I am always intrigued by the extraordinary ability that food has to bond people and create shared experiences. A shared meal allows the cook to experience the joy of creation and giving and the guest the experience of receiving and gratitude. I am often reminded of this when I watch Jamie Oliver present his lively, homely food on bread boards or giant platters for communal digging in and sharing. Even more than a formal meal served on fine crockery and the good cutlery, sometimes, the mish mash of second hand, non matching plates and platters and a cluster of cutlery in the middle of the table in an old jam jar creates an environment of closeness and intimacy.
After coming back from the US, we were really having some serious holiday withdrawals this last week and most of all had been talking about the sublime Hogwash and Sweetwaters oysters that we had had in San Francisco. I had once again become lost in a food market, swept up by rows and rows of chocolates I had never seen…….Chocolat Moderne Butter Toffee with Welsh Sea Salt Crumbled into Fine Dark Chocolate, or the Vosges Organic Enchanted Mushroom; Reishi mushrooms, walnuts and dark chocolate and the delicious Taza’a Mexican style stone ground Guajillo Chilli chocolate, not to mention the delicious Sunny Seeds; chocolate covered Sunflower seeds.
The boyfriend after snapping a few shots of me inspecting the fabulous produce had become bored and wandered off out of sight. When I emerged perhaps 1/2 an hour later, I was rather pleasantly surprised to find him at the Hog Island Oyster Bar just next to the market with an enormous oyster platter waiting to be devoured with a rather large glass of crisp white wine by its side! Here began our love affair with the American Oyster……..
We had the signature dressing, described in The Hog Island Oyster Lover’s Cookbook as “A savoury variation on the classic mignonette sauce – a vinegar and shallot topping for oysters – this sauce was developed by Mark Miller of Santa Fe’s Coyote Cafe. Michael Watchorn, cofounder of Hog Island Oyster Company, riffed on Mark’s original, adding cilantro and jalapeño, and it has since become Hog Island’s signature topping. The mixture of seasoned and unseasoned rice vinegar gives it the perfect balance of acidity and sweetness.”
And so, my food experiences merge. We decided to splurge a little and relive for a few minutes the sheer joy at eating a completely new flavour. The burst of sensation that fills your mouth, the widening of your eyes as your tastebuds ripple with excitement. As we ate Sydney Rock Oysters with Hogwash and Sweetwaters on a winters night back home, sitting around my kitchen bench, hardly a setting fit for such a meal, memories came flooding back with the taste of the sublime dressing, the view out to the waters of San Francisco Bay, the enthusiastic service delivered with gusto from the wait staff as our wine was refilled. That day spent wandering through the wharf, eating drinking and laughing now merged with a new shared experience. A plate of oysters, a whole fish, flavoured with the leftover herbs and chillis from the oysters and a bottle of sake around my kitchen bench. In that moment as I looked at my daughter and by boyfriend tucking into a shared meal with no plates, eaten straight of the budget platters they were served on, mismatched glasses and I felt that life was complete. A new perfect moment.
Hogwash and Sweetwaters taken from the The Hog Island Oyster Lover’s Cookbook
1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1 large shallot, minced
1 large jalapeño chili, seeded and minced
1/2 bunch of leaves cilantro finely chopped ( I used coriander as I didn’t have any cilantro)
Juice of 1 lime
3 dozen Pacific or Eastern Oysers on the half shell, on a bed of crushed ice
In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients except for the oysters. Just before serving, stir the mixture to make sure you pick up all the goodies in the bowl. Top each oyster with a teaspoonful of the sauce. Serve immediately.
My only improvement to this recipe is that it is almost essential to serve this with a crisp white wine or live on the edge a little and serve with a little sake……….YUM……this is a recipe to save your spare change for, save…….and then savour…..every last mouthful.
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the spare change kitchen 