The Gulf Coast Food Show
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The Gulf Coast Food Show
Navigating the Raw Oyster Realm: From Safety Measures to cooking Tips.
Ready to unlock the mysteries of raw oysters? Join our lively banter with seasoned Cajun fisherman, Gary "Pokey" as we navigate the nuances of this popular delicacy. Gary, with his wealth of knowledge, guides us through the vital safety measures—choosing trustworthy sources, ensuring the right refrigeration conditions, and understanding the tagging of oysters.
Ever wondered about the possible risks of procuring oysters from unverified sources? Well, we've been there, and it didn't end well. Drawing from our own experiences, we delve into the importance of clean oyster facilities and the consequences of negligence.
Well, here we are. Another weekend and another show, another pretty day. Bad weather last night, huh, wow, wow, real bad. In Tennessee we got. You know, we didn't get a whole lot here, we really didn't. So woke up, everything was watered, nice and clean. I can't complain with that. Well, we're going to turn the turn the professor down a little bit, boy, I tell you, we have a few things. One that we're going to get to right away Right this time of the year, everybody I say everybody, a lot of people are doing stuffings, seafood dressing, oyster dressing, and it's just this time of the year to eat oysters.
Speaker 2:And so, anyway, I just made a big thing of gumbo and it's fresh crab meat, some shrimp, some oysters. I kind of always do us. Before I put them in the pot, I sneak out a few of them and eat them raw, you know. But that's what we wanted to talk about is eating raw oysters. Now we're look, nobody knows where that is, that bad one is. But hey, we're going to chat a little bit about it, and with none other than Gary. Gary, pokey, love, the man is a fisherman his whole life, he knows all about this stuff, and so we, you know, we can't speak to the medical side of it, but we could just tell you about personal experiences, right? So, anyway, we're going to talk about that. That's coming up right away.
Speaker 2:What else is happening this week? Wednesday, wednesday the Gulf Coast Supper Club. Our first, our first gathering with the supper club is going to be at Kaitaki. So talk with the owner again, and we've maxed the place out. So fire marshal allows only certain amount and that's so we packed it. So that's, that's going to be nice and I'll follow up with you. I'll let you know how it goes. We may do a little something. Live there, we'll try. Okay, let's see how it goes. Well, remember, we was talking about testing the sound and see how it would sound. If we do that, you know, because we don't want an annoying show that you, you know that just echoes and stuff like that. So we're going to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2:One other thing you know, I I don't, whenever we have a bad experience at a restaurant. I don't say the name of the restaurant, for many reasons, you know, it's just, I just don't like to go there. But I'll tell you about an experience that was not good with a waitress. I won't tell you where it is, because I've eaten that number of times and it's been good. When we got our food, it was good, but the waitress oh my goodness, it was bad. I can't wait to tell you about it. It was, it was. It was almost comical.
Speaker 2:So we'll talk about that, but for now, let me get Gary on the line and we're going to talk about what so many people are doing right now. This isn't. This isn't an official list of things to do or don't do when you're eating oysters raw oysters. There's no medical advice being given. This is just us talking about our experience in in eating oysters, raw oysters, cooked oysters, those kinds of things. So hold tight a minute, let me get. Let's see what line he's on. I'm going to get him. I'll get him up here in just a second. All right, gary, is that you are online too, is that right?
Speaker 3:That's correct, All right.
Speaker 2:Gary. So by now everybody knows Gary, gary Pokey. So we, we're talking about oyster, gary, and I mentioned to, to, to everyone that you know, this time, and here everybody, everybody, not everybody, a lot of people are doing oyster dressing, oyster salad, oyster, everything you know, and we, and so I just I wanted to chat with you about the, the safety of it. You've been a fisherman all your life and, like I said, we're not medical people, but we can talk about our experience with this and so what? What is a basic? I don't know. Let's start from from the scratch here. You know how, where is it safe to get your oysters and and and where is it not safe? Some of the dos and don'ts for for just the average person out there that wants to make a little oyster, something that, and especially if it's not going to be fully cooked, if they want to eat them raw. What's some pointers on that, gary?
Speaker 3:We'll start off with. I mean, you look at and, like you mentioned, I've never seen a market like what we have for eating raw oysters. You have more oyster bars. It seems like that's the thing. Now They'll do grilled oysters, but you have raw oysters. You have all of this, but oyster should be bought from a reputable source. You know, sometimes you got a truck on the side of the road with just oysters in it, maybe on the back of a pickup truck.
Speaker 3:It'll advise to start off with if you're buying oysters in a sack, it should be tagged, marked exactly where it was fished. And you're hearing.
Speaker 3:If they're selling oysters, it should be a refrigerated body that they're coming out of. If they're in a truck, you know. So on the side of the road you might have salty oysters. Stop here and get this. So I would buy it from a store you might say a fish market, a reputable place that's been in business. Or if you're going to eat oysters on a half shell, you know, go to these places because these restaurants they got a reputation it keeps. So when they buy their oyster to serve on a half shell, you can believe that they're getting oysters from a safe place. Now, over here we got wildlife and fisheries and they monitor all the bees and bacteria in the bees. And you might have heard that if you go swimming in salt water you can get this flesh eating bacteria. So there's bacteria all the time in the water. Sometimes they're more active. The temperature has a lot to do with it. But in oysters you're going to have bacteria. But they'll close the area, that's not.
