Where do you catch your favorite seafood?

Published 7:08 pm Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The treasures of Neptune and Poseidon can’t begin to compete with those of Komokwa, the supernatural ruler of the Northwest’s undersea world. Fish, mollusks, crustaceans – even seaweed – all fall into his delicious realm of seafood.

Some locals claim the seafood crown belongs to wild-caught king salmon, cooked to a perfect bronze with a subtle smoke flavor that can only come from the cedar plank on which it was roasted.

Others point to the local oysters perfectly shucked, served up on the half shell or pan fried, as the iconic Northwest seafood. However, with dozens of varieties to choose from, the tiny Olympia oyster is the only true native.

And we can’t forget the Dungeness crab. From the water’s bottom, these natives are found from Alaska to Northern California. We take them any way we can get them – cooked and cracked or stuffed into cakes.

Not to be upstaged by these three seafood heavyweights are rockfish, flatfish, mussels and the odd-looking geoduck, all titans of the plate when it comes to local dining. Asking a Northwesterner to pick a favorite seafood is like asking a New Yorker how to get to Carnegie Hall – everyone has an opinion.

As with water itself, here in the Northwest we see seafood at just about every turn. The variety is astounding. And the style we enjoy it in ranges from upmarket dinner houses to fish ‘n’ chip shacks and fresh crabs plucked from Puget Sound and cooked right on the beach.

Where do you skipper out-of-towners when they ask for the area’s best seafood spots? What are your favorite dishes at those eateries?

Ray’s Boathouse and Seastar.

David, Bothell

Salty’s on Alki, Ray’s Boathouse, Blueacre, Ivar’s for chowder, and for salmon cooked over alder coals Black Fish in Tulalip Casino

Bruce, Shoreline

PCC! Freshest fish, then I cook it myself.

Christine, Edmonds

“Deadliest Catch!”

Nan, Shoreline

Anthony’s Seafood Grill in Lynnwood, Ray’s, Seastar, Betty on Queen Anne

Alicia, Seattle

T&T Seafood by Ranch 99 market in Edmonds on Highway 99. They have Chinese classics and cook live fish and lobsters.

Betty, Mountlake Terrace