Halibut

Dear Ian:
I have been fortunate enough to live in many different places. Of all the cities that I have been able to call home, for however brief a period of time, I would have to say that Seattle was my personal favorite. Clean air, Mt. Ranier on clear days, great music, and even greater food.

I had this perfect little apartment that overlooked Seattle Center. It was a fourth floor walk-up. No screens on the windows. During the summer months, I used to leave the windows open and take in the sea air and the sounds of the city.

I could see the sound from my window, the top of the Seattle Post Intelligencer building, Rainier, and of course the Space Needle. All of it, in any direction, picture postcard perfect.

It took awhile to adjust to Seattle. I had just moved up from Portland, Oregon...or Beaverton, more specifically. As the saying goes, I felt like a fish out of water.

Within three or four months or so, the alien feeling slowly dissipated, and I started to venture out. Amazingly, everything was within walking distance. Floyd's BBQ, the Voodoo Barbershop, Minnie's Caffee (for the ultra hipsters), Dick's burgers, Sub-Pop offices, Pike Place Market...and the Pier restaurants: Ivar's and Anthony's (two of my favorites).

Over the course of the next three years, I believe I ate my weight, in halibut, several times over. It is the perfect sea food. A lot of people will go for the tuna, or the crab legs, or an acre of clams, but I stuck, almost exclusively, with the halibut.

Now, a lot of people will tell you that the halibut is an extremely ugly fish. Not me, however. The halibut, over time, has completely adapted itself to living life on the bottom of the ocean. Both of its eyes are on one side of its head. Always looking up. Perfectly adapted to camouflage and cover. Always looking up.

I don't know what it means to say that enjoyed the meals of this fish the most. It seems contradictory, I guess, to say that you enjoyed eating something that you consider beautiful.

A lot of what I say is never really going to make a lot of sense. But, I thought you should know that something as beautiful as the halibut didn't happen overnight. It took time to develop and adapt and we should appreciate that, and be thankful to a fish that teaches us to always look up.