SEATTLE _ The steaks, almost beet red when placed over the coals, sizzled and began to take on an earthy brown color, which was familiar and comforting.
Meat had never looked so raw and so organ-like to me. Then again, most of my meat had come slapped to Styrofoam and wrapped in plastic.
I'd never eaten roadkill.
"Oh, baby! That's what I'm talkin' about!" said Tim Bento, 52, as he pulled the venison steak off the grill and placed it on a log slice he was using as a cutting board.
He carved into a piece of backstrap, choice meat from along the deer's spine, and with a steel survival knife held it up for inspection, revealing a narrow band of rosy pink.
"You're gonna like that, brother."
Indeed. It looked, and tasted, like a tender sirloin seasoned lightly with salt and olive oil. The tender meat carried just a hint of musky flavor and a smidgen of sweet smoke from the cherrywood puffing among the grill's red-hot coals.
You'd never have known the creature had been run down by a vehicle months ago near Bento's home in Lynden, Whatcom County.
Bento has collected four deer this year. For a hunter who has toiled season after season and come away empty-handed, it's manna from heaven.
"I can't frickin' believe it. The amount of time I put in hunting these things and I get four on the side of the road," Bento said. "God says you reap what you sow ... "
And what the Lord giveth, state law now allows people to taketh _ legally. Last July, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission changed state code to allow the salvage of elk and deer accidentally killed by vehicles.
In the program's first year of existence, people plucked nearly 1,600 deer and elk off Washington roadways, according to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) database of permits required for salvage.
Months ago, Bento implored his Facebook friends to add his contact info to their phones under "Deer Tim" and text immediately if they came across fresh roadkill."I'm trying to become the go-to guy for salvage," Bento said. "I'm like a fireman when it comes to roadkill. I got a text the other day and I was 13 minutes to the deer."
Plastic bags of Landjaeger deer sausage, pepperoni and backstrap filets _ months of meals for his family _ now burst from his freezer.