Speaker 2:They're trying.
Speaker 3:So what's dangerous, tim, is if you get somebody that's selling oysters and let's say that they're buying to resell, buy off the boat and I'm going to retail it and I didn't sell all my oysters. Now I got my oyster two, three days and now I'm carrying on to the fourth day. So you have to be careful, even though you know sometimes people might keep the oysters off. So if you're opening up your own oysters on a half shell, a telltale sign is to look and see if the oyster is dry. A lot of oyster has to have water in it. So when you open up that oyster you're going to see the water. The water will leak out. If it's dry, stuck to the shell of the sign, I mean I wouldn't even I would throw it away. I do throw it away.
Speaker 2:You should have one.
Speaker 3:Because now the bacteria has had a chance to get into it.
Speaker 2:You should have one piece of the oyster that stuck and that's the eye. The rest of it, yeah, you're exact. I've seen. I mean I've opened many oysters. You open it up and it's almost like it develops a little spider web. You know, it's kind of sticking everywhere.
Speaker 2:Now over here, kerry, the DMR, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, so I tell you what I did. Look, I had oyster license, fish license, shrimp license, all of it. And when we had our big boat and I'm going to tell you what you don't want to get caught with trying to get away with anything over here, with oysters For instance, if you're out there and let's say you're tong in the oysters, so you're in a little skiff and you're tong in the oysters and let's say they say, look, you know, yeah, the season's open, you can go tong. You have a certain amount of time to get those oysters and get them to the dock because they're not refrigerated. The temperature outside is evidently that they've deemed the temperature outside Okay To put your sacks on the boat until you get in a few hours. But I tell you what, gary, if not you, they will make you dump those oysters. I mean, there is no exceptions. It could be your grandfather out there and I'm. They will not, and I applaud them for it Really.
Speaker 3:I do too, Tim.
Speaker 2:You're right.
Speaker 3:Because over here, the same thing and and sad to say, people have gotten sick eat oysters, and it gave it a bad rap. But now another thing too, and all fairness to the oyster and eating oysters. Tim, if you want to purge yourself, let's say I want to clean myself up what are you going to do? You're going to drink some salt water right, you could. But if you get over here you start eating two or three dozen raw oysters that salt is, could be, and you end up with diarrhea, please don't start saying, oh, I got a bacteria. No, you don't purge yourself.
Speaker 3:Too much salt water that you're cleaning yourself up. So a lot of times I'll get a bad rap. But with, like you say, the laws, the protection of the people for food, the FDA has stepped in we can say that oysters are relatively safe now, compared. Now all food, I mean I can go buy zucchini, I can go buy lettuce, I can go buy stuff at Walmart and all of a sudden I've got bacteria on it and it's a recall. Don't eat it, it's a salmonella poison, correct. So I mean all foods.
Speaker 3:It depends on who's selling it, how they store it, how they keep it. Temperature has a lot to do with it. Like you said, they've got a refrigerator Oistars. If you get them hot, that shell starts to crack open, the water starts to leak out. Then the next thing you know, bacteria gets in. Then you can get sick from eating a hot oyster. So never get a sack of oysters. Put it out on the semen in the sun and say, well, I'm opening it up. No, no, get in the shade. Keep them in the ice chest, cool down with little ice. So there's ways to get away from getting sick and eating. And look, I eat oysters, like you know, my little granddaughter.
Speaker 2:She's starting to tell me that. You tell me how old was she when you gave her her first raw oyster? Your granddaughter.
Speaker 3:Two years old and, look, I got a lot of slack with that. People kick back or whatever. Let me share my look on this. The COVID was around, the flu was around. They got this three letter word. I forgot what it is for respiratory breathing. And now they want you to get vaccinated. You can even get that vaccination for the shingles and you get all these vaccinated. What do they do? They'll get a form of that bacteria, introduce it to your system so your sister can build up an immune.
Speaker 3:I don't eat so much raw oysters, since I'm a kid that every little immune system in my body finds anything to get in that water. That's the way I feel. It's almost like that's my vaccination. Don't take me up on that, I'm not a doctor, but that's the way I feel. If I'm going to eat that oyster out of that water, I'm going to eat it, but don't tell me not to eat that oyster and you go swimming in that water, you go swallowing.
Speaker 2:That's what I wanted to hit on Same bacteria that's in the water.
Speaker 3:There's bacteria in the water. That's where the oysters are getting it from. So you know, sometimes oysters get a bad rapid. I'm not telling you to go eat oysters. I'm telling you why I eat oysters.
Speaker 2:Now I'll tell you what Bokey and I'm sure you'd agree, is that bacteria, the Vibrio Vileciafus, I believe it's called. Yeah, that's it, that's what you want to call it Say it quick and it doesn't matter. The Vibrio virus.
Speaker 3:The Chinese food that you can't pronounce, right.
