Bowls of cioppino bristling with crab legs, mussels, clams, scallops and squid. Plates of expert crab enchiladas too tasty to make it around the table. Heavenly halibut fried ever-so-lightly. Steaming blackened scallops surrendering tenderly to the wimpiest flick of a fork.

This is the Moss Landing gift that unwraps itself after the Grape Whisperer speaks (at normal volume). “It’s time for a Phil’s Fish Market (633-2152) run,” Bernardus Vineyard Manager Matt Shea said. “Hopefully the power’s out, it’s raining horizontally on the tin roof, perfect for big bread bowls of cioppino, a nice Pinot Grigio… ”

This was seasonal genius – converting moisture into motivation to dig more eagerly into the comfort food, turning our table into a field of shell shrapnel, overmatched napkins and splashed sauce.

The rain even obliged with a surge of sideways that made us that much more grateful to be there. And given the nice $5.99/pound price on crab, we left with some cracked and cleaned presents to enjoy later (and made a note to return for some live bluegrass 6-8pm Mondays). The overly ambitious pole dancing over at the Moss Landing Inn, meanwhile, might not’ve been on our list for Santa.

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The wintry-holiday hits aren’t limited to seafood, though. More gifts:

• An inventive “TGIF” farmers market in Seaside is scheduled to start at the City Center on Fridays in mid-January, as Walter Ryce reports in this week’s art piece (pg. 40). The Sea-Sand Chamber is envisioning live entertainment and ethnic foods – and chamber chief Tony Price says they already have a blend of 50 local and regional vendors (including high-end barbecue from Spice It Up Catering and Del the Dogman of Brown’s Confections) and have turned away 50 more.

• As part of a PR push masterminded by Marci Bracco (who will be spending her first Christmas wedded to Brandon Miller of Mundaka), Fandango (372-3456) is throwing open its doors to invite the community to rediscover its approachable French-Mediterranean excellence – and will be open Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I stopped by earlier this week for an industry open house and found the iconic Pierre Bain holding court, the lamb kebabs nothing less than perfect, the paella and stew spot-on. Oui.

• Here comes the tequila, rum, Kahlúa and the unqualified rocking… in P.G.?! OK – maybe it’s not a classic club experience, but Mike Beck is a bad-ass on guitar, and at his 8pm acoustic show Saturday, Dec. 19, at the Ice Cream Shoppe (655-4419) on Lighthouse, there will be tequila lemon sorbet (hola, Acapulco Gold), rum raisin, and Kahlúa truffle – and six kinds of beer (micro-brewed and handcrafted root beers, including Sparky’s Fresh Draft Root Beer, that is). Rock on, Pac G.

• Organic superstar Jamie Collins and Serendipity Farms have a fresh gift idea – boxes of seasonal treats straight picked that day. (Torpedo onions! Heirloom tomatoes! Baby artichokes!) Her CSA delivery service ($25 a week, four-week minimum, 726-9432) ramps up in March, but a gift package with preserves arrives in time for Christmas.

• Family-owned Yama Sushi Bar & Restaurant (646-9262), where El Indio once lived in Del Monte Center, is slated to start sating shopping-summoned sushi appetites soon.

• Sweet Elena’s (393-2093) is rolling out flourless hazelnut yule logs with coffee cream and chocolate ganache among other amazements. (She’s also hosting Nani Steele again for a special-recipe-serving book signing of My Nepenthe, 2-4pm Saturday, Dec. 19, complete with mulled wine and prepped recipes from the book, like the lightly legendary cheese pie and Lolly’s roast chicken.)

• A number of splurge specialists are assembling awesomeness for the holidays. Sardine Factory (373-3775) is readying the lobster-truffle bisque and filet as part of a $59.95 four-course on New Year’s Eve; Pacific’s Edge (620-1234) has elegant spreads for Christmas and New Year’s, which will include champagne and dancing.

• Some post-Hanukkah action: Dec. 24-27, Asilomar Conference Center hosts the thinkers and doers of the New Jewish Food Movement for the fourth annual Hazon Food Conference – food justice, kosher meat issues, health, cooking and gardening, Israeli food and agriculture. See if you can find Lee Lightfoot on the site (www.hazon.org).

• The David and Kathleen Fink family behind L’Auberge Carmel and Cantinetta Luca (and formerly Bouchee) have something to celebrate: Hotel Luca officially opened Tuesday in the heart of Napa. Twenty rooms, devilishly dope designs by the irrepressible Kathleen, an inspired Cantinetta Piero restaurant, a full-service spa, www.hotellucanapa.com.

• Then there’s something David Bernahl and company are celebrating: “Thank God it was a blowtorch.” According to Bernahl, if the men removing equipment at the Stokes Adobe had used a grinder instead of said torch, the severing of a small gas line would’ve meant a fire big enough to bury the building instead of a small wall of flame. Meanwhile, his Coastal Luxury Management remains on fire – the deal for Cannery Row Brewing Company was officially “signed, sealed and delivered” this week, with demo underway to move the entrance and reinvent the bar. Target date for opening: early April – not coincidentally, right around Pebble Beach Food & Wine (April 8-11). The CLM deal for Stokes remains in escrow, which could close at January’s end.