East Coast oysters get star treatment at Yummy Seafood
What if I told you that a Vietnamese seafood boil house in Katy Asian Town served impeccably opened East Coast oysters on the half shell at happy hour prices? That’s the delightful surprise that awaits oyster lovers at family-owned Yummy Seafood & Oyster Bar, just down the retail strip from its predecessor, Yummy Pho & Bone.
Yummy Seafood is so popular, the chairs stationed outside often hold people waiting for a table. Go at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, though — the hour by which the latest shipment of cold-water bivalves usually hits the kitchen — and you might find a seat at the dining room’s bar counter, a convivial spot for an epic oyster feast.
My Westside friends Mike and Terri clued me into this unexpected phenomenon, and I met them last Tuesday to taste for myself.
I came away impressed: by the skillfully cleaned and opened shells; by the variety, which spanned six bays from Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia to Massachusetts and Connecticut; and by the care with which they were served. Not to mention by the cavalcade of flavors, some soaring, a couple interestingly noooo, not-quites.
At the happy hour price of $2.25 per East Coast oyster (a buck-fifty off the regular price), you can sample around and debate your favorites, a fun game among friends — and one that would be costlier at the upscale inner-Loop venues that trade in East Coast varieties. Even at cut rates, we were furnished with printed cheat sheets noting which varieties we were sampling, with the clockwise order and platter starting point indicated by a staffer.
After back-to-back tournament rounds of dozen-oyster platters, with four of each of the six varieties, we had some unanimous, order-again winners.
First on our scorecards: the Foxley River oysters from Cascumpec Bay, Prince Edward Island. “Fabulous,” I noted on my bright green oyster-menu-of-the-day. They opened with a brisk pop of salt and then finished with a rich, vegetal softness that bloomed underneath.
“I want to go to Cascumpec Bay,” declared Mike, opening Google Maps on his phone and calling it up for our inspection. I’ve had a predilection for Prince Edward Island oysters since I discovered them in my early 20s on family trips to Montreal. I love Gulf oysters, particularly the carefully harvested or farmed appellation varieties, but there is something about the meatiness and spring and complex salinity of cold-water half shells that speaks to me more powerfully.
The Foxley Rivers at Yummy Seafood reminded me of that. So did the Conway Royals from my beloved Malpecque Bay off P.E.I., briny critters with a cucumber-y middle note that left our tongues a bit furry. Tantalizingly so.
Filling out our all-star lineup were Fortune oysters from Harbor Island, Nova Scotia. Their bright salinity gave them a good, sharp focus. “HelLO,” I scrawled on my score sheet.
We decided the Blue Points from Westport, Conn., were good, workhorse oysters: clean and saline, with meaty bounce. Standish Shore oysters from Duxbury, Mass., had a finish I could only describe as “wet dog.” Not bad, just … curious.
Our only thumbs-down, oddly, was the Princetown oysters from Thunder Cove, off Prince Edward Island. After the rest of the day’s crop, the Princetowns tasted oddly flat. They weren’t bad, mind you. They just weren’t happening and failed to hold our interest.
When I am in high oystersampling mode, I avoid sauces. I just want to tip the shell back and let the oyster slide into my mouth with its juices intact. (Which they were here, thanks to careful opening and scrubbing.) But for those who enjoy extra kick, Yummy’s provides a classic cocktail sauce with addyour-own horseradish, along with a citrusy ponzu that acts like a mignonette; and a species of hot chili sauce that’s actually fun.
Drinks? There is a perfectly adequate Prosecco, canned and bottled beer, and a lineup of house cocktails that are five bucks during happy hour. My friends go for the Old Fashioneds and the Moscow Mules, the latter served in a trendy beaten-copper mug.
Most of the crowd seems to come for the Viet-Cajun boils, but there are some interesting quirks to the Yummy Seafood menu — oyster nachos, mussels sauteed in a miso-sake bath and fried seafood po’boys done in banh mi style, with pate, pickled vegetables and a fried egg.
I’ll pass on the funnel-finger dessert and go next door for a Beard Papa cream puff, or stroll across the parking lot to Paris Baguette, where the almond-strewn cream cheese Danish wrote a surprisingly pleasant finish to my oyster fest.
That’s the thing about stillevolving Katy Asian Town: Surprises lurk at every turn, even uptown oysters way, way out on the disappearing prairie.