Maybe it was, as Jonathan Swift as soon as wrote, a courageous man who ate an oyster first, however it wasn’t too troublesome for me to affix the 4 Seasons Lodge New Orleans’ new Oysters Take Flight expertise. On this shiny, balmy morning, I left the 34-story resort overlooking the Mississippi River for the Southern Seaplane Airport in close by Belle Chase. From there, an skilled pilot took our six-seat Cessna 206 up and over Louisiana’s lace-like coastal marshes and the Gulf of Mexico. After a brief flight with spectacular views in each course, he lands the aircraft gently on lapping waves simply off Grand Isle, the state’s solely inhabited barrier island.
In a small boat stands Ryan Anderson of Little Moon Oyster Ranch, ready to take us to his floating farm. Nicknamed “Oyster Daddy,” he cares for 400,000 oysters as they develop from seed to mature bivalves able to be shucked and shucked at eating places across the Large Straightforward. A welcome unfold of pimiento cheese, crackers, caviar, champagne and Bloody Marys awaits us on the boat—the primary course of this luxury oyster journey, which culminates this night with dinner on the resort’s Chemin à la Mare.
Anderson climbs overboard in chest-high water to search out the proper oyster. “All of the oysters on the East Coast, all the best way right down to Nova Scotia and down the gulf, are precisely the identical species,” he explains as water splashes round him. “The place they’re and the way and what they eat adjustments the ultimate form and style.” Fairly than letting nature take its course, which may yield less-than-perfectly formed oysters, aquaculture farmers strategically domesticate their crops, selecting and hand-tumbling them to realize sturdy, symmetrical shells and pristine flavors.
Anderson’s former life as a sommelier informs his fashion. “Similar to wine, the place totally different areas and soil influences, totally different salinity, temperature and water vitamins can change the style from week to week,” he says. He playfully instructs me on learn how to shuck my first oyster, putting the knife rigorously on the hinge to free the highest shell from the underside with out spilling the brine across the flesh. It is love at first chunk: The bivalve’s silky texture and shiny, candy taste—scrumptious by itself with no dressing—are greater than definitely worth the journey.
This text seems within the Fall 2024 challenge of Southbound.
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