sound+bites: I said YES to many things at Willows Inn

Sometimes you enjoy a tremendous meal and it goes down in your head and on your tastebuds as one of the most memorable experiences of your life. We had such an experience this weekend that was a little more special than just the food... more about that later...

I bought Nick a new pair of skis this past Christmas and he got me a Willows Inn reservation. We had both been dying to eat at this raved-about restaurant and Nick knows that I prefer experiences over material presents.

We started with a couple of old fashioned cocktails which they make with a hint of walnut while we enjoyed the sunshine and view before heading into dinner. Willows Inn does a six course fixed dinner that seems to proceed endlessly because you are regaled with a ton of snacks and bites before and in between courses. Servers poured champagne glassed filled with local fresh, sparkling apple cider which was a crisp palate cleanser. Then a pretty wooden box was set before us which contained sunflower root baked slowly with locally foraged lichens and mosses to help impart additional earthy and smoky flavors. The root's texture was a little reminiscent of Vietnamese candied yams but its center was soft and rich like a roasted eggplant. The second bite was a crisp crepe surrounding a salty and sweet burst of cream and salmon roe brightened up with chives. Then we were served a slab of stone with something that looked like it was plucked from the woods; toasted kale with black truffles and rye. While it looked like fungus growing on a dried leaf, the kale chip was a heavenly salty crisp that could have perfectly accompanied a cold beer and some Sunday night football.

Oysters on river rocks frozen in water in a dish. Elegant & beautiful.

The next snack had a gorgeous presentation: a pickled oyster sprinkled with sorrel. Nick usually doesn't love oysters like I do but this was soft and creamy with a hint of the ocean and herbs without tasting murky. Keeping with the delicate shellfish theme, the next bite was a weathervane scallop in dill milk served with herbs that imparted a grassy flavor. We delighted in the campfire taste of fire-roasted shitakes that were impossibly juicy and smoky before getting served the most complex and buttery chardonnay from Walla Walla to kick off our actual courses.

Weathervane scallop with dill and milk.

The first course was a dish of organic ancient grains bound in watercress and dotted with geoduck. the dish was as bright as its springy kelly green color; the flavors were herbaceous, fragrant and light while the geoduck imparted a slightly salty chewiness.

It looks like rabbit food but it's delicious.

Then Nick nearly doubled over from an in-between course snack: salmon smoked over green alder. This simple piece was just lightly smoked to impart a delicate caramelly sweetness but balanced so it still retained a soft texture without being too dried out. It was amazing and in Nick's words, "Best piece of salmon I've ever had."

Perfectly, lightly smoked salmon caugh just off the island in reefnets.

We were then served a Poet's Leap riesling with crisp apple flavors along with the most delicious buttery wild onions, caramelized local mussels and toasted breadcrumbs. I was to try to emulate those onions at home... need to experiment. After that, we were served another simple and fantastic snack.: A loaf of whole wheat and rye bread with a sourdough started demonstrated expert baking with a crispy crust and an amazing light chewy and melt-in-your-mouth center served with salted sweet churned butter and a dish of herbed chicken drippings for Nick and onion boullion for myself. Bread can be the most simple and amazing thing and we were excited to devour this loaf.

Our next wine pairing was a bordeaux blend that was slightly sweet with a soft fruity finish that accompanied Lummi Island stewed stinging nettles with fresh milk cheese and magenta salmonberry shoots. The cheese was like a rich milky panna cotta and the dish was bright and floral with the stewed nettles that hinted faintly of a grassier spinach.

Those salmonberry flowers are all over the island.

We got a crunchy snack of halibut skin served with razor clams dusted with seaweed powder. It was reminiscent of a puffed Asian shrimp chip except it was sprinkled with chewy clams.

Our last savory course was served with the most berry and jammy pinot noir from the Willamette valley that was fragrant with a lingering marionberry finish. It wasn't too heavy and paired well with a sablefish served with trumpet mushrooms. They gave us what looked like a dragonglass dagger; it was a rock arrowhead type knife with a deer antler handle and was bound by deer sinew. It was certainly the most rustic cutting utensil I have ever used. The fish was rich, buttery and almost woody with a slight sear but barely cooked so it still melted in your mouth. The chewy mushrooms made this a great amalgamation of earth meets sea umami.

We cleansed our palates with a soft and fresh sheepsmilk frozen yogurt served in wheatgrass and dill. This tasted like the farm in a fresh and grassy way that is hard to put to words with my somewhat poor food vocabulary. It honestly tasted like cartwheels in a field on a bright summer's day.

We had a dessert riesling that was sweet, syrupy with honey tones but it was hard to finish the glass. I was focused on dessert of sweet potatoes served with whipped cream, a fresh melted marshmallow, pine and crunch from sugar and nut crumbles. The pine leant it a uniquely sweet and earthy flavor profile that was piney without tasting like Pine Sol. Then we topped off the most fabulous meal with flax caramels!

This meal ranked among my top meals of all time, if not the top. I've eaten at some of the most delicious and award-winning spots around but what made this restaurant a standout is what they do with fresh and hyper local ingredients. It was all healthy, hearty and absolutely Pacific Northwest fare without being gimmicky, using molecular gastronomy tricks or pulling out the stops with needless ornateness. It was as if Chef Blaine Wetzel woke up, made a fire, got the smoker going, rummaged through the garden, caught some fish and thought - I'll just throw this stuff together for dinner. Obviously it's much more meticulous and well-crafted than that, but we took a stroll around the island and noticed that there were little farms everywhere - goats, fresh egg signs, cows - as well as fishermen a few hundred yards away. We noticed salmonberry blossoms from dinner all around. There was an abundance of great produce and ingredients all around us on that island, which were carefully showcased for us in simple and delicious ways.

Another reason why this dinner was so memorable was just hours before while we were walking along a private beach, Nick got down on a knee and asked me to marry him. And I said yes.