Copper River salmon will be on the menus for another couple of weeks in the PNW, tonight we had an amazing dinner at The Wayfarer in Cannon Beach which offered the Copper River salmon as a special. It was topped with lots of goat cheese and served with sides of arugula and risotto. OMG, this was soooo wonderful! The salmon was perfectly prepared and our server was very nice, we brought in a bottle of Pinot Noir that we picked up at the Wine Haus earlier, the corkage fee was $15 at the Wayfarer.
If anyone is looking for the Copper River salmon, go to The Wayfarer, it will last a short time on the menus. I preferred this entree to the Copper River salmon we had at Etta%26#39;s in Seattle this past Fri. night. :)
Copper River Salmon at the WayfarerI take it this trip is your first time trying Copper River Salmon. Yes, those of us that live here are aware that it runs for a short time, and yes, it is very good.
Glad you finally listened to some of us for the Seattle recommendations. Well, sort of:)
Copper River Salmon at the WayfarerAll Copper River Salmon is not the same and various varieties have been available in the markets for a few months. Did you have King, Sockeye, Coho?
And, for such expensive and special fish I can%26#39;t imagine wanting to smother it with ';lots of goat cheese'; (feta?)
This is just another of your daily diary accounts that leave out the most useful information. This is what blogs are for and where those who care about your daily fantasies could tune in.
oregonpoppa--You said it much nicer than I could. No way would I put anything on CRS! And yes, the different varieties. But then again, I think we know salmon here sort of like we know the different between party cloudy and partly sunny, lol!
Party cloudy? Isn%26#39;t that the conditions in Oregon all the time? Party on!
Nope, we%26#39;re optimists---it%26#39;s partly sunny in Oregon :)
I%26#39;m guessing that you can%26#39;t buy Copper River Salmon in Fresno, syrahgirl? It%26#39;s been on menus and in stores for a while now around here.
It%26#39;s ironic that you would like the Wayfarer%26#39;s preparation better than Etta%26#39;s, one of Seattle%26#39;s highly touted and often recommended Tom Douglas restaurants. I do like the Wayfarer, but to me it hardly compares to Etta%26#39;s in terms of quality of ingredients and talent in the kitchen. Maybe the goat cheese masked the difference?
Looking forward to your next installment.....
Party is not equal to partly. Just joking around.
suzie and oregonexplorer--LOL! I love the humor we get going on here:)
mistletoe--I agree, while the Wayfarer is good, it is no way compares to Etta%26#39;s! Not even close.
suzie, Oregon is party cloudy, party sunny and party rainy :O)
I ate SO much salmon in Portland !! and crab... I miss the crab ..
I am not a lover of things topped with cheese, except maybe PIzza but I could never eat cheese covered Fish! blech!
An Italian would throw it in the garbage lol
My little boy used to be like that .. he didn%26#39;t care what the dish was, just as long as he could pour a pound of grated cheese on it , he was happy. Amazing that he grew out of that !
syrahgirl, you really should put your food reviews in the Review sections. That is why they have Review Sections .. although, there aren%26#39;t that many reviews on just a dish , a fish , are there? ( did I just sound like Dr Seuss? ) lol
Now for some commentary on fish and Syrahgirl%26#39;s dish:
here%26#39;s a bit of info taken off the web re Copper River salmon:
';The Copper River Kings (running mid-May to mid-June) are the fattiest with the most beneficial Omega 3 fats. Copper River Sockeyes (May-July) are the reddest. The Copper River Coho, which start running in late-July and are strong through September, are relatively unexciting but available longer.';
Disclaimer: I%26#39;ve never eaten at the Whaler and, so, my comments are strictly my own gueses and opinions.
Savory sauces for fish and game were developed for much the same reason the French developed perfume...to cover up less attractive aromas. In many cultures, wild game are allowed to hang around and get ';ripe'; for days. The decomposition helps breakdown muscle and sinew and supposedly tenderizes the flesh. The sauces and slow cooking mask the gaminess of the meat.
Fish shouldn%26#39;t require such sauces. Usually, any sauces accompanying fish are light and are designed to enhance or contrast with the fish itself. This does not apply to cioppinos or heavy pasta dishes. They%26#39;re a whole other matter.
Fish does not keep well. It%26#39;s best pulled out of the water and slapped right on a grill. The next best thing would be flash freezing as many commercial fleets do. The sports fisherperson always has an ice-filled chest handy (or leaves the fish on a stringer dangling in the icy waters of a lake or river). As a rule and given time constraints, fresh is always better than frozen and thawed (and fish should never be refrozen if it can be avoided). In Oregon, markets always indicate in their ads and in their fish cases if a fish has been previously frozen (and, if so, should be taken home and eaten ASAP). Also, fresh fish should smell only of the sea...not fishy. If it smells fishy, don%26#39;t buy.
Unfortunately, restaurants are not apparently required to tell patrons any of this. Not even whether a fish was wild or farm raised (not sure that any Copper River salmon is farm raised). Farm raised salmon and steelhead have gray flesh and have to have color added to make the flesh look like salmon. Markets also indicate this, but restaurants usually do not.
Some restaurants get daily deliveries, but most get their weekly deliveries on Thursdays and Mondays (again, I do not know about the Whaler). If it comes in ';fresh'; chances are it is still arriving a day or two after being caught (at best). That means by Sunday (when Syrahgirl had her meal), the fish might have been at the restaurant several days and, perhaps, had been out of the sea for almost a week.
Checking Whaler%26#39;s website, I don%26#39;t see Syrah%26#39;s dish on the menu. Of course, it might be a seasonal special...or a Sunday special. And I am NOT suggesting that the Whaler was serving fish past its prime. As a quasi knowledgeable consumer, however, I would want to know and would ask my waiter or the manager.
That doesn%26#39;t always yield informed info, however. Last time I was at Jakes in Portland I asked where the sturgeon had come from, because there had just been a big news article about sturgeon from one region of the Columbia being full of chemicals. The waiter didn%26#39;t know what I was talking about. Just for the heck of it I also asked him what the difference was between wild and farm raised salmon (besides the price difference). He didn%26#39;t know that either. In an upscale seafood restaurant in Southern Californa a few years ago I overheard a couple with young children asking what mahi mahi was. The waiter said it was dolphin...';you know, like Flipper!) Before the kids had a fit I jumped in and told them it was dolphinfish...not dolphin and was a fish not a mammal. In Mexico, it%26#39;s called dorado.
So, we are still left with the question: why smother a trophy fish with goat cheese? I%26#39;ll leave you with your own suppositions. And your own judgment regarding the reliability of reporting from someone who would order such a dish and gush, ';OMG, this was soooo wonderful';
I won%26#39;t go into why one would drink pinot noir with seafood (old rules don%26#39;t apply much anymore anyway), unless it was needed to cut through the goat cheese. And what does she mean by ';perfectly prepared?'; Was it on the rare side or flaking with a fork?
Enough. I%26#39;ve invested far too much time in this, but I wish there was some way to put an asterisk on all of Syrahgirl%26#39;s daily dining reports.
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