Buskets of Oysters

I had the pleasure of my second and first visit to The Walrus and the Carpenter last night with Jill.  I say second and first because the first visit was cloudy due to some medications I was taking after slicing off the tip of my finger.  Our waitress on the other hand had a much better recollection of our first visit than I had.  I always find it charming when waitstaff remembers you even after one visit many moons ago.  It made me feel like one of those background characters on Cheers that actually gets called by his name even if it's only for one episode.

The Walrus is a small oyster bar located in the back of the recently renovated Kolstrand building(keep old Ballard alive!).  The building is also home to Ethan Stowell's Staple and Fancy and the Dutch Bike Company, selling bikes I can't imagine are the most practical for the hills of Seattle.

Back to the oysters.  All but one variety offered at this time are local, and the ones we tried were fresh and delicious.  We had a mix of Eld Inlet, Pickering Passage and some Sweetwaters from Lopez Island.  In case you were wondering or were interested, there are only 5 oyster species, yet the waters they grown in have a very profound influence on their flavor(culinary school nerds inside joke).

More impressive than the oysters is the man that shucks them.  Since being in the NY Times, his beard has grown, where it ends, no one knows.  There was no shell or other grit left in the oyster.  He seperates the oyster from the bottom side of the adductor muscle without moving/mangling the meat and all of the sweet/salty oyster liquor is retained.  So good is he that I might be in danger of losing Jill to him...seriously, she might be more impressed than I am.

After our oysters, Jill and I split some of their small plates.  I should mention that they the plates themselves are small, the food that comes on them is deceivingly big in quantity and flavor.  We started with a marinated swiss chard salad, which I think was the best swiss chard I've ever had.  We followed with chicken liver mouse and steak tartare.  The mousse came with curried apricots, mint, pistachios and mustard.  This was a well made mouse with no grittiness or acrid flavors.  The heat from the mustard and the sweetness of the apricots really made this dish well balanced and fun.  The tartare was also excellent but I wish we had been offered fresh cracked black pepper.  Maybe it's old school but I think it should be a law as I'm sure it is in France.  Finally, feeling gluttonous I ordered brandade for dessert.  I know what you're thinking, how can a dish involving salt cod be dessert?  Guess what?!  I got a fever, and the only prescription is more salt!

The Walrus doesn't take reservations so be prepared for a popular new restaurant wait. The nice thing is they will call you when a a table becomes available so heading up the street and grabbing a drink at any of the numerous bars on Ballard Ave makes the wait very tolerable.


Apologies for the lack of pictures.  It was dark and the camera on my phone takes bad low light pictures.  As penance here are a couple of pictures of Bacon, the chicken that stopped laying.  She's in solitary confinement for aggressive clucking, withholding protein pods and several counts of general chick-anery...I made a funny! 

Walk there, waddle back.

Woke up this morning to find out that Jill decided to play hookey from work. Facebook had revealed to her that Skillet would be parked behind Theo Chocolate in Fremont. We've both had Skillet before, I was fortunate enough to meet Chef Joshua Henderson during a field trip in culinary school. He showed us around their truck, the commissary kitchen they were cooking out of and we got to taste all the food that day. A great trip all around and one of the reasons we decided to hire Skillet to cater our wedding.

Today we met up with a friend of ours, local artist Jonathan Wakuda Fischer. The boy had never eaten at Skillet so I knew it would be fun to see his expressions as he took his first few bites. He got the burger which is their signature food topped with their signature condiment, bacon jam! Upon picking up the burger, he was slightly worried it would fall apart, something I can't stand when eating a burger.  If it doesn't stay together, I'm not getting all the ingredients in each bite, which makes me sad. Don't make me sad, it's not pretty. To Jon's delight the burger stayed together and I could hear the content as he took his first few bites.  Not in words at first, but the sentiment was there. I took a bite of Jill's burger, the magic was still there.

While Jon and Jill ate their burgers, I let my eyes and camera delight in the beauty that was my braised duck leg special. It came with a nice side of veggies and a kale caesar salad. I picked it up by the end of the drumstick and was happy the thigh didn't come crashing down. Despite what some might think, you can over-braise meat. Not this duck leg, the meat came off the bone with little effort and the skin was not chewy or soggy. Sprinkled liberally on top of the leg was some chopped fennel fronds and sage. The giant pieces of sage were a bit much and I ended up picked them off. Had they been fried, it would've been perfect.