Speaker 2:So that bacteria now I'm like you know, I'm three blocks from the Gulf of Mexico that bacteria, even it's coal right now, but that bacteria is somewhere in that water right now, that same Vibrio bacteria, that flesh eating bacteria is always in the water. It loves brackish water, you know the kind of mixed salt and fresh water, a little brackish. But the thing is, I know when we grew up we live right there on Lake Pontchartrain, and so when we'd get oysters I can remember my as a kid, you know my grandmother and uncles and all and one or two of them they'd say, no, you can't have oysters, you can't have real oysters, and they wouldn't give them to them because maybe they had diabetes, maybe they had a kidney trouble, they had some kind of problem with them. Now they're really susceptible to where the average person ingesting just the average stuff that's in there anyway, it wouldn't hurt at all.
Speaker 2:So you go swimming Florida, anywhere, that bacteria is always, it's just. It's just when the temperature gets a certain temperature and maintained, and then it really gets plentiful. Now somebody goes out there with a cut or scrape on them or their foot is not healed or maybe they you know some people do they have, they can't heal good and they're getting that water and they just well go ahead and eat the oyster with the Vibrio in it, because they're going to get it, that's right.
Speaker 3:I mean they give it a your immune system. If your immune system is bad, I mean you're going to get sick walking in the grass. Maybe you never know, because your immune system is down. So a lot of times that comes into play. But let me give a little call off for lemon. Yes, lemon. You know a lot of people cut lemon short. Lemon cooks, that's what they say. You can cook stuff with lemon with the acid. Sure, sure, I always use lemon on my oyster, always. I mean I say always, but almost always, always. I was brought up on different seafood and they always give you lemon when you have oyster. Now, if oysters were not safe, I've seen enough oyster boars, especially where you live, at Tim. They bump it up, bump it up over here in Louisiana, the same thing when people are eating, and they'll end up. And I don't hear anything in the news about people getting sick. Have you been hearing anything about people getting sick with oyster?
Speaker 2:No, no, no. I tell you what in preparing for the show, I did a little research. I'm looking at some news articles and stuff and it's a shame because they used one example, this one particular article. They use an example and I said, yeah, this person got definitely ill. They got sick. In fact, the lady died, she died. And so they tell them the story of what happened.
Speaker 2:But here's the thing they said, yeah, we got some oysters. We got them from a friend of ours. And right when she said that I'm like there's your problem, you said you got them from a friend. So probably, look, they meant well, maybe they, like you, said they oyster, and then they had a few sacks left over. They didn't sell them. And now they say, hey, come pick these up, you can have them, or whatever the case is. But she said they were given to her by a friend. And that's why what you said in the beginning is so important. That's some wonderful advice. For example, go to a reputable dealer. Go to look Rousers, rousers, you know they're going to protect the reputation All of these places that sell and serve oysters. Man, I'm going to tell you what you do not want to be a fisherman and then find out that you're cheating on anything, because you'll never catch an oyster for these restaurants.
Speaker 3:That's correct. You'll catch it on the revoke license Sure. You'll catch all kinds of finds on you and things like that. Tim, I know that that is absolutely correct, well, the cook stuff.
Speaker 2:I guess the cook stuff, you know. I tell you what I've look over the years I can tell you I have gotten sick on oysters and I know what it was. I know exactly what got me. So, in fact, one at one time it had me and a buddy of mine. We had hit the same restaurant I know exactly what restaurant it come from and me and him both had raw oysters and both of us got very sick and it got to me. It was like okay, this is enough. You know, I think I'm going to go to the hospital and I did. I went to the hospital, they put me on an IV and they just had to get fluids back in me. And look, I don't encourage anybody. Did you have dark red? It was.
Speaker 2:I had everything, everything, everything that a bad oyster can do you. It did me Except, except stop me from eating the raw oysters. And I still do.
Speaker 2:So as long as I'm healthy. I don't think I'm going to avoid it because I've gotten sick off of other food. You know, and when cooking I do a lot of fact. Today I want to tell you about some soup I did. I did a giant pot of soup today and when I'm preparing, cutting everything everything like the chicken is done on a separate cutting board, the the beef on a separate cutting board, the vegetables on, and as soon as I'm finished with like the chicken portion, everything gets washed. Then I pull out the stuff for the beef and then the rest. So what I'm saying is that most of the time, if you're going to get sick from food, it's going to be cross contamination. It isn't the chicken that you're cutting up, it's your knife wasn't clean. You have a dirty cutting board, your countertops were dirty. Generally that's where you're going to get sick, but not from the food itself.
Speaker 3:Let me run something by you, not as you brought that up. One of the things that I do not do is eat raw oysters like you bomb already opened. You can get them in a store. I will not even care what store it's coming from. I will not eat the raw oysters out of a jar. I want to see that oyster in the shell. So, and the reason is that I don't know when it was opened, I don't know what was the shelf life on it, but if that oyster was fresh, even though when it opens up, if it has that water in it. So basically I like to open my own oysters, but I could see where contamination could come in to a gallon of oyster that you had in the refrigerator and that gallon of oyster. The center of it did not get cold enough to where the bacteria started growing inside them oyster or that gallon, and you could end up really sick with that.
Speaker 2:You can. I would say this Poke is. My experience has been this we used to deal with Crystal Seas right here in Paschus, ga, in Mississippi. Crystal Seas is a giant operation with oysters. If you're getting oysters in it, like the little court or the pint that you're talking about, I've been inside their facility. I used to. When I had the seafood market I used to buy from them many, many, many thousands of oysters and I went in and actually I'm watching the whole process. I'm telling you, but it's clean. I mean it's it's clean and I agree with you, tim.
