Pickle Bonanza!

This summer I am going to try my hand at preserving and there's nothing you can do to stop me. I am a compulsive list maker and I've already compiled a list of everything I'd like to pickle and I hope to get all my fruits and veggies in season and from local farmer's markets.

What an exciting summer I have planned out!

On that note, Kyle and I decided yesterday that instead of relying on trains and buses to cart us around the south of Spain in May. We are going to rent a car and drive along the coast from Seville to Murcia and then fly out of Murcia, very exciting!

Our last day together with our little car we named "Trudy"

Last year I went on a west coast road trip with 3 friends (Brooke, Brad and Emily) and we covered a lot of terrain in a relatively short period of time. One of the best/worst stories from our trip happened in the little town of Crescent City (I know you're reading this Brooke and I know there's a smile on your face!)

BBQ'd oysters, not cool

Our original plan while on the west coast was to eat a lot of oysters. As it turns out the west coast generally yields really large oysters which aren't as nice to eat as the smaller east coast oysters. Also, Americans are paranoid about getting sued and they figure that by cooking the oysters (common methods are bbq-ing and deep frying) they won't get anyone sick and therefore no one can sue them for contracting food poisoning. As we drove up the coast of California all we could find were cooked oysters and we thought that if we found a seafood restaurant right on the coast we would be in luck and that's when we rolled into Crescent City.

Crescent City is kind of the last town before the coast of California turns into the coast of Oregon and we found a promising restaurant in town called "Fisherman's Restaurant". We parked the car and made our way into the horribly tacky establishment with our heads held high. The only oysters we could find on the menu were, of course, deep fried and after asking the waitress why they didn't have fresh oysters she told us about the legal implications of selling raw oysters blah, blah, blah. Emily, Brad and I decided to go the American way and try deep fried oysters while Brooke opted for a piece of trout (or salmon, I can't remember exactly). After our first course of clam chowder, which was quite tasty, our main courses were put in front of us and we all picked up a deep fried oyster and took a big, juicy bite.

I would never recommend eating a deep fried oyster, it was probably one of the most disgusting things I have ever tried and I eat some pretty weird stuff! I got through one and half of these things when we all decided it was time to send this "food" back.

We called the waitress over and explained that we were really embarassed to send our food back but it just wasn't what we expected and perhaps we could order something different. She seemed fine with this so Emily and I both ordered the same Brooke was having, which looked and smelled okay but tasted a little bland, and Brad ordered another type of battered fish.

As we were waiting for our fish to arrive Brooke suddenly felt very ill and had to excuse herself to the ladies room. She was still away from the table when our second round of main courses got to the table. After seeing Brooke run to the bathroom after eating her fish Emily and I weren't too sure we wanted to dive right in and Brad's "fish" smelled like garbage and was the soggiest, most disgusting piece of fish I've ever seen or smelled. There was no way any of this food was okay to eat. After Brad inspected his soggy mess of a meal we called the waitress over once more and told her that we all work in the restuarant industry, we all know what food is supposed to look and smell like, that the customer is always right and although we felt bad about it there was no way we could eat this food considering that our friend was throwing up in the bathroom from what she had just eaten.

That's when the waitress got mean. She told us that she didn't care if we ate our food or not but we had to pay for all of it and if we didn't she would call the cops. She felt that there was nothing she could do aside from calling her manager to come to the restaurant to deal with this or calling the cops. Apparently the kitchen would be happy to make us another round of main course meals and try to make us happy but by this point Brooke was pale and shivering and we just wanted to get the hell out of there.

We asked for the bill and paid it in cash leaving a toonie as our server's tip with a little note on the back that read "Come to Toronto and we'll show you how to eat oysters and show you some manners!" Again, I work as a server and I always tip above and beyond 15% but this experience was horrifying and this waitress didn't deserve a dime from us. If she had not charged us for the food we couldn't eat because it was inedible or had been thrown up, then she would have gotten a tip but this woman was just straight up difficult.

As we were leaving the restaurant we noticed a large family coming in for dinner, they looked like tourists and we thought we'd spare them the trouble we had just gone through so we let them know just how disgusting this place was. Brooke chimed in with "I just threw up in the bathroom!", I'm pretty sure that statement prompted the family to turn on their heels and leave with us. We told another couple in the parking lot not to eat at Fisherman's Restuarant" but they looked like locals and hell bent on the all you can eat deep fried oyster platter for two.

As we were getting into our car the waitress ran out after us holding up our toonie yelling "We don't accept Canadian money!!" and Brooke, again spot on, yelled back "Oh honey that's your tip!"

We drove off feeling sick to our stomachs and angry, there was a lot of swearing in that car after we pulled away from the restaurant and we decided that Crescent City is one place you don't stop in, you drive through it into lovely Oregon!

Emily and I did find raw oysters in Seattle though and they made me so sick I couldn't sleep all night and I threw up on the flight home! I love oysters but they obviously hated me last July.