Oysters and Salmon and Crabs, Oh My!

(July 7th, 2012) Elizabeth’s still jealous.

I think that might be a theme to this summer really.  I’ve gone overboard on dining experiences, and she’s been forced to read about them and experience them vicariously through me and my blog.  And if you thought that it just wasn’t fair to this point, just wait till I get to the Berkley post in a few editions.

Seattle provided another ample wave of things for her to be jealous over, namely Sitka and Spruce, but, like with all things, I must start at the beginning and work my way forward…

Not everything we made it to was superbly gourmet and fantastically, melting in my mouth, sloberingly good.  The first restaurant that we went to, in fact, barely will be recorded here.  But, the thing that set it apart from my recent experiences is that it was an authentic Chinese restaurant, plus bakery, plus boba tea shop, in the middle of a trendy neighborhood.  Albuquerque, are you listening, why can’t we have just one of these?  I wouldn’t mind the nauseatingly proliferate amount of greenery either…’

Regent Bakery and Cafe

 

The gourmand portion of the trip started during our first morning in Seattle with a trip down to the farmer’s market, Pike's Place.

 

mmmm, all the fresh fish...

Pike's Place - Not just fish, but flowers, meats, fresh fruit, and so much more!

Not shown, for more reasons than I care to list, the original Starbucks, complete with the slightly off kilter version of the logo, menaced behind us.

As we didn’t have the time, nor the means really, to satisfactorily enjoy the sea food, we later found ourselves wandering into Elliot's Oyster House.  Mmmm, oysters…I think that after this trip I went through a mild withdrawal from lack of fresh oysters...the thought of living near the coast again is very appealing...

A sampling of oysters for lunch

  

For those of you following along at home: Humbolt, South Sound, Fanny Bay, Bay Water, Miyagi, and Muptor Bay.  My favorites were from 12 to 3 o’clock on the plate.  I think there was a time, though it seems such a distant memory ago, when I thought that all oysters were created equally.  Well, my friends, I’m glad that there’s no ‘Oyster Bill of Rights,’ because, just like with salt, there’s an unending bouquet of oyster flavors that treat me to new sensations every time I slurp down another briney body.

Before leaving Elliot's, I filled up with a bowl of Ciopino.  mmmm, I can never get enough of this seafood stew.

Matt at his finest, just before digging into the ciopino!

By far, the highlight of the trip, and really highlight of my summer culinary experiences to this point, was Sitka and Spruce.  Yes, the same, aforementioned, sibling jealousy inducing restaurant as from the start of this post.  What makes Sitka and Spruce so special you might ask?  Simply put, they get it.  If I thought that Pok Pok was special since they induced a pure harmony of flavors, textures, and appearances, Sitka and Spruce was the testosterone induced, one-upping sequel that just had to prove that it could be done even better. 

Realizing that my memory is far too flawed to keep track of these things, I developed the habit here of taking the menu home with me as a reminder of what I dined upon:

The king bolete with giblets, cherries, and fino sherry

For those of you like me who had no idea as to what a 'king bolete' was before I ordered this dish, it's a fancy type of mushroom evidently.  Continuing the aforementioned theme of compliments and contrasts, this dish picked up right where Pok Pok left off...savory giblets and mushrooms with sweet cherries and the sherry glaze. 

Messy Dungeness crab with treviso and salted lemon

So messy, but oh so good.  It's always slow eating working your way through a crab in shell...but worth every ounce of effort it takes to get the meat out.
 

Poached halibut with cucumbers in whey, purslane and sumac

See those cucumbers?  They provided just the right amount of tartness to compliment the delicate flavor of the halibut.  The purslane are the little green leaves.  Almost all of the ingredients are locally sourced/harvested, which should explain all of the unusual ingredients during this trip.

The trappings: cracked Winthrop emmer, beet green-yogurt salad, and nan-e lavash.

Not shown - whole beets with tarragon, yogurt, and za'atar.  The only reason this didn't receive a picture is that it was eaten far too quickly for me to possibly have taken a picture of it first. In fact, this dish launched a new phase of turnip cooking for us.

This post seems to have grown to pretty long, so up next will be Quinn's Pub.

Updated 8/22/12: Ciopino added.