Speaker 3:That's not the one that's going to get you sick. You see, the Tim Harrison that bought that oyster, that couldn't sell it this week, put it on the sides. Maybe refrigeration wasn't monitored correctly and it gets bad and he's resell.
Speaker 2:No, I hear you. That's where they're going to get sick what I'm talking about is, in other words, you go to Rousers or you go to Claben Hill or your Bromont or what you know what one of the stores. You go there and you're going to see them. You're going to see them in the seafood department, the, the, the little pikes they are setting on ice.
Speaker 2:And I'll tell you what I've never. I've never had an issue with them, and that's what I'm saying about a reputation. Is that the, the processors, that that that are putting that stuff on those shelves? You can't afford to get nobody. No, no, no.
Speaker 3:And again, I'm not talking about these big store, I'm talking about people. Like you said, somebody gave me some oysters. Somebody gave me a guy who went to fish and rented it as I bought a sack, or they opened up these oysters, opened you up a half a gallon. I'm going to give you a half a gallon of oysters and.
Speaker 3:I'll put it in my refrigerator and I keep it there, and here come Tim and Carrie and you'll come over and it's three days later. I had an infusion. Hey, you don't want to eat some raw oysters? We're still eating. I just have gallon.
Speaker 3:We're in trouble I mean you can smell it. Sure, when I say that that's long, so the oyster has to be alive, that's long you can smell. So yeah, oysters is safe, but just like any other food I mean, take chicken I can tell the chickens bad. I bought some chicken out of there at Walmart. I had to bring it back. She said you didn't have to bring it back. I said I don't want to go to smell what I bought. I said I opened it up almost bombarded, so evidently the refrigeration process went bad Somewhere's on the line. I said soon as I opened it. So if you, if you smell that, even if you open up a shell and you got a little jar and it got a little, don't eat, please don't eat it, cause then you go blame the oyster when really was our fault.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's so true. Okay, and you know, you have a lifetime experience as a since you was a kid commercial fishing shrimp and oyster, so so I really appreciate and and and and trust. What you're saying about this stuff and I think that is so true is that you have a buddy that, look, if he oysters and, and he went out the same day and he's bringing back to you that day, oh yeah, that's fine. But, like you said, if it's, yeah, my, my, my brother-in-law has got a friend that has some oysters and no, no, no, no, you don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:Just go ahead and get them from the store. Get some, yeah.
Speaker 3:That has a date on it. Like right now they have oyster. They go, they leave every morning, they come back every evening and you go pick up your oysters and it's like we had a friend of our picked up 11 socks for some other friends, 11 socks of oysters that he went to pick up off of the boat. We got friends that's coming down from New York and I got two socks ordered for them and a gallon opens for them and that's the come off the orc. We're going direct to the orc. When he comes to leave that morning I come back in and I'm going to go ahead and we're going to bring it down.
Speaker 2:But that oyster boat, like yesterday okay, yesterday's in the seventies them oysters aren't just sitting on a deck.
Speaker 3:Oh no, they got refrigerated.
Speaker 2:See, that's the thing is. You know, I want to hear.
Speaker 3:It's all refrigerated.
Speaker 2:You have to have cool, they have refrigeration units, in fact and they have time.
Speaker 3:Like you said, they got certain times that they're allowed to keep oysters on the boat and that's it. Yeah, no more.
Speaker 2:The big, the big oyster places that have that serve on the half shell, like the big places in New Orleans. Do you know some of those places? They have their own, their own leases. They have their own oyster lease, in other words, that nobody can fish. That's their property, that's their oysters, their land and they oyster it and you believe me, they take care of it.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and they're coming out with this forming of oysters. So now you can move your oyster to an area where it never gets in the mud. It's floating what it is, it's little floating containers on yeah. Water containers. I've seen it and they're filtering the water. And some of the best oysters you want to eat is these former oyster. The only thing I like. Open them. They're small. You got to have a special kind of knife to open them, but they're good. That's the future, that's all things of the future. Yeah, look at them.
Speaker 2:Well, for right now I tell you what we'll wind it up with. Let's just say if you're out there listening and you want oysters, buy them from a reputable dealer. And look the price of oysters. They go up every well, and they crab meat too this time of the year, or all the seafood. It's going up because everybody's cooking with it. But if you're going to do it, just go ahead and get a reputable grocery store, somebody that really specializes in that kind of stuff seafood and you're probably you're going to be safe. If you have some type of illness, then maybe stay away from it. Otherwise, a little harsh radish, some ketchup and some lemon. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3:Then look, and even if you buy from a reputable place, let's say that I want to go ahead and I got people coming over you know, family that I haven't seen and I want to prepare my oyster Dish. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna get a half a gallon of oysters and I'm a bite two, three days ahead of time. Keep it cold enough. Oysters is not like a Ham that's been salted down and you can put in your refrigerator. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:They pack them in ice at the stores for a reason ice needs to keep it right at what. What is ice? 32 degrees to freeze ice, I think first one. So 30, so at 40 degrees. If your refrigerator is not 40 degrees, man don't keep it in that too long, or ice them up in an ice chest when ice surrounded around them. So they just stay very cold. You know, don't allow the bacteria to set in there, cuz you're gonna get sick. Yep, even though you buy that a reputable place, that pool, just like that is so true you know meat or anything else.
