MENDOCINO COAST, Calif. -- Crab is both indulgence and staple in many ports of the world, with each region declaring its variety the best.

Marylanders have their blue crabs. On the West Coast, the large Dungeness crab caught in cold ocean waters rewards Pacific Ocean chauvinists with sweet, briny flesh.

"Men are risking their lives to produce this incredible delicacy that is only available a few months of the year," says Mel McKinney, innkeeper at the Little River Inn on the Mendocino coast.

The locals call it cracked crab, the sweet Dungeness that looks like a man's large, outstretched hand. Cracking is what you do, quite easily, when the crab is freshly caught and cooked live, its hard shell morphing from a pale brownish mustard and ivory color to a more familiar red.

Purists insist on eating their crab mostly unadorned, a little melted butter, perhaps, or some freshly squeezed lemon. But Dungeness crab also settles comfortably in crab cakes, with risotto, in a sandwich, a salad or a stew. It is roasted, marinated and put in crepes, quiches, soups and omelets.

Natives and newcomers alike delight in the Dungeness, ubiquitous at tourist haunts like San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.

"As a very young person, I was introduced to it on Fisherman's Wharf," says John Ash, culinary director for Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County. "It was a completely exotic food for someone from Colorado. They had those big old pots out there, with steaming crab, and they were pulling them out."

Ash says he has tried other kinds of crab, but "Dungeness crab has a kind of meatiness and sweetness that I have just not encountered in other crabs."

The Dungeness crab is larger than the blue crab, and is eaten from the more mature crab, succulent meat in a hard shell. Those Californians who have tried both say the blue crab has its own, special, brinier kind of flavor, while the Dungeness is sweeter. Dungeness is also meatier.

"The blue crab tastes more like the sea to me," said Ash, who has frequently cooked with the blue crab on cooking shows and on East Coast culinary tours with his winery.

Displaying his West Coast chauvinism, Stephen Smith, chef at the Albion Inn, said there is no comparison between the two.

"The blue-crab meat is not even close to being subtle," said Smith, who had blue crab while doing a cooking demonstration in New York.

"It was good, but the difference is between the Atlantic and the Pacific," he said.

The Dungeness crab is found from Alaska to Baja, Calif., though more abundantly north of the Monterey Bay. It gets its name from the town of Dungeness in Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where the first commercial harvesting of crab was done. Its season begins in December and can run through July, though most of the prized catch is caught in the first few weeks.

In the small Mendocino County coastal town of Fort Bragg, about four hours north of San Francisco, crabbing is still done mostly by independent watermen, often in a small boat with a crew of two or three.

Typically crabbers work 24-hour shifts, setting out their steel crab pots in a line, identifying them by buoy color. They leave that area to set out more pots and return to check and see if they are successful.

Then speed and strength come into play as the fishermen loosen their pots from the sandy floor, hauling their heavy load on board with the help of hydraulic lifts. By law, only male crabs measuring at least 6 1/4 inches across the shell can be harvested. The rest, including females, must be thrown back in the sea.

The Dungeness crabs that are kept are held in sea-water holds on board. With full pots and holds, the boats can be top- heavy, and one false turn leaning into the waves can spell peril.

"You always need to be sharp. It makes you very aware of how small you are in the scheme of things, and yet, when you are back on shore, safe and sound, you have managed to work in cooperation with the elements," said Printha Platt, a member of the Noyo Women for Fisheries, who fished with her late husband on the northern coast of California.

Platt's two sons followed their parents into the business. And the elder, Dan, now 42, takes his 11- and 14-year-old daughters on his small boat, hoping that they, too, may carry on the family tradition.

"I like being on the ocean. I like being by myself," says Dan Platt. "I spent 12 years fishing in Alaska. I've had two boats sink under me, and I survived. I am cautious, but it doesn't prevent me from fishing."

The local chefs are as enthusiastic as the fishermen.

"If I were cooking inland, I think I'd change professions," said the Albion Inn's Smith.

Drawing inspiration from the tall ocean cliffs and glistening dark water just outside his restaurant windows, Smith serves house favorites like the crab-stuffed, grilled portobello mushrooms in a pesto cream sauce, or a veal osso buco variation with crab and sauteed asparagus.

