Photo by mintprofusion

Oysters affected by red tide are toxic to humans.

​On January 27, two small portions of Texas Gulf waters were conditionally opened to shellfish harvesting after a red tide epidemic forced the indefinite closure of oyster season in October.

San Antonio and Espiritu Santo Bays were approved by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for commercial oyster harvesting, while the Texas Department of State Health Services closely monitored the waters for remaining signs of this year's devastating red tide.

Cautiously optimistic news came yesterday from Jim Gossen, owner of Louisiana Foods and oyster expert, who stated that the red tide appears to have finally subsided.

"It appears that, as of the end of last week, the red tide in Galveston Bay has officially dissipated," Gossen wrote. He was quick to caution, however, that this does not mean that Texas Gulf waters are now fully open for oyster harvesting.

"No higher than acceptable readings were found anywhere in Galveston Bay last Thursday or Friday," Gossen reported of the red tide's toxins, which are produced by an overabundance of algal bloom. In the Gulf of Mexico, the algae responsible for red tides is Karenia brevis, algae that occurs naturally in the ocean.

In normal periods, the algae is present in much lower concentrations and poses no threat to marine life. During a drought, like the one Texas just experienced, a red tide can and often will occur as the result of a lack of fresh water flowing into increasingly salty Gulf waters.

More >>

​​This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

More >>

​​This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

More >>

​​This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

More >>

​​This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once.

More >>

You've never had a Bloody Mary like the one at Danton's.

​I tend to like gospel brunches in theory. It's the execution that is often uneven.

At the House of Blues, the show itself is usually fabulous, but the food is overpriced and weary. While at Stubbs in Austin, on the other hand, the food is much better -- and there's the draw of the Bloody Mary bar -- but the music is deafening. Does God want me to shatter an eardrum over my plate of grits?

Perhaps. Which is why I normally avoid gimmicky gospel brunches altogether. But the gospel-tinged blues brunch at Danton's is a fine example of the genre, and one of the only ones I enjoy.

A few weekends ago, I ran into Matthew Dresden as he was preparing to interview Chef Danton Nix for last week's Chef Chat series. Dresde asked if I wanted to meet the chef. I did; I really did, because I wanted to tell him what an excellent job he's done with the place since opening up in late 2007. Danton's has quickly become my go-to spot for seafood and Cajun cooking, and I recommend it to friends and family at every possible turn. But I politely declined, mostly because I love being able to eat at one of my favorite restaurants wholly unrecognized, a treat in and of itself.

Instead, my girlfriends and I retreated into the main dining room and settled in for Danton's Sunday blues brunch, which takes place each week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More >>

​ Yesterday, we spoke with Danton's Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen executive chef Danton Nix about his menu and the good and bad of customers having favorite dishes. Today we talk oysters, Groupon and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

EOW: What do you think about the move to give appellations to Galveston Bay oysters?

DN: I have strong feelings about it. It's a great marketing tool, especially for out of state. And I think it's going to be a good thing for Texas oysters; I've been serving them for 30 years and they're some of the best in the world. But for me, to pay twice as much for the oyster I've been eating all my life, I struggle with that. I know that REEF and Goode Company and a few other places are selling appellation oysters, but my customers are not ready to pay double the price they've been paying.

Now without a doubt, oysters from different reefs and different bay systems do have different flavors. I've got oysters from San Antonio Bay today -- every day you can come in, and I'll tell you where my oysters are from -- and they're sweet and they're very good. But I'm not going to participate in selling appellation oysters at this point. I sell so many oysters, it's all I can do to shuck the 200 oysters I have going out on a Saturday night, much less keep three or four different kinds. But I'm all for it; I'm for anything that can promote Texas and especially our seafood. We need it, because we're still suffering from the BP backlash. Some people still think Gulf Coast seafood isn't fresh enough or is somehow tainted.

More >>

Pepper Grove oyster on the half shell at Branch Water Tavern.

​At this past weekend's inaugural Foodways Texas symposium, one of the most eagerly anticipated seminars wasn't held in a conference room, and it didn't come with a PowerPoint presentation. Attendees instead slurped down all manner of freshly shucked Gulf oysters at Galveston's classic seafood restaurant, Gaido's, as oyster specialists like Robb Walsh, Jon Rowley, Jim Gossen, Tracy Woody and Dr. Sam Ray explained the benefits of giving those oysters the most important thing that a food can have: a name.

As Hanna Raskin of the Dallas Observer pointed out in her recap of the evening, "More than a century ago, there wasn't any such thing as a 'gulf oyster.' Oysters were offered under specific place names -- a tradition revived this weekend."

Raskin continued, "The fantastic buffet sparked plenty of conversation, which is part of the rationale for reinstituting appellations."

When I talked to Jon Rowley last Friday as I dropped by Louisiana Foods, he echoed Raskin's sentiments in a discussion prior to the weekend's events. Giving something a name -- an appellation -- gives it power, gives it a story, gives it a sense of history and interest that wouldn't otherwise exist. A name is a talisman.

And Gulf oysters can use the magical powers that a talisman confers at a time when events like the BP oil spill and the constant threat of Vibrio vulnificus -- exacerbated in some parts of the Gulf by the oil from the spill -- both remain at the forefront of consumers' minds when they think of our native Texas oysters.

Consider the Apalachicola oyster from Florida.

More >>

​I wasn't very excited when I first heard about TQLA. The restaurant website's graphics suggested it was trying too hard to be cool (something about that flaming saucepan), and its soundtrack gave me a headache.

I do love tequila, however, and couldn't help but be impressed when I heard TQLA offered 170-odd varieties. And I was further enticed by Katharine Shilcutt's "Sneak Peek" food porn, especially the slide of a blood orange margarita. So, I gave in and visited on a Monday night with a college pal and fellow "Ta-Kill-Ya" lover.

One thing I love about going out to eat on a Monday is that waitstaff are usually more relaxed, often bored due to the slower traffic. Our waiter Richard devoted a good ten minutes to sharing the details of various drinks and entrees. On his recommendation, I did end up ordering the Blood Orange Margarita, which was, as he claimed, strong and wonderfully fruity.

More >>

A man in Lyon, France, eats a snail raw out of its shell. Even raw, the natural presentation of the snails is beautiful.

The tiny snails don't look like much, their spiraling shells in varying shades of chocolate and taupe hiding a sluggish little creature inside. But these snails -- called tingles in the United Kingdom and drills here in the United States -- are deadly to Gulf Coast oysters.

With miniature teeth-like appendages called radula, the drills do just that: drill through an oyster's tough shell after softening it with a secretion of sulfuric acid. The drill eats the soft oyster from the inside out, leaving only a tiny bored hole behind as a calling card to frustrated oyster fishermen from here to England.

"They're big predators of oysters," P.J. Stoops sighed over the phone. Stoops, a well-known local fishmonger and forager who now works for Louisiana Seafood, has more than a passing familiarity with the invasive species. But he also has a solution for them.

More >>