Speaker 3:If you don't refrigerate it properly, your bacteria is gonna go in.
Speaker 2:Well, I tell you what, Gary look, whenever we have these subjects of seafood, your, your, your. The value of your knowledge is priceless, and I'm so glad that you come on and and and clarify a few things. Just give a little look, at least People are listening to someone who has done this their entire life. They, they, you know a brag about you, but it's true. Yeah, when it comes to seafood, you're an authority. You have yourself, yeah, I think two of your son's still crab. They've run close to a thousand crab traps.
Speaker 3:I mean that that's when you know long, but he's thinking about coming by. But, yeah, you're right. Yeah, in fact, all three of my boys were fishermen. Sure, we always did do that, yeah, so your knowledge is Truly appreciated.
Speaker 2:And look, if we get another question up here, because we get questions in and I just kind of compile them and wait Till we get enough of them on a certain subject. But this oyster thing, because I think, because it's just a holiday season and a lot of people are cooking, you know the oyster dressings and stuff that we do down here and and that subject just kind of kind of came up. But but anyway it's appreciated and thank you for always volunteering, you and sharing your knowledge.
Speaker 3:You're very welcome. Thank you for having me on the show and I thank you, your audience, for listening in. You know and look, the oyster bars are popular right now. Man Go eat some more oyster Go to your oyster bars.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Be sure you got your favorite one. They got some good ones. If you see a lot of people there, you can be sure that they they never. They don't have the reputation of people getting sick that could get following in on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, boy. Well, hey, that's been some great advice. I'm gonna. I'm gonna talk a little bit about. I tell you what, gary, if I could put you on a spot just a second, I did a big pot of soup, but it's you were telling me about a soup that I did vegetable, beef and chicken, and I had all the vegetables and everything in there and in fact it's on the stove now. I did almost, I guess, four gallons of it's soup and a vegetable soup and I share it. I have. You know, we have some, some older friends that that can't, you know, really love to cook but they can't. And what we'll give them, you know, we'll give them enough to where they have meals for the next week and a half, you know. But you talked about a Soup, of beef soup. Now what I'm thinking? Okay, I'm doing vegetable beef soup. No, you, you said something about a different type of soup. Well, what is the long and short of of this vegetable, not vegetable, this beef soup?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that's, that's a beef soup. See, my mom would make Vegetable beef and my grandma vegetable beef. But one of my grandmas would make beef soup and I beat so you're starting at the vegetable entities on, not on. You get about eight onions. You peel them down once they brown down and you take your. You take your beef. I'll go with the chuckles, a big chuckles. I'll cut it in chunks, oh, and I'll put a little flower on and I'll brown it. I'll just brown that and then I'll put it on the side and then no, then then, like my onions, once my onions are caramelized, really well, then I'll go ahead and I'll throw, I guess, about six pounds, five, six pound ropes. You'll cut up a cube. Then I'll buy Two packs, two big packs of beef ribs and you need to have these beef ribs and then I'll buy the beef bone With the marrow in it. You can buy the bone with the marrow in it.
Speaker 3:Sure and I'll buy that and I'll throw that in my soup and then I'll cook that thing down until the meat comes off the bones of the ribs. And Then you can't leave it set. You get all of that towel and oil and grease off the top of it and you want to eat a soup. You eat that. Now. You got all the stuff coming out of the bones. You got the onion it has good and you season it to taste sure you know whatever, whatever season you want, but to me that's a beef soup.
Speaker 3:Then you take that meat that's so tender, you pull it out and you make like a salad with a raw onion, garlic, green onions, and you put a little olive oil on it, no black pepper, and then you eat that on the side and that's my beef soup. Wow, sick, that's what I make a beef soup.
Speaker 2:So it's just, it's just beef, beef and onions and seasoning.
Speaker 3:Beef onion seasoning, but you put the beef, you got to have the ribs.
Speaker 2:I'll win the ribs and now chicken.
Speaker 3:I'll make a chicken soup. That's me the chicken soup. I think I had like 10 leg quarters. I put a big chicken soup but I cook them things until it bones, till the meat come off the bone. Then I go ahead and I pull the skin off after I pull the fat out, the boner, the boner. Then I'll put it back together and I'll put some of them, some noodles in it. I'll put a little noodles in either angel hair pasta or whatever you like. You know, and that's my chicken soup, that I like.
Speaker 2:I think I'll do. I think I'm gonna do the beef Because it, you know, it sounds so simple.
Speaker 3:It sounds really. I like the beef for you. I'm not crazy about this. So many people make a vegetable soup and you got so much tomato sauce. It's like eating a can of tomato peas. That's not, I don't even is acety yeah. Yeah, I don't like spaghetti that much because of the tomato sauce.
Speaker 2:I put on this poke. I put it's about four gallons that I made, and I put one tomato per gallon. So so I get a tiny bit of, but I know what you're saying. I don't want it to over overwhelm it, and so I put one tomato per gallon and you wind up with with a mile, very mile, but. But it gives you that little tomato a little bit of. Just that, just a hint, just that you know you got a little bit of tomato in there.
Speaker 3:You know, my grandma used to use v8. She wouldn't even use to me. She make a spaghetti. She make a little better. I need her spaghetti. But then, like you take, like, well, others would make a spaghetti. Man, they got so much, you got it hard, burn the rest of the night and your belching tomato sauce. But that's me, but that's my stomach. Yeah, some people that's what they like, but that's how I am. You know I can't. You know how do you say that I'm a body ragout leaves? It started cooking it before I had a talent we did.
Speaker 2:I tell you, I get carried away cooking. I'm gonna tell you, last Monday I did about five gallons of tomato, of Spaghetti, the spaghetti sauce would would meet. You know, my wife can't carry, come in and she said she just shakes her head.
Speaker 3:What are you doing? She walks but?
Speaker 2:but she knows I'm at law when I leave. That kitchen is spotless. I clean everything.
Speaker 3:So she don't have to come.
Speaker 2:Then two days later, wednesday I think, I made another big pot of Seafood gumbo and and carry it she went and got fresh crab meat, fresh oysters well you know, fresh from from I think we went to Rousers or Claiborne Hill and and and we got that, the crab meat. And then we went and got shrimp right there on the dock, off the dock. Here they said, oh, there's some beautiful shrimp coming in Boke. Oh, I wish if people only knew you people listen, I tell you all the time, you people listening up north, because I see, I see everywhere Way up north.
Speaker 2:We have people all over United States that listen and I'm gonna tell you you have to, you have to if you want shrimp, like right now. I'm gonna give you an example. There's boat, a boat's, out of the wrigglies now wrigglies is around slide L, louisiana in between, right near the Mississippi line that they, they put it look little, little skimmers. They put in little skimmer nets down and they coming up with in in one, in one evening, 24 boxes, which is 2400 pounds 2400 pounds and but guess what?
Speaker 2:they getting a dollar fifty dollar seventy five a pound for Gorgeous, gorgeous shrimp that you would, if you up north, you'd pay twelve dollars a pound for this, and, and, and you can get it fresh. So I look, I don't want anything out of the deal, but if you email me, you can contact me. Tim at the Gulf Coast food show, calm, yeah, you contact me and I will put you in touch with some of these fishermen. You come down here, bring your ice chest, go back up with with four or five hundred pounds and you know you, you might, you might pay for your vacation and everything you better hurry, because the one that's coming, it's almost over.
Speaker 2:You're right, you're right, so I.
Speaker 3:See all my boy, he's fishing and I told myself, look, I like to put some, a little bit of shrimp in the freezer for bait. I want some small shrimp that when I go fishing I have some bait shrimp. He brought a man and they count 30 something to the pound. It's almost like a mix, almost a jumbo. I said man. He said, daddy, see, they never got smaller, still got big giant, oh, they giant a beautiful.
Speaker 3:Beautiful, beautiful shrimp. So yeah, and good flavor. My good, in fact. I went to Rousers. Rousers is still running ten for a dollar, milly for ten for a dollar.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's one I was proud.
Speaker 3:Yesterday I cooked ten milly tons, stuffed them and fed people. It cost me a dollar. Shrimp didn't cost me that. My Boy gave it to my stuff, the milly tons of shrimp, and put dollar. This is a big, eight people up in on milly tone. So anyhow, I mean get it while it's dead. That's how you got to work it. Melitons in season.
Speaker 2:It sounds like poke is eating good down in Galliano. On by your Lafouche.
Speaker 3:Well, it was almost sent you a picture the milly tons I had in the oven when I was baking. Nice, my boy came, he ate three, oh, and then he said, he said, look, I'm gonna bring some more home. He says, let me lay it on. And then he brought seven homes, half-shells, you know. Or he had to bring in 10 half-shells, that'd be 10 of the others. So, but look, he's just so good. I mean, they came out good. It wasn't the same like the other ones, because what I did was I had boiled some shrimp and I used ball shrimp instead of raw shrimp. So it was dry, it was still good, but I don't know that raw shrimp gave that flavor because it let the juices out with the belly trauma. You know.
Speaker 2:Well, how about this Po? How about we set up? The next time we talk and next time you come on, I want you to tell the people about the big. I know Okay. Now now yeah, nobody gonna know what a big I know is. Well, you're gonna tell them.
Speaker 2:You're gonna tell them and look you people listening when I have him on and he's gonna talk about a big I know. Okay, now that's all Cajun talk. It's a delicacy that's served around the world and when Pokey wants it, he gets it by the gas. He can get as much as he wants.
Speaker 3:I've eaten I get bring him by the bushel, by the bath if you'll bring him in. I'll have five gout in my bucket and I gotta stop him because boy gives me the gout when I start eating this thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, we gonna talk about that next time. Big I knows, yes, indeed, I've eaten it on your dock. I've eaten it. It was delicious. So, man, hey, look, thank you, pokey, for coming on and sharing your knowledge with us and your experience in fishing and this oyster safety Type. Yeah, look, we just gave some basic ideas of how we can be a little more safe and eat in oysters, especially raw oysters, and no way are we marine biologists or doctors, anything like that. We just happen to know more than all of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just know that the government has come a long way in trying to protect people with food.
Speaker 2:They have.
Speaker 3:But it would all the protection. You can still go get that chicken that was watching you, put it in your refrigerator and it'll get bad on you. So do your own part. That's what I'm saying. If you're gonna eat oysters or seafood, make sure your refrigeration or ice them up in the ice Don't let the bacteria get in there. You get sick and then the oyster fisherman and the oyster will get the wrap. When it was your fault, you know my fault.
