SO YOU'RE PRETTY OBSESSED... with crab-based dishes of all sorts, from stews to fritters to salads to the classic crab cake. But even at the crabbiest eatery you love, your seafood-tastic go-to, the crab-based offerings might not be enough for you. Because you really love it, it is one of your favorite foods, and if only there was a gorgeous slice of California, one that faced the ocean, that celebrated crab in all of its gourmet expressions for a solid 10 days. Oh, and if area wineries could also take part in that 10-day-stravaganza, and some breweries, too, that would be amazingly fantastic, because a spicy pinot goes so well with a crab cake (same goes for the mellowest of ales). Be heartened, crustacean-obsessed people of the Golden State, for such a happening does exist, and as luck would have it, it all spreads out, like so much flavorful crab dip, around a gorgeous, ocean-adjacent slice of California. It's the Mendocino County Crab, Wine & Beer Festival, and it is ready to again raise its pincers from...
JAN. 19 THROUGH JAN. 28, 2018: C'mon, that's a lot of crab to enjoy, if you do the math, but it isn't solely about the eating at this nearly-two-decade-old party. Well, okay, it's mostly about the eating, and the sipping, too, but there's a Skunk Train outing involved, and places to see and co-crab lovers to acquaint yourself with. Crab feeds dot the well-spiced schedule, as do winemakers, and a host of Mendo-area towns will have walk-on parts, from lovely Little River to Boonville to Fort Bragg. Will you stay the whole time and devour morning crab cakes with eggs, crab cakes at noon, and some sort of crab-based supper after nightfall? It's up to you, crabbies of California, but if you have the time, and some vacation cash stashed, this could be your dream food festival. So stop snapping your pincers, and don't scurry sideways, and don't act like a crab, for a famous feasty time is coming up in that seafoody slice of coastal heaven, Mendocino County.
