Tom has made no secret about the fact that his number one food is oysters. Period. He likes them done any way, but since Tommy Cvitanovich came out with the brilliant idea of ladling garlic butter over them and parmesan on top of that, just before sending them into sky-high flames, he has eaten more of them than he likely ever would. That’s because I get them on every menu, just to eat two. Tom is happy to get the rest.
One of the great simple pleasures in our lives is our Monday visit to New Orleans Food and Spirits, which in my opinion have the best. (Although The Drago’s version we had yesterday reminds us where this unique presentation of the bivalve originated, and who remains king.) But New Orleans Food and Spirits is practically a neighbor that just happens to serve delicious food every day, so we have these oysters every Monday. Until “this.” New Orleans Food and Spirits stopped serving oysters to go, and Tom has been without his chargrilled oysters for weeks.
Yesterday I made the trip to the southshore for other business and picked up some chargrilled oysters from their birthplace on the way home. Tom hasn’t even been interested in getting chargrilled oysters because it seemed a travesty to attempt this to - go.
What we have to keep remembering is that these restaurants, all of them, are consummate professionals, and everything we have gotten to go has been pretty great. But here was the big challenge. Chargrilled oysters to be consumed 45 minutes later???
The dozen oysters we got came in two containers, with two portions of bread in aluminum foil. These were enormous oysters in the Drago’s trademark (they have a great source), loaded with parmesan cheese that made them quite salty. (That is not a complaint.) The very generous butter sauce had seeped into the bag because I forgot what I was carrying, but it was still there and easier to reach than having to go around the oysters.
In short, these were excellent. So much better than we expected. Oysters that are chargrilled can indeed travel quite nicely. If they were great almost an hour later, picking up around town they’d be even better.
We know where they are. We’re not afraid anymore to get them, and we will be back. A lot. Not as close as the neighborhood, but close enough to get our fix.
After the oyster treat, we sat down to record a podcast. This one about buffets around town that we (rather I) miss. From the sublime to the ridiculous.