Speaker 2:That's why I say I appreciate so much the wildlife and fisheries. The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, they you know what, when I was shrimping out there it was really was aggravating. And you know my boat it was a big boat. I have double rigors. I just get the nets down and I'm pulling for 20, 30 minutes and here comes the DMR and they want me to pick my nets up. They're gonna check to see if I have my turtle excluded device. And look, I did, but it was still.
Speaker 3:Like you can't, you can't stir it. I thought we could. No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2:But they'd check you out good and make sure that you're legal and at the end of the day I'm like, okay, I appreciate what these people are doing Unless they did it to me twice in one night and then it gets real bad. But when they out there and they protecting, they truly are protecting the nation literally, because oysters come Alabama, mississippi, louisiana, some in Texas, a lot of Texas that's where the oysters are coming from and they really are protecting the reputation. And so when they out there, they not harassing people, they out there doing a wonderful thing for restaurants, for stores and for me and you, just a regular consumers now. So I applaud them and I'm glad they out there.
Speaker 3:So Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2:Yes indeed.
Speaker 3:Okay, pope. I shared with someone today. I said, look, I'm gonna be doing a podcast on oysters, really, and I sent us some of the podcast, so they're gonna be excited. They can't wait to listen. Oh wonderful, your audience is growing.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, pope. You know we're in 20 something countries. I mean, we just picked up some more listeners.
Speaker 3:All right, tim. You know, in the case of Galyan, it's not a country, we're not a country. I mean, I mean go, we're in look Chechnya, italy, israel, vietnam. It's crazy and so in all of the United States. We got the point associate the point of fool. We got all the other ways. So that can be some countries.
Speaker 2:The show didn't pick up until you started coming on, Pope, that's what I'm saying. Oh yeah, sure I'm coming on top of it, okay, well.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's it. So, countries, I'm so proud of you, tim, that evidently you're doing something right. Oh well, it's the Red M&M's man, the.
Speaker 2:Red M&M's.
Speaker 3:You put on stuff like the Red M&M, they're like yellow fog. You know, that's all the things that you got to walk. That's knowledge, knowledge, I love it, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:Well, we enjoy it, man, thank you. Thank you so much, pope, for coming on. And look, we're gonna next show we do with you. Big. I Know, big. I Know People need to know what it is. It's. You know you're gonna flip out. You're gonna love this.
Speaker 3:Hey look, just so that your audience knows that we're in no way no experts and a lot of the people you bring on here were just common people and you remember that. That one that come on that said my son in law cooked the best steak you ever wanna eat. Yes, he went by his dad's house Him and my boy, the one that showed him how to cook my daughter told me she said it was like trying to eat beef jerky, Said he couldn't eat it. They ruined the steak. They blamed it on the egg they were cooking it in, and one of them green eggs or whatever. Oh no.
Speaker 3:Like four of them watching it and then they're burning the meat and it says man, it's like the grits in here. She said oh no, oh no. So they ruined some hard dollar filet mignon. So look, just cause we said on there, they don't always come all like a week, that's so true.
Speaker 2:I just want to pass that on. That's so true.
Speaker 3:We'll see if Trey's listening or he'll give us some kickback at the end.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he'll call, there you go.
Speaker 3:Okay buddy. Hey, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Okay, bye, bye, okay. Oh man, it's always nice to talk with Bokey. I tell you, he's such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to seafood it really I've known him for many, many years and between him, his sons, his dad, I mean, you figure, he lives in the. You can't get a better location. If you're a commercial fisherman, maybe you can build you a pier right on the Gulf of Mexico, but other than that, he's within a few miles of just some of the best fishing shrimping in the country and he's done it all his life and so he's got a wealth of information. I'm so glad that he comes on and shares it with us. So that's all the little show about oysters and some of the little safety things I told you.
Speaker 2:Well, I told you about the Supper Club that's gonna be this Wednesday. This Wednesday, if you wanna go and you're in the area, we have them coming up at numerous locations. Here's the problem as soon as we put it out there, it's packed. I mean, I have friends that I wanna invite and I can't because it's already packed. He was okay, I wanna go, boom, and it's done and over with. So the next location we're gonna have? Well, I don't know the next location, but there's a few of them and they're good. We're gonna go to good places. They're gonna show off their best and that's what we're gonna do. That's what we're gonna do at Kaitaki. They're gonna put on a nice little show of some of the better things that they cook and anyway, I can't wait to do that.
Speaker 2:So this little thing, I tell you we'll close on this because it's a good news, bad news type thing. So the good news is we went to eat my dad, my wife and my daughter Yesterday. We went to eat at a let's just call it a chain restaurant, but a good one, a good chain restaurant, and so we get it's a steak place. So I'll tell you that much. And again, the reason I don't like to mention when I have a bad experience, this is a prime example of why I don't like to mention the name. This experience here will help you to see why I don't do that.
Speaker 2:So we get there. They're a little busy, but not real busy, not terribly busy. We get there, we get our seats, we go sit down and we order an appetizer. Everybody orders a drink and my wife orders a salad. Of course she wants a salad, so she orders a salad, that comes first before her steak, but there's no silverware. So the waitress comes back and hey, could we get some silverware? That way, you know, my wife can eat a. Oh, yeah, yeah, I'll be right back with it.
