Shell out for crab in San Francisco

Crab and San Francisco go together like sour and dough, and you can find it here in just about every incarnation from basic cracked and steamed to meticulously plated in the mode of haute cuisine.

But if you like your crustaceans on the crispy side, you may want to check out the city's Chinatown, the district that almost wasn't. The original community was razed by the great earthquake and fire of 1906, and city leaders planned to relocate residents away from the valuable land next to the Financial District.

Except that far-seeing businessman Look Tin Eli and a group of like-minded entrepreneurs came up with the financing and the vision to do better. He helped create a theatrically decorated neighborhood that would serve as a tourist attraction as well as provide a place to live, hence the many pagoda-style roofs and splashes of bright red and gold.