After our lazy afternoon, we headed back to Willows Inn and it was time for a cocktail.
Plush, comfy chairs...
...some reading...
...and some yummy sangria until dinner at 7 pm.
Finally, it was time to eat. We were escorted into the small dining room, where dinner is served as a single seating and is a prix fixe 5-course, chef's tasting menu, with either a wine pairing or a juice pairing. Everyone this evening was a guest at the inn. And all the ingredients, from beach plants to wild herbs to fresh spring shoots, are all foraged on the island or harvested from the inn's own farm, Nettles Farm, which is nearby.
Prosecco was promptly poured. Don't you love it when prosecco is prompt? With refills!?
Blaine Wetzel, the chef, and his assistant chefs deliver the dishes themselves so they can tell you the backstory of each ingredient. It was like we were adopting a little pet into our life...and then eating it. Very special. And so was the first dish, which arrived in a cedar box, that, when opened, released a cloud of smoky, um...alderwood smoke, wafting from a perfect block of house-smoked Sockeye salmon. Biblical. It was reefnet caught from the inn's own reefnet gears in Legoe Bay. The menu says: "Reefnetting is considered one of the most sustainable fishing methods." I say, holy yumminess. We were instructed to eat this, as well as the next dishes, with our fingers.
Perfectly plush cod on a bed o' horseradish and potato chip.
Um, a basket arrived. A basket! With gloriously tender and sigh-worthy lettuces, pea shoots and raw turnips and radishes, sprinkled with edible "dirt" of hazelnut and malt and a little pot o' herbed butter. Everything in here was splendid and very Peter the Rabbit.
Lady bugs on a leaf? Or, truffle paste with toasted hazelnuts on a crispy kale leaf? What?! A perfectly truffly and crispy bite.
Large, very meaty, shigoku oysters harvested at Samish Bay arrived on a bed of cold rocks and frozen water. What a fun idea to emulate. Briny, my friends. Luscious, oystery, soft and slippery sea taste in your mouth.
Butter clams, harvested by Lummi Tribal members, was, yes, buttery, paired with grated horseradish "snow."
The actual menu hadn't even started at this point, so finally a break...for some homemade bread and butter. I love bread breaks, don't you?
Outside our window, a gorgeous sunset over Rosario Strait.
Finally, the menu began with heirloom tomatoes with field greens and tarragon and violets. Yes, this is just what my field looks like and I will not share.
Locally caught spot prawns with kohlrabi and seaweed. Sea! All deliciously sea tasty and those prawns were rich, buttery little friends that you wanted to mooch off of. Help.
Blaine Wetzel (a former chef at Noma), concocting.
Nettles farm potatoes with buttermilk whey and melted havarti. This was the magical potato extract! And I can speak no more. Once having sipped from the magical potato, you become one with magical potato.
2009 Amalie Robert Pinot Meunier - Willamette Valley...and we try a juice: huckleberry...
...because it was time for the final course: slow roasted duck breast with pickled mushrooms and woodruff, aka master of the woods. The duck was "lovingly raised by Koraley Orrit on Whidbey Island." And it was loverly indeed. Juicy, roasty, sweet and toasty.
What's next?
Dessert. Blackberries with pine ice cream and oats. It was like eating the Pacific Northwest. Pine-y, refreshing and sweet, it was a burst of foresty goodness.
And just to tip us over the edge, caramel.
And, done.
After dinner, we had a nice chat with Blaine and Aaron, and went to sleep with the fantastical Lummi Island in our stomachs.
3 comments:
Thanks for bringing us along!
Jess--You have got to go!!
We've been to that corner of the country, but we have more exploring to do. We'll get back that way eventually. If we could just win MegaMillions or something, we could get to all the places we want to go! :)
Post a Comment