Deep Fried Everything, MRE's and Everything You Wanted to Know About Oysters

George Duran: 00:00:00

They told me that I should make deep fried french fries because it's not fried enough. Yeah, they want me to batter the french fries and fry it up.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:00:09

It's double fry. I know. It's like the inception of french fries.

George Duran: 00:00:16

Welcome to the Always Hangry podcast, where we break down the way we eat. The good, the bad, and the completely ridiculous. I'm your host, George Duran.

On today's show, we're deep frying gadgets, and then we get ready to eat like the end of the world is coming. And later on, we're opening up the military's famous meals ready to eat better known as MREs. And finally, we're shucking the truth about oysters.

The myths, the rules, and everything you never knew you needed to know.

Joining me now is the artist and photographer who's made a career out of making food funny, fascinating, and just a little bit disturbing, Henry Hargreaves. Henry, thanks for being on the show.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:00:54

Yeah, good morning, George.

George Duran: 00:00:55

I'd like to first know, why did you make food? Why did you turn food as your medium for your art?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:01:00

It was accessible, it was cheap, and I thought the possibilities of storytelling with it were endless. And at the time, very few people were doing that.

George Duran: 00:01:08

Have you seen the price of beef.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:01:10

These days, though I'm a dad, I know all too well about the price of more than you need to know.

George Duran: 00:01:16

You had a lot of interesting series, something called Food Scans, where you literally scanned all these fruits and vegetables, power hungry cocktails of films and literature. I love how you're kind of being so creative and using food as that medium.

But one of the ones that certainly stood out for me was called Deep fried Gadgets, where you deep fried an iPad, an iPhone, hard drives, even a MacBook. What are you trying to say here?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:01:42

I mean, it was about consumption and just this relationship with technology, you know, and how I think it mimics a lot of how we have the similar relationships with food.

George Duran: 00:01:53

Yeah, but why deep frying?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:01:54

You know, I mean, that's often where a lot of the stuff starts. It's like, hey, what's an interesting story? What would look cool and interesting?

And when they come together, that's hopefully when that magic, the secret sauce.

George Duran: 00:02:05

What was people's reactions when they saw that you could deep fry gadgets?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:02:08

Well, you know what the first thing was, a lot of people were horrified that I had, like ruined an iPhone and everything like that. And actually the R and E being, I made models of everything. One, I'm much too thrifty to actually do it.

Two, I Don't want to know what happens when a lithium battery goes in the deep fryer and three, the screens would die. And I wanted to be able to sort of still do that. So I made models and did that.

So, yeah, the main reaction was that then there's humor and then there's the storytelling.

George Duran: 00:02:41

If you had to deep fry one of the newer gadgets today, something a little bit out of the ordinary, is there anything you can think of that's different?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:02:48

I don't know. Whatever. For some reason, those Kylie Jenner meta glasses come to mind.

George Duran: 00:02:53

Okay, yeah. All right. So I did some research and I found out some of the weirdest foods that are deep fried at state fairs here in the United States.

Deep fried butter.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:03

Okay.

George Duran: 00:03:03

Yeah. In: 2011

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:14

Wow. Wow. I mean, there's a heart attack and a snack right there, isn't it?

George Duran: 00:03:19

Man, you bite into it and like this gush of butter comes in your mouth.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:23

Oh, yeah. I mean, don't knock it until you try it, I guess, but I don't know if I'll be trying it in a hurry.

George Duran: 00:03:28

Ranch dressing. Ranch is frozen into balls.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:31

Yep.

George Duran: 00:03:32

Battered and deep fried.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:33

I mean. Okay, okay, okay.

George Duran: 00:03:35

one. Deep fried Coca Cola. In: 2006

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:46

What do they do? Do they freeze it first and they.

George Duran: 00:03:49

Make a batter out of Coca Cola?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:03:51

Okay, that's it.

George Duran: 00:03:52

So it's like this brown battered fried thing and it kind of tastes sweet. It didn't really get that whole Coca Cola experience, but it was still, you know, the whole idea of deep fried Coca Cola.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:04:01

Wow.

George Duran: 00:04:01

Pickle fried Oreos. At the Indiana State Fair, Golden Oreos is topped with pickles. Battered and fried, my friend. I would try that.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:04:11

I would get down with that one as well.

George Duran: 00:04:13

Yeah, that could be interesting. A little sour. Sweet battered fried. I mean, you could batter anything and I'll eat that. Jell O.

At the Texas State Fair, they panko coated jello and fried it. I don't know how that even came out.

