On March 21 - proclaimed Oyster Day by Mayor Greg Nickels - more than 600 participants in the 17th annual Oyster Olympics consumed 30,000 oysters and hopefully helped to make Puget Sound a little cleaner. (Really? ... 30,000? Even for yuppie hedonists, 50 apiece seems excessive. -Ed.)
Anthony's Homeport at Shilshole hosted the event, which this year raised $39,000 for the Puget Sound-keeper Alliance, an organization committed to protecting and preserving Puget Sound. The gala affair was replete with local wine, piles of the best and freshest oysters grown in the waters of Puget Sound and some very entertaining Oyster Olympic events.
Restaurant teams from all over the Northwest competed in an oyster-shucking contest. Especially memorable was the Celebrity Slurp, a timed event that features celebrities slurping 10 oysters without using their hands.
KCPQ's Christine Chen outslurped the competition and won in a world-class 8.35 seconds.
The Celebrity Slurp is always preceded by creative and original entertainment by local celebrities. Seattle P-I columnist Susan Paynter brought laughter to the audience when she sang-spoke her "Brokeback Mountain"-inspired masterpiece "Mamas, Don't Let Your Cowboys Grow Up to Eat Oysters." Chen and KCPQ's Walter Kelley teamed up to perform their song "Can't Shuck This," and Les Purce, president of Evergreen State College, sang the Evergreen Fight Song, "Go Geoducks!"
This event sells out way early every year, and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance is taking reservations for the March 27, 2007, edition. Tickets are $85 each, call 297-7002.
Report/photos by Ritzy Ryciak
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