Several years ago, I had the good fortune of spending an evening bathed in moonlight, taking in the sound of the sea, the cool winter air, and more than my fair share of fresh shucked oysters and wine. And I won't lie--it's stuck with me. more ›

Today was a bad day for the stock market, a bad day for Washington oyster farmers, and a bad day to be a crack dealer--but it was a great day to fly the friendly skies, as the Blue Angels delighted the masses (and snarled traffic). more ›

Get out of your shell. Eat some oysters to help save the bay July 16 at the Bivalve Bash. Held near Bellingham in the midst of the stunning Chuckanut Drive at the Taylor Shellfish Samish Farm, the Bivalve Bash is benefits the Skagit Conservation Education Alliance's clean water education programs. more ›

So here's the deal, says Jon Rowley, organizer of the 17th annual Oyster Wine competition: it's not about the wine, it's about "the next oyster." (Oysters courtesy of Taylor Shellfish, the event sponsor.) more ›

Aw, shucks. This week, seafood enthusiasts gathered in Boston to celebrate at the fifth annual International Boston Seafood Show. You may wonder why we give a flying fish about some show in Boston, but we've got our reasons. more ›

Late in December, we mentioned Whole Foods' ridiculous $0.69-cent oyster nights. Happy hour aficionado Tan Vinh also featured the monthly event in a recent piece in the Seattle Times. more ›

Let me be candid--I like oysters. It's a taste that has ratcheted up my dinner tab on countless occasions. Seattle has a number of solid oyster happy hours, but a few weeks ago I picked up a few items at the Westlake Whole Foods and was waiting by the elevator when I noticed an entry on the store's event calendar that seemed too good to be true. more ›

After a reportedly hectic opening night, Ballard oyster bar The Walrus & the Carpenter is dishing out Kumamotos, cocktails and superbly seasonal small dishes to crowds of patrons in its tucked-away spot in the back of the Kolstrand Building. Chef Renee Erickson (of Boat Street fame) is hard at work alongside her crew in the efficient open kitchen. more ›

We're heading into May, the first "non-R" month of the year and so, by folk wisdom, the end of the oyster season. Not so. Oysters are great year-round in the cold-water climate of the Pacific Northwest. (It's those flat-tasting Gulf oysters you've got to watch out for.) But what wine to drink with our succulent local bivalves? more ›

While some have expressed envy over our recent Hawaiian getaway, the jealousy should be directed at locally produced shellfish. It turns out that many Washington clams and oysters receive a tropical vacation all their own. During the winter, Shelton-based Taylor Shellfish sends larval mollusks to NELHA (Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority) in Kona, Hawaii. more ›

They call it an Oyster Wine competition; after an elimination round followed by finals in three cities, 10 of the original 130 entries are left standing. It's really more of an oyster promotion, created some years back by seafood marketing guru Jon Rowley for Taylor Shellfish. No matter. The winning wines (5 from Washington, 3 from California, 2 from Oregon) will see an immediate increase in sales at oyster bars around the country. more ›

Kim is off to the Fremont Abbey tonight to catch one of PDX's finest singer-songwriters, Laura Gibson, in action. She will spend the rest of the weekend napping, baking, and watching movies. Sunday night, she'll emerge from her lair for Jenny Owen Youngs at the High Dive. more ›

Ahh spring. So wonderful and yet so fickle. Thankfully for us, spring was fully sprung Saturday when we took the wife up to Lopez Island to celebrate her birthday by riding in the annual Tour de Lopez. more ›

Puget Sound is home to some of the world's best oyster beds, thanks to cold, clean water and nutrient-rich runoff from the Cascades and the Olympics. Ya got your Kumamotos, your Pacifics, your Olympias, your Virginicas. Yup, Virginicas, "east coast" oysters whose seed was brought to Washington by transcontinental train nearly a century ago, grown on the banks of Totten Inlet. And, get this: in a blind tasting last week, sponsored by the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, those "west coast" Virginicas were judged number one. "Stunning" said Rowan Jacobsen, author of The Geography of Oysters. Local grower Bill Taylor, president of Taylor Shellfish Farms, was humble: "A thrill to have our oysters appreciated by such an esteemed panel." more ›