it's such a cool.

I mean how it was adapted. The recipe to then use the local seafood to create this landmark of a san francisco vietnamese food i'll, do a bite of garlic, noodles and a chase with crab. The combination we've got a lot more crab to eat, but we're gon na sit here. We're gon na crack we're gon na suck we're gon na slurp and we're gon na finish off these crabs without a doubt, tane long.

That was the highlight of this dungeness crab tour of san francisco. It's a historic! It's a landmark culinary treasure of vietnamese american san francisco cuisine, but i believe what's really, the secret is the technique of how the crabs are cooked, how they're roasted how they're cooked just perfectly without overdoing them and then how they're, combined with that garlic and pepper, and How it just like seeps into every crack and crevice of the dungeness crabs, and so that is going to complete this dungeness crab tour of san francisco, and thank you again for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, leave a comment below i'd love to hear from you and if you're not already subscribed, make sure you subscribe now for lots more food and travel videos, goodbye from san francisco - and i will see you On the next video.