Shell Game

Raw and glistening on the half shell, deep-fried golden brown, chargrilled with sizzling butter or shellacked with classic toppings like Bienville and Rockefeller, oysters are as Louisiana as it gets. This month, oysters are at their peak, and regional diners and visitors are on the hunt for the beloved local food. From Stroube’s duck and oyster gumbo to the fried oyster salad with fennel, arugula and shaved manchego at Beausoleil to raw on the half shell at The Chimes, there are plenty of ways around town to enjoy this self-contained culinary wonder—and no better time of year to do it.

Louisiana’s $350 million oyster industry is the largest in the U.S., employing more than 10,000 fishers, processors and other workers who rely on two million acres of public and private oyster beds along the state’s coast. Oysters are found throughout the world; ours is the Eastern oyster, crassotrea virginica. It’s the same species found in the rest of the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast, but that doesn’t mean it presents a uniform taste from region to region. In fact, their flavor is influenced by the salinity, sediment and temperature of the beds in which they mature, says Jason Gilfour of Motivatit Seafoods in Houma. It’s one of America’s largest oyster processors.

“If you pay attention, you can absolutely tell a difference in oysters from our waters and from other places, and even off our coast, you can tell a difference in flavor from area to area,” he says.

Oysters depend on certain salinity levels to survive—the water must be a combination of salty and fresh—and they’re highly vulnerable when that balance is out of kilter. Several natural and manmade events over the last few years have thrown Louisiana’s oyster beds out of whack, including the rash of recent hurricanes, the BP oil spill and the fresh water diversion ordered by Gov. Bobby Jindal to “flush” oil from the spill away from the coast.

These disruptions wreaked havoc on supply, but oyster farmers and fishers are steadily fighting back, and there should be plenty of oysters this season from seasonal waters, says Ryan Nizzo, former general manager of Acme Oyster House in Baton Rouge. The restaurant’s original eatery was founded in the French Quarter in 1910, and Acme now buys oysters from New Orleans Seafood for its five restaurants, Nizzo says.

“It’s going to be a good season,” he says. “Supply looks good, and we’re getting lots of good feedback on the quality and flavor of our oysters.”

Acme sells an average of 3,500 oysters a day in Baton Rouge, served raw on the half shell, coated in seasoned cornmeal and flour and lightly fried, or chargrilled in the half shell over open flames with compound butter, paprika, Herbsaint and fresh garlic, topped with Romano cheese.

“Chargrilled oysters are something we started doing a little less than 25 years ago,” Nizzo says. “It’s a signature dish, and customers can see it being made. We make it a real production.”

Charbroiled oysters were put on the map by Drago’s in New Orleans. On a busy day, it can go through more than 100 sacks of oysters at its two restaurants, says owner Tommy Cvitanovich.

Besides Acme in Baton Rouge, Mansur’s, Stroube’s, Juban’s, Parrain’s, Ruffino’s and others are tossing oysters on the half shell over open flames.

But as popular as chargrilled oysters have become, Nizzo says that purists want them served one way: raw.

“Oysters are considered a local dish, and people who love them can’t get enough of them, especially cold and fresh on the half shell,” Nizzo says.