"Dungeness crab is the best crab in the world. I am letting my taste buds do the choosing," said Smith, who has cooked at the James Beard Institute in New York.

At crab season's end in July, there is a last hurrah, a quiet fanfare at the Noyo Harbor dockside in Fort Bragg. Fisherman Jim Bassler posts a small, hand-lettered sign at the end of his pier, "Fresh crab." He dumps a rubber bucket filled with about 20 squirming Dungeness crabs.

"I am trying to make it work. The rainy season is winter, so it's kind of hard to fish with a little boat in the wintertime. It's rough, and the big boats flood the market. I can do a lot more crabbing in the summer," said Bassler, a one-time accountant and millworker.

Bassler credits the Dungeness crabs for the fact that the industry still survives, even thrives.

"They've been fished pretty aggressively for a long time. But they look good, and there's no one running up and down the docks saying they are going to have to limit crab," Bassler said.

"You have to think their strategy is good."

Mendo Bistro's Crab Cakes

Serves 4

1 1/2 pounds Dungeness crab meat

3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs, plus more for outer coating (see note)

2 green onions, finely chopped

1/2 to 3/4 cup tarragon aioli (recipe follows)

oil for sauteeing

Combine crab meat, bread crumbs, and green onions. Add 1/2 cup aioli and test mixture to see how well it holds together. If needed, add additional aioli. Do not overwork ingredients. Cakes should be loose and just barely held together.

Form into cakes about 3 inches in diameter and place one side in bread crumbs. Heat oil in medium saute pan over medium-high heat until just smoking and place cakes, bread-crumb side down, in pan.

Saute until golden, and carefully turn over. Lower heat to medium and saute until heated through. Top with additional aioli.

Note: Panko bread crumbs can be found in specialty and gourmet shops. If not available, plain bread crumbs are fine.

-- Mendo Bistro chef/owner Nicholas Petti

Tarragon Aioli

Makes 2 1/2 cups

2 egg yolks

3 cloves garlic

juice 1 lemon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup very hot water

2 cups olive oil

1/2 bunch tarragon, finely chopped

dash Tabasco sauce

In food processor or blender, place egg yolks, garlic, lemon juice and salt, and run machine. Pour in hot water and process for 15 seconds.

With machine running, slowly drizzle in oil until a mayonnaise consistency is reached. Stir in chopped tarragon. Top with dash of Tabasco.

-- Mendo Bistro chef/owner Nicholas Petti

Crab-and-Corn Chowder With Ginger

From Fetzer Vineyards culinary director John Ash: "We use our California Dungeness crab, which is very rich and sweet in flavor. Any crab could be used, of course."

Serves 8

1 tablespoon chopped ginger

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups diced onions

1/2 cup finely diced celery or fresh fennel

1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper

1/4 teaspoon chopped chipotle chile in adobo or to taste (see note)

1 teaspoon lightly toasted coriander seed

1 cup fruity white wine, such as riesling

4 cups rich chicken or shellfish stock, previously simmered with corn cobs, if available

2 cups peeled and diced waxy potatoes

3 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

10 ounces cooked crab meat

1/3 cup chopped cilantro leaves

sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a soup pot, saute the ginger in olive oil briefly to soften. Add onions, celery, red pepper and chipotle and saute over medium heat for 2 minutes longer.

Add coriander seed, wine, stock and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are almost done.

In a blender, add 1 cup of the corn along with 1 cup of the hot soup stock and puree. Add back to soup pot along with remaining whole corn, cream and crab meat. Stir in cilantro and correct seasoning with salt and pepper.

Note: Chipotle chile in adobo can be found in Latin markets or the ethnic-food section of grocery stores.

Dungeness crab

Scientific name: Cancer magister

Common names: Pacific edible crab, Dungeness crab, market crab, commercial crab and edible crab

Description: Beige to light-brown with blue trim; often light-orange below.

Range: Found in coastal waters from Santa Barbara, Calif., to the Pribilof Islands, Alaska.

Economic value: An important commercial shellfish harvested along the coast from California to Alaska, Dungeness crabs are usually caught in near-shore marine waters under 120 feet deep with baited crab pots. An average of 17,000 tons, worth tens of millions of dollars, are caught annually, usually in the first two months of an average nine-month season.

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission