They'd eaten every one.`

Outside the bathhouse, the ocean lapping up the sand played backup for the giant grill pits topped with piles and piles of steaming oysters. The oysters were covered with wet burlap sacks, which were sprayed every so often to keep them moist. To the left is a photo of David Smead, "roast master" and partner in food execution with Jon Rowley (photo right). According to Rowley, oyster guru and coordinator of the event, about 300 dozen (3,600) roasted Pacifics were consumed in a matter of five hours. Another 40 dozen raw Totten Inlet Virginicas, the oyster named "Best of the East Coast" at a recent competition, were consumed as well. All oysters were donated by Taylor Shellfish.



Like wine, oysters have their own vocabulary and regional specialties. Wine pulls flavor from the soil in which the grapes are grown, and oysters taste of the water from which they feed. If you get a briny one, maybe it is a Virginica. But which variety of Virginica? A Totten Inlet Virginica, raised on the west coast? Or an Apalachicola, the variety from Florida thought be the first oyster used to make Oysters Rockerfeller? An oyster's array of flavors: melon, mineral, copper, cucumber, brine, butter, is dependent on its area of growth. The beautiful thing about it is the sense of adventure in tasting a new variety for the first time. Even if you think you don't like oysters...maybe you've just never had a species you enjoyed.




The roast was a blast, and I hope there are many more in years to come. Without looking at the beach outside, just listening to The Tallboys' bluegrass made me feel I was back in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. The coleslaw was brilliant, and I usually hate coleslaw. (I even plan to hijack the recipe.) There was butter-crisp garlic bread and rich baked beans and beer. (Fish Tale Ales, an organic brewing company in Olympia.) It's not often you get to mingle and chat with strangers over a messy, newspaper-lined table. The success of the event gives me hope for the eaters of this city, knowing that so many can enjoy communal eating and ditch food snobbery for a good old time with bluegrass and beer. The "Seattle Freeze" is all too real, and this sloshing, down-home event melted off a little of that city ice. I hope you are able to don some of your best oyster-shucking protective gear and come on out next year.

Speaking of messy events, if you like getting down and dirty you may enjoy the Samish Bay Bivalve Bash and Low Tide Mud Run on July 19th. Yep, that's exactly what you think it is. Fresh shellfish galore and a race through inches-deep sticky mud. Check out the website for more details.


















"'O Oysters,' said the Carpenter,
'You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?'
But answer came there none--
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one."