Deep fried mashed potatoes on a stick at the state fair in Tulsa, Bacon cheddar mashed potatoes are formed into balls before being beer battered fried and served on a stick with. What else? Ranch dressing.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:04:39

I think that'll be up there on one of the ones I would try to.

George Duran: 00:04:42

Anything on a stick is good.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:04:43

Yeah, yeah, anything. It gives it legitimacy.

George Duran: 00:04:46

So I asked Chatgpt to come up some few new ideas on what to deep fry for the state fair. Okay, you ready? Deep fried avocado toast.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:04:54

Okay, keep going, Keep going. Chat.

George Duran: 00:04:58

Deep fried cottage cheese.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:00

Okay.

George Duran: 00:05:01

That protein trend is kicking.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:02

Yeah, yeah.

George Duran: 00:05:03

Deep fried kimchi.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:04

Okay.

George Duran: 00:05:05

I would totally do this. You chop up the kimchi, you use the brine in the batter, and it's like, kind of.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:11

Yeah, I think there's something about the texture there and the delivery that I'm curious about. Okay.

George Duran: 00:05:15

Yeah. A deep fried tuna tartare.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:18

Okay. Yeah, same again.

George Duran: 00:05:20

It's not tartare anymore, by the way. The tuna's cooked, so I would say more like canned tuna.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:24

Yeah.

George Duran: 00:05:24

And finally it told me that I should make deep fried french fries.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:30

Because.

George Duran: 00:05:31

It's not fried enough. Yeah, they want me to batter the french fries and fry it up.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:05:35

Just double fry. I know. It's like the inception of french fries. I mean, look, if that was at the state fair, I'd be pretty curious to go on, like. Yeah.

All right, family, we're trying a few things.

George Duran: 00:05:45

A series that really popped out for me that you did was called Ready for Dinner. And you went to these doomsday preppers. Right?

These are people who pretty much think the end of the world is coming or they're getting ready for a major, you know, disaster event. And these people have what they safeguarded food to use in case the end of the world comes.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:06:03

Yeah, exactly. And I interviewed a whole lot of preppers who all had different theories on what was gonna bring about the end of the world.

And I was like, what will be your first meal after, you know, after the collapse of civilization?

And it was fascinating getting an insight into their minds and how they were prepping, why their prep was the right thing, and how they're gonna be eating for, you know, until. Until, you know, the clock totally winds down for them.

George Duran: 00:06:30

Were these people like conspiracy theorists, like, out of the. Or were they like regular folk who were like, just in case?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:06:35

Oh, yeah, it was. It was a real. It was a real wor hole I went down. I actually had a friend who produced a show on doomsday preppers for National Geographic.

And she said to me, do not go and interview them. It's like we even with our film crew got locked in bunkers. We got like, you know, the. The most.

A lot of them are the most paranoid people you can possibly imagine. And. And the conversations at the start to when you get there totally flip.

But yeah, it was, it was, it was crazy hearing all these ones like, you know, the Hasidic Jew who's just dying to break the, you know, with his rabbit flock.

George Duran: 00:07:13

What do you mean? What do you mean by that?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:07:14

He kept rabbits and you know, he's forbidden to eat them because they're not kosher. And so. But if your life depends on it, you can break the rules. And he keeps this flock of rabbits.

But he was like, yeah, I'm gonna finally be able to eat these rabbits that I've been keeping.

George Duran: 00:07:28

That's insane. Were you able to taste any of the food prepper these foods?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:07:32

Yeah, I did. I mean, because I recreated all the meals so I got a lot of them, you know, and there's like crickets and.

George Duran: 00:07:38

Yeah, a lot of the foods are freeze dried. Was there anything that wasn't freeze dried that was like kind of fresh just sitting there?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:07:44

You know. One, one of them that I loved was someone who had a completely circular ecosystem with tilapia.

And they grow so quick and from the byproduct and in the water you can grow a type of like lettuce leaf. And so basically they were like tilapia and lettuce until, you know, the clock stops for us. Well, I did this series shortly.

It was still COVID lockdown stuff was all going on and a lot of them had a bit of a victory lap that they were pretty happy with themselves. Like. Yeah. Suddenly been seen as like more like legitimate than. Yeah.

George Duran: 00:08:18

Were these the folks also hoarding toilet paper and paper towels?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:08:22

I'm sure.

George Duran: 00:08:24

So what I did is I looked into some of the foods that are sold here in the United States and here's a list of the most ridiculous doomsday survival food sold in the us. Freeze dried scrambled eggs.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:08:36

I mean, powdered butter. Ah, okay.

George Duran: 00:08:40

I would try that. I just want to try it.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:08:43

Yep. Okay.

George Duran: 00:08:44

Yeah. Would you like some powdered butter on your freeze dried toast? Survival meat buckets.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:08:51

I mean that is a description right there.

George Duran: 00:08:54

Did you see any of the buckets with the survival meat? I mean, these are all freeze dried meats.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:08:58

Obviously the survival meat. I mean, I saw a bunch more like kind of like weird pates and things like that. It's kind of how. I mean, it's basically dog food.

George Duran: 00:09:06

Yeah. Do you have a contact with any of these people? So in case land of the world comes, you can like run in and be like, hey, remember me?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:09:11

Yeah, I've still got those email addresses hoarded there somewhere. Freeze dried lasagna I love the creativity around this stuff.

George Duran: 00:09:19

Yeah.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:09:20

Some of them though. There was a guy who had just in his apartment in New York and he had his whole bathroom filled with water tanks.

This guy thought there was going to be a volcano eruption on the west coast that was going to block out the sun and he was going to be in lockdown for his apartment for however long it took for the sun to break back through. And he was gonna be able to last several months. That it.

George Duran: 00:09:41

According to a: 2025

Henry Hargreaves: 00:09:49

35? Well, every Mormon does. Oh, interesting. Part of the.

George Duran: 00:09:54

Yeah, sure, that's part of the 35%. And also if you look at us politically, 35% makes sense.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:10:00

Yeah.

George Duran: 00:10:02

77% Of these people believe that they were likely to be affected by a disaster within the coming year.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:10:07

Yeah, I mean there was a lot of. It's already happening as I was talking to these people and there's a lot of. There was a lot of.

It's the Chinese and like the deep state and there's a lot of that. That was. Yeah.

George Duran: 00:10:19

The most common stockpiled category was canned foods and frozen foods, followed by toilet paper.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:10:25

It is, it's an interesting one. People's relationship with toilet paper.

George Duran: 00:10:28

Reuters recently reported that approximately 7 million households could survive independently for at least 31 days in a doomsday scenario. 31 Days. Do you have 31 days worth of food? I mean, we're from New York City. There's no way any of us have enough space for 31 days worth of food.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:10:45

When you see when there's a snowstorm here and your truck can't get there, it's like we're broken within hours, not days.

George Duran: 00:10:51

We're the first ones to go in a doomsday scenario, without a doubt. Alright, we're gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, we're opening up another one of Henry's photographs.

This time it's the world of what else? MREs, the military's famous Meals Ready to Eat. And later on, everything you think you know about oysters might be wrong.

We're putting the biggest myths to the test with one of the foremost experts on oysters. Stick around. Okay, we're back on Always Hangry. And we're with artist and photographer Henry Hargreaves.

One of the most famous fascinating survival foods which we discussed was MREs. It's meals ready to Eat. It's those pouches that soldiers take with them. So you did a photography Series of this.

And what you did is you purchased the MREs and then what, photographed them?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:12:00

Yeah, I was talking to a chef who was a son of like, he grew up on military bases, and he spoke about how his dad would bring MREs home sometimes and he'd play with them. And he was like, you know, I've kind of always had this fantasy of serving them at the restaurant.

And I just was like, love that juxtaposition of the soldiers getting fed kind of the worst imaginable food. You know, here are the people on the front lines putting their life in danger.

And so I was like, let's try and repurpose MREs to look like Michelin meals.

George Duran: 00:12:34

You did a fantastic job because you really. The plating was like, succulent. It looked like perfection. Yeah, we kind of have MREs at home with like the beef jerky sticks and the canned tunas.

Like, that could be an mre. I mean, I pack lunch for my kids every day for school, and I'm essentially making a MRE for them.

But meals ready to eat from the military side is a whole different ballgame. What kind of foods did you find with the MREs?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:12:56

I mean, that's what I love was these are, you know, this is the military being like, this is what we think you should be eating. I'm going to curate these MREs. And then I was like, let's see how different militaries do it.

I got to say, the American was consistently one of the most inedible MREs across the board. And, you know, you're like, here we are, the most well funded military, you know, operation in the world with the worst food.

And I again, just love that you feed people how you feel about them.

George Duran: 00:13:26

Was there another country that surprised you on the other spectrum? Like, you were like, this looks amazing.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:13:30

Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, no surprise. The French one was, you know, very much like crackers and it, you know, with like patties and things.

