Raw Oysters and Dungeness Crab Salad at Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant in Morro Bay, California by Ruth Paget
On our family mini recharge trip to San Luis Obispo, California, we returned to Salinas via a side trip to Morro Bay for lunch at Tognazzini’s Dockside Restaurant. (The Tognazzini’s also run a fishing company located on the dock outside the restaurant.)
My husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I began our meal with six raw Morro Bay oysters. I squirted lemon juice on mine and ate a few with cocktail sauce and creamy, grated horseradish. I love cold, briny raw oysters, but recognize that not everyone likes them despite the quality. For me, however, our New Year’s Eve meal was off to a great start despite the rainy, cold weather.
While we were eating, Tognazzini’s fishermen were hauling in 4-feet flatfish and weighing them outside our window on the dock as mealtime entertainment. Tognazzini prides itself on boat-to-table cuisine. They even claim they can provide the boat name and captain’s name for your fish order.
As our main dish, Laurent and I ordered the Mariner Salad that you can add a variety of fish and seafood to as protein ranging from shrimp to salmon. Laurent chose this and ordered Dungeness crab as our shellfish protein since the end of December is in Dungeness crab season. (Florence ordered the calamari and chips plate.)
I grew up living on salads in Detroit, Michigan where I ate Greek salads in Greek town at least once a week and Cobb salads at Syros Restaurant around the corner from my apartment building about twice a month. Seafood salads were a treat I could order at Lelli’s Restaurant when I was taken there by my mother and babysitters. I love salads in general and view seafood salads as a great treat.
The Mariner salad at Tognazzini’s features a bed of baby greens and seasonal vegetables. The seasonal vegetables for Californian winter included boiled beet slices, a neat pile of perfectly cut tomato cubes, cucumber slices, grated carrots, slices of red onions, and another neat pile of crumbled blue cheese. I ate my salad with house made blue cheese dressing and thought I had an outstanding finish to my recharge mini trip in San Luis Obispo County.
We drove over the mountains from Morro Bay to Paso Robles and enjoyed viewing the rural landscape dotted with longhorn cattle, furry sheep, black and white goats, reddish-brown cows, and horse farms. The vineyards were empty of leaves with vines pruned back for winter.
Back in Salinas, we ordered Gino’s mushroom and cheese artisanal pizza and drank champagne with it to ring in the New Year all refreshed from outstanding, Italian seafood meals in San Luis Obispo County.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
