Oysters Bienville

What makes a Spectacularly Delicious dish? Look no further than these opulent Oysters Bienville, a quintessential example of what it takes to make it here on SpecD:

Oysters Bienville have a proper name and a pedigree: The dish was created in honor of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville, the second colonial governor of Louisiana, by “Count” Arnaud Cazeneuve at his restaurant Arnaud’s in New Orleans in the 1930s. Fancy!
Making them requires specialized equipment: At the very least a good oyster knife, and if you’re serious you’ll get yourself the fabulous Shuckin’ Puck and custom oyster knife created by Patrick McMurray, the Guinness Book of World Records oyster shucking champion and owner of Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill in Toronto. (Yes, bed not bar.)

The are served in an unusual presentation: Most commonly served on a bed of rock salt, the Spectacularly Delicious recipe calls for a bed of foraged ocean-tumbled organic sea stones and responsibly harvested Long Island seashells heated with a bouquet of fragrant dried herbs. Use a sieve to wash out the sand and be sure to pick through for anything you might not care to view at the dinner table. Which exemplifies SpecD quality #4,

Oysters Bienville are a little bit of effort but well worth it.  The voluptuous pleasures of briny oysters embedded in a thick heap of wine-sauced shrimp and mushrooms are a guaranteed crowd pleasure.

Even before the first bite, the heavenly wafts of bay leaf, clove and juniper arising from the platter presage the sinful rich emulsion of piping hot, velvety sauce over plump oysters.  Decadent? Perhaps but well worth it.

Click here for Oysters Bienville recipe.