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Oyster Stout and Modern Farmer Magazine

1/9/2015

So excited my story about Patrick McMurray's Oyster Stout is featured in Modern Farmer Magazine. Here's a teaser...click link for the rest of the story!

Patrick McMurray, a.k.a. Shucker Paddy, knows a thing or two (or three) about oysters. Canadian and World oyster shucking champion, two-time Guinness oyster shucking record holder, author of Consider the Oyster: A Shucker’s Field Guide, and owner of Ceili Cottage and Pearl Diver oyster restaurants in Toronto, the energetic McMurray is a whirling dervish of oyster facts and ephemera....Keep reading...

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SHUCKERS film debuts at Wellfleet OysterFest!

10/18/2014

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So excited for TONIGHT'S pre-screening of SHUCKERS...an inside look at the world of shucking competitions featuring the most eccentric, crazy and well-known oyster shuckers and restaurateurs in the business including Rodney Clark, Patrick McMurray, William "Chopper" Young and Daniel Notkin who attempt to shed some light on the mysterious and fabulous world of oysters.

Where/When: Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, 2357 Route 6, Wellfleet, 7:30 p.m. Free!

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Toronto Oyster Roundup, Day 1: Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill

10/16/2013

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World Oyster Opening Champion, Patrick McMurray--aka "Shucker Paddy"--presides over Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill, a cozy seafood restaurant and oyster bar featuring a unique assortment of oysters including European oysters you can’t get in the U.S., like Clarenbridge from near Galway, Ireland. (“Tastes like salted fois gras!” said an enthusiastic McMurray.)

Above the long bar, topped with oyster shells encased in resin, seven clocks relate the hour at oyster bars across the globe, including Union Oyster House, Boston and Osteria, Shanghai. Chatting with McMurray is like sprinting across a universe of ideas, with topics racing from a possible Toronto Oyster Week to the 1835 opening of the Erie Canal (and the first oysters carted to Toronto) to teaching Sri Lankans to grow oysters to shellfish recycling projects to cancer research regarding oysters to his new project, an oyster stout.

I’d make another trip to Toronto just for Scrimshaw Oyster Stout. It’s made with the entire bivalve—shell, meat and liquor—using only PEI Green Gables oysters. The dark, thick stout had a light mineral clean sweetness up front with a roasted flavor underneath.

We matched the brew with a half dozen Green Gables, a marriage made in oyster heaven.

McMurray shucked the next batch on his signature hockey puck with his newly redesigned knife. (Hopefully available soon in a gourmet kitchen store near you.)

Beausoleil, N.B.; Merigomish, N.S.; Clarenbridge, Ireland; PEI clams; Kumamotos, WA (“Taylor’s, one-hundred percent purebread.”) Yum-O-Rama.

After a day filled with oyster bliss, it was time to find my hotel and crash. After all, I had more oysters on the schedule tomorrow. (Patrick McMurray, left; John Baby, right)

(Starfish Oyster Bed, 100 Adelaide St. E., 416-366-7827, http://www.starfishoysterbed.com/)

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Toronto Oyster-Eating Extravaganza

9/21/2013

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Gearing up here for my three-day oyster-eating extravaganza in Toronto next week. I’ll be toured around town by shucking judge extraordinaire John Baby, and hope to meet up with Canadian champs Patrick McMurray and Eamon Clark.

Our schedule is shaping up to include the following oyster-eateries: Diana's; Hopgood's Foodliner; Pure Spirits; Starfish; Oyster Boy ("Mollusks for the Masses"); Fishbar; Wallflower; Chase Fish + oyster; John and Sons; Ceili Cottage; Rodney's Oyster House; and Big Daddy's.

That’s allota oysters!

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Report from the Road: Rappahannock River Oysters

5/27/2013

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Made an overnight stop May 1st in Richmond, Virginia—on my South-to-North yearly migration—for the sole purpose of checking out Rappahannock, the farm-to-table restaurant serving (what else?) Rappahannock River Oysters.

Virginia native and fellow oyster lover Dabney Oakley joined my driving pal and chief navigator Sterling Mulbry and me at the table. In fact, Dabney is the person who told me about this restaurant—via Facebook—and this was our first live in-person meeting. (One of many I hope. Take that, you FB naysayers…!)

On the menu that eve: four varieties of oysters, all farmed in Virginia. Our informative waiter, Craig, explained the geography of the oysters on our plate, from those most inland to nearest to the sea. Basically, the further inland from the waters of the bay the oysters are farmed, the less salty they are. Clockwise from lower right, in above photo:

First up: Rappahannock River Oysters. “Tiny little things,” say my notes. These deep cupped bivalves were farmed in Topping, the most inland of the bunch. Sweet, very mild with just the slightest hint of salt, they’d make a good “beginner oyster,” sure to please a cautious palate.

Second: Stingrays, grown in Ware Neck in the pristine waters of Mobjack Bay. A balance of sweet and briny, with a crisp finish, these were my faves and I ordered more.

Third: York River Oysters, farmed in—take a wild guess—the York River, a tributary off Chesapeake Bay. Moderate salt with a sweet finish. No complaints.

Fourth: Olde Salts. Grown off the coast of Chincoteague Island. (Rappahannock peeps: Do you really need that last “e” on old?) These were said to be the briniest—usually my faves—and they were indeed tasty with a clean finish, though not nearly as salty as those on Olde Cape Cod.

Salty or not, my heart that eve belonged to the Stingrays. (Named after the Bay oyster's chief predator.) In fact, one of the Stingrays in my second batch had significant sized babies growing on the shell, large enough for me to whip out my trusty oyster knife, designed by Canadian oyster shucking champ and Toronto restaurateur Patrick McMurray, and slurp a couple of bonus bivalves.

Rappahannock River Oysters is a family affair, owned by cousins Ryan and Travis Croxton whose great-grandfather, James Arthur Croxton, Jr., started the company in 1899. They have two other venues I’d like to make a detour to: The Rappahannock Oyster Bar in Washington, D.C., and Merroir, a “tasting room,” on the banks of the Rappahannock River overlooking where they grow their oysters in Topping.

So many oysters, so little time!

RAPPAHANNOCK, 320 East Grace St., Richmond, VA, 804-545-0565

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Oyster Stout and Modern Farmer Magazine

SHUCKERS film debuts at Wellfleet OysterFest!

Toronto Oyster Roundup, Day 1: Starfish Oyster Bed & Grill

Toronto Oyster-Eating Extravaganza

Report from the Road: Rappahannock River Oysters

Necee Regis

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