Life in London has been interesting for many reasons, as a foodie one of these has been the sheer amount that goes on. From roof top bars and clubs, to the Dalston Street Feast and Brixton Market the variety is petty incredible. The key being, with so many people in the city even the most niche pop-up in the right location has a great chance of success.
Recently I made a new friend called Kate…say hello Kate….imagine a North Eastern American saying in a Boston accent. Anyway. We share a love of the sea, or rather a love of the tasty things that come out of the sea, lobster, prawns, clams…..and of course oysters. It occurred to us in a moment of clarity/awesomeness/inspiration that seeking out the cities various oysters spots would make for a fun monthly adventure. Why this hasn’t occurred to me previously I don’t know, but there you have it, Oystercrawl (trademark pending) was born.
This very week we started our adventures in the shadows of the world famous Borough Market. In amongst the stalls, bars and restaurants a new popup has emerged, Shuck @shuckldn. Specialising I’m erm…..we’ll Oysters and as the sign puts it beer and booze.
To start off we thought it best to have a half dozen natural oysters (£1.50 p/o) with just lemon juice to season these sea sensations. They didn’t disappoint, a gentle brine with a sweet flavor these were stunningly fresh and delicious. They eeeeeerrm didn’t last long. Washed down with some on tap prosecco we were off to a great start.
The oyster menu didn’t stop at just natural they also offered for an extra 50p, Mexican, Thai and Moroccan as well as Flamed. Well initially we asked for 2 of each of the international flavours, sadly they didn’t have thai so flamed made it’s way into our order. Told you sit and that the oysters would be brought to us we relaxed with another glass of fizz (why wouldn’t you), Kate then noticed that the. Flame aspect was well rather spectacular, an industrial blow torch used to in essence smoke the oysters. When the arrived we weren’t disappointed.
Starting with the Mexican, lovely flavor of chilli complimented the oysters beautifully, bizarrely not overpowering and somehow increasing the flavor of the brine in the oyster…..impressive. Our least favorite although we did still really like it was the Moroccan, the sumac and celery salt confused the palate a little, and though tasty the blend of flavours wasn’t quite as seamless. The champion oyster turned out to be the one we were at first most hesitant about….the flamed. In using three torch they had without cooking the oyster added an incredible smoked flavour, that with a sliver of pickled ginger added rather blew the mind. Pretentious of me to say that? Well yes, but come on I’m writing a blog about oysters so that ship has pretty much sailed.
In the end a winning start to our oyster adventure. Cannot wait to continue.
A visit to Shuck comes highly JD Recommended.
