A Surprisingly International Table
Who Built This Place
Mason County's identity was forged by people who came from somewhere else. Mason County grew as immigrants flooded into the logging camps and mill towns of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Scandinavians, Irish, Eastern Europeans, and others who followed the timber frontier west and put down roots here. The communities they built became the towns that still exist today. That pattern of arrival and belonging didn't stop with the loggers. Over the following century, Latino families came to work the land and build lives, and today Hispanic or Latino residents make up more than 11 percent of Mason County's population. Vietnamese, Filipino, and other Asian communities followed. Some through military connections, some through the shellfish industry, some drawn by the landscape and pace. Each wave brought its food, its flavors, and its way of cooking with what the land and water offered. The result, for a relatively small rural county, is a dining scene that surprises people. Authentic Mexican kitchens that have been feeding this community for decades. Thai cuisine that draws regulars from across the county. Japanese-inspired cooking that has found its own loyal following. These restaurants didn't arrive to serve tourists. They grew from the people who live here, and that's exactly what makes them worth seeking out.
Xinh Dwelley
No story about food in Mason County is complete without Xinh Dwelley, and no story about Xinh can be told small. Born in South Vietnam, she began at 15 as a chef in an Army hall. At the age of 19, Xinh married an American soldier and immigrated to Olympia with her young son. She arrived speaking little English, knowing almost no one. Xinh worked harder. She opened a stand at the Olympia Farmers Market to sell her famous eggrolls and in her spare hours picked blueberries and mushrooms, and dug clams. She eventually took a job shucking oysters at what is now Taylor Shellfish, and on her first day shucking broke all the records at the facility. The second day she shucked 12 gallons, then shoved the shucking knife through her hand and had to go to the emergency room for stitches. When asked if that slowed her down, she scoffed: "Nah, I was just more careful after that." Her skills led to her running her own restaurant, Xinh's Clam & Oyster House on Railroad Avenue in Shelton, where for two and a half decades she created fusions of Northwest and Asian flavors with an amazing intuition for her ingredients. The walls filled up with ribbons, plaques, and photographs, Julia Child, Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, Mike Rowe. At the Shelton Skookum Rotary's West Coast Oyster Championship, she came in first place. Each year she easily beat her own records. By 1992, with five first-place finishes, each faster than the previous years, she retired from competing. When illness eventually forced her to close her restaurant, it looked like the end. It wasn't. Despite her battle with cancer she published two cookbooks, hosted fundraising dinners, and spent her final year sharing her recipes and spirit at the Fjord Oyster Bank in Hoodsport. In 2023 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Washington State Chefs Association. She passed away on November 17, 2023, at the age of 72, surrounded by friends and family.
"If you have a hard day, if I make you happy for five minutes, forget about the hard day. Then that's what makes me happy." king5.com
Xinh's cookbooks, Pacific Coastal Flavors and Xinh's Flavors With Friends, are available at cookwithxinh.com. Her recipes live on at the Fjord Oyster Bank in Hoodsport.