Local restaurants are celebrating the return of Dungeness crab after the delayed commercial season begins on March 26.
Normally, the season starts before Thanksgiving but it was deemed unsafe last year after high levels of a potentially fatal neurotoxin called domoic acid was found in sampled crabs.
The state has now declared March 26 as the opening of the commercial season, reported SFGate.
“I hear they are big and hard and full of meat and beautiful-looking and safe," Crab Boat Owners Association president Larry Collins told the publication.
You'll soon see local Dungeness back on menus, supplanting crabs that have been imported from the Pacific Northwest, and you'll see it as new specials.
For example, burrito joint Papalote (which, full disclosure, is co-owned by NBC Bay Area reporter Jodi Hernandez) will offer Dungeness as a special on the menu this Friday at both San Francisco locations.
Customers will be able to order crab in a burrito or "naked," with the burrito fillings minus the tortilla.