I mean, even the Russian one was pretty well thought out. I loved how I was able to relate to people in other militaries.

Like, with what's going on with Russia, I'm like, you know, this is what they're getting on the front lines and suddenly you realize it's like an 18 year old kid who knows no better. This is the, this is the most exciting part of their day, is opening this up and getting that.

George Duran: 00:13:56

The Russian MRE had pork brain with potato stew next to a beef stew with red sauce.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:14:02

Yeah.

George Duran: 00:14:02

Kind of like a yin yang thing going on. There. Pork brain and beef stew. Interesting fact. One of the most requested MREs from soldiers is pepperoni pizza.

So in: 2018

Henry Hargreaves: 00:14:24

Oh, wow. Shocking.

George Duran: 00:14:26

Yum. Who says there's no innovation in the military? Why aren't we taking care of our soldiers with the quality of MREs that we're giving them?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:14:34

I mean, look, it sort of comes back to the largest catering company in the world does the schools, prisons, and hospitals here in the US and it's just lowest common denominator across the board. And the military in there too.

George Duran: 00:14:48

Yeah. One of the most unpopular MREs ever invented was the omelette with ham. Soldiers would call it the egg brick or the vomlet.

It disappeared after years of terrible reviews and became a military legend. It has since become a collector's item among MRE enthusiasts. They are people who collect these MREs.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:15:07

Yeah, I know, I know. I've done a little set on the sidelines and looked at that, and yeah,.

George Duran: 00:15:13

One of the most popular ones is called First Strike Ration. It's designed for a soldier who doesn't have time to stop and eat. It has 2,900 calories.

It has a bacon cheddar sandwich, pepperoni pocket sandwich, beef jerky, applesauce, energy bars, pretzels, and caffeinated gum. Do you have MREs at home?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:15:32

You know what? As you said that question. Yeah. I've got a storeroom next to my studio and I've got MREs.

I mean, mainly because who knows when I'm gonna need them for the next project? But I am like, you know what? They're there if they need them to.

George Duran: 00:15:45

And some of these have heating elements in them, right?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:15:47

Yeah. The US One had heating elements in them. Yeah. Add water and something and a chemical reaction happens.

George Duran: 00:15:53

So here's some things on the current menus for meals ready to eat or MREs with the military. Chili with beans, beef barbecue cheese tortellini, chicken burrito bowl. That'll be interesting.

Beef ravioli, Mexican style, chicken stew, maple pork sausage, hash browns, jalapeno cheese spread, chocolate pudding and lemon poppy seed pound cake.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:16:20

What they say they are. When you open these up, they only resemble it in words. These are. I mean.

I mean, the only way I can describe eating some of these was I felt like I was eating death. What that is how unappetizing they are when you open up some of these.

George Duran: 00:16:41

But the vintage ones are the ones that cost the most. Like, those are the ones people are looking out for. So here's a list of the Most sought out MREs and their asking prices.

An unopened early World War II K ration, $395 sealed World War II K rations, supper unit is $880.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:17:01

Oh, man.

George Duran: 00:17:02

A complete World War II dinner unit is $1,000. And if you have a three piece World War II K ration set, it's $1,400.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:17:13

I mean, that three piece unit, by.

George Duran: 00:17:15

The way, includes three canned entrees, six packets of biscuits, coffee, powdered fruit drink and bouillon, candy and chocolate, three packets of gum, 12 cigarettes and matches and toilet paper. I feel like we end everything with toilet paper.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:17:29

I mean, look. Yeah, full circle.

George Duran: 00:17:31

And. Yeah, and we've come to the end of this interview too. Henry Hargreaves, thanks so much for being on Always Hangry. Where can people actually find you?

Henry Hargreaves: 00:17:39

Henryhargreeves.com or just Google me. You'll find all the socials from there.

George Duran: 00:17:44

Thanks so much, Henry Hargreaves.

Up next, oyster expert Willow Hubsher joins us to crack open some of the biggest myths about oysters and reveal what most of us have been getting wrong. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Always Hangry.

Today we're cracking open the myths, facts, flavors and mysteries of oysters with a chef, food historian, oyster expert, and owner of the Mobile Oyster Bar Market Price, Willow Hibsher. Willow, how are you?

Willow Hubsher: 00:18:36

I am doing great. Thanks so much for having me.

