Love Cioppino! There is also Soupa de Pesce that is similiar and popular in Italy. We often make a Cioppino as the number one ingredient is Dungeness Crab which is our Pacific local crab. Dungeness is found in the Pacific Ocean from north in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to Santa Cruz, California which is about 45 miles south of San Francisco. We can buy the crabs live in tanks from Asian markets or fully cooked at all markets. The mea is sweet and moist. The body contains so much meat and is great for mking crab cakes. The leg and claw meat is gorgeous morsels. Dungeness crab can be as large as 10 inches across. These huge crabs are mainly found off the Washingtn Coast. Our local SF crabs are more in the 7" to 8" category. That measurement is the body shell not including the legs. Now Cioppino is not exactly from Italy-----It was developed in the late 1800s by Italian fishermen who settled in the North Beach section of San Francisco which is still Italian however China town is crowding it out. Many local American-Italian clubs have a crab feed each year to raise money for charity. The first Cioppino was made on the fishing boats by the Italian fisherman from the days catch of crab, shellfish and fish. Soon several SF restaurants started serving this amazing flavoured soup. The name comes from ciuppin, a word in the Ligurian dialect of the port city of Genoa, which described the local fish stew. The accepted local story in which the name derived from the heavily Italian-accented cry of the wharf cooks for the fishermen to "chip in" some of their catch to the collective soup pot. Cioppino is often served in a hallowed out round loaf of San Francisco Surdough bread. Shanti/Mary-Anne