Eating the Day

"Our shells clacked on the plates.

My tongue was a filling estuary,

My palate hung with starlight:"  

- From "Oysters," by Seamus Heaney

Yes, those gloves are all giving you the finger; the guys at the Hog Island Oyster Farm in Marshall, CA, have a raw sense of humor.

I've had oysters on the brain lately. Oyster fever, and it's not even February. I blame Seamus Heaney. Or, more specifically, the opening poem to his beautiful collection, Field Work. "Bivalves," he calls them, "the split bulb and philandering sigh of ocean." How can you not be drawn by such a description - minus the rape of the ocean, the millions ripped, shucked and scattered, of course? Who doesn't want to taste the briny sighs of the sea?

The poem so reminded me of a trip I took almost two years ago with the Ad Hoc kitchen crew that I just couldn't resist revisiting the day. I had just moved to Napa, and I had the inspired idea to invite Chef Dave Cruz (whose beautiful cookbook Ad Hoc at Home just came out) - one of my first friends - on an oyster adventure. The idea was to break the bank and our bellies with bivalves, and our quest started (and pretty much finished) in the tiny town of Marshall,  and more specifically, at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company on Hwy 1.

We stocked up at the local grocery with hot sauce, some crusty baguette, and cheese from Cowgirl Creamery (I distinctly remember a Jean d'Alos Roquefort, although I can't call to mind the others) and then set up camp at one of the salt-crusted, chipped-paint tables overlooking the water. The day was as much about "toasting friendship, laying down a perfect memory," as Heaney might say, as it was about indulging. Still, there were just four of us, and we managed to dig through five dozen oysters before moving on to our next stop, the bar at Nick's cove. There we ordered another two dozen, along with some Monterey Bay sardines, and a few refreshing glasses of Muscadet, which we managed to finish completely off before calling it quits. Seven dozen oysters. That's almost two dozen a piece. Gluttonous? Perhaps, but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Fortunately, when oyster fever strikes these days, I don't have to drive all the way out to Marshall to feed my craving, which is great considering the damp, dreary weather. Napa Valley is rich with oyster opportunities, and if they were more affordable - "brine-stung glut of privilege" they most certainly are - I'd let the oysters replace the sun as my vitamin D source for the next few days. Instead, I'll just have to rely on the memory of a single indulgence.

Below I leave you with a few favorite oyster spots, all of which offer at least a small selection of crisp, clean-finishing white wines (Like Muscadet from France's Loire Valley, or even fresh, cheap whites from the Languedoc) as partners. You're sure to find me at one of them soon:

1. Angele, Frenchie bistro in downtown Napa. The menu also offers a French onion soup that stains your fingers with the smell of gruyere, which pairs beautifully with their house red, a Cotes du Rhone from Kermit Lynch. 
2. Hog Island Oyster Bar, now open in Napa's Oxbow Market. There's something wonderful about sitting at a bar where everyone loves oysters. The Tomales Bay offerings seem a bit pricey, but on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, they have $1 Happy Hour opportunities. Plus, while I'm at the Oxbow, I can swing by the Cheese Merchant and beg Lassa to pick something new and tangy for me.
3. Bouchon, in Yountville, is a classic. The zinc bar, the red velvet banquettes - I'm always transported to fantasy French countryside. I love it there, and frankly, they often have the widest selection, as well as more east coast offerings than Hog Island and Angele (which both tend to favor the local varieties; I do advocate eating locally, but there's just something wonderfully lean yet savory about east coast bivalves).

Isn't it time to get out there and lay down your own perfect memory, to eat the day "Deliberately," that its tang might quicken you "all into verb, pure verb?"

Update on Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 5:16PM by Brooke

I wasn't lying about my oyster craving. I'm now sitting at the Hog Island Oyster Bar and have this update for any local oyster fans:

Due to the intense weather the Bay Area's been receiving, Hog Island is out of Sweetwater and Kumomoto oysters. It seems, according to my bartender, that the last boat that went out capsized. Four days without storms are needed before they can go back out. Until then, content yourself with the fact that they have plenty of Island Creek oysters from Massachusetts to go around.

Comments

[Nancy]

I've never eaten an oyster, but I'm told 1) one must never chew them and 2) they don't really have a flavor, apart from what rises as an amazing sort of backwash from the stomach after one has swallowed them. True, would you say?

[SHERYL28Herman]

I will recommend not to hold off until you get enough amount of money to order all you need! You can get the personal loans or short term loan and feel fine