August 5, 2008

Salmon Soup



Whenever we visit Seattle, there is one place that I try to always visit with out fail. At the same time when anyone tells me that they are going to visit the city, I also recommend that they visit that same place; Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar. Named for the late Emmett Watson a somewhat curmudgeonly columnist for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, (He once sponsored the ‘Lesser Seattle’ organization to depromote the city during one of its spurts of popularity), it is tucked in the back corner of one of the maze of buildings that make up Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

I could digress on both of those topics at length, but I’ll spare you this time. It was the last day of our vacation, we were scheduled to depart that evening at 10pm, and because Mrs. had not arrived in the city until the day we were headed off for camping we had not had a chance to visit any of out favorite haunts. So we pack our belongings for the flight early in the morning and tried to get one day of sightseeing in before we departed. We started along the waterfront then worked out way up through the main part of the Pike Place Market, stopping in shops and at vendor’s stands and making a few purchase along the way. Those included a hand made cloth shoulder bag for the wife and a selection of jams made from Northwest berries. The temperate moist climate in the region is perfect for big juicy sweet berries of all sorts.

And finally we reached our quarry, Emmett Watson’s Oyster Bar. In business since the mid 70’s the place is credited with reinvigorating the fresh oyster dining in Seattle. There seems to be oyster bars on every corner now in the trendy neighborhoods. In spite of the pedigree, Watson’s is a very unassuming place, in fact if one didn’t know better it could easily be taken for a greasy spoon. Tucked in a back corner, the restaurant consists of a couple dozen cramped wooden booths with no padding, a tight kitchen in the back with another little bar around it, and weather permitting there is outside seating along a narrow passage that leads to another building. It is almost European in it economy of space. The decorations tend towards beer sign, and the menu is printed on paper bags.

But as the song lyrics go, “Don’t let the glasses fool you.”* This ain’t no greasy spoon; the seafood and other ingredients are as fresh as you can get. The menu traditional Northwest seafood salmon, mussels, clams and oysters but with it’s own flair. All of it tasty and excellent, and relatively cheap.

But we really go there for there for one dish, that is unique to the place; the salmon soup. Imagine a clam broth seasoned pepper and oregano in that broth are tomato, onion, chunks of salmon fillet and a handful of steamed mussels. Topping it off is chunk of toasted French bread (I think it is grilled actually) and that is topped with a big dollop of aioli sauce. A little bit if heaven on earth is there ever was one.




We hardly looked at the menu before ordering. Even the boy who with the exception of salmon usually orders a grilled cheese sandwich, ordered the soup, and as the bowls of arrived, out trip west was complete was complete. We savored our meal along with a couple of local brews. There was hardly a drop anywhere when we finished; the boy even finished all of his except the mussels.

There was a bit of melancholy in the air as I paid the bill and we got up to leave. As is always the case we never seem to have the time to see all the things and people that we want to when we visit. In spite of having not lived in Seattle in nearly 30 years, there is a part of me that still feels like it is home. I was more acutely aware of it this trip. I still have piles of family here, (more on that in a later post), and the boy is reaching an age where the family is becoming more important to him. At the same time he is also of an age that he can appreciate that I saw and did in the city as I was growing up here.

*David Bromberg: Demon in Disguise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi_RtsjKU60

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