George Duran: 00:18:38

George, for someone who's never had oysters before or doesn't like oysters, when you open an oyster, it's relatively ugly. I would say it's just some alien looking thing that I have to eat.

For someone who doesn't know it or doesn't like it, how would you describe what an oyster is?

Willow Hubsher: 00:18:56

I mean, this is a bit more poetic, but I always say it's like kissing the ocean. It's salty, but it's not fishy. I think people get this idea in their head that it's gonna taste like, you know, mackerel or even like steamed clams.

I would describe as a lot fishier than an oyster, which kind of just tastes like ocean water if ocean water had a bite to it.

George Duran: 00:19:19

Two oysters don't taste the same, like from different areas. Is it the species or the water? Why do some oysters taste different?

Willow Hubsher: 00:19:25

Oysters are very like wine in that. Imagine having a California Chardonnay and a French Chardonnay are going to be very different.

Even two Chardonnays from France, from villages across a river, could express super, super differently. So with oysters, everything from where it's grown, the salinity of where it's grown, all oysters grow in brackish water.

But weather events that happen during that oyster's lifetime, so a freeze, a drought, a deluge, a hurricane can all affect that oyster's taste. And so oyster taste is part nature, part nurture.

George Duran: 00:20:05

But there is a significant difference between east coast and west coast when it comes to flavor. What are those flavors that we're tasting and what do we get on each.

Willow Hubsher: 00:20:13

Coast in the most base way to say it, People like to say east coast is briny, west coast is creamy. I think that's a dramatic oversimplification. But, you know, that is kind of a way to think about it.

I would say that west coast oysters are distinctly more metallic, and they generally have that cucumber y melony aftertaste to them. East coast oysters are generally brinier. The currents on either side of America both go clockwise.

So on the west coast, they're coming down from Alaska. On the east coast, they're coming up from the Caribbean.

And that's why swimming in the ocean in North Carolina is a lot more pleasant than swimming in the ocean in la. So in the US there's more seasonality to our oysters because the water temperature fluctuates a little bit more.

They can be year round, but they are best October to March.

George Duran: 00:21:06

Yeah.

Willow Hubsher: 00:21:07

And on the west coast, they have an advantage in that they don't have quite the same seasonality. You get like, a creamier oyster year round.

George Duran: 00:21:14

Would you recommend for someone who's ordering oysters if they're closer to the east coast to order the east coast oysters? Because something about flying oysters all the way from the west coast to the east coast that maybe the quality degrades.

Willow Hubsher: 00:21:26

Oysters have an incredible shelf life. Oysters on the east coast have a little bit better than West Coast.

nd, were being shipped in the: 1700

Every oyster that I have in my fridge right now, every oyster hanging out at a raw bar before it's shucked, is alive.

George Duran: 00:21:58

I have a problem with going to Wellfleet in Cape Cod and buying oysters that are double the price than you would buy them outside of Wellfleet. What does it say about our society and our relationship to food?

Willow Hubsher: 00:22:12

It makes sense to me that people are paying for the privilege of being able to say, I got this from right where it was harvested. And paying for the privilege of being able to post that I got this from right where it was harvested.

I think especially with food, especially with luxury food, we live in a, you know, content based machine.

And you have to consider that when you're talking about everything from ingredients to restaurants to home cooks, that being able to make a story of something, and I'm talking a literal Instagram story of something, is a cachet that people are willing to pay for. I think that there's something to be said, not necessarily a negative thing, to paying for ambiance.

And that's why we pay more to go eat at a restaurant. I mean, I like to go to my local wine bar, have a glass of wine that I could get, in some cases the same price that I could get a bottle at my house.

But I like sitting at the bar where they've curated the music and there's people around in their pretty chairs and I get to not be in my house and I'm okay paying for that. That's part of the budget. That's why I'm at a restaurant.

George Duran: 00:23:22

Have you ever had a bad oyster? And what does a bad oyster taste like?

Willow Hubsher: 00:23:26

Yes, for sure, I've had bad oysters. A bad oyster. And there's. It's a spectrum.

There's some oysters where I will get a bag of 100 oysters and I can smell from holding the bag, you know, 10 inches from my face. At least one oyster in here is bad. And I'm not gonna know until I get to it.

And then there's oysters where I'll pop it open and I'll say, I don't know. And it smells a little bit like a rotten egg. And then there's some. Where as soon as that oyster pops, you're like, let's put this in the trash.

And then let's take the trash out. It's terrible.

The stuff that's going to make you actually sick from an oyster are not things you can taste parasites and bacteria, which you cannot screen for. The rotten oyster is going to taste gross. And if you have a sensitive stomach, you might puke once.

