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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2018)
14 // COASTWEEKEND.COM Coast Weekend’s local restaurant review Fine art meets fine food at Spring Unveiling Review and photos by THE MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA MOUTH@COASTWEEKEND.COM FACEBOOK.COM/MOUTHOFTHECOLUMBIA A s far as the dictionary is concerned, “keta” refers to a type of salmon. But it’s more than that. Before we get too far down the rabbit hole, let’s back up a minute. We’re traversing the intersec- tion of fine art and food this week on account of Spring Unveiling, Cannon Beach’s annual arts festival held earlier this month. The event has berthed a culinary offshoot: Chef’s Table. It pairs restaurants and galleries. Restau- rants find a piece of artwork to use as inspiration for a special dish. So when Bistro owner Jack Ste- phenson was paired with Bronze Coast Gallery he was drawn to “Keta,” a mixed-media work by Mark Gatewood. Because of the name, Stephen- son figured he’d do something with salmon. But he went deeper. Like the best art (and food), Stephenson employed creative license. Online he found a second, unofficial definition for the word “keta.” It comes from “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows,” an online art project by John Koenig, who calls his dictionary a “compendium of made-up words” where “each orig- inal definition aims to fill a hole in the language, to give a name to an emotion we all feel but don’t have a word for.” In Koening’s dictionary, “keta” is a “memory that leaps back into your mind from the distant past.” And with this second, sentimental definition, Stephenson’s memory lit up. He remembered foods en- joyed while growing up on the East Coast. Among them: lump crab. So Stephenson ordered the costly Atlantic ocean crustacean — which Northeasterners will tell you is sweeter and superior to Dungeness — and featured it in his Spring Unveiling special: a Salmon Oscar. In essence, he added some “keta” (memory) to his “keta” (salmon). But rather than sprinkle his salmon steak with raw lump crab, Stephenson made a crab cake crown whose delicate crust and velvety Béarnaise sauce had me moaning “Oh God!” to no one in particular. Altogether heavenly, the Salm- on Oscar ($45) maintained an es- sential, whole-food simplicity that could perceivably take you back home. The asparagus and sour- cream-and-chives-laden baked potato certainly helped in that regard. Indeed, it wasn’t impossi- ble to imagine as something you might have at a family dinner — that is, if your family dinners were prepared not only with flawless technique, but also meaning and sparkling intention to boot. At the heart of Stephenson’s “Keta,” I think, is exactly what the foodie component of Spring Unveiling aspires to do: get those creative juices running in the kitchen. Compared to 2016, when I last dipped into Spring Unveiling’s Chef’s Table component, restau- rants this year felt more engaged. In 2016, I encountered numerous servers who weren’t even aware of the specials or the event. While I imagine many diners still passed through unaware, 2018’s market- A pepperoni pizza braut from Cannon Beach Smokehouse The Bistro’s “keta” — salmon, crab cake with asparagus, Béarnaise sauce and baked potato ing was better, the specials better lit, the concepts embraced. While a solid majority of Can- non Beach restaurants participate in the event, they do with varying intensities. Sometimes an artwork provides a restaurant with a color palette for a new dish. Some- times, as in Stephenson’s case, art inspires deep reflection and development of a dish. Sometimes a painting of a crab equates to crab legs in a bowl. This year’s offerings ran the gamut from coffees and cocktails to multi-coursed feasts. Among the most full-blown additions I sadly missed out on: prix fixe menus at Newman’s 988 (featuring an escargot appetizer), the Stephanie Inn and EVOO (where Bob Neroni donned a James Beard-styled cos- tume for a themed evening). But there was plenty to re- joice in for eaters in search of less involved, time-consuming or expensive experiences. Based on a piece of a bearded sailor on the nighttime sea, the burgeoning Cannon Beach Smoke- house devised a dish to fuel him: an irresistible marinara and Italian sausage hero ($14) with pepperoni, grilled peppers, onions and the creamy kiss of smoked mozzarella. Of all the dishes I’ve had at the Smokehouse — most of which were absolute winners — the pizza brat towers above them. It deserves a permanent spot on the menu. Based on the carving of a turtle, Sweet Basil’s chef John Sowa, too, dipped into memory, stirring up a mock turtle soup of New Orleans origins. (Sowa cut his culinary teeth in the Big Easy.) In place of turtle meat — which Sowa says is like a stringier red meat — he substituted a mixture of ground sirloin and veal. Sowa went with the replace- ment for two reasons: First, outside New Orleans, the idea of eating turtle makes a lot of people squeamish; second, turtle meat is expensive to ship. The sirloin and veal were joined in a rich, buttery, developing, tangy roux. It was a peacefully entrancing dish that has me determined to try the real thing. (Oh how I long to visit New Orleans.) In wondering about the soup, Sowa told me he’d had two bowls of it that afternoon. He was clearly excited, energized by doing some- thing different. A passage on the Sweet Basil’s menu spoke to such inspiration: “I try to offer specials when some idea pops into my head,” Sowa wrote. “I might wake up at 3 a.m. and remember a recipe from 1985 or in part from reading or seeing something that just triggers an idea then put it on the evening’s offering.” “When I do that,” Sowa con- tinued, “my suggestion is … you really should order it.” They don’t call them the “culinary arts” for nothing. CW
