22 // COASTWEEKEND.COM
Coast Weekend’s local
restaurant review
Astoria Co-op’s spring Farm to Fork dinner an abundant success
Review and photos by
MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA
B
Between courses, a question was
posed to the lively dining room:
How far does the average food item
travel?
The correct answer: 1,500 miles.
A prize was forthcoming, a locally
made apron bearing the logo of
the evening’s host: Astoria Co-op
Grocery.
Held June 2 at the Columbia Me-
morial Hospital Community Center’s
Coho Room, it was the Co-op’s sixth
(or seventh) Farm to Fork dinner. Its
aim: to celebrate the healthy cooking
of local foods. For an exceptionally
reasonable $40 some 70-odd diners
were treated to four courses and
wine, as well as introductions to the
farmers and producers. After food
costs, proceeds benefi ted the North
Coast Food Web’s Project Fruit Box,
which delivers organic fruit to local
schools.
In an open, instructional kitchen
almost like a stage, the meal was
prepared by chef Marco Davis
along with a small army of helpers.
A caterer and cultural taste-maker,
Davis is renown for the time he
spent helming the Columbian Cafe.
Front of house duties were capably
handled by Co-op staff and volun-
teers. Plates were quickly cleared,
wine and water glasses kept full.
The evening’s menu was assem-
bled the day of, almost wholly from
these regional producers: Glory B
Farms (Grays River, Washington),
46 North Farm (Olney, Oregon),
Strange Family Farm (Naselle,
Washington) and Bornstein Seafoods
(Astoria).
The fi rst course featured hearty
spears of carrot and leek from Glory
B, cooked lightly in oil, with a brilliant
raw milk white cheddar cheese from
Strange Family. It may sound like an
oxymoron, since cheese is made by
aging, but this white cheddar had a
lively, fresh essence, its sharpness like
a beam of bright light. While I cleaned
the plate, including the tough, chewy
leeks, I scoured for every last crumble
of that delicious cheese.
The main course featured lo-
cal-caught petrole sole draped over
rice, a bed of crisped rainbow chard,
topped with capers, a garlic scape
and radishes.
The salad featured sticks of asparagus crossed over a bed of spicy arugula, fi nished with a single slice of caramelized
peach and dusted with tiny, edible pink fl owers.
The salad course came mostly
from Glory B. Sticks of buttery
asparagus crossed over a bed of un-
tamed arugula, fi nished with a single
slice of caramelized peach, dribbled
with a few drops of vinegar, and
dusted with tiny, edible pink fl owers.
Said chef Marco: “I like to decorate
food with food.” I would’ve wel-
comed a few more slices of peach as
a sweetening balance to the arugula’s
striking wallop.
“Woooo, that’s a spicy arugula!”
said the emcee, eliciting cheers and
laughs from the crowd. “Not ev-
erybody likes it, and that’s OK,” he
added. “But that arugula is so good
for you we could have a whole talk
about it.”
The discussion instead turned to
the soil that birthed it. “Quality of
food is directly relatable to nutrients
in soil,” said Glory B’s Tom Zim-
merman, noting his was particularly
high in calcium. Using kale as an
example, Zimmerman said it would
grow without that calcium but fall
well short of potential. But combine
that nutrient-rich soil with the North
Coast’s moist climate, Zimmerman
said, and that kale “will grow as well
as it’s able to.”
Andrew Bornstein, a third-gen-
eration co-owner of Bornstein
Seafoods, took the microphone to
introduce the main course, describ-
ing petrale sole as the outstand-
ing fi sh of the West Coast that’s
overlooked by outsiders. Bornstein
spoke too of the fi shing industry’s
history in Astoria. Of the petrale
sole on our plates, Bornstein recog-
nized the boats that brought them
in. “These fi sh are caught either by
the Cassandra Anne or the Ocean
View,” he said, “caught by a fi shing
family in Knappa.”
The sole was draped over a
pillow of supple rice, atop a bed of
Glory B’s crisped rainbow chard,
topped with capers and a long,
snaking garlic scape. Large radish-
es impersonated red potatoes. The
whitefi sh, prepared with lemon, was
almost impossibly soft, its molecular
structure only just barely maintain-
ing the properties of a solid.
“I didn’t salt or pepper anything
tonight,” said chef Marco. “I let it all
sing for itself.” Indeed, the fl avors
here were not coaxed, constructed
or complex — they were elemental,
raw and earthy.
Dessert was a gluten-free straw-
berry shortcake with whole whipped
cream from Strange Family and
rhubarb from 46 North. Noting that
it grows incredibly well here, farmer
Teresa Retzlaff said she harvested
the rhubarb that morning. The glu-
ten-free cake more resembled a bis-
cuit. It was buttery and over-salted,
but fl aky and texturally successful.
The whipped cream was marvelous,
as if lighter than air.
Dessert was a gluten-free strawber-
ry-rhubarb shortcake with whole
whipped cream and edible fl owers.
Dessert, like the previous cours-
es, was appropriate for this, the
spring edition of the Farm to Fork
dinner. Indeed, the meal refl ected
the region at this time of year. It
was light, lean, green, simple and
burgeoning. (To that end, I expect
September’s coming iteration of
the Farm to Fork series to refl ect
fall’s coming accordingly.) While
the room was a bit loud at times,
I found it full of good company:
tables shared by adventurous,
food-forward folks and farmers
alike. Everyone had something to
share.
It was the ideal co-op meal in
two ways: First, it was profound-
ly healthy; second, it came from
sustainable, local producers. Indeed,
while the average food stuff may
come from hundreds and thousands
of miles away, this one came from
our own abundant backyard.