Deep-Fried Calamari and California Smoked Salmon with Crème Fraîche Eggs Benedict at Woody’s Bar and Restaurant at the Monterey-Salinas Airport in Monterey, California by Ruth Paget
My family went out for Valentines’ Day brunch at Woody’s Bar and Restaurant at the Monterey-Salinas Airport in Monterey, California for a locals brunch.
We sat in the “locals” upstairs dining room. It is quieter and has a view of the control tower and tarmac. I always feel the adventure of traveling when I go to Woody’s, especially when we found out from our server that Woody’s was voted Number 1 Best Airport Restaurant in the United States.
Our server further related that all chefs are “trying to be Gordon Ramsey” in the kitchen. Tim Wood, the owner of Woody’s, is also opening a restaurant at the Watsonville Regional Airport, making him an entrepreneur who is creating jobs and opportunities for his sous chefs and servers to move up and around the region.
Tim Wood has been able to expand to Watsonville and his location in Carmel Valley without losing attention to detail by entire staff. We ate a superb winter brunch and had fun watching the goings on at the airport and discussing potential places to visit in the upcoming year as we ate – very appropriate airport chatter. My daughter Florence Paget mentioned, for example, that United now has a Monterey – Chicago flight.
I ate my usual order of deep-fried calamari as an appetizer. Woody’s uses beer batter coated squid dunked in what seems to be thick Panko breadcrumbs to deep-fry the squid. I like ordering the calamari for the excellent dipping sauces that come with it.
The cocktail sauce has puréed, fresh, Vitamin C rich horseradish in it for a kicky, pungent start to my shellfish and California smoked salmon lunch. The tartar sauce is equally pungent with sour, tart minced homemade pickles mixed in it. The combination of these sauces with savory, deep-fried squid easily justifies the $19 price for this Monterey Bay treat.
As my main dish, I ordered California smoked salmon with crème fraîche eggs benedict. Substituting smoked salmon for Canadian ham in this dish makes it called eggs benedict royale I have seen on menus and in online descriptiions. I think the addition of butter fat rich crème fraîche makes this eggs benedict imperial, worthy of shoring up your resources to deal with cold winter weather.
The English muffin halves had been grilled to soak up the lemony Hollandaise sauce. The California smoked salmon was lightly smoked for preservation, which let the flavor of salmon remain. Crème fraîche was placed on top of it along with sour, Vitamin C rich capers. A pearly, white poached egg was placed on top of the salmon with a generous helping of lemony, Hollandaise sauce poured over it. I love the combination of all these flavors including the piquant capers.
I used the pan-fried potato wedges fried along with red onions and Vitamin C rich red and green bell peppers to soak up the extra Hollandaise. I also ate the garnish of a folded leaf of romaine lettuce with a large slice of a juicy beefeater tomato. The vegetables were organic and full-flavored. They were perfect sides for the smoked salmon and crème fraîche eggs benedict.
This hearty brunch is perfect for what can be chilly and rainy weather in the northern part of California’s Central Coast where Monterey is located. I consider this weather to be perfect for eating iodine-rich fish and shellfish meals like the calamari and smoked salmon one I ate for brunch.
As a local I am happy have Woody’s at the Monterey – Salinas Airport as a dining option and am very happy that visitors to our region of California can start or end their vacations here with great meals.
Note: I would buy Woody’s cocktail sauce, if it were bottled.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