Speaker 2:Well, five minutes passes, six minutes it's, you know. And so I see her over at the little counter in the back and so I think, well, let me go over here, maybe she's something come up. So I went over and I said, hey, could we get that silverware? I said I don't mind getting it. If you tell me where it's at, I'll go get it. And no, no, I'm coming with it. What?
Speaker 2:Another five minutes pass and I'm like, okay, wait a minute. So finally I go up to the hostess up front, when you walk in, and I said, look. I said could we get some silverware? And maybe, I don't know, three or four minutes later it was still another low weight. She came out and she, oh, yeah. So she was apologetic. I'm sorry, maybe they overlooked it. I'll give them that one, the first one. Okay, you overlooked it, but I don't know, the waitress is not that long. So she brought it.
Speaker 2:My wife had a beer and she said can you? When you bring it. Could you bring me a lemon I'm sorry, an orange with my beer? And I ordered a beer too and I said, yeah, I'd like one also. So we get the ultra light and that way you don't fill up on it, but if you put the orange in it it gives a little more of a flavor. So you're not drinking just water, you know, because I like heavy beer if I'm going to drink it. So we get the dark on beer there. Well, there's no limit Orange. So we say, okay, you know she comes back around. Hey, could we get the orange for the beer? Yeah, yeah, I'm going to get that now. Okay, never came back.
Speaker 2:So I just walked up to the bar and while we were waiting, we had about a 10 minute wait before we got there. I mean, when we got there and the bartender was really nice, my dad and everybody I think everybody got a beer and I made sure I took care of him, I tipped him really nice because nice guy and stuff, and so when I walked back up there, you know he was right away. He was like hey, what do you need? You need something? I said yeah. I said we need a couple of oranges for our beer. We got. We didn't get them and he got them right away, boom. So we bring them back to the table, we sit down and the waitress comes up and she's oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. I said no, no, we got him, it's okay.
Speaker 2:Everything about the service was just horrible. My daughter ordered you know, it's not a blooming onion, but it's something like it just the petals. They have like big petals and they fried, and I'm not a big fan of that fried stuff, but she wanted it. I'm like, yeah, that's fine. So she gets that and brings it and it's cold. I mean it's like it's. It was hot at one time in its life, but now it it's cold. And so we ate one and I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, we can't eat this. So the hostess is walking back by she's not a waitress and I said look. I said this stuff is really kind of room temperature, it's not hot, it's kind of soggy. You know I was like oh no, I'll take it right away for you. Well, she did. She picked it up right away, but it didn't come back until almost we finished with our entire meal. So that was the bad experience.
Speaker 2:But what was the good? The good was. The stakes came out fabulous. The food was very good. I got I got one of their state was a ribeye. I got the ribeye. It was incredibly good. The sides were very good.
Speaker 2:My wife's steak, she loved it. I mean, it's rare for her to go on about a steak but she just went on. Oh, this is so good. My dad, he loved what he had. He orders his steaks and he's a I want it. Well done, really well, well done. And he forgets the rule that the more you cook a steak, the more it becomes a mistake, and so, but hey, that's the way he has it, you know, that's the way he wants it. You know, 85 years old, I guess you get your steak. Oh, you want it.
Speaker 2:But the point is everybody's food was good, and so of what good would it do for somebody that maybe has the ear of some listeners in that area to say something bad about that restaurant when it really wasn't a cook, it wasn't the management, it was just this one waitress that just having a real bad off day, that just she wasn't up to service that day, but everything else was fine, and you know what? You go back another day and maybe even with the same waitress and it may be a whole different experience. So so, anyway, that's why I don't do that. The restaurant business is tough, it's hard and they don't need people like me out there chirping bad things about them when it's really just. Maybe they just had a bad day, off day or whatever. So, anyway, that's, that's the whole the bad waitress experience. That's what that was about. I know you've had them to. My thought is you know what, if it's not a total, total loss, the whole evening experience, you know, give them the benefit and and see what happens next time. So, anyway, thank you so much again for joining us.
Speaker 2:I tell you, our listeners are growing and growing and growing. It's, it's wild, it really is, and so we appreciate it, we truly appreciate it, just to be able to sit and chat and talk about, just, I think, what it is. It's what I loved about the the. There was a food show I told you about it a few weeks ago, the food show with Tom Fitz Morris in New Orleans. I'd listened to that show since it began 32 years ago. I love that show and you know what I think? One of the things I loved cooking.
Speaker 2:I loved all of that, but at the same time, it was just a peaceful break away from the news, from the politics and all of the you know what I'm talking about, all of the stuff that you have to put up with every day. It's just a break from that, and that's what I try to do with this show is just kind of give a little different, different vibe for the week. You know just something else to not clutter your mind with and just sit back and listen to, like Gary. You know the Cajun, the King Cajun, down in Galliano. You know it's a pleasure and so, anyway, thank you for listening and you know what we're gonna lead out with. As always, I can't wait. I get excited when I start to show because I get to listen to to patina, and when I end the show I get to listen to to patina by Ethan Langwood. This is his version of it and he does a fantastic job. See you next time you.