But the stuff that people are worried about getting, like real food poisoning, that is not something you can smell.

George Duran: 00:24:23

And that's why they ask pregnant women not to eat oysters, to not take that risk.

Willow Hubsher: 00:24:27

Exactly.

George Duran: 00:24:28

Is there a proper way to open an oyster? Is there a trick, anything you can help us with that?

Willow Hubsher: 00:24:33

Yeah, for sure. I always say there is no wrong way to open an oyster. As long as the oyster's open, it looks pretty and you don't hurt yourself.

That's the three criteria.

George Duran: 00:24:45

I failed all three.

Willow Hubsher: 00:24:48

I think that my few pieces of advice. I teach shucking classes. I've never had anyone hurt themselves in a shucking class, which is great.

I think it's a lot easier than people realize, especially with the right tools. And I think thinking about that, it's not about the sharpness, it's not about getting in there.

It's about using a crowbar essentially to open the shell. And I think once people kind of make that switch in their mind, it's a less scary and be a little bit easier to conceptualize.

George Duran: 00:25:20

Yeah. What is the best topping for an oyster? I'll tell you what mine is, but I want to see what your opinion is. Your best thing to put on an.

Willow Hubsher: 00:25:27

Oyster in the winter, a really good oyster. I'm not topping it with anything. I'm a purist. I think that the best toppings should all be acid based.

So especially on the east coast, we are dealing with a really briny thing. And acid is kind of the combat to brine. I don't. My personal choice is either lemon or mignonette.

George Duran: 00:25:54

And if you don't know what a mignonette is, it's a red wine vinegar with shallots often. And sometimes I see cucumbers and other herbs in it.

Willow Hubsher: 00:26:01

So any real vinegar, chopped allium sauce, can be called a mignonette.

George Duran: 00:26:06

It's safe to say that all oysters are farmed this day and age. People aren't just going out there and getting wild oysters.

Willow Hubsher: 00:26:12

You should not be harvesting wild oysters unless you really know what you're doing. 98% Of oysters you come into contact with are going to be farmed.

George Duran: 00:26:20

And do I need to purge oysters as well after I purchase them, like you do with the mussels?

Willow Hubsher: 00:26:25

No, no. You should never be submerging oysters in water, especially because oysters, well, a. They can drown. It's the same with.

If you see lobster tanks at a grocery store, they've got bubblers going. There is oxygen moving through that water.

George Duran: 00:26:40

Let's talk a little bit about market price, which is the name of your mobile oyster bar. What on earth is a mobile oyster bar?

Willow Hubsher: 00:26:48

Yeah, so we. I worked as a chef in New York for a bunch of years, I kind of decided I didn't want to be an executive chef at a restaurant.

That wasn't my passion, my path. And I realized I really want to be guest facing, but I still want to do food.

And oysters are kind of this unique food that you do while you're talking to people. And so I started doing oyster wine tastings on my apartment roof about three years ago. And since then it's evolved into mostly private parties.

We still do pop ups and we do shucking classes.

George Duran: 00:27:26

How fast can you shuck an oyster?

Willow Hubsher: 00:27:28

I will always say I'm not a speed shucker, but what I can do is hold a conversation while I shuck, which a lot of speed shuckers cannot do. I generally budget myself about 60 oysters in 20 minutes.

Henry Hargreaves: 00:27:45

Wow.

Willow Hubsher: 00:27:46

Wow.

George Duran: 00:27:46

That's impressive.

Willow Hubsher: 00:27:47

If I'm going. If I'm going generally, I would say, yeah, an oyster every 30 seconds. If I'm just kind of being leisurely about it.

George Duran: 00:27:55

I found you on social media Tell others where you're essentially educating folks about oysters on social media.

Willow Hubsher: 00:28:01

Yeah, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok, Market Price bk and you can sign up for our emails on our website marketpricebk.com to have access to all of our pop ups and classes and merch.

George Duran: 00:28:16

Fantastic Chef Willow Hubsher from the Mobile Oyster Bar. Like she said, market price. You can find out more about market price at marketpricebk.com thanks so much for being on Always Hangry.

Willow Hubsher: 00:28:27

Thank you so much. This was so fun and thanks to.

George Duran: 00:28:30

All of you for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow the Always Hangry podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also visit alwayshangrypodcast.com for the latest episodes, updates and much more. I'm George Duran. Until next time, stay hungry.