Just in case anyone swallowed that trickster @liuzhou's recent post about the UK city of Dungeness, know that Dungeness crabs are only found on the US west coast. You are as unlikely to see them in England as in China:
"The name “Dungeness” comes from one of the most fertile habitats of this species: the Dungeness Spit, a sandy stretch of land in Northwest Washington. The Spit and surrounding community is located on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and named after a desert-like beach of the same name in England."
I moved to CA in the mid 1970's. Growing up I thought all crabs were blue claws that we we fished for as kids on Long Island with butterfly nets. What a shocker to discover Dungeness crabs! The big meaty Dungeness were plentiful then and the season, November thru early spring was reliable. Over the years one thing or another has caused these crabs to decrease in number. Periodic oil spills could ruin a season, but most years I couldl go down to Oakland Chinatown and buy them live for under $2 lb. Those days are, of course, long gone. The price of picked crabmeat as per @Margaret Pilgrimis pretty scary. For many years now the season has been either cancelled or delayed. This year it is for two reasons: the meat quality is poor, and there are a great many Humpback whales migrating along the coast who can get tangled up by the crab-trap lines.
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When my daughter was little she needed to go to a ENT specialist in SF and we would treat ourselves to a whole crab at a Chinese restaurant near her doc's office. I thought of it as a splurge, but a relatively modest one. And I learned how to cook live crabs at home, overcoming the ick factor. I haven't had Dungeness crab for several years now. It was awfully good.
