heh, labial palp
In addition to being pretentious about sushi, I’m also funny about oysters. I like them to be small, clean, not runny, cold, salty, fresh, and most importantly, raw. Or so I thought.
Having a large contingent of friends from Savannah, we generally had an oyster “roast” once a year at Georgia Tech, which generally consists of hundreds of pounds of oysters, a turkey fryer style pot with propane heater, a boat load of saltines, cocktail sauce, and ice cold ‘merican lager. The oysters are steamed, sometimes boiled, and I have no idea why they call it a roast. It must be the same people that came up with Valentime’s Day.
Being all growed up and out of college, it’s been a few years since I’ve participated in a roast, so this past Saturday I got my chance to revisit this event when we threw an engagement party for my brother, Thomas. I guess oyster season is in full effect, because all on that one Saturday there was an oyster festival at Park Tavern, I watched Jacque and Julia prepare shellfish on television, a friend randomly called and asked if I had an oyster shucker, and then we finally had Thomas’ roast that evening.
I ended up learning a good bit from my good pals Jacque & Julie, as I’m still a relative oyster novice. Of course they had good tips on how to open an oyster, but did you know that you should always store oysters curved shell side down, with the lid facing up, so that the oyster is sitting in its own juices? I didn’t. I learn more from that show in one half hour than I do in a week of watching Food Network. It comes on every Saturday on PBS at 11:30AM.
While I’m not going to swear off my allegiance to the wonderful raw Kumamoto oyster, the steamed oysters were damn good, especially the oysters that hadn’t opened up yet. Oysters get gummy and lose their salty, oceanic appeal when they open up during cooking. The closed oysters were still plump and bursting with flavor, and each tiny wisp of heat generated when the oyster first opened, followed by the sensation of the warm & salty bivalve when eaten, was welcome on a cold, inebriated evening. Thanks to Nick for bringing up 120lbs of oysters from Savannah.
If you want to throw warm oysters down your gullet, but missed the opportunity last weekend, check out the Steamhouse Lounge Oyster fest in Midtown this weekend. Tickets are available here.
And just because, here are some highlights of Jacque and Julia’s cooking show. Set your DVR’s for Saturday (or Netflix it). Seriously.
