A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

Last week I took a trip up to historic Salem to check out Turner’s Seafood. When I think of Salem I think PEM and witches, so it was nice to see what else the city had to offer. Located right around the corner from the PEM, Turner’s is housed in Lyceum Hall.

We grabbed a pamplemousse (Beauport vodka, St. Germain, pink grapefruit juice and lemon) at the bar and headed over to our seats front and center at the oyster bar. I always love sitting at the bar at a restaurant, you meet interesting people and there’s always entertainment. Here, it’s theater. You get to see into the kitchen, watch your oysters being shucked or your pasta being prepared and the round shape of the bar allows you to interact with other guests.

Meet Ryan Kripp, the 2014 and 2015 winner of the Boston Seafood Festival’s Oyster Shucking contest. Ryan was with us the entire meal, schooling us on all things oysters!

I love this feature of the oyster bar – you can see your clams (or whatever) being steamed!

We were all salivating as we were waiting for lunch – the aroma of garlic coming out of the kitchen was intoxicating!

July is Oysterfest at Turner’s. Chef Yale Woodson was with us the entire meal, walking us through some of his favorite dishes. On any given day there are three varieties of raw oysters available – this helps ensure that you are getting the freshest oysters.

We sampled some broiled oysters while fourth generation owner Jim Turner came over and talked about the history of Turner’s.

The Mexican brown shrimp were not only enormous, but really quite tasty. They are cooked, shocked with cold water and then peeled to allow the richness of the flavors to be trapped in. The wild shrimp are caught off the Pacific coast of Mexico and have a snap to it.

The Jonah crab cakes are made Maryland style and were delicious.

One dish I wasn’t expecting to like to much was the buffalo scallops. They had a little zing to them and were really quite good!

Chef brought out some tuna steam buns that were to die for.

The tuna sashimi dinner ($26.99) has a black and white sesame seed crust and is served with soy sauce, wasabi, pickled ginger and a cool asian noodle salad. I love the takeout box presentation – so fun!

The mussels can be served 3 ways: Dijonniase: served with garlic and white wine dijon sauce, Belgium: served with shallots, leeks, dijon and beer cream broth, or Provencal: served with tomatoes, garlic, basil, white wine and butter. Pictured above was the Belgium style – I wish you could have smelled this dish!

When looking over them menu, they certainly have some unique offerings that you can’t find anywhere else. One example would be the Newfoundland Finnian Haddie ($20.99) is a house smoked north Atlantic haddock basked in a pearl onion au gratin sauce. While that sounded intriguing, I stuck with the lobster pie which is fresh picked tail, claw and knuckle meat served with butter and just a touch of crumb topping. I was kind of joking when I asked what the least healthy side options were, because I was feeling gluttonous, but ended up being very happy with the parmesan risotto cake (which I could have had for my meal) and onion rings. The lobster meat was sweet and plentiful. I ended up taking half of my meal home because there was so much food!

The sesame encrusted tuna had a similar presentation as the tuna sashimi, but this was a seared medium rare yellowfin tuna steak with a honey soy glaze, wasabi aioli and a cool noodle salad.

You know that no matter how stuffed you are, there is always room for dessert. Turner’s only has a few desserts, but they all sounded delicious. Pictured above is the apple crisp served a la mode – the oatmeal crust is gluten free! Other desserts include a chocolate cake, a chocolate ganache tort, a creme brûlée and an indian pudding.

I went with the strawberry shortcake, different than traditional shortcakes in that it is made with pound cake – not a biscuit or angel food cake. It was light and delicious, made me feel like I was soaking up the last bit of summer!

I also had the chance to take a peek upstairs at their amazing event space. They were setting up for a party later that afternoon, but I’m glad we got to see the space, it is just so lovely.

Disclaimer: I was invited to be a guest at Turner’s Seafood. My lunch was provided complimentary. All opinions are my own.

Turner’s Seafood

43 Church Street, Salem, MA

http://www.turners-seafood.com

Tags: restaurant, salem, seafood