9 Iconic Dishes That Define Seattle Cuisine

"“It is given to some men to know a love so profound, so pure, so all-enrapturing, that their spirits can soar to the heavens and their passions flame at the very sight of their consuming desires. I have been given such a love,” wrote the journalist Emmett Watson in 1990. “I refer, of course, to my ardor for the family Ostreidae. This seductive love object can be found, as a general rule, between tidal levels or in shallow waters along the coasts of all continents.” Watson, who was probably paid by the word and it shows, opened Seattle’s first oyster bar in 1979, and when you walk in to this Pike Place Market hole-in-the-wall it seems like Seattle’s first oyster bar. Unglamorous, old-school, never crowded, simple. Just order the oysters, which come garnished with lemon and hot sauce, and enjoy a trip back in time." - Ronald Holden, Harry Cheadle