Full of food and sun, we fed some ducks a couple pieces of fries and without thinking waddled away. I hope the ducks didn't take too much offense.

Street food showdown #1

Bored and restless I decided to walk into Fremont and poke around. This lasted all of 5 minutes when I realized my stomach was making death threats in the form of muffled cries and gargles. Simultaneously I looked up and saw a beacon of hope in the form of a hand molded pie. Pie is the name, very original, and they make both sweet and savory pies. I'm not huge on the sweets so I went over the savory list and picked out a classic, English beef pie. I don't like eating what I consider street food inside the establishments, mostly because they are boring but also because I was alone and didn't feel like reading The Stranger.

Pie in hand in box I was headed home when I realized I would want/need more food. Just around the corner from Pie, in an alleyway, is a russian dumpling place called Pel'Meni. They serve two things; Potato filled dumplings and beef filled dumplings. I went with the combo and got the works which consists of a mild vinegar hot sauce, curry-like seasoning, sour cream and a slice of pumpernickel bread.

The Pie
I really like the crust on these guys. Flaky and light but not so much so that it falls apart in your hand. That would make for some messy street food. The beef filling was very good with a lot of onion flavor. I just wish it was a little saltier. The filling was a good consistency, not runny with juices so as to get your hand sticky, but not dry either. The only disappointment came in the form of some bitter burnt pieces of onion on top.

The Dumplings
The beef dumplings are delicious. They pop in your mouth with nice saltiness and good spiced flavor. The vinegar sauce and seasoning gives it a nice kick and the sour cream adds a nice fatty mouth feel to give the flavor more time on the palate.  The potato dumplings are the opposite.  No flavor and certainly not enough salt.  They fall flat in the mouth and no amount of sauces could help out these poor souls.  If I had to do it again, I would go all meat.  If I were a vegetarian, I would skip it all together.

If I had to choose, I'd go back to Pie and try some different pies.  Some of them might not be as good as the one I had but the diversity keeps you going back for more.  If I had to choose again AND I was slightly inebriated, which I usually am when trying to make these decisions, I'd get some meat dumplings and get sloppy in the alleyway.  It's not all about the food, sometimes you just gotta go with your base instinct.

It's not all about the food

Last night I headed over to the soft opening of 'Roxy's Back Door' with some friends. I'm not sure if that's the name of the bar but our bartender Skip did make a couple of 'Backdoor Surprise' cocktails for the ladies so I'm assuming there's a connection. That and the fact that the back door of Roxy's Diner leads to the bar.

I wasn't alone in being quite surprised by the bar itself. It's almost classy and I mean that in a good way. If it were any classier it would be pretentious. This place has just the right atmosphere to make you feel like you can walk in unshaven and wearing flannel, or wearing a three piece suit and pocket watch. Either way, you wouldn't feel out of place.

A second surprise came in the form of the food at the Back Door. When I first moved to Seattle from New York about 6 years ago, I wasn't keen on eating pizza or deli food. I had my fill after having worked at a deli and eating pizza every other day. I was also scared that the pizza in Seattle would be horrible in comparison. I'm happy to say it doesn't have to be, not with all the great cooks in this city. When I first went, Roxy's Diner didn't disappoint. Over the years however, it seemed the quality of the food went down as the demand to get a seat on a Sunday morning went up. I'm happy to say that the pork chop I ordered was great. A little pink in the middle, just the way I like my piggy. The sweet potato latke was a nice touch. It added that fun sweetness that works so well with salty pork. The portion size was perfect, I didn't feel stuffed, just satisfied. By the end I was gnawing on the bone to my girlfriend's dismay. I tried a bite of her lamb burger and I was less impressed but I have a problem with ciabatta bread. Something about the huge holes makes me angry, like I'm not getting the same dough density value for my money that I would out of a nice brioche bun. That said I think the rustic ciabatta works better with the likes of lamb and feta.

The night was winding down for us, mostly because we had been cut off from free cocktails. It seemed they caught on to one of my friends getting his two free cocktails from three different bartenders. Before leaving we spoke with the owner about his new venture. On the subject of opening a bar to add onto his deli, he said "it's not all about the food." He's right of course, it's not. It's about the experience and the atmosphere as well. If you can't enjoy the intangibles and the overall experience then it doesn't come together. Luckily for him, they got the food right too.