The Pacific Northwest is a mecca for fresh seafood. Delicious salmon, Dungeness crab, clams, oysters, and more can all be found in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, and lucky for us, often make their way onto menus across Seattle.
While seafood is usually one of my first picks when eating out, oysters in particular have only recently become an interest. At restaurants, you will often see them served on the half shell in a bed of ice on a beautiful platter, surrounded by tasty accompaniments such as lemon, mignonette sauce, and chives. The presentation alone is enough to make you want to try them!
Eating oysters in a restaurant is one thing, but being able to forage for them and eat them right on the water’s edge is a completely different and unique experience. That’s where Savor the Wild Tours comes in. Their Oysters & Clam ShinDIG + Tide to Table Feast is an experience that takes you right to the source and leaves you spoiled with some of the freshest local seafood. As the number one producer of shellfish in the country, Washington state is the perfect place for this type of adventure.
Read on for highlights from my group outing with Savor the Wild Tours. Owner Angela Shen and her team pulled out all the stops to make it a special day!
Oysters & Clam ShinDIG + Tide to Table Feast
Our afternoon excursion took place along the glimmering shores of Hood Canal at Triton Cove State Park, about a 2.5-hour drive from downtown Seattle. Scenic views make up for the lengthier drive time, especially if you choose the route that requires a trip on a Washington State Ferry (an adventure in and of itself!). Pro tip: state parks require a Discover Pass parking permit. Learn more here.
Upon arrival to the park, the group was greeted with a beautiful display of charcuterie, shucked oysters from Hamma Hamma, and a sparkling wine pairing from Syncline Winery that went perfectly with the bites. It was a great opportunity to take in the scenery and learn more about what we were going to be doing for the afternoon. Fun fact: if you’ve never eaten an oyster before, don’t worry! Angela will show you her trips and tricks on how to slurp one down with ease.
After spending some time mingling, the group was ready to learn oyster 101, including how to shuck them ourselves. Angela shared a lot of interesting facts about the area and why the mild weather in the region and cold waters of Puget Sound make it the perfect place for oysters and other shellfish to thrive. Given the time of year, our main focus was oysters during this excursion.
Following our quick educational session, we were ready to learn how to shuck. Savor the Wild provided everything we needed which included a pair of cut-proof gloves, a towel, a shucking knife, and an additional layer of gloves to keep our hands dry. Angela broke the process down into easy to understand steps, and we were all shucking in no time! The best part? You get to eat the oysters as you go! Armed with our new skills and knowledge, the group was ready to hit the beach to find our own oysters.
We made our way down to Triton Cove Tidelands—a beach that used to be an oyster farm. Savor the Wild provided each of us with the tools we needed, including a bucket for collecting. Rubber boots are highly recommended to keep your feet warm and dry as you walk the shore (Savor the Wild has them available for rent if you don’t have any!). It didn’t take long before the rocks under our feet turned to fields of oysters, but we opted to get closer to the water to make sure we were finding the ones that had been exposed for the least amount of time. Searching for the oysters felt like a Pacific Northwest egg hunt and finding them myself felt like striking gold as I delicately placed each one in my bucket.
Once we had collected our oysters, it was time to eat them—right there on the beach! We used our buckets as stools and shucked away with gorgeous Hood Canal, evergreen trees, and a soaring eagle as our backdrop. Putting in the work to find the oysters and shuck them myself made them taste even better. Angela and her team even brought down lemon wedges for us to spritz the shellfish with before indulging. After enjoying each oyster one by one, we all had fun tossing the shells over our shoulders, back onto the beach. Pro tip: it’s important to leave the shells on the beach to help new oysters as they grow!
We wrapped up our shinDIG, and now it was time for the feast!
Back in the park where our excursion began, we enjoyed another glass of wine while a beautiful meal was prepared for us by Angela and her team. The smell of butter and garlic made my mouth water as I patiently waited for our first course: manila clams. They melted in my mouth as I quickly made a small tower with the discarded shells. Up next was salmon. It was prepared perfectly and was paired with a vibrant, refreshing salad. I think everyone in the group had clean plates! With each course, we had a new wine pairing (a reasonable extra charge that is so worth it!). The meal ended with a lemon cream parfait dessert that had fresh blackberries and a graham cracker topping. It was the perfect sweet finale to our fantastic experience.
From the shucked oysters to the tide to table feast, the food was fresh and fulfilling. Eating a meal so close to the source created a magical experience that I haven’t had anywhere else. It made me proud to be from the Pacific Northwest where this cuisine is part of our daily lives, and also really excited to share it with others.
Savor the Wild Tours offers the Oyster & Clam ShinDIG + Tide to Table Feast combo and Oyster & Clam ShinDIG on its own from March-May. These events take place on Hood Canal, but the exact location is dictated by the tide schedule and where the Department of Fish and Wildlife allow shellfish harvesting. Spots fill up far in advance, so don’t miss out on reserving your place in one of the next excursions!
Visit savorthewildtours.com and follow @savorthewildtours to learn more.
