Tofino and Oysters

Oyster Mania, Tofino, the Far Out, Far West Coast of Canada: I think it’s safe to say that I consumed more oysters in one weekend than I ever have before at the Clayoquot Oyster Festival in Tofino.

Dana and I were invited up to the Oyster Festival and since it’s been a while since I visited Tofino we loaded up the car with junk food and took off. The road map to Tofino is always good for a laugh, as it shows the destination in pretty much a straight line from Port Alberni, when in fact almost the entire route is twisty-turny-up-and-down. But there are rewards, including the drive through Cathedral Grove, where rotting pumpkins left as distant reminders to Halloween dotted the rocks along the highway.

We were staying at the Long Beach Lodge resort, a first for us, right on the beach in Cox Bay. The rooms there are large and comfortable, with cosy gas fireplaces and DVD players for the TV. The only thing we didn’t like was that there is nothing but a wooden blind between the bathroom and the bedroom. I like my bathroom audio privacy! However, we weren’t there to spend a lot of time in the room, and headed straight for the beach, as the tide was very low. Surfers and beachcombers were out in droves, and the light was that long, low, intense sunlight that made it perfect for photos.

On The Beach
I’ve always been fascinated by tidal pools, having grown up in landlocked Ontario, and the sealife on the rocks and pools in Cox Bay were like a playground of discovery and excitement.

Mussels and goose barnacles crusted the rocks, and we found some mussel shells that were at least 8 inches long. I’ve eaten goose, or goose-neck barnacles as they are sometimes called, in the past, but haven’t been that impressed. That opinion was to change later in the weekend.

Also on display were several colours of seastars, sea anemones and wild patterns in the sand, sculpted by the wind and the sea. The sun set rapidly, providing some more great photo opportunities.

Dinner
The salt air and beachcombing gave us quite the appetite, and we were in for quite the meal at the Wickaninnish Inn, just down the street from the Long Beach Lodge. Over the next 4 and a half hours, which is too long for any meal, we were treated to a 7 course meal presented by the new executive chef at the Wick, Andrew Springett, formerly of Diva at the Met in Vancouver, and Canada’s Bocuse d’Or competitor in Lyon, France in January of this year.

Andrew doesn’t officially begin his job until next week, but was asked in to do this dinner. While many of the courses were hits, others were misses and almost every dish that was supposed to be hot, arrived cold. I’ve had much better from Andrew in the past, and I’m sure this was a bit of a glitch, given his recent arrival in Tofino.

Oyster Farms and Purple Trucks bearing ‘Killer Fish Tacos’
On Saturday I clambered on board a sleek Zodiac whale-watching boat as a group of journalists was hosted by Don Travers and Kati Martini of Remote Passages. We were out to visit the oyster farm of Roly Arnet. A brisk 20-minute ride found us in an inlet of Meares Island, surrounded by floats holding lone lines of oysters being grown for a shucked product we most often find sold in tubs marked ‘Mac’s Fanny Bay Oysters’ in the supermarket. After Roly told us more about his farm, it was back to the dock in Tofino and lunch at SoBo, named as one of Canada’s best new restaurants by En Route magazine. In reality, SoBo is a purple movie catering van set up in a parking lot and run by Artie and Lisa Aiher, formerly of the Long Beach Lodge. Everyone raves about their ‘Killer Fish Tacos’. Add me to the list. Make sure you try to contact them before you visit, as they will likely have closed up the truck for a couple of months over the slowest times in Tofino.

The Oyster Festival
Saturday night was the evening of oysters at the Seventh Annual Clayoquot Oyster Festival at the Calm Waters Hall at the Tin Wis Resort in Tofino. This is considered one of the social events of the year in Tofino and tickets were sold out weeks ago. Suffice to say there were about 3 to 4 thousand oysters consumed during the evening, raw, cooked, smoked and otherwise. The appetizers were raw, but then 11 different restaurants presented their best take on the oyster, and I was asked to judge the results, along with Tim Pawsey of the Vancouver Courier and Urban Peasant James Barber. 11 more oysters later, we had consensus, and SoBo came out on top, both with the judges and as the People’s Choice. The winning dish was an oyster tostada, with a fried cornmeal-crusted oyster atop a bed of jicama slaw and a still-crispy taco shell. Yum!

While the recipe competition was intriguing, the absolute highlight of the evening was the oyster ‘slurping’ competition. Entrants were judged on quality, not quantity, with attention paid to gusto, sex appeal and the auditory delights exhibited while slurping a maximum of three oysters. The first entry came from two women, one an all-in-black raven-tressed beauty who exuded sensuality from every pore, and her partner, a voluptuous blonde who had purposefully worn a low-cut top to display not only her ample cleavage, but to delicately house an oyster in the shell. The band struck up a tango, and the duo’s performance was capped by the dark-haired woman dipping her partner low, and slurping the oyster from between her breasts. That was just the start…I would go on, but the performances got even more x-rated from there.

Oh, almost forgot. The West Coast Goose Barnacle Harvesters Association had a table at the Festival, and I absolutely loved the barnacles as they were presented, boiled in sea water with a bay leaf, and served at their juiciest with what tasted like a butter and white wine sauce. Look for more on that story, and my Food For Thought on the Oyster Fest, early in 2004. In the meantime, enjoy some photos from Tofino by clicking here.