San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf is a landing spot for many kinds of seafoods, but a glance at the big sign overlooking the tourist parking lot (or at the smaller signs posted around the city pointing the way to the wharf) gives a clue to which is most important. Both signs feature the distinctive shape of Dungeness crab, one of the treasures of the West Coast fish market, and the symbol of the Golden Gate fishing industry.

Most of the year, but especially in winter, the air around the wharf carries the scent of crabs boiling in large outdoor pots, to be sold in walk-away crab cocktails, or taken home to serve as simple cracked crab. Inside the nearby restaurants, they may be combined with other seafoods in a thick tomato-based stew called cioppino, or as chunks of crab meat heaped on top of a salad with Louis dressing. A few blocks away in Chinatown, dozens of fish markets and restaurants keep crabs alive in saltwater tanks until the last minute, ready to be steamed Cantonese style with ginger and scallions or stir-fried with black bean sauce.

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