The Oyster King and the Seagull Test
The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters
American Public Media
4.3 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2019
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is all about the oyster. We meet two cousins -- Ryan and Travis Croxton -- who have reimagined their family oyster business, The Rappahannock Oyster Company on the Chesapeake Bay, and reinvigorated the industry through their innovative oyster farming techniques. Thomas "Uptown T" Stewart is an oyster-shucking fixture in New Orleans; he teaches us how to shuck with swagger. We talk to Joanne Hyppolite, curator at Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture, about the amazing story of Thomas Downing aka The Oyster King of New York City. Dan Souza from America's Test Kitchen shares his expert advice on selecting, grilling and serving oysters. Chef Brandon Jew of San Francisco’s Mister Jiu’s cuts no corners when it comes to handmade oyster sauce. And writer Alicia Kennedy finds solace in a half shell following a family tragedy.
Broadcast dates for this episode:
- March 16, 2018 (originally aired)
- March 15, 2019 (rebroadcast)
- November 8, 2019 (rebroadcast)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Our common nature is a musical journey with Yo-Yo Ma and me, Ana Gonzalez, through this |
| 0:07.0 | complicated country. |
| 0:08.7 | We go into caves, onto boats, and up mountain trails to meet people, hear their stories, |
| 0:14.4 | their poetry, and of course, play some music, all to reconnect to nature and get closer to the things we're missing. |
| 0:24.4 | Listen to Our Common Nature from WNYC, wherever you get podcasts. |
| 0:31.2 | I'm Frances Lamb, and this is The Splendid Table from APM American Public Media, the show for curious cooks and eaters. |
| 0:46.4 | Some foods are polarizing. Green peppers, mint chocolate, pineapple on pizza, but the OG, |
| 0:56.7 | like the one that rose from the primordial muck of love it or hated foods, is the oyster. The author Tom Robbins once wrote that |
| 1:02.3 | eating a raw oyster is like French kissing a mermaid, and that sounds about right to me and |
| 1:06.4 | also sounds pretty good. But some people gag at the idea of it. They hate the slippery texture. |
| 1:12.4 | Some people love the taste of seawater. And some people, you know, they just roll their eyes at how |
| 1:17.4 | precious and snobby the whole thing seems. Well, this week, our show is all about oysters. |
| 1:22.8 | But while I can't promise that we can do anything for you if you don't like how they taste, |
| 1:34.3 | I can tell you that oyster stories are far less prissy and probably way more interesting than you might have thought. Later on we're going to learn about the man who helped make the oyster's reputation as a classy food. |
| 1:40.3 | We're going to get a lesson in the Seagull test. |
| 1:42.3 | And we have a story that just might make you cry. |
| 1:46.0 | But first, we have to start in the water. |
| 1:53.0 | Ryan and Travis Croxton are cousins and fourth generation oystermen |
| 1:57.0 | in the Chesapeake Bay of Virginia. |
| 1:59.0 | Only they weren't meant to be. The last Croxton who harvested oysters was their grandfather. |
| 2:04.6 | But when the family's leases for their oyster grounds were up, |
| 2:08.6 | Travis and Ryan couldn't resist their family lore. |
... |
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