Where I don't remember anything.

"Remember when we used to come here when we were kids?" No. "Really? You don't remember sitting on the waterfront?" No. Not even a little bit. My sister and I were eating lunch in Poulsbo, Washington on the picturesque waterfront. I think I blocked out all my memories from middle school and high school in Olympia and any weekend day trips we may have taken as a family. She insisted that we used to go to Poulsbo all the time. I seriously have no recollection of any of it.

It's a nice little town with independent bookstores, bakeries and little restaurants. Just the type of town my parents would have taken us to and just the type of town that I would have sneered at and pouted while we ate at a quaint little bakery. I was a miserable kind of a teen, with lots of acidic attitude and smoldering rebellion that never quite erupted.

Twenty years has whipped me into relative normalcy and I now appreciate quaint towns as I am supposed to. And Poulsbo is very nice.


We ate lunch at JJ's Fish House on the waterfront while my sister recounted her memories of Poulsbo. I ordered the cod fish and chips. She ordered the halibut.

Now I have to say that I still don't get fish and chips. Is the fish supposed to have flavor? Or is it all about the sauces? Because the two big hunks of fried fish were bland. Very, very bland. The tartar sauce was full of tarragon and definitely helped the fish. But if it's all about the sauce, what do I need the fish for? The fish was covered in a tempura batter and had literally no seasoning in it and left a pool of oil on my plate, which I wasn't thrilled about. I love intense flavor though, and maybe the bland fish is supposed to be a canvas for the sauce, in which case it succeeded in being just that.


The poppyseed coleslaw was very flavorful and my favorite part of the meal. This is now my new memory of Poulsbo. A pretty waterfront, and a crunchy, sweet poppyseed coleslaw. The rest of it will go the way of my adolescence. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.