… or ‘shucks, we ate a lot of oysters’
Jonathan has been hauling in the squid from the jetties and caught his biggest yet in Ceduna.
The oysters along the West Coast are said to have a range of flavours so we thought it would only be right to try some from each of the four main growing areas. Armed with an oyster knife and a handy guide to shucking, we started off with a dozen from the Ceduna Oyster Bar and A One Oysters at the Smoky Bay oyster sheds.
The wind had dropped, the sun was shining and we were camped up on the beach. It didn’t get much better than that.
Our next dozen came from the Streaky Bay Seafood company. These made a very tasty lunch with some fresh buttered bread. Jonathan caught an Australian Salmon from the jetty at Venus Bay and we ate that for dinner, battered, with some chips from the nearby café. Winston did a sterling job keeping the pelicans and seagulls away from the fish cleaning table.
We’re becoming pescetarians (I think that’s the correct term).
At Coffin Bay, we tried the Pacific Oyster and also an Oyster Pie from the local bakery, which was quite tasty.
In our opinion the oysters from Streaky Bay and Coffin Bay tasted best straight from the shell with a squeeze of lemon juice or garlic butter. They were fresh, sweet and light. The larger oysters from Ceduna and Smoky Bay had a stronger flavour with a distinct saltiness and were very tasty cooked. We grilled some Kilpatrick style with bacon and Worcestershire sauce and also deep fried some in batter. We still need to try the native Angasi oyster which is said to be very rich, with a meaty flavour and texture.
